A HISTORY 
 
 CHURCH OP RUSSIA. 
 
 BY A. N. MOURAVIEFF, 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN TO HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, AND 
 
 UNDER-PROCURATOR OF THE MOST HOLY GOVERNING SYNOD, 
 
 ST. PETERSBURGH, 1838. 
 
 TRANSLATED 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. R. W. BLACKMORE, 
 
 CHAPLAIN IN CRONSTADT TO THE RUSSIA COMPANY, 
 AND B.A. OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 JOHN HENRY PARKER; 
 RIVINGTONS, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXLII.
 
 OXFORD: 
 PRINTED BY I. SHRIMPTON.
 
 THE GOVERNOR, 
 CONSULS, AND COURT OF ASSISTANTS 
 
 OP 
 THE WORSHIPFUL, THE RUSSIA COMPANY, 
 
 THE 
 
 FOLLOWING TRANSLATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF RUSSIA 
 is 
 
 MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
 
 IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THEIR MANY FAVOURS 
 
 AND 
 
 LONG-CONTINUED PATRONAGE, 
 
 BY 
 
 THEIR OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT 
 AND CHAPLAIN, 
 
 R. W. BLACKMORE. 
 
 Cronstadt, 
 Oct. 1st, 1841.
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 DURING a residence of twenty-two years in this country, I 
 have not been altogether an inattentive observer of what has 
 passed in my own. My profession, and the situation I have 
 filled here, have naturally led me to turn my thoughts chiefly 
 to religious matters; and I have been both surprised and 
 grieved to find, that while the politics, statistics, and history 
 of Russia have very naturally, from the vast extent of her 
 territories, and her brave, hardy, and numerous population, 
 occupied no small portion of the public mind, the doctrines, 
 discipline, and history of her Church, to which that population 
 is so devotedly attached, and which is so closely and intimately 
 connected with the State, have been almost entirely neglected. 
 And this has not arisen from any indifference to religious 
 subjects, for seldom has the public mind been more warmly 
 interested in them; nor altogether from a want of curiosity 
 respecting foreign Churches ; but while the Church and Com- 
 munion of Rome, the changes that are taking place among 
 the Lutherans of Germany and the Calvinists of Geneva, the 
 Syrians on the Malabar coast, and even the history of a small 
 community in the valleys of Piedmont, have by turns excited 
 general attention, the Church of Russia, its past and present 
 state, and its future prospects, and I may add the whole of 
 the Eastern Orthodox Church, including in its communion 
 more than a quarter of the Christian world, have been com- 
 paratively overlooked : while even in the numerous works 
 which have lately issued from the press, expressly treating on 
 the Catholic Church, this large and important portion of it 
 has scarcely been mentioned. It is difficult to assign an
 
 VI TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 adequate reason for this glaring inconsistency ; it may perhaps 
 be in part accounted for, by our usually dividing Christianity 
 into the two great heads, of Papists and Protestants ; while 
 the Orientals are ignorantly ranged with the former, or 
 altogether passed over in silence, as if they did not exist, or as 
 if they had but little in common with us, and there were 
 nothing in their history, doctrine, or discipline, that could 
 interest or instruct us. A closer examination will be sufficient 
 to shew, on how very slight a basis either of these reasons for 
 our overlooking the Eastern Church are founded; and that 
 although there is a great similarity between it and the Com- 
 munion of Rome in the splendour and pomp of their external 
 rites and ceremonies, and in many of those customs which they 
 have in common derived from the earlier ages of our religion, 
 and which we in our zeal for getting rid of corruptions, have 
 perhaps hastily, and inconsiderately dropped, yet that in essen- 
 tials, both of Faith and Discipline, and in its spirit, as well as 
 in its differences from the modern Roman theology, it has 
 very many points which bear a striking resemblance to our 
 own. Derived from the same high source, the Greek Patri- 
 archates and the British Churches have indeed for centuries 
 ceased to hold intercourse with each other, but yet our Chris- 
 tian inter-communion has never been formally broken off by 
 any open act of either party. It is only by long custom and 
 mutual prejudice that it is assumed to have become impos- 
 sible, neither party sufficiently considering that all the 
 Churches of the world were not necessarily implicated in the 
 temporary quarrels and reconciliations of the archbishops of 
 Rome and Constantinople. We certainly both profess to 
 derive our faith from the same pure sources, the same canon 
 of Scripture, primitive tradition, and the practice of the 
 Apostolic times; they asserting that they have never swerved 
 from these venerable guides, we that we have returned to 
 them, or sought at least to return by a Reformation, i. e. by 
 repentance and amendment in those points in which we found 
 ourselves to have sinned against their authority. At the same 
 time it must be confessed, that we do in fact now differ from
 
 TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. Vll 
 
 one another, (in our outward form of religion and in popular 
 opinions at least,) in some important particulars ; and it is 
 much to be wished, that by a better knowledge of each 
 other's divinity, history, and practice, we may gradually elicit 
 the truth, so as mutually to correct each other's faults and 
 deficiencies, and thus in due time attain to the greatest of 
 the privileges of the Apostolic age, unrestricted communion. 
 But under present circumstances, very many sources of pre- 
 judice conspire to give the members of both Communions the 
 most erroneous ideas of each other; the Easterjas supposing 
 that they are justified by our language and habits in con- 
 founding us with Lutherans and Calvinists, and other " non- 
 episcopalians," while the English, with at least equal injustice, 
 confound them, as I have before said, with the Papists. 
 
 To remove as far as it is possible this ignorance, and thus 
 promote the restoration of that inter-communion which is so 
 much to be desired between two great branches of the Catholic 
 Church, which is a duty prescribed by our Lord Himself, the 
 great Head of the Church, for which both Churches continu- 
 ally pray, and which would prove a tower of strength to either 
 party against their common adversaries, must surely be an 
 object well worthy the attention of every reflecting and well- 
 disposed member of our Church. 
 
 From my long residence in Russia I have been led to feel 
 this more perhaps than many others ; and have been hitherto 
 prevented from undertaking it, solely by the consciousness of 
 my inability to do justice to such a subject. My acquaintance 
 with the language will enable me however to do that which 
 will, I trust, prove more satisfactory to my readers than any 
 thing I could myself have written, namely, to present to 
 them the Russian Church, speaking for herself through the 
 medium of translation. For the Church of Russia, although 
 a comparatively recent scion of the Church of Constantinople, 
 may still, both from the number of her members, the political 
 and moral influence which the Emperor, from the relation in 
 which he stands to her, possesses throughout the East, and 
 lastly from the superior learning and acquirements of many
 
 Vlll TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 both of her Clergy and Laity, justly claim to be considered 
 as the most eminent and powerful portion of the whole 
 Orthodox Communion of the Eastern or Greek rite. 
 
 Many circumstances have combined to render the present 
 period peculiarly favourable to an undertaking of this kind. 
 There has lately arisen in Russia a great disposition to cul- 
 tivate and develop the energies and resources of the Church, 
 as well as of the State ; the beneficial consequences of which, 
 may be traced in the improved tone of feeling among the 
 clergy; in the recent augmentation of the number of the 
 Bishoprics, corresponding with the increasing numbers and 
 spiritual wants of the population; in the multiplication, as 
 well as in the ameliorated state of the schools for secular and 
 religious learning; in the better training of candidates for Holy 
 Orders ; and in the care taken to place only men of good 
 morals, and suitable education, in the cure of souls. The same 
 is also apparent in the growing efficiency and marked success of 
 their missions in Siberia, and the Aleoutine Islands, in which 
 last a new diocese has lately been founded, and the pious 
 and zealous missionary, Veniamineff, who has so long laboured 
 among the natives, has been appointed their first Bishop : 
 also in the great and increasing number of the converts to 
 the national Church, which is stated on good authority 
 to be upwards of 20,000 persons a-year, principally drawn 
 from those who have formerly been Dissenters. A striking 
 example of success in this pious work is also to be found 
 in the reconciliation of 1,600,000 Uniates to the .Russian 
 Church, which took place in 1839, and an official account of 
 which, published by authority of the Synod, will be found 
 appended at the end of this volume. And here it would be 
 an act of injustice not to remark, that the greater part of the 
 improvements above alluded to, may be attributed to the 
 fostering care and paternal measures of the truly great Sove- 
 reign of this Empire; particularly to his judicious choice 
 of that enlightened Nobleman, Count PratasofF, as Iligh- 
 Procurator of the Most Holy Governing Synod, the duties of 
 which important office he has fulfilled, as far as I have had
 
 TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. IX 
 
 opportunities of learning, with equal zeal and judgment, to his 
 own honour, and the benefit and satisfaction of the Church. 
 
 But the chief circumstance which renders the present 
 moment so favourable to my undertaking, is the increased 
 activity of the Russian Church, in publishing translations of 
 the Fathers, by which their writings have become generally 
 accessible to the people, and by which they have been taught 
 to look back to the earlier and purer ages of our religion, and 
 the number of other useful and original works, which have 
 lately issued from her presses. Many learned and pious in- 
 dividuals have partaken in, and promoted this movement, 
 but two have been particularly conspicuous in it, from the 
 superiority of their abilities and acquirements, as well as 
 from the number and value of the books they have published. 
 These are Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, and Andrew 
 Nicholaevich Mouravieff, author of the work, a translation of 
 which is now presented to the public. 
 
 The Metropolitan of Moscow has not indeed written so 
 much as his best friends could have wished; having been 
 prevented probably by the variety and importance of his oc- 
 cupations, as a leading member of the Most Holy Governing 
 Synod, and as Pastor of one of the most important dioceses in 
 the Russian Empire. His chief works are a History of the 
 Bible, for the use of Students in Divinity, Dialogues on the 
 differences between the Eastern and Western Churches, two 
 volumes of very superior Sermons, a Translation of the Book 
 of Genesis from the original Hebrew into modern Russ, with 
 copious and learned commentaries, a Longer, and a Shorter 
 Catechism, the one for Students of Divinity and the higher 
 classes, the other for the lower classes of schools ; which two 
 last, as they have been revised and approved by the Synod, 
 and published as the Catechisms of the Church herself, and 
 introduced by authority into all the schools of the Empire, 
 may be reckoned as the latest official exposition of the doc- 1839. 
 trines of the Russian Church. 
 
 M., Mouravieff is Chamberlain to His Imperial Majesty, 
 and Under- Procurator of the Most Holy Governing Synod ; .
 
 x TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 and, although a layman, has devoted himself to the service of 
 the Church, and may justly be esteemed one of the brightest 
 modern ornaments of Russian literature. His claims to this 
 title are, his Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, written in 1830, 
 when the author was quite a young man, and published in 
 1832, his Letters on the Services of the Eastern Catholic 
 Church, his History of the First Four Ages of Christianity, 
 his Exposition of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which 
 has received the formal approbation of the Synod, his Letters 
 on the Salvation of the World by'the Son of God, his " Law 
 of the (Ecumenical Church in relation to the Roman and 
 other Patriarchal Thrones," very recently published, and 
 lastly, his History of the Church of Russia. I have selected 
 this last work as that, which seemed calculated to be of most 
 service in making the Church of this country better known 
 in England; and in the hope of contributing something 
 towards this end, I now present the Translation of it to the 
 British public. Should this attempt be favourably received, 
 it may probably be followed by Translations of some others of 
 the works I have mentioned above; especially of the Catechism 
 of the Church, with other documents illustrative of her doc- 
 trines, which the same friend, who has engaged to conduct 
 this volume through the press, and without whose assist- 
 ance, placed as I am at a distance from my native country, it 
 could never have appeared, has kindly offered to edit for me 
 in like manner. 
 
 There are only two Histories of the Russian Church which 
 have come to my knowledge, those of the Metropolitan Platon 
 and of M. Mouravieff, both beginning from the introduction 
 of Christianity into this country, and both terminating with 
 the institution of the Holy Governing Synod. Of these, the 
 first gives rather the annals than the history of the Church ; 
 in many particular points it is diffuse, while it passes over 
 others of great interest with comparatively little notice, 
 and throughout it supposes that the reader is already 
 thoroughly acquainted with the Civil History of Russia. 
 Mouravieff on the contrary gives a clear, succinct, and
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xi 
 
 regular account of the events which marked the introduc- 
 tion and progress of Christianity in his native country ; he 
 notices every material incident, places it in its due light, and 
 affords it that attention and space its importance demands. 
 These reasons have induced me to prefer his work, without 
 however entirely overlooking the other ; from which I have 
 given extracts, in the shape of notes, wherever the subject 
 seemed to require it. 
 
 It is perhaps to he regretted, that our author finishes his 
 work where he does, without bringing down the narrative to 
 our own time. But it is a difficult task to write contemporary 
 history of either Church or State impartially, without preju- 
 dice or flattery, in any country ; and in Russia it would be 
 perhaps less easy than elsewhere. He has however brought 
 down his relation to the last great epoch in the government 
 of the Church : and the Synod has continued ever since to 
 exist, as it was at first instituted by Peter the Great and 
 allowed and confirmed by the Eastern Patriarchs, and to ex- 
 ercise its high functions to the benefit and prosperity of the 
 Church it presides over, and to the general satisfaction, so far 
 as I have been able to learn, both of the clergy and laity. 
 
 The union between the Church and the State was so close 
 during the whole period of which our Author has treated, their 
 interests and their actions were so closely interwoven with each 
 other, that it would have been impossible to have composed 
 a history of the one without speaking of the other. He has 
 accordingly given very ample details of the civil and military 
 transactions of those times. But as he has still written for 
 his countrymen, who would naturally be more or less ac- 
 quainted with the earlier institutions of their own country, I 
 feared lest some parts of his work, especially at the beginning, 
 might appear obscure to the general reader ; and have there- 
 fore given rather copious extracts from a modern Russian 
 historian, Oustreloff, in the shape of notes. I have here also 
 to acknowledge my obligations to my friend the Rev. E. Law, 
 Chaplain to the British Embassy at St. Petersburgh, for 
 placing at my disposal some unpublished MSS. of the late
 
 Xll TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 learned Baron Roseukampf, from which also several of the 
 notes have been taken or compiled ; for others, which relate 
 chiefly to doctrinal matters touched upon in the History 
 and seeming to require some illustration, I am indebted to 
 my Editor. 
 
 The ecclesiastical part of the History itself which I have 
 translated exhibits the interesting picture of a National 
 Church, which has preserved throughout a filial respect for 
 its mother in the Faith, without at any time becoming unduly 
 dependent on foreign rule. She acknowledged indeed for 
 several centuries a certain subordination to the see of Con- 
 stantinople, whose patriarch had the privilege of consecrating 
 or confirming her metropolitans, chosen generally by the 
 Great Princes and the bishops, and when referred to, he was 
 the final arbitrator in all ecclesiastical questions; but the 
 Russian Church admitted no right of ordinary interference 
 with her internal jurisdiction and self-government. On the 
 other hand, when political circumstances had influenced the 
 Great Princes to set aside the privileges of the Church of 
 Constantinople, and cause the metropolitans to be elected by 
 the synod of their own bishops, we do not find that either 
 the patriarchs of Constantinople, though they probably con- 
 sidered themselves wronged, broke off communion on this 
 account, or that the Russian metropolitans now become in- 
 dependent made any boast of having returned at the com- 
 mand of the civil power, or by any pretended vindication of 
 their own rights to the letter of the (Ecumenical canons. 
 On the contrary, after a full century of actual independence 
 the conscience both of the Church and the State dictated a 
 public acknowledgment that something was still wanting to 
 legitimatize the independence which had been acquired, while 
 the patriarch of Constantinople not only made good by his 
 consent what had been done, but concurred with his brethren 
 of the East to raise the very see which he might have said 
 had rebelled against him to a dignity equal with his own, 
 and that too at the instance of a successor of those same 
 princes, by the interference of whose temporal authority his
 
 TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 own privileges had been diminished. It is to be lamented 
 that a spirit so very different from that of the Eastern 
 Church, should have been manifested in questions affecting 
 their own dominion and supremacy by the Popes of Rome. 
 
 The Church of Russia began her course with a well-defined 
 system, derived from Constantinople, and based on the 
 decrees of the Councils, as collected in the Nomocanon, in 
 which her rights, as well as those of the State, were clearly 
 defined and limited, so that the one could never interfere with 
 the other. We therefore find but little mention in the History 
 before us, of those contests and struggles between the civil 
 and ecclesiastical authorities, which have been so common in 
 the West. During her long career, she has constantly, and 
 with untiring zeal and loyalty, supported and preserved the 
 State, through all the difficulties and dangers, whether arising 
 from internal dissensions or external assaults, to which it has 
 been exposed. In the midst of the feuds and distractions 
 caused by the appanage system, and the dominion of the 
 Tartars, a space of near five hundred years, the Church was the 
 sole bond of union to the nation ; and it is hazarding little to 
 say, that had it been deprived of this bond, the great Russian 
 Empire itself would have been dissolved into a number of 
 petty, independent states, or perhaps even barbarous and 
 wandering tribes, and have ceased to exist as an independent 
 whole. Nor were these beneficial influences much less felt 
 during the afflictive periods of the Pretenders, the disputed 
 succession, and the invasions of the Poles ; while during the 
 peaceful times which succeeded, the clergy afforded the 
 greatest assistance to the government in its paternal en- 
 deavours to heal the wounds of the nation, and promote the 
 return of peace, order, and prosperity. And all this they 
 did without stepping beyond their own appropriate and 
 peculiar sphere of action ; they never degraded their calling 
 by personally taking up arms as partisans, and never had re- 
 course to them except in the case of self-defence, but limited 
 their exertions to mediation between contending parties, to 
 exhortations and persuasions to union and concord. They
 
 XIV TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 frequently and unsparingly indeed exposed their lives for the 
 good of their country ; but it was by entering into barbarous 
 and hostile camps as messengers of peace; and when they 
 appeared on the field of battle, it was for the purpose of ad- 
 ministering temporal and spiritual assistance to the wounded 
 and dying j and in this latter respect, the present generation 
 have shewn themselves the worthy descendants and imitators 
 of their forefathers. 
 
 This History also exhibits a most successful scene of mis- 
 sionary exertions ; First, on the conversion of Russia herself to 
 the Christian faith, by which the Oriental Church has nearly 
 made up the losses she has sustained from the Mahometans, 
 and has fully answered the objections of modern Roman 
 doctors, that they, who are by any means separated from 
 the Pope, are therefore necessarily cursed with barrenness and 
 spiritual death ; for so far from having become a lifeless stock, 
 the Eastern Catholic Church has, since her alienation from 
 the West, sent forth the most flourishing and widely-spreading 
 branch of modern times, and has continued to support her 
 own spiritual existence (as her daughter Church in Russia also 
 did under the Tartar yoke) in the midst of the severest and 
 most continued persecutions. 
 
 Secondly, in the continued efforts of the Russian Church, 
 extending down to our own times, to spread wider and wider 
 the limits of that faith she once so happily received from 
 Greece ; through which the wild and pathless forests of Perm 
 and Viatka, and the deserts of Siberia have become en- 
 lightened with the life of Christianity. This most successful 
 issue of missionary exertions, we may observe, was not 
 effected by single and unsupported individuals, but by so- 
 cieties of devoted men, collected around some saint or hermit 
 into monastic establishments, which became the outposts at 
 once of civilization and Christianity, and new points from 
 whence to make still further and more effective inroads into 
 the territories of barbarism, as well as heathenism. 
 
 Lastly, this History exhibits the instructive spectacle of a 
 Church, which ever since her first foundation, has faithfully
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xv 
 
 retained that creed which was at the first delivered to her ; 
 which has not altered her doctrines, or services, her rites, 
 ceremonies, or discipline, and very slightly her internal 
 government, and that more in form than in spirit, for 
 nearly nine hundred years ; during which long period both 
 clergy and laity have enjoyed free access to the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and made use of the sublime Liturgies of St. Basil 
 and St. Chrysostom in their native tongue. Her Apostolic 
 Hierarchy and Priesthood, first received from Greece, she 
 has venerated through all the periods of her history alike, 
 and has preserved with the most scrupulous care in all their 
 integrity. She has always founded on her unbroken succes- 
 sion from the patriarchal throne of Constantinople and from 
 the Apostles themselves, her claim to divine authority in 
 teaching and administering the Sacraments, and in governing 
 by ecclesiastical discipline the people committed to her charge. 
 This divine and exclusive character of the true Church her 
 clergy have constantly maintained ; while on the other hand 
 the laity have never ceased to be able to distinguish the priest 
 from the man, to look upon him as filling, not a human, but 
 a divine appointment, as being not a servant of the people 
 or the state, but an ambassador of Christ, really commis- 
 sioned to act in the name, and by the authority of the great 
 Head of the Church. Hence they have never lost sight of the 
 respect due to the successors of the Apostles, even when indi- 
 viduals of their order may have most swerved from Apostolic 
 precepts and examples. How little soever at any time indi- 
 viduals among the Russian clergy may have had to recom- 
 mend them of those qualities, which generally command the 
 esteem of the world, as rank, wealth, learning, eloquence, or 
 even, I fear I must say, occasionally good moral conduct, 
 nothing has been ever able to shake the deep and well- 
 grounded respect entertained by the laity for their office. 
 The firm persuasion in the minds of the people of their divine 
 commission and authority from the Apostles and from Christ, 
 has counterbalanced all the evil consequences of any partial 
 deficiencies in the men themselves, whenever and in whatever
 
 XVI TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 degree they have existed or may still exist. May not we clergy 
 of the Church of England learn something from this example ? 
 If in any thing our teaching of those entrusted to our care has 
 been defective, if in any point we have failed to declare the 
 whole counsel of God, it has been this. Hence it has 
 naturally followed, that we have been too often looked upon 
 merely as the teachers of an Act of Parliament Religion, or 
 as ministers of the most wealthy and influential of those sects 
 or persuasions, with which our country abounds. Our 
 ministry has been therefore esteemed and respected for our 
 learning, eloquence, or piety, or been despised for our want 
 of them ; and we have been either preferred or postponed to 
 the sectarian preacher, who has intruded into our charge, 
 from our superiority or inferiority to him in these qualifica- 
 tions ; whilst our Apostolical descent, the true point of differ- 
 ence between us, and to which he does not even make any 
 pretensions, has been ridiculed by our enemies, and too often 
 but coldly and doubtfully defended by our friends. And the 
 cause of this has been, that we have been untrue to our- 
 selves; that from a morbid sensibility, or a foolish fear of 
 appearing to magnify ourselves, if not from feelings still more 
 culpable, we have neglected an important part of our duty, 
 in not magnifying our office. A conviction of the truth of 
 this, has, I am glad to learn, begun to be generally felt. May 
 the example here presented before us of the happy effects 
 which have accrued to the Church of Russia, the firm hold 
 she retains on the public mind and affections, resulting in 
 great measure from her deep-rooted belief of this important 
 principle, add strength to the same conviction, which has 
 never yet been lost among ourselves," and lead us to adopt 
 such means as may best serve to repair the effects of our 
 past sins, negligences, and ignorances, and bring down both 
 on ourselves and our flocks the fulness of the Divine blessing. 
 
 R. W. BLACKMORE. 
 
 Cronstadt, 
 August 30th, 1841.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 PREFACE ....... 3. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Introduction of Christianity into Russia, 
 
 A.D. 866. to A.D. 1015 7. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Further Establishment of the Faith. The first Monas- 
 teries, A.D. 1015-72 19. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Period during which the Metropolitans sat at Kieff ; till 
 
 the invasion of the Tartars, A.D. 1072, to A.D. 1240 27. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Period during which the Metropolitans sat at Vladimir. . 46. 
 
 Cyrill II 23rd Met A.D. 1250 46. 
 
 Maximus 24th Met A.D. 1283 49. 
 
 St. Peter 25th Met A.D. 1308 51. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Period during which the Metropolitans resided at Moscow. . 57, 
 
 Theognostes *. . . 26th Met A.D. 1328 ibid. 
 
 St. Alexis 27th Met A.D. 1353 59. 
 
 Cyprian 28th Met A.D. 1380 65. 
 
 Photius 29th Met A.D. 1410 71. 
 
 Isidore 30th Met A.D. 1432 75. 
 
 St. Jonah 31st Met A.D. 1448 78. 
 
 Theodosius .... 32nd Met AD. 1462 83. 
 
 Philip 1 33rd Met A.D. 1467 84. 
 
 Gerontius . . 34th Met. . . A.D. 1472. . 86.
 
 XV111 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Zosimus 35th Met A.D. 1491 89. 
 
 Simon 36th Met A.D. 1496 91. 
 
 Barlaam 37th Met A.D. 1511 97. 
 
 Daniel 38th Met A.D. 1522 98. 
 
 Joasaph 39th Met A.D. 1539 100. 
 
 Macarius 40th Met A.D. 1542 101. 
 
 Athanasius .... 41st Met A.D. 1564 112. 
 
 St. Philip 42nd Met A.D. 1565 114. 
 
 Cyrill III. .... 43rd Met A.D. 1568 117. 
 
 Anthony 44th Met A.D. 1572 120. 
 
 Dionysius .... 45th Met A.D. 1582 123. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 The Patriarchs. 'Job, first Patriarch, . . . A.D. 1587 126. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Hermogenes, second Patriarch, A.D. 1606 155. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 Philaret, third Patriarch, A.D. 1620 176. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 Joasaph I., fourth Patriarch, A.D. 1631 136. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 Joseph, fifth Patriarch, A.D. 1642 191. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Nikon, sixth Patriarch, A.D. 1653 203. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 Joasaph II., seventh Patriarch, A.D. 1667 233. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 Pitirim, eighth Patriarch, A.D. 1672 242. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 Joachim, ninth Patriarch, A.D. 1673 243. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Adrian, tenth Patriarch, A.D. 1690 258.
 
 CONTENTS. Xi^ 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Stephen Yavorsky, Guardian of the Patriarchate, 
 
 A.D. 1701 263. 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 The Most Holy Synod, A.D. 1721 284. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 1. An account of the coming of the Patriarch Jeremiah into 
 Russia. . ..... 289 
 
 2. Of the coming of the Metropolitan Dionysius. . . 325
 
 THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE EUSSIAN CHURCH. 
 
 : DO YOU SEE THESE HILLS? FOR ON THESE HILLS 
 SHALL SHINE FORTH THE GRACE OF GOD."
 
 This Book is permitted to be printed by the St. Petersburg Com- 
 mittee of Censorship for Religious Publications. 
 
 October 10, 1840. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 ATHANASIUS, ARCHIMANDRITE, 
 
 Rector of the Seminary at St. Petersburg!!, and Censor.
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 THE History of the Orthodox Church of our country 
 which I now present to the Public, is merely a cursory glance 
 at the great events that have marked the plantation and 
 gradual development of this flourishing branch of the Uni- 
 versal Church. By the wise providence of God it was 
 ordained that when the Church of Jerusalem, the Mother 
 of all Churches, was overwhelmed by the invasion of barba- 
 rians, the Church of Constantinople should shine out with 
 peculiar lustre in the East, and spread her scions into all the 
 North. And when she again in her turn, though she lost 
 not her inward purity, fell under external calamities, then 
 suddenly, as a sea that bursts its bounds, the Orthodox Faith 
 overflowed and spread itself over the boundless tracts of 
 Russia; and the Eastern Catholic Church may now count 
 her children from the shores of the Adriatic to the bays 
 of the Eastern ocean on the coast of America, from the 
 icefields which grind against the Solovetsky Monastery on 
 its savage islet in the North to the heart of the Arabian 
 and Egyptian deserts, on the verge of which stands the 
 1 Lavra of Sinai. 
 
 This picture, consolatory to every Christian, is more 
 especially calculated to rejoice the heart of a Russian, on 
 account of the mighty destinies which the Church of our 
 country has either already accomplished, or is still accom- 
 plishing, over so vast a field. Let him but cast a look 
 of tenderness on the cradle of our Faith, the ancient City 
 of Kieff; or on Moscow, the elder of our two capitals, the 
 heart of Orthodoxy; let him trace in thought the acts 
 of Prelates such as Cyrill, Peter, Alexis, Cyprian, Jonah, 
 Philip, Job, Hermogenes, Philaret ; of Monks and Hermits, 
 
 B2
 
 4 PREFACE. 
 
 like Antony and Theodosius, Sergius, the Zosimi, the Cyrills, 
 and others without number, whose names live in that 
 monastic world which has peopled the repose of our forests ; 
 of Princes, such as the Vladimirs, the Michaels, or Alexander 
 Nefsky, whose earthly diadems beamed in anticipation of the 
 crowns which they were to receive in Paradise. Then what 
 an army of Martyrs ! what a company of women and of men 
 of every age and calling, who, by the holiness of their lives or 
 by their sufferings, have been confessors for the Name of 
 Christ ! And in the midst of all these varied scenes, how 
 striking is the unity of the Faith, which has been preserved in 
 such constant purity, that in spite of all circumstances which 
 may have temporarily interrupted external communication 
 between the Churches of Eastern Orthodoxy, they all constitute 
 together in spirit but one whole ! When the Church of Georgia 2 , 
 now only a short time back, became an integral portion of the 
 Russian Church and Empire, after having stood alone, cut off 
 and isolated from all other Churches ever since the fourth 
 century, there was not found to have arisen in the course of 
 fifteen hundred years any the slightest difference between 
 them in doctrine, no, nor even in ceremonies; but they 
 agreed in all points with us and with the other (Ecumenical 
 Thrones of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusa- 
 lem, and with the Churches dependent upon the first 
 of them in Moldavia, Wallachia, Servia, Montenegria, Tran- 
 sylvania, Illyria, and in a word, throughout all Sclavonia. 
 
 In a rapid sketch like the present, which professes only to 
 mark the general outline of the course of Ecclesiastical affairs, 
 I have not thought it necessary to weary the reader with per- 
 petual references to authorities, which for the most part are 
 well known to all; such as The Annals of Nestor and his 
 continuators, collected together by the Patriarch Nicon ; The 
 Books of the Genealogies of our Princes, by the Metropolitans 
 Cyprian and Macarius ; and The Lives of the Saints. The 
 Church Histories of Plato and Innocentius, the valuable 
 Dictionary of Russian Authors, by the Metropolitan Eugenius, 
 with his Hierarchy of KiefF and all Russia, and the work of
 
 PREFACE. 5 
 
 the immortal Karamzin, so rich in proofs of the close atten- 
 tion which he had bestowed on Russian history, together 
 with those of other living authors on the same subject, have 
 served me for authorities, and supplied me with most of my 
 materials, down to the times of the Patriarchate. 
 
 From this point I have chiefly had recourse either to MSS. 
 which are preserved in the Patriarchal Library at Moscow, 
 or to books published by the Patriarchs. Thus the de- 
 scription of the coming of Jeremiah Patriarch of Constan- 
 tinople, in order to raise Job to the Patriarchal dignity, with 
 all the circumstances of this event, has been taken from con- 
 temporary Acts ; and in like manner the whole affair of the 
 trial of the Patriarch Nicon. The different steps successively 
 taken for the correction of the Church books, have been 
 accurately described in the Prefaces to the Office-books 
 of Philaret, the Tablets of Nicon, the Staff of Rule and 
 Instruction of Joachim. The Ancient Russian Library, 
 composed almost entirely from MSS. of the Patriarchal 
 Vestry, which had been carefully collected by Nicon; The 
 History of the Unia, by Kamensky; RoumanzofFs Collection 
 of Letters ; The Archaeological Acts, full of matter which has 
 been only recently rescued from obscurity; and the most useful 
 Collection of the Laws of the Empire, shed abundant light on 
 the century during which the Patriarchate lasted, and leave 
 nothing to be desired by the historian. 
 
 Such are the sources of this imperfect work, which I cast 
 as my mite into the Treasury of the Russian Church.
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA. 
 
 THE Russian Church, like the other Orthodox Churches of CHAP. 
 the East, had an Apostle for its founder. St. Andrew, the first 
 called of the Twelve, hailed with his blessing long beforehand 
 the destined introduction of Christianity into our country. 
 Ascending up and penetrating by the Dnieper into the 
 deserts of Scythia, he planted the first cross on the hills of 
 Kieff, and " See you," said he to his disciples, " these 
 hills ? On these hills shall shine the light of Divine grace. 
 There shall be here a great city, and God shall have in 
 it many Churches to His Name." Such are the words of 
 the holy Nestor the Monk and Annalist of the Pechersky 
 monastery, that point from whence Christian Russia has 
 sprung. 
 
 But it was only after an interval of nine centuries that the 
 rays of Divine light beamed upon Russia from the walls of 
 Byzantium, in which city the same Apostle St. Andrew had 
 appointed Stachys to be the first Bishop, and so committed 
 as it were to him and to his successors, in the spirit of pre- 
 science, the charge of that wide region in which he had 
 himself preached Christ. Hence the indissoluble connection 
 of the Russian with the Greek Church, and the dependence 
 of her Metropolitans during six centuries upon the Patri- 
 archal throne of Constantinople, until, with its consent, she 
 obtained her own equality and independence in that which 
 was accorded to her native Primates. 
 
 The Bulgarians of the Danube, the Moravians, and the 
 Slavonians of Illyria, had been already enlightened by holy
 
 8 THE ORIGIN OF 
 
 CHAP. Baptism about the middle of the ninth century, during the 
 
 reign of the Greek Emperor Michael, and the Patriarchate of 
 
 the illustrious Photius. l St. Cyrill and St. Methodius, two 
 learned Greek brothers, translated into the Slavonic the 
 New Testament and the books used in Divine service, and 
 according to some accounts even the whole Bible. This 
 translation of the word of God became afterwards a most 
 blessed instrument for the conversion of the Russians, for 
 the missionaries were by it enabled to expound the truths of 
 the gospel to the heathens in their native dialect, and so 
 win for them a readier entrance to their hearts. 
 
 So far as we know, it appears that Oskold and Dir, two 
 princes of Kieff and of the companions of Ruric, were the 
 first of the Russians who embraced Christianity. In the 
 year 866 they made their appearance in armed vessels before 
 the walls of Constantinople, when the Emperor was absent, 
 and threw the Greek capital into no little alarm and con- 
 fusion. Tradition reports that the Patriarch Photius took 
 the virginal robe of the Mother of God from the 2 Blachern 
 Church, and plunged it beneath the waves of the strait, 
 when the sea immediately boiled up from underneath and 
 wrecked the vessels of the heathen. Struck with awe, they 
 believed in that God who had smitten them, and became the 
 first-fruits of their people to the Lord. The hymn of victory 
 of the Greek Church " 3 To the protecting Conductress" in 
 honour of the most holy Virgin has remained a memorial 
 of this triumph, and even now among ourselves concludes 
 the Office for the First Hour in the daily Mattins, for that 
 was indeed the first hour of salvation to the land of Russia. 
 
 It is probable that on their return to their own country 
 the Princes of Kieff sowed there the seeds of Christianity; 
 for, eighty years afterwards, on occasion of a conference for 
 peace between the Prince Igor 4 and certain Byzantine ambas- 
 sadors, we find mention already of a Church of the Prophet 
 Elias in Kieff where the Christian Varagians swore to the 
 observance of the treaty. Constantine Porphyrogenitus and 
 other Greek annalists even relate that in the lifetime of
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA. 9 
 
 Oskold there was a Bishop sent to the Eussians by the CHAP. 
 
 Emperor Basil the Macedonian, and the Patriarch St. Igna- ' 
 
 tins, and that he made many converts, chiefly in consequence 
 of the 5 miraculous preservation of a volume of the Gospels, 
 which was thrown publicly into the flames and taken out 
 after some time unconsumed. Also in Codinus' Catalogue 
 of Sees subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople, the 
 Metropolitical See of Russia appears as early as the year 891. 
 
 Lastly, it is certain that many of the Varagians who 
 served in the Imperial body-guard were Christians, and 
 that the Greek sovereigns never lost sight of any oppor- 
 tunity of converting them to their own faith, by which 
 they hoped to soften their savage manners. When the 
 Emperor Leo was concluding a peace with Oleg he shewed 
 not only his own treasures to the ambassadors of the Russian 
 Prince, but also the splendour of the churches, the holy 
 Relics, the precious Icons, and the Instruments of the 
 Passion of our Lord, if by any means they might catch 
 from them the spirit of the true Faith. 
 
 Some such influences as these, while Christianity as yet 
 was only struggling for an uncertain existence at Kieff, 
 produced in good time their effect on the wisest of the 
 daughters of the Slavonians, the widowed Princess Olga, who 
 governed Russia during the minority of her son Sviatoslaff 6 . 
 She undertook a voyage to Constantinople for no other end 
 than to obtain a knowledge of the true God, and there she 965 
 received Baptism at the hands of the Patriarch Polyeuctes, 
 the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself, who 
 admired her wisdom, being her godfather. Nestor draws an 
 affecting picture of the Patriarch foretelling to the newly- 
 illumined Princess the blessings which were to descend 
 by her means on future generations of the Russians, while 
 Olga now become Helena by Baptism, that she might 
 resemble both in name and deed the mother of Constantine 
 the Great, stood meekly bowing down her head and drinking 
 in, as a sponge that is thirsty of moisture, the instructions of 
 the Prelate concerning the canons of the Church, fasting,
 
 10 THE ORIGIN OF 
 
 CHAP, prayer, almsgiving, and continence, all which she observed 
 
 '- with holy exactness on her return to her own country. 
 
 There, although in spite of all her entreaties the fierce 
 and warlike Prince Sviatoslaff persisted in refusing to 
 humble his proud heart under the meek yoke of Christ, he 
 had still so much affection for his mother as not only 
 not to persecute such as agreed with her in religion, but 
 even to allow them freely to make open profession of 
 their Faith under the protection of that Princess. He 
 confided his children to her care during his incessant 
 military expeditions, and so enabled her to confirm the 
 saving impressions of Christianity among the people who 
 respected her, and to instil them into the mind of her young 
 grandson Vladimir: for nothing sinks so deep into the 
 heart as the simple and affectionate words of a mother. 
 The Princess had with her a Priest named Gregory, whom 
 she had brought from Constantinople, and by him she 
 was buried after her death in the spot which she had 
 herself appointed, without any of the usual Pagan cere- 
 monies 7 . The people by whom she had been surnamed 
 The Wise during life, began to bless her for a Saint after 
 her death, when they came themselves to follow the example 
 of this Morning- Star which had risen and gone before to 
 lead Russia into the path of salvation. 
 
 Nowhere has Christianity ever been less persecuted at its 
 first introduction, than in our own country. The Chronicle 
 speaks of only two Christian Martyrs, the Varagians Theodore 
 and John, who were put to death by the fury of the people, 
 because one of them from natural affection had refused 
 to give up his son, when he had been devoted by the Prince 
 Vladimir to be offered as a sacrifice to Peroun 8 . 
 
 Probably the very zeal of this Prince for the heathen deities, 
 to whom he set up statues, and multiplied altars, may have 
 inspired the neighbouring nations with the desire of convert- 
 ing so powerful a ruler to their respective creeds ; and thus 
 his blind impulse towards the Deity which was unknown 
 to him, received a true direction. The Mahometan Bulga-
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA. 11 
 
 rians were the first to send ambassadors to him, with the CHAP. 
 offer of their faith ; but the mercy of Providence, for so it - 
 plainly was, inspired him to give them a decided refusal, on 
 the ground that he did not choose to comply with some of 
 their regulations ; though else a sensual religion might well 
 have enticed a man who was given up to the indulgence of 
 his passions. 
 
 The Chazarian Jews flattered themselves with the hope of 
 attracting the Prince by boasting of their religion, and the 
 ancient glory of Jerusalem. "But where," demanded the 
 wise grandson of Olga, " is your country ? " " It is ruined 
 by the wrath of God for the sins of our fathers," was their 
 answer. Vladimir then said that he had no mind to embrace 
 the Law of a people whom God had abandoned. There came 
 also Western Doctors, from Germany, who would have per- 
 suaded Vladimir to embrace Christianity; but their Chris- 
 tianity seemed strange to him, for Russia had hitherto no 
 acquaintance but with Byzantium. " Return home," he 
 said, "our ancestors did not receive this religion from 
 you." 
 
 A Greek embassy had the best success of them all. 
 A certain philosopher, a Monk named Constantine, after 
 having exposed the insufficiency of other religions, eloquently 
 set before the Prince those judgments of God which are in 
 all the world, the redemption of the human race by the 
 blood of Christ 9 , and the retribution of the life to come; his 
 discourse powerfully affected the heathen monarch, who was 
 burdened with the heavy sins of a tumultuous youth ; and 
 this was particularly the case when the Monk pointed out to 
 him on an Ikon, which represented the last judgment, 
 the different lot of the just and of the wicked. " Good to 
 these on the right hand, but woe to those on the left," ex- 
 claimed Vladimir, deeply affected : but sensual nature still 
 struggled in him against heavenly truth. Having dismissed 
 the missionary, or ambassador, with presents, he still hesitated 
 to decide; and wished first to examine further concerning 
 the faith, in concert with the elders of his Council, that all
 
 12 THE ORIGIN OF 
 
 CHAP. Russia might have a share in his conversion. The Council of 
 ~ the Prince decided to send chosen men to make their observ- 
 ations on each religion on the spot where it was professed ; 
 and this public agreement explains in some degree the 
 sudden and general acceptance of Christianity which shortly 
 after followed in Russia. It is probable that not only the 
 Chiefs, but the common people also, were expecting and ready 
 for the change 10 . 
 
 The Greek Emperors did not fail to profit by this favourable 
 opportunity ; and the Patriarch himself in person celebrated 
 the Divine Liturgy in the church of St. Sophia, with the 
 utmost possible magnificence, before the astonished ambas- 
 sadors of Vladimir. The sublimity and splendour of the 
 service forcibly struck them ; but we may not ascribe to the 
 mere external impression that softening of the hearts of 
 these heathens, on which depended the conversion of a whole 
 nation. From the very earliest times of the Church, 
 extraordinary signs of God's power have constantly gone 
 hand in hand with that apparent weakness of man by which 
 the Gospel was preached : and so also the Byzantine 
 Chronicle relates of the Russian ambassadors, " That during 
 the Divine Liturgy, at the time of carrying the Holy 
 Gifts in procession to the Throne or altar and singing 
 the Cherubic hymn, the eyes of their spirits were opened, 
 and they saw, as in an ecstacy, Glittering youths who 
 joined in singing the Hymn of the Thrice Holy. Being 
 thus fully persuaded of the truth of the orthodox faith, 
 they returned to their own country already Christians in 
 heart ; and without saying a word before the Prince in 
 favour of the other religions, they declared thus con- 
 cerning the Greek : " When we stood in the temple we 
 did not know where we were, for there is nothing else like 
 it upon earth : there in truth God has His dwelling with 
 men ; and we can never forget the beauty we saw there. 
 No one who has once tasted sweets, will afterwards take 
 that which is bitter : nor can we now any longer abide in 
 heathenism." Then the Boyars said to Vladimir, If the
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA. 13 
 
 religion of the Greeks had not been good, your grandmother CHAP. 
 
 Olga, who was the wisest of women, would not have embraced : 
 
 it. The weight of the name of Olga decided her grandson, 
 and he said no more in answer than these words, "Where 
 shall we be baptized 11 ?" 
 
 But Vladimir, led by a sense which had not yet been 
 purged by Grace, thought it best to follow the custom of his 
 ancestors, who made warlike descents upon Constantinople, 
 and so win to himself, sword in hand, his new religion. He 
 embarked his warriors on board their vessels, and attacked 992 
 Cherson 12 in the Tauride, a city which was subject to the 
 Emperors. After a long and unsuccessful siege, a certain 
 priest, named Anastasius, by means of an arrow shot from 
 the town, informed the Prince that the fate of the besieged 
 depended upon his cutting off the aqueducts, which supplied 
 them with water. Vladimir in great joy made a vow that 
 he would be baptized if he gained possession of the town : 
 and he did gain possession of it. Then he sent to demand 
 from the Greek Emperors the hand of their sister Anna, 
 and they in answer proposed as a condition that he should 
 embrace Christianity ; for though they themselves desired an 
 alliance with so powerful a prince, they at the same time 
 took care to follow the prudent and pious policy of their 
 predecessors, who had ever sought to bring their fierce 
 neighbours under the humanizing influence of the Faith. 
 The Prince declared his consent ; because, in his own words, 
 " He had long since examined, and conceived a love for the 
 Greek Law." 
 
