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History of the Church of Russia

A. N. Mouravieff, tr. Blackmore, 1842

4. Period During Which the Metropolitans Sat at Vladimir

XXIII. Cyrill II

While our afflicted country presented nothing to the view but smoking ruins on all sides, out of which the inhabitants had fled into the woods, by the mercy of Providence there arose to succour her two valiant princes, Yaroslaff of Novogorod in the North, the brother of the Great Prince Vsevolod who had just perished, and Daniel of Galich in the South. These began to collect the people together, to rebuild and wall the towns, and raise the temples from their ashes, and they roused Russia from that state of stupor into which she had fallen after the horrors of the Mongols. Daniel, whose principality had not been so entirely ruined, and who was further removed from the Golden Horde of Batius, which had established itself on the banks of the Volga, had less to fear in what he did, and was the last of all the princes to give in his submission to the khan, whose yoke he was ever meditating to throw off. But Yaroslaff¹, whose towns had nearly all been reduced to ashes, was obliged to be the first to take upon himself the heavy yoke of the Mongols, who had settled in his neighbourhood, and go and make interest at the Horde to obtain for himself the title of Great Prince. There he found others also of the Russian princes; and in the midst of their involuntary abasement, it is agreeable to contemplate the Christian heroism of Michael of Chernigoff and his faithful Boyar Theodore, who received the crown of martyrdom at the hands of the enraged khan for their bold confession of the Name of Christ. Some years later, another victorious confessor, Romanus prince of Riazan, suffered in the same manner in the Horde, and shed his blood as a martyr for the redemption of his country and for the glory of God.

The prudent Yaroslaff was succeeded by a son still more distinguished than himself for bravery and virtue, Alexander, the hero of the Neva: he was prince in Novogorod, and was the firmest defence of Russia, beating off the Swedes in a bloody battle on the banks of the Neva, and the Brethren of the Sword under the walls of Pskoff. And now that the attempts made to convert Russia by force of arms had proved fruitless, the pope, Innocent IV., began to employ other means. Seeing the distressed condition of the Eastern Church, the patriarchs of Constantinople living as exiles at Nice, and Russia having been now already ten years without a metropolitan, the Roman pontiff sent to David of Galich the present of a regal crown, together with the proposition of a union of the Churches, and a crusade against the Mongols. The papal legates visited also the court of Alexander, and addressed him with flattering speeches; but the saint of the Neva refused decidedly either to receive their letters or listen to their solicitations. Daniel, however, owing to the neighbourhood of Vengria and Poland, acted more cautiously. He accepted the crown, and the title of King of Galich, but put off the proposition for a union of the Churches till there should be an œcumenical council; while in the mean time he sent Cyrill, a Russian whom he had selected, to Nice to the Patriarch Manuel II., to be consecrated to the dignity of Metropolitan of Kieff.

Never was there a more happy choice of a pastor. None but a truly Russian heart like that of Cyrill, could so lovingly have taken upon itself all the wounds of its country, or laboured so zealously as he did for their cure. During the course of his thirty years’ administration, going about from one ruined city to another, he not only externally, but internally also and spiritually, repaired and re-edified the Church. As for himself, he certainly found no repose on the throne of ruined Kieff; and from his time to the establishment of two separate metropolitical sees, the life of the Russian primates continued to be most laborious, and it was chiefly by their travels and visitations, that the divided and often discordant portions over so vast a space, were kept together as one whole.

From the ruins of the ancient capital, Cyrill went to the wasted towns of Chernigoff and Riazan, and to the new capital, which was scarcely yet restored. In Novogorod, which had escaped altogether, he found the Great Prince; and there he exercised for the first time his spiritual authority, by consecrating Dalmas as archbishop, in the room of the charitable Spiridion deceased. On another occasion, and in the capital itself, he had the happiness of going forth in joyful procession to meet Alexander, when he returned from the great Horde, which had been wandering in Central Asia, bringing back with him a peace, which continued only during his short and prudent reign.

Foreseeing that Sarai², the capital of the Golden Horde upon the Volga, must be for many years a central point and place of meeting for the Russian princes, the metropolitan took advantage of the favourable disposition which the heathen³ khans manifested towards the clergy; for they not only did not require that they should be included in the census of the people, but even exempted from all imposts every man “who,” to use their own expression, “looketh to the Lord God and serveth God-his Churches.” He appointed Metrophanes to Sarai to be the first Bishop of Sarai and Podonsk, and to his successor Theognostes he gave the additional title of Pereyaslavla, that the memory of this ancient Russian diocese, which, with many others, now no longer existed since the desolating invasion, might not be lost. Theognostes succeeded in gaining the confidence of the khans to such a degree, that Mangou-Temir, who reigned after Batius, selected him as his ambassador to the patriarch of Constantinople, when the Metropolitan Cyrill was sending him in his own name to that capital. What the object of this mission was is unknown.

