Library › A. N. Mouravieff › History of the Church of Russia

History of the Church of Russia

A. N. Mouravieff, tr. Blackmore, 1842

16. Stephen Yavorsky, Guardian of the Patriarchate, A.D. 1701

Triphyllius metropolitan of Sarai and Podonsk, in quality of vicar of the patriarchal diocese, directed during the last days of Adrian, and some time after his decease, the affairs of the Church. But by the providence of God there was prepared to take the place of the patriarch, an illustrious successor who had been already consecrated bishop before his death. This was Stephen Yavorsky. The penetration of Peter had discovered his merit when he was sent to the capital by Barlaam, the metropolitan of Kieff, to obtain a confirmation of the privileges of the Schools of Little Russia. On that occasion he preached an eloquent sermon at the funeral of the Boyar Shein, who had been a favourite of the Tsar. The monarch, touched with the sweetness of his discourse, ordered the humble hegumen of the lone convent of St. Nicholas to be promoted at once to the metropolitan chair of Riazan; and the heart of the Tsar was again in the hands of God, when he passed over all the senior metropolitans of Great Russia, and chose the same Stephen to be guardian of the patriarchal throne; for he, profiting by the Tsar’s confidence, with a steadfast faith and firm purpose presided over the Russian Church during a period of great changes in the state, taking his stand, as became a good pastor, on the immutable ordinances of the Church.

He found a faithful fellow-labourer in his attached friend Demetrius archimandrite of the Seversky monastery, whom Peter had brought also to the capital in order to have him consecrated metropolitan of Siberia. The monarch was personally acquainted with that holy man, who had already become celebrated for his work of writing the lives of the saints, and who laboured to diffuse that learning for which the Church of Little Russia was distinguished throughout the North. But Demetrius from his weak state of health was not capable of undertaking the journey to his distant diocese, and through the intervention of Stephen he was translated to Rostoff to take the place of the Metropolitan Joseph there deceased. From thence he was destined to illuminate by his virtues and learning the whole Church of Russia, which he edified for the space of seven years, as a zealous and uncompromising maintainer of Orthodoxy and refuter of its enemies, as an annalist, as a preacher, and above all, as a man of prayer. Thus the all-embracing heart of Demetrius united itself already with every Christian heart of his earthly country, before he began to receive prayers from those whom he had taught to pray.

Such a spiritual support was needful for the faith of Stephen, who was to be exercised with no light responsibility. Soon after the death of Adrian, the Patriarchal Court was closed, which had exercised jurisdiction over all the affairs of the Church, not only those which were properly spiritual or related to members of the clergy, but also all that related to their estates, property, and civil suits; for from the time that the Monastery Court had been put an end to by the Tsar Theodore all suits against spiritual persons had proceeded only in the Patriarchal Court of Requests. They were sometimes indeed taken up to the Court of the Inner Palace, that is, to the decision of the monarch in person, when any partiality of the judges, in any affair in which they were themselves interested from relationship to the parties concerned, was discovered. Peter ordered all the causes which were pending to be referred for final decision to the different government tribunals, according to the nature of each, and the order of civil suits; and by this means all matters of inheritance, wills, and sacrilege, which had hitherto belonged to the spiritual jurisdiction, were transferred to the civil. But those matters which were strictly ecclesiastical, relating either to hierarchical discipline or to doctrine, he committed to the cognizance of the metropolitan of Riazan, as president of the Spiritual Patriarchal Court, even before he was appointed Guardian. However, in a very short time, all suits against spiritual persons were restored back to the Patriarchal Court, and on the representation of the Metropolitan Stephen, the ordinary Ecclesiastical Court for the enforcement of discipline among the Clergy was re-opened.

