long been an accomplished fact was now openly recognised in that most conservative of all spheres—the ecclesiastical vocabulary.
Another influence, more positive in character, now came in to advance the importance of the Greek Church. This was the rise of Russia as a great united nation. Hitherto, although a certain common life had pulsated through the populations scattered over the vast area which we now know as European Russia, this was not unified under one government. We have seen how Lithuania established independence in conjunction with Poland. Novgorod was also virtually unattached to the southern Sclavs and administered as a separate republic. Other districts had their autonomy under different princes. Even the chief rulers at Kiev, and afterwards at Vladimir, were regarded as princes, or grand dukes, not as kings or emperors. But soon after the destruction of the Byzantine Empire there appeared in the north a new empire, the Russian Empire. Thus the rise of Russia as a great united nation nearly synchronises with the fall of the power that had stood for Rome in the East. This most important historical fact was mainly brought about by the ability and energy of Ivan iii., who reigned for forty-three years—from a.d. 1462 to a.d. 1505. The power of the horde had now broken up and crumbled away, leaving only scattered fragments, such as the Mongol settlement in the Crimea. A strong ruler had a clear course for the consolidation of his nation. Ivan took a politic step in marrying Zoe, a niece of the heroic Constantine Palæologus, with the approval of Pope Sixtus ix., who saw in the match a hope of the fulfilment of the dream of the papacy and chief end of all its diplomacy—the union of Christendom under the pope. Here, however, he was mistaken. Zoe proved to be a devoted member of the Eastern Church. On the strength of this connection with the Byzantine imperial family Ivan assumed the cognisance of the double-headed eagle, ever afterwards the badge of Russia, and also in a tentative way the title of