Upon the blessed decease of St. Alexander⁴, who at the hour of death exchanged his princely mantle for the humble monastic Schema, the Metropolitan Cyrill, amidst the lamentations of all his country, went out in procession to meet the incorrupt remains of their beloved prince, now brought back dead from the Horde to that same capital, where he had before so joyfully received him. Yaroslaff prince of Tver succeeded his brother; and in compliance with his wishes, the primate erected a new see in Tver, his paternal inheritance, and consecrated the virtuous Simeon to be its first bishop. He also performed another service for Yaroslaff, as a faithful subject to his lord, in reconciling him with the citizens of Novogorod, who had expelled him, and who were now become very powerful from their extensive commerce, and from their union with the Hanseatic League. The fear of an episcopal interdict overawed their turbulent assembly.

But the most important as well as the most beneficial act of Cyrill’s long administration, was his convocation of a synod at Vladimir, on the occasion of the Consecration of Serapion, archimandrite of the Pechersky, to be bishop of the capital, for the purpose of restoring the discipline of the Church, which had suffered from the civil calamities of the times.

Dalmas, Lord of Novogorod, St. Ignatius the illustrious pastor of Rostoff, Theognostes bishop of Sarai, and Simeon bishop of Polotsk, were present at the synod, and with one consent determined to enforce a strict examination into the fashion of life and age of all inferior clerks and laymen, before their Consecration to Holy Orders, and to root out all simoniacal practices in conferring such promotion. The synod applied itself also to the correction of abuses connected with some of the ceremonies of the Church, and touched on the administration of the mysteries themselves. It forbade the mixing of the holy chrism with oil, and the practice of using affusion instead of trine immersion in holy Baptism, which was probably creeping into our Churches through Galich from the West.

The Metropolitan Cyrill, as a true Russian, wished that the canons of the holy Fathers, the foundation of all ecclesiastical discipline, should not be, to use his own expression, “veiled to us, as by a cloud, under the wisdom of the Greek tongue, but that they should shine clear and enlighten all with rational light:” accordingly he assiduously employed himself in their translation, and his useful labour has come down to our own times. This sage prelate died in Periaslavla-Zalessky, full of days and good works, during the unfortunate reign of Demetrius the son of Alexander Nefsky. His funeral was chaunted where he died by an assembled company of bishops, but his sacred remains were removed to the ancient capital. Cyrill II. was the last of the metropolitans of all Russia who was buried in the cathedral of St. Sophia, and worthily terminated that line of the tombs of our prelates, which had commenced from St. Michael.

XXIV. Maximus

For two years the Church remained in a widowed state after the death of Cyrill, from her wish to avoid having any relations with the Patriarch John Bekkus⁵; for though, since the year 1264, the Emperor Michael Palæologus had recovered his capital from the crusaders, yet both he himself and that patriarch were favourably inclined towards the doctrines of Rome. At length Joseph⁶, having been restored to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople, sent into Russia as metropolitan Maximus, a Greek by birth, who during his primacy of twenty-two years exerted himself like his predecessor to establish order and discipline in the Church, and peace amongst the princes. The bloody quarrels of Demetrius and Andrew, the sons of Nefsky, brought new swarms of Tartars upon our unhappy country, and a feud broke out between the other branches of the same house, which recalled to mind the long rivalry between the descendants of Oleg and Monomachus.

Maximus was the first of the Russian metropolitans who went to the Horde; and though no Letters of privilege⁷ from the khans running in his name have been preserved, we have every reason to conclude that he met with an honourable reception. The Mongols, while yet in a state of heathenism, looked with more favour on Christianity, than did the fierce followers of the Koran, and even when eventually converted to Mahometanism, they still maintained their former prudent policy. By protecting the Clergy they pleased the people, who were persuaded to submit and to be patient as the only way of avoiding the heaviest and most fearful calamities. Maximus on his return from the Horde, called together in Kieff a synod of the bishops beyond the Dnieper, the acts of which have not come down to us, but it was probably held with a view to prepare them for his final removal to Vladimir. Seeing the complete desolation of Kieff and all the southern parts, he transferred the ancient metropolitical throne to the new capital, still keeping the former title of metropolitan of Kieff and of all Russia; at the same time he took under his own administration the diocese of Vladimir itself, and translated Simeon, who had been its bishop, to Rostoff; while Souzdal, which had belonged to Vladimir, together with Nijny Novogorod, were erected into a separate diocese. But the residence of the metropolitans in Vladimir was only for a short period; Maximus is the only one of all the Russian primates who was interred in the glorious cathedral of Bogolubsky. Immediately after his time, his successors established themselves in Moscow; for Vladimir ceased to be the capital, as the Great Princes⁸ did not like it for a residence, but allowed themselves to live in their own appanages, each striving to increase his own paternal inheritance.

