- In the early 1500s, the Russian Orthodox Church was
in the process of asserting its independence from the Byzantine
Church and the recently-destroyed Byzantine Empire.
- The Legend of the White Cowl asserts the
historical and religious inevitability of Russia's place as the heir
to the Byzantine Empire's temporal and religious authority.
- The Patriarch of Constantinople eventually
recognized the independence of the Russian church in 1589.
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- The Legend of the White Cowl also fits into the
Third Rome ideology in Russia of the time.
- Just as Constantinople had been the Second Rome,
so would Russia rise to become the Third.
- In this interpretation, the Cowl functions almost
as a baton in a footrace, being passed from one city to the next and
bearing with it pre-eminence.
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