CHAPTER VII.
Influence of the Religious Element; its Development.—National Character of the Church; its Isolation.—Differences from Catholic and Protestant Churches.—Popes.—Development of Church and State in Russia.—Church Government.
The influence of the religious element in the history of Russia, and of its people, can hardly be exaggerated. In no country in Europe has it been greater, and yet, as one of those singular contrasts which the study of Russian civilization presents, while over the mass of the nation its power is and has been constant, nearly absolute, the upper classes have to a great degree become emancipated from its control, and indifferent to it. Since the days of Peter the Great the spirit of doubt and scepticism, characteristic of the eighteenth century, has pervaded the nobility and governing classes; among them Atheism is as general a doctrine as Christianity, and infidelity has supplanted faith; but the great body of the people have never risen above that degree of civilization in which all new ideas generally, and naturally, are imbued with a tincture of religion or superstition. Russian peasants are very devout, especially those who belong to the dissenting sects; among others, of the Orthodox creed, religion is rather a mechanical ritualism, but it holds them under bonds as severe as those of the most intense fanaticism. Evidence of the wonderful vitality of the religious principle among them is seen in its fecundity; it has given rise to innumerable sects, and others are constantly appearing; but this principle, so deep-