 It was her faith alone which influenced the Princess to 
 sacrifice herself at once for the temporal interests of her own 
 country, and for the eternal welfare of a strange people. 
 Accompanied by a venerable body of clergy, she sailed for 
 Cherson, and on her arrival induced the Prince to hasten his 
 baptism ; for it was so ordered, says the pious Annalist, by 
 the wisdom of God, that the sight of the Prince was at that 
 time much affected by a complaint of the eyes : but at the 
 moment that the Bishop of Cherson laid his hands upon him,
 
 14 THE ORIGIN OF 
 
 CHAP, when lie had risen up out of the bath of regeneration, 
 - Vladimir suddenly received not only spiritual illumination, 
 but also the bodily sight of his eyes, and cried out, " Now I 
 have seen the true God 13 /' 
 
 Many of the Prince's suite were so struck by his miraculous 
 recovery, that they followed his example, and were baptized 
 in like manner ; and these were doubtless afterwards zealous 
 for the introduction of Christianity into their country. The 
 baptism and marriage of Vladimir were both celebrated in 
 the church of the Most Holy Mother of God ; and hence no 
 doubt arose his peculiar zeal for the most pure Virgin, to 
 whose honour he afterwards erected a cathedral church in 
 his own city of Kieff. In Cherson itself he built a church, in 
 the name of his angel or patron St. Basil ; and taking with 
 him the relics of St. Clement, Bishop of Rome, and his 
 disciple Thebas 14 , with church vessels and ornaments, and 
 Ikons, he restored the city to be again under the power of the 
 Emperors, and returned to Kieff, accompanied by the Princess 
 their daughter, and her Greek Ecclesiastics. 
 
 St. Mi- Nestor makes no mention of any of the Bishops and 
 Metropoli- Priests from Constantinople and Cherson who followed in 
 the train of the Prince, excepting only of one, Anastasius, 
 the Priest who had rendered him such good service during 
 the siege ; but the Books of the Genealogies give the name 
 of Michael, a Syrian by birth, and of six other Bishops who 
 were sent together with him to Cherson by the Patriarch 
 Nicholas Chrysoberges. Some have ventured to suppose 
 that Michael was the name of the Bishop of the times of 
 Oskold ; but Nestor says nothing about him : and thus much 
 only is certain, that he stands the first in the list of the 
 Metropolitans of Russia. 
 
 After his return to Kieff the Great Prince 15 caused his 
 twelve sons to be baptized, and proceeded to destroy the 
 monuments of heathenism. He ordered Peroun to be thrown 
 into the Dnieper. The people at first followed their idol, as 
 it was borne down the stream, but were soon quieted when 
 they saw that the statue had no power to help itself. And
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA. 15 
 
 now \ 7 ladimir being surrounded and supported by believers CHAP. 
 in his own domestic circle, and encouraged by seeing that 
 his Boyars and Suite were prepared and ready to embrace 
 the faith, made a proclamation to the people, "That 
 whoever, on the morrow, should not repair to the 
 river, whether rich or poor, he should hold him for his 
 enemy/' At the call of their respected Lord 16 all the 
 multitude of the citizens in troops, with their wives and 
 children, nocked to the Dnieper; and without any manner 
 of opposition received holy Baptism as a nation, from 
 the Greek Bishops and Priests. Nestor draws a touching 
 picture of this baptism of a whole people at once. " Some 
 stood in the water up to their necks, others up to their 
 breasts, holding their young children in their arms; the 
 Priests read the prayers from the shore, naming at once whole 
 companies by the same name/' He who was the means of 
 thus bringing them to salvation, filled with a transport of joy 
 at the affecting sight, cried out to the Lord, offering and 
 commending into His hands himself and his people ; " O 
 great God ! who hast made Heaven and Earth, look down 
 upon these Thy new people. Grant them, O Lord, to know 
 Thee the true God, as Thou hast been made known to 
 Christian lands, and confirm in them a true and unfailing 
 faith ; and assist me, O Lord, against my enemy that opposes 
 me, that trusting in Thee, and in Thy power, I may over- 
 come all his wiles." Vladimir erected the first church, that 
 of St. Basil, after whom he was named, on the very mount 
 which had formerly been sacred to Peroun, adjoining his own 
 palace. Thus was Russia Enlightened. 
 
 So sudden and ready a conversion of the inhabitants of 
 Kieff might well seem improbable, that is, unless effected by 
 violence, did we not attend to the fact that the Russians had 
 been gradually becoming enlightened ever since the times of 
 Oskold, for more than a hundred years, by means of com- 
 merce, treaties of peace, and relations of every kind with the 
 Greeks, .as well as with the Bulgarians and Slavonians of 
 kindred origin with ourselves, who had already been long in
 
 16 THE ORIGIN OF 
 
 CHAP, possession of the holy Scriptures in their own language. The 
 constant endeavours of the Greek Emperors for the conversion 
 of the Russians by means of their ambassadors and preachers, 
 the tolerance of the Princes, the example and protection 
 of Olga, and the very delay and hesitation of Vladimir in 
 selecting his religion, must have favourably disposed the 
 minds of the people towards it ; especially if it be true, as 
 has been asserted, that Russia had already had a Bishop in 
 the time of Oskold. In a similar way, though under different 
 circumstances, in the vast Roman empire, the conversion 
 of Constantine the Great suddenly rendered Christianity 
 the dominant religion, because, in fact, it had long before 
 penetrated among all ranks of his subjects. 
 
 Vladimir engaged zealously in building churches through- 
 out the towns and villages of his dominions, and sent Priests to 
 preach in them. He also founded many towns all around Kieff, 
 and so propagated and confirmed the Christian religion in 
 the neighbourhood of the capital, from whence the new 
 colonies were sent forth. Neither was he slow in establishing 
 schools, into which he brought together the children of the 
 Boyars, sometimes even in spite of the unwillingness of 
 their rude parents. In the mean time the Metropolitan, 
 with his Bishops, made progresses into the interior of Russia, 
 to the cities of Rostoff and Novogorod, everywhere baptizing 
 and instructing the people. Vladimir himself, for the same 
 good end, went in company with other Bishops to the 
 district of Souzdal and to Volhynia. The Boyars 17 on the 
 Volga and some of the Pechenegian 18 Princes embraced the 
 gospel of salvation together with his subjects, and rejoiced 
 to be admitted to holy Baptism. 
 
 The pious Prince wished to see in his own capital a magni- 
 ficent temple in honour of the Birth of the most holy Virgin, 
 to be a likeness and memorial of that at Cherson, in which 
 he himself had been baptized ; and the year after his conver- 
 sion he sent to Greece for builders, and laid the foundation of 
 the first stone 19 cathedral in Russia, on the very same spot 
 where the Varagian 20 martyrs had suffered. But the first
 
 CHRISTIANITY IX RUSSIA. 17 
 
 metropolitan was not to live to its completion; only his CHAP. 
 
 holy remains were buried in it, and were thence translated - 
 
 afterwards to the Pecherskay 21 Lavra. Another metropolitan, n. 
 Leontius, a Greek by birth, sent by the same patriarch Let)1 1US * 
 Nicholas, consecrated the new temple, to the great satisfaction 
 of Vladimir, who made a vow to endow it with the tenth 22 part 
 of all his revenues ; and from hence it was called The Cathe- 
 dral of the Tithes. 
 
 These tithes, according to the ordinance 13 ascribed to Prince 
 Vladimir, consisted of the fixed quota of corn, cattle, and the 
 profits of trade, for the support of the clergy and the poor ; 
 and besides this there was a further tithe collected from 
 every cause which was tried ; for the right of judging causes 
 was granted to the bishops and the metropolitan, and they 
 judged according to the Nomocanon 24 . The canons of the 
 holy councils and the Greek ecclesiastical laws, together 
 with the holy Scriptures, were taken from the very first as 
 the basis of all ecclesiastical administration in Russia; and 
 together with them there came into use some portions also 
 of the civil law of the Greeks, through the influence of the 
 Church. The care of the new temple and the collection of 
 the tithes for its support was entrusted to a native of Cherson 
 named Anastasius, who enjoyed the confidence of Vladimir 
 and his successors. 
 
 The light of Christianity had now been diffused throughout 
 the whole of Russia ; but still the faith was nowhere as yet 
 firmly established, because there were no bishops regularly 
 settled in the towns. The Metropolitan Leontius formed 
 the first five dioceses 25 , and appointed Joachim of Cherson 996. 
 to be bishop of Novogorod, Theodorus of Rostoff, Neophytus 
 of Chernigoff, Stephen the Volhynian of Vladimir, and Nicetas 
 of Belgorod. Assisted by Dobrina, the uncle of the Great 
 Prince, who had long governed in Novogorod, the new Bishop 
 Joachim threw the statue K of Peroun into the Volkoff, and 
 broke down the .idolatrous 27 altars without any opposition on 
 the part of the citizens ; for they too, like the inhabitants of 
 Kieff, from their comparative degree of civilization and from
 
 18 THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA. 
 
 CHAP, their relations of intercourse with the Greeks were in all pro- 
 ~ bability already favourably disposed for the reception of Chris- 
 tianity. Tradition asserts, that even as far back as the time of 
 St. Olga the Hermits Sergius and Germanus lived upon the 
 desolate island of Balaam in the lake Ladoga, and that from 
 thence St. Abramius went forth to preach Christ to the 
 savage inhabitants of Rostoff. 
 
 The attempt to found a diocese at Rostoff was less suc- 
 cessful. The first two bishops, Theodore and Hilarion, were 
 driven away by the fierce tribes of the forest district of 
 Meri, who held obstinately to their idols in spite of the zeal 
 of Abramius. It cost the two succeeding bishops, St. Leon- 
 tius and St. Isaiah, many years of extraordinary labour and 
 exertion, attended frequently by persecutions, before they at 
 length succeeded in establishing Christianity in that savage 
 region, from whence it spread itself by degrees into all the 
 surrounding districts. 
 
 Thus Vladimir 28 , having piously observed the command- 
 ments of Christ during the course of his long reign, had the 
 consolation of seeing before his death the fruits of his own 
 conversion in all the wide extent of his dominions. He 
 departed this life in peace at Kieff 29 , and was soon reckoned 
 with his grandmother Olga amongst the guardian saints of 
 TIT. Russia. John, the third metropolitan, who had been sent 
 1015. from Constantinople upon the death of Leontius, buried the 
 prince in the Church of the Tithes which he had built, near 
 the tomb of the Grecian princess his wife, and the uncor- 
 rupted relics of St. Olga were translated to the same spot 30 .
 
 CHAP. IL 
 
 FURTHER ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. 
 
 THE FIRST MONASTERIES. 
 
 FAMILY quarrels broke out amongst the sons of St. Via- CHAP. 
 
 dimir. After his decease the eldest brother Sviatopolk '- 
 
 endeavoured by his intrigues to appropriate to himself 
 the appanages of his younger brothers, and succeeded in 
 treacherously murdering three of them. But the death or 
 rather martyrdom of Boris and Gleb recoiled upon his own 
 head, and crushed under him his bloody throne, which 
 passed to Yaroslaff prince of Novogorod the avenger of his 
 brethren. 
 
 The untimely end of the young princes, who tenderly 
 loved each other, is described in an affecting manner by 
 Nestor. The murderous sword cut them off both together 
 while in the act of prayer : both together as pure sacrifices, 
 sprinkled with their own innocent blood, they presented 
 themselves before the Lord; and the Church being assured 
 of their sanctity by the incorruption of their virgin bodies 
 and by many signs of healing, soon began to ask their 
 assistance in her prayers. 
 
 The long reign of the great Yaroslaff, notwithstanding 
 his foreign wars with Boleslaus king of Poland, with the 
 Greeks, the Pechenegians, and other neighbouring nations, 
 and notwithstanding his domestic quarrel with his brother 
 Mistislaff of Tmoutaracan 1 , was decidedly the most flou- 
 rishing period of antiquity for Russia, which was at length 
 all united under his powerful sceptre. Christianity was 
 
 c2
 
 20 
 
 FURTHER ESTABLISHMENT 
 
 CHAP, established far and wide, as he himself was filled with the 
 ~ spirit of piety, and was ever anxious for the good of the 
 Church. His two ordinances which are extant, the one 
 exempting the spirituality from all civil duties and payments, 
 the other confirming to the bishops the right granted them 
 by St. Vladimir of judging in all causes of marriage, inherit- 
 ance, and sacrilege, as well as in all that related to the 
 external or internal discipline of the Church, bear witness 
 to YaroslafPs good disposition in spiritual matters. Whilst he 
 was desirous to secure the interests of his people by the enact- 
 ment of a body of civil law, he gave no less attention to the 
 subject of ecclesiastical legislation; and by his orders the 
 Nomocanon was translated from the Greek, that our native 
 bishops, now beginning to succeed into the places of those 
 who had come at first from Constantinople, might be able to 
 guide themselves by its rules. He himself gave much time 
 and pains to the study and translation of a variety of Church 
 books which he had collected into a library on the spot 
 where the metropolitan resided 2 ; and he set up schools in 
 Kieff and Novogorod for the education of those of the children 
 of clergy or laity who might be preparing themselves for holy 
 orders. 
 
 Three magnificent monuments of the glorious times of 
 Yaroslaff still remain to us; the cathedral of St. Saviour, 
 which was founded at Chernigoff by the Prince Mistislaff, 
 and is the most ancient of all the sacred edifices of Russia ; 
 the temple of St. Sophia in Novogorod, erected by Vladimir, 
 son of Yaroslaff, who died while only a youth, and was buried 
 there together with his mother; this church has not suf- 
 fered materially either from wars or time, but has been 
 preserved in all its grandeur, as a jewel above price to 
 our country ; lastly, in Kieff there is the metropolitical 
 church of St. Sophia, which was built by the Great Prince 
 Yaroslaff himself on the spot where he had gained the 
 victory over the Pechenegians. The high-sounding name of 
 St. Sophia pleased the prince, who wished to reproduce in 
 his own capital the monuments of Byzantium, and was
 
 OF THE FAITH. 1 
 
 delighted that even in his time it already enjoyed the repu- CHAP. 
 
 tation of being a second Constantinople 8 . He had called one 
 
 of its gates The Golden, as if in memory of those gates at 
 Constantinople, on which his ancestor Oleg had hung his 
 victorious shield; but Yaroslaff still more ardently desired 
 that that temple of the Divine Wisdom, St. Sophia, in which 
 his father's ambassadors had first believed on the true God, 
 should be copied at least in name, if not altogether in struc- 
 ture, in his two capitals of Kieff and Novogorod, as Vladimir 
 had erected the cathedral of the most holy Virgin in memory 
 of that at Cherson in which he was baptized. The Metro- iv. 
 
 Theo- 
 
 politan Theopemptus, who had been sent by the Patriarch pemptus. 
 Alexis Studites 4 , consecrated the cathedral of St. Sophia, 
 and it has stood even to our own times, together with the 
 marble tomb of its founder, through all the storms of the 
 Mongolian invasion, and the frequent sackings of Kieff. It 
 is not indeed, it is true, in so perfect a state of preservation as 
 that at Novogorod, but still it retains its original form and 
 appearance, at least up to the arches, whilst the church of the 
 Tithes, on the contrary, has been levelled to its foundations. 
 
 Theopemptus is the first of the metropolitans who is 
 mentioned in the Chronicle of Nestor, which is silent 
 respecting his three predecessors and speaks only of 
 bishops, possibly because the title of metropolitan came more 
 into popular use after the foundation of the metropolitical 
 residence adjoining the church of St. Sophia. We must 
 attribute it to the resentment which Yaroslaff entertained 
 against the Emperor Constantine Monomachus for having 
 put out the eyes of the Russian prisoners, that on the 
 conclusion of his last war with the Greeks, the Great Prince 
 called together the Russian bishops to elect a new metro- 
 politan from among themselves in the room of Theopemptus 
 who was dead, without taking any notice of the patriarch. 
 The pious Priest Hilarion was chosen and consecrated by v. 
 the synod: but this temporary infraction of ecclesiastical 105 1. 
 order was speedily made good by a benedictory letter 
 which Hilarion sought and obtained from the Patriarch
 
 22 THE FIEST MONASTERIES. 
 
 CHAP. Michael Cerularius. During the time that this prelate 
 
 ' occupied the metropolitical throne, there came three Greek 
 
 chaunters from Constantinople and introduced the Church- 
 song called The Domestic 5 for eight voices or tones, which 
 in several places is still preserved in all its ancient sim- 
 plicity. Yaroslaff also in his time founded two monasteries in 
 Kieff, one for men by the name of his own angel St. George 
 near the Golden gates, the other for women, which he called 
 after St. Irene 6 the angel of his consort. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the foundation of the Yidoubetz 7 
 Monastery is ascribed to the first Metropolitan Michael, and 
 notwithstanding that there were other religious houses in 
 Kieff, founded by the zeal of the boyars, still to a simple 
 and obscure hermit belongs the glory of having been the 
 father of religious celibacy in Russia, and of having made 
 his own poor retreat a nursery for the monastic life : and 
 this during a period both of many external alarms, and 
 of civil feuds caused by the three sons of Yaroslaff, who 
 purpled with gore the soil of Russia, which was only pre- 
 served by the prayers of St. Anthony and St. Theodosius. 
 "Many monasteries," says Nestor, as he is describing the 
 origin of the Pecherskay Lavra 8 , "have been founded by 
 princes and nobles, and by wealth, but they are not such as 
 those which have been founded by tears, and fasting, and 
 prayer, and vigil ; Anthony had neither gold nor silver, but 
 he procured all by prayer and fasting." 
 
 It is very remarkable that at the beginning of monasticism 
 in our country there should have been a recurrence of the 
 names of those great Hermits Hilarion, Anthony, and Theo- 
 dosius, who once nourished in the deserts of Palestine and 
 Egypt, and were now reflected, as in a mirror, in the pure live* 
 of their Russian imitators and namesakes. The Metropolitan 
 Hilarion when he was as yet only priest of the Church 
 of the holy Apostles in Berestoff, the favourite residence 
 of the Princes Vladimir and Yaroslaff, was accustomed 
 to retire for seclusion and prayer into the silent forest 
 on the beautiful banks of the Dnieper; and there, having
 
 THE FIRST MONASTERIES. 23 
 
 taken an affection to a certain picturesque site on a hill, CHAP. 
 he dug himself out a dark cave or Pesch, the germ of - '- 
 the future Lavra, and of all the religious houses of Russia. 
 Not long afterwards another hermit came and settled him- 
 self in it, for the place was already consecrated by the holy 
 life of Hilarion. 
 
 An individual named Anthony, a native of Luhetch 9 , 
 travelling abroad, visited Mount Athos, and conceived a 
 desire to finish his days there in the monastic state : but 
 the hegumen who gave him the tonsure, as if foreseeing 
 his high vocation, enjoined on him to return to his own 
 country. The humble Anthony obeyed, and brought with 
 him the blessing of the Holy Mountain. He went over all 
 the monasteries of Kieff; but his soul, thirsting for contem- 
 plation, could find no resting-place for itself any where but in 
 the deserted cave of Hilarion. There Anthony established 
 himself; though during the forty years continuance of his 
 spiritual course he was twice driven away by the disturbances 
 caused him by the princes and boyars, who soon discovered 
 that he was living among the woods in the neighbourhood 
 of Kieff. The Great Prince himself, Isyaslaff the son of 
 Yaroslaff, on one occasion paid him a visit with his suite; 
 and the hermit foretold to him, and to his two brothers, 
 their disastrous defeat by the Poloftsi, on the banks of the 
 Alta. Twelve disciples having collected themselves together 
 about him, he set Barlaam over them as hegumen, and 
 gave them his blessing to begin building a wooden church, 
 to be called after the Rest or Assumption of the Mother 
 of God, on the site of the former one, which was under 
 ground : but he himself, to avoid the interruptions and 
 disquietudes of governing, shut himself up in another cell, 
 which he had excavated at a little distance, and there spent 
 the rest of his days in prayer. But in the mean time, 
 before this took place, when the Great Prince had taken the 
 Hegumen Barlaam to preside over his newly-founded Mon- 
 astery of Demetrius, Anthony proposed to the brethren for 
 their superior the humble Theodosius, to whom was to belong
 
 24 
 
 THE FIRST MONASTERIES. 
 
 CHAP, the glory of finally establishing -the monastery, and of com- 
 - pleting the blessed beginning of Anthony. 
 
 Theodosius seeing the brethren continually multiplying 
 around him and already amounting to a hundred, wrote out 
 for them the Rule of the Studium Monastery, the strictest of 
 all in Constantinople, which a monk, who came with George 
 the new metropolitan, had brought with him from that city. 
 The manner in which the monks were to chaunt, the bowings 
 and prostrations, the reading, and the whole order of Church 
 service, and even their diet, was fixed by this Rule ; Theodo- 
 sius added to it a supplement which consisted of spiritual 
 instructions of his own, on praying without ceasing, on the 
 means of preserving one's self from evil thoughts, on mutual 
 charity, obedience, and diligence in labour; and it passed 
 afterwards as a model into all the religious houses of our 
 country, many of which were founded by monks from 
 the Pechersky, whilst the rest looked up to it and sought 
 to imitate so illustrious an example. In this manner the 
 blessing of Athos was spread abroad from it on all sides, 
 together with the Rule of Studium. The annalist Nestor, 
 who has preserved to us in his simple but authentic narrative 
 the traditions of the sacred antiquity of Russia, was an eye- 
 witness of the life and actions of Theodosius, when he 
 established the Lavra, and entered himself into its retire- 
 ment in the seventeenth year of his age, so making it the 
 cradle of our history. 
 
 The Princes Isyaslaff, Sviatoslaff, and Vsevolod, who suc- 
 cessively ascended the throne of Kieff, were all full of vener- 
 ation for the holy recluse Theodosius, and paid attention to 
 his godly instructions, although he hesitated not to rebuke 
 one of them, Sviatoslaff, for unjustly usurping his brother's 
 throne. With his assistance, Theodosius procured skilful 
 architects from Greece, and founded the spacious stone 
 Church of the Assumption 18 in the place of the original poor 
 one of wood. But like nearly all great founders, who have 
 seldom been permitted to see the outward magnificence of 
 their foundations, Theodosius was obliged to content himself
 
 THE FIRST MONASTERIES. 25 
 
 "with the inward beauty of the Lavra, and departed to his CHAP. 
 
 rest in the cells which he had dug out with Anthony. '- 
 
 His successors Stephen, and Nikon, the great assistant of 
 Anthony, continued the building, which was finished by the 
 Hegumen John, and consecrated before the end of the 
 reign of the Great Prince Vsevolod by the Metropolitan 
 John III. By order of the same hegumen the annalist 
 Nestor opened the cell or cave in which were the uncorrupted 
 relics of Theodosius, and an assembly of bishops and princes 
 solemnly translated them into the new temple. The names 
 of Anthony and Theodosius began to be invoked in prayer 
 from the time of the reign of Sviatopolk as the guardians of 
 Kieff, and the fathers of all who lived a life of religious 
 retirement in our country ; for the Lavra shot its roots deep 
 into the soil of Russia, and its beneficent influence shewed 
 itself not only in monastic seclusion, but also in the halls of 
 princes, and on the thrones of prelates. It gave its monks 
 to the Church ; Stephen to be bishop of Belgorod, St. Isaiah 
 to be the first illuminator of Rostoff, St. Nicetas to be 
 Lord 11 of Novogorod, and, according to some accounts, 
 Ephraim to be metropolitan of all Russia. Some of them 
 preached the name of Christ to the heathen, and died 
 the death of martyrs ; as Gerasimus, the first illuminator 
 of the savage Vess in the northern quarters, as Kouksha 
 and Pimen, who suffered for the word of God on the banks 
 of the Oka, while engaged in the conversion of the Viatichi. 
 Others, whose names are too many to be reckoned, and 
 whose uncorrupted bodies still tenant the same caves, sup- 
 plied examples in their seclusion of the practice of all the 
 virtues. Among these latter was a son of Nicolas prince of 
 Chernigoff, who was surnamed The Devout from his sanctity 
 and humility. He however was not the first of Russian 
 princes who adopted the monastic life : Soudeslaff, the unfor- 
 tunate son of the great Vladimir, who was thrown into prison 
 at Pskoff by his brother Yaroslaff, and after twenty-eight 
 years' confinement was set at liberty by his nephews, received 
 the tonsure in the monastery at Kieff before any other of his
 
 26 THE FIRST MONASTERIES. 
 
 CHAP, rank, and so became the first of the line of princely recluses 
 ~ in our country. But I have been seduced by the glories of 
 the Pechersky into a digression from the regular course of 
 ecclesiastical events.
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 RESIDENCE OF THE METROPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 
 
 THE Metropolitan George, who was sent by the Patriarch CHAP. 
 John Xiphilinus early in the reign of Isyaslaff, translated '- 
 with much solemnity the holy relics of the Princes Boris and George. 
 Gleb to the new church of Vishgorod, which had been built 
 on purpose to receive them. The faith of this prelate in the 
 sanctity of the royal martyrs had been but wavering at first, 
 but his doubts were altogether overcome by a miracle which 
 was wrought over 1 their remains, and he then instituted a 
 festival to their honour. In the account of this translation 
 we find mention made in the Chronicles for the first time of 
 the following bishops ; Michael of Yurieff, Peter of Pere- 
 yaslaff, and John of Colma ; and we may conclude that these 
 three new dioceses were constituted about the same period, in 
 consequence of the continually increasing spread of Chris- 
 tianity in the South of Russia. 
 
 The meek and timid George retired to Constantinople to 
 escape from the civil feuds of Isyaslaff and his brethren, 
 during the continuance of which his flock was exposed to the 
 invasion of Boleslaus king of Poland, and to the encroach- 
 ments of Rome: for the ambitious pope, Gregory the Seventh 2 , 
 offered military support to Isyaslaff, and stipulated that in 
 return he should make his submission to the Roman See : and 
 this was the first attempt of the Western pontiffs upon Russia. 
 But Isyaslaff having regained his throne without foreign 
 assistance, disappointed the schemes of Gregory, and being 
 confirmed in the Faith of his fathers by Theodosius the 
 zealous and orthodox hegumen of the Pechersky, persevered
 
 28 
 
 CHAP, in it to the end of his troubled life 8 . Another great luminary 
 vn : was now ready to appear in the person of the Metropolitan 
 John ii. J onn n., who was appointed by the Patriarch Eustratius 4 , 
 and fed as a shepherd the Church of Russia for nine years. 
 Nestor speaks of him with particular affection, describing him 
 as a man well skilled in learning, very charitable to orphans 
 and widows, courteous to rich and poor alike, humble, silent, 
 and reserved, visiting the afflicted, and ministering to them 
 consolation out of the holy Scriptures. In the MS. copies of 
 the Kormchay 5 , or Russian Nomocanon, there is preserved a 
 composition of his with the title of " Rule of the Church for 
 sundry cases of conscience." " There will never be his like 
 again in Russia ! " exclaims the cotemporary annalist ; com- 
 paring him perhaps, at the time when he wrote, with his suc- 
 vni. cessor John III., a plain, ignorant man, whom Anna, the 
 1089. daughter of the Great Prince Vsevolod 8 , had brought with 
 her from Constantinople, from the Patriarch Nicolas Gram- 
 maticus. She afterwards founded a convent for nuns and a 
 school at Kieff. Another of her sisters, Eupraxia, also took 
 the veil and died a nun ; which was the less to be wondered 
 at, since their father himself was a man full of piety and of 
 love for the clergy, who was constantly founding monasteries,, 
 and bestowing rich presents upon churches. 
 
 ix. The name of the Metropolitan Ephraim stands on the roll 
 
 Ep S m ' of tne prelates of Kieff next after that of John, who died the 
 year after his accession : but the Chronicles do not agree in 
 the accounts they give of him. Some make him to have been 
 a Greek, and sent by the same patriarch as his predecessor ; 
 others a Russian, of the suite of Isyaslaff, who received the 
 tonsure and became a monk in the caves of Anthony ; Nes- 
 tor says nothing of any Metropolitan Ephraim, but only 
 speaks of a bishop of Pereyaslavla of that name as the 
 senior prelate of the synod which translated the remains of 
 St. Theodosius, and as the builder of the celebrated cathedral 
 of St. Michael in Pereyaslavla. Perhaps after the death of 
 John III., which took place so soon, there was no other 
 metropolitan sent for some time from Constantinople, and
 
 METROPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 29 
 
 Ephraim, who lived in the neighbouring diocese of Pereyas- CHAP. 
 
 lavla, administered the vacant diocese of Kieff, being respected 
 
 for his Christian virtues and especially for his charity to the 
 poor ; for he had established hospitals with physicians to serve 
 gratuitously in the different towns. His death is supposed 
 to have occurred in the year 1096, when the khan of the 
 Poloftsi 7 , Boniak, suddenly assaulted Kieff, destroyed its- 
 suburbs, and burned the Pecherskay Lavra. 
 
 But there are yet further difficulties in the Chronicles 
 respecting this Metropolitan Ephraim. According to Nikon's 
 catalogue, Luke Jedyata, bishop of Novogorod, who had been 
 chosen moreover by the great Yaroslaff, was, through the 
 slanders of some of his own household, cited to appear before 
 this metropolitan in his court at Kieff, and was there detained 
 for the space of three years, until his character could be 
 completely cleared : but according to the chronological reckon- 
 ing, this event ought to be referred to some date before 
 Hilarion had ceased to be metropolitan; and from hence 
 several writers have even ventured to conjecture that Hilarion 
 took the name of Ephraim, together with the Schema 8 or 
 Great Angelic Habit, and bore it at the time of his death. 
 However that may be, the trial of the bishop of Novogorod, 
 who already at that time had exclusively the title of Lord, 
 on account of his share in the government of this indepen- 
 dent town, shews how great was the power of the metropo- 
 litan over the bishops who were subject to him throughout 
 the whole of Russia. Their election depended sometimes on 
 the princes, either on the Great Prince or on the inferior 
 appanaged princes, sometimes on the will of the primate, but 
 they were all consecrated by the primate in person, and were 
 subject to his jurisdiction and visitation; in the same way as the 
 metropolitans themselves, who were always appointed at Con- 
 stantinople, depended in spiritual matters upon the patriarch, 
 and so preserved the infant Church of Russia in unbroken 
 connection with the Church of Greece. 
 
 Already in the reign of Sviatopolk the son of Isyaslaff, the 
 eldest of the grandsons of the great Yaroslaff, our attention is
 
 30 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, drawn to those bitter feuds of the appanaged princes, 
 
 ' which eventually caused the entire dismemberment of Russia 
 
 and her subjection to the Mongols. However, notwithstanding 
 the weak and deceitful character of Sviatopolk, the other 
 princes still respected the superior authority of the throne of 
 Kieff, and the rights of primogeniture. For when Oleg of 
 ChernigofF, the turbulent son of SviatoslafF, together with his 
 brethren raised an insurrection against the Great Prince, he 
 was put down by the valiant son of Vsevolod, Vladimir 
 Monomachus 9 , who at the same time reconciled the appanaged 
 chieftains at the general session or assize of the princes. 
 His sword, everywhere attended by victory, repelled also the 
 savage enemies of the South of Russia, the Poloftsi, who 
 leading a wandering life on the steppes of the Don and the 
 Black sea, kept the Eastern frontiers in a state of continual 
 alarm by their incursions, until they were themselves de- 
 stroyed by the Mongols. But the perfidious cruelty of 
 Sviatopolk in putting out the eyes of the Prince Basilko, at the 
 instigation of his relative David prince of Volhynia, roused 
 Monomachus and all the sons of Sviatoslaff to vengeance. 
 They marched up to Kieff behind the walls of which the 
 x. Great Prince lay trembling ; when suddenly there appeared 
 1098. as a peace-maker in the camp of the incensed brethren 
 the new Metropolitan Nicolas: "We beseech thee, O 
 prince," said he, " thee and thy brethren, that ye will not be 
 so unnatural as to ruin your own country of Russia ; for know 
 that if ye begin to fight among yourselves, the unbelievers 
 will rejoice, and will take away from us our land, which 
 your fathers and grandfathers won by great toil and valour 
 in all their wars in Russia : they sought even to conquer 
 other countries, but ye now go about to ruin your own." 
 
 There remained in Kieff a monument of the reign of 
 Sviatopolk in the monastery of St. Michael with its gilded 
 domes, which he built and named after his angel or patron 
 saint; and in its magnificent church were deposited the 
 relics of the illustrious martyr St. Barbara, which had been 
 brought from Greece by Barbara daughter of the emperor of
 
 METEOPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 31 
 
 Constantinople, and first wife to Sviatopolk. There the same CHAP. 
 holy treasure is even yet preserved. The Metropolitan ^f 
 
 Nicephorus, a Greek by birth, who had been appointed by the 
 Patriarch Nicolas, consecrated the new church, and during 1108 - 
 the fifteen years that he sat, shewed himself a worthy fellow- 
 labourer to Monomachus. The eloquent and edifying letters 
 which he addressed to him have been preserved. They were 
 both men of great and enlightened minds, far outshining 
 all their contemporaries, and set as twin models of Christian 
 virtue, the one on the kingly, the other on the episcopal 
 throne. The glory of Vladimir spreading far and wide, 
 procured for him, in addition to the power, the crown and 
 title of King. According to the account given in the Books 
 of the Genealogies, the Greek Emperor Comenes sent him as 
 a present the Crown, the Holy Barma 10 , and the life-giving 
 Cross, the same which are now preserved in the Treasury at 
 Moscow ; and Neophytus the metropolitan of Ephesus, who 
 brought these regalia from Constantinople, performed for the 
 first time upon Monomachus, in the cathedral of St. Sophia, 
 the sacred ceremony of Coronation, which was to serve as the 
 model for all subsequent Coronations of Russian Sovereigns. 
 
 To Nicephorus is ascribed the formation of a new diocese 
 at Polotsk, where he appointed Mina to be bishop ; we cannot 
 however affirm with certainty that he was the first ever con- 
 secrated to that See, for it seems very improbable that the 
 principality of Polotsk, which was less dependent than the rest 
 upon Kieff, and ruled as an appanage by powerful princes, 
 the eldest of the whole race of the posterity of St. Vladimir, 
 should have remained so long without having its own separate 
 bishop. The same may be fairly conjectured of Smolensk, 
 one of the most ancient cities in all Russia, whose bishops 
 begin to be reckoned still later, and the Chronicles do not 
 even agree as to their names. Some name Michael or Manuel 
 as the first, who was made bishop by the Metropolitan Michael 
 II. ; others place two bishops, Ignatius and Lazarus, before 
 Manuel; but Nestor speaks of the formation of the first 
 dioceses in a very general and indeterminate manner. The
 
 32 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, lips of this father of Russian history closed about the year 
 ~ 1116, and another learned monk, Silvester, hcgumen of the 
 Vidoubetz monastery, became the continuator of his Chronicle, 
 and earned it down to the year 1124. From this point the 
 men who succeeded to the same pious work have concealed 
 their names, but the history of Russia still continued to be 
 written by the hand of some unknown monk, in the solitude 
 and quiet of his cell, through all the storms and revolutions 
 of the outer world. 
 
 About this same period, during the episcopate of St. Nice- 
 tas, who had been a monk of the Pechersky monastery, two 
 celebrated religious houses were founded in Great Novogorod ; 
 one, the Yurieff monastery, by the zeal of Prince Mistislaff, 
 though some traditions refer its foundation to Yaroslaff the 
 Great ; the other, that of St. Anthony the Roman, who sailed 
 from the West up the Volkoff, and lived as a hermit on its 
 banks near the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, 
 which he is said to have built. In like manner as in Novo- 
 gorod and Kieff, so also in many other chief district-towns, 
 wherever the dawn of spiritual enlightenment so much as 
 penetrated, monasteries were gradually formed, which spread 
 it abroad over all the surrounding parts; and the word of God, 
 carried about by holy solitaries, was let fall into the depths of 
 the vales and forests as the quickening seed of a future life, 
 which should bring forth its fruit in due season, 
 xii. The successor of the wise and learned Nicephorus, Nicetas, 
 1124. ' consecrated to be metropolitan by the Patriarch John, buried 
 the Great Monomachus 11 in the cathedral of the Assumption, 
 amidst the tears of Russia. He was also witness of another 
 great calamity, a dreadful conflagration, which destroyed, 
 according to the account of the Chronicles, as many as four 
 hundred churches and chapels in Kieff 12 , which proves to 
 what a nourishing state the capital must have already 
 xni. attained. He sat only for a short time. Michael II., who was 
 1127. ' sent by the same patriarch during the reign of Mistislaff the 
 son of Monomachus, anxiously sought to extinguish those civil 
 feuds which had arisen. In the first place he appointed a great
 
 METROPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 33 
 
 churchman, Niphont, to be bishop of Novogorod, quelled an CHAP. 
 
 insurrection of the people by the threat of his episcopal inter- 
 
 diet 13 , and even went thither himself to restrain the tumultuous 
 citizens from going to war with the district of Souzdal ; but 
 the threats of Michael and his prophetic denunciations of 
 their defeat were not attended to by the turbulent assembly 14 , 
 and it was only their fulfilment in deed which could reduce 
 the citizens of Novogorod to a temporary calm. Afterwards 
 upon the death of the warlike Great Prince Mistislaff 15 , in 
 whom the power of Monomachus was extinguished, the metro- 
 politan reconciled his feeble successors to one another; that 
 is, his brother Yaropolk 16 with his nephews who were in arms 
 against him, and Viacheslaff 17 with the powerful prince of 
 Chernigoff Vsevolod 18 , son of Oleg, who had wrested the 
 power and title of Great Prince out of his hands : but wearied 
 at length with the unceasing family quarrels of the princes, 
 he retired to Constantinople, and there ended his days, having 
 retained the dignity of metropolitan of KiefF till his death. 
 
 At that time Russia, throughout all her wide extent, 
 exhibited a sad spectacle of disunion. A feud which was to 
 last for a whole century burst forth into a flame between the 
 reigning house of Monomachus, which was supported by the 
 affections of the inhabitants of Kieff and by the popular 
 recollections of the life and exploits of the great Vladimir, 
 and the house of Oleg of Chernigoff, which represented the 
 eldest branch, and so had in its favour the right of primo- 
 geniture above all the Russian princes. The appanaged 
 princes engaging in the dispute respecting the great 
 princedom, weakened its beneficial influence on the other 
 parts of the state, while the incursions of the Poloftsi kept 
 the whole South of Russia in a state of constant military 
 excitement, until all perished together under the dreadful 
 devastation of the Mongols. In the mean time new and 
 independent principalities were formed in the West and in the 
 North, and rose into power in proportion as Kieff declined. 
 Vladimirko son of Volodar of Volhynia, partly by force of 
 arms, and partly by his artful policy, founded a powerful princi-
 
 34 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, pality at Galich, which made rapid advances during the long 
 reign of his successor Yaroslaff. Some feeble glimmerings 
 of Christianity began to penetrate into Lithuania from the 
 neighbouring principality of Polotsk, which was a constant 
 object of hostility to the house of Monomachus, and gradually 
 fell under its attacks. Novogorod, while contending with the 
 Swedes on its frontier, contributed to the spread of Christi- 
 anity in the northern districts, and, in its stormy assemblies, 
 made and unmade its own princes, changing according as 
 this or that of the rival houses had the advantage, now 
 inviting a prince of the house of Oleg, and then again inclin- 
 ing to the descendants of Monomachus. 
 
 Another germ of the future power of Russia began to form 
 itself in the very heart of its extensive monarchy. A son of 
 Monomachus, Yury Dolgorouky 19 , tired of waiting for the 
 throne of Kieff, applied himself to the extension and improve- 
 ment of his own patrimony, the district of Souzdal, by the 
 conversion of the heathen, and by building towns, amongst 
 which then first appeared the name of Moscow. Vladimir on 
 the banks of the Kliasma was greatly enlarged during the reign 
 of his valiant son Andrew Bogolubsky, and speedily rose to be 
 the capital of an independent principality, which obtained all 
 the prerogatives of the great princedom under another of his 
 sons, Vsevolod. In the midst of this political dismemberment, 
 the only thing which served as a pledge for the general 
 unity was the confession of one and the same orthodox faith 
 throughout all the limits of the kingdom. The bishops, as 
 spiritual judges in their dioceses, and the hegumens of the 
 religious houses, which were continually increasing in num- 
 ber through the piety of the princes, who themselves often 
 finished in a cell their troubled days, served as mediators and 
 peacemakers between the contending parties, and in the 
 quality of ambassadors went backwards and forwards without 
 danger between the hostile camps. Their dependence on the 
 metropolitan involuntarily turned towards Kieff the attention 
 of all Russia ; while the primates themselves, who were sent 
 to us from Constantinople, derived from that source a degree
 
 METROPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 35 
 
 of learning and enlightenment which rendered our country CHAP. 
 
 superior for the time to the whole of contemporary Europe. 
 
 But the disorders of civil society had their effect also on the 
 affairs of the Church. 
 
 Isyaslaff, successor of Vsevolod the son of Oleg and grand- 
 son of Monomachus, having been informed of the death of 
 Michael at a time when the patriarchal throne of Constanti- 
 nople was vacant, resolved not to have a Greek again for 
 metropolitan, as he was displeased that Michael had 
 absented himself from Russia. Following the example of 
 Yaroslaff 20 , he convoked together to Kieff a synod of Russian 
 bishops; Onuphrius of Chernigoff, who presided, Theodore 
 of Belgorod, Damian of Yurieff, Theodore of Volhynia, Manuel 
 of Smolensk, and besides these, according to the Chronicle 
 of the Pechersky, the following; Euthymius of Pereyaslaff, 
 Cosma of Polotsk, and Joachim of Touroff, which last shews the 
 existence of the new diocese of Touroff. They all agreed to 
 take the election of a metropolitan into their own hands, 
 without the patriarch's having any participation in the 
 matter. Only one voice, that of St. Niphont of Novogorod, 
 protested strongly against this infraction of Church unitj r , 
 and of the canonical dependence of our hierarchy 21 , without 
 which the infant Church of Russia could not rightly subsist. 
 He reminded them of the written engagement they had entered 
 into with Michael, probably on the eve of his departure, 
 that they would not celebrate the Liturgy synodically again 
 in the church of Sophia, so long as they should be without 
 a metropolitan; but his remonstrances were in vain, and 
 he was even confined for a short time in the Pechersky 
 monastery, in consequence of his having refused after the 
 election to hold communication with the new primate. 
 
 The choice of the synod fell upon Clement a monk of Smo- xiv. 
 lensk and recluse of the Schema 22 or Great Angelic Habit, ^197.' 
 and the Bishop Onuphrius proposed 23 , that as a substitute for 
 patriarchal Consecration, they should in ordaining him lay 
 on his head the hand of St. Clement, Pope of Rome, whose 
 relics had been brought from Cherson by Vladimir. 
 
 D2
 
 36 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. It is remarkable, that both the native Russian raetropoli- 
 
 ' tans Hilarion and Clement, were chosen from the strictest 
 
 order of recluses ; but their piety could not remedy the 
 irregularity of their appointments. The opinion of St. Ni- 
 phont, the friend of the Princes Dolgorouky and Sviatoslaff of 
 Chernigoff, and representative of the powerful state of Novo- 
 gorod, which made use of him in all her political relations 
 with the princes of both the contending houses, was of great 
 weight : and so much the more so, as the new patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, Nicolas Musalon, wrote him letters of thanks 
 and commendation for the zeal which he had shewn in behalf 
 of the Church. For nine years this struggle was continued 
 in the midst of civil dissensions, which ran so high at one 
 time, that not even his sacred character of a monk could 
 preserve the Prince Igor 24 , son of Oleg, from being torn to 
 pieces by the populace of Kieff, on account of the preten- 
 sions of his family and their feud with Isyaslaff 25 . But when 
 Isyaslaff, in his turn, was compelled to fly into Volhynia, he 
 took Clement with him, while Dolgorouky on his side 
 despatched Niphont on an honorary embassy to the Patri- 
 arch Luke Chrysoberges to ask him to create another 
 xv. metropolitan; and during his short reign there arrived 
 tine. " in consequence from Constantinople the Metropolitan 
 1361 Constantine, who condemned the acts of Isyaslaff and 
 Clement, and even suspended for a time all the clergy whom 
 the latter had ordained. The great Niphont had not how- 
 ever the consolation of seeing in Kieff the canonical primate, 
 though he set out to meet him from Novogorod; he died 
 before his arrival, and was buried in the catacombs of Kieff. 
 His name was added to the catalogue of the saints, and he 
 left behind him the glorious reputation of having been the 
 Defender of all Russia. 
 