Thus Daniel the son of Alexander, prince of Moscow, in the course of his long and peaceful reign adorned Moscow with temples, and with the monastery of St. Daniel, his angel, where he himself put on the Schema and died. His appanage when he received it from his father was but trifling, but he left it to his son George a flourishing principality; and his confidence in his own strength inspired this haughty prince, who was moreover the brother-in-law of the khan, with that rancorous jealousy against his lawful superior and uncle, Michael of Tver, which was only terminated by the spilling of much princely blood in the Horde, and by the destruction of the family of Tver, even to the third generation. First, Michael himself, by the intrigues of Yury, suffered the death of a martyr⁹, and was added by the Church to the number of the saints; then his son Demetrius¹⁰ fell, after having himself struck down Yury¹¹, the murderer of his father, in the very presence of the khan Usbek; and lastly, another son of Michael, Alexander¹², with his boy Theodore, was executed by order of the same khan, for having dared to put to death at Tver, Shefkal, one of his nobles, and the Tartars, who were endeavouring to introduce Mahometanism. John, surnamed Kalita¹³, the crafty brother of George, availed himself of the opportunity afforded by the fall of the princes of Tver, to obtain from the khan the settlement in his own family of the throne of the Great Princedom.

XXV. St. Peter

While the yoke of the Mongols was pressing most heavily on Russia, and the glory of her princes was obscured by disgraceful civil feuds, the holy Metropolitan Peter was a faithful guardian and comforter of his flock. A Volhynian by birth, he had from his early youth devoted himself to the monastic life, and had presided over the small convent of Ratno, founded by himself in his native district. There the fame of his virtues reached the grandson of Daniel, who with the title of king reigned over all the south-west of Russia and the Lithuanian provinces; for Vœsheleg, the son of the heathen chieftain Mindovig, after having embraced Christianity against the will of his father, and propagated it within the sphere of his influence, shut himself up in a monastery, and voluntarily resigned his right of inheritance in favour of his relations, the princes of Galich. But the strength of their empire was short lived: another powerful heathen, Hedimine, established himself in Wilna, and soon wrested Kieff and all the eastern part of the principality out of the hands of the feeble sons of Yury, with whom failed the glorious race of Romanus of Galich, while his western provinces became the inheritance of Poland; and from that time the influence of the Roman Church, assisted by the heathen indifference of Hedimine and his son Olgerd, spread itself through the districts beyond the Dnieper.

Yury, like his great grandfather, wished to have the metropolitan in his own capital; and having heard that a certain hegumen named Gerontius had gone of his own accord from Vladimir to Constantinople with the intention of seeking to be consecrated to the office of primate, he by his entreaties persuaded the humble Peter, for the good of the Church, to go thither too for the same purpose, with a letter from himself to the patriarch. The petitioner of Yury’s choice was consecrated by the most holy Athanasius to be metropolitan of all Russia. But on taking possession of his throne, St. Peter saw that the ancient capital was forgotten by the princes, and that all the life of the empire was now concentrated in the North; and he did not think of preferring the particular advantage of his own native district to the general good of the Church. Like his predecessor Maximus he removed his residence to Vladimir, though at the same time he did not cease to make journeys in every direction throughout Russia, to reconcile contending princes, to appoint bishops, and to regulate the affairs of the Church. His zeal to compose the differences of the princes of Bransk was very near costing him his life; he only escaped by taking refuge in the cathedral church.

Soon after Peter came to be metropolitan, a circumstance occurred which plainly revealed the depth of his Christian humility. Anthony bishop of Tver and son of the prince of Lithuania, envying his elevation, lodged a slanderous accusation against him with the patriarch, who sent his commissioner to try Peter. A synod met at Periaslavla-Zalessky, in which Simeon bishop of Rostoff was present, together with the accuser and a venerable company of clergy and princes. The metropolitan, little caring to be great in this world, spake thus to the assembly: “I am not better than the Prophet Jonas; if I be the cause of this tempest, cast me out of the ship, and the tumult will be still.” But when his innocence could not be hid, the meek prelate revenged himself upon his slanderer by these words: “Peace be with thee, my son! This was no deed of thine, but his, who from the beginning is the envier of the human race, the devil; as for thee, take care of thyself for the future, and for the past may God forgive thee!”