At the same time that he suppressed the Patriarchal Court of Requests, the Tsar re-established in full force the Monastery Court, which had been recognised by the code of his father, and separating it completely from the Spiritual Court, placed it under the presidency of the Boyar Mousin Poushkin. To his cognizance, judgment, and jurisdiction, were subjected all the peasantry and other persons, and all the numerous estates which had formerly been under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchal or Diocesan Courts, as well as all the rich properties of the monasteries, of which an inventory was at the same time made. These were no longer managed by the bursars and the senior members of the communities, but by Officers of the Tsar’s Table, without any dependence on the local Voivodes or on the Governors, and were immediately subject to the Monastery Court, into which all the proceeds arising from them were paid. The number of the religious was limited also in every convent by edict; “white” (i. e. lay, or secular) brethren and sisters, who lived idly in the convents without seeking the tonsure, were all expelled; and a fixed age was appointed for the tonsure, which was not to be earlier than forty years for nuns, and thirty for monks. Such a provision as should be a security against absolute want was assigned to every monk; ten roubles¹ a-year, and ten chetverts² of bread instead of their former rich revenues, which were applied partly to the current necessities of the state, and partly to the foundation of hospitals and the maintenance of poor soldiers, who were quartered as pensioners in the monasteries. Those convents, however, which from their poverty had always been supported by the royal bounty still continued to enjoy it, and thus the whole order of the religious properly so called, which was at that time very numerous, was preserved in all its integrity, though deprived of its worldly superfluities. In like manner also the chief spiritual authorities, each according to their rank, began to receive from this time certain fixed rates of allowances and salaries in lieu of their estates which had been transferred to the Monastery Court, and in lieu of those ecclesiastical dues which they had been used of old to receive from each parish in their dioceses. Such was the system under which Church property continued to be administered down to the institution of the Most Holy Synod.

Such were the regulations of Peter regarding the Church, while he adopted similar means of organizing all the different branches of the civil government; increasing the revenues by a better method of taxation, putting down luxury, and entering even into all the details of civil and domestic life; establishing printing presses and schools, forming and giving a new alphabet to the common spoken language, encouraging trade and commerce by the institution of guilds or corporations, in order that the mercantile classes might the better manage their own matters, and lastly creating both a fleet and an army at the severest period of her trials, when Russia groaned beneath the Swedish invasion.

The necessity of a port on the shores of the Baltic for communication with Europe, and the pride of the Swedes on the accession of their youthful hero Charles XII. to the throne, induced Peter to conclude a triple alliance with Frederic king of Denmark, and Augustus of Poland. The northern war, which for twenty-two years had been a cause of alarm to Russia, at length burst into a flame. Its commencement was unfortunate for us. Charles quickly reduced Denmark, and turned all his forces against Russia, and under the walls of Narva, which our troops were then besieging, almost entirely destroyed our inexperienced army, the creation of the first efforts of Peter. It improved, however, by combating with the Swedish generals during the conquest of Livonia and Ingria, while the daring Tsar, in the very midst of the theatre of war, laid the foundations of his new capital, while Charles was engaged in Poland, where he defeated Augustus at every step, got possession of both his capitals, Warsaw and Cracow, and at length raised Stanislaff Leschinsky to the throne of the conquered kingdom.

He then turned back again upon Russia, and having rejected all overtures of peace, marched with his victorious army into the Ukraine, where he reckoned on the secret treason of the Hetman Mazeppa. But Charles, though he might compare himself to Alexander the Great, did not find a Darius in Peter, who every where watched and followed his enemy, cutting off his communications with other Swedish corps, which were fortunately not concentrated on one point. The treason of Mazeppa was discovered in time for him to prevent the Ukraine from rising, and three prelates, the metropolitan of Kieff, with his vicar, and the archbishop of Chernigoff, delivered over at Glouchoff to an anathema the traitor who had forgotten all the benefits he had received from the Tsar. He appeared with only a few adherents in the camp of the Swedish king. The Swedish army laid siege to Poltava, and on its plains the two giants of the North met in battle for the first time. Charles though wounded was carried through the ranks in a litter, and animated his warriors who had grown old in battle; Peter filled with love for his country begged his men to forget Peter for the sake of Russia, that Russia to whom this day of Peter’s life is memorable for ever. Under his blows the Swedish army was broken and vanished away, as if it had never been the terror of Russia. The king and the hetman fled together beyond the Steppes of the Ukraine and the Tartars, and only halted on the banks of the Dniester. The traitor Mazeppa died in Bender, but before this took place, Skoropadsky had been appointed hetman in his room.

The zeal of the Tsar founded a monastery in the name of the Chiefs of the Apostles on the field of Poltava; and in memory of the day itself of the battle a church was erected in the new capital by the name of St. Sampson the Receiver of Strangers. The conqueror made his public entry into Kieff, and was met with a grand procession by the metropolitan Joasaph Krokofsky, who had been archimandrite of the Lavra, and had been consecrated a year before to succeed Barlaam on his decease; and Theophanes Procopovich, then prefect of the Academy, pronounced an eloquent complimentary oration before the Tsar. It was on this occasion that he first attracted the notice of the monarch by the agreeable eloquence of his speech, and by the show of that profound learning which he had acquired in the Uniate and Romish schools. His desire for learning had influenced Theophanes to such a degree that he even temporarily deserted Orthodoxy at Rome, and afterwards shewed the same leaning³ in the doctrines of the faith when he attained a higher rank in the Russian hierarchy. The inhabitants of both the capitals went out with no less solemnity to meet the victor. Europe, which had been hitherto stunned with the noise of the victories of Charles, heard with astonishment of the exploits of Peter, and began to regard with lively attention the rising power of Russia.