 But the ecclesiastical dispute did not so end. For when, 
 upon the death of Dolgorouky 26 , Isyaslaff 27 of the house of 
 Oleg, and Rostislaff of the house of Monomachus, were con- 
 tending for Kieff, Mistislaff prince of Volhynia, who had not 
 forgiven the Metropolitan Constantine for the synod which
 
 METROPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 37 
 
 condemned his father, expelled him from his see to Chernigoff, CHAP. 
 of which city he had formerly been bishop. There he ended : 
 his days, and shewed at his death an example of extraordinary 
 humility, by ordering in his will, that his body should be 
 cast out without the town, as unworthy of burial. The 
 Prince Sviatoslaff, and Anthony the bishop, did not dare to 
 disobey the will of the deceased ; but on the third day, seeing 
 that his remains had not been touched, they buried them 
 honourably in the cathedral of St. Saviour. 
 
 While he and Clement were both yet living, a third metro- xvi. 
 
 J Theodora 
 
 politan, named Theodore, was sent to Kieff from the same 1160. 
 patriarch, at the joint request of the uncle and nephew, 
 the Princes Rostislaff and Mistislaff 28 , because the former 
 did not recognise the election of Clement as canonical, while 
 the latter had a personal dislike to Constantino. In the mean 
 time, Andrew Bogolubsky, who was striving by all possible 
 means to exalt above the other principalities his own capital, 
 Vladimir, where he had erected a magnificent cathedral of 
 the Mother of God, for the reception of a miraculous Icon 
 brought from Greece, took occasion from the existing dif- 
 ferences in the Church to ask for a separate metropolitan 
 for himself from Constantinople. But the Patriarch Luke 
 prudently declined granting his request for fear of breaking 
 the unity of the Russian Church ; he consented to no more 
 than that the bishops of Rostoff should in future have their 
 residence at Vladimir, and should gratify the piety of the 
 prince by celebrating a festival in memory of the victory 
 which he obtained over the Bulgarians on the same day with 
 that of the Emperor Manuel over the Saracens. This festival 
 is still observed annually on the first of August. 
 
 Nestor bishop of Rostoff, who had been deprived of his 
 diocese by the Metropolitan Constantine, was then at Con- 
 stantinople for the purpose of justifying himself before the 
 patriarch ; for, from the unhappy circumstances of the time, 
 the dissensions of the hierarchy had been accompanied by a 
 still greater mischief, in the dissemination of false doctrines 
 among the people. Nestor was unjustly accused of violating
 
 38 RESIDENCE OP THE 
 
 CHAP, the rule of the Church for fastinar. He w^as said to have 
 in. 
 forbidden men to break their fast even on the festivals of the 
 
 Nativity and Epiphany, if they fell on the Wednesday or 
 Friday. This uncanonical doctrine, which did not origi- 
 nate with him, was revived by a bishop named Leon, who had 
 come into his diocese during his absence ; and Bogolubsky, 
 standing up for the orthodox doctrine, sent Leon first to be 
 tried by the metropolitan in Kieff, and afterwards to Constan- 
 tinople, where he was condemned by the patriarch himself. 
 But immediately after Leon, there appeared a self-elected 
 pretender to the diocese of Rostoff, in the person of Theo- 
 dore, a monk of the Pechersky, who fraudulently obtained 
 the rank of a bishop at Constantinople; his imposture, 
 however, was soon discovered, and his austerities put an end 
 to by the prince, who despatched the offender to Kieff, where 
 he was put to death for the scandal he had caused in the 
 Church. 
 
 The introduction of the rank and title of Archimandrite 
 into the Pechersky monastery, and the giving to the 
 monastery itself the names of Lavra and Stauropegia 29 , by 
 letters procured from the patriarch, is ascribed to the Metro- 
 politan Theodore, and from the first archimandrite of the 
 Pechersky, Akindynus, this new dignity passed into general 
 use in the other Russian monasteries. With the blessing 
 of the same metropolitan, the Prince Bogolubsky established 
 a festival in honour of the memory of Leontius the first 
 bishop of Rostoff, whose relics he had disclosed in laying the 
 foundation of his new cathedral. 
 
 Clement, who had been metropolitan, was still living in 
 
 Volhynia at the death of Theodore, and the Great Prince 
 
 Rostislaff, yielding to the entreaty of his nephew Mistislaff, 
 
 had resolved to ask the patriarch to restore him to the 
 
 metropolitical throne ; but his ambassadors met on the road 
 
 XVIT. a new metropolitan, John IV., coming to Russia from Con- 
 
 1164. stantinople. Rostislaff was so much displeased, that it was 
 
 only the fear of causing a new schism in the Church, joined 
 
 .with the friendly entreaties of the Emperor Manuel, which
 
 METROPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 39 
 
 could induce him to acknowledge the new primate, who, how- CHAP. 
 ever, during the two years of his short administration, won the 
 affections of all men, and left a blessed memory behind him. 
 There has been preserved to us a letter 30 of exhortation 
 which he wrote to the pope of Rome, probably Alexander 
 III., on the peace of the Church; for at that time, as the 
 schism was not of very long standing, there were still mutual 
 attempts made occasionally on both sides to re-establish 
 union. In Novogorod also the memory of John was held 
 sacred; for the Lord Elias, whose monastic 31 name was also 
 John, a man of holy life, was raised, the first of all Russian 
 bishops, to the rank of archbishop 32 by this metropolitan, and 
 the same title descended from him to his brother Gregory, a 
 prelate of equal merit, in whose time the venerable Barlaam 
 founded on the banks of the Volkoff his celebrated monastery 
 of Khoutinsk, and afterwards, in like manner, to all the Lords 
 of Novogorod. 
 
 The heresy of Leon was revived at Kieff in the time of the xvnr. 
 Metropolitan Constantine II., who had been elected at the tineii!" 
 desire of Rostislaff M from amongst the Russian bishops ; for 
 the new prelate himself, from ignorance, held the opinion 
 of Leon respecting the Fasts, and even convoked a synod at 
 Kieff with the design of establishing this doctrine. But two 
 men, who have since become illustrious by their writings, 
 St. Cyrill the eloquent bishop of Touroff, and Polycarp archi- 
 mandrite of the Pechersky, the continuator of the Lives 
 of the Saints of Kieff or Patericon of Nestor, shewed them- 
 selves firm defenders of the true belief : the last-mentioned 
 of the two even endured confinement for the word of truth. 
 The pious writer of the contemporary Chronicle says that 
 the city of Kieff itself suffered for the fault of her metropo- 
 litan ; for in his time and that of the Great Prince Mistislaff M 
 of Volhynia, who succeeded Rostislaff, eleven princes, who 
 acknowledged Bogolubsky as their head, took by storm and 
 sacked this mother of Russian cities, which lost from thence- 
 forth her independence. Her rulers, retaining only the bare 
 title of Great Prince, were appointed or displaced, for the
 
 40 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, most part, according to the pleasure of the princes of Vladimir 
 
 - or Galich, whilst the rival houses of Oleg in Chernigoff and 
 
 of Monomachus in Smolensk ceased not in the mean time to 
 
 carry on intrigues to possess themselves of that shadow of 
 
 power which might yet belong to the name. 
 
 xix. The metropolitical throne of Kieff remained vacant about ten 
 orus n. years after the death of Constantino, when Nicephorus II., a 
 Greek by birth, was at length appointed to fill it by the patri- 
 arch Basil. He was a pastor filled with all the virtues of the first 
 Nicephorus his namesake, and with love to his new country ; 
 but he laboured in vain to put an end to the feuds of its 
 rulers. He even took upon his own soul an oath pledged by 
 the Great Prince Ruric to his son-in-law Romanus of Volhynia, 
 in order that he might be enabled by the breach of it to 
 satisfy Vsevolod the powerful prince of Yladimir, who de- 
 manded for himself certain towns which had been promised 
 to Romanus. At length this Romanus, who was already 
 prince of Galich, got possession of Kieff, and in his treatment 
 of his father-in-law the Great Prince Ruric, set the first 
 example in Russia of forcing a man to receive the monastic 
 tonsure against his will; while Ruric himself, on the other 
 hand, affords a solitary instance of a man putting off from 
 himself the quality of a monk, in that he returned to the 
 world and re-ascended his throne after the death of his 
 enemy. In consequence of these civil feuds, Kieff suffered 
 yet again once more, and having been thus twice sacked she 
 never recovered herself afterwards till her final fall in the 
 great invasion of the Mongols. 
 
 xx. The new metropolitan, Matthew, was a witness of this 
 calaroity- He was sent from Constantinople shortly before 
 its capture by the crusaders, and did his best, like his pre- 
 decessors, to mediate between the princes, and succeeded in 
 reconciling the Great Prince Vsevolod, surnamed the Red, 
 with all the descendants of Oleg, to Vsevolod of Vladimir. 
 At this wretched period of dissensions, the duty of peace- 
 maker was inseparable from the dignity of the primate. In 
 his time the men of Novogorod interfered for the first time in
 
 METROPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 41 
 
 ecclesiastical affairs, by expelling their Archbishop Metro- CHAP. 
 
 phanes, and sending to the metropolitan for Consecration : 
 
 a monk of the monastery of Khoutinsk, named Anthony ; but 
 neither did he please the people. Both Lords submitted them- 
 selves to the judgment of the metropolitan, and the first was 
 confirmed in liis see, while the bishopric of Peremuishla was 
 given to the other, which however he quitted for the episcopal 
 throne of Novogorod, and was a second time expelled from 
 thence, and yet again restored, but after all ended his days in 
 the monastery of Khoutinsk : such was the inconstancy and 
 turbulence of the citizens of Novogorod. This is the earliest 
 occasion on which we find mention made of the diocese of Pere- 
 muishla, as well as of several others, Galich, Minsk, Loutsk, 
 and Ostrog. The precise period when these were founded is 
 unknown, but their foundation, whenever it took place, is an 
 evidence of the then flourishing state of the south of Russia. 
 
 New dioceses were also formed in the North. Although 
 Riazan depended on the episcopal jurisdiction of Chernigoff, 
 still the Chronicle speaks of a certain bishop of Riazan named 
 Arsenius, who was taken prisoner, together with the princes 
 of that town, by Vsevolod brother of Bogolubsky. The dis- 
 trict of Mourom, which afterwards became subject to the 
 bishops of Riazan, had then already been Enlightened by 
 holy Baptism through the zeal of its Prince St. Constantine, 
 of the family of the princes of Chernigoff, and of his sons 
 Michael and Theodore. The two sons of Vsevolod also, 
 Constantine and George, having quarrelled after the death of 
 their father, were not content to have only one bishop in 
 common between Rostoff and Vladimir ; each wished to have 
 him reside in his own capital; and the Metropolitan Matthew 
 satisfied both of them by erecting a new diocese for Vladimir, 
 to which he consecrated Simon the hegumen of the monas- 
 tery of the Nativity, a man distinguished by his virtues, and 
 by his having written the Lives of the holy recluses of the 
 Pechersky. 
 
 The metropolitan Cyrill, who succeeded Matthew, was this xxi. 
 time sent from Nice, where the emperors and patriarchs had 1205. '
 
 42 RESIDENCE^ OF THE 
 
 CHAP, taken up their temporary residence after their expulsion from 
 - Constantinople by the Latins. The cruel yoke, which weighed 
 so heavily on the Greek empire, threw its shadow also even 
 over our own country; for the Eoman pontiffs began to 
 act upon our frontiers through the arms of the Western 
 Cliristians. The papal legate offered to Homanus prince 
 of Galich the protection of the apostolic sword; but the 
 chieftain pointing to his own proudly asked, "Has the 
 pope any sword like this?" However, his youthful sons had 
 already been driven out by Coloman king of Vengria 
 and a Latin archbishop established in Galich. Mistislaff, the 
 enterprising son of the valiant prince of Novogorod St. Mis- 
 tislaff, took Galich by storm, and drove out the Roman clergy, 
 but they speedily re-established themselves in this border 
 district of Russia. In Novogorod too, the successors of 
 St. Mistislaff, in conjunction with the princes of Pskoff and 
 Polotsk, were obliged to contend with a new enemy, who had 
 established himself on the neighbouring coasts of the Baltic, 
 1205. Bishop Albert had founded in Riga a new Order of 
 Brethren of the Sword 35 , who, uniting themselves afterwards 
 with the powerful fraternity of the Teutonic Brethren, 
 threatened our western provinces, and converted by force of 
 arms the savage Lithuanians, who on the other side of their 
 country, where they bordered upon Russia, were gradually 
 enlightened by the mildest means. 
 
 Another most dreadful storm now came up from the East 
 upon Russia, which was destined to groan under it for two 
 hundred years : the Mongols appeared ! The Poloftsi, flying 
 from before them, brought word that the barbarians had 
 poured in upon their steppes, and our southern princes 
 formed a coalition to repel the unknown enemy. A bloody 
 battle was fought on the river Kalka. Three princes of the 
 name of Mistislaff sustained it with desperate valour; but 
 two, the Great Prince M and the prince of Chernigoff, fell in 
 the action, while the third, the prince of Galich, was com- 
 pelled to fly with a younger son of Romanus, the illustrious 
 Daniel, to his own capital, where he ended his troubled days in
 
 METROPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 43 
 
 the habit of a monk. The barbarians retired : for this was only CHAP. 
 
 in. 
 their advanced guard ; but other innumerable hosts gathered ~ 
 
 themselves together in Central Asia under the command of 
 Batius, the grandson of Genghis Khan, so as to fall upon Russia 
 at an interval of twelve years after the bloody battle on the 
 Kalka. Unhappily all this time was lost in internal feuds 
 between the southern and the northern principalities, and 
 the virtuous metropolitan Cyrill went twice to Vladimir to 
 reconcile the Great Prince with the masters of Kieff 37 , and 
 with the princes of Koursk. The invasion of Batius reduced 
 all to peace under the ashes of their ruined cities. 
 
 Riazan was the first to suffer ; her princes, Oleg and Theo- 
 dore, died the death of martyrs. When Vladimir was 
 besieged, the Bishop Metrophanes, with the consort of the 
 Great Prince, her daughters-in-law, and the boyars, shut them- 
 selves up in the cathedral church ; there they all received the 
 Holy Mysteries and the Schema, in token of preparation for 
 death, from the bishop, and from the Lord the crown of mar- 
 tyrdom, amidst the smoke and flames of the burning temple. 
 George 38 himself fell in battle on the banks of the Siti, while 
 his nephew, Prince Basilko, became a martyr for the Name 
 of Christ. All the towns of the districts of Rostoff and Souzdal 
 were sacked and pillaged ; an invisible hand protected Novo- 
 gorod and Pskoff. Kozelesk, which was well defended by its 
 youthful prince, suffered last of all, as Batius was on his 
 march back from desolating the North. 
 
 After a year came the turn of Southern Russia. Pereyaslavla 
 perished with its Bishop Simeon; Porphyry of Chernigoff 
 was let go alive by the conqueror from his ravaged diocese. 
 The Mongols surrounded Kieff, and struck with its antique 
 beauty, offered to spare it, if it would surrender ; but in the 
 absence of all the Russian princes it was heroically defended 
 by Demetrius, a boyar of Daniel prince of Galich. As be- 
 came the mother and head of Russian cities, Kieff gave a 
 lesson to all Russia in preferring a glorious end to the dis- 
 grace of slavery 39 . After a bloody siege, its walls and even 
 every individual church was converted into a fortress by
 
 44 RESIDENCE OF THE METROPOLITANS AT KIEFF. 
 
 CHAP, the despair of the citizens ; but the cathedral of St. Sophia, 
 
 ' the church of the Tithes, the monastery of St. Michael, 
 
 and the Pecherskay Lavra, were taken one by one : they were 
 
 given up to desolation; and it is probable that the Metro- 
 
 xxn. politan Joseph, the unfortunate successor of Cyrill, perished 
 
 J240. with the rest in this general and fearful destruction, as there 
 
 is no mention made of him afterwards in the Chronicles.
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 RESIDENCE OF THE METROPOLITANS AT VLADIMIR. 
 
 XXIII. CYRILL II. 
 
 WHILE our afflicted country presented nothing to the view CHAP. 
 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 Novo- 
 gorod 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 Yaroslaff 1 , 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
 
 46 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, martyr for the redemption of his country and for the gloiy 
 ^ of God. 
 
 The prudent Yaroslaff was succeeded by a son still more 
 distinguished than himself for bravery and virtue, Alex- 
 ander, the hero of the Neva: he was prince in Novo- 
 gorod, and was the firmest defence of Russia, beating off 
 1241. 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 Constan- 
 tinople 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 flatter- 
 ing 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 ecumenical 
 council; while in the mean time he sent Cyrill, a Russian 
 1250. 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 inter- 
 nally 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
 
 METROPOLITAN'S AT VLADIMIR. 47 
 
 continued to be most laborious, and it was chiefly by their CHAP. 
 
 IV. 
 
 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 Sarai 2 , 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 heathen 3 
 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 Perey- 
 aslavla, 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 ambas- 
 sador to the patriarch of Constantinople, when the Metro- 
 politan 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. Alexander 4 , who at the 
 hour of death exchanged his princely mantle for the humble 
 monastic Schema, the Metropolitan Cyrill, amidst the lament-
 
 48 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, ations 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 Yaro- 
 slaff, 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. 
 
 1274. But the most important as well as the most beneficial act 
 of CyrilTs 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 simo- 
 niacal 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
 
 METROPOLITANS AT VLADIMIR. 49 
 
 discipline, should not be, to use his own expression, " veiled CHAP. 
 
 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 Bekkus 5 ; for though, 
 since the year 1264, the Emperor Michael Palseologus had 
 recovered his capital from the crusaders, yet both he himself 
 and that patriarch were favourably inclined towards the 
 doctrines of Rome. At length Joseph 6 , having been restored 1283. 
 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 privilege 7 from
 
 50 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, 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 
 1299. 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 
 1305. 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 Princes 8 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
 
 METROPOLITANS AT VLADIMIR. 51 
 
 prince, who was moreover the brother-in-law of the khan, with CHAP. 
 
 IV. 
 
 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 martyr 9 , and was added by the Church to the number of 
 the saints; then his son Demetrius 10 fell, after having him- 
 self struck down Yury 11 , the murderer of his father, in the 
 very presence of the khan Usbek; and lastly, another son 
 of Michael, Alexander 12 , 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 
 Kalita 13 , 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 1308. 
 on Eussia, 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 Voesheleg, 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 
 
 E2
 
 52 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, empire was short lived : another powerful heathen, Hedi- 
 - mine, 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 dis- 
 tricts 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 accusa- 
 tion against him with the patriarch, who sent his commissioner 
 to try Peter. A synod met at Periaslavla-Zalessky, in which
 
 METROPOLITANS AT VLADIMIR. 53 
 
 Simeon bishop of Rostoff was present, together with the CHAP. 
 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 ex- 
 communication 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 dis- 
 position of Uzbek towards him served afterwards as a 
 pledge to secure the good will of all succeeding khans : 
 " Let no one injure the Catholic 14 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 death 15 ."
 
 54 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. 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 coun- 
 try, 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
 
 METROPOLITANS AT VLADIMIR. 55 
 
 foundation and type of all the College 16 or cathedral churches CHAP. 
 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 
 " Best" 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
 
 56 RESIDENCE OF THE METROPOLITANS AT VLADIMIR. 
 
 CHAP, 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.
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 RESIDENCE OF THE METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 
 
 XXVI. THEOGNOSTES. 
 
 AT the death of St. Peter, who was laid as an immovable CHAP. 
 
 v. 
 foundation-stone of the metropolitical see in Moscow, Theog- - 
 
 1328. 
 
 nostes came from the patriarch as metropolitan, and settled 
 himself in the residence of his predecessor; Kalita 1 alone 
 could afford him a refuge in his peaceful principality : Galich 
 had fallen, Kieff was already in the hands of Hedimine. 
 Though a Greek by birth, Theognostes entered perfectly into 
 the mutual relations of the Great Princes and those of the 
 appanages ; and during the whole of his twenty years' 
 episcopate he steadily co-operated with John and his son 
 Simeon the Proud in all their undertakings, by which he 
 greatly assisted them towards the aggrandisement of the 
 principality of Moscow; for the spiritual authority being 
 always on the side of the Great Prince gave him a great pre- 
 ponderance. Thus Theognostes accompanied John in his 
 expedition to Pskoff, when it refused to allow the departure 
 of Alexander prince of Tver, though his presence had been 
 required in the Horde, and overcame the resistance of the 
 citizens by the terror of an ecclesiastical interdict, so pre- 
 venting a renewal of the desolating ravages of the Mongols. 
 On more than one other occasion, the turbulent city of 
 Novogorod was reconciled to the Great Prince through his 
 mediation. But his continual journeys through the widely- 
 separated dioceses of Russia were burdensome to the clergy, 
 and eventually even caused a complaint to be lodged by Moses 
 the Lord of Novdgorod with the patriarch. 
 
 In ecclesiastical matters Theognostes shewed remarkable 
 firmness. When the holy Archbishop Moses, in spite of the
 
 58 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, entreaties of the popular Assembly, had retired from the throne 
 - of St. Sophia, the citizens of Novogorod sent Basil, whom 
 they had elected to supply his place, for Consecration to 
 Vladimir in Volhynia, where the metropolitan then was ; the 
 inhabitants of Pskoff also, wishing to have a bishop to them- 
 selves, sent thither for the same end a certain Arsenius : but 
 notwithstanding all their entreaties, and the requisition of the 
 powerful heathen prince Hedimine, who had become master 
 of Volhynia, Theognostes could not be persuaded to violate 
 the order 2 of the Church. The Lithuanian prince respected 
 the dignity of the metropolitan ; he wished however to get 
 possession of the person of the archbishop, but he took to 
 flight, and saved himself by largesses from the danger of 
 being pursued. 
 
 Basil was one of the most illustrious of the Lords of Novo- 
 gorod, equally skilled in the management of civil and of eccle- 
 siastical affairs. He did much to beautify the cathedral of 
 St. Sophia, and through his relations of friendship with the 
 metropolitan he had nothing to fear in his province from the 
 Great Prince. Magnus, king of Sweden, being very zealous 
 for the conversion of Novogorod to the Latin Church, en- 
 treated Basil to hold conference concerning the Faith with 
 his ambassadors ; but the Lord prudently declined entering 
 into controversy, and referred them to the patriarch. The 
 Patriarch Philotheus himself, in token of respect for his merit, 
 sent him a blessing of some Vestments covered with crosses, 
 and a white cowl 3 , inasmuch as he had been consecrated to 
 the episcopal order from the White Clergy 4 ; and the use of 
 this cowl passed afterwards to the metropolitans, probably 
 when some or other of them were translated to Moscow from 
 having been Lords of Novogorod. 
 
 The metropolitan, striving to eradicate those abuses Avhich 
 had crept into the monasteries from their subjection to 
 the Tartar yoke, stood up firmly himself in the Horde for the 
 right of the clergy, and even suffered persecution for their 
 sake. It was a curious circumstance that Khanibek the son 
 of Uzbek, demanded of him to be freed from the obligation of
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 59 
 
 those Letters of exemption and privilege, which had been CHAP. 
 granted by his father to St. Peter ; as he wished to impose a 
 tribute on the clergy, but dared not to break his father's 
 word. The metropolitan here also maintained his high 
 character ; by personal gifts he saved himself from the wrath 
 of the khan, while he preserved for the future the privileges 
 of the Church. 
 
 The black vomiting, a kind of plague which raged at this 
 time in Russia and over all Europe, carried off in one year 
 the Great Prince Simeon 5 with his family, the Metropolitan 
 Theognostes, and the Archbishop Basil. In place of Basil 
 the citizens of Novogorod again brought in Moses, though now 
 habited in the Schema, from his retirement. Three bishops 
 assisted at the funeral of the Metropolitan Theognostes, and 
 buried him, near the tomb of his holy predecessor, in the 
 cathedral of the Assumption : these were, Athanasius of Vol- 
 hynia, who had been expelled from his diocese by the prince 
 of Lithuania; another Athanasius, first bishop of the re-esta- 
 blished diocese of Columna; and St. Alexis, of the noble 
 family of Plescheeff, who had been for the preceding twelve 
 years vicar to the metropolitan, first in Kieff, and then 
 afterwards in Vladimir and Moscow, during his frequent 
 absences. 
 
 ST. ALEXIS. 
 
 PROVIDENCE, which had chosen Alexis from his early 
 years to be exercised in spiritual labours, strengthened him 
 in his advanced age for the salvation of his country through 
 a stormy period, under the feeble rule of John II., and during 1353. 
 the minority of his son Demetrius. The Horde still threaten- 
 ing in the East ; on the West the growing power of Lithuania 
 under Olgerd, who had gradually wrested from us our ancient 
 inheritance; within, the turbulent independence of Novo- 
 gorod and Pskoff, and the rivalry of the three powerful prin- 
 cipalities of Tver, Biazan, and Souzdal, the sovereigns of 
 which each assumed the title of Great Prince ; such was the
 
 60 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, political storm which Alexis had to oppose, and during the 
 
 y 
 
 ' course of a primacy of twenty-four years he may truly be 
 
 said to have taken the helm of the empire. He preserved 
 for Demetrius till he came of age that inheritance, which his 
 proud uncle had left to his weak father. 
 
 The unlooked-for arrival of Theodoret, a self-elected pre- 
 tender, sent by the patriarch of Bulgaria 6 , to claim the metro- 
 political chair of Russia, even before Theognostes was yet 
 dead, put it into the mind of that prelate, with the approba- 
 tion of the Great Prince, to ask the patriarch of Constanti- 
 nople, Philotheus, to allow him to nominate Alexis as his suc- 
 cessor. The consent of the patriarch arrived only after their 
 deaths. But the new metropolitan had scarcely time to return 
 from Constantinople, whither they had summoned him for 
 Institution, when he heard that another metropolitan, named 
 Romanus, had been consecrated for Russia by the will of the 
 same patriarch; and he was obliged to undertake a second toil- 
 some journey into Greece. However there was not one single 
 diocese in Russia which would receive Romanus ; he remained 
 in Volhynia, where the Lithuanian princes had no wish that 
 the pale of their conquests should continue subject to the 
 spiritual authority of the metropolitans of Moscow. 
 
 The sanctity of Alexis soon became conspicuous even in the 
 Horde itself. The khan, Khanibek, asked John to send him 
 the chief pastor of Russia, whose prayers, he said, God never 
 refused to grant, that he might heal his consort Taidoula of 
 her sickness 7 ; and Alexis, after having prayed at the tomb of 
 the Metropolitan Peter, who had himself had the grace of 
 miracles 8 , departed with a firm faith for the Horde, and healed 
 the sick. Extraordinary favour, and new Letters of privilege 
 and exemption to the clergy, were a proof of the gratitude of 
 the khan ; but very soon after this, the troubles which broke 
 out in the Horde on occasion of the murder of Khanibek by 
 his son, obliged the metropolitan to go again to the Mongols. 
 There in the presence of the ferocious Berdibek, he un- 
 dauntedly maintained the rights of the principality of 
 Moscow ; and through the intercession of the mother of the
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 61 
 
 khan, whom he had recovered from her sickness, he was again CHAP. 
 dismissed with honour. 
 
 After this, Alexis never went beyond the limits of the 
 Empire 9 , but within it he was a strict reformer of the morals 
 both of clergy and laity, whom he endeavoured to enlighten ; 
 at the same time he was peace-maker amongst the princes, 
 and in the absence of Demetrius 10 , who ever had recourse to 
 his prudence for counsel, he presided in the court of the 
 boyars, giving a preponderating influence to the Great 
 Princedom over the other appanages. In vain did Demetrius, 
 prince of Souzdal, who for a time bore the title of Great Prince, 
 invite the prelate to himself to Vladimir ; he refused to quit 
 the tomb of The Wonder-worker, that is, of his predecessor 
 St. Peter, and the youthful son of John 11 . He roused the 
 fallen spirits of the citizens of the infant capital on the terrible 
 invasion of Olgerd, and by this unlooked-for firmness frus- 
 trated his ambitious plans. The former capital of Kieff also, 
 then subject to a foreign prince, Alexis would have raised up, 
 if possible, from the desolation of those ruins, under which her 
 ancient glories lay buried. The princes of Tver, who were at 
 variance, the uncle against his nephews, and were dissatisfied 
 with the judgment of Basil their own bishop, betook them- 
 selves to the arbitration of Alexis; and he kept with him at 
 his court, as a pledge, a young relative of theirs, whom 
 Demetrius had redeemed from captivity in the Horde. He 
 interfered with equal authority and effect in a family feud 
 between the two brother princes of Souzdal, the younger of 
 whom had unfairly got possession of Nijny Novogorod: in 
 order to compel them to be reconciled, he laid an inter- 
 dict upon their capital by the lips of the meek hermit 
 Sergius. 
 
 With the name of Sergius a new monastic world opens 
 itself in the Xorth. The commencement of his lonely her- 
 mitage in the woods near Moscow, is a point of as much 
 importance in our history as the excavation of the caves of 
 Anthony on the banks of the Dnieper ; for he was destined 
 to divide with Anthony the glory of having been the father
 
 62 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, of monasticism in Russia. Sergius was born in Rostoff; 
 
 : when yet quite young he left the house of his parents, and 
 
 together with his brother Stephen, settled himself in the 
 thick woods in the neighbourhood of Radonege, where, how- 
 ever, he was soon left by his brother. In this wild solitude 
 he resisted all manner of temptations, and lived among the 
 wild beasts of the forest, until the report of his holy life drew 
 disciples around him : they compelled him to go to Peryas- 
 lavla-Zalessky, to receive the holy order of priesthood from 
 Athanasius, the bishop of Volhynia, who lived there. 
 Sergius built by his own labour in the midst of the forest a 
 wooden church, by the name of The Source of Life, the ever- 
 blessed Trinity 12 , which has since grown into that glorious 
 Lavra, whose destiny has become inseparable from the des- 
 tinies of the capital, and from whence on so many occasions 
 the salvation of all Russia has proceeded. 
 
 Prelates and princes applied to Sergius not only for the 
 sake of his spiritual instructions, but also to receive from him 
 teachers, who had been trained to perfection by his converse 
 in solitude, and who in their turn might be capable of 
 influencing others by their good example : for from the 
 appearance of Sergius there began among us, as it were, a 
 second era and development of monasticism; and in the ful- 
 ness of its light our unhappy country, which had been 
 suffering so long under the plague of the Tartars, revived. 
 Thus at the request of Vladimir the brother of the Great 
 Prince, Athanasius, a disciple of Sergius, founded the Visotsky 
 monastery at Serpouchoff; and another of his pupils, Sabba, 
 laid the foundation of the convent of Svenigorod, while his 
 nephew Theodore laid that of the Simonoff in Moscow. The 
 Saint himself chose the site for him, on the picturesque banks of 
 the river, within view of the capital; and gave the Great Prince 
 his blessing to begin building at Columna the Goloutvin 
 monastery 13 , as a memorial of the victory which he had gained 
 upon the Don. At the very moment of that decisive battle, 
 which first shook the empire of the Mongols over Russia, the 
 aged saint was supporting Demetrius by his prayer; his two
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 63 
 
 monks, Peresvet and Osliab u , fought in the ranks, with the CHAP. 
 Schema under their coats of mail ; and Peresvet began the - : 
 engagement by a single combat with a gigantic Tartar, the 
 champion of the Horde. He sealed with his blood the 
 approaching deliverance of Russia, and was the precursor of 
 those hero-monks of the Trinity Lavra, who so gloriously 
 distinguished themselves in other days of no less danger and 
 distress- to their country. The bodies of Peresvet and Osliab 
 were laid as the foundation of the Simonoff monastery, when 
 it was first built, on the original site 15 . 
 
 The Metropolitan Alexis himself founded many monas- 
 teries : the magnificent Choudoff 16 , in the centre of the 
 Kremlin; and, without its walls, one for nuns, by the name of 
 his angel ; another at Vladimir, the former capital, called after 
 the Emperor Constantine ; and a fourth in Nijny Novogorod, 
 on the banks of the Volga, called the Pechersky or Cave 
 monastery, in memory of the caves of Anthony upon the 
 Dnieper; and he too, like others, applied to Sergius to give 
 him one of his disciples, when he was founding the Andro- 
 nieff monastery in Moscow, in fulfilment of a vow which he had 
 made during his tempestuous voyage to Constantinople. 
 But when the primate, being now eighty-four years of age, and 
 full of energy to the last, perceived his end to be approach- 
 ing, and wished to give Sergius his blessing and appoint 
 him to be his successor, the humble monk, in great alarm, 
 declared that he could not accept nor wear the costly 
 Panagia 17 , which the primate had sent him from his own 
 person. " From my youth upwards," he answered humbly, 
 " I have never possessed nor worn gold, and now much more 
 in my old age I am anxious to remain in poverty." St. Alexis 
 had good reason for wishing to lose no time in choosing him- 
 self a successor beforehand; for even during his life the same 
 Patriarch Philotheus, who has been mentioned above, had con- 
 secrated another metropolitan named Cyprian, a Servian by 
 birth, probably in the room of Romanus, who was deceased ; 
 but he was not acknowledged by Demetrius ; so he remained 
 in Kieff, where he resided till the death of his predecessor,
 
 04 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, and during those disturbances of the Church which broke 
 - out after it. 
 
 Scarcely had the incorrupt remains of St. Alexis been 
 deposited in the Choudoff monastery of his own foundation, 
 when Mitai, archimandrite of the Simonoff and confessor to 
 the Great Prince, who had originally belonged to the White 
 or Secular Clergy, and had only recently received the tonsure, 
 presuming upon his favour in high quarters, boldly took pos- 
 session of the metropolitical palace 18 , and began to regulate 
 the affairs of the Church as if he were now himself the pri- 
 mate 19 . He demanded his own Consecration in Moscow from 
 a synod of E-ussian bishops; but Dionysius of Souzdal and 
 St. Sergius strenuously opposed this infraction of ecclesiastical 
 order, especially as Alexis himself, before his death, notwith- 
 standing the entreaties of Demetrius, had absolutely refused 
 to give his benediction to Mitai as his successor. 
 
 Sergius had tried to turn the attention of the Great Prince 
 upon Dionysius, as having been the favourite disciple of the 
 deceased metropolitan, to whom he had in times past intrusted 
 his Pechersky monastery; and to save him from the persecu- 
 tions of the pretender Mitai, and from bonds and imprison- 
 ment, he even became himself surety for him, and took him into 
 his own keeping. Dionysius, however, did not reverence as he 
 ought to have done the aged saint, but made his escape and 
 fled secretly to Constantinople. On this Mitai also, fearing 
 lest the patriarch should invest his rival with the dignity of 
 metropolitan, set forth and sailed with a splendid retinue 
 for the same destination, but died at sea within view of the 
 Grecian capital. The Archimandrite Pimen, who attended 
 him, made his own advantage of the letters of the Great 
 Prince to the emperor and the Patriarch Nilus, and fraudu- 
 lently obtained Consecration. Demetrius, enraged at this 
 villainous proceeding, put him into confinement at Tver ; and 
 sent the Archimandrite Theodore, the nephew of St. Sergius, 
 to Kieff, to invite Cyprian to take possession of the metro- 
 political throne of all Russia.
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. G5 
 
 XXVIII. CYPRIAN. 
 THIS occurred in the year of the celebrated battle with CHAP. 
 
 Mamai 20 , which covered with eternal glory the hero of the' 
 Don. The victory of Koulikoff came after a century and a 
 half as the avenging reverberation of the disastrous slaughter 
 on the Kalka ; but still Russia had not as yet any rest from 
 calamity. -Two years after this the destructive invasion of 
 the Khan Toktamuish again covered her eastern provinces 
 with desolation, and the children of the traitor Oleg, prince 
 of Riazan, introduced the Tartars into the Kremlin of 
 Moscow, which had been left by the Great Prince and the 
 metropolitan. Cyprian's absenting himself from the seditious 
 capital just before the invasion, and his residence at Tver with 
 the Prince Michael, son of Alexander, the rival of Demetrius, 
 excited the displeasure of the Great Prince, and obliged him 
 to remove back again to Kieff. Pimen was taken out of 
 confinement, and occupied his place in Moscow, though for no 
 long period, as he was obliged to go to Constantinople, at the 
 citation of the patriarch, to be there judged with Cyprian, 
 who refused to yield up to him his right. 
 
 In the mean time a third metropolitan appeared; Dionysius, 
 who had been consecrated bishop of Souzdal by St. Alexis, 
 obtained in Constantinople the rank of archbishop, and not- 
 withstanding that his having gone thither unsent was against 
 him, he nevertheless, by his pastoral virtues and by his 
 eloquence, obtained the respect both of the Great Prince 
 and of the people, and they devoutly received at his hands 
 the holy Icons and relics which he had brought from the East. 
 He quieted the discontent of the clergy and laity of Novo- 
 gorod, where they murmured at the great sums which were 
 demanded of them at Ordinations, and procured certain 
 definite fees to be fixed by a patriarchal rescript, which he 
 brought to Alexis the Lord of Novogorod. The same dis- 
 turbance had already once before manifested itself, on 
 occasion of the heresy of the Strigolniks 21 , who rejected the 
 
 F
 
 66 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. Ordination of Priests as practised by the Church. Dionysius 
 
 '- visited Constantinople a second time, in company with 
 
 Theodore, the confessor of the Great Prince, and, probably 
 with his consent, sought and obtained for himself the rank 
 
 J384. of metropolitan, for Demetrius never liked Pimen ; but as 
 he was on his return home, Vladimir, son of Olgerd and 
 prince of Kieff, who took part with Cyprian, arrested and 
 detained Dionysius as uncanonically appointed during the 
 lifetime of another metropolitan; and he died in Kieff, and 
 was buried there in the catacombs of the Lavra. 
 
 At length Pimen, who had been once more cited to Con- 
 stantinople to appear in the court of the Patriarch Anthony, 
 died at Chalcedon, and his rival was left alone the undisputed 
 
 1390. metropolitan of all Russia. Basil, the son of Demetrius of 
 the Don, his father being now dead, received the primate 
 with great honour in Moscow, where he arrived, accompanied 
 by two Greek metropolitans and seven Russian bishops. 
 Three of them, Theodore, Euphrosynus, and Isakius, had 
 been severally raised in Constantinople to the rank of arch- 
 bishops, of Rostoff, Souzdal, and Chernigoff, and so for that 
 time the division which had taken place in the unity of 
 the Church was at an end. 
 
 Cyprian recalled to mind by his character the great Cyrill, 
 who had done so much for the improvement and consolidation 
 of Russia. With equal abilities for the administration of ec- 
 clesiastical and of civil affairs, he was, during his episcopate of 
 eighteen years, in the full sense of the word metropolitan of all 
 Russia, notwithstanding the cruel separation between Lithu- 
 ania and Moscow. His former residence of fifteen years in 
 Kieff, had gained him the affection of all the bishops beyond 
 the Dnieper, and the respect of Olgerd himself, who had 
 been converted to Christianity by his consort Mary, born a 
 princess of Tver. That residence indeed, and his influence 
 afterwards, were the main causes of the preservation of 
 orthodoxy throughout the whole of the southern districts ; 
 for Pope Gregory XI., at the request of Louis, king of 
 Poland, had already erected four Latin dioceses in Peremu-
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 67 
 
 ishla, Kholma, Vladimir, and Lvoff. We may well suppose that CHAP. 
 the true cause of the appointments of Romanus and Cyprian - 
 as metropolitans for the South of Russia during the life 
 of Alexis, was the anxiety of the patriarchs lest the pre- 
 servation of the purity of the faith should be endangered 
 in those parts. 
 
 Although the governors of Lithuania in Kieff still con- 
 tinued to profess the orthodox Faith, the Great Prince 
 himself, Yagello the son of Olgerd, having been elected king 
 of Poland, was baptized together with all his people by 
 Roman priests ; and his successor in Lithuania, the powerful 
 Vitoft, also embracing the Latin confession, exceedingly pro- 
 moted its dissemination in Wilna and Volhynia ; and in Kieff 
 itself there was founded a monastery of Dominicans. Never- 
 theless, both Yagello and Vitoft respected the dignity and 
 character of the Metropolitan Cyprian, who on his part pru- 
 dently did all that was in his power to conciliate them ; they 
 made no attempt to withdraw their subjects from his spiritual 
 authority, nor did he, after his removal to Moscow, ever 
 discontinue his visits to Kieff and Lithuania. The bond of 
 a family connection between the Great Princes promoted their 
 accord in respect of the affairs of the Church. Sophia the 
 daughter of Vitoft, had been given in marriage to Basil ; and 
 Cyprian being charged on one occasion to conduct the Great 
 Princess to Wilna to visit her father, took the opportunity 
 while there of ordaining bishops and regulating the affairs 
 of the Church, and forewarned his sovereign of the designs 
 of the Lithuanians, on the occasion of his having for the second 
 time an interview with Vitoft and Yagello. 
 
 Not less prudent was his administration of affairs within the 
 dominions of Moscow. Feeling deeply the immense import- 
 ance of unity to the Church, he strove with all his might to 
 re-establish in Novogorod the rights of the hierarchy, which 
 had been violated and set aside during the feeble admini- 
 stration of Pimen by the self-willed independency of the 
 Assembly. For they had refused to be subject to the superior 
 court of the metropolitans, that they might escape paying to 
 
 F2
 
 68 RESIDENCE OP THE 
 
 CHAP, it the customary dues, and were for giving the final decision 
 in all spiritual matters to their own Lord. But the first 
 attempt of Cyprian was unsuccessful, and he left without his 
 benediction the rebellious citizens, who shewed no respect 
 even to the rescript of the patriarch. The Great Prince 
 himself engaged in this affair, which partly affected his own 
 government, as the subordination of Novogorod to the 
 spiritual authority of the primate made it more dependent 
 on Moscow than it would else have been in civil affairs. 
 The Assembly was brought to reason, though only for a short 
 time ; new disturbances on their part caused a war, and the 
 good archbishop, John, suffered imprisonment in the Chou- 
 doff monastery for the disobedience of his flock : Tver and 
 Biazan were in harmony with Moscow, while Souzdal, ever 
 since the times of Demetrius of the Don, had been reckoned 
 as part of its province. Cyprian, on the petition of Michael 
 prince of Tver, who was his friend, consecrated in the room 
 of Euphemius bishop of that city, who had been deprived, 
 St.Arsenius, a man distinguished for his piety, who founded 
 near Tver the Jeltikoff monastery, where his uncorrupted 
 body still lies. Oleg, the prince of Biazan, had been at length 
 reconciled to the Great Prince after the invasion of Toktam- 
 uish by the entreaties of St. Sergius, who softened completely 
 and for ever the enmity of his heart. Both the illustrious rivals 
 1392. of Demetrius, Michael and Oleg, ended their days about the 
 same time, as monks, and in alliance with his son ; and with 
 them the glory of their principalities was extinguished. 
 
 In the reign of Basil, died also at an extremely advanced 
 age that great defender of his country, Sergius, amidst the 
 blessings of his contemporaries, which were soon changed 
 into prayers for his intercession, when his uncorrupted 
 relics were found. His disciple, the holy Hegumen Nikon, 
 discovered them as he. was building the stone church of the 
 Holy Trinity after the destructive invasion of Edigee, and 
 deposited them in it as a support and strength to his Lavra, 
 which from that time forth was never touched by so much as 
 one of those calamities which fell upon the neighbouring
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 69 
 
 city of Moscow **. Another great pledge of the safety of the CHAP. 
 capital was brought into it, to the cathedral of the Assump- 
 tion, from the former residence of the Great Prince, Vladimir, 
 at a time when another dreadful invasion was threatening. 
 The conqueror of the East, Tamerlane, suddenly fell upon the 
 Horde, and having broken the power of Toktamuish 23 , advanced 
 rapidly into the interior of our country, giving up every thing 
 to fire and sword. The Great Prince with his army awaited 
 him on the banks of the Oka; the metropolitan with the 
 citizens went out in procession to meet the ancient Icon of the 
 Mother of God, and to receive it into Moscow ; and on that 1395. 
 same day Tamerlane turned back, and drew off his army 2 *. 
 The Sretensky monastery, that is, The Monastery of the 
 Meeting, was built in Moscow in commemoration of the 
 deliverance of Russia, which has ever since kept the 26th of 
 August as a festival. 
 