Notwithstanding this, on any occasion when not his own person but the Church was in danger of suffering, St. Peter acted with firmness in her defence. Thus he deprived and degraded the guilty bishop of Sarai, and by the threat of excommunication restrained Demetrius prince of Tver from falling upon Vladimir. He even went to the Horde itself with Michael, the unfortunate father of the same prince, as a true pastor conducting his children. There he obtained the general respect of the Khan Uzbek and the Mongols, who had lately embraced the lying imposture of the Koran; and the certificate which he received of the favourable disposition of Uzbek towards him served afterwards as a pledge to secure the good will of all succeeding khans: “Let no one injure the Catholic¹⁴ Church, the Metropolitan Peter, the archimandrites, or the popes in Russia: let their lands be free from all tax and tribute; for all this belongs to God, and these people by their prayers preserve us: let them be under the sole jurisdiction of Peter the metropolitan, agreeably to their ancient laws: let the metropolitan lead his life in quiet and meekness, and let him pray, with a true heart, and without fear, for us and for our children: whosoever shall take any thing from any of the clergy, let him restore it threefold; whosoever shall dare to speak evil of the Russian Faith, whosoever shall injure any church, monastery, or chapel, let him be put to death¹⁵.”

The consideration which the primate enjoyed amidst the feuds of the princes of the different appanages, was the preservation of the whole empire, which was united together into one body only by the person of the metropolitan of all Russia. The Great Prince John, of Moscow, perceived all the importance of his spiritual authority, when by flattery and entreaties he persuaded the metropolitan to transfer his residence to his beloved patrimony of Moscow, which from that time became the capital. But St. Peter did not comply with the wish of John without the highest motives for doing so: he foresaw the future glory of Moscow while it was then as yet poor, and persuaded the prince to lay in it the foundation of the stone cathedral of the Assumption. “If thou wilt comfort my old age,” said he, “if thou wilt build here a temple worthy of the Mother of God, then thou shalt be more glorious than all the other princes, and thy posterity shall become great. My bones shall remain in this city, prelates shall rejoice to dwell in it, and the hands of its princes shall be upon the neck of our enemies!”

Thus in the words of the ancient patriarch Jacob, the man of many labours, who in the hour of death foretold the lion strength of the tribe of Judah, St. Peter, also a man of many labours, when about to depart in peace from his pilgrimage, spoke in the spirit of prescience to John; and his word of commandment was obeyed, his prophecy was fulfilled. In that same temple, in the wall of which he prepared for himself beforehand a tomb, in the view of his uncorrupted remains, and as it were before the face and presence of the prelate himself, are crowned the successors of John, now no longer princes of Moscow only, or Vladimir, but rulers over the ninth part of the globe, which scarcely finds room upon its surface for one such empire as Russia.

It is affecting to every son of the Church and of his country, to observe the blessing of the Mother of God continually resting upon the land of Russia, which has placed itself for ever under her protection. The holy College or synod of the Apostles on Mount Sion at the time of her Rest, serves as the foundation and type of all the College¹⁶ or cathedral churches of our country. In the temple of the Mother of God at Cherson St. Vladimir was baptized, and to her honour he built the first cathedral, the cathedral of the Tithes. In the temple of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and on the festival of the “Rest” of the Virgin, who was herself the Temple of the incarnate Wisdom of God, the ambassadors of Vladimir first believed on the Lord, and Yaroslaff the Great built the two cathedrals of St. Sophia in Kieff and in Novogorod his capitals. The hermit Anthony, forming after the model of the Holy Mountain his cavern monastery, the cradle of the religious houses of Russia, consecrated it also to the Rest or Assumption of the Mother of God. Bogolubsky wished to build a new capital in the North, and laid the first stone of the magnificent cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir, in honour of that Icon of the Blessed Virgin which was painted by the Evangelist St. Luke. The ancient city of Rostoff is ornamented with a similar temple. Polotsk and Smolensk celebrate their festivals in honour of the most pure Virgin. Lastly, by the will of Providence Moscow is destined to become the head of Russia, and the aged Peter goes to establish himself there, holding as a child to the protection of our Lady, and in no other place than in the temple of her Rest seeks rest for himself, and glory and empire for Russia. By her name the Russian people also strengthened themselves in their battles; the warriors of Kieff, Novogorod, and Polotsk, fought for St. Sophia; the men of Vladimir, and the troops of Rostoff, Smolensk, and Moscow, for the house of the most holy Mother of God. This war-cry bore testimony to the piety of our ancestors; the cathedral church was the heart of each of their cities, and its name served as the pledge of victory. “For St. Sophia!” “For the House of the most holy Trinity!” resounded terribly in the ranks of Novogorod and Pskoff, when the hero-saints, Nefsky and Dovmont, overthrew the Swedes or the Sword-bearers. At the same time with the cathedral of the Assumption, John also founded in his new capital the temple of St. Saviour “In the Wood,” thought to be the oldest of all in Moscow, and the cathedral of the Archangel, where he himself rests in peace. Around this sepulchre of the first Great Prince who was buried there, are ranged the tombs of the long line of his descendants, in genealogical order, a sepulchral chronicle of the Russian monarchy. The Kremlin, which was first built of wood by this same prince, enclosed even then within its crenelated wall the budding strength of Russia, and was as a roll, on which all its sacred history was afterwards to be inscribed.

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