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tanate.[152]

The same theme was articulated in the Trinity Chronicle, compiled at his behest at the end of his life. The chronicle built upon the Primary Chronicle from the Kievan Rus' era and the 1305 codex that had been produced in Tver' during the reign of Mikhail Iaroslavich; it added information on events to 1408. Its sources and coverage were consistent with the image of the inclusive, unified Orthodox community promoted by Metropolitan Kiprian. The chronicle, furthermore, set Moscow at the centre of this community. It portrayed early fifteenth-century Moscow, the cultural and ecclesiastical centre of north-eastern Russia, as the historical heir of Kiev, the original seat of the metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus'.[153]

Ecclesiastical unity of all the Orthodox Rus', however, raised the prospect of political unity. Ecclesiastical unity under the metropolitan based in Moscow, who was depicted as the heir of the metropolitans based at Kiev, implied that the grand prince in Moscow was the heir of his Kievan ancestors. This perspective served the interests of the Church hierarchs, who sought to preserve the unity of the metropolitanate under the jurisdiction of the Moscow prelate. It was, perhaps, less acceptable to the Muscovite princes. Political unification of all the northern Russian lands as well as the Orthodox lands under Lithuanian rule was not a realistic option in the early fifteenth century. In addition, although associations with Kievan Rus' endowed the princes of Moscow with status and respect befitting the descendants of the Kievan grand princes, those references also recalled the unsettling fact of the Daniilovich princes' illegitimacy according to the norms of succession that had evolved during the Kievan

era.[154]

Representations of the metropolitan at Moscow as the sole legitimate head of the Orthodox community in the Russian lands nevertheless continued to appear and came into sharp focus in the mid-fifteenth century. They were expressed in the context of crises faced by the Church. These accounts, however, not only associated the princes of Moscow with their Kievan ancestors. They imparted to them a moral authority and characterised them as the secular rulers charged with the duty to protect the Orthodox community. They thus provided an ideological foundation for legitimising the grand princes of Moscow.

The population in Muscovite territories faced multiple crises during the second quarter of the fifteenth century. Those who survived the bouts of plague in the early decades of the century (1408-9, 1417, 1419-20) were beset by others, the most severe of which occurred in i424-7 and i448, as well as by accompanying famine.[155] War broke out in the 1430s between Vasilii II and his uncle Iurii and then with his cousin Vasilii Kosoi. The Tatars captured Vasilii II (1445); fire destroyed Moscow; and when Vasilii II was released, the war resumed, this time against his cousin Dmitrii Shemiaka.[156] During most of this period the Church was without a metropolitan; leaderless clergy were politically divided; and in the midst of these difficulties the Russian bishops broke with the patriarch in Constantinople.

The crisis within the Church began after Metropolitan Fotii (Photios), Kiprian's successor, died in i43i. His replacement, appointed by the patriarch in Constantinople, died before reaching Moscow. The Russian Church lacked a metropolitan just as the war between Vasilii and his uncle began. Unofficially, Iona, the bishop of Riazan', assumed a leadership role. But the war delayed the formal submission of his nomination to the patriarch. Iona was not able to set out for Constantinople until i436, after the hostilities between Vasilii II and Vasilii Kosoi were concluded. But by the time he arrived, the patriarch and emperor had named Isidor to head the Russian Church (i437).[157]

Isidor's appointment had political motives. The Ottoman Turks, who had seized most of the territories of the Byzantine Empire during the previous century, were threatening its very existence. The emperor and patriarch desperately sought military aid from Europe, but believed it would not be forthcoming without a resolution of the differences between the Orthodox and the Roman Churches. A council to consider terms for reunifying the two Churches was scheduled. Isidor, who had participated in making arrangements for the council and supported the goal of reconciliation, was chosen to become head ofthe Russian Church in orderto gain its co-operation and to lead its delegation to the council.[158]

Within six months of his arrival in Moscow, Isidor left, accompanied by a large delegation, to attend the council in Ferrara and Florence, Italy. The Russian Church was once again left without a resident metropolitan. When Isidor did return in 1441, he came, as a consequence of the union achieved by the council in 1439, as a cardinal and a papal legate. Three days later Vasilii II ordered his deposition and arrested him. Although they allowed Isidor to escape six months later and return to Italy, the grand prince and the clergy of Muscovy firmly rejected union with Rome.

For seven more years the Russian Church lacked a metropolitan. In 1448, shortly after he had recovered Moscow, Vasilii II convened the bishops of the Russian eparchies to elect Iona to be metropolitan of the Russian Church. By failing to follow the patriarch into union with Rome and by naming a metropolitan themselves, the bishops with Vasilii's approval were operating autonomously. The fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 appeared to be divine punishment, validating the conviction held by the Russian Church hierarchs that Constantinople's union with Rome had been heretical. It left the Russian Church as the sole bearer of the true Orthodox faith.[159]

Iona's position, which he held by virtue of election by the bishops and appointment of the grand prince but without consecration from the patriarch, was tenuous. He and his supporters thus undertook a variety of measures to bolster his claim to leadership over the entire metropolitanate and to justify the method of his selection. The latter involved depicting the princes of Moscow, particularly Vasilii II, as endowed with divine favour and chosen to rule and defend Muscovy, the bastion of the true Orthodox faith. The techniques employed to solidify the position of the metropolitan also offered an ideological basis for elevating the grand prince just as he was militarily defeating his rivals and politically consolidating his authority over northern Russia. They provided the domestic source of legitimacy that replaced the Tatar patronage on which the Muscovite princes had previously depended.

After his election Iona began to use the title 'metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus'', as Kiprian, Fotii and even Isidor had done. By doing so Iona asserted himself as the rightful heir of these predecessors and the leader of the entire ecclesiastical realm. He used the title until his death in 1461. In 1458, however, the exiled Uniate patriarch of Constantinople conferred the title on another metropolitan, Gregory (Gregorios Bulgar). Gregory arrived in Lithuania in 1459 and assumed ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Orthodox eparchies, including Kiev, under the secular rule of the king of Poland and Lithuania. The Russian metropolitanate was once again divided and Iona's goal of keeping it unified and Orthodox was thus frustrated.[160]

Efforts were also made to enhance the spiritual stature of the Russian Church. The sainthood ofthe monk Sergei of Radonezh (St Sergius) was recognised between 1447 and 1449.[161] In his vita of Sergei, the first version of which he produced in the late 1430s, Pakhomii recorded several miracles.[162] In one the Blessed Virgin, long associated with Kiev, appeared to Sergei and assured him that She would protect his monastery.[163] Images portraying this miracle began to be produced at the Trinity monastery in the 1450s.[164] In another Sergei is depicted as blessing Grand Prince Dmitrii Ivanovich and his army on the eve of the Battle of Kulikovo and as thus being instrumental in securing divine assistance for their victory. Scholars doubt that Sergei gave that blessing.[165] But by including it along with the miracle of the Holy Virgin appearing to Sergei, Pakhomii was able to suggest that the divine protection previously extended to Kiev was transmitted through the agency of Sergei to Moscow and its grand prince. This special favour enabled Dmitrii to defeat the infidel, Mamai and his host. This mythical account of Dmitrii's success contrasted sharply with the reality of the failing efforts of the apostate Byzantium to fend off the infidel Turks. The theme was echoed in the vita, also written by Pakhomii, of Nikon, a disciple of Sergei. In Nikon's case the infidel was Edigei, who invaded the Russian lands in 1408. Although Edigei's campaign had been devastating, in this account Nikon's prayers resulted in Sergei and also the metropolitans Petr and Aleksei interceding to save the Russian land.[166]