In the eyes of the Greeks, small Rus is "inner Rus" and big Rus is "outer Rus", which is somewhat similar to the distinction between intramountain Gaul and extra-mountain Gaul. But the Eastern Roman Empire was already declining, and it had no ability to take care of this.
What is even more troublesome for the Kiev Diocese is that before the Mongols have left, the Poles are coming.
Even in Europe, Poles are relatively religious. They were unhappy with the Kiev diocese and often attacked the local Rus' state. The Poles often persecuted Orthodox believers, trying to expel them or force them to convert.
Soon the locals couldn't stand Poland anymore. Although they had tried to expel the Mongols before, through this comparison, the princes discovered that the Mongols only wanted money, while the Poles not only wanted money, but also faith and even their lives.
In 1340, the Polish army reached Lviv, the capital of the Galic Principality, and tried to annex the country. The local nobles hurriedly retrieved the Golden Horde, and then they defeated the Poles.
But with the disintegration of the Golden Horde, even other forces that could be relied on disappeared. Soon, most of the Lesser Rus' Diocese was occupied by Poland and Lithuania. After Galich and Kiev were hit in turn, the imbalance between the two metropolitan areas became increasingly serious, and the religious center began to shift to the Greater Rus' region.
After the rise of the Purple Horde Khanate, the situation changed again.
Starting from Crimea and Moldavia, the Purple Horde slowly took control of southern Mali Rus' and eventually wrested the entire diocese from the Poles. Unlike the Golden Horde, which was content with collecting taxes, the Purple Horde built water conservancy projects, established farms, and mined minerals in many places with better conditions, and began long-term operations.
The Purple Horde Army is also different from the previous Mongol Khans. They have many professionals from the Central Plains, Persia, and Greece. Even the elder Guo Gai was born in the Central Plains and later lived in Tabriz. In the hands of these people, they have what can be said to be the most advanced engineering technology in the world. And as an army from an engineering team, their engineers are very professional.
The civil fences and trenches in the Rus area were barely enough to stop the robbers who fled after the disintegration of the Golden Horde, but they were almost child's play in front of the Purple Horde Army.
Under this situation, the Purple Horde Khanate gradually established relatively stable management in the Little Rus Diocese. Because the area is so vast and sparsely populated, many places are still unable to be effectively controlled and rely mainly on local autonomy. But similarly, there are no large-scale enemies anymore.
In this case, there was a good basis for cooperation between the Kiev Church and the Khanate.
The Purple Horde Khanate has always had a relatively clear general plan for the Rus region: the religious and cultural center should be in Kiev, the economic center should be in Novgorod, and finally the administrative center that manages various affairs can be left to Moscow.
Guo Gai and others couldn't understand the previous practice of the Golden Horde of sending everything to Moscow.
It is also because of this that the Purple Horde has always supported the Kiev Church to continue to be the core of the "All-Russian Diocese." With this basis for cooperation, it will be easy for both parties to talk about anything.
Although the orthodox religion of the Purple Horde Khanate is a bit heretical, no matter how you say it, it is better than Poland. And if there is no one to support it, Kiev, a traditional cultural center, will probably decline, and may even be annexed by Moscow. So, now is not the time to pick and choose.
The Purple Horde announced that according to historical custom, Kiev was the center of the church. The previous move to Moscow was due to the turmoil in the current situation. Now that there are no problems, it is time to return to tradition.
Of course, Moscow was reluctant to do this, and the church was not willing to give up the title of metropolitan. The two sides have been in dispute for a long time.
After the Civil War, with the lingering power of victory, the Purple Horde Khanate began to adjust the planning of each parish and announced the unification of the ecclesiastical province and the provincial province. Moreover, from now on, the church leaders in each province will be collectively called the Patriarch and will be directly responsible to the Ministry of Rites.
Now, everyone should stop fighting for the metropolitan. Even the higher-level patriarch is not that valuable anymore...
Even the concept of the entire Ross diocese was later diluted. The Purple Horde Khanate divided many new administrative provinces, with towns and legion estates as the core, breaking the boundaries of the previous principalities. Only Kiev became a special diocese like Constantinople.
Here, the two churches are at odds. Most of the farms and mines newly operated by the Purple Horde were the territory of the Romanian Church. In places beyond the reach of the Khanate's administrative institutions, such as the large number of scattered Russian settlements in the area, the Kiev Church was active. In addition, one of the main functions of the Kiev Church is to promote the external affairs, or to those who control the Rus Principality, in order to maintain the relationship between the local people and the Purple Horde Khanate.
These reforms had little impact on the Kiev Church. They did not have absolute leadership over other Rus' dioceses, nor could they control other principalities. They only received appointments directly from the Patriarch of Constantinople, so their standards were higher. Changes in administrative divisions and priestly grades did not delay their activities in the vast Rus area.
Moreover, because Kiev is a special diocese, it really surpasses other dioceses in terms of administrative level this time...
As for the protests in Moscow, they did not last long. Because soon, Queen Mother Helena started a more ruthless job - she sent many people to the Ross area through the Constantine Special Diocese to recruit local "wild" priests.
The Russians have been baptized for hundreds of years, but due to geographical and cultural issues, the church has maintained quite a lot of primitive religious elements during its promotion. In many rural areas, wizards and shamans of primitive polytheism are still active. Principalities and churches have been working hard to combat these influences, but the results have not been very good.
Of course, cultural penetration is often two-way. While primitive religion changed the church, the church also had an influence on primitive religion. Many priests in the countryside began to call themselves monks and priests. And some priests with unknown teachers and origins began to appear frequently.
Like the problems faced by the Purple Horde Khanate, the biggest feature of the Rus region is that it is vast and sparsely populated. The purple tents are not able to manage various places, and the princes are not much better. Therefore, these people are active everywhere and maintain a lot of influence among the people.
In ancient Slavic worship, the bear was a vital element. Therefore, many wild priests like to tame bears, and residents also believe that having a bear with them is a sign of pious faith and approval from the Father. Old Ivan, the "circus actor" recruited by Zhu Yunwen before, actually has a similar identity.
Within the Constantine Church, some people questioned this, but most people no longer cared about it and thought the Queen Mother's method was wonderful.
After that, the "expatriates" of the Church of Constantine often moved around the Rus area, informing everyone that as long as they went to Dadu and received basic training and tests, they could be called official priests - would Moscow recognize you? He said, anyway, our Junbao Church recognized it directly.
For a time, there were many more bears on the pier from Crimea to Dadu. Passengers on the passenger ship complained so much that they had to find a separate ship to send the priests there.
They also improved the situation of the Russians in Dadu to a certain extent.
The Greeks in the city like to brag about themselves, and generally look down on the Russians who work hard, thinking that they are just helping people to beg for food. Some people even deliberately insulted and provoked them, causing quarrels and fights.
But ordinary Greek citizens basically cannot fight bears. The risk of teasing these guys is relatively high and not worth it. So during that time, the Rus people in the city were much more stable.
(End of chapter)
