The Russian Church and Russian Dissent/Chapter 5

by Albert Farley Heard

 

CHAPTER V.

Boris Godounov.—The Church in Poland.—Peter Mogila.—Liberation of Russia from the Poles.—Philaret.— Alexis.—Nikon and his Reforms.—Dissent.

 

Boris Godounov was now at the height of his power, screened by the arm of the Church and strong in his sovereign's affection. Dimitri, last heir to the throne, was secretly assassinated by his orders, and Feodor's daughter died in infancy. All obstacles thus removed, he waited patiently for the feeble tsar's death to seize upon the crown.

A successful campaign against the Crimean Tatars added the glory of a warrior to his fame as administrator. He drove the invaders from the walls of Moscow, while the monkish prince prostrated himself before the altar with sublime confidence in the efficacy of prayer. "Have no fears," he prophiesied to the aged men and weeping women who remained within the beleaguered city, "to-morrow not a Tatar shall be in sight."^[1]

The singular piety of the monarch greatly endeared him to his devout and superstitious people. He lost all chance of election to the throne of Poland by his unswerving Orthodoxy, and declined the pope's proposals for union of the Churches in a general crusade against the Turks.

Under his fostering care the Church increased enormously in wealth and influence. Moscow became a "holy city;" there were four hundred religious edifices within its walls, and thirty-four within the precincts of the Kremlin.

At his death, in 1598, Irene, in furtherance of her brother's ambition, retired to a convent. Feodor left no direct heir; Boris was the choice of the nation, and a general assembly summoned him to the throne. After repeated refusals, with great apparent reluctance, and pretending to yield only to threats of excommunication by the Church, he assented to the popular wish and was crowned tsar.

During these events in Russia the Polish Church had passed through trying vicissitudes. About 1520 Jonah II., an Orthodox prelate, had succeeded Joseph Saltan as metropolitan of Kiev. He and his successors were zealous defenders of the Orthodox faith against the encroachments of the kings of Poland. Liberty of religious worship was allowed, and the independence of the Church was recognized in principle, but severe pressure was exerted upon the nobles who professed the Greek faith. Their social and political privileges were seriously curtailed; they could not occupy any of the higher offices of state, nor sit as senators in the national diet.

When Sigismund, of Sweden, was elected king, in 1587, his zeal for the Catholic Church led to more systematic and persistent persecution of members of the Orthodox communion. Their fidelity to their creed was undermined by appeals to their interests and ambition, and many of the clergy, as well as of the nobles, became lukewarm and indifferent to the fortunes of their Church.

The Jesuit Poissevin had not forgotten his ill success at the Muscovite court, and, during the reign of Stephen Batory, he had urged upon Pope Gregory XIII. the policy of weakening the stronghold of Orthodoxy by attacking its outposts in Lithuania.

He suggested the establishment of a Jesuit college at Wilna, and translated into Russian many works of Latin theology. He continued his labors with unremitting zeal, and earnestly advocated unity of belief as essential to the welfare of the kingdom; he insidiously urged upon the nobles of Lithuania the advantages they would gain by adherence to the faith of their sovereign, and the new fields of honor and distinction thereby to be opened, and from which they remained debarred His reasoning was persuasive and his arguments cogent, substantiated, as they were, by royal and papal promises. The incipient and growing discontent, thus artfully fomented, was further stimulated by the severity exercised by the patriarch Jeremiah, who visited Kiev on his return from Moscow to Constantinople. He endeavored to purify the Orthodox Church of Lithuania by the removal of unworthy members, of its hierarchy, and hoped to impart fresh life and vigor by wholesome correction. He deposed the metropolitan Onicephorus, and consecrated Michael Ragosa in his stead. The new primate, yielding to the blandishments of the court, induced the bishops of his see to consent to union with Rome, and the synod sent ambassadors to Pope Clement VIII. to signify their submission.

In vain did Jeremiah threaten the apostates with excommunication. Sigismund assured them of his protection, and defied the patriarch's anathema. Te Deums were sung in St. Peter's, and medals were struck commemorative of the event, but the results were not as satisfactory as had been anticipated. The seceding prelates did not meet from their Latin brethren the hearty recognition they had expected, and were not admitted to the senate as equals in rank, while a strong opposition denounced the union as fraudulently and treacherously proclaimed. Each party deliberately anathematized the other, and the Church of Little Russia was from this period, 1596, divided into the Orthodox and the Uniates, both sects preserving the same forms and ceremonies of worship, and, at first, professing the same creed, differing only as regards acknowledging or rejecting the supremacy of the pope. Rome, with considerate moderation, was content, for the time being, to waive questions of doctrine. The Uniates, exulting in their success, and relying on the hearty support of the secular power, were eager to enjoy the fruits of their victory; Dominican convents were established; the Orthodox were excluded from the schools, while ordination was refused to all save graduates; the Orthodox churches, monasteries, and religious establishments were seized, and their revenues confiscated; Orthodox prelates were replaced by Uniates, until but a single bishop of the Greek religion remained in the realm.

The Cossacks of the Don were steadfast in their adherence to the ancient creed, and frequently rose in arms for its defence. The strong leaven of faith among them and the people, kept in active ferment by persecution, greatly facilitated the conquest of Little Russia by Alexis Romanoff fifty years later.

In Russia the brilliant prospects attending Boris Grodounov's usurpation were undergoing a gradual but radical change. His presence on the throne grated on the loyalty of the Russian people to the blood of Ruric; he was not of the royal race, but of comparatively mean, even of foreign, origin, a descendant of a Tatar mourza.

The nobles yielded unwilling obedience to one of inferior birth. Serfdom, which he rigorously enforced, revolted the peasantry, and was irksome to the landlords. The protection which he accorded to foreigners and his encouragement of foreign arts and sciences were a terrible grievance to the clergy and the people. To Russians a foreigner was not only a stranger, he was an alien in blood, language, and religion. They divided mankind into three categories, and, leaving aside the "Busurmani," or Mussulmans of the East, the remainder of the human family was composed of the "Slovenie," or those having the gift of speech—their own and kindred races who could comprehend, or "speak" with, each other, and of the "Nyemtsi," or the "Dumb," who could not "speak" with them, comprising all Western nations.^[2] They did not esteem them Christians, and used the same term indifferently to designate the heathen. The Russian people was the Orthodox people; their country was "Holy" Russia; the presence of a foreigner therein was pollution, and to visit foreign lands was a sin. The youths who were sent abroad by Boris for study were mourned by their families as lost beyond hope.

Boris was devout in his religious duties, and his devotion was called hypocrisy, or was attributed to remorse. He withdrew from the eyes of his subjects, and claimed veneration as the vicar of God on earth; he ordered prayers to be recited in every household, at each repast, "for the salvation of the body and soul of the servant of God, the Tsar, chosen by the Eternal, Lord of all lands of the North and of the East, the only Christian monarch of the universe, whom all other sovereigns obey as slaves, whose mind is a well of wisdom, whose heart is full of love and mercy,"^[3] and his self-exaltation was deemed sacrilegious.

Old stories of Dimitri's assassination were revived, and suspicions became convictions; Boris was accused of having summoned the Tatars, that, in the danger to the empire, his crime might be forgotten; a terrible pestilence and famine was a token of divine wrath, and his beneficent measures to relieve the suffering were made a reproach. Discontent fed on calumny, and the countrywas ripe for revolt.

Godounov met the hostile feeling by harsh and tyrannical treatment of all who, from birth, rank, or influence, were objects of suspicion. The Romanoffs, who, from relationship with Anastasia, the virtuous wife of Ivan IV., shared the popular affection in which her memory was held, fell into disgrace. Their head, Feodor Niketitch, afterwards the celebrated patriarch Philaret, was forced into a monastery as a tonsured monk.

The apparition of Dimitri, claiming to be the son of Ivan IV., was the breeze which fanned into open flame the kindling embers of disaffection.

The Church remained loyal to the tsar, and hurled its anathema against the pretender as an unfrocked monk and arrant impostor, but the nobles and the people, weary of Boris's tyranny, hailed him as their deliverer and trueborn lord.

