Church and State

Church and State

Since the middle of the 14th century, the Orthodox world, under the pressure of the Muslim Turks, was expecting the end of the world in 7000 year (AD 1492). Computus was calculated until the end of the Great Indiction (a period of 532 years), which was in 1408, and then until 1492 only, and was called "Computus of the Last Century". By 1492, it became clear that the world did not end, but relations with Constantinople had been severed after the Union of Florence, and Computus had to be calculated independently using the old tables.

Overall, this period was characterized by two conflicting trends. The Grand Prince and Tsar were increasingly subordinating the highest ecclesiastical authority, represented by the Metropolitan, but at the same time, the authority of monasteries, their abbots, and individual devout believers was growing.