 Many religious houses began to appear in the North from 
 the time of St. Alexis, and during all the long primacy of 
 Cyprian. In Souzdal, a disciple of the Archbishop Diony- 
 sius, St. Euphemius, founded his celebrated monastery of the 
 Saviour; and in Moscow, Eudocia, the pious widow of the 
 hero of the Don, received the tonsure by the name of Eu- 
 praxia in the convent of The Ascension 25 , which she had 
 founded in the Kremlin. There she was buried, and the same 
 church from that time forth became the burying-place of the 
 illustrious house of Moscow for all the Grand Princesses and 
 their daughters, whose tombs are ranged side by side, begin- 
 ning with hers. But that which became more celebrated than 
 all the rest was the convent of Bielo-ozero 26 , founded by 
 St. Cyrill, a disciple and companion of St. Sergius, and monk 
 of the Simonoff monastery. Thirsting after a retreat of ab- 
 solute quiet, he secluded himself on the silent shores of the 
 White lake ; but such a light as his could not remain hid 
 under the bushel ; his monastery grew and nourished, even 
 like that of St. Sergius, and became an object of the deepest 
 reverence to our Tsars, especially to John the Terrible. In 
 its turn it became the seed-bed of other houses, which sprang
 
 70 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, up around it, both near and afar off. From the white waters of 
 v. 
 
 - its lake, St. Sabbatius carried the germ of monasticism to 
 
 the grey waves of the Northern ocean; there, in the un- 
 inhabited islands of the White sea, his fellow-labourer Ger- 
 manus, and his successor St. Zosimus laid the foundations of 
 the Solovetskay 27 Lavra, which has stood as a glorious boun- 
 dary of our country to the North, and illumined all the coasts 
 of the sea with the light of Christianity. 
 
 Other monasteries, though less celebrated than these two, 
 which are of the highest rank, produced, no less than these, 
 the same beneficial effects on their wild neighbourhoods. 
 Not far from Bielo-ozero, one of the princes of that place 
 discovered a whole community of monks on a desolate and 
 rocky island of the Koubensky lake, who occupied themselves 
 solely with preaching the word of God to the savage tribes 
 of the Choudes J8 . Their pious zeal extended even still 
 further to the North. The Monk Lazarus founded his 
 monastery of the Assumption on the shores of the Onega 
 lake, for the conversion of the Lopars 29 ; and at the same 
 time the monks of Balaam, on the Ladoga, enlightened by 
 holy Baptism the neighbouring Carelians. Not only the 
 spiritual instruction, but even the occupation itself and colo- 
 nization of the northern and eastern districts of Russia were 
 effected by the multiplication of religious houses, which 
 were scattered in all parts, and around which inhabitants 
 immediately began to plant themselves, attracted by the 
 advantage of those exemptions which were granted to the 
 Church, with its property and retainers, by the Letters of 
 the khans, and by that freedom from civil jurisdiction which 
 had been all along conceded to the clergy by their native 
 princes. Thus every monastery which extended our boun- 
 dary became the nucleus of a new pale of settlements, 
 and even a stronghold of defence in case of any attack from 
 barbarous tribes. Great Perm, whither the hunters of Novo- 
 gorod before went for their furs, was acquired to Russia by a 
 single monk, through the preaching of the Name of Christ. 
 St. Stephen, penetrated with an apostolic zeal, felt his heart
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 71 
 
 pained at the gross heathenism of the inhabitants of Perm; CHAP. 
 and having thoroughly known their tongue from a child, he ' 
 
 invented letters for it. He went alone to preach Christ in the 
 deep and silent woods of Perm, and by faith overcame all the 
 opposition of the heathen priests, who were his enemies. He 
 founded for them their first church, a poor and simple struc- 
 ture, on the river Viuma, and from thence, by little and 
 little, the doctrine of salvation was spread abroad. He him- 
 self was consecrated to be bishop of Perm by the hands of the 
 Metropolitan Pimen, and after many years of labour, departed 
 this life in Moscow, where his holy relics are still preserved 
 in the cathedral of the Saviour. 
 
 The Metropolitan Cyprian, the great contemporary of so 1407. 
 many holy athletes, departed this life, to the deep regret of the 
 Great Prince and of all his widely-extended flock, in his favour- 
 ite village of Golenischeff, near Moscow, where in mature old 
 age he sought repose from the troubles of life. There he conse- 
 crated his hours of solitude to the task of writing an account of 
 the holy lives of his two predecessors, Peter and Alexis, and 
 to the making of a collection of the chronicles of his adopted 
 country, which have been preserved to us under the title of the 
 Books of the Genealogies ; for this great churchman was at 
 the same time wisely zealous for the promotion of learning 
 and enlightenment. Before his easy and tranquil departure, he 
 composed a touching testamentary exhortation to his flock, 
 in which forgiving all who might have offended him, he him- 
 self humbly in turn asked forgiveness of all, and ordered that 
 it should be read over his grave. After his example all the 
 subsequent metropolitans of Moscow have been used to leave 
 behind them similar testamentary exhortations. 
 
 XXIX. PHOTIUS. 
 
 FOR three years after the death of Cyprian there was no uio. 
 metropolitan in Russia, till the Patriarch Matthew sent 
 Photius, who had been consecrated from the strict monks of 
 the country of Amorrhaea. His arrival, first at Kieff, and after-
 
 72 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, wards at Moscow, took place just at the afflictive period of 
 the Tartar ravages, to which our country was again sub- 
 jected. The Horde, which had been divided by the quarrels 
 between the families of Timur and Toktamuish, was still 
 powerful under the rule of Edigee, who, like Mamai 30 , 
 disposed of the destiny of the khans. He wished to humble 
 the Great Prince ; for the prudent Basil, taking advantage 
 of the wars of the Horde with Lithuania, had redeemed 
 himself from under their yoke for the consideration of a small 
 annual tribute. The invasion of Edigee was very destructive ; 
 all the eastern districts were reduced to ashes; Vladimir, son 
 of Andrew, the uncle of the Great Prince, and the illustrious 
 companion-in-arms of Demetrius Donskoy, with difficulty 
 held out in the Kremlin of Moscow. A few years later, 
 the ancient city of Kieff and all the southern frontiers were 
 exposed to the sword of the Tartars, and from those times 
 declined still more in importance. 
 
 Photius found the patrimony of the metropolitical see partly 
 spoiled by the enemy, and partly wasted by embezzlements of 
 the boyars themselves during the vacancy, when there was no 
 primate ; and as he stood up warmly in defence of the property 
 of the Church, he drew upon himself their enmity, in which 
 the Great Prince himself joined. Photius, who had been used 
 as a monk to the solitude of his cell, could ill bear the turmoils 
 of public life in a strange country ; he sought in vain for 
 quiet in the favourite retreat of Cyprian, where like him he 
 gave himself up to learning, and for a time retired into the 
 forests in the district of Vladimir; but he was driven from 
 thence also by a new invasion from the Horde, under the 
 khan's son, who laid waste the elder capital, Vladimir. 
 
 In the mean time another calamity, which had been long 
 foreseen, assailed the Church of Russia from the West. Vitoft, 
 though a zealot of Rome, yet, from his respect for Cyprian, 
 had not attempted to break the unity of the metropolitical 
 power; but Photius' want of tact and experience in matters of 
 state business, and the strictness with which he collected the 
 revenues of the Church in the Lithuanian provinces, set the
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 73 
 
 prince upon effecting a separation, which seemed convenient CHAP. 
 for his interests in a political point of view. He called 
 together in Novogorod of Lithuania all his bishops ; 
 Theodosius of Polotsk, Isaak of Chernigoff, Dionysius of 
 Loutsk, Gerasimus of Volhynia, John of Galich, Sebastian 
 of Smolensk, Charito of Kholma, Paul of Cherven, Euphemius 
 of Touroff; he represented to them the difficulties which 
 must stand in the way of the Church being well governed, so 
 long as it was dependant upon a foreign primate, and re- 
 quired that there should be a separate metropolitan for Kieff. 
 The orthodox bishops hesitated for a long time to fulfil the 
 wishes of a sovereign who professed another faith; but 
 threats and other vexations at length wearied them out, and 
 compelled them to proceed to an election. Gregory Simblak, 
 a learned man of Bulgarian extraction, was sent by the 
 synod to Constantinople for Consecration, with a complaint 
 against the Metropolitan Photius, as if to turn off from the 
 electors upon him the responsibility of violating the unity of 
 the Church. But the Emperor Manuel and the Patriarch 
 Callistus rejected the petition of the synod. The Metropo- 
 litan Photius himself, when he heard of the designs of the 
 Lithuanians, resolved to go to Vitoft to prevent them, and 
 even on from him to Constantinople, but he was robbed on 
 the frontier-territory of Moscow, and compelled to return j 
 while Vitoft drove his vicar out of Kieff, and made himself 
 master of all that belonged to the metropolitan within the 
 pale of his dominions. 
 
 The refusal of the patriarch of Constantinople to consecrate 
 Simblak was no bar to the proud Lithuanian. He again con- 
 voked the bishops to Novogrodok, and compelled them to 1416. 
 ordain Gregory as metropolitan of Kieff and all Russia. Being 
 sensible, however, of the irregularity of their proceedings, the 
 members of the synod sought to justify themselves by a circu- 
 lar letter, in which they accused of avarice not Photius only, 
 but even the Greek emperors themselves, intimating that they 
 made their own private advantage of sending metropolitans to 
 Russia ; at the same time they expressed their high respect
 
 /4 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, for the oecumenical patriarchs, and their devotion to the doc- 
 trines of orthodoxy. On the other side, Photius called together 
 the bishops of the Muscovite dominions, anathematized the 
 acts of the synod of Novogrodok, and Simblak himself, and 
 strove, with all his might, to re-establish the unity of the 
 Church ; but this he was never able to effect during the life 
 of his rival, who had established his chair at Wilna. 
 
 Gregory, who was zealously attached to the doctrines of the 
 Eastern Church, could not bear to see his sovereign pro- 
 fessing another creed, and exhorted him to turn to ortho- 
 doxy. But Vitoft, while he declined entering himself into the 
 controversy, made Gregory go to the West, where the synod of 
 Constance was still sitting. Simblak remained unshaken in 
 the traditions of his fathers, and soon after died at Wilna. 
 1420. On this the Metropolitan Photius, now become more expe- 
 rienced from his long residence in Russia, took advantage of 
 the favourable conjuncture, and having undertaken the 
 charge of conducting the Great Princess Sophia, on a visit 
 to her father, succeeded in re-establishing a good under- 
 standing, which was no more interrupted till after both their 
 deaths ; for during the last days of Vitoft's life, the metropo- 
 litan had yet once again after this, at Troki, a friendly inter- 
 view with him, and with Yagello, king of Poland. 
 
 The death of Photius was very sensibly felt by the princi- 
 pality of Moscow, which was torn to pieces by the family 
 feuds of its princes, after the prudent reign of Basil 31 , the son 
 of Demetrius. His brother Yury rose up against his youthful 
 son Basil, the legitimate Great Prince, whom the metro- 
 politan, on the other hand, supported by his spiritual autho- 
 rity, and kept down the malcontents by the fear of excom- 
 munication. But when there was no longer any ecclesiastical 
 head in Moscow, these dissensions broke out afresh, and were 
 the very bitterest and fiercest of all that occur in our history. 
 It seemed as if it had been decreed, that before Russia should 
 begin to breathe again, after her two hundred years subjec- 
 tion to the Tartar yoke and her own civil dissensions, and 
 rise to greatness in the person of John III., all those long-
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 75 
 
 continued miseries should once more be accumulated toge- CHAP. 
 
 ther, and burst, for the last time, on the head of his father : 
 
 Basil. For what calamity is there which he did not experience 
 during the six-and-thirty years of his reign? He was 
 obliged to go to the Horde, and stand before Mahomet 
 Khan to be judged with his ambitious uncle ; he was taken 
 prisoner by the same khan, after an engagement in which he 
 was worsted, and was kept for some time in captivity ; he was 
 twice expelled from the throne of Great Prince by his 
 own relations, was imprisoned by them, and at last had his 
 eyes put out. But his country is indebted to this royal 
 sufferer for his firmness in maintaining the orthodox Faith, 
 for never at any other time was the Church of Russia ex- 
 posed to so great a danger. 
 
 The successor of Vitoft, Svidrigailo, seeing that the primacy 1432. 
 was vacant, despatched his favourite, Gerasimus, bishop of 
 Smolensk, to Constantinople, where he was appointed metro- 
 politan by the Patriarch Joseph. He did not succeed, how- 
 ever, in penetrating further than Smolensk ; and was obliged 
 to content himself with a residence there, which he preferred, 
 in order that he might be nearer at hand to make his 
 attempts upon Moscow, though neither that nor any other 
 Russian diocese ever for a moment consented to acknowledge 
 him ; Novogorod alone unwillingly applied to him, after the 
 death of their Archbishop Simeon, to consecrate to the chair 
 of St. Sophia the holy Ephraim, one of the most virtuous of 
 all the pastors of that city. After two years had elapsed, 
 Gerasimus himself suffered death at the hand of his former 
 benefactor. The ferocious Svidrigailo, having learned that 
 he carried on a secret correspondence with Sigismund, his 
 rival in the principality of Lithuania, to the horror of all 
 the orthodox, burned the metropolitan alive at Vitebsk. 
 
 XXX. ISIDORE. 
 
 IN the mean time, the Great Prince Basil, taking it to 
 heart that the Church should remain so long without a
 
 76 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, pastor, caused a synod to assemble, which, at his instigation, 
 - elected Jonah bishop of Riazan, a man who by his virtues 
 shed a light on those stormy times of our country. He was 
 sent for institution to the Patriarch Joseph ; but Jonah found 
 at Constantinople that another person had already been ap- 
 pointed metropolitan of all Russia, Isidore, a bishop of 
 Illyria. This was at the very moment of the greatest distress 
 of the Greek empire, which was now almost all shut up 
 within the walls of the capital, and in daily horror of the 
 gathering storm of the Ottomans. The Emperor John, 
 seeing no means of deliverance within his empire, sought for 
 aid from the Western Powers. 
 
 Eugenius IV., an experienced and politic old man, then 
 occupied the papal throne ; and although he himself was 
 engaged in a contest ^with the synods of Constance and 
 Basle, respecting the papal authority, he nevertheless pro- 
 posed to the emperor to call a council in Italy for the re- 
 union of the Churches, promising, if it were agreed to, to 
 save Constantinople from the Turks. John, together with 
 the Patriarch Joseph, and a venerable body of clergy, sailed 
 for Venice ; but as Russia already composed the larger half 
 of the Eastern Church, Isidore, a friend of the pope, and a 
 man of distinguished talents and eloquence, was chosen and 
 sent to her as metropolitan. Kieff and Moscow gave him 
 a public reception, and all Russia acknowledged him; but 
 no more than four months had elapsed when he began to 
 seek permission of the Great Prince to go to the council, 
 representing to him that all the sovereigns and primates of 
 both East and West were assembled to confer about the 
 Faith, and that it was not meet that Russia alone should 
 have no representative there. Basil gave a reluctant consent 
 to the departure of the metropolitan, beseeching him to stand 
 firm in defence of the doctrines of orthodoxy, and gave him 
 Abram, bishop of Souzdal, to accompany him, together with 
 a numerous suite. St. Euphemius, of Novogorod, conducted 
 the primate to the frontiers of his diocese. The Grand Master 32 
 of Livonia paid him the compliment of going out to meet him
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 77 
 
 and giving him a public reception at Riga ; from thence he CHAP. 
 
 sailed by sea to Lubeck, and proceeded to Ferrara, where the 
 
 emperor and the pope were waiting only for his arrival in order 
 to open the council. 
 
 Long controversies were begun respecting the procession of 
 the Holy Spirit, purgatory, and unleavened bread, and above 
 all respecting the power of the pope. The emperor and the 
 patriarch, overwhelmed by the misfortunes of their country and 
 by poverty, nevertheless stood out for a long time. The elo- 
 quent Mark, metropolitan of Ephesus, thundered against the 
 new doctrines, and against the ambition of Rome ; but Bes- 
 sarion, metropolitan of Nice, and Isidore of Russia, inclined 
 strongly to the interests of the pope. They transferred the 
 council to Florence, where the Patriarch Joseph died . At length 
 Eugenius obtained the upper hand, and declared beforehand 
 the union of the Churches on conditions favourable to Rome. 
 Mark of Ephesus was the only one who did not subscribe the 
 acts of the council; he concealed himself, to become after- 
 wards in the East the champion of orthodoxy; for the 
 other oecumenical patriarchs rejected the union of Florence, 
 and assembled together in Constantinople, and condemned 
 all its conventions and acts 33 . The emperor returned without 
 obtaining any support for his falling empire ; none of the 
 western sovereigns gave him any assistance, or were even 
 present at Florence ; for they favoured rather the opinions of 
 the council of Basle. Bessarion and Isidore were decorated 
 with the Roman purple, while the last had the title given 
 him of Cardinal Legate of the Apostolic See in Russia. He 1440. 
 returned in triumph through Kieff to Moscow, bearing 
 friendly letters from Pope Eugenius to the Great Prince; 
 but the first time that he performed Divine service, when, in 
 the cathedral of the Assumption, he was in the act of naming 
 the Roman pontiff, together with the oecumenical patriarchs, 
 and the archdeacon M had proclaimed from beside the chair of 
 the primate the acts- of the council of Florence, Basil indig- 
 nantly rebuked Isidore, calling him a traitor to the cause of 
 orthodoxy, and a false pastor. He summoned the bishops
 
 78 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, and the boyars to meet and pass their judgment on the new 
 doctrine. Not one of them would consent to acknowledge 
 the pope as the Vicar of Christ ; and all of them, with one 
 accord, rejected the western doctrine respecting the procession 
 of the Holy Spirit that it is not only from the Father, but 
 also from the Son, in contradiction to the ancient Creed 35 , in 
 spite of the subtle arguments of Isidore, whom they confined 
 in the Choudoff monastery. He escaped, however, from his 
 guards, and fled, and Basil prudently gave orders that he 
 should not be pursued. Isidore was honourably received at 
 Rome, and was sent to Constantinople, where great disturb- 
 ances were excited among the people by the attempt to 
 carry into effect the union of the Churches, even when the 
 capital was on the very point of falling ; for two patriarchs, 
 Metrophanes and Gregory, one after the other adhered to 
 the council of Florence. But when the last Constantine fell 
 upon the ruins of his empire, on which the conqueror 
 Mahomet established a new dynasty, Isidore again fled, and 
 sought his safety at Rome, and was there honoured with the 
 title of Patriarch of Constantinople. A disciple of his, 
 Gregory, was consecrated metropolitan of Kieff, where about 
 this time there commenced a succession of Latin bishops ; but 
 Gregory was not acknowledged in Russia, nor even in Lithu- 
 ania, notwithstanding the protection of Casimir, sovereign 
 of the latter country and of Poland. Thus terminated 
 this attempt to subject Russia to the Roman see. A cen- 
 tury and a half later its effects were felt in the griev- 
 ous calamities inflicted on our country by the Pretenders, and 
 the Unia. 
 
 XXXI. SAINT JONAH. 
 
 AFTER the expulsion of Isidore, the Church of Russia was 
 again for eight years in widowhood. During this period the 
 Prince Demetrius Shemiaka, who, after having put out the 
 eyes of Basil and cast him into prison, had taken possession 
 of the throne, sent for Jonah, the bishop of Riazan, and of-
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 79 
 
 fered him the dignity of metropolitan, if he would only recon- CHAP. 
 
 cile him with the Great Prince. He cunningly persuaded '- 
 
 the old man to bring to him to be educated the two children of 
 the blind prince, whom the faithful boyars had concealed in 
 Mourom, in his diocese, promising to pacify their unfortunate 
 father by the gift of a rich patrimony, and threatening, on 
 the other hand, to sack the town in case of a refusal. The 
 hope of obtaining the dignity of primate could not influence 
 Jonah, who was already regarded as the lawful successor to 
 the metropolitical throne ; but he hoped to alleviate the lot 
 of Basil, for he did not anticipate the possibility of his reign- 
 ing, and so he complied with the wishes of Shemiaka. He 
 received on his omophorium 36 , or pall, the young sons of 
 the blinded prince in the cathedral at Mourom ; but when 
 Shemiaka, violating the oath which he had pledged, sent 
 them to Ouglich to share their father's confinement, the vehe- 
 ment remonstrances of the holy man wrought upon him to 
 redeem his broken faith. " Thou hast disgraced my old 
 " age," he said, " and now I am steeped in perjury : remove 
 " this sin from my soul and thine own : what dost thou fear 
 "from a blind prince and two little children?" This he 
 urged without ceasing upon Shemiaka, until he touched his 
 heart ; and so he let Basil go free with his children to Vologda, 
 having first taken the precaution to bind him with an oath 
 taken upon the cross, and before a synod of bishops, instead 
 of fetters. But the blind prince, who had been treacher- 
 ously seized by his enemy within the walls of the Trinity 
 Lavra, at the tomb of the wonder-worker Sergius, within the 
 walls of another monastery received absolution from his 
 compulsory oath. Tryphon, hegumen of the monastery of 
 Bielo-ozero, took the oath upon himself and his fraternity, and 
 urged the prince, for the good of his country, to reclaim for 
 himself and his children their lawful inheritance. Moscow 
 went forth with joy to meet her true sovereign, and his first 
 act was to send the Bishop Jonah to Constantinople for 
 institution. 
 
 Basil, in his letter to the emperor and patriarch, described
 
 80 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, the particulars of the confusion which had been introduced 
 - by the defection of the Metropolitan Isidore, and declared his 
 own devotion to the ancient and orthodox doctrine. But 
 reports concerning the relations which Constantinople then 
 had with Rome, caused the Great Prince to delay his 
 embassy. Waiting more favourable circumstances, St. Jonah 
 governed the Church for five years without being synodically 
 appointed. But at length, seeing that the disorders in the 
 East still continued, Basil convoked the Russian bishops, 
 Ephraim of Rostoff, Abram of Souzdal, who had fled from 
 the council of Florence, Barlaam of Columna, and Pitirim of 
 Perm, who was afterwards martyred by the savage inhabitants 
 of his diocese for the Name of Christ ; these instituted 
 Jonah as metropolitan of all Russia, while St. Euphemius of 
 Novogorod and the bishop of Tver sent him the letters of 
 confirmation 3? . 
 
 1453. From this time, on account of the fall of the Greek empire, 
 all our metropolitans were appointed by a council of their own 
 bishops ; for they had no means of passing through Lithuania 
 to Constantinople, which was then oppressed by the Ottoman 
 yoke. But the spiritual bond of union with the Eastern 
 Church, and even the subordination of the Russian primate 
 to the throne of Constantinople, were preserved inviolate ; 
 on all possible opportunities the patriarchs communicated 
 with the metropolitans of Russia either by letters or by 
 bishops going in person from one to the other : and the 
 other oecumenical patriarchs, yielding to the pressure of the 
 circumstances of those times, recognised this mode of conse- 
 cration, and did not break off unity with us on this account, 
 as appears from the Book of the Kormchay 38 or Nomocanon. 
 St. Jonah however was the last who bore the title of Metro- 
 politan of Kieff : his successors took that of Metropolitan of 
 Moscow and of all Russia : for Kieff from this time began 
 to have a regular succession of metropolitans of its own, 
 subject to Lithuania. He continued for seven years to 
 shew forth an example of all the virtues of a good pastor, on 
 the episcopal throne; he consoled the capital under its
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 81 
 
 suffering from conflagrations and from a dreadful invasion CHAP. 
 
 of the Tartars, who all but got possession of the Kremlin ; 
 
 and even during his life he was glorified from above by the 
 gifts of prophecy and healing ; having, like St. Peter, foretold 
 the deliverance of Russia from the yoke of the infidels, and 
 its future glory. 
 
 The episcopate of the Metropolitan Jonah terminated 1461. 
 nearly at the same time with the reign of Basil 39 . A good 
 Providence prolonged the holy life of that great Churchman 
 to the glorious times of John III., who shed new splendour 
 upon Russia. And here we may well fix our eyes with 
 astonishment on those ages of slavery which have gone by, 
 and offer a heartfelt thanksgiving to the Lord, who under the 
 shadow of his Church preserved the rising empire during its 
 youth, entrusting its helm, amid civil wars and barbarous 
 captivity, during the course of two hundred years, to a 
 glorious succession of great prelates. Scarcely had the 
 Tartars appeared and laid waste our country, when one after 
 another there rose up, sometimes from her own bosom, at 
 others from Greece, Cyrill, and Maximus, the Saints Peter 
 and Theognostes, Alexis, Cyprian, Photius, and lastly Jonah, 
 all of whom the Church reckons in the company of her 
 guardians and intercessors; having learned to trust by 
 experience, even during their lives, in that heavenly aid which 
 they afforded her after their blessed deaths. The period of 
 the rule of each of these was so prolonged, their force of 
 character, their devotion to the Church, so unshaken, and so 
 touching was the sanctity of their lives, that internal storms 
 by little and little subsided into calm at the word of the 
 prelates, and, as in some sheltered haven, the feuds of the 
 princes were quieted around them, while the waves without 
 were often broken against the solid opposition of the 
 hierarchical order. Certainly Russia is bound to remember 
 with devout gratitude all these her holy defenders during 
 the stormy days, of her youth ; especially, and above all, 
 Cyrill, Peter, Alexis, Cyprian, and Jonah. 
 
 From the accession of John III., there was a great change 1462. 
 
 G
 
 82 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, both in the external and internal circumstances of Russia 
 v. 
 
 which in the course of his long and prudent reign ripened 
 
 into a powerful empire. The Golden Horde, which had once 
 been so formidable, had now fallen into pieces of itself; its 
 last khan, Achmet, with difficulty exacted a nominal tribute 
 from the Great Prince. Three separate kingdoms were 
 formed from its ruins ; that of Kazan, which was more hostile 
 than the others to Moscow, although its kings 40 were often 
 appointed by our sovereigns, as ours had once been by the 
 khans; that of Astrachan, in the distant South, composed 
 of many wandering hordes ; and lastly, that of the Crimaea, 
 the founder of which, Mengly Hirey, was during his whole 
 life the firm ally of John. He crushed the tribe of Achmet, 
 and harassed Lithuania with his incursions. On the other 
 hand, the great Lithuanian principality, which already 
 embraced all the south and west districts of Russia, became 
 still more powerful when its sovereigns of the race of Hedi- 
 mine ascended the throne of Poland. It shut out the West 
 from us, although the embassies of John visited the courts of 
 all the sovereigns of Europe, from the pope and the Roman 
 emperor even down to the sultan. The warlike order of 
 the knights of Livonia, acting in concert with Lithuania, 
 threatened the frontiers of Novogorod and Pskoff, which John, 
 to the extreme displeasure of the popular assembly, had begun 
 to call his patrimony. The civil feuds which had distracted 
 the empire within itself, were now extinguished; Riazan 
 alone claimed the rights of a separate but inoffensive princi- 
 pality, under the influence of that of Moscow; Tver had 
 already come as it were into the family of Moscow by the 
 matrimonial alliance which John contracted with the 
 daughter of its prince, and he took it into his own hands 
 altogether upon the flight of the last reigning prince, who 
 had been discovered to entertain secret relations with 
 Lithuania. The concentration of the empire under one head 
 was the object which John steadily pursued throughout his 
 whole life. 
 
 His influence was great also in Church affairs; for the
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 83 
 
 Russian Church, properly so called, was now all comprised CHAP. 
 within the limits of his empire, in consequence of the separa- - 
 tion of the southern dioceses from the jurisdiction of the 
 metropolitans of Moscow. With St. Jonah terminated the 
 line of those great prelates who had extended their beneficent 
 influence over the ancient patrimony of our Church, and had 
 joined all together in one by their frequent journeys in 
 different directions throughout Russia, and to Constantinople, 
 from whence they brought the most enlightened principles and 
 models of ecclesiastical administration. Our involuntary sepa- 
 ration from Constantinople, after its fall, was sensibly felt in 
 its consequences, when men of exalted acquirements, such as 
 Cyprian and Photius, no longer came to us to fill the throne 
 of Moscow. Inaccuracies crept by little and little into our 
 Slavonic books of Divine service, and into some of the cere- 
 monies, from their no longer being compared with the Greek, 
 which, though inconsiderable in themselves, nevertheless took 
 deep root, and served eventually for the occasion of lament- 
 able divisions. 
 
 XXXII. THEODOSIUS. 
 
 THEODOSIUS, the successor of St. Jonah, was appointed by a 1462. 
 Russian synod in the last year of Basil the Blind, from 
 having been archbishop of Rostoff, in consequence of the 
 seniority of his see 41 ; but he did not sit as metropolitan of 
 Moscow more than five years. The opinion then greatly pre- 
 valent of the end. of the world being at hand, at the expiration 
 of the seven thousandth year from the creation, moved the zeal 
 of the boyars to erect numbers of private churches ; while the 
 multiplication of priests, who had no parochial cure, and the 
 demand for whom made it difficult to observe proper strictness 
 in their selection, produced a relaxation in the morals of the 
 clergy. Theodosius, who was a strict disciplinarian, excited 
 great dissatisfaction against himself by his corrective measures, 
 and only avoided a public disturbance by voluntarily retiring 
 into the Choudoff monastery. There he took to himself into 
 
 G2
 
 O4 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, his cell, a poor and feeble old man, and tended him as a 
 - servant till his death, washing his sores, as a pattern of 
 Christian humility. A year before his retirement it was his 
 fortune to take part in the affairs of the Church of Palestine. 
 Joseph, patriarch of Jerusalem, flying from the persecutions 
 of the sultan of Egypt, resolved to seek refuge in Russia, but 
 died on his road, at Kaffa 42 . His brother arrived at Moscow, 
 with letters commendatory, and was ordained by a synod of 
 Russian bishops to be metropolitan of Csesarea. This was 
 the first appeal of the Eastern Church in her affliction, after 
 the taking of Constantinople, to the charity and affection of 
 the Russians, her brethren by unity of faith. 
 
 XXXIII. PHILIP I. 
 
 1467. PHILIP, bishop of Souzdal, was appointed metropolitan, and 
 inherited the virtues as well as the dignity of Theodosius ; 
 during the seven years that he governed the Church, he 
 shewed a remarkable firmness of character. The name of 
 John, which was already known in Europe, attracted the 
 attention of the Roman pontiff, Paul, at whose court the 
 family of Thomas, lord of the Morea, and brother of the 
 last Constantine, had found an asylum. Just before the 
 fall of Constantinople, there had been a renewal of the 
 connection which had previously existed between the family 
 of the Great Prince and that of the emperors, when Anna, 
 sister to Basil the Blind, was given in marriage to John 
 Paleologus; and after its fall, the pope could not find 
 any more suitable match for Sophia, the heiress of the 
 Greek emperors, than the powerful sovereign of Russia. 
 The idea of a general crusade against the Turks, together 
 with the hope of uniting our country with Rome through the 
 instrumentality of Sophia, who had been bred up in the 
 doctrines of the Council of Florence, induced Paul to deliver 
 over to Russia this last relic of the ancient glories of 
 Byzantium; and John gladly received this her last pledge 
 in the person of Sophia 43 . But the hopes of Rome were dis-
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 85 
 
 appointed ; the princess had no sooner crossed the frontier, CHAP. 
 and come within our territory, than she shewed herself a 
 zealous follower of the Orthodox Confession; and when 
 Anthony, the papal legate, who accompanied her, wished to 
 make his public entry into Moscow with the cross borne before 
 him after the Latin fashion, and John hesitated from respect 
 to his quality of ambassador, the Metropolitan Philip stood 
 up in defence of the supremacy of the Church of his country. 
 "Whoever" said he to John, "praises and honours a foreign 
 faith, that man degrades his own. If the legate enters with 
 his cross at one gate of the city, I shall go out of it by the 
 other." After the celebration of the marriage the metropolitan 
 had some discussions with the legate about the Faith, but the 
 cautious envoy of Rome avoided entering into any decisive 
 controversy, and excused himself on the ground of not having 
 his books with him. 
 
 Philip, zealous for the honour of the cathedral of the Assump- 
 tion, where his blessed predecessors reposed, and assisted by 
 the contributions of the boyars and the clergy, began to erect 
 a new church on the site of the old building of Kalita ; but 
 from the unskilfulness of the builders the arches soon fell in, 
 and this caused the Great Prince to send for Aristotle 44 , a 
 celebrated architect, from Italy. He erected the cathedral 
 of the Assumption in that magnificent Byzantine style, for 
 which it is still admired, as the brightest jewel of the ancient 
 Kremlin ; and two other magnificent cathedrals, those of the 
 Annunciation and of the Archangel, were rebuilt under his 
 superintendence upon their former sites. In the inside of 
 the temple of the Assumption, there were laid as foundation- 
 stones at the four corners the bodies of those great prelates, 
 who had reposed in the former sanctuary ; Peter and Theog- 
 nostes within the side-altar 45 , Cyprian and Photius in the 
 south-western corner of the church; and in the opposite 
 corner, over against them, Jonah, whose body was found un- 
 corrupted while the building was in progress. But the 
 Primate Philip saw neither the fall of the church which he 
 had commenced, "nor the erection of the new one; he was
 
 86 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, seized with a sudden fright on occasion of a dreadful confla- 
 
 ~ gration in the Kremlin, and fell sick soon after, and died ; he 
 
 had much emaciated his body with fasting, and there were 
 
 found upon it after death heavy irons, which were hung up 
 
 over his tomb. 
 
 XXXIV. GERONTIUS. 
 
 1472. GERONTIUS, bishop of Columna, having been elected to 
 succeed him as metropolitan, completed and consecrated the 
 cathedral of the Assumption which Philip had begun. For 
 more than twenty years he fed the Church of Christ, during 
 the most glorious period of the reign of John ; for he wit- 
 nessed the reduction of the independency of Novogorod, and 
 the throwing off the Tartar yoke ; and on both these im- 
 portant occasions our attention is drawn to distinguished 
 members of the clergy. On the first of them to Theophilus, 
 who was the last bishop elected by the people to the throne 
 of St. Sophia after the blessed decease of St. Jonah, a man 
 memorable for the virtues which adorned his long episcopate. 
 The Assembly would not allow their new pastor to go to 
 Moscow for Institution, because John in his letter, which 
 invited him thither, had called Novogorod his patrimony, 
 but wished to send him for Consecration into Lithuania, 
 which was in their alliance, to the metropolitan of Kieff. 
 But Theophilus, who was a zealous observer of the traditions 
 of his fathers, refused to violate the ancient order of the 
 hierarchy. During John's first expedition against them, he 
 reconciled his flock to him, and received canonical Consecra- 
 tion in Moscow ; and when for the second time the inde- 
 pendent spirit of this trading republic, excited by Martha 
 their mayoress, rose in contention against the authority of 
 the powerful John, and his army had routed the bands of 
 Novogorod, Theophilus, under the very walls of the city, 
 obtained by his prayers the mercy of the conqueror for the 
 inhabitants, although with the loss of all their popular privi- 
 leges, and of his own riches, which were taken away by the
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 87 
 
 Great Prince. The Lord himself shortly after suffered for the CHAP. 
 
 last outbreak of the democratic spirit of his fellow-citizens, : 
 
 who wished to give themselves up to Lithuania, and termi- 
 nated a life of trouble in confinement in the Choudoff mon- 
 astery, having been throughout the victim of popular com- 
 motions. 
 
 The fall of Novogorod had been long before foretold 
 by the Archbishop St. Euphemius, at the very time of the 
 birth of its terrible conqueror ; and this prophecy had been 
 repeated to the ambitious Martha by the lips of Zosimus, 
 the holy hegumen of the Solovetsky monastery, who was 
 haughtily received in her palace, when he had come during 
 the days of the glory of Novogorod, to solicit alms for his 
 poor monastery on the ocean. Though John had confined 
 Theophilus, he still did not think of appointing a new Lord 
 without a synodical election. Agreeably with what had been 
 the custom at Novogorod, three names were placed on the 
 altar 46 of the cathedral of the Assumption, and the lot fell on 
 Sergius, a humble monk of the Trinity Lavra, who was con- 
 secrated by a synod of bishops. Sergius, however, before 
 long retired in consequence of the dislike which the people 
 manifested against having a stranger for their Lord, and 
 their opposition to his new regulations of Church disci- 
 pline. He ceded his place to the more experienced and en- 
 lightened Gennadius, archimandrite of the Choudoff monas- 
 tery, who afterwards rendered signal services to the Church 
 by his refutations of heresy. 
 
 The long wished-for time had at length arrived for the 
 deliverance of our country from the ignominious yoke which 
 had so heavily oppressed her for two centuries and a half. 
 Already had Sophia, the prudent consort of the Great Prince, 
 who from having been educated amid the greatness of royalty 
 wished to surround the court of John with the same, obtained 
 the removal of the representatives of the Horde from the 
 interior of the Kremlin, where on the site of their residence 
 she built a church by the name of St. Nicolas of Hostoun " ; 
 alreadv the envoys of the khan had ceased to be received with
 
 88 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, honour ; the tribute itself was withheld, although the alliance 
 
 ' of Lithuania with the Horde might have inspired John with 
 
 fear. At length Achmet put himself in motion ; for the last 
 time the Golden Horde armed itself against Russia, and 
 brought to mind the hosts of Mamai. The Great Prince 
 marched out with his army to the banks of the Oka, which is 
 called among the common people The Girdle of the Mother 
 of God, from the fact of Russia having more than once been 
 saved on its banks. There his resolution faltered. His 
 cautious policy dreaded to trust the future destinies of the 
 whole empire to the fortune of a single battle, as the bold 
 hero of the Don had done ; and having left his son with the 
 army, he himself retired to his capital, to the general dissatis- 
 faction of the people. The idea that the Tartars were in- 
 vincible had long since died away ; Kasan, a large fragment 
 of the kingdom of Kaptchak, had taught us the way to victory 
 over the infidels. The murmurs of the people against John 
 increased more and more : at this juncture the eloquent and 
 aged Bassian, archbishop of RostofF, who had imbibed at the 
 tomb of the venerable Sergius, when hegumen of his monas- 
 tery, the inheritance of his patriotism, by his bold speech and 
 letter of exhortation aroused the spirit of John : " Dost thou 
 dread death ?" he wrote ; " Thou too must die as well as 
 others : death is the lot of all, man, beast, and bird alike : 
 none can avoid it. Give these warriors into my hand, and 
 old as I am, I will not spare myself, nor will ever turn my 
 back to the Tartars." The Metropolitan Gerontius added 
 his exhortations to the words of Bassian, and the Great Prince 
 returned to the camp. Achmet fled without fighting, and 
 Russia was set free for ever. 
 
 1481. During the last years of the primacy of Gerontius, mutual 
 misunderstandings arose between him and John, and the 
 metropolitan in bitterness resolved to retire into the Simonoff 
 monastery, that he might there end his days in peace. John 
 offered his place to Paisius the hegumen of the Trinity ; but 
 the monk, who well knew already how heavy a burden he 
 undertakes who is set to govern, had no desire for that ex-
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 89 
 
 alted station, and Gerontius, at the entreaty of the Great CHAP. 
 Prince, remained on his throne till his decease. 
 
 Quite at the commencement of his primacy there had come 
 another claimant to be metropolitan of all Russia, a man 
 named Spiridion, a native of Tver, who had made interest 
 and procured himself to be appointed by the patriarch 
 of Constantinople ; he was not acknowledged either in 
 Lithuania or in Moscow, but was placed under confinement 
 at Bielo-ozero. In the mean time Kieff continued to have her 1471. 
 own succession of orthodox metropolitans, apart from Moscow, 
 who either received their appointment personally in Constan- 
 tinople, or through letters of benediction and approval, and 
 patriarchal exarchs or nuncios, who from time to time visited 
 our southern provinces. Misael, a man of princely blood, 
 was the first separate metropolitan of Kieif, after the Uniate 
 Gregory ; Simeon, in whose time Mengly Hirey, khan of the 
 Crimsea, sacked the ancient capital, and pillaged the Pecher- 
 skay Lavra, and the church of St. Sophia ; Jonah, who enjoyed 
 the favour of Casimir, sovereign of Lithuania; and Saint 
 Macarius/ martyred on the road by the Tartars, whose un- 
 corrupted remains repose in the cathedral of St. Sophia, ruled 
 each in his turn for a short space their extensive diocese, 
 having their residence in Wilna, where they with difficulty 
 maintained themselves against the influence of Rome. 
 
 XXXV. ZOSIMUS. 
 
 AFTER the death of Gerontius, Zosimus, archimandrite of 1491. 
 the Simonoff monastery, was consecrated in Moscow as me- 
 tropolitan without the consent of a synod; but on this 
 occasion the selection of the Great Prince was unfortunate, 
 for under the mask of piety was concealed in the new primate 
 a wicked heretic. For about twenty years before this, there 
 had been secretly spreading in Novogorod a blasphemous 
 Jewish heresy, which rejected our Saviour Jesus Christ and 
 all his doctrine. -It was brought from Lithuania by a Jew
 
 90 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, named Zachariah, and was mixed up with the former errors 
 v. 
 
 - of the Strigolniks 48 . By the secret of his sorceries and 
 
 cabalistic art, this Zachariah seduced two superstitious priests 
 of Novogorod, Alexis and Dionysius, and through their means 
 his destructive doctrines took root among the ignorant people, 
 for they hypocritically kept up all the external observances of 
 Christianity, although they themselves made no sort of ac- 
 count of them. The fame of the wisdom and virtues of these 
 two priests deceived even the Great Prince himself, the first 
 time that he went against Novogorod. He took them with 
 him to Moscow, and gave to one of them the place of arch- 
 priest or dean of the cathedral of the Assumption, and to the 
 other the same place in the cathedral of the Archangel. 
 With them the heresy first penetrated into our orthodox 
 capital, and although its pernicious fruits were some time be- 
 fore they appeared openly, nevertheless the private secretary 49 
 of the Tsar, whose name was Couritsin, and the Archiman- 
 drite Zosimus, were secret disciples of Alexis, and by his 
 means the last of the two attained the rank of metropolitan. 
 Gennadius,the zealous Lord of Novogorod, was horror-struck 
 on discovering this Jewish heresy amongst his flock, and was 
 the first who gave notice of it to the metropolitan, who was 
 then still Gerontius. But the old man, worn out with years 
 and vexations, did not give the matter that attention which it 
 required, but supposed that it was of no great consequence. 
 A second and more earnest representation with stronger 
 proofs, compelled John and Zosimus to convoke a synod of 
 bishops; at this synod there appeared another eloquent 
 accuser of the Judaisers and Strigolniks in the person of 
 St. Joseph hegumen of Volokolamsk, who was the most 
 enlightened and learned man of his times, and a pupil of 
 St. Paphnutius, the illustrious founder of the monastery of 
 Boroff. The heart of Joseph burned with a flaming zeal 
 for the Church, his lips were powerfully eloquent, and his 
 convincing letters, while they were the scourge of heresy, 
 triumphantly defended the pure and orthodox Faith. He was 
 personally as much dreaded by the heretics in Moscow, as
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 91 
 
 Gennadius was in Novogorod. But the protection of Zo- CHAP. 
 simus, who himself shared their opinions, screened certain 
 of the offenders in the synod. The principal heresiarch, 
 Alexis, was already dead. Dionysins and his other followers 
 were delivered over by the council to an anathema, and were 
 thrown into confinement. It was not however till twelve 
 years after that all the traces of their corrupt "doctrine 
 were eradicated in Moscow by the renewed efforts and 
 instructions of Gennadius and Joseph ; the metropolitan 
 himself having been by that time compelled by the Great 
 Prince to retire into the shade of his former monastery, no- 
 minally on account of habits of intemperance, that scandal 
 might not be caused by publishing among the people his real 
 and capital fault of heresy. After that, John delivered up 
 his secretary, the archimandrite of the Jurieff, and others, 
 whose guilt had been proved, and whom the first measures 
 taken by the mildness of the Church had failed to turn into 
 the way of repentance. 
 
 XXXVI. SIMON. 
 
 AFTER the primacy of the Metropolitan Zosimus, so unfor- 
 tunate for the Church, John, having now had much experience 1496. 
 in spiritual affairs, selected a worthy pastor in the person of 
 his successor Simon, who had been before his consecration 
 hegumen of the Trinity Lavra. Perhaps the unhappy re- 
 sult of his departure from canonical custom in the election of 
 Zosimus, influenced the Great Prince this time to clothe the 
 consecration of the new primate with extraordinary solemnity. 
 Having delivered over the primate elect into the hands of 
 the bishops at the doors of the church, he himself received 
 him with a complimentary speech after the Mystery of Ordi- 
 nation had been completed upon him, after the example of 
 the Byzantine emperors, whom he sought to imitate on all 
 occasions of display by a splendid ceremonial both in his 
 court and in the Church. The metropolitan in his turn, 
 holding his Staff in his hand, replied to him with a speech 
 from his throno.
 