In the midst of his military exploits, Peter did not forget our Orthodox brethren in the Faith who were suffering in Lithuania and Poland from the violence of the Uniates, and taking advantage of the rights of an ally he pressingly demanded of Augustus that a stop should be put to their persecution. Notwithstanding the conditions of the peace of 1686, by which the king, John Sobiesky, had bound himself to grant free exercise of their religion to the dioceses of Loutsk, Galich, Peremuishla, Lvoff, and White Russia, with the confirmation of their former privileges, all these engagements were continually violated by the turbulent Schlacti, and the independent nobles of Poland. These by force of arms took away churches and monasteries, trampled upon holy things, tortured the ministers of the altar, and exposed the Orthodox to such indignities as neither Jews nor Mahometans had ever endured at their hands. From the wretched circumstances of the time, many of the bishops themselves, Innocentius of Peremuishla, Joseph of Lvoff, and Cyprian, formerly of Polotsk, and afterwards metropolitan of those who had fallen away, went over to the party of the Uniates, and became in their turn persecutors of Orthodoxy. Two only remained to maintain it, and one of these, Cyrill of Loutsk, was compelled to fly from his diocese to Kieff, and received that of Pereyaslavla with the title of Vicar; while the bishop of Mogileff, the Prince Silvester Chetvertinsky, with difficulty kept possession of his chair. All the Orthodox monasteries cried out to Peter as their only protector, who learned by experience the truth of their complaints; for he was himself exposed to insult and even danger from the Uniate monks, when he visited their Church in Polotsk. But all the letters and entreaties and even threats of the Tsar were unavailing with King Augustus. The redress of grievances was deferred from one Diet to another, and the Orthodox were obliged to content themselves with bare promises on the part of the Polish government for the future amelioration of their lot.

The struggle between Peter the Great and Charles XII. was not entirely terminated by the glorious victory of Poltava. While the Tsar was enabled by his victory to give his powerful hand to raise up Augustus of Poland, and renewed with him and with Denmark the Northern alliance, his enemy as in desperation was fortifying himself on the banks of the Dniester, and never ceased from thence to urge the Sultan to break the peace then existing with Russia, till at length he attained his end. Peter never desired peace more than at this juncture, as, profiting by his success at Poltava, he had now begun to carry into effect his great plans in the interior of the kingdom. At the time that he was constantly absent in some part or other of his vast dominions, he instituted the Governing Senate, in which the superior administration was to be concentrated, and on which all its different branches were to depend. To this senate, composed of the highest dignitaries of the empire, he entrusted the care of Russia when he himself was obliged to take the field again to repel the armies of the Sultan, which had advanced upon the Danube. Catherine, the new consort of the Tsar, accompanied him for the salvation of the country. Both the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were favourably disposed towards Russia, but Cantimir of Moldavia alone remained faithful to Peter; nor did Peter on the other side desert him at the most painful moment of his life; for when he was suddenly surrounded by superior numbers of the enemy on the banks of the Pruth, he refused to deliver up the hospodar to the Turks. Catherine inclined the low-minded vizir by her gold to conclude a peace, which cost us Azoff and all Peter’s youthful conquests, but preserved Peter himself to Russia. The imperial crown was Catherine’s reward. For five years longer Charles continued his efforts to renew the war, and would not let the Sultan be at rest, till at length he was compelled to leave the neighbourhood of Constantinople. Attended by a single foreigner he galloped off for Sweden, which he seemed to have forgotten, and which was then sinking under the blows of the Northern alliance, to which Prussia, Hanover, Holland, and England had acceded. In the mean time Livonia, Ingria, and a part of Finland in the neighbourhood of the new capital, had become the permanent possession of Russia.

In the midst of unceasing military operations and in spite of them the internal improvement of the country advanced. Every interval of peace was signalized by civil institutions in all departments of government, to which Peter for the sake of system and regularity endeavoured by degrees to give the form of Colleges: for he placed more confidence in the counsel of many than in the discretion of a single individual. And so after the institution of the Senate followed that of Colleges, first for Foreign Affairs, then for War, and so on with others, while the whole of Russia was divided into eight vast Governments. Not only were a fleet and an army formed amid the thunder of war, but the Tsar, with an eye which embraced every thing, observed all the springs of wealth in his dominions, and by his powerful word called them into action. Learning also was increased, both temporal and spiritual, by multiplying the number of schools of every description, and by sending Russian youths to travel in the civilized countries of the West.

