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62 which city was, after Kiev, the ancient ecclesiastical capital of the empire. Jeremiah demurred, and insisted that Moscow was the only proper abode of the head of the Church. He appealed to former precedents in the East, and claimed it to be his province to be near the sovereign. This was inadmissible; the presence of a foreigner at court in such intimate relations with the tsar would shock national prejudices; the necessity of an interpreter between the sovereign and the prelate would bring a third—possibly an indiscreet—person into secrets of state or religious polity. Moreover, it would entail the forced retirement of Job, who was still the actual head of the Church, a sorry reward for years of zealous and faithful service.

During the negotiations which ensued the wily Greek soon perceived that he was but a tool in the hands of the unscrupulous Godounov. He began, also, to weary of the strange, and, to him, savage habits and customs of the country; waxing old and feeble, he became apprehensive, and sighed to return to milder climes and scenes to which he had been accustomed. When, therefore, the alternative was placed before him of a residence at Vladimir or the appointment of a native prelate to fill the patriarchal throne, he chose the latter.

A synod of all the Russian bishops was solemnly convoked at Moscow for the election, the result of which was a foregone conclusion; three names were submitted to the tsar, and he selected the first on the list, that of Job, the metropolitan, the friend and faithful adherent of Godounov. Jeremiah, whose expectations had been raised only to be disappointed, now earnestly craved permission to depart, although With his desire to escape from Russia were mingled grave apprehensions of the reception that might await him at Con-