Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/44

Rh Its acknowledged heads labored with unswerving patriotism against the difficulties surrounding the new birth of the nation. The dynasty of Ivan Kalita had been set aside by the khan. Dimitri II., the Tatar nominee, planned the retransfer of the primacy to Vladimir; but Alexis, the metropolitan, successfully maintained the supremacy of Moscow as both the religious and political capital. By his influence Ivan's family was restored to the throne, and the accession of Dimitri III., his grandson, was welcomed by the princes, who began to appreciate the policy advocated by the Church, of hereditary succession and of union under the most powerful of their number.

The activity of the Church was further manifested in its own domain by the erection of innumerable churches in the different cities and by an extraordinary development of monastic life, which led to the creation of many great and powerful religious establishments. The most celebrated among them is the monastery of the Troïtsa, or the Trinity, near Moscow, founded by St. Sergius of Radonegl. Like St. Anthony of the Petcherski, St. Sergius retired to the wilderness to lead a hermit's life in a little wooden hut built by himself, and which he called the "Source of Life." From this humble origin sprang the "ever glorious Lavra" of the Troïtsa, destined, on many a memorable occasion, to be the bulwark and preserver of the national existence. Under the blessing of Providence, favored and fostered by the princes of Moscow, it increased with unexampled rapidity in riches and consideration, and became a city and fortress as well as a monastery.

Macarius, in the seventeenth century, after describing its wealth and splendor, its buildings and churches, dwells on the extent and strength of its walls and bastions, on