In 1603, by the influence of Claudio Rangoni, papal nuncio at the Polish court, Dimitri was acknowledged by King Sigismund as the rightful tsar. His apparition, at the moment when the struggle in Poland between Orthodoxy and the Unia was at its height, was most opportune for the Catholic party; money and men were promised him upon condition of his embracing the Latin faith; and he, nothing loath, agreed, but secretly, in order to avoid arousing the prejudices of his Russian subjects. Clement VII., rejoicing at the prospect of extending the sway of Rome over the North, joyfully received him into the Church, and gave him his benediction. Supported by the Poles and Cossacks of the Don, aided by treachery, his march on Moscow met with no effectual opposition. Boris, enfeebled by disease, betrayed by his generals, and abandoned by all, was spared by death, in 1605, the final ignominy of submission.

In the last terrible moments that decided the fate of the empire the courage and constancy of Job, the patriarch, may have faltered; he is said to have proffered, with other bishops, his submission to the pretender, but he nobly redeemed this momentary weakness. When Moscow, in flames, proclaimed the downfall of Boris, Job proceeded to the cathedral, and, while he was officiating at mass, the infuriated mob broke into the sanctuary, seized and dragged him from the altar. Job, in a loud voice, denounced the sacrilegious intrusion, and the rebellion against the Lord's anointed. "Here," said he, "before this sacred image of the Virgin, for nineteen years, I have fought the good fight and preserved the unity of the faith. Now I foresee the troubles of the Church and the triumph of falsehood and impiety. Mother of God, save Orthodox Russia!" Degraded from his office, insulted and beaten, he was hurried to confinement in the monastery of Staritza.

Dimitri signalized his accession to power by acts of clemency, especially directed towards such as had suffered from the tyranny of his predecessor; Philaret Romanoff became a recipient of his favor, and was made metropolitan of Rostov.

Once firmly established in the capital, the pretender gradually yielded to his predilection for foreign manners and customs. He no longer hesitated to display his contempt for the antiquated, barbarous usages of his Muscovite subjects, or feared to shock their national and religious prejudices. He surrounded himself with Poles, and took for his wife the beauteous Marina, a Polish princess. To the horror of all pious Russians, and notwithstanding the remonstrance of the Church, this heretic and foreign woman was crowned tsarina before her marriage, before she had abjured the Roman faith or made profession of Orthodoxy. She encouraged Dimitri in the blind infatuation which led to his ruin. He threw off the dreary state and ceremony which hedged in the dignity of a tsar; mocked at pious superstitions, refusing to cross himself before the sacred images or to have his table blessed and sprinkled with holy water; partook of impure meats, and carelessly evinced his indifference towards the Church and his ignorance of ecclesiastical history. He tolerated Lutherans, and welcomed Jesuits at his court; allowed the erection of a Catholic church and the celebration of the Latin mass within the sacred precincts of the Kremlin. He graciously received apostolic benediction from the pope, and renewed his promise of abjuration.

A more serious act was the nomination of Ignatius, a foreigner, as patriarch. This prelate had been archbishop of Cyprus; exiled from his see, he had, on pretence of suffering for the faith, imposed upon the pious credulity of Feodor, and obtained the bishopric of Riazan. He was a Greek of wily, insinuating address, but of dubious orthodoxy, willing to be a pliant tool in his master's hands.

Popular discontent, artfully fomented by the nobles, who had favored the pretender only to compass the downfall of Godounov, stimulated by Dimitri's supposed intention to recognize the authority of the pope over the Church of Russia and to sacrifice national interests to those of Poland, broke out into open rebellion.

The usurper was slain, his foreign favorites and priests were massacred, and a council of boyars proclaimed Vassili Shouesky as tsar. The Church ratified and blessed the choice. It deposed the foreign intruder, Ignatius, and placed Hermogenes, a prelate of unblemished character and exemplary piety, on the patriarchal throne.

The new tsar professed ardent devotion to the Church, and, to conciliate its powerful influence, as well as gratify the religious sentiments of his subjects, he craved for himself and the whole people absolution for the crimes of treason to the son of Godounov and of submission to an impostor. The venerable Job was summoned for the last time from his convent cell for this solemn ceremony. Blind and infirm, tottering on the brink of the grave, he stood by the side of Hermogenes, clad in the simple black gown of a monk, and received the confession of national repentance. As former patriarch and head of the Church, he pronounced the pardon and remission of the nation's sin, and invoked the blessing of God on the tsar and on Holy Orthodox Russia.

Vassili Shouesky's reign, thus auspiciously commenced, was doomed to end in disaster and ruin.

A second and a third Dimitri, and an impostor pretending to be Peter, son of Feodor, appeared to claim the throne. Intestine strife and foreign invasions by Poles, Cossacks, and Swedes brought the empire to the verge of destruction. "Mounds of graves," says an ancient chronicle, "dotted the land of Russia." The Church throughout remained loyal to Shouesky, the legitimate tsar, and faithful to the cause of national independence.

At Tver the archbishop roused the people against the insurgent bands, and was slain; at Pskov the bishop, Gennadius, died heartbroken at the treason of his city; Gelaktion, Bishop of Souzdal, perished in exile rather than acknowledge a pretender; Joseph, Bishop of Kolomna, was dragged in chains from town to town by another usurper for exhorting the marauders to obedience; at Novgorod the metropolitan Isidore kept the citizens true to their allegiance, and led them in a vigorous, though hopeless, resistance against a Swedish army; when the convent of Solovetsk was summoned, by the victorious Swedes, to surrender, with promise of a garrison for its protection, its hegumen Anthony stoutly replied, "The Lavra needs no protection from foreign soldiers, and no stranger shall ever be tsar of Russia;" when Rostov was captured Philaret Romanoff, the bishop, refused to abandon his flock, and endeavored to protect it by the power of the Church; seized by the victorious rebels while he was administering communion at the altar, dragged to the presence of their chief, the third Dimitri, the "Robber of Touschina," whom Marina had joined and married, he defied his authority; the great monastery of the Troïtsa successfully maintained for months a siege against an army of thirty thousand Poles, poured out its treasures without stint, and the blood of its brethren like water for the defence and relief of the capital. When Vassili Shouesky, driven from the throne, was a captive in a Polish jail; when Moscow fell, and Hermogenes, deposed by the invader, was thrust into prison to die of starvation; when the empire was thus without a tsar and the Church without a head, the Holy Lavra of St. Sergius refused to submit or to acknowledge a foreign prince, and, under the leadership of its archimandrite Dionysius and of its bursar Abram Palitsin, bravely continued the almost hopeless struggle for the national existence and the national faith. "Its light," says a chronicle, "shone like a sun over all Russia." The record of the Church during these fearful years of anarchy and disaster is indeed glorious. Not one of its officers gave adherence to a pretender or acknowledged the authority of a foreign usurper. When, in 1610, Vassili was deposed by the Poles, forced to submit to tonsure, and immured in a monastery, Hermogenes, the patriarch, raised his voice in protest; when, subsequently, in a council of rebellious boyars and Polish nobles, some proposed the false Dimitri as tsar, and others successfully urged the election of Vladislas, son of the King of Poland, again the venerable prelate remonstrated, and implored the council neither to recognize a rebel nor to sanction the choice of a heretic and foreigner.

From the Troïtsa monastery the courageous Dionysius, by emissaries and letters, made earnest and constant appeal to the patriotism of the people. The Polish governor of Moscow and the rebellious Russian nobles ordered Hermogenes, as head of the Church, to forbid any national uprising. "I will forbid it," was the reply, "when I see Vladislas baptized and the country, freed from Poles; if this is not to be, then I enjoin upon all to rise, and I absolve them from their oath to the king's son. I will give my blessing to all who are ready to die for the Orthodox faith."

Moscow was sacked and destroyed by the Polish soldiery. Hermogenes was deposed, and suffered martyrdom in prison. Ignatius, formerly a creature of the first pretender, Dimitri, now willing to be the minion of a foreign invader, was again seated on the patriarchal throne, amid the smoking ruins of the capital. Universal anarchy reigned supreme, and yet there was hope for Russia in the undying attachment of the people for their native soil and their national religion, and from among the people was to arise their deliverer.

