Boris Godunov
Brother-in-law and leading boyar of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, later tsar himself. He conducted the negotiations with Patriarch Jeremias II that led to the creation of the patriarchate of Moscow in 1589.
The records of the tsar’s foreign office call Godunov the tsar’s “near boyar”, master of the horse and brother-in-law, and show him handling the whole negotiation with Jeremias II of Constantinople. He received the patriarch after his first audience in July 1588, carried the tsar’s proposal that Jeremias stay in Russia as patriarch at Vladimir, went back to him many times when he refused, and on 13 January 1589 brought the request that he install a patriarch chosen by the Russian council (Russian ambassadorial records, in Muravyov, Relations with the East, July 1588 – 13 January 1589). The same records show the council of Constantinople and its envoy addressing letters to him as well as to the tsar, and Godunov writing to Jeremias in his own name (Russian ambassadorial records, in Muravyov, Relations with the East, 1589–1591). See Moscow Becomes a Patriarchate.
In the timeline
- 26 January 1589, firm dateMoscow Becomes a Patriarchate
In January 1589 Jeremias II of Constantinople, visiting Russia, installs Metropolitan Job as the first patriarch of Moscow. A council at Constantinople confirms it in 1590 and ranks Moscow fifth. The tsar’s charter calls the Russian realm the Third Rome.