The Metropolitan Stephen co-operated zealously with the Tsar for the promotion of learning, and took upon himself the title of Protector of the Academy of Moscow, which he enlarged, and regulated after the model of that of Kieff. Demetrius also continued to be a shining light till the time of his blessed decease in his diocese of Rostoff, where he founded and himself superintended a seminary. By degrees, after his example, schools were instituted at all the episcopal residences for the education of those who were to minister in holy things, which were afterwards converted into seminaries. Job metropolitan of Novogorod, a man full of Christian piety, besides other charitable foundations, established in his diocese as many as fourteen spiritual schools; and the better to ensure their success, he called to his aid from the Hypatieff monastery the two long-forgotten brethren, the Lichoudi, who had been pining for fifteen years in confinement. Joannicius and Sophronius, as two lights suddenly brought out from underneath the bushel, shed forth learning and instruction in these schools. Sophronius the younger of the two was sent to Moscow after a printing press, and was detained there by the guardian of the patriarchal throne for the purpose of regulating the Academy, and to him, in conjunction with its learned Rector Theophylact Lopatinsky, who was to suffer for the truth, was committed the task of continuing that revision and correction of the Slavonic Bible which had been commenced by Epiphanius. After the death of the Metropolitan Job, Joannicius also removed to the capital, in order to take a share in the labours of his brother in the Academy; and there he shortly after died; but Sophronius, who was raised to the rank of an archimandrite, attained to extreme old age.

But at the same time with this improvement in learning there shewed itself also in our country a mischief which had come in secretly and had taken dangerous root. Travellers and foreigners had brought into Russia the anti-ecclesiastical doctrine of Luther and Calvin, which by its contempt of established rites and ceremonies and discipline, by its principle of the right of private judgment in the mysteries of religion favoured greatly irreverence, and individualism or self-will. The Orthodox Eastern Church feared not the influence of the Western Church, for she had been used openly to contend with her on the borders of Poland; and the violences of the Unia had embittered the hearts of all Russians so much against Rome, that there was no danger from that quarter. But we had never up to this time had any actual conflict with the German innovators: the accession of the Baltic provinces, and the useful labours of foreigners whom Peter had invited into Russia, involuntarily brought us in friendly contact with them. Their superiority in worldly civilization, and the very fact of their being seen on State occasions to attend at the ceremonies⁴ of our Church, conciliated towards them many of the inexperienced, who knew not how to distinguish where the bounds of secular acquirement end, and that spiritual wisdom begins, which, according to the words of Christ, is hid from the wise and prudent but revealed to the simple and to babes.

It was in the neighbourhood of the Northern capital, where the confluence of strangers was greatest, that these opinions began to be diffused, though they were vigorously opposed by the virtuous Job, metropolitan of Novogorod. He moved the two zealous brothers, the Lichoudi, to take up their arms in defence of the foundations of Orthodoxy, which seemed to be attacked, and they composed a book in refutation of the new heresy, which received the benedictions of the four Œcumenical patriarchs, the natural guardians of the true religion. Nor did the metropolitan Stephen either, the guardian of the throne of Moscow, remain an indifferent spectator, since the same heresy had broken out also in the other capital, where its chief propagator was one Demetrius Tveritinoff, an army-surgeon in the corps of the Streltsi. He had lived long with a foreign physician, and had learned from him not only his medical science but also his religious opinions; and so he began to spread objections and revilings against the Icons, the Relics, the Liturgy, the invocation of the Saints, and the commemorations of the departed. Many of the Streltsi and artisans adhered to him, and carried their audacity to such a pitch, that one of these revilers, a barber named Thomas Ivanoff, even openly insulted the Icon of St. Alexis the metropolitan in the Choudoff monastery. The most reverend Stephen in the first instance made secret enquiries into this affair, and reported it to the sovereign, and afterwards by his desire convoked at Moscow a council of the neighbouring Bishops, Ignatius of Sarai, Barlaam of Tver, and Joannicius a Greek, metropolitan of Stauropolis. There in the patriarchal palace, after a due examination and admonition, those who remained impenitent were anathematized, while the authors of the heresy themselves were delivered up to be judged and punished by the civil authority. But not satisfied with correcting the mischief for that one time, the Metropolitan Stephen, as a faithful pastor with a paternal anxiety for his flock, collected into one book all those lying subtleties, and shewed how they are clearly rejected by the doctrine of the Church; and this book he entitled the “Rock of Faith,” a rock to crush all the enemies of Orthodoxy. The doctrines of the Holy Icons and Relics, of the Sign of the Venerable Cross, of Tradition, of the Mystery of the most pure Body and Blood of Christ, of the Invocation of Angels and Saints, and especially of the most immaculate Virgin, and lastly, of the State of Souls after Death, and of Prayers for the Departed, were presented in their due fulness and clearness for the benefit of all followers after piety, with the casting down of every proud imagination which exalts itself against the true doctrine of the Church. In his preface the meek Stephen spoke thus humbly of himself, “It is ours to administer medicine, but God’s only to cure. This ‘Rock’ is hard (so he called his book) answering to the barrenness of my soul; but even from this rock God can raise up children unto Abraham, and can cause water to flow from a worm, giving drink unto life eternal.”

