years; but, unlike the Saracen, bringing barbarism instead of
enlightenment in its train.

The Pope, in despair and grief, turned toward Russia. Its Metropolitan
had become a Patriarch now, and the headship of the Greek Church had
passed from Constantinople to Moscow. A niece of the last Greek
Emperor, John Paleologus, had taken refuge in Rome; and when the Pope
suggested the marriage of this Greek Princess Zoë with Ivan III., the
proposition was joyfully accepted by him. After changing her name from
Zoë to Sophia, and making a triumphal journey through Russia, this
daughter of the Emperors reached Moscow and became the bride of Ivan
III. Moscow had long been the ecclesiastical head of Russia; now she
was the spiritual head of the Church in the East, and her ruling family
was joined to that of the Caesars. Russia had certainly fallen heir to
all that was left of the wreck of the Empire, and her future sovereigns
might trace their lineage back to the Roman Caesars!

Moscow, by its natural position, was the distributing center of Russian
products. The wood from the North, the corn from the fertile lands,
and the food from the cattle region all poured into her lap, making her
the commercial as well as the spiritual and political center. Now
there flowed to that favored city another enriching stream. Following
in the train of Ivan's Greek wife, were scholars, statesmen,
diplomatists, artists. A host of Greek emigrants fleeing from the
Turks, took refuge in Moscow, bringing with them books, manuscripts,
and priceless treasures rescued from the ruined Empire. If this was a
period of _Renaissance_ for Western Europe, was it not rather a
_Naissance_ for Russia? What must have been the Russian _people_ when
her princes were still only barbarians? If Ivan valued these things,
it was because they had been worn by Byzantium, and to him they