When Patriarch Adrian (in office 1690–1700) died in October 1700, Peter prevented the election of a new patriarch, and instead appointed Stephen Yavorsky as patriarchal "exarch", "locum tenens", or, literally, the custodian of the patriarchal throne (місцеблюститель патріаршого престолу). Yavorskii was a young professor from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy of a breakaway region of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth also known as Cossack Hetmanate, who had trained at a Jesuit academy in Poland, and who argued in favor of a strong patriarchate and the independence of the church. He headed the church together with a bishop council, however his powers were very limited, as for example all church property was under administration of Monastical prikaz (see prikaz) which was out of the church jurisdiction. As a result, monasteries became the main nests of opposition and in order to fight them the government prohibited monks to keep in their cells pen and paper. Yavorsky who might have been thinking of becoming a patriarch himself was not fully supportive of Peters ideas to "bureaucritise" by introducing a system of collegiate. Yavorsky publicly declared his opposition to introduce civil procurators-fiscal (as in Scotland) in church courts. After Yavorsky became close with supporters of Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia who was in opposition to his father Peter the Great dismissed Yavorsky.