The Guardian exhibited no less zeal in crushing another evil which had taken root in Russia from the impunity enjoyed by the schismatics, and the ignorance of their leaders. His writings concerning the time of the coming of Antichrist, and the end of the world, dissipated those mischievous interpretations which were craftily spread through the capital that Antichrist had already appeared, and that the end was at hand. Notwithstanding however the prudent measures of the government which forbade the giving of any public offices to schismatics, and imposed on them a double tribute for their obstinacy, the unsettled state of Russia, amid constant wars and changes, gave opportunities to the ill-disposed of eluding detection and punishment. The frontiers of Livonia and Pskoff were by degrees filled with colonies of schismatics. The congregations of dissenters on the sea coast, though by no means agreeing among themselves, increased in numbers in the recesses of the woods and marshes of Olonetz, as well as in the uncultivated wilds of Perm and Siberia. Vetka, being within the frontiers of Poland, was a still more inaccessible settlement, where in fourteen villages lived more than 30,000 of the Old Ceremonialists of the Popoftshin, or Presbyterian branch of Dissent. The Polish landed proprietors received them favourably from considerations of private interest. The influence of Vetka was extraordinarily great, for in it there was a church by the name of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin, which was the only one the schismatics had, and from thence they carried out supplies of the consecrated Gifts to every part of Russia, often however not without some deception. In some places the oldest people of that way boasted that they had preserved Gifts which had been consecrated before the apostasy in the time of Nikon, and these they sacrilegiously mixed up with new dough to serve for administration to the ignorant people whom they deluded. Not far from Vetka were established the equally numerous colonies of Starodouboff⁵, the state of which became still more flourishing when, in reward for the zeal they had shewn against the traitor Mazeppa, they received various privileges and grants of land.

In the forests of Nijgorod there was another nest got together at about the same time with the settlement of Vetka and the spread of the Pomorians, by a runaway disciple of the Pope Habbakuk, whose name was Onuphrius. After his death a deacon named Alexander, disapproving of certain ceremonies, originated a new sect for himself which received from him the name of Diaconarians; but it was not nearly so numerous as that of the Presbyterians, which, by the accession of runaway monks and Streltsi, spread itself down the banks of the Volga and the Don. The Tsar, who was attentive to every thing, wishing to attack the schism in its very heart and centre, chose for bishop of Nijgorod Pitirim, a man who had once lived in Vetka but had returned to the Church, that through his personal experience he might be the better able to expose and refute the deceits of the false teachers. Accordingly, as soon as he was consecrated, he engaged with all pastoral diligence in this difficult business, and himself more than once visited the colonies of the schismatics which were scattered about in the woods. By replying in a reasonable and satisfactory manner to all the questions of these bewildered men, he brought them to doubt the truth of their doctrines, and at length attained the end he desired; for the Deacon Alexander, and the chief elders of his sect, confessed their errors, and were reconciled to the Church. And though in the sequel the inconstant deacon relapsed into his former schism, and suffered the punishment he deserved, still his former adherents remained firm in the true faith. A book written by this Bishop Pitirim under the title of The Spiritual Sling, remains still to afford a salutary medicine to such as may be disposed to relinquish error, as does also another by Demetrius, bishop of Rostoff, entitled, An Examination of the Faith of the Brinsky Dissenters, by which he confuted the gainsayers of his diocese.

