In 1441, Metropolitan Isidore of Moscow embraced the Union of Florence which briefly healed the Great Schism by re-uniting various Eastern Catholic Churches with the Holy See. Under pressure from Vasily II, princes of the Grand Duchy of Moscow denounced the union with Rome and imprisoned Isidore in the Chudov Monastery for two years. [1] The metropolitansee lay vacant for seven years. In 1448, the secular authorities appointed Jonah of Moscow as metropolitan since Isidore was adjudged to have apostatized to Catholicism.[2] Like his immediate predecessors, he permanently resided in Moscow, and was the last Moscow-based primate of the metropolis to keep the traditional title with reference to the metropolitan city of Kiev. He was also the first metropolitan in Moscow to be appointed without the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as had been the norm.[3] Some time after his appointment, Jonah unilaterally changed his title to "Metropolitan of Moscow and all Rus' " which was a de facto declaration of independence of the Church in north-eastern Rus' from the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The Ober-Procurator (Imperial Delegate having the procuration for religious affairs) was a non-clerical officer who assisted the Most Holy Synod from 1722 to 1917 after the Church reform of Peter the Great. The real "head" of the Synod and most important clerical figure was the Primus or Prime member, its legal chairman, always a Metropolitan or an Archbishop. The first Primus was the Metropolitan Stephen Yavorsky, who had been the administrator of the Patriarchate of Moscow for over twenty years (1700-1721).
^As Ignatius was personally elected by False Dmitriy I and during the rule of Patriarch Job, he was not the legitimate Patriarch of Moscow. After death of the monarch, Ignatius was removed from office in a Council.
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