Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/74

During the century subsequent to the fall of Constantinople suffering and martyrdom were the general lot of the successors of St. Chrysostom, but it was suffering without good for the Church, and martyrdom without dignity. Their procession is a melancholy one; Joasaph Cocas, persecuted by his clergy, attempted, in despair, to drown himself in a well; rescued, and reseated on the throne, he was driven into exile by the sultan; Mark Xylocarabœus was exiled; Simeon paid a thousand gold florins for his seat, and was thrown into a monastery; Dionysius had the same fate; Raphael, to secure his nomination, doubled the tribute hitherto exacted; unable to pay the sum promised, he was thrust forth, loaded with chains, to beg by the roadside, and died in misery; Nyphon had his nose cut off, and was forced into exile; Joachim raised the tribute to three thousand ducats, was exiled, recalled, and again exiled; Pacome was poisoned; Jeremiah I. started on a pastoral tour, his vicar deserted him on the way, hurried back, bribed the vizier, and usurped the see; he was driven away by a popular outbreak, and Jeremiah's friends purchased for him permission to resume his seat; Joasaph II. again raised the tribute, was deposed and excommunicated by his clergy for Simony; Gregory was cast into the sea; Cyril Lucar was exiled and strangled; Methrophanes, accused of simony, was induced to resign by the offer of two dioceses; he sold the one and administered the other; Jeremiah II., bishop of Larissa, was elected and confirmed in 1572; his funds were exhausted by the tribute, then fixed at ten thousand florins, and he piteously complained, in his correspondence, that he dared not undertake a pastoral tour to replenish his treasury from the alms of the faithful for fear that, in his absence, some ambitious brother might seize upon the throne. The danger was real; Me-