A new expedition of the Tsar beyond the frontiers for the purpose of confirming the northern alliance, during the continuance of his military operations, was marked at once by political disappointments from the inconstancy of his allies, and by family afflictions from the unworthiness of his son. In vain did Peter endeavour to prepare a successor worthy of himself in the person of the Tsarevich Alexis; an incapacity for military and civil employment alike early discovered itself in him, as well as a dislike to all the changes effected by his great father. The recollection of the confinement of his mother Eudocia within the walls of the convent of Souzdal, together with the evil counsels of certain lay and spiritual persons who favoured his way of thinking, and hoped to see in him a restorer of the old order of things, completed the moral ruin of Alexis. When threatened with being disinherited and cut off from his right of succession to the throne, he expressed a wish to leave the world; but not having sufficient strength of mind to subdue his grosser passions, he resolved to seek for safety from his harsh father beyond the boundaries of Russia. Peter was in Holland when he received the bitter intelligence of his flight, and sent to seek for his son in the dominions of the Roman emperor, while he himself continued his route to Paris. While he was there, the celebrated Academy of the Sorbonne took advantage of the personal presence of the Russian monarch to make proposals to him for the union of the Western with the Eastern Church; but he prudently declined taking upon himself so weighty a matter, and only promised that he would command the Russian prelates to return an answer to the document which had been presented to him by the Sorbonne.

Peter hastened back to his own dominions whither the guilty Tsarevich, who had been found at Naples, was also soon after brought. He was solemnly deprived of his right of inheritance to the throne, in the ancient capital, and a mixed court, composed both of spiritual and temporal dignitaries, was appointed for his trial. Among his accomplices were found individuals nearly connected with the Tsar, and also some members of the clergy. The former Tsaritsa, Eudocia, was again implicated, and found to have turned to a bad use the liberty allowed her in Souzdal; while it appeared that her ambitious views had been favoured by Dositheus, bishop of Rostoff, and by the Tsar’s sister, the Tsarevna Maria, making three, with Sophia and Martha, to rise up against their brother. She was confined in the fortress of Shlüsselbourg, and the Tsaritsa was closely imprisoned in the convent of Nova-Ladoga. He was the only one upon whom his father hesitated to pronounce sentence, although his treasonable intentions had been now fully detected; he waited till such time as he should make a full confession, and transferred the Court of Inquiry to the new capital. The Tsarevich, however, made only partial confessions, and acted undecidedly. At length the sovereign overcame the father, and sentence of death was pronounced against him by a mixed court, composed both of civil and ecclesiastical persons; but the mere announcement of this so struck the Tsarevich, that he died suddenly. He left an infant son named Peter, who became thus the heir apparent to the throne, another infant of the same name, born to Peter the Great of Catherine, having died before him.

About this period Peter delivered to the Guardian of the patriarchal throne and the bishops that were with him the memorial which he had received from the Sorbonne. It was a document of some length, in which the Parisian doctors enlarged upon the agreement of the two Churches, in their doctrines, sacraments, and traditions, in their reverencing of holy relics and Icons, in invocation of the saints, and ecclesiastical discipline. They touched superficially on the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit, endeavouring to interpret the correct Greek expression of the mission of the Holy Spirit from the Father through the Son, by the incorrect Latin addition to the Creed concerning the procession being “also from the Son;” and in testimony of their desire for peace, proposed the example of the Uniates, with whom the Greek Creed had remained unaltered by the permission of the pope. Still more slightly did the Sorbonne speak of the pope, dwelling on all the liberties of the Gallican Church, and calling him only the first according to seniority among the other bishops his equals, according to the testimony of the ancient Fathers, and rejecting his infallibility, made him subject to the authority of the Catholic Church as expressed by a general council.

But however plausible this request for peace might be in appearance, the Russian bishops replied to it with becoming prudence; they expressed on their own side their wish for that unity, for which the Orthodox Church perpetually prays in all her Services. But they remarked to the Sorbonne, that this was an affair which, from its great importance, could not depend on the particular determinations of a party of divines; but that the whole Western Church, together with the whole Eastern, must have part in one common agreement, and that therefore for the present they must rest contented with learned communications on theological subjects, lest by a new league with a foreign Church, they should endanger their ancient unity with the four Œcumenical and Orthodox thrones. The Metropolitan Stephen, with two archbishops, Barnabas of Kholmogori and Theophanes of Pskoff, subscribed this answer. The answer itself was the composition of Theophanes, who had been lately called to the capital from Kieff, and already took a great share in the affairs of the Church.