An obscure citizen of Nijni-Novgorod, a butcher, Kozma Minime, raised the standard of revolt in behalf of Holy Russia and the persecuted faith. In rough and ready eloquence he appealed to the nation; "Let us rise," said he, "one and all, young and old; the time has come for us to risk our lives for the truth, but this even is not enough, we must sell our houses and lands, pledge our wives and children, to raise up armies for the deliverance of our country." As he spoke so he acted; he gave all he possessed to the common cause, and the people, electrified by his appeal, shamed by his example, rallied at his call, and chose him for their chief, with the title of "The Chosen One of all the russian Empire." Minime was gifted with sound sense, ready tact, utter disinterestedness, and self-abnegation. He gave as leader to the army Prince Dimitri Pojarsky, an able soldier, a true and honest patriot. A solemn fast was enjoined upon the whole land, and this furious outburst of national feeling, stimulated by religious enthusiasm, was universal and irresistible. Traitors and pretenders vanished before it; foreign invaders were driven from city to city. Moscow was recovered, and, in 1613, a great council of the clergy and people, in harmonious accord, renounced allegiance to Vladislas, and acclaimed Michael Romanoff, son of Philaret, as tsar. When Moscow was retaken Ignatius had fled to Poland for safety, and, in the absence of a patriarch, Michael was crowned by three metropolitans, one of whom, Jonah of the Steeps, was placed in charge of the patriarchate until more tranquil times might permit a regular election of a head of the Church.

The struggle against the Poles and the Swedes still continued, with varying success. The Trinity monastery was again besieged by a foreign army, but patriotism and religion were triumphant, and, under the walls of the sacred fortress, a truce was finally concluded, though at costly sacrifice of territory, and the empire gained breathing-time in which to recruit its shattered strength.

The young tsar Michael, educated in a convent, under a pious mother's eye, was by natural inclination, as well as from early training, of a devout and religious character, and the interests and welfare of the Church were the earliest objects of his solicitude. The first step towards its reorganization was the election of a head to replace the fugitive Ignatius. Philaret Romanoff was the common choice of the tsar, the clergy, and the people. It was approved, also, by Theophanes of Jerusalem, who, sent by his brother-patriarchs of the East to the assistance of the Orthodox in Lithuania, visited Moscow, and gladly lent his aid to restore order and discipline in the Church of Russia.

Worn out by the hardships and misfortunes of his checkered life; in youth a victim of Godounov's tyranny, made a monk against his will, confined, banished, driven from his diocese by violence, long separated from friends and family, for nine years a captive in a Polish prison, now, in old age, restored to his native land, Philaret's only desire was to end his days in peace, and he yielded a reluctant consent to assume the high office and grave responsibilities pressed upon him. By his elevation to the ecclesiastical throne "the extraordinary spectacle, never before or since seen in the annals of the world, was presented of a father as patriarch and a son as sovereign governing the empire,"^[4] an event most characteristic of the nation and typical of the indissoluble connection in Russia of the Church and State.

Animated by the same high motives, united in mutual affection and confidence, the tsar and the primate labored in harmony for the restoration of civil prosperity and of religious order and discipline.

The long period of anarchy and confusion had seriously aggravated the evils arising from errors in the Church books, ritual, and ceremonies. All previous attempts to correct them had been incomplete or unsatisfactory, A thorough reform was indispensable to check abuses, eradicate erroneous or superstitious practices, and preserve the integrity and spirituality of Church worship. Michael urged upon the clergy the necessity of undertaking anew the work of expurgation and correction, and was supported by the patriarchs Philaret and Theophanes. Any change was, however, repugnant to the people and to the more bigoted of the clerical body; they were strongly attached to what they conceived to be the ancient forms, and angrily opposed any innovations. The controversy on the subject was violent and bitter, and this reformation made comparatively little progress. Much, however, was done to extend the power and influence of the Church. Loftier titles and greater dignity were conferred upon the patriarch, and the privileges of the clergy, dating back to Vladimir the Great, were renewed and increased.

The property and ministers of the Church were exempt from civil dues. The officers, servants, and serfs of the patriarch were made amenable to him or to his court alone, save for crimes involving life, and upon these the patriarchal court first pronounced. The great monasteries of the Troïtsa, of the Ascension, and of the Novodyevitchi,^[5] were subjected to his direction. These, and all ecclesiastical establishments appertaining to the patriarchate, with their lands, clergy, and following, were placed under his special charge, and, in the event of civil suits, were to be judged by the court of the Great Palace, that is, before the sovereign in person. The extension of the privileges of the clergy was accompanied by a renewal of the restriction established by Ivan III., rendered advisable by the enormous increase of their wealth; the monasteries were prohibited from further acquisition of landed property without special authorization.

Philaret was as solicitous for the internal discipline of the Church as for its material prosperity, and shared the desire of its more enlightened prelates to free it from superstition and error. Efforts in this direction, led by Dionysius, the celebrated and patriotic superior of the Troitsa monastery, had, immediately prior to Philaret's elevation to the primacy, been checked by clerical intolerance; Dionysius, with his adherents, had been subjected to severe punishment for alleged tampering with sacred mysteries. This persecution was stopped, the reformers were released, and encouraged to persevere in their labors.

The pious zeal of the patriarch, stimulated by the fierce religious struggle in Lithuania and Poland, led him to draw a stronger line of demarkation between the Churches by re-establishing a custom, which had fallen into disuse and was afterwards abrogated, of rebaptizing converts from the Latin faith upon their admission to the Greek communion.

The Church, in remote provinces of the empire, felt his paternal care. The archbishoprics of Kasan and Astracan were reorganized; in them, and in Siberia, regular ecclesiastical administration replaced chaos and anarchy. The savage and predatory population of these countries, which had relapsed into barbarism, were brought under the civilizing influences of religion.

Philaret's anxiety for the interests of the Church was not restricted by the limits of the empire. The close spiritual connection he maintained with Novgorod hastened its final reunion to Russia, and his sympathy was constantly directed towards the suffering Orthodox population of the neighboring realm.

After the reorganization of the Church in Russia the Eastern patriarch proceeded on his mission to Poland. There active and cruel persecution by the Uniate and Catholic prelates, aided by the weakness and vacillation of King Sigismund, had reduced the Orthodox Church to the direst extremity. For upwards of twenty years it had been deprived of a head and of all means of united action. Its dioceses were without bishops; its clergy, pursued with systematic severity, were forbidden to officiate, were imprisoned, tortured, and slain, but the great body of its adherents among the people, together with most of the Cossack population, were ardently attached to their religion. They evinced their devotion, not merely by patient endurance, but also by frequent rebellion against the intolerance of their masters. Theophanes was at first received with scant courtesy by the king, but, after reference to Constantinople, his dignity as patriarch was recognized, and he was allowed to remain at Kiev. Proceeding with exemplary moderation and caution, he succeeded gradually in obtaining permission to open schools for his clergy and to establish charitable and religious institutions for members of his Church. Encouraged by the immunity attending his early efforts and by the renewed life and vigor aroused with return of confidence and hope for the future, he steadily pursued the work of reorganization. In 1620 he installed Job Boretsky as metropolitan of Kiev, and appointed bishops to the various dioceses. Having thus re-established the Church, with its hierarchy complete, Theophanes returned to Jerusalem.

This period of tranquillity was but the precursor of a more violent storm. Sigismund, always weak and easily swayed, yielded to the influence of his Romish advisers, and permitted a revival of the contest between the hostile factions, one struggling for existence, the other striving for domination. The Catholics and Uniates, strong in the support of royal authority, pursued the Orthodox with all the rancor and ferocity of clerical fanaticism. Their schools were suppressed; their churches closed or turned into inns, barracks, and mosques; their clergy were deprived of protection from the mob, and prevented from officiating; congregations were dispersed by force; the dead were left without burial rites; sanctuaries and cemeteries were rifled and desecrated. The people, goaded beyond endurance, rose against their oppressors, and exercised fearful reprisals. The Cossacks massacred the Catholics at Kiev; Jehosaphat, the Uniate archbishop of Polotsk, infamous among the Orthodox for his bloodthirsty cruelty, and canonized at Rome for his righteous zeal, was killed by a mob, and the vicar of the Uniate metropolitan was drowned.

