Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/82

Rh the policy of weakening the stronghold of Orthodoxy by attacking its outposts in Lithuania.

He suggested the establishment of a Jesuit college at Wilna, and translated into Russian many works of Latin theology. He continued his labors with unremitting zeal, and earnestly advocated unity of belief as essential to the welfare of the kingdom; he insidiously urged upon the nobles of Lithuania the advantages they would gain by adherence to the faith of their sovereign, and the new fields of honor and distinction thereby to be opened, and from which they remained debarred His reasoning was persuasive and his arguments cogent, substantiated, as they were, by royal and papal promises. The incipient and growing discontent, thus artfully fomented, was further stimulated by the severity exercised by the patriarch Jeremiah, who visited Kiev on his return from Moscow to Constantinople. He endeavored to purify the Orthodox Church of Lithuania by the removal of unworthy members, of its hierarchy, and hoped to impart fresh life and vigor by wholesome correction. He deposed the metropolitan Onicephorus, and consecrated Michael Ragosa in his stead. The new primate, yielding to the blandishments of the court, induced the bishops of his see to consent to union with Rome, and the synod sent ambassadors to Pope Clement VIII. to signify their submission.

In vain did Jeremiah threaten the apostates with excommunication. Sigismund assured them of his protection, and defied the patriarch's anathema. Te Deums were sung in St. Peter's, and medals were struck commemorative of the event, but the results were not as satisfactory as had been anticipated. The seceding prelates did not meet from their Latin brethren the hearty recognition they had expected, and were not admitted to