 92 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. Before the heretical disturbances above mentioned were 
 
 v. 
 ' yet over, another superstitious agitation of men's minds 
 
 concerning the speedy end of the world had caused 
 the assembling of a council, which decreed that the begin- 
 ning of the new year should be kept on the first of Sep- 
 tember instead of the first of March; and settled the 
 Paschal Tables in the calendar for an eighth thousand of 
 years, as calculated by the Archbishop Gennadius; for the 
 former Table terminated in the year 1492, that is, with the 
 completion of seven thousand years from the creation of the 
 world. Soon after the appointment of Simon to be metro- 
 politan, John manifested an intention of taking away the 
 Church lands and hereditaments from the monasteries of the 
 government of Moscow, as well as in Novogorod, where he 
 had granted away part of them to the Sons of the boyars 50 
 for military service, and taken part to himself. But the 
 metropolitan laid before the Great Prince the testamentary 
 letters of St. Vladimir, Yaroslaff, and other sovereigns, as 
 well as the edicts of the khans of the Horde, and John was 
 prevailed upon to lay aside his intention. In another synod 
 strict measures were taken by him, in concert with the me- 
 tropolitan, for the preservation of purity of morals amongst 
 the clergy; and for this end the monasteries for men were 
 separated from those designed for women, and monks 
 were prohibited from performing Divine service in these 
 latter; and further, to cut off all possible occasion of 
 scandal, widower ministers were forbidden to consecrate 
 the sacred mysteries, and it was enjoined that all unworthy 
 clerks should be degraded from their orders. Nor did 
 they pass over without notice the payments demanded 
 for conferring sacred orders, which had been so frequent 
 a cause of dissatisfaction in Novogorod, and for which 
 at length, though on a false accusation, the Lord Genna- 
 dius himself suffered. He was deprived of the throne of 
 St. Sophia, and afterwards ended his days in the same 
 Choudoff monastery from Avhence he had been taken to be 
 archbishop.
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 93 
 
 About this time, and acting in the same pious spirit, Joseph CHAP. 
 Salkan, metropolitan of Kieff and successor of St. Macarius, "^g^" 
 convoked in Wilna a council of all his suffragan bishops, for 
 the regulation of ecclesiastical discipline, and for the protec- 
 tion of the patrimony of the Church against the encroachments 
 of the Lithuanian nobles, who were of the Roman faith. But 
 notwithstanding his zeal for the benefit of his flock, Joseph 
 fell under a suspicion of heterodoxy with our ambassadors, 
 and was even accused by them before their sovereign of con- 
 niving at the conduct of his son-in-law, Alexander of Lithu- 
 ania, who would not permit his consort Helena, a daughter 
 of John, to have her own private chapel in the palace, which 
 most sensibly afflicted the heart of her father. In vain did 
 the meek and virtuous Helena, while she followed with con- 
 stancy her own religion, endeavour to conceal the persecution 
 she suffered from her husband, so as not to produce a quarrel 
 between him and her father ; for it had been the first article 
 of her marriage-contract that she should enjoy the free exer- 
 cise of her religion : Alexander from his blind devotion to 
 Rome, made it but too manifest that he spared neither his 
 subjects nor his wife, and a cruel war was the consequence of 
 his persecution of orthodoxy. The arms of the Russians, 
 which had been taken up in support of the religion of their 
 fathers, were crowned with success, in spite of all the efforts of 
 Lithuania, the Order of the Swordbearers, and even Poland 
 itself, the throne of which Alexander had ascended. The pope 
 and the emperor laboured to bring about a peace, but the 
 province of Sever on this side the Dnieper remained with us 
 as a proof of the victories of John. Its princes willingly sub- 
 mitted to a sovereign of their own faith, and the Russian 
 hierarchy gained two more dioceses, Chernigoff and Bransk ; 
 the last, however, was soon suppressed. 
 
 With the fall of the Golden Horde of Achmet another 
 ancient diocese also became extinct, namely, that of Sarai 
 and Podonsk, because our bishops ceased to reside in Sarai, 
 the capital of the khans : they transferred their seat to Mos- 
 cow, and acted in -the quality of vicars to the metropolitan
 
 94 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, within the sphere of his own proper jurisdiction : their 
 - residence on the steep banks of the Moskva procured them 
 the appellation of Bishops of the Steeps 51 . 
 
 Besides the painful situation of his beloved daughter in a 
 foreign country, domestic afflictions in his own capital, and 
 within the walls of his own palace, clouded the latter years of 
 the glorious reign of John. His eldest son, the hope of the 
 country, who had already shared with him the weight of the 
 government, died in the prime of youth, leaving him a grand- 
 son named Demetrius, born of Helena, daughter of the great 
 Stephen, Hospodar of Moldavia. A secret enmity sprung 
 up between the two mothers Helena and the Great Princess 
 Sophia, on account of the succession to the throne, which the 
 latter wished to obtain for John's second son by herself, Basil. 
 Provoked by their intrigues the monarch took the part of his 
 young grandson, who had the right of primogeniture on his 
 side, and determined to raise him solemnly to the throne. 
 The Metropolitan Simon performed on him the ceremony of 
 coronation, for the first time since the reign of Monomachus. 
 His crown and the holy Barma were placed on the innocent 
 youth, but only to his hurt -, for Sophia by her artfulness 
 soon prevailed over the will of John, and Basil, even during 
 the life of his father, was declared sovereign of all Russia, 
 while Demetrius and his unfortunate mother ended their days 
 in confinement. 
 
 1505. The reign of Basil was only a continuation of that of John, 
 whose plans he followed for the union and consolidation of his 
 dominions under one head, though with more mildness in his 
 measures. Under him the separate principality of Riazan, and 
 the independent city of Pskoff, were insensibly absorbed into 
 the government of Moscow, and in the same way the pro- 
 vinces of Sever, the appanage of the family of Shemiakin, 
 disappeared, so that there was now no longer left any division 
 of government within Russia. Without, a struggle was going 
 on almost without interruption; in the East with Kazan, 
 which was still unsubdued, and ever in a distracted state, to 
 which Basil in vain sent kings of their own tribe ; in the
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 95 
 
 South with the Horde of the Crimsea, from whence Machmet. CHAP. 
 
 v 
 son of Mengly Hirey, the determined enemy of Basil, forgetful : 
 
 of his father's league with Russia, laid waste her borders, and 
 once even advanced upon Moscow ; on the "West with Sigis- 
 mund king of Poland and Lithuania. But this last war was 
 more successful than the rest in its results, and confirmed to 
 us the conquests of John. Smolensk itself, our ancient 
 heritage, surrendered to the Great Prince, although the 
 bishop, Barsonophius, leaned to the side of Lithuania. He 
 was confined in the ChoudofF monastery, and upon the ap- 
 pointment of a new bishop named Joseph, their ancient 
 diocese was united to the hierarchy of Moscow. The Novoday- 
 vichy monastery was built in the capital as a memorial of this 
 joyful event. Basil also kept up friendly relations with the 
 sovereigns of Europe, with the emperor and the pope, and in 
 the Order of the Knights of Livonia, which had always before 
 been hostile to Russia, he had a faithful ally against the 
 designs of Sigismund. 
 
 Extraordinary piety was the distinguishing feature of 
 BasiFs character ; he was full of reverence for all the ordi- 
 nances of the holy Church, which enjoyed peace during the 
 thirty years of his reign, and was glorified by producing illus- 
 trious saints, men beloved by God, in the same manner as 
 she had done in the times of John. Novogorod and Pskoff 
 during the last years of their greatness were adorned with 
 new monasteries, the founders of which were two men of the 
 same name of Sabba, Ephraim, and Nicander, and the two 
 Lords, St. Euphemius, and St. Jonah ; while on the border 
 Livonia a cavern monastery, called from thence Pechersky, 
 was dug out by the clergy who fled from the persecutions 
 at Dorpat. But, above all, the savage North was covered 
 with a flourishing growth of monasteries, as if it were 
 inspired with life by the solitary exercises of the hermits 
 who went forth from the communities of Balaam and 
 Bielo-ozero, and sought for retirement in the forests of 
 the new diocese of Vologda, which had been instituted 
 in the room of Perm. It was already long since that
 
 96 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. St. Dionysius of Gloushit, and his disciple Gregory, and Paul 
 - of Komel, had established themselves there ; they were fol- 
 lowed and emulated by Cornelius, and Theodosius of Totem, 
 and Anthony of Sie, and still later, in the time of John the 
 Terrible, by the three Alexanders of Komel, Sveer, and Oske- 
 ven, with many others whose names and actions cannot find 
 room in such a rapid sketch as this. The celebrated hermits, 
 Nilus of Sor, the writer of the Monastic Rule, Cyrill of 
 Novo-ozero, and Nilus of Stolben, who wrought out his sal- 
 vation in the district of Tver, where a little earlier the 
 memory of Macarius of Koliazin had come to be celebrated, 
 were also contemporaries of Basil ; while the great Daniel, the 
 hegumen of Pereyaslavla, was not only his contemporary, but 
 his personal friend and instructor. 
 
 However, in the absence of heresies 52 other dark clouds 
 came over the horizon of the Church ; a misunderstanding 
 broke out between Serapion Lord of Novogorod and Joseph 
 hegumen of Volokolamsk, who had found in him no defence 
 against the cruel oppressions of the prince of his district. 
 The Metropolitan Simon, with the consent of the Great 
 Prince, took the new monastery under his own protection, 
 exempting it from the diocese of Novogorod, and transferring 
 it to his own; on which Serapion laid an interdict on the 
 hegumen and on all the community, and expressed himself 
 in bitter terms of the person of the metropolitan. By the 
 judgment of a synod he was deprived of his throne, and 
 afterwards ended his days in a blessed manner, in the act of 
 prayer, in the monastery of the Trinity, to which he had 
 formerly belonged, after having been reconciled to the primate, 
 and even to the hegumen Joseph himself. 
 
 The removal of St. Serapion was a very sensible loss to Novo- 
 gorod, which remained for seventeen years without a Lord, 
 till the consecration of Macarius. This prelate, who was 
 destined to be metropolitan of all Russia, shewed beforehand 
 on the throne of St. Sophia what the Church and his country 
 might expect from him. He re-animated the clergy and the 
 people, who were depressed by having been so long without a
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW, 97 
 
 head. All the monasteries, both of men and women, re- CHAP. 
 ceived from him a Rule for their conventual life 53 . During 
 his episcopate the ancient temple of St. Sophia was renovated 
 and adorned, and his pastoral cares penetrated even to the 
 remotest parts of the North ; the monk Elias, who was sent 
 thither by him to preach the word of God, converted the 
 savage natives to Christianity, and with the blessing of Ma- 
 carius built the first church by the name of St. John the 
 Baptist, at the request of the Lopars themselves. 
 
 XXXVII. BARLAAM. 
 
 WE must reckon as another unhappy event for our Church, isn. 
 after the disagreement of the two holy men Joseph and 
 Serapion, the unjust persecution of the pious monk Maximus, 
 of the Holy Mountain. There began to be a great number 
 of monks coming in quest of alms from Athos and Sinai 
 to their brethren in Russia, during the times of the Great 
 Prince Basil and the meek Barlaam, who had been conse- 
 crated metropolitan, after the death of Simon. The Choudoff 
 monastery, which had already become illustrious by the dis- 
 covery of the relics of the Metropolitan Alexis, served as a 
 house of reception for the stranger pilgrims ; and perhaps such 
 interchange of charity suggested to Basil the idea of requesting 
 the patriarch of Constantinople to send him a learned Greek 
 to examine and arrange the rich collection of Greek MSS. 
 which had been brought together in his palace, and had come 
 to him from his ancestors and his mother Sophia. Maximus, 
 a monk, who had received the best education in Italy, came 
 from Mount Athos to gratify the wish of the sovereign; and 
 having been welcomed by him in a flattering manner, set to 
 work not only to arrange the library of MSS., but also to 
 translate a Commentary on the Psalter, and to correct some 
 of the Church books, into which there had crept gross errors 
 from the ignorance of transcribers. But when the Metro- 
 politan Barlaam, to escape from the noise of the world, had re- 
 tired into his former monastery, the Sirnonoff, and the am-
 
 98 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, bitious Daniel, hegumen of Volokolamsk, had succeeded to his 
 : chair, the useful labours of the Greek stranger were con- 
 demned, and he himself became the cause of a popular 
 disturbance. 
 
 XXXVIII. DANIEL. 
 
 1522. A pupil of the enlightened Joseph, whose followers were 
 noted for their extraordinary zeal, and were even distinguished 
 from other monks by the title of Josephians, Daniel could 
 not endure to see corrections made in their books by the 
 learned foreigner, who besides had free access to the Great 
 Prince, and no small influence at court. Maximus, as if 
 from a presentiment of his fate, requested in good time his 
 own dismissal; but he was detained, and heard from one of 
 those most about him the bitter truth, that he had seen too 
 much in Hussia to be allowed to return. An incident which no 
 one could have foreseen decided his lot : Basil, seeing himself 
 childless after having been married twenty years, determined 
 to put away his wife Salmone, with whom he had otherwise 
 no fault to find, for her barrenness, and requested a dispens- 
 ation, to enable him to do so, from the metropolitan. Daniel, 
 wishing to please the Great Prince for his own political ends, 
 consented, contrary to the canons of the Church, to dissolve 
 the holy bond of matrimony, provided only that the Great 
 Princess would retire into a monastery. Her doing so was 
 made compulsory, and Salmone died a nun in Souzdal, while 
 Basil contracted another marriage with Helena, daughter of the 
 Prince Glinsky. Many secretly condemned him for this; but 
 two monks, Bassian, a man of princely blood, who had been 
 compelled by John to receive the tonsure in the Simonoff mon- 
 astery for his devotion to the youthful Demetrius, and Maxi- 
 mus, the Greek, were not afraid to declare openly that the 
 whole proceeding was unlawful. They were both imprisoned ; 
 the first in the monastery of Volokolamsk, the second in the 
 Otroch 54 monastery at Tver, where he was closely confined 
 during all the time of the primacy of Daniel, being never so
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 99 
 
 much as suffered to go out of his cell. His imprisonment CHAP. 
 was at length made more tolerable by his being removed to 
 the Trinity Lavra; but notwithstanding his own touching 
 letters, and the intervention of the oecumenical patriarchs in 
 his behalf, the pining sufferer was never again allowed to 
 return to that country which he longed after, nor to the 
 Holy Mountain. 
 
 John, the Terrible, was the fruit of this forbidden mar- 
 riage. His father, in delight at his birth, confided him to 
 the prayers of St. Sergius, on whose tomb he placed the 
 royal infant 55 . He was christened by Joasaph, the hegumen 
 of the monastery, who was destined to suffer afterwards as 
 metropolitan in the turbulent days of John's minority; 
 three monks, among whom was St. Daniel of Pereyaslavla, 
 received him from the font. Four years afterwards, Basil was 1533. 
 taken off by a premature death, which was affecting from 
 the piety of the dying man. The Great Prince, having dis- 
 posed of the affairs of his government and family, asked for 
 the monastic habit : his boyars, on the contrary, represented 
 to him the example of his great father and of his ancestors, 
 who departed this life without relinquishing their royal dig- 
 nity ; but Basil persisted in demanding the tonsure. Then 
 the metropolitan replied with anger to the boyars : " No one 
 shall take his soul away from me ; a vessel of silver is good, 
 but one of gold is better." And so he gave the tonsure to 
 the Great Prince Basil by the name of Barlaam, after the 
 founder of his favourite monastery of Bielo-ozero. They 
 took the mantle from the bursar of the Trinity monastery for 
 the royal monk, and the whole of the two communities, of 
 The Trinity, and of Volokolamsk, bore his corpse out of the 
 palace in procession, amidst the lamentations of the people, 
 into the cathedral of the Archangel, which he had not long 
 before repaired and beautified, and which was the burying- 
 place of his royal ancestors 56 . 
 
 The metropolitan hastened to administer to his tumultuous 
 boyars and to the people the oath of allegiance to the infant 
 prince and his mof her ; but he was unable even to maintain 
 
 H 2
 
 100 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, himself long in his place. With the premature death of the 
 - regent mother his primacy terminated. The Council of 
 the Boyars which governed the kingdom during the minority 
 of John, threw every thing into confusion by their party- 
 quarrels and seditions, and Daniel was the first to suffer. 
 The powerful Princes Shouesky compelled him to sign his 
 own abdication, and dismissed him to his former monas- 
 tery of Volokolamsk, where by the rigour of his life he atoned 
 for the errors which he had committed in his ecclesiastical 
 government. 
 
 XXXIX. JOASAPH. 
 
 1539. THE new metropolitan, Joasaph, was promoted by them 
 only to follow his predecessor in misfortune. Through his 
 intercession, the Princes Belsky, who were nearly related to 
 the youthful sovereign, and his cousin-german Vladimir 
 were released from confinement. But the beneficent influ- 
 ence of the meek pastor lasted only till the fall of the Belskys. 
 The same Princes Shouesky, after having loaded him with 
 insults in the presence of the youthful Tsar, deposed him 
 from his chair, and, scarcely letting him go with his life, 
 banished him to Bielo-ozero, from whence he was removed 
 to the Lavra. There the tomb of this holy prelate may 
 still be seen, close to that of Serapion, Lord of Novogo- 
 rod; both were deprived of their thrones, and both were 
 accounted blessed after death. In the mean time, during 
 ten years of continued turbulence and faction on the part of 
 the boyars, the youth John was growing up to manhood, 
 abandoned to the free indulgence of all his passions, through 
 the connivance and example of his criminal guardians. His 
 disposition, naturally harsh, became still more fierce and 
 cruel as he grew up, and discovered a tendency to those 
 horrors, which were to darken his old age. But for the hap- 
 piness of Russia, the intervening years of his manhood were 
 unexpectedly adorned by royal virtues, under the salutary
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 101 
 
 influence of the Priest Silvester, and of Adasheff, in the days of CHAP. 
 the Metropolitan Macarius. 
 
 XL. MACARIUS. 
 
 CALLED from Novogorod by the Council of the Boyars 57 , 1542. 
 which had deposed his two predecessors, Macarius brought 
 with him to the metropolitical throne that experience and 
 tact, which enabled him to maintain his ground in the midst 
 of contending parties, and he was a good counsellor to the 
 youthful Tsar. The Shoueskys had already fallen ; but the 
 Glinskys, the uncles of the sovereign, had stepped into 
 their place, to the disgrace of their country, which was 
 harassed by foreign enemies, while torn by its own civil 
 dissensions. But all this was unexpectedly changed. John, 
 by the advice of the metropolitan, announced his intention of 
 being crowned to his kingdom after the example of Mono- 
 machus, and of entering into a matrimonial alliance. Moscow 
 was filled with joy. In the cathedral of the Assumption, Maca- 1547. 
 rius with great pomp invested him with the holy Barma 58 , 
 the chain, the crown, and the cross of the great Monomachus, 
 according to the order for the coronation of the Greek em- 
 perors. The Patriarch Joasaph of Constantinople by a bene- 
 dictory letter confirmed John in his kingdom 59 , as being the 
 last scion of the ancient imperial house. Thirty-six metro- 
 politans, archbishops, and bishops of the Eastern Church, sub- 
 scribed this precious letter, which is still preserved in the 
 archives of Moscow, and for which, according to the account of 
 Kourbsky, Theodoret, a monk of the Solovetsky monastery, had 
 been sent by John to Constantinople. Soon after this another 
 coronation 60 in the wedding of the youthful Tsar with the vir- 
 tuous Anastasia, of the house of the Romanoffs, flattered Russia 
 with new hopes of happiness. The undertaking of pilgrimages 
 on the part of the royal couple to the Lavra of St. Sergius, the 
 favourite place of John's devotions, to Bielo-ozero, Piesnosh, 
 Volokolamsk, and other monasteries, put the finishing seal
 
 102 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, upon this event, so joyful both to the family and to the 
 - empire. 
 
 An unexpected calamity completely turned the Tsar from 
 the ruinous courses of his youth. A dreadful conflagration 
 consumed great part of the capital, and over its ashes there 
 broke out an insurrection of the people ; one of the Glinskys 
 was murdered by the populace in the cathedral; on the 
 Sparrow hills, to which he had retired, John himself trembled 
 in dismay. At that moment, as it had been some accusing 
 angel, a very aged man, named Silvester, a priest of Novo- 
 gorod, stood at his side, and by the force of his words, struck 
 home to his conscience. His threatenings of the vengeance 
 of Heaven at the moment of earthly suffering, shook his soul, 
 which had not yet become wholly cruel or obdurate. John 
 became another man ; he called to him the metropolitan and 
 all the bishops, and solemnly professed to them his penitence 
 for his sins ; and having assembled the people in the public 
 place 61 , he bewailed his errors before them, laying the blame 
 upon his unworthy guardians. With the wonderful reforma- 
 tion of the Tsar every thing around him assumed a different 
 appearance : the guilty boyars were removed ; Adasheff, the 
 new and. virtuous friend of the Tsar, illustrious not by his 
 birth but by his actions, stood on the nearest step of the 
 throne ; and the kingdom flourished. Men of wisdom sat 
 in the councils of the prince, and experienced leaders com- 
 manded his armies. But if Adasheff ruled the heart of John, 
 Silvester was the director of his soul. There was something 
 strange in the sudden appearance of this priest from Novo- 
 gorod in the palace of the prince ; it may be supposed that 
 the Metropolitan Macarius, having been personally acquainted 
 with his worth in his former diocese, availed himself of some 
 favourable opportunity to place him about the Tsar. To 
 promote the interest of the Church and of their country was 
 the sole aim of both, and the glory of Russia attested that 
 influence which they exercised during 'thirty years. The 
 attention of the new government was in the first instance 
 turned to the civil laws. A council of the most experienced
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 103 
 
 boyars, after having examined the code of John the Third, CHAP. 
 composed a new Statute Book. 
 
 John himself, notwithstanding the vices of his youth, had 
 received good instruction, and not being without zeal for the 
 discipline and constitutions of the Church, perceived the 
 errors which had crept into the performance of Divine Ser- 
 vice, and the disorders which existed among the spirituality. 
 He convoked another council of all the Russian bishops, pre- 1551. 
 sided by the Metropolitan Macarius, and opened the session 
 himself with an affecting speech, in which he exposed the 
 unhappinesses of his earlier years. " My fathers, pastors, and 
 teachers," said he, " see now every one of you what counsel 
 or discernment is in him, and pray God at the same time for 
 His merciful aid ; stir up your understandings, and enlighten 
 yourselves with sound knowledge as to all the divinely-inspired 
 Ordinances, so as to discern in what way the Lord hath de- 
 livered them ; and me, your son, enlighten and instruct to all 
 godliness, as it ought to be with religious kings, in all righteous 
 laws for the kingdom, in all soundness of faith, and purity ; 
 and be ye not slack to establish the whole of orthodox Chris- 
 tianity, that we may keep the law of Christ in all its truth, per- 
 fect and inviolate. I for my part shall always be ready, as with 
 one soul, to join and support you either in correcting what 
 is amiss, or confirming what is well established, according as 
 the Holy Ghost shall shew you ; if so be I should ever oppose 
 you contrary to the letter or spirit of the Divine canons, do 
 not ye hold your peace at it, but rebuke me ; if I should still 
 be disobedient, inhibit me without any manner of fear; so 
 shall my soul live, and the souls of all my subjects." 
 
 John put them in mind how, in the year in which he was 
 crowned, he had given it in charge to all the bishops and 
 hegumens to collect the lives of the saints who had wrought 
 out their salvation in their several dioceses or monasteries, 
 that they might in common receive the honour of the Church, 
 and how that the fruit of their zeal had been the glorification 
 of twenty fresh saints, protectors by their prayers of the land 
 of Russia. Among these were the Metropolitan Jonah, and
 
 104 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. John, Lord of Novogorod; Sabbatius, and the Zosimi, monks 
 ~ of the Solovetsky, and other recluses, as Dionysius of Gloushits, 
 Paul of Comelsk, and Alexander of Sveersk ; Nikon and 
 Paphnutius, the disciples of St. Sergius, and Alexander, the 
 hero of the Neva. The council now repeated and confirmed 
 the former decree that their memories should be celebrated in 
 the Church; and also approved the new Statute Book of 
 civil laws, which was submitted to them for revision. 
 
 In the next place, the Tsar desired of them a solution of 
 many questions relating to the external and internal discipline 
 of the Church, to the Church courts, the monastic state, the 
 ceremonies, the chant, the Icons, the sign of the cross, the 
 correction of the books, the morals of the clergy, the Letters 
 of exemption from jurisdiction, the property of the Church, 
 the eradication of many superstitions, &c. To all these 
 questions the council gave a lengthy answer in writing, 
 divided into a hundred chapters, which gave it the name, 
 only too celebrated afterwards, of the Council of the Hundred 
 Chapters. But though, as it seemed, all the ecclesiastical 
 doubts of that time were resolved by these decisions of the 
 council, which Joasaph, the former metropolitan, further 
 revised in the quiet of his cell with the Priest Silvester; 
 though the council itself was presided over by the Metro- 
 politan Macarius, the eloquent writer of the lives of the 
 saints, which he collected together in the Chetee-Menae 62 ; 
 and though the object of the council itself was to eradicate 
 superstitions and abuses ; yet, notwithstanding all this, the 
 prejudices and ignorance of the dark age of John shewed 
 themselves in some of the acts of this council, because there 
 was no enlightened eye which could impartially overlook its 
 decisions. The learned Greek Monk, Maximus, was suffering 
 in confinement, and the energy of his spirit was broken ; and 
 they did not apply to the oecumenical patriarchs to approve 
 the Council of the Hundred Chapters. In this way it came 
 to pass that certain superstitious customs and local errors 
 were clothed with the sanction of authority, and taking root 
 in time among the people, produced those pernicious schisms
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 105 
 
 with which the Church is even yet afflicted, while, at the same CHAP. 
 time, that correction of the Church books which had been 
 proposed in the Hundred-chapter council, and which was 
 indeed to be desired, was put off, owing to the troubled state 
 of the kingdom, till the times of the patriarch Nikon, though 
 his predecessors had already before then, by little and little, 
 made some advances towards this great work. There is, still 
 further, one very important circumstance, which throws a 
 shade of suspicion over the Council of the Hundred Chapters. 
 Its acts were never confirmed by the subscription of the Rus- 
 sian bishops ; and not only has the original copy of them not 
 been preserved, but none of the chronicles even so much as 
 mention it, before the times of Nikon ; and the metropolitan 
 Macarius himself is silent concerning the council, in his Books 
 of the Genealogies, in which he has related the history both 
 of State and Church affairs. It may have been that he did not 
 consent to some of its canons, or that from the loss of the 
 original, the Acts of the council have come down to us with 
 some mutilation in the copies. 
 
 In the mean time the internal prosperity of the kingdom 
 shewed itself by victories gained over its enemies : kingdoms 
 and provinces fell one after another at the feet of the youthful 
 Tsar : the fragments of the Golden Horde, which had been 
 broken up in the time of John III. became part of the empire 
 of his grandson. Only a short time before this, the kingdoms 
 of the Crimea and Kazan, which mutually supported each 
 other, had assumed a threatening aspect, and the Khan 
 Devlet Hirey, spreading desolation around him on his march, 
 had approached within a short distance of the capital, to the 
 great alarm of the Council of the Boyars, and of the youthful 
 John ; but the same khan, in his turn, fled to the Steppes 
 at the bare rumour that the Tsar, now grown to manhood, was 
 about to take the field. For the last time Kazan rose up in re- 
 bellion against the Russian deputy, who was sent thither when 
 the Tartar Queen, Soumbeka, with her young son, were carried 
 away to Moscow. The people of Kazan invited Ediger from 
 Astrachan to be their king, and thus roused the auger of
 
 106 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP. John. Great preparations for war preceded the most im- 
 
 ' portant military exploit of those times. On the line of 
 
 march to the rebellious city, lay the newly-erected fortress 
 of Sviajsk ; hortatory letters from the metropolitan addressed 
 to its new colonists, and to the troops which were there 
 assembled, urged them to the religious fulfilment of their 
 duty 63 . At length John himself set forth : his brilliant 
 campaign had altogether the appearance of a crusade ; the 
 solemnities of the Church services and ceremonies were 
 mingled with the exercises of war. Prayers preceded and con- 
 cluded every movement. The immense camp of the Russians 
 was pitched within sight of Kazan, and near the tent of. the 
 Tsar was pitched the ambulatory tent-church. The attack 
 and defence were both desperate. A mine was carried under 
 the principal tower, and at the moment that during the 
 celebration of the Liturgy, the deacon uttered aloud the 
 words of the Gospel, " there shall be one flock and one shep- 
 herd/' a frightful explosion announced that the walls of 
 Kazan had fallen. 
 
 John entered in triumph into the conquered city; he 
 himself planted in its centre the first cross, and made the 
 circuit of the walls in procession, with the sacred Banners 6 * 
 and Icons, to consecrate it to the name of Christ. In the 
 space of a few days he built a small church of the Annuncia- 
 tion, which was destined to shed the first rays of enlighten- 
 ment upon the East : for from thence a wide door was opened 
 for it to hear the good tidings of salvation. Innumerable 
 were the happy consequences of the capture of Kazan, which 
 made the name of John illustrious both in Europe and Asia. 
 The ruler of Siberia offered him tribute : the princes of Gori 65 , 
 and of Circassia, their homage. Soon after, another Tartar 
 kingdom, that of Astrachan, fell before his arms, making but 
 a trifling resistance. The Cossacks, a new people, which had 
 been formed in the time of his grandfather, from a mixture 
 of tribes, with no other bond of union than the common pro- 
 fession of orthodoxy, about the sources of the Don, and the 
 falls of the Dnieper, harassed Lithuania and the Crimea, and
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 107 
 
 united themselves under Russian leaders to attack the khan. CHAP. 
 
 v. 
 It depended only on the will of John, whether this last rem- : 
 
 nant of the power of Batius should disappear from our fron- 
 tiers. The Tsar did not pay due attention to the prudent 
 advice of his nobles, but cast an ambitious eye on Lithuania ; 
 and so the Crimea recovered itself, to be the cause of future 
 calamities to our country. 
 
 The young Tsar returned with joy from under the walls of 
 Kazan; the birth of his son Demetrius doubled his satisfaction : 
 he took his course straight to the Lavra, to offer up there 
 his thanksgivings and prayers. Two holy men, representatives 
 as it were of other times, met him at the tomb of Sergius ; 
 Joasaph, once metropolitan, who had suffered in the 
 days of his childhood, and Maximus, the Greek, who had 
 lingered on in confinement to a cheerless old age. Another 
 meeting of a more joyful kind, and more befitting the con- 
 queror, awaited him on his return to Moscow ; the Metropo- 
 litan Macarius, with all his clergy, had come out in proces- 
 sion, and were standing to receive him at the gate of the 
 same convent, where formerly his predecessor Cyprian had 
 received the Icon of Vladimir, the pledge of deliverance 
 from Tamerlane. The Tsar in an affecting speech gave an 
 account of all his victories, humbly attributing them to the 
 prayers of the prelate, and in the overflowing of his feelings 
 prostrated himself in front of the procession. Macarius 
 complimented him in return, thanking him in the name of 
 all Russia, and fell at his feet in like manner with his clergy. 
 His last and tenderest meeting was in the Kremlin, where 
 he found his consort Anastasia with their child. His baptism 
 was distinguished by the reception at the same time of three 
 members of the royal family of Kazan into the bosom of the 
 Church, Soumbeka, her son, who was christened Alexander, 
 and Ediger, who had been taken captive, and who was 
 named Simeon, all at their own free choice and desire. The 
 metropolitan himself examined into the sincerity of their 
 conversion. 
 
 The new dioceSe of Kazan was publicly established with
 
 108 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, great solemnity. The Metropolitan Macarius, the Arch- 
 bishops Pimen of Novogorod and Nicander of RostofF, the 
 Bishops Athanasius of Souzdal, two Gourys, of Smolensk, and 
 Riazan, Acacius of Tver, Theodosius of Columna, Niphont of 
 Sarai, and Cyprian of Vologda, in the presence of the court 
 and the foreign ambassadors, elected and consecrated synodi- 
 cally Goury, hegumen of Selijaroff, to be archbishop of 
 Kazan, and gave him precedence next to the archbishop of 
 Novogorod, out of respect to his diocese, formed of a con- 
 quered kingdom. The tithe of the revenues of the conquered 
 district, and many domains of the Tsar, were assigned for the 
 support of the prelate, who was accompanied from Moscow 
 to his vessels by a procession with Crosses and Banners. The 
 conversion of many thousands of heathens and Mahometans 
 to the light of Christianity was the fruit of the labours of 
 Goury, which were unceasing while he lived, and he 'was 
 reckoned after death among the saints. About this same 
 time Macarius presided at another synod of less note, 
 which condemned the beginning of a "heresy which was 
 creeping in amongst us from Lithuania. Their rejection of 
 the canons and ordinances of the Church, her ceremonies 
 and Icons, and their questioning the Divinity of the Saviour, 
 discovered the guilt of Baksheen and his little knot of 
 followers 66 . They were delivered over to an anathema, 
 after they had been exhorted to no purpose by Artemius, 
 hegumen of The Trinity, who afterwards himself fell under 
 suspicion, and was banished to the Solovetsky monastery. 
 It is supposed that Cassian also, the bishop of Riazan, was 
 deprived of his diocese for the same cause. The successor 
 of Artemius, the Hegumen Eleutherius, was the first who 
 was raised to the rank of archimandrite, and his Lavra was 
 honoured with precedence over all the monasteries of Russia, 
 as a mark of the special zeal of John for the great saint 
 Sergius. His piety and his gratitude to the Lord for the 
 victories which had been vouchsafed to him were outwardly 
 at least manifested, besides liberal alms and offerings, by his 
 erection of the most magnificent of all the Churches of
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 109 
 
 Moscow before the Gates of the Saviour 67 , which lead into the CHAP. 
 
 v. 
 Kremlin, by the name of the Protection of the Most Holy : 
 
 Virgin 68 . This church, which is better known by the name of 
 The Blessed Basil, who reposes in it, strikes the eye by its 
 extraordinary mass of building, hah oriental, half Gothic, a 
 glorious monument of victory, and a sort of image of the 
 conquered city of Kazan, which had come under the shadow 
 of the antique sanctuary of Moscow. 
 
 Soon afterwards, a dangerous illness, which brought John 
 to the verge of the grave, served for the commencement of 
 the future miseries of Russia; for when apparently on his 
 death-bed, he experienced a repetition of the same treason- 
 able factions of the boyars which had troubled his minority. 
 Even those nobles who were nearest to him refused to swear 
 allegiance to his child Demetrius, from fear of the anarchy 
 which might ensue from a long minority, and inclined to the 
 side of his cousin-german Vladimir. However, the Tsar, 
 on his recovery, appeared to forget these signs of a rebellious 
 spirit, and in fulfilment of a vow which he had made, set out 
 for the Lavra, Piesnosh, and Bielo-ozero, to offer up his devo- 
 tions in those monasteries. The Greek Monk Maximus now 
 appears for the last time, at the termination of his thirty 
 years' sufferings. In consequence of some secret suggestion, 
 of which the particulars are unknown, he warned John 
 against prolonging his journey, and even foretold to him 
 the premature death of his son, but he was not listened to. 
 At Piesnosh, another remarkable meeting awaited the Tsar, 
 which proved destructive to his peace of mind. There was 
 living there in disgrace an ex-bishop of Columna, named 
 Cassian, who had been the friend of the Great Prince Basil, 
 and the Metropolitan Daniel. The old man, whose heart 
 was hardened by years and confinement, in a conversation 
 with John gave him advice, which only too well suited his 
 disposition, not to keep any one about him wiser than him- 
 self, that he might be free to rule as he pleased. The seed 
 which was thus sown in due time produced fatal fruit. 
 
 The Tsar was compensated for the loss of Demetrius by
 
 110 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, the birth of two other sons, John and Theodore, but nothing 
 
 ' could make up to him for the premature decease of the 
 
 virtuous Anastasia, with whom all his happiness vanished. 
 The fiery temper of his second wife Mary, a princess of 
 Cherkask, and the intrigues of his nobles, caused the ruin of 
 his best friends. Silvester and Adasheff were accused of 
 having poisoned the Tsaritsa Anastasia. Both of them fore- 
 seeing their fate, endeavoured to escape into retirement ; 
 Silvester received the tonsure at Bielo-ozero, but he was 
 summoned from thence to be tried at Moscow, and was 
 confined in the Solovetsky ; Adasheff, who some time pre- 
 viously had asked and obtained for himself the command of 
 the army in Livonia, was deprived of it, and died in prison 
 at Dorpat. 
 
 The war in Livonia still raged at that time, and was glorious 
 to our arms, for the fortified lines and towns of the Order 
 fell under the assaults of our generals Courbsky, Serebrian, 
 and Adasheff, and Fellin itself, their capital, was taken, 
 though it proved of no lasting advantage to the empire ; John 
 retained only a few towns and the bare title of Lord of Livonia. 
 The Order, however, was crushed ; its former Master, and his 
 knights, languished in the prisons of Moscow ; but the last 
 Grand Master, Ketler, seeing no prospect of safety on any 
 side, surrendered himself up to Sigismund king of Poland, 
 and abdicated his military dignity as chief of the Sword- 
 bearers, to receive in exchange the duchy of Courland. A 
 part of his former dominions on the sea coast went to 
 Sweden : and from this time there began a long continuance 
 of hostilities between those two powers. But though 
 Lithuania was now permanently united to Poland, and they 
 could bring all their forces in common to bear against 
 Russia, still the successes of John, up to the death of the 
 feeble King Sigismund, were brilliant. He himself took 
 Polotsk, and with this exploit terminated his personal glory 
 as a warrior. The bishop of this ancient Russian diocese 
 was sent with the prisoners to Moscow, and Trypho, of 
 Souzdal, was appointed as archbishop there, for a short time,
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. Ill 
 
 till it was recovered again by the Poles. A meeting similar CHAP. 
 
 to that, which welcomed him after the capture of Kazan, 
 
 awaited the victor on his return ; though the change which 
 had already shewn itself in his character repressed all feelings 
 of joy in the hearts of his subjects. 
 
 The Metropolitan Macarius once more received the Tsar 
 with a complimentary address 69 in Moscow, and soon after 
 died. A witness of the first glorious half of the reign of John, 
 he was spared by a merciful providence the pain of behold- 
 ing the bloody horrors of the latter half, and departed, while 
 he could yet do so, in peace, leaving behind him the blessed 
 memory of a prudent pastor, who had directed his sovereign 
 as far as possible to what was good. A lover of learning, but 
 with the slender opportunities of that age, he innocently be- 
 came the cause of much evil by the Council of the Hundred 
 Chapters; but on the other hand he also rendered essential 
 service by his learned labours, by his continuation of the 
 Annals of Cyprian, his translation of the Greek Menaea 70 , and 
 his establishment of the first printing press in Moscow, 
 where were printed in his time the Acts of the Apostles, and 
 the Epistles. Superstitious arguments against printing, 
 which had excited the opposition of the hand-writers, pre- 
 vented its making any further progress after the death of its 
 patron Macarius, and though there was an edition of the 
 Gospels printed afterwards by order of the Tsar, still he left 
 to the illustrious Prince Constantine of Ostrog, deputy- 
 governor of Kieff, the oppportunity and the glory of printing 
 there for the first time the entire Bible in Slavonic. 
 
 In Lithuania, after the death of Joseph Saltan, the line of 
 orthodox metropolitans of Kieff was continued. His suc- 
 cessor Jonah II., elected by the intercession of the Great 
 Princess Helena, was not inferior to him in zeal ; he con- 
 firmed in orthodoxy many of the Lithuanian princes, and 
 this his success was the reason, that the King of Poland at 1522. 
 the Diet of Grodno forbade the appointment of the orthodox to 
 be senators, or to fill any of the higher offices of the state : 
 at the same time, however, he left them the right of electing
 
 112 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, their own primates. The metropolitans who succeeded after 
 
 : him, and who were confirmed by the benediction of the 
 
 patriarchs of Constantinople, were Joseph II., previously 
 bishop of Polotsk, Macarius II., who had been one of the 
 court chaplains of the Great Princess Helena, Silvester, 
 1569. Jonas III., in whose time the union of the principality of 
 Lithuania with the kingdom of Poland was completed, by the 
 constitution of the Diet of Lublin, in the person of Sigismund 
 Augustus, and lastly, Elias ; these, assisted by the victories of 
 the sovereigns of Russia, maintained a strong opposition 
 against the influence of Rome, and against the Lutheran heresy, 
 which had penetrated into the provinces on our western 
 frontiers, where the Latin confession of faith seduced many, 
 even among the members of the clergy. 
 
 XLI. ATHANASIUS. 
 
 IN Moscow, after Macarius, the Archimandrite Athanasius, 
 confessor to the Tsar, was elected to be metropolitan, and a 
 synodal letter confirmed to him and to his successors the privi- 
 lege of wearing the white cowl, which his predecessor had worn 
 as having been before Lord of Novogorod. But Athanasius 
 did not remain long in his chair. Alarmed at the moral 
 change which had taken place in his spiritual son, he after a 
 year retired into the Novospassky, or New Monastery of the 
 Saviour, built by John III., in place of the original Spassky 
 monastery of his great grandfather Kalita. 
 
 The sudden retirement of the Tsar with all his family to 
 the village of Alexandroff 71 , upon the pretext of being in dan- 
 ger from his subjects, marked the commencement of the 
 horrors of his reign. The capital, in consternation, sent a 
 deputation of prelates and boyars to entreat their sovereign 
 to return. He yielded, but only on condition that they Avere 
 not to interfere between him and his victims; and the 
 heads of the chief among the nobles fell. In a fit of incom- 
 prehensible phrensy, John divided all Russia into two parts ;
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 113 
 
 one he called his own peculiar property, or Personalty 72 , in CHAP. 
 which he included many towns, and quarters of the capital 
 itself, and this he kept under his own personal government ; 
 the other part, which he called Provincial, he committed to 
 the boyars, and this he on all occasions sacrificed to his 
 Personalty. He surrounded himself with a guard of six 
 thousand reckless youths, with whom he went about the 
 towns and villages, giving them up to fire, and sword, and 
 insult, so that his fearful body-guard of "Peculiars" got the 
 name among the people of the Black, from that outer 73 
 darkness out of which they seemed to have sprung. 
 
 Avoiding the capital he built himself cells in Alexandroff, 
 with halls and a magnificent chapel, and surrounded it with 
 a wall in imitation of a monastery. There, habited in the 
 black mantle of a monk, with which as if in derision he also 
 dressed his bloodthirsty fraternity, he zealously followed the 
 whole Rule of the Church, that he might stifle the reproaches 
 of his conscience, praying and inflicting cruel punishments, 
 going out from church to superintend the rack. Strange 
 play of the human heart ! The religious habits of childhood 
 which John had imbibed with his mother's milk, the external 
 form of religion which had become part of his nature, without 
 having any hold upon or finding any echo in his heart, con- 
 tinually pierced through the hard and coarse covering of his 
 passions, which in their turn had become his second nature. 
 Deeply read in the Scriptures, and master of a powerful style 
 in writing, from his terrible retreat he sent abroad fierce 
 letters to the monasteries all around, accusing them of 
 neglecting their Rule, and relaxing the strict discipline of the 
 monastic life, of which he shewed himself the most zealous 
 maintainer. 
 
 He himself also met with a determined accuser, one who 
 was to wear a crown too, though no other than the crown of 
 martyrdom, over the pastoral mitre. The mild and timid 
 Athanasius had retired, having no strength to bear up against 
 such a storm. The choice of the Tsar fell on Germanus, 
 archbishop of Kazan. It was in vain that the pious old man 
 
 i
 
 114 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, refused the office : lie was ordered to occupy the apartments 
 ~ of the primate, and await the public ceremony of his conse- 
 cration. Sensible of the duties of his calling, Germanus 
 desired to have an interview previously with the Tsar, and in 
 a pastoral admonition, ventured to try to turn him away 
 from the ruinous course he was following. John, bursting 
 into a passion, drove him out of his palace in the Kremlin to 
 his former diocese, and proceeded to a neAv election. 
 
 XLIL ST. PHILIP. 
 
