With Moscow drifting eastward in its point of view owing to the influence of the Tatars and Ukraine gravitating westward under the control of Poland and Lithuania, the breach became wider than in the beginning and Ukraine was unable to work on its own behalf or to resist the encroachments of the West. Especially after the Union of Lublin in 1569 when Poland and Lithuania were formally united into one kingdom, Western influences grew stronger. More and more pressure was exerted upon the people to join the Roman Catholic Church, to adopt Polish, and to lose their identity in the new state. This was especially true in the case of the nobles and the wealthier classes. More and more they were Polonized and as they became ardent advocates of their new culture, they endeavored to force it also upon their people. Ukraine and its national spirit seemed to be doomed. Ukrainian opposition to this process was bitter and continuous but the successes were few after many of the feudal lords passed over to the new regime. The lesser nobles continued the struggle. Deprived of any means of expressing their opinions to the heads of the state and without skilled and daring leadership, they saw their traditional privileges whittled away and themselves reduced to greater and greater straits. For a while it seemed as if Protestant ideas might seep in, but this stopped with the suppression of the Reformation in Poland. A few of the nobles as Prince Constantine Ostrozky endeavored to develop and strengthen the Orthodox (Byzantine) culture of the people. He tried to secure teachers from Constantinople for his schools but the Patriarch after the fall of the city to the Turks was weak and powerless and he was not in a position to carry out any strong policy. A few able monks as the young Cyril Lukaris, later the celebrated Patriarch of Constantinople, arrived for a short time, but they could have very little success and again and again the sons of a devout Orthodox father themselves Polonized and thus undid all that the older men had accomplished. Then too in cities as Lviv there were various brotherhoods interested in education. They tried to establish schools and printing presses and to defend the old faith and customs and they did noble service. Still even these efforts did not bear too much fruit. They were checked at every stage by the government and their work was so tied up with the defence of the Orthodox Faith that they were not interested in giving much secular learning to the young and that little was largely influenced by the Latin intellectual manner of thought. They used the old Church language which was becoming steadily more distinct from the vernacular tongue and created a sterile and polemic culture which often had little real value.