Editing Golden Horde (section)

==== Russian Orthodox Church ====

During early Mongol rule, the ''[[basqaq]]s'' collected taxes imposed by the Mongols, with only Russian clergy being exempt from the taxes, in a system known in Russian as ''baskachestvo'' ({{langx|ru|баскачество}}).{{sfn|Vásáry|2022|pp=475–476|loc=...the basqaqs (the institution called baskachestvo in Russian), collected the taxes instituted by the Mongols, and only the Russian clergy was tax-exempt}} In the privilege charters given to Russian clergy, the terms ''dan'' and ''poshlina'' are given, which, by the second half of the 13th century, primarily came to refer to the Tatar tribute.{{sfn|Vásáry|2022|p=476}}

The Mongols required the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] to pray for the health of the khan and in return they looked after the church's health and fostered its growth. A bishopric was established in [[Sarai (city)|Sarai]] for Russians and to act as an intermediary between the Golden Horde and both the Russian Church and Byzantium. The khans granted the Church significant tax privileges which enabled it to recover from the invasion and prosper even more than before. It was during the 14th century that the Church made decisive inroads into the pagan countryside, possibly due to the attraction of economic benefits bestowed upon Church lands that incentivized peasants to settle. The "Tale of Peters, tsarevich of the Horde" was written in the 14th century. It tells of how the Mongol Peter, a descendant of [[Genghis Khan]], converted and founded the Petrov monastery. Peter's descendants used their ties to the khans to protect the monastery from the Rostov princes and the neighboring Russians who desired the fishing rights to that land. The depiction of Mongols by Church was mixed and awkward. It portrayed them as a disaster and their caretaker. This contradiction can be seen in the khans' portrayals in Church texts. Where the khans' names would have been in the [[missal]]s, there was a blank space for the name to be read aloud orally. There was also a careful delineation between khan and "Tatars". Hagiographers sometimes absolved the khans from their role in killing Russian princes. After the khans' power began to wane in the 14th century, the Church gave its full backing to the Russian princes. However even after Mongol rule ended, the Church still invoked the Mongol model as an example of how they should be treated. In the 16th century, churchmen circulated a translated Mongol ''[[Jarlig|yarlyk]]'' that granted tax immunity to the Church.{{sfn|Halperin|1987|pp=113–115}}