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).