Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/75

60 throphanes reappeared, and reasserted his claims to the patriarchate; as his purse was the longer, he was reinstated on appeal to the sultan. At his death Jeremiah again enjoyed a brief spell of power, but, accused of conspiracy against the government, he was imprisoned, then exiled to Rhodes. Theoptus, his accuser, seized the vacant seat, disputed, also, by Pacome, a monk of Lesbos, and, by the opportune payment of a double tribute, secured the imperial confirmation; imprudently he ventured on a pastoral visit to Walachia, and in his absence Jeremiah's friends purchased his pardon, and reseated him on the throne.

The dilapidation of the finances of the patriarchate, the ruin threatening the whole fabric, and the exhaustion of all parties, brought about perforce a general reconciliation, and Jeremiah was left in undisputed possession. A common effort was made to heal the wounds of the unhappy and suffering Church; missions were despatched to various countries in search of succor and alms, and Jeremiah himself, for the same purpose, undertook a journey to Russia, the wealthiest and most powerful member of the Orthodox communion. His arrival was happily timed for the designs of the ambitious Boris.

Under his influence the pious Feodor had eagerly seized upon the idea of freeing the national Church from all dependence, however slight, upon foreign jurisdiction. Probably to prepare the way for this step, early in his reign he sent an embassy to the sultan, and charged his envoy with rich gifts for the patriarch and kindly assurances of good-will towards the Church. In 1586 Joachim of Antioch appeared in Russia in quest of