Then came his most disastrous move. He appealed for assistance to Moscow, and offered to place the Kozak Host under the protection of the Tsar on condition that its privileges be respected. He had undoubtedly many reasons for this, but when the matter was put before the general body of the Kozaks, the argument that convinced them was religious. Moscow was also Orthodox and this appealed to all those classes of people who resented the Roman Catholicism of the Poles. It was not so favorably received by the Kozak officers who realized that the Muscovite regime did not and could not recognize any inherent rights in any class of the population. The Kievan Academy and many of the Orthodox hierarchy welcomed the move, however, for already many of their distinguished members were being invited by the Patriarch Nikon to Moscow and they felt that the act of Bohdan would place them in a better position there. After prolonged negotiations, the Muscovite envoys met Bohdan at Pereyaslav on January 18, 1654. In a last gesture Bohdan asked the Tsar’s envoy Buturlin to swear in his Sovereign’s name to respect the treaty. Buturlin refused on the ground that the Tsar could not swear to any subject. Popular sentiment had been so stirred up that Bohdan could not retract and the oath placing the Kozak Host under the Tsar was duly administered. Shortly after the Tsar confirmed various Kozak privileges. He granted the maintenance of the traditions of the Host, the right of maintaining Kozak courts, the raising of the quota of registered Kozaks to 60,000, the preservation of the privileges of the Ukrainian gentry, and the free right of election of the hetman, the payment of a large sum of money to the hetman, the officers and all registered Kozaks and the right of the hetman to receive foreign envoys (except that the Tsar insisted upon knowing and authorizing all negotiations with the King of Poland and the Sultan of Turkey). All this seemed very good and the Kozaks at first believed that they had profited by the agreement. The leaders were not long in discovering their mistake. There was no more peace than there had been before. It is true that the Kozaks in their wars with the Poles could depend upon some support from the Muscovites but the territories which they conquered from Poland passed directly under the control of the Tsar and did not add to the prestige or power of the Kozak Host. The Poles continued to invade their territory. Now they usually had the open support of the Tatars and the uncontrolled and encouraged devastations of these nomads often caused the Kozaks greater exertions than in the old days. Besides that, it was not long before it became evident that the Muscovite troops intended to settle down as garrisons in Kiev and in other Ukrainian cities, as an ostensible protection against the Poles, but in reality as an occupying force.