Owing to Muscovite influence a change was effected. A letter is extant drafted by Jeremiah II, patriarch of Constantinople (1572-78), which bears the signature of the patriarch of Antioch, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and others by which the bishopric of Sinai was restored.[290] The decision was based on the decree of Justinian which is dated to the year 551 and is preserved at the convent, but which is looked upon as a forgery. Anyhow, a prelate was reinstated in the person of Eugenius (1565-83), who, in the capacity of “bishop of Sinai and Raithou,” wrote to Emperor Maximilian II (1564-76), declaring that the monks were called upon to pay 5000 ducats to the Turkish Sultan, which were they unable to raise. The outcome of the appeal is not recorded. They probably made an appeal also to King Henri III of France (1574-89).[291] In the year 1579 Eugenius of Sinai was in Jerusalem, where the patriarch Germanus abdicated because of old age.[292]
Direct intercourse with Russia continued. We hear of one Korobeïnikoff who was in Sinai in 1583, and again in 1593. It was, perhaps, with the help of the Muscovite that Bishop Anastasius I (1583-92) laid down the mosaic pavement in the convent church, which had been destroyed by Arab treasure-seekers. Anastasius was succeeded by Laurentius (1592-1617), but Melitos, patriarch of Alexandria, objected to his appointment, whereupon he appealed to Sophronios VI, patriarch of Jerusalem (1579-1606), who ratified his appointment.[293] Perhaps the gates of the convent were walled up in connection with these difficulties, and anyone wishing to enter was now hauled up by means of a rope and a pulley. Henri Castale who visited Sinai in 1600, was the first to describe the arrangement, which continued till the British occupation of Egypt. Castale, in the account of his journey, enlarged on the starving men and women in the desert. He found one starving monk in the convent.[294]
But things now improved under Bishop Joasaph, who ruled from 1617 to 1658, and travellers gave a better account of the convent.
The thought of the “inscriptions of the children of Israel” brought Neitzschitz into the desert about the year 1639. He was a Lutheran to whom “many of the stories were fables.” He was received by the “archbishop Joasaph” and found twenty-three monks at the convent, who distributed food daily to between fifty and a hundred Arabs.[295] The thought of the inscription was prominent also in the mind of Balthazar de Monconys, who, in 1647, visited the convent. Here he remarked on the tunic of gold brocade embroidered with pearls and on the splendid tiaras, presents of the Muscovite, that were worn by Joasaph.[296] Again, Thévenot came to the convent in 1658, and saw a silver chest, a gift from the empress Anna of Russia, in which the relics of St. Katherine were now enshrined. Thévenot related that on some days as many as 150 Arabs, on others as many as 400, clamouring for food, assembled outside the convent. He also related that the Turks had destroyed the church which the monks owned at Tur (perhaps that of St. John the Baptist), in order to make room for a fort where an aga was stationed, who had the command of cannon.[297]
A papal bull, apparently the last, was granted to the convent by Pope Urban VIII (1623-37). It confirmed the monks in their various possessions, and has the additional interest that it enumerated the popes who previously granted bulls to the monks. They were Honorius III (1216-27), Gregory IX (1227-41), Paul II (1458-64), Innocent VIII (1484-92), Julius II (1503-13), Leo IX (1513-19), and Paul III (1534-50).
During the rule of Joasaph, Nectarius, a Cretan by birth and a man of considerable ability, came to the convent, the interests of which he furthered in various ways. The Vaivode Basil (1634-61), of Moldavia, was encouraging the establishment of Greek schools in his dominion. Nectarius visited Athens, Bukarest, and Jassy, where the monks of Sinai now built priories and secured a lasting foothold. It was probably Nectarius who definitely secured the title and standing of an archbishop to the ruler of Sinai. The title had been applied to Simeon as early as 1211 by the doge of Venice in connection with the property which the convent held in Crete, but the rulers continued to style themselves bishop. However, the title once claimed was retrospectively applied. Nectarius, after his return to the convent, compiled an Epitome of history from the earliest times, with special chapters on the convent and a list of its rulers. They are all designated as archbishops. It was probably due to Nectarius, also, that many MSS. were brought from Crete and elsewhere and added to the convent library. At the convent itself literary activity was resumed, and we hear of a gift of paper to the monks that was conveyed there on camel-back.[298]
At the death of Joasaph, Nectarius was chosen as his successor. He was in Gaza on his way to Jerusalem to seek confirmation of his appointment at the hands of the patriarch Païsios, when he was met by delegates from Jerusalem, bearing the news that Païsios was dead, and that Nectarius was chosen patriarch. As Joasaph died in 1658, and the meeting happened in April 1660, the intercourse between the sees seems to have been attended with difficulty. The rule at the convent therefore devolved on Ananias (1658-68), who was followed by Joannicus (1668-1703).
According to Lacroix, the Muscovite fell out with the patriarch of Constantinople in 1671, and summoned to Moscow several prelates, among them “Antoninus, bishop of Sinai.” He dared not refuse, and was kept in Moscow for over a year.[299] But no prelate of this name appears in the list of the bishops.
About this time the Papacy made renewed efforts at propaganda, with the help of the Franciscans. Pope Innocent XI (1675-89) entered into correspondence with the patriarch of Cairo with a view to winning over the Copts of Egypt to the Roman Catholic faith, and Francesco Maria of Salerno spent several years in Cairo where he established a school. He also visited Sinai, but the Copts found it impossible to accept the declaration of faith that was submitted to them, and nothing came of it.[300]
Joannicus, in 1672, was in Bethlehem where he subscribed to a declaration against Calvin, in which the Maronites, the Copts and the Armenian Christians joined. In 1675 he went on an embassy to Turkey. He also engaged in correspondence with Ignatius, archbishop of Ochrida in Serbia, on the firmân which had been granted to the monks of Sinai by the emperor Justinian. A visit to Moldavia resulted in the gift of the property called Rimineke to the monks of Sinai by Vaivode Brancovan († 1719). The traveller Poncet, who visited the convent about the year 1699, coming from Sherm, was received by Joannicus, who was in his ninety-third year and paralytic. Like other travellers Poncet was hauled into the convent by means of the seat attached to a rope. He was treated to some of the liqueur called arac, which was made by the monks out of the fermented juice of the date.[301]