The two primates. Job the Orthodox and Joseph the Uniate, convoked rival synods, and were engaged in mutual excommunications when the death of Sigismund checked the fever of persecution. His son and successor, Vladislas IV., signalized his accession to the throne by an edict- of toleration. Freedom of worship, with the right of electing their metropolitan, was granted to the Orthodox, and the ancient cathedral of St. Sophia, at Kiev, was restored to them.

Job died in 1632. Peter Mogila, who succeeded him, was a man eminently qualified, by his firmness and decision of character, as well as by erudition and piety, to be head of the Church in difficult times.

This distinguished prelate, son of Simon Ivanovitch, hospodar of Moldavia, was educated in Paris, and in his youth had served with distinction in the wars of the Poles against the Turks; renouncing the career of arms, he entered the monastery of the Petcherski, at Kiev, and soon rose to be its superior. Appointed exarch by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of Constantinople, he boldly and courageously upheld the rights of the Greek Church at the Diet of Warsaw. To his able advocacy was mainly due the liberty of conscience proclaimed by King Vladislas and the restoration to the Orthodox of the churches, convents, and estates wrested from them by the Uniates. He established libraries and printing-presses, reopened seminaries and schools for the clergy, and sent chosen pupils to study in foreign universities. The celebrated academy of Kiev, founded by him in 1634, was a lasting memorial of his name.

During the reign of Vladislas the Orthodox Church enjoyed a short respite from persecution, during which Peter engaged in active theological controversy with its enemies. He issued from his presses the writings of the Greek fathers and books of the Church; he restored the purity of the ritual, and, with the assistance of the archimandrite, Isaiah Trophimovitch, he drew up a confession of the Orthodox faith, in order to authoritatively establish the cardinal points of its doctrine, and clear away the subtile errors and conflicting distinctions thrown around it by the writings of Jesuit and Roman theologians. This confession was revised by a council of bishops, and sent to Constantinople for approval and confirmation. Peter's former patron, Cyril Lucar, was no longer alive to encourage his efforts; this energetic and learned Cretan had, in his extensive travels throughout Europe, become imbued with the reformatory tendency of the age, and, in accordance with it, had attempted the regeneration of the Eastern Church; he was five times deposed from and reinstated upon the patriarchal throne, and was finally murdered by the Turks, in 1628. Parthenius was patriarch when the confession of Peter Mogila was referred to the Eastern fathers. At a synod convened at Jassy, in 1643, it was amended by Meletius Striga, of Constantinople, and in its revised form was approved, and again confirmed, by the council of 1672, under the direction of the patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem.

This confession was generally received by the Russian Church, and was formally adopted by Adrian, Patriarch of Moscow from 1690 to 1700. With the exception of the doctrines regarding the supremacy of the pope and the Double Procession, it was in general accord with the teachings of the Roman Church, towards which the theologians of Kiev were, from the influence of their surroundings, more strongly inclined than their Muscovite brethren. No other authoritative expression of belief was put forth until 1766; but while Peter's confession has been considered correct in its fundamental principles, it has, since that date, been modified by Russian prelates, and the doctrines of the Russian Church, as now set forth by its catechisms, issued under authority of Philaret. Metropolitan of Moscow from 1820 to 1867, and used in its schools since 1839, may be summarized as follows:^[6]

Christianity is a divine revelation, communicated to mankind through Christ; its saving truths are to be learned from the Bible and tradition, the former having been written and the latter maintained uncorrupted through the influence of the Holy Spirit; the interpretation of the Bible belongs to the Church, which is taught by the Holy Spirit, but every believer may read the Scriptures.

According to the Christian revelation, God is a Trinity; that is, the Divine Essence exists in Three Persons, perfectly equal in nature and dignity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only. Besides the Triune God there is no other object of divine worship, but homage (ὑπερδουλία) may be paid to the Virgin Mary and reverence (δουλία) to the saints and to their pictures and relics.

Man is born with a corrupt bias which was not his at creation; the first man, when created, possessed immortality, perfect wisdom, and a will regulated by reason. Through the first sin Adam and his posterity lost immortality, and his will received a bias towards evil. In this natural state man, who, even before he actually sins, is a sinner before God by original or inherited sin, commits manifold actual transgressions; but he is not absolutely without power of will towards good, and is not always doing evil.

Christ, the Son of God, became man in two natures, which, internally and inseparably united, make one Person, and, according to the eternal purpose of God, has obtained for man reconciliation with God and eternal life, inasmuch as He, by His vicarious death, has made satisfaction to God for the world's sins, and this satisfaction was perfectly commensurate with the sins of the world.

Man is made partaker of reconciliation in spiritual regeneration, which he attains to, being led and kept by the Holy Ghost. This divine help is offered to all men without distinction, and may he rejected. In order to attain salvation, man is justified, and, when so justified, can do no more than the commands of God. He may fall from a state of grace through mortal sin.

Regeneration is offered by the word of God and in the sacraments, which, under visible signs, communicate God's invisible grace to Christians when administered "cum intentione."

There are seven mysteries or sacraments. Baptism entirely destroys original sin. In the Eucharist the true body and blood of Christ are substantially present, and the elements are changed into the substance of Christ, whose body and blood are corporeally partaken of by communicants. All Christians should receive the bread and the wine.

The Eucharist is also an expiatory sacrifice. The new birth, when lost, may be restored through repentance, which is not merely (1) sincere sorrow, but also (2) confession of each individual sin to the priest, and (3) the discharge of penances imposed by the priest for the removal of the temporal punishment which may have been imposed by God and the Church. Penance, accompanied by the judicial absolution of the priest, makes a true sacrament.

The Church of Christ is the fellowship of all those who accept and profess all the articles of faith transmitted by the apostles and approved by General Synods. Without this visible Church there is no salvation. It is under the abiding influence of the Holy Ghost, and therefore cannot err in matters of faith.

Specially appointed persons are necessary in the service of the Church, and they form a threefold order, distinct, jure divino, from other Christians, of bishops, priests, and deacons. The four patriarchs, of equal dignity, have the highest rank among the bishops, and the bishops, united in a General Council, represent the Church, and infallibly decide, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, all matters of faith and ecclesiastical life. All ministers of Christ must be regularly called and appointed to their office, and are consecrated by the sacrament of orders. Bishops must be unmarried, and priests and deacons must not contract a second marriage. To all priests in common belongs, besides the preaching of the word, the administration of the six sacraments—baptism, confirmation, penance, eucharist, matrimony, unction of the sick. The bishops alone can administer the sacrament of orders.

Ecclesiastical ceremonies are part of the divine service; most of them have apostolic origin; and those connected with the sacrament must not be omitted by priests under pain of mortal sin.

The Cossacks of the Ukraine and "of the Horde beyond the Falls" were ardently attached to the Orthodox faith, and had frequently risen in its defence. Although pacified by the promises of Vladislas, they were again aroused to revolt by renewed persecution on the part of the Romish and Uniate clergy, and religious antagonism led to a long and bloody struggle, during which these disaffected subjects of the Polish king made repeated appeals to Russia for assistance. Early in the century Job, Metropolitan of Kiev, had urged the tsar to extend his protection over the Ukraine, but Russia was too weak to cope with Poland. Michael dismissed the Cossacks with ample, but empty, assurances of sympathy.

Alexis, son of Michael, vigorously pursued his father's task of pacifying and reorganizing the empire, still torn by intestine contentions and groaning under onerous, but necessary, taxation. He convened a national assembly for the formation of a code which should embody all the regulations requisite for the efficient government of both the State and the Church. While inheriting his father's pious and devout disposition, he felt the necessity of curbing the excessive power of the Church, which threatened to overshadow that of the crown. To this end he established the "Monastery Tribunal," consisting of lay members, which was empowered to deal with matters concerning the clergy and their estates, over which hitherto the patriarchal court had held jurisdiction. He further ordered that the domains and acquisitions of the Church and clergy, which had enormously increased, in violation of the ordinance of Ivan III., should be made the subject of investigation.

