Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/96

Rh Job Boretsky as metropolitan of Kiev, and appointed bishops to the various dioceses. Having thus re-established the Church, with its hierarchy complete, Theophanes returned to Jerusalem.

This period of tranquillity was but the precursor of a more violent storm. Sigismund, always weak and easily swayed, yielded to the influence of his Romish advisers, and permitted a revival of the contest between the hostile factions, one struggling for existence, the other striving for domination. The Catholics and Uniates, strong in the support of royal authority, pursued the Orthodox with all the rancor and ferocity of clerical fanaticism. Their schools were suppressed; their churches closed or turned into inns, barracks, and mosques; their clergy were deprived of protection from the mob, and prevented from officiating; congregations were dispersed by force; the dead were left without burial rites; sanctuaries and cemeteries were rifled and desecrated. The people, goaded beyond endurance, rose against their oppressors, and exercised fearful reprisals. The Cossacks massacred the Catholics at Kiev; Jehosaphat, the Uniate archbishop of Polotsk, infamous among the Orthodox for his bloodthirsty cruelty, and canonized at Rome for his righteous zeal, was killed by a mob, and the vicar of the Uniate metropolitan was drowned.

The two primates. Job the Orthodox and Joseph the Uniate, convoked rival synods, and were engaged in mutual excommunications when the death of Sigismund checked the fever of persecution. His son and successor, Vladislas IV., signalized his accession to the throne by an edict- of toleration. Freedom of worship, with the right of electing their metropolitan, was granted to the Orthodox, and the ancient cathedral of St. Sophia, at Kiev, was restored to them. 6