In the eyes of the Greeks, Little Rus was the "Inner Rus", and the Great Rus was the "Outer Rus", a bit similar to the distinction between the Gallic and the Gallic Extramountain. But at that time, the Eastern Roman Empire was already in decline, and it was no longer able to take care of this.

And for the Kiev diocese, even more troublesome, the Mongols have not left, the Poles have come.

Even in Europe, Poles are more religious. They looked at the Kiev diocese very unpleasantly and often attacked the local Rus' state. 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, in such a comparison, the princes found that the Mongols only wanted money, while the Poles not only wanted money, but also faith, and even life.

In 1340, the Polish army reached Lviv, the capital of the Duchy of Galich, and tried to annex the country, but the local nobles rushed to get the Golden Horde back, and the Poles were defeated.

But with the dissolution of the Golden Horde, even other forces that could be relied on disappeared. Soon, most of the diocese of Little Rus' was occupied by Poland and Lithuania. After the successive blows to Galich and Kiev, the imbalance between the two metropolitan districts became more and more serious, and the religious center began to shift to the Greater Rus' region.

And after the rise of the Purple Horde, the situation changed again.

The Purple Horde was a departure from the Crimea and Moldavia, slowly gaining control of the southern part of Little Rus', and eventually reclaiming the entire diocese from the Poles. Unlike the Golden Horde, which was content to collect taxes, the Purple Horde built water conservancy, farms, and minerals in many places where conditions were better, and began a lasting business.

The Purple Horde army was also different from the previous Mongol khanates, they had many professionals from the Central Plains, Persia, and Greece, and even the patriarch Guo Gai was born in the Central Plains, and later waited in Tabriz. In the hands of these people, there is currently the whole world, arguably the most advanced engineering technology. Moreover, as an army from the engineering corps, their sappers are very professional.

The civil fences and ditches in the Rus region were barely enough to keep out the raiders from all walks of life after the disintegration of the Golden Horde, but in front of the Purple Horde, it was almost child's play.

Under these circumstances, the Purple Horde gradually established a relatively stable administration in the diocese of Little Rus. Because it is too vast and sparsely populated, many places are still unable to be effectively controlled, and they still rely on local self-government. But again, there is no longer a large-scale enemy.

In this case, there was a good basis for cooperation between the Kiev Church and the Khanate.

The Purple Horde 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 for various affairs should be left to Moscow.

Regarding the previous practice of the Golden Horde to stuff everything in Moscow, Guo Gai and others were very incomprehensible.

It is also for this reason that the Purple Horde has always supported the Kyiv Church to continue as the core of the "All-Rus Diocese". With this foundation for cooperation, the two sides are naturally easy to say anything.

Although the Purple Horde was a little heretical, it was better than Poland anyway. And if there is no one to support it, Kyiv, a traditional cultural center, is expected to decline, and will even be annexed by Moscow in turn. So, now is not the time to pick and choose.

The Purple Horde declared that, according to historical custom, Kiev was the center of the Church. The previous move to Moscow was caused by the turmoil of the times, but now there is no problem, and it is time to return to tradition.

The Moscow side, of course, was reluctant to do this, and the church was not happy to give up the title of metro. The two sides disputed for a long time.

After the Civil War, the Purple Horde began to adjust the planning of the dioceses, declaring the unity of the diocese and the province. In addition, in the future, the heads of the churches in each province will be called the patriarch and will be directly responsible to the Ministry of Rites.

Now it's okay, everyone doesn't fight for the bishop, even the higher patriarch is not so valuable......

Even the concept of an all-Russian diocese was later diluted. The Purple Horde was divided into a number of new administrative provinces, with towns and legionary estates as the core, breaking the boundaries of the previous principalities. Only Kiev became a special parish like Constantinople.

Here, the two churches are inconsistent. Most of the newly run farms and mines in the Purple Horde were the territory of the Romanian Church. And in places beyond the reach of the khanate's administration, such as the large and scattered Rus' settlements, the Kiev church was active. In addition, one of the main functions of the Kiev Church was to propagate to the outside world, or to the restrictive Rus' principalities, in order to maintain relations between the natives and the Purple Horde.

These reforms had little impact on the Kiev Church. They did not have absolute leadership over the other Rus' dioceses, nor did they have control over other principalities, but because they were appointed directly from the Patriarch of Constantinople, they had a higher standard. The change in administrative divisions and the rank of the clergy did not delay their activities in the vast Rus' region.

Moreover, because Kiev is a special parish, this time it really surpasses other parishes at the administrative level......

As for the protests in Moscow, they did not last long either. Because soon, the Empress Dowager Helena did a more ruthless job - she sent a lot of people to the Rus region through the special diocese of Constantine to recruit local "wild" priests.

The Rus' have been baptized for hundreds of years, but due to geographical and cultural problems, the church has maintained a considerable amount of original religious elements in the process of popularization. In many rural areas, primitive polytheistic shamans and shamans are still active. The principalities and churches have been trying to eradicate these influences, but not very well.

Of course, cultural penetration tends to go both ways. At the same time that the primitive religion changed the church, the church also had an influence on the primitive religion. Many priests in the countryside thus began to call themselves monks and priests. And some priests whose teachers are unknown and whose origins are unknown have also begun to appear frequently.

Like the problems faced by the Purple Horde, the Rus' region was characterized by its vast size and sparse population. The Purple Tent is not capable of managing all places, and the princes are no better. As a result, these people are active everywhere and maintain a lot of influence among the people.

In the ancient Slavic cult, bears were a crucial element. For this reason, many wild priests like to domesticate bears, and the inhabitants also believe that having a bear with them is a sign of devotion and approval from the Father. The "circus actor" Lao Ivan recruited by Zhu Yunwen before is actually a similar identity.

Within the Church of Constantine, some people questioned this, but most people didn't care about it anymore, and thought that the Queen Mother's method was wonderful.

After that, the "expatriates" of the Constantine Church often operated in the Rus' region, informing everyone that as long as they went to Dadu and received basic training and tests, they could be called official priests.

For a time, there were a lot of bears on the docks of the Crimea to the capital. The passengers of the passenger ship complained and had to find a boat to take the priests there.

They also improved the situation of the Rus' in Dadu to a certain extent.

The Greeks in the city like to boast about themselves, and generally look down on the Rus' who work hard, thinking that they are the ones who need to eat. Some people even deliberately insulted and provoked them, causing quarrels and fights.

But ordinary Greek citizens basically can't beat bears. It's more dangerous to tease these guys, and it's not worth it. So during that time, the Rus' people in the city were much more stable.

(End of chapter)