The Lithuanians had never been Christianized; they still adored Perun
and their pagan deities; and the only bond uniting them with Russia was
the tribute they had for years reluctantly paid. They were ripe for
rebellion; and when after long years of conflict with the Livonian and
Teutonic Orders, Latin Christianity obtained some foothold in their
land, they began to gravitate toward Catholic Poland instead of Greek
Russia; and when a marriage was suggested which should unite Poland and
Lithuania under their Prince Iagello, who should reign over both at
Cracow, and at the same time give them their own Grand Prince, they
consented. The forces instigating this movement had their source at
Rome, where the Pope was unceasingly striving, through Germany and
Poland, to carry the Latin cross into Russia. Again and again had the
Greek Church repulsed the offers of reconciliation and union made by
Rome. So, much was hoped from the proselyting of the German Orders,
and of Catholic Poland, and from the union effected by the marriage of
the Lithuanian Prince Iagello with the Polish Queen Hedwig.

The threads composing this network of policies in the West were
altogether ecclesiastical, until Lithuania began to feel strong enough
to wash off her Christian baptism and to indulge in ambitious designs
of her own: to struggle away from Poland, and to commence an
independent and aggressive movement against Russia.

There was an immense vigor in this movement. The power in the West,
sometimes Catholic and at heart always pagan, absorbed first towns and
cities and then principalities. It began to be a Lithuanian conquest,
and overshadowed even Mongol oppression. The Mongol wanted tribute;
while Lithuania wanted Russia! But one of the gravest dangers brought
by this war between the East and the West was the standing opportunity