 1565. JOHN then called to mind an old acquaintance of his child- 
 hood, the holy Hegumen Philip, of the noble family of 
 Kolicheff. He had long since quitted the vanities of the 
 world, and had retired to the wild solitude of the Solovetsky 
 monastery, where the strict life of the monk did not prevent 
 his occupying himself with the regulation of his own distant 
 convent, or with diffusing the light of Christianity over the 
 shores of the White sea. The fame of the holy life of Philip 
 put it into the Tsar's mind to summon him to his own pre- 
 sence, upon the ground that he needed his spiritual counsel. 
 With bitter tears the old man quitted his retirement, and, 
 alarmed at the offer of so exalted a station, entreated not 
 to be torn from his cell, and from the study of the holy 
 Fathers. He understood the duties of the office to which he 
 was called, and foresaw also what would be his own fate. 
 The first thing he did was to refuse to recognise the ruinous 
 distinction of the Tsar's " Personalty," which deprived him 
 of part of his flock. He implored the bishops to oppose 
 themselves firmly to such an injurious division ; but some of 
 them kept silence from fear, others connived at what was done, 
 to gain the favour of men ; all besought him not to irritate 
 their frantic sovereign by attempting to withdraw himself, 
 nor abandon the kingdom and the Church to his wrath; 
 and in deference to their hopes, which were destined to be 
 disappointed, Philip consented, not wishing to incur the im-
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 115 
 
 putation of pride and obstinacy. He knew that fresh hor- CHAP. 
 rors would be sure soon to bring him face to face with John, 
 and give him an opportunity of speaking to him the words 
 of truth. 
 
 On the very day of his consecration he gave utterance to 
 words of admonition and reproof in the answer which he 
 made from his chair to the customary address of recognition 
 by the Tsar. " For silence," said the zealous pastor, " lays 
 sin upon the soul, and brings death to the whole people." 
 John, still under the influence of his first impression, listened 
 quietly to the metropolitan, and put on a show of courteous- 
 ness towards him, or, to speak more correctly, of endurance ; 
 the executions ceased for a time, though that was indeed 
 but a short one. Very soon they began again with fresh 
 horrors in the wretched capital, and the cries of the boyars, 
 who fled to Philip for protection, deeply wrung his soul. 
 
 Once, on a Sunday, while he was celebrating the liturgy 
 in the cathedral of the Assumption, the Tsar entered with a 
 crowd of his " Peculiars," dressed in strange attire, and 
 presented himself before the primate's chair to receive the 
 blessing. But the prelate kept his eyes steadily fixed on the 
 Icon of the Saviour, and appeared not to notice the approach 
 of the sovereign. The boyars announced to him that John 
 was there. "I do not recognise the Tsar," he exclaimed, 
 " in any such dress ; I do not recognise him either in the 
 acts of his government. What is this that thou hast done, 
 O Tsar, to put off from thee the form of thine honour ? Fear 
 the judgments of God. Here we are offering up the blood- 
 less sacrifice to the Lord; while behind the altar there is 
 flowing the innocent blood of Christian men." John boiled 
 over with fury, and tried to stop his lips with menaces ; but 
 these had no terrors for the holy man. " I am a stranger 
 and a pilgrim upon earth, as all my fathers were," he 
 quietly replied, " and I am ready to suffer for the truth. 
 Where would be my faith if I kept silence?" 
 
 John left the church almost beside himself with passion ; 
 but still, notwithstanding the suggestions of those about him,
 
 116 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, some secret awe restrained him from laying hands on the 
 saint ; he only avoided his presence, and took care never to 
 meet him but in the churches, and there he heard himself 
 reproved. A procession brought them both together upon 
 the walls of the Daevichy convent, and the metropolitan, as he 
 turned himself towards the people, perceived one of the 
 "Peculiars" with his head covered; he pointed out the of- 
 fender to John, and complained of this Tartar habit of his 
 suite. But the favourite of the Tsar had already taken off 
 his tafia 74 , and in his turn accused Philip of calumny. John 
 at length felt determined to throw off the yoke of 4iis virtues, 
 by which he felt himself oppressed, and sought immediately 
 for something like a ground of accusation against him. He 
 sent Paphnutius, bishop of Souzdal, to the Solovetsky monas- 
 tery, to make enquiries respecting the life of Philip on the 
 spot itself, where the greater part of it had been spent in 
 spiritual exercises. But none of the community dared to 
 calumniate their former superior ; only one man, the Hegu- 
 men Paisius, was induced by flattery and threats to accuse 
 him. The Tsar, overjoyed, cited the metropolitan as a crimi- 
 nal before a spiritual council, where, in the number of his 
 judges, sat the Lord of Novogorod, the ambitious Pimen, 
 destined soon after to be rewarded as he deserved, with 
 Philotheus of Riazan, Paphnutius of Souzdal, and others who 
 were equally creatures of John. Imprisonment was the pu- 
 nishment they awarded him. St. Philip had foretold this to 
 Pimen ; and laying aside, of his own accord, his mantle and 
 white cowl, he joyfully surrendered them to the Tsar, begging 
 to be restored to his retired monastery and quiet, and implor- 
 ing the bishops to stand up firmly for the Church of Christ. 
 But John, who had been publicly reproved, wished to take 
 an equally public and triumphant revenge. He compelled the 
 metropolitan to perform once more the service of the liturgy. 
 A crowd of the "Peculiars" rushed into the church with a 
 shout after the service was begun, when the prelate was now 
 standing before the altar quietly offering up his last sacrifice, 
 and ready also to offer up himself for the name of Christ ;
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 117 
 
 they tore his robes from him, and left nothing on him but a CHAP. 
 
 shirt, and so dragged him to prison. The old man made the - 
 
 sign of the cross, and gave his benediction to the people as 
 they were taking him along, and only repeated this one word, 
 "Pray !" and at the doors of the cathedral, he exclaimed, "I 
 rejoice that I have received all this for the sake of the Church. 
 Alas ! the times of her widowhood are coming, when her 
 shepherds shall be despised as hirelings." 
 
 On the next day, in the royal palace, and in the presence 
 of the Tsar, Philip's sentence of deposition was announced to 
 him. After having heard his own condemnation unmoved, 
 he once more, for the last time, implored the Tsar to remem- 
 ber the good examples of his ancestors, and cease from his 
 murders. In the monastery of St. Nicholas, where he was 
 temporarily confined, he received as a present from John the 
 bloody head of his nephew. Philip blessed it, and returned 
 it to the sender. A week afterwards, he was conducted, 
 under a strong guard, to the Otroch monastery in Tver, 
 where he continued in his narrow cell in unceasing prayer 
 till the time of his martvrdom. 
 
 XLIII. CYRILL III. 
 
 CYRILL, a retiring monk, the hegumen of the Novinsky 75 
 monastery, was consecrated in the room of Philip, but neither 
 Church nor State were sensible of his presence on the throne 
 of Moscow. He and his successor, Anthony, who had been 
 archbishop of Polotsk, glided like shadows through the gloom 
 of the latter dreadful years of John. After St. Philip, they 
 shewed as if they had been already dead 76 . John made an 
 attack on his own city of Novogorod, while he had still upon 
 his hands an unsuccessful war with Sigismund; suspicion 
 of their inclining to the king of Poland served him as a pre- 
 tence for laying waste his own towns. Every thing was given 
 up to fire and sword on his march to the Ilmen, beginning 
 from Klecn. In the midst of the desolation which he had
 
 118 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, caused in Tver, the torturer did not forget his former victim ; 
 he sent his worthy assistant, Maliout Skouratoff, as if for 
 Philip's blessing, to the Otroch monastery. But St. Philip 
 quietly said to him, " Execute thy mission ; " and was 
 strangled in his cell, suffering for the truth like another 
 John the Baptist. The Church of Russia has been distin- 
 guished by many great prelates, but among them all there is 
 only this one martyr, and his glory is incormptible, even as 
 are his holy relics themselves. The living words which he spake 
 have kept as it were life and power even in his dead body, 
 and this immoveable pillar which supports the Church crum- 
 bles not away " . On four such pillars the Church of Moscow 
 and of all Russia rests : Peter, Alexis, Jonah, Philip. Who 
 can shake so firm a foundation? The relics of the holy 
 martyr lie in the cathedral of the Assumption : in vain the 
 Solovetsky convent desired to have them in the days of the 
 mild Theodore, that he who had aforetime chosen the rocky 
 cave of the ocean to be his lone retreat, might rest within 
 hearing of its hoary waves. It Avas right that the good shep- 
 herd, who had laid down his life for the sheep, should repose 
 on the spot where he had laboured and suffered. 
 
 From Tver John pursued his march, marking his track 
 with blood. His band preceded him in the commission of 
 murders at Novogorod ; the monks and the wealthiest of the 
 citizens were put to the torture, and many were unable to 
 support the blows. Of the clergy alone more than five hun- 
 dred suffered; the property of the monasteries was plun- 
 dered, and the common people were cast by thousands into 
 the Volkhoff ; Pimen, the Lord, went out to meet him with a 
 procession and crosses to the bridge. The Tsar called him 
 a traitor, and fiercely ordered him to go and celebrate th,e 
 liturgy in the cathedral of St. Sophia. From the church 
 John went to him to dinner in the refectory, and at a given 
 signal his Peculiars rushed upon the archbishop with a shout, 
 seized all the boyars, and put them under guard ; he himself 
 was sent to the village of Alexandroff, and there deprived of 
 his dignity, and shut up in the monastery at Toula. Novogorod
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 119 
 
 meantime was filled with blood, and the number of deaths CHAP. 
 
 v. 
 was still further swelled by a famine and pestilence which ~~ 
 
 followed in the train of the executions ; so that it literally 
 lay desolate after the terrible visit of John. He collected 
 there a vast spoil, but fled out of the monastery of Khoutinsk, 
 struck with a mysterious dread, when he wished to touch the 
 shrine of the venerable Barlaam. After having sacrilegiously 
 plundered some religious houses, he devoutly adorned others : 
 the Trinity Lavra and the monastery of St. Cyrill were the 
 exclusive objects of his zeal. Two cathedrals, of the Assump- 
 tion, and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, were built by him 
 within the Lavra, while the convent of Bielo-ozero was forti- 
 fied with strong walls, within which he hoped to find security 
 from the incursions of the Tartars, and from the attacks of 
 his own subjects ; for there he intended to receive the ton- 
 sure, and there he deposited his treasures, the spoils which he 
 had taken from Kazan and Novogorod 78 . 
 
 Pskoff narrowly escaped sharing the fate of the ancient 
 capital of Kurik. Already the terrible destroyer stood be- 
 fore her walls, and her last night seemed to overshadow 
 the trembling city : all the citizens passed it in prayer ; 
 the bell sounded 79 for mattins, and the tranquillizing sound 
 softened his cruel heart ; John relented, and became calm ; 
 the people met him with bread and salt ; the mad hermit 
 Salos in his cell offered him instead a piece of raw flesh. 
 " I am a Christian/' said the Tsar in astonishment, " and 
 do not eat flesh during the Great Fast ! " " At all events 
 thou drinkest man's blood," replied the daring hermit ; 
 and John, confounded, did not answer him a word, but 
 hastened away from Pskoff. No agreeable guest awaited 
 him at Moscow. The warlike khan, Devlet Hirey, with the 
 Horde of the Crimea, had passed his generals on the Oka, 
 approached close to Moscow, and burned all the suburbs. 
 The Metropolitan Cyrill was very near being suffocated by 
 the smoke in the Kremlin ; John fled. A second incursion 
 of the khan was less successful. The illustrious commander 
 Yorotiiisky, destined afterwards to fall a victim to the ingra-
 
 120 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, titude of John, completely defeated the khan at 110 great 
 ~ distance from the capital. The Tsar in the mean time again 
 retired to Novogorod, but this time without any shedding of 
 blood, as a humble worshipper on the same spot where he 
 had before raged a cruel persecutor. He brought with him, 
 for the consolation of the citizens, a new Lord, Leonidas. 
 
 Troubled in conscience, John sought as it were involun- 
 tarily to place himself under the shadow of the Church to 
 find a refuge from the storm within, and was ever filling it 
 with his atrocities ; so that at each step of his life we find 
 acts of religion closely joined with murders, and there glimmer 
 in a strange mixture about him at one time the forms of pre- 
 lates, at another of his Peculiars. After he had put St. 
 Philip to death, and deprived Pimen, it was a strange sight 
 to see the same man, who had thus given himself up to all 
 the fury of his own passions, humbly asking of a synod of 
 bishops for a dispensation to contract a fourth marriage. 
 They granted him the dispensation, contrary to the canons 
 of the Church, and imposed on him a certain penance 80 , but 
 said nothing of the torrents of blood which he had shed. 
 This occurred after the death of Cyrill, during the vacancy of 
 the metropolitan throne. Anthony, who was elevated to his 
 place, presided in another council, which, at the demand of 
 j5 72 the Tsar, prohibited the monasteries from acquiring any 
 more landed property, and restored to the sovereign those 
 properties which had been given them by the Great Princes 
 of Moscow. The distressed circumstances of Russia com- 
 pelled her to have recourse to this measure. 
 
 XLIV. ANTHONY. 
 
 THE odious Personalty, which had cost so much blood, was 
 at length done away with, but the blood of the higher digni- 
 taries, both in Church and State, did not cease to flow. 
 Among those who suffered were Leonidas, Lord of Novogorod, 
 and Cornelius, the pious hegumen of the Pechersky 81 , who
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 121 
 
 was more fortunate in his meeting with John before the CHAP. 
 
 v 
 threatened destruction of Pskoff, than at his own convent at - 
 
 the time of his campaign in Livonia ; also Theodoret, a just 
 man, who had formerly brought him the benedictory letter 
 of the patriarch on his accession to the throne, and since 
 that time had retired to the north, where he founded a 
 monastery in the midst of the Lopars, whom he baptized. 
 While John thus acted himself the part of an enemy in the 
 interior of his kingdom, new and powerful enemies arose 
 from without. The unhappy district of Livonia continued to 
 be the occasion and the theatre of a bloody contest. On one 
 side, it was desolated by the armies of John, who aspired to 
 become himself its Lord, while he conferred the nominal title 
 of king of Livonia on the Danish Prince Magnus, whom he 
 had married to his niece ; on the other side, the Swedes 
 threw themselves upon it, and endeavoured all they could to 
 obtain permanent possession of the sea coasts ; there appeared 
 also a third powerful invader, stronger and more active than 
 his rivals, in Stephen Batori 82 , the new king of Poland, who 
 was elected from the Seven Towns after the flight of Henry 
 of Valois. Not long before this, the Estates of Lithuania and 
 Poland had offered the crown of those countries to Theodore, 
 the youthful son of John ; but the ambition of his father, who 
 desired to appropriate it to himself, lost it to them both. 
 Exactly the same thing was destined some years later to be 
 repeated, on the part of Sigismund and his son Vladislaff of 
 Poland, with respect to Russia. The hero Batori, who had 
 grown grey in battles, by the glory of his victories blunted the 
 sword of our leaders. The ancient city of Polotsk, notwith- 
 standing the brave defence of its inhabitants, who were en- 
 couraged by their Archbishop Cyprian, was obliged to sur- 
 render. The enemy advanced even into our own provinces, 
 and pitched his camp under the walls of Pskoff ; but our 
 brave commander, Shouesky, beat off all his assaults, and 
 rendered a long siege fruitless. 
 
 An incomprehensible pusillanimity, caused by the inward 
 trouble of his conscience, took possession of the soul of John.
 
 122 RESIDENCE OP THE 
 
 CHAP. Though he had a numerous army of his own, he sought aid 
 
 from the mediation of the foreign powers, with whom, during 
 
 the whole course of his long reign, he kept up relations of 
 friendly and commercial intercourse. The emperor and the 
 pope intervened in the affairs of Poland. Gregory XIII. 
 took care not to neglect an opportunity so favourable to his 
 views : he despatched to the contending parties the Jesuit 
 Anthony Possevin, who, in his quality of mediator, passed 
 from one camp to the other, and succeeded in negociating an 
 armistice on terms disadvantageous to Russia; for after so 
 many and great sacrifices, she gave up Livonia and Polotsk 
 to Lithuania. The wily Anthony used all his efforts to bring 
 John to admit the Florentine Union, and in every interview 
 which he had with him on political matters contrived to let 
 fall some words about the union of the Churches ; but John 
 shewed no less address in evading all discussion, as he wished 
 not at that time to say any thing which might irritate the le- 
 gate, or prejudice his own affairs ; but when he was relieved 
 from his apprehensions by the conclusion of the armistice, he 
 gave him more decided answers : sometimes, unable to re- 
 strain the violence of his temper, he expressed himself 
 strongly on the ambition and tyranny of the Romish pontiffs, 
 and then again fell to a calmer tone on perceiving the dis- 
 pleasure of Possevin; yet, notwithstanding his repeated 
 instances, John persisted in refusing to permit the Venetian 
 merchants to have Latin churches in his dominions, and 
 at length honourably dismissed the ambassador with rich 
 presents. The visit of Anthony, though it produced no effect 
 in Moscow, left behind it deep traces in Lithuania, where his 
 zealous exhortations and wily policy produced some years 
 later that Unia, which appears as the source of such fatal 
 mischief in the annals of our Church and country. 
 
 The subjugation of Siberia by Yermak gives us the last 
 glimpse of the sunshine of John's greatness, who became 
 more renowned in the East than in the West. A third Tartar 
 kingdom was now laid at the foot of his throne : there 
 remained only the menacing Horde of the Crimea to save
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW. 123 
 
 the memory of the Mongols from total extinction. But John CHAP. 
 
 v 
 himself prematurely descended to the tomb, having been - 
 
 consumed by the inward fire of his passions during all his 
 life. He was violently affected at the wretched end of his 
 son John : the phrensied father struck him with his staff in 
 an access of passion, and only came to himself again over 
 his corpse. Rich alms for the good of his soul were se .t to 
 Sinai and Athos, and to the Holy Sepulchre. There re- 
 mained to succeed him only the feeble Theodore, and Deme- 
 trius yet a child, the fruit of his seventh marriage, whose 
 name was to be sadly memorable to Russia. At length, 
 John's mental disease communicated itself to his body. Sur- 
 rounded by so many shades of murdered men, he set as a 
 blood-red sun in mists. At the hour of his decease, the 
 Metropolitan Dionysius, knowing his sovereign's wish, ap- 
 proached to give him the tonsure in the name of his fa- 
 vourite monastery of Bielo-ozero : and so from the Terrible 
 John he became the simple Monk Jonah, and rendered up 
 his spirit to the Heavenly judge of his dreadful reign on 
 earth. 
 
 XLV. DIONYSIUS. 
 
 THE peaceful reign of Theodore succeeded as a calm after 158-2. 
 the storm. In his person the race of Rurik took its leave of 
 Russia, after having conferred on her its last benefits, and its 
 parting with us is the more marked from the repose of the 
 interval which occurred between the horrors of the reign of 
 John and the civil wars of the Pretenders. Five boyars of the 
 council had been left by the late powerful monarch as guar- 
 dians to his feeble son : the Princes Shouesky, Mistislafsky, 
 and Belsky, and with these his relatives or connections Nice- 
 tas Romanoff, his uncle, and his brother-in-law Boris Godou- 
 noff, afterwards to be Tsar, who soon seized the reins of 
 government, and got rid of the other nobles. The child 
 Demetrius, with h'is mother, the Tsaritsa Martha, and all her
 
 124 RESIDENCE OF THE 
 
 CHAP, court, were sent, as if in order to his education there, to the 
 v. 
 
 appanage of Ouglich. After the example of his father, Theo- 
 dore was crowned to his kingdom; the Metropolitan Dionysius 
 placed on his head the crown of the Monomachi, and anointed 
 him with the holy ointment 83 , according to the order for the 
 coronation of the Greek emperors, which John had received 
 from the patriarch. By the prudent dispositions of Godounoff, 
 the state prospered, and was at peace with the neighbouring 
 powers of Sweden and Poland, where the aged Batori still 
 lived on to enjoy his glory, and extended itself in the direc- 
 .* tion of the East. The building of Archangel, and of Oural, 
 of the open town of the Cossacks on the Volga, and of for- 
 tresses on the Terek 84 , marked the extreme limits of the em- 
 pire. Siberia, which had been abandoned after its conquest 
 by Yermak, was a second time subdued by the generals of the 
 Tsar, who established themselves in Tobolsk, near Isker, its 
 ancient capital. The king, whose name was Kouchoum, fled 
 to the steppes. His sons were already captives at the court 
 of Theodore, with Simeon, of the family of Kazan, who had 
 been king of Kasimoff, and who had received instead the title 
 of Great Prince of Tver. Besides these, yet one more king- 
 dom submitted itself, the ancient Iberia, which had been 
 crushed between the Persians and the Turks. Its king, 
 Alexander, took the oath of allegiance to Russia, and Theo- 
 dore despatched priests into his provinces to maintain 85 the 
 influence of Christianity and civilization among the inhabit- 
 ants, who had been so long and so severely tried by suffer- 
 ing. The ambition of Boris was the only thing that broke 
 for a time the tranquillity of the palace in the Kremlin, by 
 exciting the hatred of the boyars, on whom he in return 
 revenged himself by throwing them into confinement. The 
 Prince Shouesky, in concert with the metropolitan, opposed 
 the regent, and wished to persuade Theodore to separate 
 himself from Irene, the sister of Godounoff, on the ground of 
 her barrenness, as his grandfather had done by Salmone ; but 
 their design became known. In vain Dionysius endeavoured 
 to reconcile Shouesky with Boris, and thought that he had
 
 METROPOLITANS AT MOSCOW, 125 
 
 succeeded : the reconciliation was not lasting, and the re- CHAP. 
 nowned defender of Pskoff ended his days in a dungeon at 
 Bielo-ozero. The metropolitan himself, a man of a decided 
 character, who was surnamed Grammaticus for his learning 
 and eloquence, suffered on account of his illustrious friend. 
 He ventured to accuse Godounoff to the Tsar of arbitrariness 
 and persecution, but was unable to stand against his power. 
 Dionysius was deprived of his chair, as was also his faithful 
 friend and vicar Barlaam, archbishop of the Steeps, and was 
 sent to Novogorod, and there died in his former monastery of 
 Khoutinsk. In accordance with the desire of the regent, Job, 
 archbishop of Rostoff, who had been not long before bishop 
 of Columna, was raised to the chair of Moscow and all 1S87. 
 Russia. From this point begin the annals of the patriarchs.
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, A MOST important event took place at this time in the 
 - Russian Church ; important from the circumstances of the 
 time itself; for the prosperity of the state was already de- 
 clining to its fall, with the extinction of the race of Rurik, 
 and a storm of long continuance impended, in which the 
 Church, in the persons of her chief prelates, saved the coun- 
 try by seizing the helm ; important also no less from its re-, 
 establishing the external order of the Church. About 150 
 years had elapsed since the fall of Constantinople ; and the 
 metropolitans of all Russia, who were appointed during all 
 that time by synods of their own bishops, had not been con- 
 firmed by the patriarchs, although they still reckoned them- 
 selves as forming part of their spiritual province. Their 
 acquiescence in this, in the first instance, and the calamitous 
 circumstances of the East, might partly excuse this irregu- 
 larity in that subordination of the hierarchy, which is so 
 necessary to the unity of the Catholic Church ; but the longer 
 continuance of such a state of things might have been at- 
 tended with danger. The remoteness, indeed, and the very 
 extent of the Russian Church, necessarily prevented its im- 
 mediate dependence upon the depressed see of Constanti- 
 nople ; but, on the other hand, it was impossible for her to 
 become independent without the common consent of the 
 four oecumenical patriarchs, lest she should fall into a fatal 
 violation of unity 86 . 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His care for that Church which 
 He purchased with His precious blood, Himself orders all for
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 127 
 
 its good, and often works by such means as outwardly may CHAP 
 be taken for the mere fortunate concurrence of circumstances, 
 while they are in reality the secret ways of His Providence. 
 Y\ ithin a short space of time, two patriarchs, of Antioch, 
 and Constantinople, came in quest of alms into our country ; 
 and the pious Tsar Theodore, having felt his soul gratified 
 by the magnificence of the Church-ceremonies in which 
 they took part, conceived a wish to elevate the metropo- 
 litans of all Russia to the rank of patriarchs ; and this 
 spontaneous impulse of his heart was perhaps the only really 
 independent act of all his reign, the only one in which the 
 ambition of Boris had no share. The synodical institution 
 of a fifth patriarch in the place of the patriarch of Rome, 
 who had fallen away 87 , appeared so great an event in the 
 ecclesiastical world, as we may see from the language of the 
 contemporary acts, 'that it could never have proceeded from 
 any political calculations of people and of an age which lived 
 rather an ecclesiastical than a civil life. The very gradual 
 way in which the affair made progress, of itself shews how 
 doubtfully, and as it were apprehensively, it was at first 
 undertaken ; and what is most remarkable of all, the Church 
 of Russia heard of it only after it had already been agreed 
 upon between the Tsar and the patriarch of Constantinople. 
 In the year 1580, which was in the lifetime of the Metro- 
 politan Dionysius, Joachim, patriarch of Antioch, came to 
 Moscow, and their meeting in the cathedral of the Assump- 
 tion gave the first idea of establishing the Russian patriarch- 
 ate; for often from small beginnings great events take their 
 rise. Dionysius, though only metropolitan, would not yield 
 precedence to the Patriarch Joachim, but gave him his own 
 benediction first, before he received the benediction from 
 him, which the patriarch slightly remarked upon at the time. 
 Soon afterwards, the pious Tsar, after making a statement to 
 the boyars of his council on the history of the ancient and new 
 mode of appointing our metropolitans, gave it as his judg- 
 ment that it would be more suitable to erect a patriarchate 
 in Russia, and senj; the Boyar Godounoff to confer upon this
 
 128 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, idea with the prelate of Antioch : but Joachim returned for 
 
 VI. 
 
 answer that such a matter was for the judgment of a full 
 synod of the heads of the Church, and only promised for 
 himself that he would consult the patriarch of Constantinople 
 and the other two patriarchs respecting it. 
 
 After an interval of two years, when Job was now metro- 
 politan, Russia was visited by the patriarch of Constantinople 
 himself, Jeremiah II., a man deservedly celebrated for his 
 learning, and for his sufferings in the cause of the Church. 
 He was even imprisoned by the Sultan Amurath, in Rhodes, 
 for his firm defence of her rights. Deprived by the Turks 
 of his ancient patriarchal Church, Jeremiah came to beg as- 
 sistance from the Tsar Theodore, having been also previously 
 informed of his wishes by the patriarch of Antioch,"and was 
 received with that honour which was due to the first among 
 the oecumenical patriarchs, on whom also the Muscovite 
 Church itself depended. The monarch, overjoyed at his 
 coming, proposed to the prelate to remain in Russia for 
 good, so avoiding the troubles of the East, and to set up his 
 patriarchal throne in the former capital Vladimir ; for Theo- 
 dore, with all his desire to have a patriarch in Russia, was 
 still in some doubt ; being at once backward to violate 
 the rights of the see of Constantinople, by establishing the 
 independence of the Russian Church, and at the same time 
 not wishing to see near his own person as primate a foreigner, 
 who was ignorant of our manners, and unable even to 
 advise with him in his own language; neither did he choose 
 to do any thing to mortify the Metropolitan^Job, who was 
 protected by the Godounoffs ; and here was the only point 
 in which the personal views of Boris had any influence in 
 this whole business, which was of such immense importance. 
 
 Jeremiah, experienced from age, having grown grey amid 
 the difficult circumstances of the East, and being zealous 
 to maintain his own see, could not consent to the Tsar's pro- 
 posal. He saw clearly that a distant residence at Vladimir 
 would make him equally useless to both the Churches of Con- 
 stantinople and Moscow, and requested to be allowed to take
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 129 
 
 his leave and return to Constantinople. At last however, CHAP. 
 
 VI. 
 
 after new instances on the part of the Tsar, he determined to ~ 
 appoint the Metropolitan Job, on his election and presenta- 
 tion, to be patriarch of all Russia. A synod of all the Russian 
 bishops was solemnly convoked in the capital ; the Tsar in 
 person proposed to them to consult together on the institution 
 of a patriarchate of Moscow ; and the council submitted itself 
 entirely to the wishes of the monarch, having the firmest as- 
 surance of his pious zeal for the good of the Church. They 
 assembled in the cathedral of the Assumption for the election 
 of three spiritual persons, leaving the final choice of one out 
 of these to the Tsar ; the Patriarch Jeremiah brought their 
 names to the palace, and Theodore stopped at once at the 
 name of Job, which had been placed first upon the list. 
 
 But now that the legitimate consent of the see of Constan- 
 tinople had once been obtained for the independent existence 
 of the Russian Church, the monarch made it his business to 
 take care that the rights of a fraternal equality between the 
 two patriarchs should in no respect be violated, and that from 
 the very first moment Job of Moscow should enjoy a complete 
 independence of Constantinople. Accordingly at his Nomi- 
 nation 3 he was ordered to kiss the lips of Jeremiah, as a 
 brother, and not to lay aside his crozier unless Jeremiah laid 
 aside his too. His style and address were also changed by 
 adding the prefix of (Ecumenical Lord. Job did not return 
 thanks standing with a wax light in his hand in the middle of 
 the church, after the ancient order of Constantinople, but 
 they both mutually complimented each other upon the ambon, 
 and so separating, retired with equal honour by different doors 4 . 
 Jeremiah solemnly performed the consecration, assisted by the 
 synod, and repeated again over the patriarch-elect the whole 
 office for the ordination of a bishop, as it was rightly thought 
 that a double portion of grace was requisite for the chief 
 pastor of the Church. Then both patriarchs seated them- 
 selves together side by side on an elevated ambon 5 , and the 
 sovereign placed in the hands of Job a most costly crozier, 
 together with a rich mantle and white cowl, ornamented with 
 
 K
 
 130 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 precious stones. A royal banquet awaited the prelates in 
 the palace, and Godounoff himself, the Tsar's master of 
 horse, held the bridle of the new patriarch of Moscow when, 
 according to custom, he rode round the walls to bless all the 
 city. The interchange of magnificent presents between the 
 Tsar and the patriarch concluded the ceremonies. 
 
 Some days having intervened, Job, in the presence of the 
 Most Holy Jeremiah, appointed two archbishops, Alexander of 
 Novogorod, and Barlaam of Kostoff, to be metropolitans 6 of 
 the same dioceses ; and afterwards two others, Gelasius, 
 bishop of the Steeps, as vicar in the patriarch's own diocese, 
 and the archimandrite of the monastery at Kazan, the illus- 
 trious Hermogenes, to be metropolitan of Kazan. The first 
 two had been put in nomination for the patriarchate at the 
 time of the election of Job, and after it the names of each of 
 them were again presented to the Tsar, together with those 
 of two archimandrites, for him to elect to the" new metropoli- 
 tan sees which they had respectively filled before with a lower 
 title. The Tsar Theodore Ivanovich had previously arranged 
 with the Most Holy Jeremiah that the patriarchs of Moscow 
 should be appointed by the council of their own bishops, 
 notice only being given at the time to the see of Constan- 
 tinople, as was to be done reciprocally at the change of any 
 one of the oecumenical patriarchs; and for the sake of having 
 the council which was to elect them complete, with all the 
 ranks of the hierarchy, it was determined at the same time 
 to increase the number of metropolitan sees in the Russian 
 Church to four, and to raise six bishoprics to the rank of 
 archbishoprics, which were those of Vologda, Souzdal, Nijny- 
 Novogorod, Smolensk, Kiazan, and Tver, also to restore the 
 two former bishoprics of Colomna and Bransk, and to add five 
 more new ones, of Pskoff, Rjeff of Vladimir, Oustiog, Bielo- 
 ozero, and Dmitroff. The Tsar, for greater security, ordered 
 an account to be drawn up and engrossed on parchment of 
 all this new institution of metropolitan archiepiscopal and 
 episcopal sees, together with the coming of Jeremiah, his 
 consecration of Job, and his giving consent to the future
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 131 
 
 appointment of the patriarchs of all Russia by the council CHAP. 
 of their own bishops. He gave force and authenticity to 
 this document by causing to be affixed to it his own royal 
 seal, as well as the seal of the two patriarchs, and of all 
 our own and as many Greek bishops as were present. The 
 greater part of the Russian archimandrites and hegumens 
 joined in with their written subscriptions, as did also the 
 archimandrites of Constantinople, and those from the holy 
 mountains of Sinai and Athos, and from the Holy Sepul- 
 chre, who had come with the patriarch. On the return 
 of spring, Jeremiah was dismissed with magnificent presents 
 and great honour, having promised to send speedily letters 
 of confirmation from the oecumenical council 7 . 
 
 In the mean time, the change in the external relations of 
 the primate of Moscow with the primate of Constantinople, 
 by which from a subordinate metropolitan he became a 
 brother patriarch and equal, did not affect the internal rela- 
 tion in which he stood to his own Church. The title only 
 was raised, but in fact the metropolitan by becoming patri- 
 arch gained no new right or power over his bishops ; his 
 ecclesiastical court continued on exactly the same footing, 
 and had just the same jurisdiction as before over the spiritu- 
 ality who were subject to him, and over all the domains which 
 belonged to him, with the exception of those religious houses, 
 which had had the privilege granted them of having their 
 own separate judicatories by letters of exemption from the 
 Great Princes. The former customary dues were continued, 
 which accrued from the decision of such judicial matters as 
 came before him, in cases of marriage, inheritance, wills, 
 sacrilege, and other matters ; also the regular contribution 
 which the metropolitans had received from each parish of 
 their ecclesiastical province, and the fixed payments allowed 
 by canon at ordinations of deacons and priests, and pre- 
 sents on the consecration of bishops. Neither was the court 
 itself of the ancient metropolitans changed, which consisted 
 of their own boyars, gentlemen, clerks, and retainers, and of 
 the officers of their chanceries and consistories, so as to be 
 
 K2
 
 132 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, the counterpart of the court of the Great Princes themselves. 
 
 VI. 
 
 With respect to the autocrat, the patriarch remained in the 
 
 same sacred position in which from all antiquity the Catholic 
 Church had placed her prelates in the presence of Constan- 
 tine, Theodosius, Justinian, and others of the greatest Roman 
 emperors. As a spiritual father and intercessor with God 
 for the Tsar, Job was invited by him to share in his councils, 
 in which he otherwise never interposed of himself; and with 
 his blessing those matters were concluded upon, which were 
 submitted to him for consideration by the sovereign, who 
 trusted to his experience in all the more difficult conjunctures 
 of his government. 
 
 A year after the departure of Jeremiah, Dionysius, metro- 
 politan of Tirnoff 8 and all Bulgaria, who was descended 
 from the imperial race of the Cantacuzenes and Paleologi, 
 brought to Moscow to the Tsar and patriarch synodical 
 letters of confirmation from the oecumenical patriarchs, in 
 which they affectionately acknowledged the patriarch of 
 Moscow as their brother, in the place of the Horn an bishop, 
 who had fallen away, and assigned him the fifth place in 
 the hierarchy of the Universal Church, and in her prayers, 
 next after the patriarch of Jerusalem; although the first 
 wish of Theodore had been that the primate of Muscovy 
 should be named third, yielding precedence to the patriarch 
 of Alexandria only on account of his title of (Ecumenical 
 Judge 9 . This document was signed by only three patriarchs, 
 Jeremiah of Constantinople, Joachim of Antioch, and Sophro- 
 nius of Jerusalem, the fourth, of Alexandria, being dead; 
 and further, by forty-two of the eastern metropolitans, nine- 
 teen archbishops, and twenty bishops, with the rest of the 
 clergy who were present at the council. Notwithstanding 
 this, the Tsar and the patriarch still continued to make in- 
 stances to obtain the third place ; and on occasion of Diony- 
 sius of Tirnoff publicly taking his leave, the Most Holy Job 
 declined acceding to his proposal, that he should select some 
 one of the Greek metropolitans as his representative at the 
 patriarchal see of Constantinople, as was usual with the other
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 133 
 
 heads of the Eastern hierarchy. The Tsar dismissed the CHAP. 
 Metropolitan Dionysius with great honour, and with most - 
 magnificent presents to all the patriarchs, and a long epistle, 
 in which he recapitulated to the whole council, and particu- 
 larly to the Lord of Constantinople, all the details of his 
 coming into Russia, of the negotiation, the election, and even 
 of the rank of precedence given to Job, and sent at the same 
 time bountiful alms for the erection of a new patriarchal 
 Church, to replace the ancient Church of the Almighty 
 Ruler, which had been taken away from the Christians by 
 the Sultan Amurath. 
 
 The constitution of the orthodox Church in Russia had only 
 just been thus settled, as we have described, when she was 
 threatened with a great danger on the side of Poland and 
 Lithuania, on occasion of the election of a new king. Poland 
 was without a government, and parties were divided in the 
 diet at Cracow, where, of three candidates for her slippery 
 throne, Maximilian of Austria, Sigismund of Sweden, and 
 Theodore himself, the popular majority already shewed a 
 disposition to favour the Tsar, but the decided answer of our 
 ambassadors on the unchangeable orthodoxy of our sovereign 
 opened the way for the prince of Sweden; and from the 
 accession of Sigismund, who was a zealot for Rome, there 
 began that course of hostile policy of the Western Church 
 against Russia which so cruelly manifested itself in the Unia 
 and the pretenders, and at length in the calamitous sacking 
 and destruction of Moscow. Theodore, as if he had a pre- 
 sentiment of the storm which was coming from Sigismund, 
 sought by all means to persuade Maximilian not to yield up 
 to him his pretensions to the Polish crown ; but the establish- 
 ment of friendly relations with the emperor, and royal pre- 
 sents of great value, designed to engage him in the plan of 
 a general crusade to be undertaken in common, were the only 
 fruits which he obtained of his proposed coalition. 
 
 Border disputes arose with Sweden, on account of the fre- 
 quent incursions of the Swedes into Carelia, where they laid 
 waste the domains of the Solovetsky monastery, and several
 
 134 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, small unprotected convents. The Tsar, having failed to ob- 
 - tain satisfaction, took the field himself, and commenced the 
 campaign by besieging Narva. On the capture, however, of 
 this town by assault, the war was terminated, and a short 
 armistice was concluded, which left Russia in possession of 
 several border fortresses. The hostile intentions of Sweden 
 shewed themselves on the first favourable opportunity that she 
 found, in the time of the troubles caused by the pretenders. 
 
 But the most fatal event of this period, which in the end cost 
 so much Christian blood, was the unfortunate death of the 
 Prince Demetrius, half brother to Theodore, who was mur- 
 dered when only eight years old at Ouglich. According to 
 the account of all the annalists, and the unanimous voice of 
 the people, he fell by the hands of emissaries employed by 
 Godounoff, from fear that Demetrius would be his enemy, 
 and that by the extirpation of this last scion of the royal 
 stock, the Russian empire might pass to his own family. 
 The Prince Basil Shouesky, who was sent by the Tsar to 
 Ouglich to investigate this deed of blood, accused the citizens, 
 who had put the murderers of the princes to death, as guilty 
 of insurrection, while he charged his uncles the Naghi, and 
 all who had been about his person, with carelessness in pro- 
 viding for his security ; at this mock enquiry many witnesses 
 were brought forward, to make it appear that the blessed 
 child had been seized suddenly by a fit while at play, and so 
 had fallen upon a knife and run it into him. His innocent 
 body was buried in the cathedral at Ouglich; while the 
 zealous citizens were pursued with the punishments of death 
 or exile ; Pelim, in the marshy wastes of Siberia, was colonized 
 with them, and the populous city of Ouglich was left without 
 inhabitants, while the bodies of those who had been killed 
 there as the murderers of the young prince, that is, of the 
 city officer Bitiatofsky, his son and nephew, of the son of 
 Demetrius's nurse, and others, who were reported to have 
 been concerned in the murder, were committed to the ground 
 with honour. The three Naghi, uncles of the lad, were sent 
 to different distant prisons ; the Tsaritsa his mother was com-
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 135 
 
 pelled to receive the tonsure under the name of Martha, in CHAP. 
 
 VI. 
 
 the remote district of Bielo-ozero, as a member of the poor 
 
 convent of St. Nicholas. The talk of the people was quieted 
 for a time, as under a little dust, by multiplied acts of 
 beneficence on the part of Boris, after the dreadful conflagra- 
 tions which laid waste Moscow and other cities ; and after- 
 wards, all means that human precaution could devise were 
 taken to stifle the lamentations of the land of Russia, and the 
 innocent blood which cried out from her bosom : In vain ! 
 The Lord himself appeared as the avenger of iniquity. 
 
 An unexpected incursion of Kazi Hirey, khan of the 
 Crimea, drew off for a time the general attention. The Rus- 
 sian generals allowed the Tartar army to pass the Oka, and 
 from the heights of the Sparrow Hills the khan, greedy of 
 plunder, already devoured with his eyes the golden-roofed 
 city of Moscow, as though certain of the prey which his innu- 
 merable hosts surrounded. But from the upper apartments 10 
 of his palace in the Kremlin the pious Theodore looked 
 down calmly upon the hostile masses of the infidels, and con- 
 sidered that fear would be a sin : he took the Icon of our 
 Lady of the Don, which in former time had accompanied his 
 ancestor Demetrius at the battle with Mamai ; the Patriarch 
 Job caused Litanies " to be sung, and committed it to the 
 assembled clergy, to carry in procession round the walls ; after 
 which he set it up under the tent in the ambulatory church of 
 St, Sergius, our never-failing protector in the hour of need, in 
 the midst of the troops which had been collected and were en- 
 camped before the gates of the capital. For a whole day they 
 fought from the walls and under the walls, and GodounofF with 
 his generals had the direction of the battle ; for a whole day a 
 fearful suspense agitated the hearts of all the besieged, except 
 that of Theodore alone, who calmly went to sleep amidst the 
 tumult and storm of the engagement, having said first these 
 words, " To-morrow there will be no enemy/' and accordingly 
 in the morning there was none : the khan had been alarmed 
 by intelligence of the near approach of fresh Russian troops to 
 the capital, and had fled, leaving behind him a rich spoil v
 
 136 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP. On the spot where the chapel tent of St. Sergius had stood 
 ~ with the miraculous Icon, a monastery was founded by 
 the zeal of the Tsar, in the name of Our Lady of the Don, 
 the chosen conductress of our armies on that day of victory; 
 and the Tsar liberally rewarded his officers, and especially 
 their commander Boris, with a gold medal and collar. 
 
 But the danger was scarcely over when the popular rumours 
 about the death of the Tsarevich Demetrius were again re- 
 vived. They said that Godounoff had been the cause of .the 
 fires ; that Godounoff had invited the khan to invade Russia, 
 in order to smother the memory of Demetrius ; that when a 
 son had in reality been born to Theodore, Godounoff had 
 concealed it and substituted a daughter, the same child whose 
 birth was signalized by the sending of rich presents to the 
 four patriarchal thrones, and whose early death was a cause 
 of bitter lamentation to her inconsolable parents. These 
 rumours of suspicion and hatred, which were continually re- 
 newed at every opportunity, pursued Boris throughout the 
 whole reign of Theodore, until they grew up under his own 
 government to the full measure of their stature, in the form 
 of a man, who by the mere fact of his personal resemblance 
 to Demetrius overturned his throne. 
 
 In the mean time in South Russia the exertions of the wily 
 Jesuit Possevin, who was disappointed by John as to the 
 reception of the Florentine Council, obtained the success he 
 desired for them under the protection of Sigismund. The 
 oppressions of the nobles, who, in spite of the Statute of 
 Lithuania granted by him at his coronation, violently appro- 
 priated to themselves the property of the orthodox clergy, com- 
 pelled the Metropolitan Onesiphorus, a most zealous pastor, to 
 beg for new privileges from the king, for the protection of his 
 Church. Already in the tenth year of his episcopate under 
 Stephen Batori, he had found great difficulty in resisting the 
 introduction of the new Gregorian Calendar, which had been 
 prohibited by a circular letter of the Patriarch Jeremiah 12 . On 
 the one hand incessant persecutions and influences both secret 
 and open to desert orthodoxy, on the other the weakness of
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 137 
 
 their defences, and the desperate struggle they had to main- CHAP. 
 tain for their fundamental rights, had produced a relaxation - 
 of morals among the clergy, and irregularities in the election 
 of their bishops. The metropolitan himself, though otherwise 
 a man of irreproachable life, had been twice married, which 
 was contrary to the canons ; and the same was the case with 
 Cyrill Terletsky, bishop of Loutsk, the first author of the Unia. 
 The Patriarch Jeremiah, when he \isited for the first time 
 this part of his flock, could not look with indifference on such 
 disorders ; by his own act and authority he degraded Onesi- 
 phorus, and consecrated in his room Michael Ragoza, who was 
 presented to him in Wilna by the Lithuanian nobles, with 
 reluctance, according to the testimony of the annalists, as if 
 he had had some presentiment of his apostacy. Unfortunately, 
 the double marriage and the vicious life of the bishop of 
 Loutsk were unknown as yet to the patriarch, who was de- 
 ceived by his pretended zeal ; Jeremiah deprived, however, 
 Timothy, the guilty archimandrite of Souprasylsk, and when 
 he departed for Moscow gave it in charge to the metropolitan 
 to convoke a synod in his absence for the reformation of the 
 Church. Sensible of the necessity of learning, the Patriarch 
 Jeremiah who had already established one Stauropegia in the 
 monastery of the Assumption in the town of Lvoff, now in like 
 manner took under his own special protection the School of the 
 Fraternity of the Holy Spirit in Wilna, making it also into a 
 Stauropegia, and regulating it upon the same model ; and on 
 his return he gave his blessing to the institution of the 
 Brotherhood of the Epiphany in Kieff, since converted into 
 the Spiritual Academy, as he saw what a superiority the 
 well-trained zealots of the Western Church, the Jesuits, had 
 over the orthodox. Arsenius, archbishop of Elasson, who ac- 
 companied him to Moscow, together with the metropolitan of 
 Monembasia, and remained there and accepted the diocese of 
 Souzdal, probably for some similar reason, was taken by 
 Jeremiah from being rector of his seminary at Lvoff, that he 
 might be of use in diffusing a spirit of learning and improve- 
 ment in those districts through which he had to travel.
 
