Theodore Nikitich Romanov Philaret

c.1553-1633. Russian patriarch. A respected soldier and diplomat under his cousin, Theodore I, the last czar of the House of Ruvik, he was later confined under Boris Godunov to the Antoniev monastery (1598-1605). When Godunov was overthrown by pseudo-Demetrius I, Philaret became metropolitan of Rostov (1605) and four years later was made patriarch of all Russia by the impostor pseudo- Demetrius II. Imprisoned by the Poles (1610-18), he was freed under the truce of Deulino, and in 1619 he was enthroned patriarch of Moscow, remaining virtually Russia's ruler until his death, even although his son Michael was the czar, a co-regency. Equalizing taxation, halting peasant migration off the land, and reorganizing the army, he established also theological projects such as a seminary in every diocese and the founding of a patriarchal library.