The extraordinary talents of Theophanes for every kind of business, and his profound and varied knowledge, both secular and ecclesiastical, his zeal for learning, which he constantly promoted even out of his own private revenues, having formed a large seminary adjoining his own house, drew upon him the particular regards of the sovereign; while his acuteness of mind, and his lively and sociable character, with which Peter became acquainted during his Turkish campaign, had linked the Tsar’s heart to his companion, who was at that time still rector of the Academy of Kieff. But the Metropolitan Stephen, the illustrious Guardian of the Church of Russia, having known in Kieff the history of Theophanes from the beginning, did not look with equal favour on this new fellow-labourer. He placed no confidence in that learning which he had acquired in the West, and mistrusted besides the lively turn of his character, which inclined him to favour the religious innovations of foreigners of other creeds. Having placed his own “Rock of Faith” as a rock of offence against their doctrines, this great churchman thought it part of his pastoral duty to rebuke Theophanes, who had been elected bishop of Pskoff, for those erroneous theological opinions which he had taught in the Academy of Kieff. But this rebuke was disregarded by Theophanes, and served only as a motive with him for enmity against Stephen.

But in the meantime, notwithstanding the proposals of the Sorbonne, made from one particular quarter, for a union of the Churches, the so-called Unia was fiercer and more inveterate than it had ever been before, in its persecution of Orthodoxy. The new metropolitan of the Uniates, Leo Kishka, the successor of Cyprian, had succeeded in a council convoked at Zamost in openly establishing the Unia throughout all the dioceses which were under the government of Poland, and in having the deposition of all Bishops adhering to Orthodoxy recognised as legitimate. A constitution of the Diet ratified this act of violence with only one exception, which was in favour of the see of Mogileff. Some few monasteries and churches which had remained entire in Lithuania and Volhynia, though oppressed by taxes and contributions, were now deprived of the remainder of their property. The clergy endured every species of oppression and insult: the sacred vessels and ornaments were taken away by violence, and the Holy Mysteries themselves were trampled under foot: the estates of the monasteries were spoiled without there being any to defend them; while such of the petty nobility and proprietors as were Orthodox, were excluded from holding any public office. The bishop of Mogileff himself, the Prince Sviatopolk Chetvertinsky Silvester, was wounded, and then imprisoned by the violence of the Poles. Two of the Uniate bishops, the bishop of Smolensk, and especially Innocentius of Peremuishla, made it all but impossible for any of the Orthodox to live in their dioceses: it was in vain that the persecuted cried out for protection. The Tsar, through his ambassador at Warsaw, interposed in defence of his brethren in religion; representing what liberty all Confessions enjoyed in Russia, and demanded the issuing of a commission of enquiry along the frontiers, for examining into the wrongs endured by the Orthodox in Lithuania, White Russia, and Volhynia. He even appointed, on his own side, Roudakofsky as his commissioner at Mogileff. King Augustus and the papal nuntio at Warsaw, the Archbishop Santini, and the pope himself, were gradually influenced by the letters and remonstrances of Peter the Great; but though strict orders were given by Augustus, and though the legate wrote circular letters, and even laid a curse on such as should disobediently disturb the peace of the Church, no effect was obtained. Acts of violence, pillage, imprisonment, and torture, instigated by the fanaticism of the Romans and the Uniates, still continued to contend in the unhappy principality of Lithuania, with the invincible attachment of the Orthodox to the faith of their forefathers. And all this was done with boldness and impunity, although Russia had now gained in strength after her twenty years’ struggle with Sweden, and was mistress of the northern coasts, after the formidable Charles who had led them into war had vanished from the field of strife, and his successor had at length concluded with Russia the to her honourable peace of Neustadt, which placed her in a position of security with regard to her external relations.

Confined in the West during the reign of Peter, she extended herself in the East to the extreme boundaries of the ocean, and entered into permanent relations with China. Christianity also continued to be propagated over the immense wilds of Siberia. Theodore, metropolitan of Tobolsk, and the successor of Ignatius, converted 10,000 Ostiacs. By degrees the true faith shed its light also on the Southern districts, and the parts about the distant Irkutsk, where there were by this time a good number of Christians, manifested their desire to have a bishop. Innocentius Koulchinsky, who had been appointed head of the spiritual mission to Pekin⁶, was consecrated the first bishop of Irkutsk, and laid there a good foundation for the Church, being celebrated for the holiness of his character during life, and for the discovery of his relics uncorrupted after death. This was a third saint besides those we have mentioned above, Metrophanes and Demetrius, who was contemporary with Peter, and to whom, as to others, it has been given from on high to distinguish themselves by miracles in our own days.

