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Rh alms, and, during his visit, Feodor announced to his council and clergy his intention to elevate the see of Moscow to the rank of patriarchate. They approved of his project, but urged that the assent of the whole Eastem Church be first obtained, in order to forestall any reproach from schismatics or heretics, that the change was due to a merely arbitrary act of the tsar. Joachim, while favoring Feodor's plan, concurred in the wisdom of delay, and, abundantly rewarded for his compliance, took his departure for the East, promising to press the matter upon his brother patriarchs. A year or more pasfsed; the œcumenical fathers delayed their answer; doubtless the proposition met with little favor in their eyes; they feared to affront a powerful friend, yet, unwilling to assent, sought refuge in procrastination.

At this juncture Jeremiah arrived at Moscow, and was welcomed with all the honors that a pious monarch could render to one of his exalted rank. Touched with gratitude at his reception, he expressed his approval of the tsar's desire to institute a Russian patriarchate. To his surprise, Godounov, by the tsar's orders, proposed to him that he should abandon his poverty-stricken capital on the shores of the Bosphorus, escape from humiliating subjection to the infidel Turk, and assume charge of the newly-established primacy over rich, powerful, Orthodox Russia. Jeremiah, dazzled by the brilliant prospect, willingly assented, but it formed no part of the plans of the astute Godounov that a stranger should occupy in Russia so exalted a station. While laboring for the aggrandizement of the national Church, he intended that it should also serve his ambitious ends, and reserved the primacy for a friend and partisan upon whose support he could rely. At his suggestion the tsar intimated his intention to fix the residence of the new primate at Vladimir,