"What is the thing thou hast done then, O Tsar, that thou shouldst put off from thee the form of thine honour? Fear the judgment of God, to whom we are here making a pure sacrifice. Behind the altar the innocent blood of Christian men is made to flow by thee! Among pagans, in the country of the infidel, are laws, and justice, and compassion shown to men, but in Russia now is nothing of this kind. The lives and goods of citizens are without defence. Everywhere pillage, on all sides murder, and each and all these crimes are committed in the name of the Tsar. There is a judge on high--how shall you present yourself before that Tribunal? Dare you appear there covered with the blood of innocents, deaf to their cries of pain? Even the very stones beneath your feet cry aloud to heaven for vengeance on such black deeds as are done here. O Prince, I speak to thee as the shepherd, fearing none but the Lord our God." Ivan enraged, stuck his staff into the ground, and swore to be as bad as Philip described him. Vasili Pronski was the first to suffer in the murders that followed closely upon this scene, but Ivan did not forget Philip. One of the soldiers was ordered to present himself before the metropolitan and wear the Tartar skull cap; the metropolitan noticed this irreverence, and turned to the leader for a command that the man should uncover. In the meantime the man did so, and Philip was accused of lying. The boyard, Alexis Basmanov, with a troop of armed men and having the Tsar's _fiat_ in his hand, arrested Philip whilst officiating at High Mass in the Uspenski Sobor, and read out that by the decree of the clergy, Philip was deposed from his high office. The people were surprised and stupefied. The soldiers seized Philip, tore his vestments from him, and chased him from the church with besoms. He was first taken to the monastery of the Epiphany, next to an obscure prison where he was loaded with irons. Whilst there, the head of his well-beloved nephew, Ivan Borisovich, was thrown to him. A crowd gathered near the prisoner's cell, and the people spake with each other of his goodness. It frightened Ivan, and he had Philip removed to the monastery at Tver, where he was subsequently strangled by Skutarov on the Tsar's journey through the town on the way to Novgorod.