In fact, in addition to capturing the population and forcing Vasily III to give up the claim of the Byzantine throne, Marin also had a third hidden task, which was to plunder the Orthodox leaders of Moscow! Then, he took Rome and let them "remain" anyway.

Since Constantinople fell into Ottoman Turkey of the Peace Church in 1453, the influence of the Orthodox Church has suffered a heavy blow. Even the universal pastoral capital of the Orthodox Church in Constantinople was appointed by the Sultan of the Peace Church, which is very ironic.

Moreover, Turkey also changed the Orthodox church, Hagia Sophia, to a mosque, and became a puppet universal pastor, and was forced to change the patriarch's residence to St. George's Cathedral. Although it is also in Constantinople, its influence is incomparable to Hagia Sophia.

Because the appointment power of universal pastors was taken away by the pagan sultans, many senior priests of the Byzantine Empire were unwilling to let the Orthodox Church sink like this, so they fled from Constantinople. But where can they go if they leave Constantinople? The west is full of "heterodox" Catholic territories, and only the Slavs' area has several Orthodox countries. But most of these Orthodox countries are too weak, or face the giant beast of Turkey. Therefore, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which is far away from Turkey and has a strong strength, has become the ideal place for those Orthodox priests who are unwilling to sink.

A large number of senior Orthodox priests were exiled to Moscow. They missed the glorious years with the support of the Byzantine Empire and also needed the support of secular regimes. Therefore, many Orthodox priests placed their hopes on the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, hoping to support the Grand Duchy of Moscow to unify Eastern Europe. In turn, they also hope that the Grand Duchy of Moscow after unifying Eastern Europe can feed back the Orthodox priests.

The Grand Duchy of Moscow has always been ambitious and hopes to get spiritual and ideological support from the church to consolidate the legal system. Therefore, the two sides hit it off. Even when Princess Sophia married Ivan III as her second wife, it was all facilitated by the church members in Moscow.

Why did the people of the Moscow Orthodox Church do this? Isn’t it to gain the blood of the Byzantine royal family? Vasily III is a person with Byzantine royal blood. In fact, Vasily III was able to rise to power as the youngest son, and could still firmly sit in the throne after killing his eldest nephew Dmitry. The support of the Orthodox Church in the Grand Duchy of Moscow is of great contribution. After all, believers are more obedient to the church. If the church promotes the monarch as a reasonable and legal, most people will blindly follow the trust.

Although Princess Sophia married Ivan III to re-string as a matchmaker for the Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church originally hoped to promote the merger of Catholicism and Orthodox Church.

However, Rome was actually used by the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox priests did not have the intention to merge with Rome. After all, who would be subject to "heretics"? Moreover, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which had benefited, did not send troops south to drag Turkey as the Roman Catholic Church expected, but instead kept beating the Catholic country Lithuania.

Therefore, the result of this political marriage was that the Moscows took advantage but failed to fulfill their promises. In Rome, they really lost their wife and soldiers.

In other words, the reason why Vasily III sought to seize the Byzantine throne was not only because of their ambitions, but also because of the instigation and support of the Moscow Orthodox Church.

Even if Vasily III surrendered, if the people in Moscow in the Orthodox Church were unhappy, they would continue to encourage Vasily III to seek the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire. No matter how bad it is, they would fool Vasily III's descendants to seek the capture.

For security reasons, it is actually safer to kill Vasily III directly, including Vasily III's descendants. However, there is no practice in the whole of Europe to kill captured monarchs. Marin did not want to break this practice, because if he killed Vasily III, it means that others can kill him or Caesar in the future. This risk is a bit great.

In addition, Marin hopes to gain population benefits from the Grand Principal of Moscow. However, he does not want the Grand Principal of Moscow to collapse like this. Because once the Grand Principal of Moscow collapses, it will be cheaper to Lithuania, as well as Türkiye and Crimea in the south.

Both sides are already very powerful forces, and no matter who annexes the Grand Duchy of Moscow, it is a great thing. The Grand Duchy of Moscow has a population of tens of millions, and whoever swallows it will expand into a giant man and become a hegemonic existence.

If Lithuania swallowed the Grand Duchy of Moscow and was subject to its system, there might not be a particularly great threat. If the Turks took the opportunity to go north from the south and annex the Grand Duchy of Moscow, that would be a real disaster.

This means that Turkey will add tens of millions of peace believers. In addition, it will obtain huge granaries and military sources in Eastern Europe. Turkey is already very powerful. If you annex the trashed Grand Principal of Moscow, don’t mess around in the Christ world...

Therefore, Marin would rather keep the ambitious Vasily III than kill him. After all, as long as he is still alive, he can basically barely support the Grand Duchy of Moscow to prevent it from being annexed. Then, a balanced situation will be formed in Eastern Europe.

Marin was not worried that Vasily III would not surrender. As long as he was caught, he would not worry that he would not publicly abandon his covetousness of the Eastern Roman throne. After all, the Byzantine throne was just an illusory thing and could not be fulfilled. At least, the Grand Duchy of Moscow cannot be fulfilled at the moment. Not to mention the Grand Duchy of Moscow, even the Tsarist Russian Empire, which later claimed to be a European road roller, could not truly win the Eastern Roman throne. The main reason is that Constantinople has always been in the hands of Turkey and has remained in the 21st century.

But Marin, the group of Orthodox leaders in Moscow city, was so angry that he must tie them back to Rome. In addition to being able to seek credit from the Holy See, it also means to dispel the ambitions of the Moscow Orthodox Church.

After all, the senior Orthodox church leaders who encouraged the Grand Duke of Moscow to seize the Byzantine throne were almost all concentrated in Moscow, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. As long as this city is captured, the priests who advocated the "Third Rome" can be captured. As for the remaining Orthodox priests, most of them are not very keen on this statement. Because those who are keen on this statement were basically promoted by Vasily III and arranged in the center of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the level is not low.

As long as you catch all the senior priests in Moscow city in one go, basically, the forces that advocate the "Third Rome" will lose most of them. Even if there are fish that miss the net, it will not be a climate.

However, what if this statement rekindled in the Grand Principality of Moscow in the future? Or kill Vasily III?
Chapter completed!