Then commenced in Russia the mighty struggle between the civil and ecclesiastical powers, in which the final victory was to remain with the State, and then appeared the great reformer and champion of the Church, a man destined to exercise a deep and lasting influence upon the Russian nation and the national Church.

Nikita, who subsequently bore the name of Nikon, was born of obscure parentage, in the district of Nijni-Novgorod, in 1613. In early life he felt an imperative call to enter the Church, and secretly left his home to become a monk. At his father's earnest entreaty he returned, married, and was ordained a parish priest; his children died in infancy, and this affliction seemed to him a summons from on high to renounce the world. He persuaded his wife to enter a convent, and took upon himself vows of strictest reclusion in the Solovetsk monastery, 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^[7] 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 those of a great and noble nature; his object was not personal or selfish; his energies were exerted for the aggrandizement of the Church of which he was the faithful pastor, for its elevation and purification from error; his patriotism was sincere, and his devotion to the tsar never faltered, even during the years of persecution and suffering which closed his life.

Alexis took pleasure in his conversation and companionship, and leaned upon him, in utter confidence, as a trusty servant, a true and honest friend. He made him Metropolitan of Novgorod, and then, wearying at the separation, called him constantly to his side for consultation and advice; he delighted to do him honor, and gave him the lands about the beautiful Lake of Valdai, where Nikon built, upon a wooded island, the Iversky Convent, as a resting-place on his long and frequent journeys to and from the capital. In his capacity of metropolitan he was, by special favor, invested with extraordinary powers; his court was authorized to adjudicate all ecclesiastical matters within his see, and its jurisdiction was extended over all cases in which the Church or the clergy were concerned. While at Novgorod his administration was distinguished by characteristic energy; he visited the prisons and dispensed justice in person; he watched with paternal care over the material, as well as over the spiritual, welfare of his people. During a terrible famine he spent his revenues in building hospitals and houses of refuge, and in relieving the poor and suffering. When a rebellious outbreak threatened the imperial authority, and the governors of Pskov were massacred by the populace, he was the uncompromising defender of the law; at the risk of his life, he faced the insurgents, and gave shelter to the fugitive magistrates; maltreated by the mob, and left for dead in the street, he no sooner recovered consciousness, tlian he appeared again in their midst, exhorting them to submission. He prevented the betrayal of Novgorod to the Swedes, and hurled the anathemas of the Church against the traitors to the tsar; his firmness and courage gave time for succor to arrive and preserved the city to the empire, while his subsequent mild and judicious measures effectually quelled the rebellion.

His energy in civil matters was equalled only by his zeal in affairs of the Church. He insisted, among the clergy, upon cleanliness of person and apparel, decency of life, and purity of morals; he encouraged the decoration of churches, chapels, and altars, and surrounded the ritual with extraordinary ceremony and pomp; he regulated anew the order of divine service, and introduced harmonious chants from Greece and the East, with well-drilled choirs of soft Cossack voices; he condemned the idolatrous worship of the sacred pictures and their meretricious adornment by foreign art; gifted, himself, with fluent eloquence, he supplemented, by preaching, the monotonous reading of the lessons.

His imperious, domineering disposition had created many enemies, and the changes he introduced into the service, although they were a return to the original practices of the Greek Church, had aroused a feeling of strong antagonism on the part of the people and of many of the clergy, who were fanatically attached to their own, and, in their opinion, the ancient, forms, but this hostility dared not manifest itself by open opposition, and found vent only in secret murmurings. Nikon, strong in the affection and support of the tsar, distinguished for the purity and austerity of his life and for untiring zeal, was, notwithstanding latent discontent, called by unanimous desire to the patriarchal throne. Aware of the enmity he had excited, yet conscious of high purpose and determined to persevere, he consented to accept the post only upon condition that his control over the Church should be absolute and unfettered, and should be so declared by imperial decree.

His elevation to the primacy was signalized by more energetic action, and his measures of reform aimed higher than at mere restoration of accurate ceremonial observance. He punished with relentless severity all transgressions of the clergy, all indifference and sloth in the discharge of their duties, and, especially, he set his face against their besetting sin, intemperance. Heads of monasteries and high dignitaries, as well as simple monks, were made to feel the weight of his displeasure; the distant convents of Siberia were filled with dissolute, wretched priests, condemned without appeal and banished without mercy. He endeavored to give life to the Church, and to create a sense of the moral obligation imposed by religion. As supreme pontiff, he continued his former habit of expounding and preaching. In the account of Macarius's travels there is frequent allusion to the surprise of the Eastern prelates at this innovation, of which they were witnesses, and to the long and "copious" patriarchal sermons, "until our spirits were broken within us the tedious while." Their chronicler, Paul of Aleppo, also expatiates, with pious joy, upon the extraordinary devotion manifested by the emperor and the people. When Alexis took the field against the Poles "the patriarch stood before him, and raised his voice in prayer for the emperor, making a beautiful exordium with parables and proverbs from the ancients … and with much prolixity of discourse, running on at his leisure, like a copious stream of running water. … No one seemed to find fault with him, or to be tired of his discourse; but all were silent and attentive as if each were a pauper or a slave before his master. But what most excited our admiration was to see the emperor standing with his head uncovered while the patriarch wore his crown before him; the one with his hands crossed in humility, the other displaying them with the action and boldness of an orator addressing his auditors; the one bowing his bare head in silence to the ground, the other bending his towards him with the crown upon it, speaking to him; the one guarding his senses and breathing low, the other making his voice to ring like a loud bell; the one as if he were a slave, the other as his lord! What a sight for us! God knows our hearts ached for the emperor; was not this singular humility?" And upon another occasion Paul relates: "We returned to our monastery astonished and wonder-struck at the constancy and firmness of this nation, from the emperor to their very infants. We entered the church as the clock struck three, and did not leave it till ten; having stood there, with them about seven hours, on our legs, on the cold iron pavement, enduring the most severe cold and piercing frost. But we were consoled for all this by witnessing the admirable devotion of this people. Nor was the patriarch satisfied with the ritual and the long service, but he must crown all with an admonition and a copious sermon. God grant him moderation! His heart did not ache for the emperor nor for the tender infants! What should we say to this in our country? Would to God we were thus patient I Without doubt the great Creator has granted to this nation to be His peculiar people, and it becomes them to be so because all their actions are according to the spirit, and not to the flesh, and they are all of this disposition."

Of Nikon's influence, and of the trust reposed in him by the tsar, and of the dignity and state he assumed, this eye-witness goes on to say: "Before the emperor's departure (against the Poles) he appointed a vice-regent and many ministers; the patriarch he placed as inspector over all, so that no affair, whether superior or inferior, should be decided without his advice, nor without their declaring it before him every morning of every day as it occurred. Thus, even in the frosty season, we observed the greatest among the ministers, the emperor's Vakeel or Deputy, repairing to the public office. Whenever it happened that the ministers were not all assembled in the divan when the patriarch's bell rang for them to repair to his palace—as the door is always closed during prayers—those archons who were too late were obliged to wait at his door in the excessive cold until he should order them to be admitted; … on their being permitted to enter, the patriarch would turn to the images, and, in secret, repeat a prayer, whilst they bowed to him all together to the ground, with their heads uncovered, as they remained until they went out. Thus he conversed with them standing, while they presented to him their accounts of everything that was passing. To each he gave answer concerning every affair, commanding them what they should do. By what we observed of the graadees of the empire they do not much fear the emperor, nor entertain much dread of him; they rather fear this patriarch, and by many degrees more. His predecessors in the patriarchal dignity did not interfere at all in affairs of the State, but this man, from his ingenuity, comprehension, and knowledge, is accomplished in every art and skill as regards the affairs of the Church and the State, and all temporal affairs whatsoever."^[8]

In the plenitude of his power Nikon steadily pursued the reformation of the Church, and, as the chief means to this end, he determined upon the purification of its service and ritual, and the correction of the sacred books. This undertaking, in which the tsar evinced the strongest interest, commenced under Vassili IV. and continued at different periods, had never been satisfactorily accomplished. Former errors remained, and fresh ones had been ingrafted upon the old, which, by time and sufferance, had taken deeper root. The churches and monasteries throughout the empire were ransacked for ancient manuscripts; missions were sent to the Holy Places of Palestine, and to Constantinople for information and authoritative records. Paisius, the Byzantine patriarch, and his œcumenical brethren offered their co-operation, and supplied the writings of the Greek fathers, the early canons and creeds of the Church, and decisions of Councils. They proposed the adoption of the Confession of Peter Mogila as the accurate embodiment of Orthodox doctrine, and urged adherence to the rules of the primitive Church, as well in rites and ceremonies, as in dogma. The presence of Macarius, patriarch of Antioch, and of other Eastern prelates, gave additional solemnity to the proceedings of the synod, convened in 1654, over which Nikon and the tsar presided.

