PHILARET [THEODORE NIKITICH ROMANOV] ( ? I 553– 1633), patriarch of Moscow, was the second son of the boyar Nikita Romanovich. During the reign of his first cousin Theodore I. (1584-98), Theodore Romanov distinguished himself both as a soldier and a diplomatist. On the death of the childless tsar, he was the popular candidate for the vacant throne ; but he ac quiesced in the election of Boris Godunov, who compelled him, three years later, to take monastic vows under the name of Phil aret. Philaret was confined to the Antoniev monastery, but when the pseudo-Demetrius overthrew the Godunovs he released Phil aret and made him metropolitan of Rostov (1605). In 1609 Phil aret fell into the hands of pseudo-Demetrius II., who named him patriarch of all Russia, though, in fact, his jurisdiction was very limited. On June 2, 1619, he was enthroned patriarch of Mos cow. Henceforth, till his death, there were two sovereigns, Tsar Michael and his father, co-regents.
Philaret replenished the treasury by a more equable and rational system of assessing and collecting the taxes. His most important
domestic measure was the chaining of the peasantry to the soil, a measure directed against the ever increasing migration of the down-trodden serfs to the steppes, where they became free-booters instead of tax-payers. The taxation of the tsar's slyuzhnuie lyudi, or military tenants, was a first step towards the proportional taxa tion of the hitherto privileged classes. Philaret formed the nucleus of the subsequently famous Patriarchal Library, and commanded that every archbishop should establish a seminary for the clergy, himself setting the example. He also reorganized the Muscovite army with the help of foreign officers. His death in October 1633 put an end to the Russo-Polish War (1632-33), withdrawing the strongest prop from an executive feeble enough even when sup ported by all the weight of his authority.