There is not much advantage in discussing this curious situation, because even though appointed metropolitan by the patriarch, Gerasimus was unable to exercise any influence in Russia, or to be recognised by any of the Russian bishops. Though it was his wish to go to Moscow and establish himself there, he had to remain at Smolensk. Had he succeeded, the patriarch would have gained nothing by his appointment. The magnitude of the Russian Church would have left Lithuania hanging on its fringe as a mere outlying district, and Constantinople would have had no better security for the retention of its influence and authority. If we are to understand that from the first Joseph had intended Gerasimus to reside at Moscow, it is difficult to discover what good he could have hoped to reap from his unpopular act in thrusting an outsider on the Russian Church. Russia had not always submitted to Greek metropolitans with good grace. But to be governed by a Lithuanian when Lithuania was independent and looking to Poland for sympathy, certainly this was not a thing for her to meekly accept even from the hands of the patriarch.
Nor did Lithuania itself ultimately profit. Gerasimus came to an awful end. His friend and patron Svidrigailo was informed that he was carrying on a treasonable correspondence with Sigismund, a rival claimant to the principality. In a rage at the ingratitude of a man whom he had so much favoured, the prince burnt him alive. After this tragedy the ecclesiastical independence of Lithuania came to an end. Her metropolitan was never able to take the lead of the Russian Church. But she was not strong enough to stand alone. The inevitable drift was in the opposite direction. The independence of Lithuania was maintained for almost a century and a half, and then ended by the diet of Lublin (a.d. 1568). Gradually the leading families joined themselves to Poland and accepted the Roman Catholic religion, and the people followed.
We now come to the important events associated with the career of Isidore. At this point Russia emerges from her comparative isolation, and in the person of her ecclesiastical
