Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/60

Rh stipulated for freedom in the exercise of her religion, and earnestly exhorted her to be steadfast herself, and to be constant in her efforts for the protection of others of their faith. This family alliance was insufficient to prevent dissensions between neighboring princes, each grasping and ambitious, and with religious antagonism to whet suspicion and create irritation. Helena's influence was often, although ineffectually, exerted to alleviate the oppression to which the Orthodox were exposed, but her husband was under pressure from the papal element, which also had his sympathy, and Helena herself was made to feel it. Joseph Saltan, promoted to the see of Kiev, became, in gratitude for his elevation, a convert to the prince's views, and joined in his efforts to crush Orthodoxy and strengthen Romanism. Helena discreetly concealed her own vexations, but the cry of the people reached her father's ears and aroused his indignation. Political relations between Lithuania and Russia were always strained, war was constantly breaking out or imminent, and in such conditions the state of the Orthodox Polish Church was melancholy and distressing.

Under Ivan's son, Vassili IV., the Church in Russia enjoyed a long season of tranquillity; the missionary spirit was strong within it, and it sent forth priests to Christianize and colonize through Lapland to the shores of the Northern seas.

The glory of Moscow, as a centre of learning, the seat of the mightiest prince and most potent prelate of the Orthodox Church, attracted thither monks and emissaries from the convents and holy places of the East in quest of alms and succor. Vast collections of religious manuscripts and books had been accumulated in former reigns, and more recently by Sophia. Vassili sent to Constantinople for theologians of competent erudition for