 138 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP. But after a residence of a year in the capital of Russia, the 
 - patriarch on his return to Wilna did not find that any synod 
 had met as he desired, and having Church business which 
 made it necessary for him to go on further, he determined to 
 wait for its assembling, first in Zamost, and then again in 
 Wallachia, although by so doing he lost much valuable time, 
 and was obliged to incur heavy expenses, which his im- 
 poverished see could ill afford. But Jeremiah's waiting 
 was to no purpose. Too many exposures and convictions 
 would have followed upon the meeting of a council, and the 
 timid metropolitan Eagoza dreaded the consequences. In 
 the mean time a report of the immoral life of the bishop of 
 Loutsk had at length reached Jeremiah ; and he sent from 
 Zamost, Gregory, a monk in priest's orders, with a letter to 
 the metropolitan, in order that he might be proceeded against 
 and punished ; but the Bishop Cyrill gave orders that this 
 letter should be intercepted and taken away from the 
 messenger by force on the passage through his diocese ; and 
 he himself was so daring as to go straight to the patriarch to 
 justify himself, taking with him Gideon Boloban, bishop of 
 Lvoff, whose zeal for orthodoxy was well known, and he suc- 
 ceeded once more in deceiving the pontiff by his hypocritical 
 assurances ; as a proof of his devotion, he even conducted 
 him on his way, together with Gideon, as far as to the fron- 
 tiers of Wallachia. 
 
 But the violence which Cyrill had used towards the patri- 
 archal envoy could not remain long concealed. Fresh reports 
 were raised, and Meletius Bogourinsky, bishop of Vladimir 13 , 
 again accused Cyrill to the patriarch. Then Jeremiah in- 
 trusted to Meletius letters authorizing him to call a synod, 
 and commissioned the Archimandrite Dionysius to act in it as 
 exarch from himself, as he no longer looked for any thing 
 from the metropolitan ; and he demanded from this latter, as 
 a sort of punishment for having screened the guilty, the pay- 
 ment of those expenses which he had been obliged to incur 
 during his fruitless delay at Zamost. The crafty Cyrill Ter- 
 letsky knew well how to turn to his advantage this circum-
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 139 
 
 stance, small as it was ; foreseeing his own condemnation in CHAP. 
 
 VI 
 
 the council, he so wrought upon the metropolitan by his well- 
 
 feigned indignation, as to prevent his fulfilling the wishes of 
 the patriarch ; while he contrived, during a friendly visit to 
 Meletius, to steal from among his papers the patriarchal letter 
 of commission ; and upon his death, which followed shortly 
 after, he persuaded Ragoza to consecrate to the see of Vla- 
 dimir Ignatius Potsi, whom he had himself not long before 
 admitted to the monastic tonsure as a convert, from having 
 been one of the Castellans " or Roman priests at Brest, as a fit 
 tool of his traitorous designs, knowing that Ignatius had 
 already once before apostatized from orthodoxy. 
 
 These two men became the chief promoters of the Unia, 
 and strove by all possible means to bring into it the rest of 
 the orthodox bishops, at the two local diets of Brest-Litofsky 
 and Lvoff; but they met with strenuous opposers in Gideon 
 Balaban of LvofF, and Michael Copistensky of the city of Pere- 
 muishla, and in Nicephorus Toura, the eloquent archimandrite 
 of the Pecherskay Lavra at Kieff. However, as they scrupled 
 at no means for the attainment of their end, they fraudulently 
 obtained the signatures of both the bishops to a parchment, 
 upon which they pretended they were going to write a peti- 
 tion to the king for new privileges and securities to the 
 orthodox Church ; and then, instead of this, they wrote, as in 
 the name of a synod, a request to him and to the pope for a 
 union with the Church of Rome. 
 
 In the mean time the Patriarch Jeremiah, having heard of 
 the agitation that was going on in the Church of Little 
 Russia, sent round a circular letter by another exarch, whose 
 name was Nicephorus, threatening the metropolitan and the 
 bishops, in the event of their apostacy, with deprival. But 
 the king, Sigisnmnd, bade them rely upon his protection, and 
 promised that the excommunication of the patriarch should 
 never take effect in his dominions. The death of the Most 
 Holy Jeremiah, which followed shortly after, depriving the 
 Church of her experienced governor, and the rapid changes of 
 his successors, of whom no less than three followed each other
 
 140 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP. i n the short space of two years, told very much in favour of 
 the Unia, although the wise and learned patriarch of Alexan- 
 dria, Meletius Pega, who after them was administrator of 
 the see of Constantinople, sent fresh circulars for the 
 maintenance of orthodoxy, by his exarch Cyrill Lucar, who 
 afterwards became patriarch of Constantinople. Neither 
 were the two zealous pastors Gideon and Michael of Pere- 
 muishla silent, nor the archimandrite of the Pechersky ; 
 in concert with these was the venerable Prince Constantino 
 of Ostrog, voivode of Kieff, now a hundred years old, and 
 long celebrated for his love of learning. While John the 
 Terrible was yet on the throne of Russia, the orthodox Church 
 had been indebted to him for an edition of the first printed 
 Bible, and of other sacred books, in the Slavonian language, 
 and for the establishment of nourishing schools in Ostrog and 
 Kieff. He sent about the patriarchal letters in every direc- 
 tion, and protected the exarchs of the orthodox from the 
 persecutions of the king, who did not venture to interfere 
 with him. 
 
 Notwithstanding this opposition, Ignatius succeeded in 
 assembling a council in his own diocese ; it being more easy 
 for him to incline the feeble metropolitan to his side in the 
 frontier town of Brest-Litofsky, than it would have been in 
 Kieff, the capital of orthodoxy, or Wilna, or Novogrodok, his 
 usual residences. Besides the metropolitan Ignatius, and 
 Cyrill, there were present also on the part of the orthodox, 
 Nathaniel of Polotsk, Gideon of Lvoff,arid Dionysius of Kholm, 
 with many archimandrites and hegumens ; while on the part 
 of the Romans, there was the primate of the kingdom, the 
 archbishop of Gneznen, with four other bishops. Ignatius 
 opened the council with a speech persuading them to a union 
 with the Western Church ; and, after many discussions, the 
 metropolitan was gained, and he, with four other bishops who 
 had apostatized from orthodoxy, Ignatius, Cyrill, Leontius, 
 and Dionysius, signed a synodal letter for a union, on the 
 terms of the council of Florence, but with a reservation in favour 
 of all the discipline and ceremonies of the Eastern Church.
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 141 
 
 Death preserved Nathaniel of Polotsk from signing so dis- CHAP. 
 graceful an act; but Gideon and Michael strenuously protested 
 against it, and were responded to both by the clergy and the 
 people. Nevertheless Ignatius and Cyrill, by the exertions of 
 King Sigismund, were sent as if they were the representatives 
 of the whole Russian Church, to the Roman pontiff, to testify 
 before him their submission : and Clement VIII. returned 
 public thanksgivings for the successful completion of this 
 long-desired union. But in the mean time, before the return 
 of these envoys, Gideon and Michael, having learned the 
 wicked use made of their signatures, proclaimed to all the 
 world the knavery of the proceeding; while the prince of 
 Ostrog loudly exclaimed against the apostacy of Brest, where 
 five bishops had taken upon themselves to betray the cause of 
 the whole orthodox Church. The general excitement which 
 prevailed on account of the ancient doctrines of the faith, at 
 the time when the diet of the kingdom was about to assemble, 
 made it absolutely necessary for both parties that a fresh 
 council should be called, which might determine more clearly 
 the actual position of the Church, and shew who were her 
 true pastors, and who adversaries ; and accordingly in the 
 same town of Brest-Litofsky there met a second council 
 much more numerously attended than the first. On this 
 occasion there came not only the orthodox clergy who had 
 their rights to defend, but the aged Prince Constantine of 
 Ostrog also, with the prime of the nobility ; while there ap- 
 peared on the other side, in the name of the king, Radzivil, 
 hetman 15 of Lithuania, with the primate and the voivodes. 
 
 The two exarchs of the patriarch, Nicephorus and Cyrill 1596. 
 Lucar, Luke, metropolitan of Belgrad, and the bishops Gideon 
 and Michael, Nicephorus the archimandrite of the Peckersky, 
 and other members of the clergy, were the representatives of 
 their Church at the council of Brest. Seeing the weakness 
 of the Metropolitan Michael, who only the day before had 
 signed his definitive consent to the Unia, and the vexations 
 to which they were subjected by their opponents, who had 
 refused to recognise Nicephorus as exarch from the patri-
 
 142 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, arch, they solemnly assembled in a private house, because 
 - they could not obtain the use of a Church ; there, together 
 with all the orthodox, both clergy and laity, after they had 
 twice in vain summoned the metropolitan, they delivered 
 him over to an anathema as an apostate from orthodoxy, 
 together with the bishops who had also fallen away. On the 
 other hand, the conventicle of the Uniates and the Romans, 
 after having solemnly confirmed their first agreement for a 
 union, which was sealed by the joint celebration of the liturgy 
 in the same church, pronounced a similar sentence of excom- 
 munication against the orthodox; and thus the Church of 
 Little Russia was divided into the Orthodox and the Uniate, 
 both preserving, however, the same form, not only of exter- 
 nal rite in the celebration of Divine Service, but even of 
 doctrine; for Rome at first allowed the Creed 16 without 
 alteration, and required nothing but the one capital point of 
 submission to the pope. 
 
 From this time began the hard and long-continued strug- 
 gle of orthodoxy against the Unia in all the Polish and 
 Lithuanian provinces, and the persecutions of the Western 
 Church, and more particularly of the civil government, 
 against those who refused to betray the faith of their ances- 
 tors. Contrary to all former fundamental statutes, they 
 were deprived of their civil rights, which had ever been 
 equally enjoyed by both Confessions. These persecutions 
 were so severe, that three years after the council of Brest 
 the orthodox senators and noblemen were compelled to join, 
 with other members of the highest, and also of the inferior 
 orders in the kingdom, of the Protestant confession, so far as 
 by a public act at the conference of Wilna to engage them- 
 selves to afford each other mutual succour and protection at 
 the diets, and in the courts of justice, before the face of 
 the king. Other defenders also appeared, armed with the 
 sword instead of law ; the free Cossacks of the Zaporojsky 
 horde, or horde beyond the Falls 17 , who, under the command 
 of their atamans, had already more than once struck terror 
 into Poland. The late king, Stephen Batori, had conferred
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 143 
 
 on them legal privileges, and had recognised their ataman ; CHAP. 
 
 but the danger of being deprived of the free profession of 
 
 the orthodox faith, which had been made the first and in- 
 dispensable condition of the agreement on the part of the 
 horde, provoked them to rebel against Sigismund, and for 
 a time deprived them of all the privileges which had been 
 granted them by the crown, when their brave ataman, Nali- 
 vaiko, who had inflicted such losses on the Polish armies, 
 was himself defeated by the Polish Hetman Jolkefsky, 
 and burned alive. They, however, soon recovered them- 
 selves under the command of a new captain, whose name was 
 Sagaidachny. 
 
 Another war also broke forth of bitter controversies and 
 reproaches between the clergy of the two contending parties, 
 and, till death closed the lips of the champions of the Church, 
 Gideon, Michael Toura, and the prince of Ostrog himself, 
 they exerted themselves to the utmost, both by speech and 
 writing, though all they could do was weak in comparison 
 with the overpowering violence of the Unia. The bishops, 
 who were selected from the most devoted partizans of Rome, 
 had not only every facility of recommending their party by 
 preaching, but were able also to use active measures by the 
 aid of the civil government, and thus, in the course of a few 
 years, perverted as many as four millions of people in their 
 dioceses. 
 
 The Metropolitan Ragoza took away from the orthodox 
 in Kieff the ancient cathedral of St. Sophia, which, however, 
 did not long remain in the hands of the Uniates ; but he 
 failed in his attempt to get possession of the Pecherskay 
 Lavra, which was defended by the prayers of its founders St. 
 Anthony and St. Theodosius. He himself did not dare any 
 longer, after his apostacy, to reside either in Kieff or "Wilna ; 
 the place which he chose for his permanent residence was No- 
 vogrodok, and there he remained, without ever ceasing, to the 
 end of his life, to doubt and fluctuate, writing letters, with as- 
 surances of his orthodoxy, to the prince of Ostrog, and to the 
 Russian ambassadors, when they passed by on their way into
 
 144 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP. Poland. Hypatius, bishop of Vladimir, being chosen after his 
 death to be metropolitan in his room, maintained and strength- 
 ened the Unia by planting Dominican convents over the whole 
 of his ecclesiastical province, and by violently taking from the 
 orthodox monasteries a great part of their possessions, be- 
 ginning with Kieif. He obtained a royal edict forbidding 
 the reception of orthodox scholars into the schools, and at 
 the same time allowed none to be ordained anywhere without 
 having been educated in them. The decisive measures which 
 he took to promote the Unia were greatly assisted by Pope 
 Clement VIII., who twice sent his legate, the Abbati 
 Comouleio, to the Tsar Theodore, under the pretext of 
 inviting his co-operation in a general crusade, but really 
 with the same end in view for which the Jesuit Anthony 
 Possevin had formerly come into Russia. 
 
 But in the mean time, one after another, all the cham- 
 pions of orthodoxy departed to their rest, without leaving 
 any to supply their places. First of all died Constantine, 
 prince of Ostrog, at the age of one hundred years, having 
 had his life prolonged to nearly twice the ordinary span, as if 
 on purpose that he might support the Church in her dis- 
 tresses, till the approach of better times ; and almost toge- 
 ther with him went her watchful pastor Gideon, bishop of 
 Lvoff. All the family of the first, except one son, the 
 Voivode Basil, fell away to the Unia ; the flock of the latter 
 remained long without a head, till at length the metropolitan 
 of Wallachia appointed in his place a bishop, whose name 
 was Joseph. Before long, the last zealous defender of the 
 Church, Michael, bishop of Peremuishla, also departed ; and 
 the orthodox, having no longer any bishops, were all obliged 
 to have recourse for the ordination of their priests, and for 
 the holy chrism, to the distant town of Lvoff, to the Bishop 
 Joseph, who was now the only one left in all the south-west 
 of Russia. The audacity of the Metropolitan Hypatius rose 
 in proportion to the losses of the others ; he continued, even 
 at the risk of his life, to take the ancient convents from the 
 orthodox, and give them up to the Uniates, and at Wilna he
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 145 
 
 all but fell a sacrifice to the fury of the people, on account of CHAP. 
 his having violently taken possession of the monastery and 
 cathedral of the Trinity. Contrary to the canons of the 
 Church, he during his own life nominated as his successor 
 his favourite Joseph, who still further strengthened the Unia, 
 by establishing a Congregation of Schools, and a superior 
 seminary over them. To counteract him by the same means 
 as he employed against them, some of the orthodox nobles 
 endeavoured on their side also to set on foot similar frater- 
 nities of schoolmasters, and made sacrifices of their property 
 for this purpose. 
 
 In this wretched and forlorn condition did the Church of 
 Little Russia remain for the space of more than twenty years, 
 without either metropolitan or bishops, till the coming of 
 Theophanes, patriarch of Jerusalem, torn and agitated by 
 the Unia, and trampled under foot by Rome. And these 
 troubles and sufferings of the sister Church were to be 
 bitterly felt by the Church of Russia itself, when, from the 
 same poisonous nest, from the same fatal elements, the terrible 
 pretender arose, formed by the skilful hand of the Jesuits, 
 and burst with the same storm upon Russia. 
 
 But Theodore 18 had now closed his eyes for ever, and was 1593. 
 spared by Providence the sight of the miseries that were 
 approaching. In his person the race of Rurik, after six cen- 
 turies, bade its final adieu to Russia, shedding upon her its 
 last benefits before a separation for ever. The end of the 
 pious Tsar was happy ; a holy man appeared to him as if in 
 the act of meeting him at the gates of heaven. The royal 
 house of Moscow was left tenantless by his departure. His 
 disconsolate widow, Irene, who was unanimously acknowledged 
 as the reigning Tsaritsa, quitted the throne, and received the 
 tonsure in the Novodaevichy convent ; notwithstanding this, 
 however, all forms continued to run, and all public business 
 to be transacted, in her new name Alexandra 19 , as there 
 was no other head to the kingdom. The patriarch only 
 watched over its tranquillity, and convoked the councils, first 
 that of the boyass, and then that of the provinces, for the 
 
 L
 
 146 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, election of a Tsar. Two persons drew upon themselves the 
 
 VI 
 
 '- general attention, on account of their family connection with 
 
 the deceased ; his cousin-german on the side of his mother 
 Anastasia, the Boyar Theodore Niketich Romanoff 20 ; and his 
 brother-in-law on the side of his consort Irene, Boris Go- 
 dounoff. 
 
 But Russia, in the course of the fourteen years of Theo- 
 dore's reign, had already become used to the government of 
 Boris ; and alarmed at her own state of orphanage, which was 
 new to her, in being left without a head, she chose him at 
 the suggestion of the Patriarch Job and the boyars of the 
 Privy Council. For a long time Boris refused the crown, and 
 even concealed himself in the cell of the Tsaritsa his sister. 
 The patriarch went in procession with the Cross, accompanied 
 by all his clergy, and with great difficulty persuaded him to 
 accept of it, for the sake of the Icon of our Lady 21 of Vladimir, 
 which they had brought to him to the convent. He then 
 publicly crowned him in the cathedral of the Assumption with 
 the crown of Monomachus 22 . It seemed as if all was likely 
 to go well with the new Tsar, who was learned, and expe- 
 rienced in the business of government, respected both within 
 and without the empire, the very appearance of whose camp 
 in the field of itself struck with a panic the ambassadors of 
 the khan of the Crimea, on the banks of the Oka, and with 
 whom the emperor, the queen of England, and the shah of 
 Persia, besides his nearer neighbours, all entertained friendly 
 relations. His royal court was distinguished for unusual 
 splendour, while his more private apartments 23 were graced 
 with a flourishing family, consisting of his son Theodore and 
 his daughter Xenia, the object of his tenderest affections, for 
 whom he strove to realize the splendid prospect of two crowns, 
 that of Russia for Theodore, and that of Denmark for Xenia, 
 by marrying her to the king's son. He had no reason to 
 doubt but that his children would succeed to the undoubted 
 inheritance of the throne, according to the regular order of 
 succession; yet the boyars who stood next, and the Romanoffs, 
 as being related to Theodore, excited the suspicion of Go-
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 147 
 
 dounoff. They were falsely accused of a plot against the life CHAP. 
 
 of the Tsar, and, like the Naghi, the uncles of the young 
 
 Prince Demetrius, five brothers of the Romanoffs were sent 
 to different distant prisons, where four of them died. The 
 eldest, Theodore, and his wife Maria, were compelled to re- 
 ceive the tonsure, the one under the name of Philaret, in a 
 small religious house at Sieskay, the other under the name 
 of Martha, in the convent of Zaonege ; while their young son 
 Michael, destined one day to be Tsar, shared the confinement 
 of his uncle, the prince of Cherkask, at Bielo-ozero. 
 
 Soon after this a dreadful famine raged throughout the 
 whole of Russia, which Boris in vain attempted to alleviate, 
 though he did all that prudence could suggest, both in dis- 
 tributing relief, and engaging the people with employment on 
 public works. The belfry tower, called after John the Great, 
 which he caused to be erected at this time in the capital, 
 remained a monument of the cares of the Tsar. From the 
 famine arose pestilential diseases, together with a spirit of 
 robbery and licentiousness throughout all the empire. This 
 was only the beginning of those calamities, which neither the 
 earnest prayers nor the liberal oblations and alms of Boris, 
 the most magnificent of all our sovereigns in his gifts, could 
 avoid. Fearful signs forewarned men, as it were, of the 
 impending troubles : but before they came, the Tsaritsa and 
 nun, Alexandra, had closed her eyes, like her mild consort 
 Theodore, in peace ; and Boris was left alone to drink the 
 cup of bitterness to the dregs. 
 
 At this distressing time a report was spread about Russia 
 that the Prince Demetrius, the son of John, the youth whom 
 she had so long lamented, was still living, and had shewed 
 himself in Poland. Boris, alarmed by this report, began to 
 make enquiry as to the time of his appearance and the person 
 of the pretender himself; and even sent, that the matter 
 might be cleared up, for the mother of the prince to come 
 from her confinement at Bielo-ozero to the capital. It ap- 
 peared that a certain Gregory Otrepieff, one of the "Sons of the 
 boyars"who had originally been in the sendee of the Romanoffs, 
 
 L 2
 
 148 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, a bold youth, who had received some education, had become 
 - a monk in Souzdal, and had passed from thence into the 
 Choudoff monastery, where the Patriarch Job ordained him 
 deacon, and employed him in copying the canons, in spite of 
 the caution given him by the metropolitan of Rostoff, Jonah, 
 who foresaw in the worthless young monk an instrument of 
 the devil. At the courts of the patriarch and the Tsar, Gre- 
 gory heard of the unhappy end of the prince, and of the acci- 
 dental resemblance which his own person bore to that of 
 Demetrius, and by way of an impudent joke swore that he 
 would be Tsar in Moscow. This insolent speech reached the 
 Tsar, and the monk was already destined to expiate his 
 offence in the island of Solovetsky, when Otrepieff, learning 
 what was to be his sentence from a secretary who was his re- 
 lation, secretly made off, with two other monks, to Novogorod- 
 Seversk, passing from one monastery to another. At Pout- 
 ivla he for the first time insinuated to the archimandrite his 
 own lofty descent. Having been received in Kieff by the son 
 of the illustrious Prince Constantino of Ostrog, he lost him- 
 self by the open profligacy of his life, fled to the Cossacks of 
 the horde beyond the Falls, and took part with them in their 
 distant expeditions ; he afterwards learned to read and write 
 the Latin and Polish languages in a school in Volhynia, and 
 entered into the service of a rich nobleman, the Prince Adam 
 Vishnevetsky, where, during a feigned sickness, he discovered 
 himself to his confessor, and persuaded the credulous prince 
 of his royal birth. 
 
 Such an account of the runaway monk Otrepieff was cir- 
 culated from the capital at the first report of the appearance 
 of the pretended Demetrius ; and a synod assembled, which at 
 once anathematized him, and decreed a Perpetual Memory 24 
 in the church to the blessed youth whose person he counter- 
 feited. Besides this, the uncle of Otrepieff, whose name 
 was Smirnoy, was sent into Poland, to unmask his nephew at 
 the court of Sigismund, whither the pretender had already 
 made his way, through the countenance of the prince Vishne- 
 vetsky, who had taken him up as if he were really the son of
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 149 
 
 John, and had been saved, as he gave out, from Ouglich by CHAP. 
 the fidelity of a physician. He was supported by the Jesuits, - 
 and by the papal Nuncio Rangoni, who selected him as their 
 instrument for the subjugation of Russia, and influenced the 
 king's mind in his favour. In the midst of the severe struggle 
 between the Unia and Orthodoxy, which then agitated Lithu- 
 ania and Volhynia, nothing could have been more opportune 
 for Rome than the appearance of such a person, who might 
 be able by his imposture to shake orthodoxy at its very centre, 
 in the capital of Russia : every expedient seemed lawful for 
 such an end. Sigismund, though he had acknowledged the 
 false Demetrius, was yet undecided to break the truce with 
 Russia ; and went no further than to give his nobles per- 
 mission to assist the pretended Tsarevich if they pleased. 
 
 The first to take up arms was Mnishek, voivode of Sendo- 
 mir, to whose proud daughter, Marina, the pretender had 
 promised his hand and the throne of Moscow. Before long 
 there joined him bands of deserters from the Ukraine, and the 
 Cossacks of the Don, who were persuaded by a single traitor 
 that he was really the prince. The district of Seversk rose in 
 his favour. Boris, in amazement, hesitated, and lost time in 
 sending about letters from the patriarch in council to Kieff 
 and into Lithuania, for the purpose of undeceiving the 
 voivodes, the clergy, and the people ; at last he despatched 
 an army, to which the brave defence of Novogorod Seversk 
 by the Voivode Basmanoff rendered material assistance. 
 Twice the pretender was defeated ; twice he re-appeared with 
 fresh forces, and now in the district of Orloff; and in the 
 mean time he was gaining more and more on the favour of the 
 people, when death suddenly struck Boris in the act of rising 
 from table in the palace ; he scarcely lived long enough to 
 receive the monastic habit, with the name of Bogolep, and to 
 commit his young son Theodore to the care of the patriarch 25 . 
 With him the greatness of his house was at an end. 
 
 The boyars took the oath of allegiance to the new Tsar, 
 but it did not bind them long. The warlike Basmanoff, who 
 had been chosen to the command of the royal army, de-
 
 150 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, livered it up to the pretended Demetrius. This act of treason 
 
 '' was followed and imitated by many of the first nobles of 
 
 Russia. Terror took possession of the capital : letters 
 from the pretender were read aloud in the public place 26 : 
 in vain the Boyars Shouesky and Mistislafsky, by advice of 
 the patriarch, went out from the Kremlin to try to un- 
 deceive the people. The insurgent mob rushed into the 
 Kremlin, and led out the young Tsar with his mother and 
 sister from the palace to that same private mansion of Boris, 
 from whence he had gone forth with so much magnificence to 
 mount the throne. Those of the boyars who were partizans of 
 the pretender, publicly swore allegiance to him, and were in 
 vain denounced by the patriarch Job in the cathedral of the 
 Assumption. While he was in the act of celebrating the 
 liturgy, a band of miscreants broke into the church, and 
 tore from him his pontifical robes. He then himself took 
 the Panagia from his own neck, and placed it on the image 
 of our Lady, and with a firm voice pronounced these words : 
 " Here, before this sacred Icon, was I consecrated to my 
 office, and for nineteen years have I preserved the purity of 
 faith ; I now see that misery is coming upon the kingdom, 
 that fraud and heresy are to triumph. Oh, mother of God, 
 do thou preserve orthodoxy ! " They then put on him a 
 common black gown, treated him with every kind of con- 
 tumely in the public square, and drew him on a cart to the 
 Staritsky monastery, to which he had formerly belonged. 
 The young Tsar and his unhappy mother were smothered 
 by murderers like those who had been employed to make 
 away with Demetrius ; for the Lord sometimes visits the sins 
 of the fathers on the children. 
 
 The pretended Demetrius advanced in triumph to Moscow; 
 the dignitaries of the kingdom went out to meet him to 
 Toula, and even there were already forced to see his prefer- 
 ence for foreigners. His chief counsellor was a Jesuit. The 
 people of the capital joyfully welcomed the supposed son of 
 John, restored to them as it were from the dead, from attach- 
 ment to the ancient race of their Tsars, and as soon cooled
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 151 
 
 again when they saw the baseness and licentiousness of the CHAP. 
 
 Poles who surrounded him, and the disrespect evinced for all " 
 
 that they held sacred by the Tsar himself, who trampled 
 under foot the traditions of their fathers. No time was lost 
 in proceeding to the election of a new patriarch in the room 
 of Job, who was shut up in confinement. The pretender was 
 afraid of the Russian bishops, and selected a Greek named 
 Ignatius, then archbishop of Riazan, and formerly of Cyprus, 
 who had come to Russia with the patriarch of Antioch, and 
 had remained there and made it his adopted country, as 
 Arsenius of Elasson had also done. However, that the order 
 of the Church might not be openly violated, the pretended 
 Demetrius sent his patriarch elect to Starits, to ask the 
 blessing of the aged Job. But that prelate, firm in the 
 midst of his persecutions, and knowing the leaning of Igna- 
 tius towards the customs of Rome, absolutely refused him his 
 benediction, and notwithstanding the menaces used to shake 
 him, called him " a pastor worthy of his Ataman" In spite 
 of this Ignatius was consecrated. For the greater evidence 
 of his pretended descent from John, he recalled and set at 
 liberty those of the Naghi and Romanoffs who were yet alive, 
 the monk Philaret, the nun Martha, and their son the youth 
 Michael. By the will of Providence, which uses unworthy as 
 well as worthy instruments for good, the pretended 'Deme- 
 trius was made the means of the elevation of Philaret Nike- 
 tich, who was consecrated to be metropolitan of Rostoff. 
 Other illustrious exiles also were brought back, both living, 
 and dead; the coffins of the Naghi and those of the Ro- 
 manoffs were transported with honour to Moscow ; while the 
 coffin of Boris, on the contrary, was ignominiously ejected from 
 the cathedral of the Archangel, and put away under ground in 
 the Barsonophieff monastery, till it should be interred for the 
 third and last time in the Trinity Lavra, during the reign of 
 Shouesky. 
 
 The unfortunate Tsar Simeon also, son of Bekboulat, of 
 the Kazan family, who had received the title of Great 
 Prince of Tver from John the Terrible, and had been banished
 
 152 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, to his province, and had had his eyes put out in the time 
 "of Theodore, now profited for a short time by the grace 
 of the Tsar, but only to end with being again confined 
 in the monasteries of Solovetsky and Bielo-ozero, where 
 he terminated, in the habit of a monk, his singular and 
 troubled course. The Nun Martha herself, the Tsaritsa, 
 and mother of the true Demetrius, was a second time 
 sent for from the lone convent of Bielo-ozero by her pre- 
 tended son, and was obliged to testify, by her silent recog- 
 nition and acceptance of the attentions of the Tsar, to the 
 truth of his person. Apartments were prepared for her in 
 the Kremlin, in the monastery of the Ascension, where she 
 also received as her daughter the proud bride of the pre- 
 tender. Marina arrived from Poland, with her father the 
 voivode, surrounded by extraordinary pomp and magnificence, 
 to the infinite disgust of the people, who were scandalized at 
 the immodesty of western manners, and at the misplaced 
 prodigality of the Tsar, who gave away whole provinces to 
 her and to his father-in-law Mnishek. Two stout prelates, 
 Hermogenes, metropolitan of Kazan, and Joseph, bishop of 
 Colomna, had the courage to demand that the new Tsaritsa 
 should be baptized, and renounce the Roman doctrines, pre- 
 viously to her marriage ; they were sent in consequence in 
 disgrace to the monasteries of their respective dioceses. The 
 marriage and coronation were celebrated at the same time. 
 The pretended Demetrius, who had even before given permission 
 both to Roman priests and to Lutheran pastors to perform 
 their different services in the Kremlin, now began entirely 
 and openly to contemn the orthodox religion, holding corre- 
 spondence with the pope, who engaged him to make a union 
 between the Churches, and maintaining the closest relations 
 with his Nuncio Rangoni and the Jesuits. A crusade for the 
 recovery of Constantinople was the favourite dream of the 
 warlike pretender. In the mean time, as the violence of the 
 Poles increased, the patience of the people was exhausted. 
 Murmurs and accusations became more and more audible; 
 one of the royal secretaries was not afraid to call the pre-
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 153 
 
 tended Demetrius, Otrepieff, before his own face, and paid CHAP. 
 
 with his life for his noble boldness, together with others who 
 
 risked their lives for truth. Among these appeared the 
 courtier Shouesky, who had in past time dissembled to please 
 Godounoff, aud had borne false witness concerning the mur- 
 der of the true Demetrius, but was now bold enough to 
 speak the truth of the pretender. The intercession of the 
 queen-mother with difficulty prevailed to save him from suf- 
 fering death when he was already at the place of execution, 
 but he became in consequence the object of the people's 
 affection. The careless pretender, forgetting amid his wed- 
 ding-festivities all measures of precaution, soon recalled him 
 from banishment, and Shouesky then held meetings in his 
 house with the boyars, the citizens, and the military, for the 
 expulsion of the usurper. 
 
 All night Moscow was in a state of agitation ; just as it 
 was beginning to dawn the tocsin was sounded, and troops 
 of armed men, led on by Shouesky, poured into the Kremlin 
 to the royal palace. None defended the pretender but his 
 body-guards, who were foreigners ; he threw himself out of a 
 window into the court of the Granary -yard, where had been 
 the former house of the Tsar Boris, and was taken up by the 
 Streltsi with one of his legs broken. Once more the testimony 
 of the mother was demanded to certify them as to the truth of 
 his pretensions; and at that moment of his fate, Martha, who 
 had been called out of her cell, declared that she did not 
 acknowledge him to be her son. 
 
 They then began to examine the pretender himself, Avhen 
 two shots struck him dead in the midst of their enquiries. 
 The boyars only just succeeded in saving the lives of his con- 
 sort Marina, her father, and the Polish ambassadors : of the 
 other Poles few escaped the fury of the populace. Shouesky 
 with difficulty appeased the tumult; the body of the pre- 
 tender was burned, and his ashes scattered to the winds. 
 The next day after the insurrection, the Council of the 
 Boyars, and the people, unanimously elected as their Tsar the 
 Prince Basil Shouesky, the author of their deliverance, who
 
 154 THE PATRIARCHS. I. JOB. 
 
 CHAP, was also the senior of all the princely families of the line 
 
 VI. 
 
 - of Rurik. The metropolitans and bishops blessed him to 
 
 1606. . 
 
 the kingdom, and at the same time they shut up in the 
 Choudoff monastery the intrusive Patriarch Ignatius, who had 
 blessed the pretender. The first thing which the new Tsar 
 did was to desire the election of a patriarch, that the 
 Church of Russia might not be left any longer without a 
 pastor. Job, aged and infirm, had become blind from mis- 
 fortunes and persecutions. By the general voice of the 
 Ecclesiastical synod, they elected Hermogenes, the noble- 
 minded metropolitan of Kazan, who had been a confessor 
 during the days of the false Demetrius, and became after- 
 wards a martyr for the faith and for his country during the 
 vacancy of the throne : for the dreadful storm that had been 
 raised by the pretender was not stilled by his overthrow : the 
 preservation of the life of Marina, and of the ambassadors 
 and some of the nobles of Sigismund, did not satisfy Poland, 
 which wished to take advantage of the misfortunes of Russia, 
 and to crush her power and the orthodox faith at once.
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 II. HERMOGENES. 
 NOR was the tempest at an end either in the interior of the CHAP. 
 
 VII 
 
 kingdom : it was enough to have once excited and agitated 
 
 men's minds by a name dear to the hearts of the people, to 
 cause the continual appearance of new pretenders and new 
 traitors, with whom Basil in vain contended during the four 
 years of his reign. It seemed as if Russia would not trust 
 him, out of punishment for his first falsehood over the coffin 
 of her prince. That very coffin, with the incorruptible remains 
 of the blessed youth, Shouesky decided to remove to the 
 capital, for the more complete satisfaction of the country, on 
 which his letters had produced but little effect, even though 
 accompanied by those of the Tsaritsa Martha. He sent Phi- 
 laret metropolitan of Rostoff, the relative of Demetrius, 
 together with Theodosius archbishop of Astrachan, for the 
 holy relics to Ouglich^ and himself took on his shoulders this 
 royal burden to lower it into the tomb, which had been in 
 past time prepared in the cathedral of the Archangel for the 
 ashes of Boris. But a great number of miracles and healings 
 being wrought at the coffin of the prince, the interment was 
 never completed ; it was placed in the middle of the church, 
 to receive the pious honour of the faithful; and in the presence 
 of the uncorrupted form of her son, the Tsaritsa his mother 
 yet once more asked and received absolution from the patriarch 
 Hermogenes for her unwilling falsehoods. Another great 
 absolver and sufferer was called from the depths of his 
 cell, where he had now grown blind, but still lingered on 
 to mourn over the vanity of the world, Job, late patriarch of
 
 156 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP. Moscow. On the brink of the grave, and only a few days 
 ~ before his death, he was moved by the prayers of the Tsar 
 and the patriarch, to quit his convent of Starits, and come 
 into the capital to absolve the inhabitants of Moscow, and the 
 whole land of Russia, of their treason to the son of Boris, and of 
 their oath of allegiance to the pretender. A touching 
 spectacle was exhibited in the cathedral of the Assumption. 
 Blind, and habited in the simple black gown of a monk, Job 
 stood in the place of the patriarchs, side by side with Hermo- 
 genes, and listened to the profession of national repentance 
 expressed in a letter of the Tsar, which was read to him aloud 
 from the ambon. He himself in his turn read a letter of 
 pardon to the people, and absolved them, as having been their 
 patriarch, enumerating withal the calamities of his country, 
 and his own personal sufferings in that same cathedral, 
 where he then stood as a stranger come from another world, 
 where there is neither trouble nor care, looking with calm 
 compassion on the manifold strife and agitation of this. 
 And as no testament is of force till after the death of the 
 testator, Job almost as soon as he had returned to the 
 monastery at Starits, died. 
 
 The standard of revolt was first raised in the South, by 
 Shachofskoy, under the name of Demetrius, before any fresh 
 pretender had yet been found by the family of Mnishek, while 
 Marina and her father were still at Yaroslavla. Bolotnikoff, 
 and Lapounoff, the military commander at Riazan, joined 
 themselves to him, but the latter having discovered the fraud 
 of his associates, left them in disgust. The district of Seversk 
 was again in a state of revolt, and there appeared among the 
 Cossacks of the Don yet another impostor, who called himself 
 Peter, and pretended to be the son of the Tsar Theodore. 
 Basil's commanders fled; Toula, and Kalouga, fell into the 
 hands of the insurgents, who were so daring as to advance 
 upon the capital, but were defeated in their turn under its 
 walls by the troops of the Tsar. They also fell upon the 
 ungarrisoned city of Tver; but their spirited archbishop, 
 Theoctistus, encouraged the citizens, and beat off the enemy.
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 157 
 
 The sovereign himself was obliged to take the field, and after CHAP. 
 
 VII 
 
 a long siege, succeeded in crushing the rebellion in the bud ~ 
 
 by the capture of Toula. But, notwithstanding the imprison- 
 ment or execution of the authors of the rebellion, Kabuga 
 still remained in the hands of another band. 
 
 In the mean time, by the exertions of the insurgents, there 
 was at length found among the lower classes of the people a 
 man who assumed the character of Demetrius, appeared in 
 the province of Seversk, and again collected about him a band 
 of robbers, the wild volunteers of the Don, and the Shlachti 
 or petty nobility of Poland. The confederates again 1 united 
 themselves around him, as did also the nobles of Lithuania, 
 the Prince Rojinsky, the Hetman Sapiega, and the partizan 
 chieftain Lisofsky ; they advanced towards the capital, which 
 was all in confusion, and established themselves for a year 
 and a half, at the distance of twelve versts from it, in the 
 village of Toushine. Basil pitched his camp in the suburbs, 
 and sent his nephew, the young Voivode Prince Michael 
 Skopin, who had already distinguished himself by gaining 
 several victories, to ask for assistance from the Swedes, as the 
 situation of Russia was desperate. Treason manifested itself 
 within the walls of Moscow ; deserters from among the nobles 
 coolly passed over from the Tsar to the pretender, who was 
 known as the Robber of Toushine. The ambitious Marina joined 
 herself to him, as soon as through the intercession of Sigismund 
 she had been imprudently liberated from her imprisonment 
 at Yaroslavla. The towns of Russia surrendered one after 
 the other to Lisofsky and other Atamans, and few remained 
 faithful to Basil. Hills of graves, to use the expression of the 
 chronicles, rose up over all the land of Russia, which was torn 
 to pieces on all sides by anarchy and rapine. It seemed as if 
 the whole empire, which had been ages in forming, was 
 suddenly dissolved, in spite of the exertions of the brave pastors 
 of the Church, who held firmly by the throne, and suffered 
 together with their flocks. 
 
 Already had the courageous Archbishop Theoctistus been 
 taken prisoner at. the capture of Tver, and slain on the road
 
 158 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP, in making an attempt to escape and to avoid confinement at 
 ~ Toushine ; Gennadius of Pskoff did not survive the treason 
 of his city ; Gelaktion of Souzdal died in exile, because he 
 refused to give his blessing to the pretender ; Joseph, bishop 
 of Colomna, who had already been an opponent of the first 
 pretender, was seized by the soldiers of the second, whom he 
 was in vain endeavouring to bring to reason, and was dragged 
 after them bound to a gun. The period of his trials had 
 not yet terminated either for the future head of the Church, 
 Philaret Romanoff, metropolitan of Rostoff. In the ancient 
 church of the Assumption, the cathedral of his diocese, he 
 entered as a martyr upon that ten years course of suffering, 
 from which he came out as patriarch, after his son had been 
 placed upon the throne. The traitors of Pereyaslavla sud- 
 denly attacked Rostoff, the citizens of which fled to the for- 
 tified town of Yaroslavla ; but Philaret, as the good shepherd 
 who lays down his life for the flock, refused absolutely to 
 listen to them, when they besought him to seek safety in 
 flight. He shut himself up in the cathedral, celebrated the 
 liturgy, gave the communion to the people, and quietly 
 awaited his fate. The rebels tumultuously besieged the 
 doors : still the metropolitan did not cease from preaching 
 until they burst into the church by violence, tore from him 
 his episcopal robes, and dragged him, half dead, in his shirt, 
 in the midst of their derision, to experience fresh insults at 
 Toushine. There he was to endure the sight of the pre- 
 tended Demetrius, and to witness his mock court and royalty, 
 and did not recover his liberty till after the flight of the 
 Robber of Toushine, when he was rescued by a detachment of 
 Shouesky's troops from the hands of the enemy, under the 
 walls of the convent of St. Joseph of Volokolamsk. 
 
 In its turn the Trinity Lavra, to which from its situation 
 none of the calamities of the capital could be indifferent, dis- 
 tinguished itself by the valour of its monks. After consult- 
 ation held between the pretender and his confederates, 
 Sapiega, hetman of Lithuania, and Lisofsky undertook the 
 siege of this monastic fortress, in order to cut off the commu-
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 159 
 
 nication of the Tsar Basil with his northern and eastern pro- CHAP. 
 
 VII 
 
 vinces. The Archimandrite Joasaph, and the Voivodes Prince - 
 Dolgorouky and GolochvastofF, quitted themselves like men 
 both in words and deeds, against treacherous negotiation and 
 fierce assaults, and by the aid of the venerable Sergius, they 
 supported for sixteen months a close siege ; although 30,000 
 men of the enemy had placed gabions and surrounded their 
 precinct with intrenchments, from which they kept up a con- 
 stant fire of sixty pieces of artillery upon the walls and the 
 churches. Desperate and fierce were the attacks by storm- 
 ing parties, and no less murderous the sallies of the besieged : 
 about all the neighbourhood of the Lavra, in the woods, by 
 the moats, and in the ravines, the work of slaughter was car- 
 ried on with fury; the monks and the country peasants of the 
 villages belonging to the monastery acquitted themselves as 
 well as the bravest regular troops ; mines were carried under 
 the towers, but they were met underground by counter- 
 mines, and towers that were on the point of being blown 
 into the air remained unshaken. So evident was the pro- 
 tection of the holy Hegumens Sergius and Nicon, who, by 
 appearances in dreams or visions, encouraged the brother- 
 hood, of whom more than 800 men fell either by the sword or 
 by sickness during the continuance of the siege; but the 
 Lavra stood out : and not only did it then serve for the sole 
 defence of the state, but while itself half overwhelmed by the 
 enemy, it actually relieved Moscow with a supply of bread, 
 when the famous Bursar Abram Palitsin, during a time of 
 famine, opened, at the request of the Tsar, his stores, and 
 twice supplied the exhausted capital. 
 