The points of divergence which had gradually arisen between the Russian and the other Greek churches related more to matters of ceremonial observance than to those of doctrine. Trivial as they may appear in the light of modern criticism, they were then held to be of vital importance, involving the very essence of the faith, and only by the practice of the primitive Eastern Church could the truth regarding them be authoritatively established. "I am a Russian, son of a Russian," declared Nikon, "but my faith and my religion are Grecian."

The principal differences to be settled were: whether a triple halleluia should be pronounced, in honor of the Trinity, or a double halleluia, in reference to the double nature of Christ; whether processions around the churches should march against or with the sun; whether it be right or wrong to shave the beard; whether at mass there should be upon the altar one or many loaves—the Russian used seven; whether the name Jesus should be spelled Iissous or Issous; whether, in prayer, the Saviour should be addressed as our God or as the Son of God; whether it be right to say of God, whose reign is eternal, or whose reign shall he eternal; whether the cross should have four or eight points; and whether the sign of the cross should be made with three fingers extended, as denoting the Trinity, and two closed, in reference to Christ's double nature, or with two fingers extended, in allusion to the double nature, and three closed, in token of the Trinity.

The hidden and typical significance of these ceremonies and symbols constituted their special importance. The Greeks, in each case, followed the former, and the Russians the latter, of the above alternatives, and in these respects a change, so as to conform to the Greek practice, was ordained by the synod, and was confirmed by subsequent councils in 1666 and 1667.

The Russian form of the cross, however, prevailed in the empire: the lower branch is not at right angles with the stem, but is slanting, in consequence of a tradition that Christ was deformed, with one leg longer than the other, and the lower branch of the cross, upon which his feet rested, was made to meet this personal defect. In popular belief, the Saviour was made to share to the utmost the degradation of humanity, and, in the words of Isaiah, "he hath no form nor comeliness; … he is despised and rejected of men; … he was despised and we esteemed him not; … we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."^[9]

During the Tatar subjugation the cross on the churches was replaced by the crescent, and, after their expulsion, the crescent was not removed, but was surmounted by a cross, in significance of the triumph of Christianity.

In addition to the changes enumerated above, another decree of the council, secured by Nikon's influence, evinced the larger spirit of Christian charity which characterized his efforts at reform; the validity of baptism by the Latin Church was recognized, which, although contrary to the decision of his great predecessor Philaret, and to the practice at Constantinople, was in accordance with the rules of the churches in Palestine. The alterations in the service, decided upon after much and stormy discussion, were at once promulgated and enforced throughout the empire. The people, filled with superstitious veneration for familiar forms, received these innovations with strong dislike, as an impious profanation of what they deemed most sacred, and a very large body of the clergy shared this feeling.

Nikon's enemies fomented the spirit of discontent, but his power was yet too firmly established for any successful resistance. The members of the clergy who ventured to oppose his plans were made to feel the impotency of their endeavors by banishment and prison. Paul, Bishop of Kolomna, was arbitrarily deprived of his diocese and exiled to Siberia, without trial by his peers, and in violation of ecclesiastical law.

Nikon's intolerant exercise of authority, his severity towards the clergy, his overbearing arrogance towards all, increased the growing hostility to his power; but, conscious of the rectitude of his intentions, and confident in his influence over the tsar, he disregarded and set at naught the machinations of his enemies.

While thus zealously engaged in ecclesiastical reform, his restless energy found other spheres of action in civil matters. He was a patriot as well as churchman, and eagerly favored all measures conducing to the aggrandizement of Russia, especially where the interests of the Church were likewise involved. The supplication of the Cossacks of the Ukraine for protection, formerly presented under Michael, and now renewed to Alexis, appealed to his sympathies on both civil and religious grounds, and received his earnest support. The consequent war with Poland, advocated by him, resulting in the conquest of Little Russia and its reunion to the empire, added to his influence and increased his arrogance. His arbitrary government, while left as regent during the absence of the tsar in the field, his haughtiness and impatience of advice in civil, as well as in ecclesiastical, affairs, excited the bitter animosity of the great lords and boyars, who submitted with ill-concealed repugnance to the supremacy of a low-born peasant. A double danger threatened the all-powerful favorite—jealousy and hatred on the part of the great nobles and the high dignitaries of the Church; superstitious fears and a holy horror of sacrilegious innovations on the part of an ignorant and fanatical people and clergy. Reverses and disaster in foreign wars followed the season of success, and the national humiliation was laid at his door; pestilence and famine visited the land, and his impious tampering with divine institutions was cursed for bringing God's wrath upon the country. The affection and confidence of the tsar was Nikon's only support, and this was soon to fail. Time, separation, and misfortune had weakened the monarch's trust and dependence upon his counsel; his opposition to the Monastery Court, established by Alexis, and his sturdy assertion of the prerogatives of the Church, excited the tsar's displeasure, who began to chafe under the arrogance of his favorite, and to resent his assumption of authority; palace intrigues undermined his position, the tsaritsa joined his adversaries, and, jealous of his influence over her husband, artfully fomented the growing coolness between them. By carefully-contrived and skilfully-veiled slights Nikon's impetuous disposition was incited to bursts of furious indignation, rendered the more violent by the tsar's apparent indifference and tardy response to his complaints, and Alexis, himself by no means patient, grew weary of his intolerant and inconvenient friend. An open rupture was inevitable; at a state reception a follower of the patriarch was abused and struck by a noble of the court; Nikon's demand for reparation was ignored, admittance to the monarch denied, and the supercilious demeanor of the boyars, encouraged by Alexis's indifference, soon roused the hot anger of the impatient prelate to explosion. While yet smarting at this indignity, he was soon after reproached, at the altar, by a powerful lord, for his pride and presumption, whereupon, perhaps hoping by extreme measures to revive the sympathy of his former friend and protector, he doffed his pontifical robes for the simple garb of a monk, laid down his pastoral staff, and renounced his office. Humbling himself before the people, he proclaimed his sins and unworthiness, sent his abdication to the tsar, craved permission to retire, and, covering his head with his mantle, sat down upon the altar steps to await a reply. Alexis was troubled, but sent no responsive message. Nikon's enemies triumphed, and, broken in spirit, he departed on foot to the Iversky Convent, from whence he renewed his resignation of the patriarchate, begged forgiveness for his unauthorized absence, and asked permission to retain charge of the monasteries which had been under his control.

The sacrifice thus made in anger he sorely repented, and would fain have recalled, but it was too late; the see was declared vacant, his enemy, Pitirim of Novgorod, appointed its guardian, and Nikon was left in solitude to brood over his disgrace.

