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58 and his greatest pleasure was to ring the convent bells and share in the services of the Church; "He is a sacristan," said his father, "and no tsarevitch."

Yielding in character, and fondly attached to his wife, Irene, he reposed implicit confidence and trust in her brother, Boris Godounov, who, during the entire reign, wielded the supreme authority in the young tsar's name.

Godounov, by his energy and ability, restored strength to the crown and prosperity to the State. Looking forward with far-sighted and patient ambition, he saw the sceptre within his grasp. So important an element, in his calculations, as the clergy, was not neglected; Dionysius, the metropolitan, penetrated the secret of his treacherous designs, and, anxious regarding the succession, as Irene was childless, he instigated a petition, notwithstanding its uncanonical object, to the tsar for his divorce. His machinations resulted in his ruin; he was deposed, and confined in the convent of Khoutinsk. Godounov was all-powerful, and by his influence Job, archbishop of Rostov, was installed as primate.

The Russian Church was still nominally under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the patriarchal see of Constantinople, but the Eastern Church had fallen to a state of lamentable decrepitude and degradation. The patriarch, although elected by a synod, was dependent on the Turkish emperor for confirmation, which was to be obtained only by intrigue and bribery; the ambition of Eastern prelates to wield the pastoral staff was a never-failing source of revenue to the sultan and his favorites. Each incumbent was in turn the victim of the jealousy of his competitors, and scarcely had he mounted the slippery steps of the throne ere he was removed to make place for a rival more fortunate from influence at court or with a heavier purse to support his pretensions.