In the ascendant

Towards the end of the session of 1836, the hopes of the Conservative party were again in the ascendant.

[T]hose poets, […] by enriching the common language and by circulating from to town to town either in person or in their compositions, contributed to fan the flame of Pan-Hellenic patriotism at a time when there were few circumstances to co-operate with them, and when the causes tending to perpetuate isolation seemed in the ascendant.

Methodius returned to Moravia, but Rostislav died and under his successor Svatopluk the German clergy were once more in the ascendant, having obtained the support of the new pope.