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Rh was broken by the great battle of the Don, and Dimitri, henceforth the Donskoï, was hailed as "The Deliverer of the Country." The victory over Mamai, the Tatar khan, was complete, but its fruits were lost; Dimitri returned to Moscow to enjoy his triumph, instead of pursuing and annihilating the enemy. His glory and increasing power aroused the jealousy of his neighbors, and his supineness revived the feuds of the native princes. The empire was attacked from the west, and its unity within was disturbed, when its independence was again threatened by its formidable and hereditary foe. Toktamuish, a descendant of Genghis Khan, destroyed the shattered forces of Mamai, seized upon the khanate, and, with fresh legions from the depths of Asia, swept over the empire and brought Russia once more under the Tatar yoke. Dimitri returned to his ruined capital to find the Church deserted by its head. Cyprian had fled to Tver for safety, and the prince, indignant at his pusillanimity, removed him from office and installed Pimen.

The terrible calamities of the barbaric invasion were accompanied by anarchy in the Church. The clergy had become corrupt and rapacious; its ranks were swelled by multitudes of greedy, selfish drones, who throve and fattened in sloth and idleness. The people despised them for their ignorance, vices, and gluttony, groaned under their oppression and rebelled against their exactions. Popular indignation found public expression in sects hostile to the Church. Amid disputes of rival pontiffs, the degradation of the clergy, foreign invasion, domestic treachery and revolt, the whole fabric of the empire, social, political, and religious, seemed tottering to its fall. Some degree of order was restored by the energetic and skilful policy of Dimitri, assisted by dissensions among his enemies.