astery, on the shores of the White Sea. In this forlorn and desolate retreat of almost perpetual winter he passed many years, living apart from the brotherhood, on a desert island, mortifying the flesh by rigid discipline and fasting. Disagreeing with his fellow-monks as to the employment of the convent funds, and unable to submit to dictation, he sought refuge at the Kojeozersk monastery, where, by his austere life and exemplary devotion, he gained wide-spread reputation for sanctity. Made superior of the monastery, he was called to the capital by the duties of his charge, and while there he officiated and preached before the tsar. His striking personal appearance, his gigantic stature, his earnestness and fiery eloquence, made a deep impression upon the young and pious monarch. Alexis, hearing of his holy life, wished to retain him near his person, and made him archimandrite of the Novospassky[1] monastery at Moscow.
The strength and originality of Nikon's character, the bold frankness of his disposition, his eager, self-sacrifising zeal, his lofty and far-sighted genius, both in political and ecclesiastical matters, his indomitable courage and independence, his generous spirit and high sense of justice, made him a fit counsellor for the sovereign. He has been variously judged by his countrymen and posterity; he has been compared to Thomas à Becket and Wolsey, his ambition condemned as dangerous to the State, his pride and arrogance as insufferable, but the savage, barbarous condition of the people whom he was called to govern, the disordered state of the country, the ignorance and superstition of the clergy and the degradation of the Church, must not be forgotten. His faults were
- ↑ Of the Saviour, from Spass, Saviour.