Boyars and bishops, rejoicing in their liberation from his intolerable domineering, leagued together to complete his downfall. Fearing the influence of his personal intercession with the tsar, in whose heart there yet lurked some tenderness for his former friend, they prevented any interview, save in their presence; they baited and worried the hasty, impetuous priest to fresh bursts of violence and temper; his private papers were seized for proof of undue assumption of authority and dignity; he was accused of repeating the one hundred and ninth psalm in his daily convent service, and of directing its curses against the tsar; his indignant denials, his fierce invective, his vehement vindication of his acts and the recital of his wrongs, were made fresh pretexts for denunciation. For eight years Nikon maintained the contest, with unabated energy and independence; his spirit was not dismayed, nor his courage daunted; he anathematized his adversaries for his personal insults and injuries, but, more than all, for the scandal brought upon the Church; he loudly asserted his loyalty, and declared, "I have not cursed the tsar, but I have cursed you, ye noble prelates of the Church; and, if you care to hear it, I will have the same words sung over again in your ears." He could not forget that he had been, and, save for his own rash act, was still patriarch of Russia, and he refused, by deed or word, to recognize any successor; meanwhile the government of the Church was intrusted to a board of bishops, presided over by Paisius Ligarides, a Greek prelate, whom Nikon had befriended in former years, but who was now his bitter enemy.

Alexis, weary of the protracted struggle, called upon the Eastern patriarchs to form a tribunal before which to arraign Nikon for trial.

At this juncture the interposition of a friend at court aroused hopes of reconciliation. The boyar, Nikita Zuizin, of his own authority, and trusting to the great love Alexis had borne the patriarch, urged him to return, without warning, on the festival of St. Peter, the first metropolitan of Moscow, and, ignoring the past, to invite the tsar to join, according to ancient custom, in the prayers at the cathedral. Nikon, meditating upon this suggestion, retired to rest upon the stone couch of his hermit cell; as he slept he saw, in a vision, the long line of his predecessors rise, one by one, from their graves, at the call of the "wonder-worker," Jonah. Passing before him, they stretched out their hands, raised him up, and seated him on the patriarchal throne. Comforted by his dream, he departed secretly, by night, to Moscow, entered the cathedral of the Assumption, saluted the holy relics, and took his stand in the patriarch's place, clothed in his robes and holding the pastoral staff. The metropolitan, Jonah of Rostov, who had succeeded Pitirim as guardian of the see, was amazed to find him there at early dawn, but welcomed him with respect, and was sent by Nikon to the palace to announce his arrival, as if from a journey, and to invite the tsar to receive his blessing and to assist at the prayers. Alexis, taken by surprise, hesitated, and summoned his ministers for consultation. The moment was critical, as a meeting of the friends under such circumstances might jeopardize all that had been accomplished; to prevent it was, for Nikon's adversaries, a matter of life or death, and their influence prevailed. The tsar refused to go to him, and sent orders that he should retire to the Voskresensk^[10] Monastery, and there await the assembling of the ecclesiastical council.

Nikon obeyed the harsh commands. His disgrace was complete, and, despairing of reconciliation with his former patron, he endeavored, but in vain, to make terms with his enemies. He was shorn of all authority, and placed under strict supervision until the council should decide upon his fate.

This assembly, the most august in the annals of the Church of Russia, met in the halls of the Kremlin in 1667. The patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, eight metropolitans of Greek churches without the empire, the archbishops of Sinai and Walachia, were joined to all the great dignitaries of the Russian hierarchy, and the tsar presided in person.

Cited to appear before them, Nikon, prior to his departure from the Voskresensk monastery, received extreme unction, as if in presentiment of approaching death. Mindful of his dignity and conscious of his innocence, he entered the council-chamber, arrayed in the insignia of his rank, with the cross borne before him; as no seat had been reserved for him with the other patriarchs, he refused to occupy a lower place, and, proudly facing his enemies with unmoved countenance, his gigantic stature towering above all around him, he remained standing to listen to the accusations read out by the tsar. He was charged with tyranny and oppression, with arbitrary and illegal exercise of power, with interference in matters beyond his province, with malversation of ecclesiastical revenues, with capricious abandonment of his office, with frivolously preventing the election of a patriarch after his own abdication, with offending the majesty of the sovereign and calumniating the clergy, thus bringing disorder upon the State and scandal upon the Church.

For the first time in eight years the two friends stood again face to face, and Alexis's heart was moved with pity and compassion. As he read the long list of accusations, tears flowed from his eyes, at the recollection of their former friendship and loving intercourse; yielding to his emotion, he descended from the throne, and, to the consternation of the hostile assemblage, took Nikon by the hand, and earnestly abjured him: "Oh, most holy father, why hast thou put upon me such a reproach, preparing thyself for the council as if for death? Thinkest thou that I have forgotten all thy services to me, and to my family, during the plague, and our former friendship?" The danger of reconciliation at the last hour seemed imminent, and the affecting scene was interrupted by violent denunciations on the part of the patriarch's enemies, anxious to destroy the effect of tender memories of the past. Nikon was speedily aroused to anger, and, in the bitterness of his heart, gave full course to his indignation, loudly denying the charges brought against him, and vehemently asserting the duties and prerogatives of his office; he fiercely inveighed against his accusers, and defied them to prove aught against him. "Why not bid them take up stones? so they might soon put an end to me, but not with words, though they should spend nine years more in collecting them." The critical moment had passed, and the threatening danger was averted by the tumult; although the deliberations of the assembly continued for many days, Alexis and Nikon parted then never to meet again.

The primate's condemnation was a foregone conclusion; he was sentenced to be degraded from his rank to the condition of a simple monk, and to do penance in a distant monastery for the remainder of his life. Alexis refused to witness his humiliation, and the council assembled, for the last time, in a small church, beyond the precincts of the palace. When summoned to hear its decision, Nikon still maintained his proud and lofty bearing; "Why," said he, "do you degrade me in this little chapel, without the presence of the tsar, and not in the cathedral, where he and you implored me to ascend the throne?" He reproached the Eastern patriarchs for their mean subserviency to power, in expectation of reward; "Take these," said he, stripping pearls from his vestments, which they removed in pursuance of the sentence; "they will help support you under Turkish oppression; get you home; better stay there than go wandering like beggars about the world."

It was midwinter, and the place of his banishment was far distant; the tsar sent him money and furs for the journey, and asked his forgiveness and blessing; but the indomitable prelate sternly refused all gifts, and withheld his benediction. "He loveth not blessing, and therefore it shall be far from him," was his reply. To a noble, who mockingly swept up the dust he shook from his feet, he said, pointing to a comet then flaming in the sky—the broom-star, as it is called in Russian—"God's besom shall sweep you all away."

To the people, who, in spite of prejudices against his reforms, reverenced him for the holiness and austerity of his life, and, pressing round, urgently besought his blessing, he, like the martyred Philip, spoke but a single word, "Pray." Still retaining his pontifical staff and mantle, which the patriarchs, "for fear of the people," had not ventured to take from him, sheltered from the cold by a cloak thrown over him by a pitying bystander, he was hurried away to close confinement in the Therapontoff Monastery, on the bleak shores of the White Lake.

Nikon's career marks a great epoch in the history of the Russian Church.

His purpose and aim have been variously estimated; loudly extolled as a reformer and saint, he has been as severely condemned as an ambitious and narrow-minded bigot. An impartial study of his life would seem to show that he was animated by a double motive, and addressed the wonderful energies of his powerful genius to a double end. On the one hand, to the reformation of the Church by purifying it from error, by endeavoring to impart spiritual life to the whole fabric, while restoring its ceremonies and ritual, and by elevating the character of the clergy in morals and intelligence; on the other, to the liberation of the Church from civil control by freeing it from debasing subjection and submission, in spiritual matters, to the temporal power, and by asserting its independence within its special domain.

The whole course and practice of Nikon's life bear evidence to his solicitude for reform in, and of, the Church; in this cause his zeal knew no languor, and only the untiring perseverance and savage energy he displayed, only the granite-like obduracy and firmness of purpose he evinced, could hope to triumph over the besotted ignorance, prejudice, and superstition he encountered. His personal example as priest, prelate, and pontiff, the severity of the discipline he shared and enforced, the reforms he inaugurated, his encouragement of learning, are recognized, and his lofty conception of the mission and prerogatives of the Church is stated boldly, and with rugged eloquence, in his voluminous replies to the council.

