Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/83

68 the senate as equals in rank, while a strong opposition denounced the union as fraudulently and treacherously proclaimed. Each party deliberately anathematized the other, and the Church of Little Russia was from this period, 1596, divided into the Orthodox and the Uniates, both sects preserving the same forms and ceremonies of worship, and, at first, professing the same creed, differing only as regards acknowledging or rejecting the supremacy of the pope. Rome, with considerate moderation, was content, for the time being, to waive questions of doctrine. The Uniates, exulting in their success, and relying on the hearty support of the secular power, were eager to enjoy the fruits of their victory; Dominican convents were established; the Orthodox were excluded from the schools, while ordination was refused to all save graduates; the Orthodox churches, monasteries, and religious establishments were seized, and their revenues confiscated; Orthodox prelates were replaced by Uniates, until but a single bishop of the Greek religion remained in the realm.

The Cossacks of the Don were steadfast in their adherence to the ancient creed, and frequently rose in arms for its defence. The strong leaven of faith among them and the people, kept in active ferment by persecution, greatly facilitated the conquest of Little Russia by Alexis Romanoff fifty years later.

In Russia the brilliant prospects attending Boris Grodounov's usurpation were undergoing a gradual but radical change. His presence on the throne grated on the loyalty of the Russian people to the blood of Ruric; he was not of the royal race, but of comparatively mean, even of foreign, origin, a descendant of a Tatar mourza.

The nobles yielded unwilling obedience to one of inferior birth. Serfdom, which he rigorously enforced, re-