The record of the Church during these fearful years of anarchy and disaster is indeed glorious. Not one of its officers gave adherence to a pretender or acknowledged the authority of a foreign usurper. When, in 1610, Vassili was deposed by the Poles, forced to submit to tonsure, and immured in a monastery, Hermogenes, the patriarch, raised his voice in protest; when, subsequently, in a council of rebellious boyars and Polish nobles, some proposed the false Dimitri as tsar, and others successfully urged the election of Vladislas, son of the King of Poland, again the venerable prelate remonstrated, and implored the council neither to recognize a rebel nor to sanction the choice of a heretic and foreigner.
From the Troïtsa monastery the courageous Dionysius, by emissaries and letters, made earnest and constant appeal to the patriotism of the people. The Polish governor of Moscow and the rebellious Russian nobles ordered Hermogenes, as head of the Church, to forbid any national uprising. "I will forbid it," was the reply, "when I see Vladislas baptized and the country, freed from Poles; if this is not to be, then I enjoin upon all to rise, and I absolve them from their oath to the king's son. I will give my blessing to all who are ready to die for the Orthodox faith."
Moscow was sacked and destroyed by the Polish soldiery. Hermogenes was deposed, and suffered martyrdom in prison. Ignatius, formerly a creature of the first pretender, Dimitri, now willing to be the minion of a foreign invader, was again seated on the patriarchal throne, amid the smoking ruins of the capital. Universal anarchy reigned supreme, and yet there was hope for Russia in the undying attachment of the people for their native soil and their national religion, and from among the people was to arise their deliverer.
