Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/48

Rh Cyprian's death was a public calamity. His successor, Photius, a Greek, had no sympathy with the national sentiment, and estranged both the people and the princes by too zealous care of the temporal interests of his see. Vitoft, no longer checked by Cyprian's influence, determined to free the Orthodox Church within his dominions from the control of a foreign prelate. The see of Kiev was declared independent of that of Moscow in 1415; rejoined to it a few years later, its independence was again and finally established in 1433.

Under Vassili III. the fortunes of Russia sank to their lowest ebb. Civil wars, foreign invasion, and Tatar tyranny brought the country to the verge of ruin. The metropolitan see remained vacant after the death of Photius, and anarchy reigned supreme in Church and State.

During a short respite from turmoil and trouble, Jonah of Riazan was elected metropolitan by a synod of bishops, but already the patriarch had appointed Isidore of Thessalonica, bishop of Illyria, as primate of Russia. With his advent upon the scene opens an interesting phase of ecclesiastical history, in which, not only Russia, but the other powers of the civilized world were concerned.

The Byzantine empire, a mere shadow of its former greatness, was tottering to its fall. The emperors, dependent alternately on Turkish forbearance and European favor, sued to or slighted both Moslem and Christian powers according to their fluctuating fortunes, cunningly, and with deliberation, playing one against the other.

John Palæologus, as long as Bajazet spared his throne, turned an indifferent ear to papal advances, but when he had been threatened he had humbled himself before the 3