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TheMetropolis of Moscow and all Rus' (Russian:Митрополия Московская и всея Руси,romanized: Mitropoliya Moskovskaya i vseya Rusi[1]) was ametropolis that was unilaterally erected byhierarchs of theEastern Orthodox Church in the territory of thePrincipality of Moscow[a] in 1448.[1] The firstmetropolitan wasJonah of Moscow; he was appointed without the approval of theEcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.[4] The metropolis split from theMetropolis of Kiev and all Rus' because the previous metropolitan —Isidore of Kiev — had accepted theUnion of Florence. Seventeenprelates succeeded Jonah until Moscow'scanonical status was regularised in 1589 with the recognition ofJob by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Job was also raised to the status ofpatriarch and was the firstPatriarch of Moscow.The Moscow Patriarchate was aCaesaropapist entity that was under the control of the Russian state.[5] Theepiscopal seat was theDormition Cathedral inMoscow.
AnEcumenical council of the Church — theCouncil of Florence — took place from 1431 to 1449.[6] Although he resisted at first, theGrand Prince of Moscow —Vasily II of Moscow — eventually permitted theMetropolitan of Kiev and all Rus' —Isidore of Kiev — to attend the council on condition that Isidore should return with "the rights of Divine law and the constitution of the holy Church" uninjured.[7] The council healed theGreat Schism byuniting theRoman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The union was proclaimed on 6 July 1439 in the documentLaetentur Caeli[8][b] which was composed byPope Eugene IV and signed by theHoly Roman EmperorSigismund and all but one of the bishops present.[6] Some Greek bishops, perhaps feeling political pressure from theByzantine Emperor, reluctantly accepted the decrees of the council. Other Eastern bishops, such as Isidore, did so with sincere conviction.[9]Sylvester Syropoulos[10] and other Greek writers charge Isidore with perjury because he accepted the union, despite his promise to Vasili II.[11]
Following the signing of thebull, Isidore returned to thePrincipality of Moscow. In theKremlin'sDormition Cathedral, Isidore read the decree of unification aloud. He also passed a message to Vasili II from theHoly See, containing a request to assist the metropolitan in spreading the Union in Rus'. Three days later, Isidore was arrested by the Grand Prince and imprisoned in theChudov Monastery. He arranged for certain Rus' clergy to denounce the metropolitan for refusing to renounce the union with Rome. As a result, the Great Prince of Moscow voided the union in his lands and imprisoned Isidore for some time.[11] Having adjudged Isidore to have apostatized toCatholicism, he was deposed by a local synod.[12]
After the metropolitan throne lay vacant for seven years, the secular authorities replaced him with the Bishop of Ryazan and Murom —Jonah of Moscow. Like hisimmediate predecessors, he permanently resided inMoscow, and was the last Moscow-based primate of the metropolis to keep the traditional title with reference to the metropolitan city ofKiev. He was also the first metropolitan in Moscow to be appointed without the approval of theEcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as had been the norm.[4] This signified the beginning of thede facto independence (autocephaly) of the Moscow (north-eastern) part of the Church.[citation needed]
The struggle forecumenical union at Ferrara and Florence, while promising, never bore fruit. While progress toward union in the East continued to be made in the following decades, all hopes for a proximate reconciliation were dashed with thefall of Constantinople in 1453. Following their conquest, theOttomans encouraged hardline anti-unionist Orthodox clerics in order to divide European Christians.[13] Afterwards, the Muscovite principality and metropolis began to promote Moscow as the "Third Rome" and as the sole, legitimate successor to Constantinople.[citation needed]
Notwithstanding these events, the Ecumenical Patriarch continued to appoint metropolitans for the united Catholic and Eastern Orthodox ("Uniate") dioceses in thoseRuthenian lands that were not controlled by the Tsardom of Moscow.[14][15][16] In the Polish and Lithuanian lands, the next uniate hierarch[14][15] wasGregory the Bulgarian. He was consecrated by aLatin Patriarch of Constantinople. In 1469, his appointment was also approved by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople —Dionysius I. The episcopal see of the new hierarch was located inVilnius, the capital of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania. With the appointment of Gregory, the title was changed toMetropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus'.[citation needed]
Jonah was unable to exercise any pastoral control beyond the borders of Muscovy. In the lands of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania and theKingdom of Poland, the rulers rejected Jonah and continued to recognise Isidore as metropolitan. The metropolis was effectively split in two; Jonah ruled from Moscow in the east while Isidore and his successors ruled the western part fromNovogrudok.[citation needed]Dioceses:[citation needed]
The reign ofIvan III and his successor was plagued by numerous heresies and controversies. One party, led byNil Sorsky andVassian Kosoy, called for secularisation of monastic properties. They were opposed byJoseph of Volotsk, who defended ecclesiastical ownership of land and property. The sovereign's position fluctuated, but eventually he gave his support to Joseph. New sects sprang up, some of which showed a tendency to revert to theMosaic law: for instance, thearchpriestAleksei was influenced byZechariah the Jew and converted toJudaism.[citation needed]
Monastic life flourished, with two major strands co-existing until the definitive defeat of thenon-possessors in 1551. The disciples ofSt. Sergius left theTrinity monastery near Moscow to found dozens of monasteries across northeastern Rus'. Some of the most famous monasteries were located in the Russian North, in order to demonstrate how faith could flourish in the most inhospitable lands. The richest landowners in 15th-century Muscovy and 16th-century Russia includedJoseph Volokolamsk Monastery,Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery and theSolovetsky Monastery. In the 18th century, the three greatest monasteries were recognized aslavras, while those subordinated directly to the Synod were labelledstauropegic.[citation needed]
In the 1540s,Metropolitan Macarius convened a number of church councils, which culminated in theHundred Chapter Council of 1551. This assembly unified Church ceremonies and duties in the whole territory of the Russian tsardom. At the demand of the Church hierarchy the government cancelled the tsar's jurisdiction over ecclesiastics.[citation needed]
When traveling across eastern Europe from 1588 to 1589, PatriarchJeremias II of Constantinople visited Moscow. He confirmed thede factoautocephaly of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Tsardom of Russia. For the first time since 1448, an Ecumenical Patriarch consecrated a metropolitan in Rus' lands —Job of Moscow. At the same time, in raising the metropolis to apatriarchate — as the 'Patriarchate of Moscow and all Rus' — he effectively disestablished the metropolis. The Patriarchate was abolished by theChurch reform of Peter the Great in 1721 and replaced by theMost Holy Synod, and the Bishop of Moscow came to be called a Metropolitan again.[citation needed]