The old belief could not be readily set aside, and was engrafted on the new; hence the epithet "two-faithed," often applied to the Russian people by their old writers.
The three spiritual conditions—paganism, Christianity, and scepticism—which, in other countries, generally correspond to consecutive phases of their development, are, in Russia, still recognizable in singular admixture. Notwithstanding this apparent confusion of ideas upon religion, which seems to pervade whole classes of society, the Church, as such, has always carefully preserved the ancient purity of its faith, without change or corruption, as it came originally from the shores of the Bosphorus.
Christianity in Russia is not merely a creed or a religion; it is, above all, a national institution; the first, the most venerable, and the most popular. Scepticism, in modern days, may be rampant, self-asserting, and widespread, but the Church is never assailed; its children may have lost faith in its teachings, it still retains its hold upon their affection and their sympathies.
As in England, the Church in Russia is a national Church; it is also a member of a great Christian communion, which rises above kingdoms and nationalities, and claims universal homage as the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Orthodox Church. When it separated from Rome its adherents numbered barely twenty millions; now they exceed eighty millions; of these sixty are under Russian rule, and, of the remainder, about half are of the Slavonic race, subjects of Turkey or Austria. Although designated as the Greek Church, it embraces many branches of the human family, and, of these, the Slavonic is the one predominant; it rules over many nations, of which the most civilized, and by far the most powerful, is Russia. As Catholicism may be termed the Latin form of