While recognizing the duty of submission, in all temporal matters, to constituted authority, he earnestly maintained the independence of the Church in spiritual affairs. He appealed to the ancient ordinances of the "apostle-like" Vladimir, re-enacted by successive tsars, and confirmed even by Tatar khans. Taking higher ground, he averred that "the pontificate is more honorable and a greater principality than the empire itself; … the priest is seated very much higher than the king. For, though the throne of the tsar may appear honorable from the precious stones set in it and the gold with which it is overlaid, nevertheless they are only the things of the earth, which he has received power to administer, and beyond this he has no power whatever. But the throne of the priesthood is set in heaven; … and the priest stands between God and human nature, as drawing down from heaven graces unto us, carrying up from us utterances of prayer to heaven, reconciling Him, when He is angry, to our common nature, and delivering us, when we have offended, out of His hand. For these causes kings themselves, also, are anointed by the hands of the priests, but not priests by the hands of kings, and the head itself of the king is put by God under the hands of His priests, showing us that the priest is a greater authority than the king, for the lesser is blessed by the greater. … Is the tsar the head of the Church? No! The head of the Church is Christ. … The tsar neither is, nor can be, the head of the Church, but is as one of the members, and on this account he can do nothing whatever in the Church. … Where is there any word of Christ that the committed to him the things of this earth, but I have committed to me the things of heaven."^[11] He vehemently assailed the Monastery Court, instituted by Alexis, establishing lay jurisdiction over the clergy and Church property, as illegal by the ancient ordinances of the empire, and unrighteous by the canons of the Church. Discussing the possible conflict of authority, he declares: "In spiritual things, which belong to the glory of God, the bishop is higher than the tsar, for so only can he maintain the spiritual jurisdiction. But in those things which belong to the province of this world the tsar is higher, and so they will be in no opposition, the one against the other."

The man fell a victim to bigotry, ignorance, malevolence, and jealousy, but of his work much, though the least valuable portion, remained. The council which sent him into banishment acknowledged, by its acts, the purity and orthodoxy of his faith, and, after electing Joasaph II. archimandrite of the Trinity Monastery, to fill the vacant patriarchate, it established authoritatively the changes introduced by Nikon, and annulled the decisions of the Council of the Hundred Chapters, which for many years had been a fruitful source and support of error. A few years later, during the succeeding reign, the Monastery Court was abolished, and the patriarchal tribunal re-established. But the power of inveterate habit and the force of prejudice are great, and the attachment of the people and of many of the clergy to their ancient forms was stronger than the enactments of the assembly, though backed by all the authority of the civil power. Teachers of false doctrine, pretending to be defenders of the old national religion, disseminated their heresies throughout the empire, at first in secret, then openly, as they met with widespread sympathy.

Internal disorders, revolt in Little Russia, unsuccessful wars, and the consequent heavy burdens laid upon the people, aggravated the ferment of religious discontent. Numerous sects, asserting a purer Orthodoxy, arrayed themselves in opposition to the national Church; the most dangerous of these sectarian movements was that among the population about the White Sea; its adherents, called "Pomorians," or "Dwellers by the seashore," gathered around the great fortress convent of Solovetsk as their stronghold. This brotherhood of ignorant monks, isolated in their wintry home, had ever been noted for their fanatical devotion to ancient forms; they had, in previous reigns, remonstrated against, and refused to accept, changes ordered by Church authority, and now, with overweening confidence in the strength of their walls and the number of their partisans, they ventured upon open rebellion, and for ten years defied the power of the tsar; though finally, and by force, reduced to submission, their heretical doctrines spread through the North and into Siberia.

Three patriarchs— Joasaph II., Pitirim, and Joachim—followed in rapid succession on the throne, each hostile to Nikon; but time had softened the resentment of the sovereign. Rebellious chieftains had falsely claimed the influence of Nikon's name under which to shelter their pretensions, but Alexis disbelieved all accusations against his loyalty, and, in compassion, greatly mitigated the severity of his punishment. When dying, the tsar sent to crave his full forgiveness, and, at Alexis's death, Nikon wept bitterly, and mourned the loss of his friend. "The will of God be done," he exclaimed; "what though he never saw me, to make our farewell peace here, we shall meet and be judged together at the terrible coming of Christ."^[12]

Under Alexis's son, Feodor III., the malignity of Nikon's enemies revived, and the full rigor of his sentence was enforced. The young tsar was Nikon's godson; but, weak and sickly, he was easily swayed by his spiritual advisers, and left the unhappy prelate, broken by suffering and disappointment, to languish in solitary confinement. A revulsion of feeling was, however, aroused in the prince's breast by the contemplation of the great Church establishments projected and commenced by Nikon, but now abandoned and falling to decay. A few friends who still remembered him ventured to raise their voices in his behalf. Among them was Simon Polotsky, in Feodor's youth his preceptor, in after-life his friend and counsellor. Polotsky was a wise and erudite monk, of liberal and advanced ideas, without sympathy with the harsh and bigoted patriarch Joachim. He was filled with admiration for the genius of the great reformer, and shared his aspirations for the glory of the Church. He appreciated the power which unity and centralization gave the Roman Church, and conceived the plan of a similar consolidation in the Russian establishment by raising the four metropolitan sees to patriarchates, and placing Nikon over all as supreme pontiff.

The scheme was too visionary, and too much at variance with the spirit of the Greek Church, for realization, but Polotsky's efforts for Nikon's restoration to favor were happily timed, and found quick response in the tsar's reawakened affection for his godfather.

Nikon, conscious of failing strength, had long and earnestly sought permission to return to his favorite monastery of Voskresensk, the "New Jerusalem," and there end his days.

Feodor granted this request, and the primate Joachim yielded a reluctant assent.

The dying patriarch's journey was a triumphal procession. As his barge dropped slowly down the Volga, the people pressed into the stream to crave his blessing. From the monasteries, which crown the high banks of the river, the brethren came forth to greet him with prayers and chants. Sergius, once his bitter enemy, and now, in disgrace, sentenced to reclusion, heard, in a dream, Nikon's voice calling him, "Brother Sergius, arise, let us forgive and take leave of each other;" and, hastening to the water-side, asked forgiveness on his knees. "The citizens of Yaroslav, hearing of his arrival, crowded to the river, and, seeing the old man lying on his couch all but dead, threw themselves down before him with tears, kissing his hands and his garments, and begging his blessing. Some towed the barge along the shore, others threw themselves into the water to assist them, and thus they drew it in and moored it against the monastery of the 'All-merciful Saviour.' Just then the bells were struck for evening prayer. Nikon was at the point of death. Suddenly he turned and looked about, as if some one had come to call him, and then arranged his hair, beard, and dress for himself, as if in preparation for his last and longest journey. The brethren, standing round, recited the prayers for the dying, and the patriarch, stretching himself out to his full length on the couch, and laying his hands crosswise upon his breast, gave one sigh, and departed from this world in peace."^[13]

Joachim's enmity did not cease at the grave, and, under plea of Nikon's degradation, he refused to render episcopal honors to his remains. It required the tsar's interference to check these manifestations of clerical malignity, and, at his command, Cornelius, Metropolitan of Novgorod, officiated at the burial. The monarch himself helped bear the body to its last resting-place, on the spot which Nikon had chosen, and, subsequently, he obtained from the four œcumenical patriarchs letters of absolution for Nikon's soul.

Over the tomb are hanging still the iron cross and heavy chains he wore upon his body, and Russian pilgrims venerate his shrine as a holy place, although solemn condemnation was passed upon him by a council of almost œcumenical dignity.

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1. Karamsin, vol. x., p. 206.
2. Haxthausen, vol. i., p. 272.
3. Karamsin, vol. xi., p. 122.
4. Mouravief, p. 177.
5. Convent of the "Maidens."
6. This summary has been taken from an article on the Greek Church in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, vol. xl., p. 158, by Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D. Small capitals denote differences from Roman Catholic, italics differences from Protestant, doctrine.
7. Of the Saviour, from Spass, Saviour.
8. Macarius, vol ii., pp. 51–74
9. Hare, "Studies in Russia," p. 221.
10. Convent of the Resurrection.
11. "The Patriarch and the Tsar," pp. 127, 251, 292.
12. Mouravief, p. 243.
13. Mouravief, p. 246.