In the midst of the storms of war the new capital of the Tsar, which he had built in spite of all obstacles on the banks of the Neva, continued to grow up and flourish. His will overcame both nature herself and the natural prejudice existing in favour of the ancient capital of Moscow. Churches and buildings, both public and private, gradually sprang up near the poor dwelling of its great founder, and the humble church of the Trinity. There was already a magnificent cathedral church by the name of the Chief Apostles, Peter and Paul. The Nefskay Lavra had also been founded, and placed on an equal footing with the two ancient Lavras of the Pechersky and the Trinity. It only needed further, for its complete establishment, the possession of the relics of the Great Prince Alexander Nefsky, who had acquired so much glory in war in these same parts, where now another conqueror of the Swedes had laid its foundation. And accordingly before long the relics of the holy prince were solemnly translated into it from Vladimir, while Theodosius, the first archimandrite of the Lavra, a man adorned with every pastoral virtue, united with that place the dignity of metropolitan of Novogorod.

The time had at length arrived for settling permanently the affairs of the Church, which had long been left in an indeterminate and provisional state owing to civil and military disturbances. Peter, victorious over all his enemies, with the titles which he had acquired of Emperor and Father of his Country, according to his own expression, “felt no groundless fear in his conscience lest he should shew himself ungrateful to the Most High, if after having been so blessed by Him with success in the improvement of the military and civil departments, he were to neglect the better regulation of the Church.” This was indeed a business which it was impossible to defer much longer: the Metropolitan Stephen, the virtuous Guardian of the patriarchal throne, who fully merited both the confidence of the Tsar and his high calling, after having held the helm of the Church for twenty years, began to feel the advances of old age, and had no longer the strength requisite for following the energetic Peter in all his movements. He was especially burdened by being obliged to make long residences in the new capital, which as yet afforded none of the conveniences of life, and was altogether out of the way for the government of the Church. As far back as the year 1718, he had complained in a letter to the monarch that he was kept many months in St. Petersburgh in a hired house, at a distance from the church, and still further from the synodal administration confided to him, and from the patriarchal diocese, with the two additional dioceses of Riazan and Tamboff, which had been placed provisionally under his personal charge; that the metropolitan sees of Kieff, Novogorod, Rostoff, and Smolensk, were in the same state of disorder, having been left vacant ever since the death of their respective prelates, while the other bishops, enfeebled by age, were unable to undertake additional charges; that they all resorted to him for advice as the guardian of the patriarchal throne; but that he himself, at a distance from the elder capital, and without any council, was quite unable to satisfy all the demands made upon him, and knew not whom to choose to fill so many vacant sees.

The sovereign replied that a synodal administration alone was capable of answering to the wants of the Church; and afterwards became more and more confirmed in this his rooted opinion, which in the course of a long reign he had gradually reduced to practice by the institution of a Senate and twelve Colleges. He perceived by experience what great advantages accrued to the state from the concentration of the civil government in the senate, and began more decidedly to contemplate the institution of a permanent local synod, the decisions of which might at once be more impartial and carry greater weight than those of an individual patriarch.

The composition of a Spiritual Regulation for the guidance of this Governing Synod, was committed to Theophanes, bishop of Pskoff, who in the three parts of the Regulation made an accurate statement of the composition and object of such a government, of the business which belonged to it, and of the duties, operations, and powers of the members themselves, according to the forms of the ancient councils, and the rules of the holy Fathers. Together with the duties of the bishops in respect of this superior administration, and in respect of all religious and secular persons in their dioceses, means were appointed in the Regulation for the correction of manners in the flocks, for their instruction in the doctrines of the Faith, for the eradication of Dissent, and for the training of candidates for holy orders in seminaries to be annexed to every episcopal residence, and in a superior Spiritual Academy which it was proposed to erect.

This important affair was carefully examined and discussed by a council convoked in the new capital at the commencement of the year 1721. The whole of the Regulation was read through in the presence of Stephen guardian of the patriarchal throne, Silvester metropolitan of Smolensk, Pachomius metropolitan of Voronege, of the Bishops Theophanes of Pskoff, Pitirim of Nijgorod, Barlaam of Tver, and Aaron of Carelia, of Theodosius archimandrite of the Nefskay Lavra, five other archimandrites, and seven of the highest civil dignitaries of the state, and was witnessed by them all after it had been signed and confirmed by the Tsar’s hand. It was afterwards again subscribed by all the bishops and archimandrites, and hegumens of the first rank in the Russian Church.

Previous · Contents · Next