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Rh was now cut off from Constantinople. Like the prince, the metropolitan had to go to the horde for investiture. He, too, was required to cringe before the great khan. Then the Church centre was removed first to Vladimir, and afterwards to Moscow, which was quite out of reach from Constantinople. Ecclesiastically this is one of the most important results of the Mongol invasion. As regards the internal affairs of the Church, it meant independence. The Russian metropolitan was no longer subject to the patriarch of Constantinople. Thus the Russian Church became free from Greek control. This was one stage in the progress of her importance, to be followed later by her primacy in the holy orthodox Church, with the tsar as its head and protector.

A further consequence of the Moslem invasion is that from this time onwards religion and patriotism blend. It is like the union of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland with the Nationalist party. In some measure this result was brought about by the forced severance of connection with Constantinople. Hitherto the Church in Russia had been in some respects an exotic growth. Her metropolitans had been Greeks, appointed by the patriarch of Constantinople, despatched as foreign missionaries by this ecclesiastic of another country, not always even knowing the language of the people over whom they were imposed as their chief pastors. But after the Mongol conquest the metropolitans were Russians elected by native Russian bishops. Then, in the second place, the common misery of the alien yoke drove the Church along the same way as the nation, or rather awoke national instincts in connection with religion, and made the religious leaders ardent patriots. Thus, through these two influences, the Mongol invasion Russianised the Church in Russia.

It is more difficult to penetrate beneath the surface and discover how far the interests of religion itself were affected by this huge cataclysm; but it would seem that in some respects the trial was a stimulus to faith. In their desolation and wretchedness the people felt the need of religion.