Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/79

64 His apprehensions of an unfriendly reception at the hands of the vain and intolerant clergy of the East, hostile to any intrenchment upon the shadowy dignity of their position, were fully realized, and he found it by no means an easy task to reconcile his brother patriarchs of Asia and Africa to the proceedings authorized by him. His own companions disavowed his acts, regardless of their signature to the record at Moscow, but, after much mutual recrimination, the Oriental fathers acquiesced in the inevitable, and signified their assent to what they could not have prevented and could not now undo, stipulating, however, with clerical jealousy of rank, that the Russian patriarchate should, as the youngest, be fifth in order of precedence instead of third, and that its incumbent should seek investiture at Constantinople.

These conditions were never enforced, and within a century were formally abolished.