 Basil already felt his throne shake under him, surrounded 
 as he was by storms such as Russia had never up to that 
 time experienced. With difficulty he dispersed, in the square 
 called Beautiful, a mob of insurgents, which the Patriarch 
 Hermogenes had in vain attempted to reason with. Once 
 more, however, for the last time, and that a short one, a 
 gleam of sunshine broke on the fortunes of the Tsar, and 
 brightened the darkness of his reign by the victories of
 
 160 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP, his nephew, the young Prince Michael. With the assistance 
 ~ of the Metropolitan Isidore, he settled the citizens of Novo- 
 gorod in their allegiance, concluded a convention with the 
 Swedes, and, in conjunction with their General Delagardie, 
 began gradually to clear the northern districts, routing 
 the rebels and the Lithuanians on all sides. The convent of 
 St. Macarius of Koliazinsk witnessed his victory. In the 
 village of Alexandroff, once the dreaded abode of John, the 
 young general intrenched himself, and had begun to con- 
 centrate upon that point the troops of the eastern provinces, 
 when Sapiega and Lisofsky raised the siege, and iled from 
 beneath the walls of the Lavra. 
 
 But this first trial of its courage served only for the com- 
 mencement of those gigantic exertions, which the Lavra 
 afterwards undertook in the cause of her country. Already 
 her treasury was exhausted by three loans of 65,000 roubles, 
 equal to a million at the present day, made to the Tsars 
 Godounoff, the pretended Demetrius, and Shouesky : the last 
 required still further succours : they gave up their plate and 
 ornaments, when the long siege made the repair of their 
 shattered walls indispensable. There were not many days 
 now left for the Tsar Basil, before he was to be forced to take 
 the monastic vows, and to be confined in a Polish prison; 
 nor many either for the patriarch Hermogenes to confess the 
 name of Christ on the pontifical throne, before he was to 
 suffer martyrdom, when the happy idea was inspired from 
 above into both their minds, to choose the archimandrite of 
 the Starits, Dionysius, to be the superior of the Lavra in the 
 place of Josaphat, who was dead, and thus to preserve their 
 country. For when there was no longer either Tsar or 
 patriarch, when Moscow itself, as one might almost say, had 
 ceased to exist, being weighed down for a year and a half 
 under the Polish yoke, the Lavra became the heart of all 
 Russia : Dionysius alone took the place of all the other au- 
 thorities, and as the visible representative of the protection of 
 St. Sergius, overshadowed with his influence the whole land of 
 Russia, and drew her together around the ruins of the capital.
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 161 
 
 The calamitous condition of the empire, which had war at CHAP. 
 
 VII 
 
 once on all sides, moved her ancient enemy Sigismund also 
 at length to invade her defenceless territories, not with a band 
 of volunteer-confederates like the false Demetrius, but with a 
 regular army; for he coveted for himself, and for his son 
 Vladislaff, the throne of Moscow. The king hoped to find 
 treason in Smolensk; but Smolensk, on the contrary, emulated 
 the patriotism of the Lavra; the Voivode Shein and the 
 Archbishop Sergius, fortified themselves there, and broke the 
 force of the whole Polish invasion. The spirits and strength of 
 their army were exhausted by the length of the siege, and this 
 campaign of the Poles delivered Moscow itself for a time from 
 the troops of the pretender, who was not acknowledged by the 
 king. The counterfeit Demetrius fled with Marina to 
 Kalouga, which remained faithful to him, and there got 
 together a fresh band. But the traitors of Toushine, Salti- 
 koff, and Mosalsky, offered the crown to Prince Vladislaif, the 
 son of Sigismund. 
 
 In the mean time, opening himself a road by his victories, 
 the Prince Michael triumphantly approached the capital. 
 The people enthusiastically welcomed their deliverer : Liapou- 
 noff offered him the crown, which the youthful hero magnani- 
 mously refused; but the Tsar conceived a suspicion against 
 him, envy obtained dominion over his brother and his 
 wicked sister-in-law, daughter of the infamous Skouratoff, 
 and Michael died suddenly at an entertainment given in their 
 house. The rage of the people, which was with difficulty 
 repressed, turned into lamentations over his early tomb. 
 Once more, and now indeed for the last time, the throne of 
 Basil was shaken to its foundations. The rebellion broke out 
 again; Liapounoff wrested out of his hands the district of 
 Riazan ; Zaraisk 2 alone was preserved by the Prince Pojarsky, 
 the future liberator of Russia ; the fidelity of Kazan and other 
 towns was shaken. 
 
 The Hetman Jolkefsky had by this time marched from 
 before the walls of Smolensk upon Moscow, for the purpose 
 of reducing it in the name of Vladislaff. Prince Demetrius 
 
 M
 
 162 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP. Shouesky, who took the command of the army after the death 
 ~ of his brave nephew, met the hetman at Kloushine, near 
 Mojaisk, was defeated, and put to flight. His allies the 
 Swedes, under Delagardie, retreated upon Novogorod. The 
 nest of traitors and bandits, which the pretended Demetrius 
 had got together, began also to stir in Kalouga. His followers 
 destroyed the monastery of Paphnoutieff 3 , where the brave 
 Prince Volkonsky defended himself with the monks; the 
 enemy again appeared near Moscow, at the village of Co- 
 lomna. The capital was all in confusion, and turned against 
 the unfortunate Tsar : the brother of Liapounoff, the Prince 
 Galitzin, and other of the chief commanders of Moscow, 
 came to an understanding with the traitors of Toushine, and 
 determined to disown equally the pretended Demetrius and 
 Basil, and to endeavour to work upon the latter to relinquish 
 his throne, and entrust the helm of government to the senior 
 boyar, the Prince Mistislafsky, with the Council of the Boyars, 
 till a new election. 
 
 The Patriarch Hermogenes strongly opposed this new 
 treason; but he was not listened to. Basil was deposed from 
 the throne, and compelled to receive the tonsure in the 
 Choudoff monastery, while his wife became a nun in the 
 Ivanoff convent 4 . One of the conspirators pronounced the 
 words of the vow for the Tsar, upon whom the whole pro- 
 ceeding was compulsory. The patriarch declared that it 
 was not binding. But the adherents of the pretender 
 deceived the boyars of Moscow, and as soon as they were 
 without a Tsar, proposed again the counterfeit Demetrius. 
 But Jolkefsky was now close at hand. Under such pressing 
 circumstances, Prince Mistislafsky proposed to the council to 
 elect Vladislaff of Poland as their Tsar. Again the patriarch 
 rose up in opposition, imploring them not to sacrifice the 
 Church, and suggested offering the crown, either to the illus- 
 trious nobleman Prince Basil Galitzin, or to the youth 
 Michael, the son of Philaret Romanoff, and grand-nephew to 
 the first consort of John; but the majority of voices decided 
 in favour of Vladislaff, because they feared there Avould be no
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 163 
 
 strength in their own countrymen who were proposed for CHAP. 
 
 election. Conferences were opened with Jolkefsky, who ~~ 
 
 joyfully accepted proposals so flattering to Poland, and with- 
 out waiting for any authority from Sigismund, solemnly con- 
 cluded a convention with the patriarch and the boyars. All 
 the conditions were to the advantage of Russia, and ambassa- 
 dors of the first distinction, Prince Basil Galitzin, and the 
 Metropolitan Philaret of Rostoff, both of whom might have 
 had some pretensions to the throne, together with Abram 
 the bursar of the Trinity, were sent to the camp before Smo- 
 lensk, to ask Sigismund to give them his son to be their Tsar, 
 with this condition, that he should be baptized into the or- 
 thodox faith. Hermogenes conjured them not to betray their 
 country, and Philaret made a vow that he would be ready to 
 die in defence of the faith. 
 
 In the mean time, the inhabitants of the capital swore 
 allegiance to Vladislaff; the pretender, deserted by his Polish 
 allies, fled again to Kalouga, where he was soon afterwards 
 killed for his cruelty ; and Marina was left there alone with a 
 son to whom she had lately given birth. But Jolkefsky did 
 not retire from Moscow : it was inundated by the traitors of 
 Toushine, Saltikoff, Mosalsky, and Molekanoff: they went 
 to the cathedral to ask the blessing of the patriarch : the 
 pastor answered them firmly : " If you have come into the 
 church with an honest intention and without guile, may a 
 blessing be upon you, but if not, then an anathema ! " Their 
 honesty soon shewed itself; for during the night they admitted 
 the Poles into the Kremlin, under the pretence of putting 
 down a riot of the mob, and in the morning their arms 
 glittered, to the terror of the citizens, on the walls of the 
 Kremlin and the Kitai. The hetman had been waiting 
 only for this to depart ; he left in Moscow, as commandant, 
 Gonsevsky, and the Council of the Boyars for the civil 
 administration, and took with him the two brothers of the 
 Tsar, and Basil himself, out of the monastery of Volokolamsk, 
 where he had been confined, and set forth to join the king 
 before Smolensk. There our ambassadors were already suf- 
 
 M 2
 
 164 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP, fering from ill-treatment, and astonished the enemy no less by 
 - their firmness and endurance, than the besieged citizens did 
 by their brave defence of the town. The king did not enter 
 into the great views of the hetman ; he was by no means 
 pleased that Vladislaff should reign, but wished rather to be 
 Blaster himself; and as a first preliminary, he demanded the 
 surrender of Smolensk, and supplies of money. Philaret 
 and Galitzin, begged him even with tears not to disavow 
 the acts of the hetman, but in vain; the hetman himself, 
 when he saw the convention set aside, and the fruit of his 
 own victories lost by the petty ambition of Sigismund, retired 
 from the camp, having first delivered up to the king Basil, 
 who maintained his own dignity in misfortune, and did not de- 
 mean himself before his proud conqueror. But the inflexible 
 ambassadors, after having for a long time endured cold and 
 privation, as did their Tsar himself, were sent under guard to 
 Poland, where they lay for nine years in a painful confine- 
 ment. 
 
 At length, the general dissatisfaction felt against Sigis- 
 mund and the violence of the Poles broke out openly. 
 Hermogenes bestowed his blessing on all those who should 
 enrol themselves in behalf of their country. LiapouuofF with 
 his province of Riazan took up arms. The people were loud 
 in their murmurs, and were constantly quarrelling with the 
 Poles. Letters from Moscow and Smolensk, for succour, were 
 circulated in all parts of the empire. The epistles of Diony- 
 sius, the archimandrite of the Trinity monastery, to the 
 voivodes, were most powerful and moving; at his pathetic 
 appeal even the leaders of Toushine began to move, and the 
 Prince Troubetskoy, and Zaroutsky, the Ataman of the Cos- 
 sacks, who soon, however, again changed sides; but while 
 they hesitated, Moscow was consumed by fire. 
 
 The Council of the Boyars had already lost all its authority; 
 Gonsevsky urged the patriarch to forbid any general rising; 
 the traitor Saltikoff insolently demanded the same. " I will 
 forbid it," firmly replied Hermogenes, "when I see Yladislaff 
 baptized, and the Poles evacuating the country ; if .this is not
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 165 
 
 to be, then I enjoin on all to rise, and absolve them from CHAP. 
 their oath to the King's son." Saltikoff lifted his dagger - 
 against the old man ; the prelate made the sign of the cross 
 over him, and said, "I oppose this sign against thy audacity; 
 a curse light upon thy head for ever;" and then, turning to 
 the Prince Mistislafsky, who had voted for the election of the 
 son of Sigismund, he said to him quietly, " Thou wast first 
 in place, and thou oughtest to have been the first to suffer 
 for the right ; but thou sufferedst thyself to be led away, and 
 the Lord will pluck thee and thy root away out of the land 
 of the living." Time passed on, and the storm of patriotism 
 rose higher and higher : once more the boyars were sent 
 Avith a threatening message to Hermogenes : " All will be 
 quiet," he again replied to Saltikoff, "if thou, O traitor, 
 wilt only remove thyself with thy Lithuanians : as for me, 
 I give my blessing to all who are ready to die for the or- 
 thodox faith, for I see it insulted, and I cannot endure to 
 hear the Latin singing in the palace of the Tsar Boris." 
 They placed him under guard, and compelled him, for the 
 last time, to perform the usual ceremonies on Palm Sunday. 
 In Passion week, an insurrection of the people broke out, 
 originating in an accidental fray with some of the Poles, and 
 Gonsevsky's guards eagerly seized the opportunity for blood- 
 shed and pillage ; flames broke out, and spread themselves 
 over all the capital, which was nearly defenceless; the Prince 
 Pojarsky alone fought in the midst of the smoke with the 
 enemy, and fell wounded. For three days Moscow continued 
 burning, the fire being continually rekindled wherever it 
 became extinguished, and so the whole city was all at once 
 reduced to a desert. The Poles raged with merciless barba- 
 rity, and the inhabitants fled in all directions. There re- 
 mained only the Kremlin blackened outside with smoke, and 
 the Kitai 5 , which was a den of Russian traitors. Surrounded 
 by the smoking ruins of the capital, Hermogenes could no 
 longer remain patriarch ; he was deposed from his throne, and 
 confined in the Choudoff monastery, while, in the place of 
 the venerable -elder, the Greek Ignatius, who had been the
 
 166 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP, creature of the counterfeit Demetrius, was brought forth 
 
 VII. 
 
 ~ from his cell, and occupied, for the second time, as mock- 
 patriarch, the throne of two such prelates as Job and Her- 
 mogenes. With such sufferings was the commencement 
 of the patriarchate in Russia attended. Job, indeed, was 
 only a confessor for the faith; but this was not enough for 
 Hermogenes : he endured to the end, and was accounted 
 worthy of the crown of martyrdom : inflexible alike to 
 prayers and threats, he was starved to death in prison, to 
 1612. be a pledge of deliverance to his country. 
 
 Then the voivodes drew their forces together round Mos- 
 cow, and shut up their enemies within a circle in which they 
 hoped to reduce them by famine. The Bursar Abram was 
 sent from the Trinity Lavra with holy water 6 to the camp of 
 the warriors, to confirm their resolution. A quarrel had 
 broken out between Liapounoff, Troubetskoy, and the traitor 
 Zaroutsky, whom the first-named of the three accused of 
 treachery; and the Ataman, having joined himself with 
 Marina for ambitious designs, murdered this brave defender 
 of his country at a conference. 
 
 Meanwhile, after a siege of two years, the patriotic city of 
 Smolensk was taken by assault; but Sigismund neither dared 
 nor was able to advance farther with his exhausted army. 
 He sent to the assistance of those who were besieged in the 
 Kremlin the detachment of the Hetman Khotkevich, but 
 returned himself with his illustrious prisoners, the Boyar Shein 
 and the Archbishop Sergius, to celebrate his victory in War- 
 saw ; where other noble captives, the Tsar Shouesky, his 
 brothers, and the ambassadors, were still pining in confine- 
 ment. The king's personal vanity was gratified by the 
 outward eclat of triumph ; but this was all : the throne of 
 Moscow was lost for ever both to himself and to Vladislaff. 
 
 But the weakness and anarchy which prevailed in Russia 
 made her enemies of her former allies, and raised up new 
 pretenders to the crown to follow the example of Sigismund. 
 The Swedish General Delagardie, Avho had retreated to 
 Novogorod after the battle at Kloushine with Jolkefsky,
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 167 
 
 began to take measures in favour of his own sovereign, and CHAP. 
 
 seized upon several of the frontier fortresses ; he took Novo- ~~ 
 
 gorod itself, which however, though ungarrisoned, cost him 
 a bloody engagement with the citizens, who were encouraged, 
 from the summit of the walls of St. Sophia, by their Metro- 
 politan Isidore, the zealous guardian of his flock. Superior 
 force overcame valour, and Delagardie compelled Great 
 Novogorod to conclude a convention, by which she bound 
 herself to acknowledge as Tsar of Moscow one of the sons of 
 the king of Sweden, either Gustavus Adolphus, or Philip, 
 according as their father Charles IX. should choose ; in the 
 mean time he continued to reduce the northern provinces 
 in their name ; but he met with a stout opposition from the 
 Solovetskay Lavra. 
 
 This Lavra had been fortified with strong walls before, at 
 the time of the first incursions of the Swedes, by order of 
 the Tsar Theodore, and had been provided with artillery, and 
 with musqueteers from its own dependant villages, as had also 
 the Soumsky, and other forts depending upon it on the coast. 
 When the troubles of the pretenders began, the king of 
 Sweden enquired, through his generals, of the Hegumen 
 Anthony, whom he acknowledged as Tsar, Shouesky, or the 
 pretended Demetrius ; and at the same time made a design- 
 ing offer of his protection ; but he received a resolute answer, 
 " That no stranger should ever be Tsar of Russia, and that the 
 Lavra stood not in any need of his soldiers." From that time 
 it did not yield to the Trinity itself in its zeal for the com- 
 mon good ; it gave a benevolence of 500 roubles to the Tsar 
 Basil and the Prince Michael, for the pay of their Swedish 
 allies, and actively co-operated besides towards the restoration 
 of tranquillity to the country. By the prudence of the Hegu- 
 men Anthony, the whole district of the coast was saved from 
 the Swedes, who, after their unsuccessful attempt by fraud, 
 several times advanced to the Soumsky Fort, and even went 
 in their vessels to besiege the monastery itself. But that 
 glorious place, to which the remains of the great martyr, 
 the Metropolitan Philip, some time its superior, had been
 
 168 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP, lately translated, could not be shaken in its fidelity to its 
 
 ' country ; and during the whole time of the troubles, till the 
 
 final conclusion of peace with the Swedes, the high-souled 
 Hegumen Anthony, and his successor Irenarchus, stood there 
 sleeplessly on guard. 
 
 At length, when all appeared to be lost, when the last 
 resources of the country were exhausted, and every part 
 ruined, suddenly, by the help of God, she recovered herself, 
 shook off from her the ashes of her towns and villages, and 
 flourished in renewed strength. The Trinity Lavra, by its 
 ardent patriotism, rekindled the same flame in her chilled 
 and paralysed members : the holy Archimandrite Diony- 
 sius was ever on the watch, and neglected no opportunity : 
 he took care of the people who fled out of the capital ; turned 
 the whole of the convent into one great hospital for the suf- 
 ferers; armed the servants of the house; sent letters in 
 different directions, to Kazan, which was in a state of agita- 
 tion, to the Metropolitan Ephraim, urging that they should 
 co-operate with the general rising, also to the districts down 
 the Volga, and to the North ; and at the same time found 
 the necessary provisions and supplies for the voivodes who 
 were besieging Moscow. In consequence of a mysterious 
 vision, a fast of purification was imposed on the whole land 
 of Russia 7 , and in Nijny the spark of pure self-devotion 
 broke out in the heart of the citizen Minin, who found his 
 example responded to by the whole nation. There the 
 military force which was to free the country was concen- 
 trated, under the command of Pojarsky, who had risen again 
 from his bed of sickness. 
 
 The unceasing entreaties of Dionysius and Abram moved 
 the Prince to disregard the danger which threatened him 
 under the walls of Moscow, in the camp of the troops there, 
 from factious feuds, and to advance from Yaroslaff, where he 
 had been long making his preparations, for the accomplish- 
 ment of his great work. The Bursar Abram was continually 
 with the armies, where he was no less active and efficient a 
 personage than the Prince or Minin, and besides all this, was
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 169 
 
 historian at the same time. His eloquent pen has handed CHAP. 
 
 VII. 
 
 down to posterity the deeds of that time, and has informed 
 us how his conciliatory discourses re-established peace and 
 quiet in the divided camp, till at length, together with 
 Zaroutsky, treason fled from out of it. Abram contributed 
 to the victory gained by Pojarsky on the day of the hard- 
 fought battle of the Daevichy -plain with the Polish hetman, 
 by persuading the Cossacks to leave their trenches and take 
 part in the action. Having received from the old man the 
 name of St. Sergius for their war-cry, they rushed through the 
 river Moskva, shouting, "For St. Sergius!" "For St. Ser- 
 gius!" and put to flight the Lithuanians. The Poles held 
 out obstinately in the Kremlin. In the mean time new dis- 
 turbances broke out among the Cossacks, who indignantly 
 complained of their own poverty and the riches of their 
 leaders, and prepared to disband themselves ; but the archi- 
 mandrite and the bursar sent to their camp the last remain- 
 ing treasures of the Lavra, which were copes studded with 
 pearls, begging them with tears not to desert their country, 
 and they, touched by this appeal, swore to endure every 
 privation. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, the venerable Sergius appeared in a 
 dream to the Greek Archbishop Arsenius, who was confined 
 in the Kremlin, and comforted him by foretelling their deliver- 
 ance. The Kitai was taken by assault, and the Kremlin capitu- 
 lated. The Archimandrite Dionysius, and all the assembled 
 clergy, entered with the chant of thanksgivings, and pro- 
 ceeded to the church of the Assumption, and there they all 
 shed tears when they saw the desolation of the holy place 8 . 
 Both the archimandrite and the bursar were present at the 
 unanimous election of Michael, the youthful son of Philaret, 
 which took place in the town-house of the Trinity Monastery, 
 to the delight and wonder of all. The synod and the council 
 spoke as one man. The bursar announced from the public 
 place the election to the people, and the people also, as with 
 one voice, re-echoed the same name. 
 
 The Council of the Provinces appointed as deputies to
 
 170 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP. Michael whom they had just elected, to invite him to accept 
 - the kingdom, Theodoret, archbishop of Riazan, the Bursar 
 Abram, and the Boyar Sheremeteff, and wrote a letter in the 
 name of all Russia to Sigismund, in which, after recounting 
 all his acts of perfidy, she renounced through them all alle- 
 giance to Vladislaff his son, and requested him to restore his 
 illustrious prisoners in exchange for Poles ; but the father of 
 the Tsar, the metropolitan of Rostoff, was too valuable a 
 pledge for his enemies to decide to release him, although 
 the firmness of the venerable prelate was a complete bar to 
 their hopes. 
 
 His youthful son, not expecting the brilliant destiny which 
 awaited him, was living humbly with his mother, the nun, at 
 Kostroma, in the Hypatieff convent. The arrival of the 
 deputies filled with alarm the tender mother, who had 
 already experienced so many misfortunes. For a long time she 
 rejected all their entreaties for herself and for her son, for whom 
 it was a perilous and alarming thing to exchange the quiet of 
 their convent for a stormy throne, shaken by all the horrors 
 of war and civil discord ; but after she had shed many tears, 
 the presence of two miraculous Icons, that of our Lady of 
 Vladimir, and the Theodorofskay, by which they implored 
 her, moved the nun Martha to relent, and she yielded up her 
 son to his country. The religious procession of Michael to 
 the capital by the sanctuaries of Yaroslavla, Rostoff, Pereyas- 
 lavla, and the Trinity Lavra, which all lay on his road, was 
 in truth but one continued public testimony of royal piety 
 and popular affection. Three metropolitans, Ephraim of 
 Kazan, Jonah of The Steeps, and Cyrill of Rostoff, who had 
 been invited by the people to resume his former diocese, and 
 had exerted himself greatly by his exhortations for the pre- 
 servation of his country, crowned him with the crown of Mono- 
 machus in the cathedral of the Assumption ; and letters statu- 
 tory, of the whole synod of clergy, and of the council, put the 
 J613. seal to the election of the Romanoffs, by establishing for ever 
 the right of an hereditary autocracy, which had been shaken 
 by the unfortunate elections of Godounoff and Shouesky.
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 171 
 
 But as yet, neither the internal nor external disturbances CHAP. 
 
 had subsided ; extensive districts of Russia still remained in 
 
 the hands of her enemies; near Moscow itself, there were some 
 towns in possession of traitors, and others given up to riots 
 and anarchy. Zaroutsky was still formidable by the numbers of 
 his confederates ; thousands of Lithuanians, Cossacks, and 
 Russian traitors, were dispersed in every direction, and by 
 their sudden attacks pillaged the defenceless towns in 
 different quarters of the empire. The Crimeans threatened 
 us with their incursions. Little Russia, the Don, and the 
 Oural, were ready now, as formerly, to support any new 
 mischief for the sake of plunder. The experienced com- 
 manders of Poland and Sweden, Jolkefsky, Khotkevich, and 
 Delagardie, were ready to advance at the first word of their 
 masters. In Poland, the king, Sigismund, was a zealot for 
 Rome, who was prompted at once by views of personal am- 
 bition and by ecclesiastical considerations to attempt the 
 subjugation of Russia to the pope. A formidable neighbour, 
 in the hero Gustavus Adolphus, had ascended the throne of 
 Sweden. The Russian people was indeed enthusiastically 
 disposed towards Michael, but yet had become too much used, in 
 the course of so many years, to see frequent changes of their 
 rulers ; the royal council itself consisted of nobles who had 
 seen through the reigns of five Tsars within a short space, and 
 had been themselves, in part, the causers of anarchy; yet, 
 in the midst of all these dangers from within and from with- 
 out, the youthful Michael, inexperienced indeed, but pure 
 before God and men, and unconnected with all the horrors of 
 the past, was established by the hand of Providence to be the 
 harbinger of a bright future to Russia. 
 
 That he might give greater weight and consistency to the 
 Council of the Boyars, which had been so unsteady in the time 
 of his predecessors, Michael strengthened it by uniting to it 
 the council of the bishops, whose patriotism had been un- 
 wavering, and by their joint consultations the business of the 
 state was transacted. After the return of the two senior 
 metropolitans to their dioceses of Kazan and Rostoff, Jonah
 
 17& THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP, of The Steeps, as guardian of the patriarchal throne, ruled the 
 ~ Church for a time. The young Tsar sent embassies into 
 distant countries to re-establish the political connection of the 
 empire, with Shah Abbas of Persia, with the Emperor Rudolph, 
 and with the maritime powers of Holland and England, whose 
 mediation had a favourable influence on Poland and Sweden : 
 at the same time he gave orders to lay siege to Smolensk, and 
 - his voivodes the Princes Pojarsky, Cherkassky, and others, 
 were constantly fighting in the neighbourhood of the capital 
 with passing bodies of the Lithuanians. Astrachan, and the 
 South of Russia, were quieted by the capture of the traitor 
 Zaroutsky and Marina ; but in the North, Gustavus Adolphus 
 advanced upon Pskoff, though without gaining any advantage. 
 The troops of Delagardie plundered the wealthy Novogorod, 
 which from that time never recovered its former greatness. 
 But the spirit of its citizens was not yet extinguished; 
 Cyprian, the noble archimandrite of the Khoutinsky monas- 
 tery, persuaded the voivodes and the chief citizens to turn 
 themselves to the new Tsar, and through the influence of the 
 Metropolitan Isidore, he was sent by the Swedes as if for the 
 purpose of negotiation with the Russian government ; when 
 he was at Moscow, he asked and obtained from Michael the 
 pardon of all who had sworn allegiance to the Swedish prince, 
 and so reunited again the ancient city of Novogorod to 
 Russia, for which he suffered severe penalties after his return. 
 At length, seeing the obstinacy of the Russians, the Swedes 
 determined to conclude a peace with them, through the media- 
 tion of the English ambassador, at the village of StolobofF in 
 the district of Novogorod ; and though the northern posses- 
 sions of Russia, Ingria and Carelia, were wrested from her for a 
 time, this peace was indispensably necessary to enable her to 
 assume a better attitude towards another still more powerful 
 enemy, namely, Poland. The conferences which had been 
 opened with her under the walls of Smolensk were broken off, 
 notwithstanding the mediation of the Imperial ambassadors, 
 and the last terrible invasion, under the command of the 
 Prince Vladislaff, shook Russia to her centre once more, before
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 173 
 
 she was to enjoy the rest which she desired. The retreat of our CHAP. 
 
 VII 
 
 voivodes from the siege of Smolensk, and the surrender of the - 
 towns along the road to the capital, marked again with dis- 
 asters the commencement of this . campaign ; but Mojaisk, 
 about which the fate of the capital was destined to be decided, 
 stood firm. The prince passed it, and with the assistance of 
 Sagaidachny, the hetman of the Cossacks from beyond The 
 Falls, struck a blow at Moscow, which was now however filled 
 with a different spirit. On every side she repulsed the 
 attack of the Poles. At last, the Lithuanian forces advanced 
 against the sacred precinct of the Trinity Lavra ; the Archi- 
 mandrite Dionysius and the bursar gave orders to fire the 
 suburbs, and again fortified themselves to stand a siege. At 
 the feet of St. Sergius, the thunder-cloud was destined to 
 burst and dissolve, which for fifteen years had rolled over the 
 darkened horizon of Russia ; and its last bolt glanced on the 
 Lavra, as if for nothing else than to illumine it with new 
 brilliancy; for it alone had stood out this long tempest, 
 without tarnishing its glory, by any single act of treason. 
 Within view of its walls, in the neighbouring village of 
 Diouline, conferences were opened with the prince for peace, 
 and after long negotiations, a truce for fifteen years was con- 
 eluded, with very great sacrifices on the part of Russia, which 
 ceded Livonia, Smolensk, and the western towns ; but still it 
 was the means of preserving the distracted empire. 
 
 Then at last were liberated our illustrious prisoners, who 
 had so long pined in captivity, first the living, and afterwards 
 also those that were dead; the Tsar Shouesky and his 
 brothers had been buried in a crossway in Warsaw, under a 
 pillar, with an inscription recording their melancholy fate; our 
 inflexible ambassador, the Prince Galitzin, was also dead ; but 
 there returned alive the brave Voivode Shein, with Sergius, 
 archbishop of Smolensk, and, to the inexpressible joy of his 
 royal son, Philaret himself, the metropolitan of Rostoff. The 
 meeting between the son, now Tsar, and the prelate his father, 
 at his entry into the capital, was most affecting ; each wished 
 to fall at the feet of the other; and by a tender mutual
 
 174 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 
 
 CHAP, embrace, they sealed the union between the Church and the 
 
 VII. 
 
 ~ State, which they represented severally in their persons. 
 
 At this remarkable period, so difficult and unsettled for the 
 Church both of Northern and of Southern Russia, for neither 
 the one nor the other had pastors, there came to Moscow 
 Theophanes, patriarch of Jerusalem, as an angel of peace 
 to them both. The Eastern patriarchs having heard of the 
 troubles which prevailed among their brethren in the Russian 
 empire, and of the Romish persecutions of Orthodoxy, which 
 had become powerless in the South from the want of bishops, 
 met for consultation at the Sepulchre of our Lord, and sent 
 its meek guardian to set in order the Russian Church: the 
 patriarch of Constantinople gave him authority to act in his 
 name, and sent with him as exarch from himself the Archi- 
 mandrite Arsenius. 
 
 At his first visit to the Russian capital, just before the 
 liberation of the father of the sovereign, Theophanes found 
 the Church in a state of agitation, on account of some cor- 
 rections which had been made in the Trebnik, or Office Book 9 . 
 The Tsar himself had remarked the gross errors which had 
 not only crept long before into the MSS. copies of the 
 Church books, but even into those which had been printed in 
 the time of the patriarchs Job and Hermogenes, and had 
 committed to the holy Dionysius, in conjunction with the 
 brotherhood of the Trinity, the task of correcting these errors 
 by the books of the learned Greek Maximus, and others which 
 were preserved in the Lavra; for from the time of the 
 Hundred Chapter Council, and down to that of Nikon, this 
 work was a constant object of solicitude both to the Tsars and 
 to the patriarchs. Dionysius, having collated the Russian 
 Trebnik with the Greek, expunged from the Office for the 
 Blessing of the Water 10 the words " by fire," incorrectly 
 inserted after the invocation of the Holy Spirit on the water ; 
 he likewise corrected certain Exclamations or Responses, in 
 which the doxology of the Holy Trinity was joined with a 
 preceding prayer to the Son of God; and for this he was sub- 
 jected to a most bitter persecution from Jonah, the ignorant
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. II. HERMOGENES. 175 
 
 metropolitan of The Steeps. For the space of a whole year CHAP. 
 the holy elder suffered close confinement, blows, and torture, ~ 
 beside insults from the people, who absurdly accused him of 
 wishing to extirpate the element of fire from the land of 
 Russia; and all this he endured with exceeding meekness and 
 patience, as a confessor for the word of God. The arrival of 
 the patriarch alleviated the hardships of his lot.
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 III. PHILARET. 
 
 CHAP. THEOPH ANES, first of all, at the recommendation of the Tsar, 
 VIIL and in concert with the synod of the clergy, earnestly entreated 
 the Metropolitan Philaret, who had suffered so much, to 
 undertake the exalted dignity of patriarch. They were long 
 refused by the prelate, who, at the very moment of his libe- 
 ration, and when he was now within the frontier of his 
 country, had refused to proceed farther, in consequence of 
 having learned that the enemies who had set him at liberty were 
 trying to work upon the filial tenderness of the Tsar, to obtain 
 further concessions, beyond those stipulated for in the treaty. 
 Having been tried by all manner of misfortunes for the space of 
 twenty years, made a monk against his will, banished, sepa- 
 rated from his family, torn by force from his Church, insulted, 
 and lastly, having pined nine years in captivity, the old man, 
 worn out, wished only for a quiet life, and was with difficulty 
 persuaded by the Tsar, the patriarch, and the synod, to 
 adorn the throne of St. Peter '. Thus, for the third time 
 since the institution of the patriarchate, its throne was 
 ascended by a Confessor, and the nine years widowhood of 
 the Church of Moscow was at length terminated. The 
 pseudo-patriarch, the traitor Ignatius, had fled just before 
 the accession of Michael to Poland. The patriarch of Jeru- 
 salem himself performed the consecration of the great 
 Philaret, and, by a statutory letter, confirmed for ever the 
 rights granted at the institution of Job by the Most Holy 
 Jeremiah, patriarch of Constantinople. Thus was brought 
 about an event remarkable in the annals of the world, which
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. III. PHILARET. 177 
 
 has in no country nor at any time been repeated, of a father CHAP. 
 as patriarch and his son as sovereign governing together the ~ 
 kingdom. 
 
 The Patriarch Theophanes delayed not to vindicate Diony- 
 sius, who was still suffering, before the new primate of Moscow, 
 and promised, in testimony of the justice of his cause, to pro- 
 cure and send letters declaratory, after consulting with the 
 other Eastern patriarchs ; and this he afterwards performed. 
 For the Most Holy Philaret continued zealously to apply 
 himself to the correction of the service-books of the Church. 
 The archimandrite was set at liberty, and returned to the 
 Lavra, which his exploits had covered with glory, and there 
 he had the satisfaction of solemnly receiving his deliverer, 
 and of seeing the Lord of Jerusalem humble himself before 
 the relics of the venerable Sergius : he presented to Theo- 
 phanes the brave monks who had fought together with him- 
 self for their country, who found that their wounds received 
 in battle served them still as the best remembrancers for 
 weeping and sighing over their sins. 
 
 Carrying with him the benedictions of Northern Russia, 
 the blessed Theophanes departed for the South, and visited 
 Kieff, the ancient mother of Orthodoxy, which had suffered 
 much from the want of governors to her Church. The king, 
 Sigismund, notwithstanding his persecutions, acknowledged 
 Theophanes as a patriarch, and ordered due honours to be 
 paid him, though he afterwards acted inconsistently, and 
 seemed to question his dignity. Being zealous for the pro- 
 motion of learning among the clergy, Theophanes esta- 
 blished, in the name of the patriarch of Constantinople, the 
 Brotherhood of the Epiphany as a Stauropegia, that is, to 
 depend immediately upon the (Ecumenical Lord, and gave 
 them his benediction for the institution of a school in it for 
 the Greeko- Slavonic and the Latin-Polish languages, and 
 united to it the Brotherhood of Mercy, a house for the re- 
 ception of strangers, which was converted into an academical 
 Inn for poor scholars. Sagaidachny, the hetman of the 
 Cossacks beyond . the Falls, disposed of all "his property in
 
 178 THE PATRIARCHS. III. PHILARET. 
 
 CHAP, favour of this new house, and himself ended there in prayer 
 
 a life of military exploits. 
 
 When by the long stay of the patriarch in Kieff the ortho- 
 dox had begun gradually to hold up their heads again, the 
 reverend clergy and the nobility being assembled, with the 
 hetman, from the neighbouring towns, on the festival of the 
 Assumption, entreated Theophanes to give them at length a 
 head to their Church, and pastors, of which Little Russia 
 had been so long deprived. After the example of former 
 1620. patriarchs, he solemnly consecrated in the Lavra Job Boret- 
 sky, hegumen of the monastery of St. Michael, as metro- 
 politan of Kieff, and two others, the Archimandrite Meletius 
 Smotretsky, rector of the seminary at Wilna, to be archbishop 
 of Polotsk, and Joseph Courtsevich for the see of Vladimir 
 in Volhynia. He afterwards consecrated to the other re- 
 maining Sees, Isaac to Loutsk, Isaiah to Peremuishla, Paisius 
 to Kholm, and Abram, a Greek, to Pinsk. Thus he restored all 
 the vacant dioceses ; and having exhorted all to stand firm in 
 defence of the faith, he returned in peace to his own country. 
 Upon this followed a renewal of the intrigues of the 
 Uniates, and a violent persecution on the part of the govern- 
 ment against the orthodox bishops, whose legitimacy it refused 
 to recognise, although it had not interfered to prevent their 
 consecration. The Metropolitan Job was obliged to send 
 the Bishop Joseph to the diet of Warsaw for his own justi- 
 fication and that of all the other prelates ; but, notwithstand- 
 ing that the assurance which the king received from Turkey 
 of the full powers of the Patriarch Theophanes mollified him 
 somewhat toward the persons of the bishops, the persecu- 
 tions against the orthodox Church did not cease. The Stau- 
 ropegia of the Theophany in Kieff was destroyed by the 
 Uniates ; in Wilna and Loutsk the Orthodox churches were 
 converted into inns ; in Orsha, in Mogileff, Mstislaff, Grodno, 
 and other places, the churches were sealed up ; in Minsk, 
 they gave the Church lands to a Mahometan mosque; 
 in Lvoff and Khelm the orthodox priests dared not shew 
 themselves with the Holy Gifts, nor openly bury the dead ;
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. III. PHILARET. 179 
 
 the monasteries were emptied, the priests and monks tor- CHAP. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 tured, and the new bishops were prevented from having free 
 
 communication with their flocks. Jehosaphat, the Uniate 
 archbishop of Polotsk, surpassed all others in the atrocity of his 
 persecutions of the orthodox : he even insulted the bodies of 
 those who had been buried ; and irritated the people to such 
 a degree, that he was himself murdered in Vitebsk ; he was 
 added, by the Romans, to the list of their martyrs : at the 
 same time the Cossacks also of the Horde beyond the Falls, 
 who alone stood firm for orthodoxy, and had put down in 
 Kieif the violence of the Uniates, drowned in the Dnieper 
 Anthony, the hegumen of the Vidoubets monastery, and vicar 
 of the Uniate metropolitan Joseph. 
 
 The unhappy end of Jehosaphat cost the orthodox Church 
 one of her most learned pastors, Meletius archbishop of 
 Polotsk, who had distinguished himself by his writings in her 
 defence. He was unjustly accused by the Polish government 
 of having instigated the murder of Jehosaphat, and was 
 obliged to fly into Greece, where he wandered three years, 
 thinking that in the mean time the accusation would die 
 away. At length, moved by fear, he pusillanimously gave 
 himself up to the party of the Uniates, and wrote his Apology 
 in censure of the orthodox Church. The Metropolitan Job J622. 
 convoked a synod in Kieff, and compelled Meletius to perform 
 public penance in the church, and even to tear his own book. 
 But Meletius Smotritsky, as soon as he had returned into his 
 diocese, and settled himself in the Dermansky monastery, 
 which he selected on account of its contiguity to Poland, 
 published a second edition of his first Apology, apostatized 
 decidedly from orthodoxy, and even made a journey to Rome, 
 to do homage to the pope, who conferred on him the title of 
 Archbishop of Hierapolis ; from that time Polotsk ceased to 
 be reckoned in the list of orthodox dioceses. Both metro- 
 politans, Job of Kieif, and the Uniate Joseph, convoked 
 synods, the one in Kieff the other in LvofF, of the bishops of 
 their side; the one for the preservation of his torn and scattered 
 flock, the other for the extension of his ; while the royal diet 
 
 N2
 
 180 THE PATRIARCHS. III. PHILARET. 
 
 CHAP, at Warsaw confirmed the rights of both Confessions, though 
 - rather in word than deed. The death of the persecutor Sigis- 
 mund, and the accession of Vladislaff IV., who proclaimed, on 
 coming to the crown, free liberty to all Confessions, did no more 
 than excite short-lived hopes, destined soon to be disappointed. 
 In the mean time the government of Moscow took advan- 
 tage of the temporary armistice with Poland, to make reforms 
 in the regulation both of civil and ecclesiastical affairs, under 
 the joint and concordant superintendance of Michael and 
 Philaret, to whom his affectionate son even gave the title of 
 Greet Sovereign 2 . The internal order of government was 
 partially changed. The Council of the Boyars remained on 
 its old foundation, that is, as the council of the Tsar in all 
 matters of importance ; but the variety of business required 
 more intermediaries between the sovereign and his people, 
 than only the voivodes and deputies, or governors, who 
 administered justice in the provinces in the name of the 
 Tsar. Separate courts were established in Moscow, which 
 were empowered to take cognizance of the affairs of all 
 the towns of the empire, and even to try the governors. The 
 celebrated edict of the Tsar Theodore, by which the peasants 
 were forbidden to change their feudal lords at will, which had 
 been revoked by Godounoff, and re-enacted by Shouesky, was 
 finally confirmed by Michael; and in his time the Census-Books 
 were first established, containing a description of the towns, 
 and of the divisions of the manors. Moved by filial affec- 
 tion, the Tsar extended his father's privileges, and gave 
 more splendour also to the patriarchal court. Previously to 
 this, in the year 1599, Boris, as a proof of his good will to 
 the patriarch Job, had renewed the patent given by John to 
 the Metropolitan Athanasius, his confessor, to this effect, 
 " That all the people of the Primate, his officers, servants, and 
 serfs, were freed from all dependance upon the royal boyars, 
 governors, and judges; were not to be judged by them for 
 any crimes, except for crimes against life, and those were first 
 to be certified from the patriarchal court ; they were also freed 
 from all government imposts." This ancient right of our
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. III. PHILARET. 181 
 
 clergy to civil immunity remained unchanged, during the CHAP. 
 
 reigns of Basil, Michael, and his son, down to the times of 
 
 Nikon. The Tsar Michael Theodorovich further ordained, 
 that in all country places and towns, the monasteries, 
 churches, and lands, which belonged to the special province 
 of the patriarchs, should have the peculiar privilege of being 
 judged in civil matters only in the Court of the Great Palace, 
 which was supposed to be before the sovereign in person; 
 and that all archimandrites, hegumens, priests, deacons, 
 and clerks, of these houses and parish churches, with their 
 lands and dependencies, should be subject to the jurisdiction 
 of the patriarch alone, except in capital cases ; that, in fine, 
 none should interfere with his court, petty court, tithes, 
 and dues, which he according to his own judgment might 
 impose on the clergy and the parishes of his province ; while 
 the privilege was reserved to the Trinity Lavra, on account of 
 its sendees, as well as to two other convents, that of the Ascen- 
 sion in the Kremlin, and of the Novodaevichy, in which so 
 many royal nuns had gone to their rest, since the time of 
 John, of depending on the jurisdiction of the patriarch alone. 
 But at the same time the Tsar's edict, in confirmation of the 
 former edicts of John to the same effect, forbade the monas- 
 teries to acquire, either by purchase or gift, any new manors 
 or other real property, the quantity of which held by the Church 
 had increased enormously during the years of prosperity. 
 
 Eussia, confined on the West by the strong hands of Poland 
 and Sweden, extended herself with a gigantic growth towards 
 the East. Siberia, which could scarcely be said to have been 
 more than discovered by Yermak, and that imperfectly, had 
 now, by the end of fifty years, already more than half of it 
 become a Russian province. Adventurers of the Cossacks, and 
 hunters, with little assistance from the government, had con- 
 tinued to subject boundless deserts in the names of Godou- 
 noff, the pretended Demetrius, and Shouesky, at the very time 
 that they themselves perhaps were losing their uncertain 
 thrones in MOSCQW : Altin, the khan of*the Mongols, heard at 
 length, in the regions high up toward the sources of the
 
 182 THE PATRIARCHS. III. PIIILARET. 
 
 CHAP. Amour, the name of Michael. Like the Varagians of old. the 
 
 VIII. 
 
 " Cossacks first ascended, and then descended again the courses 
 of rivers to their confluence with others, erecting small forts 
 at their months, with two or three armed men as guardians of 
 their new possessions, while the savage inhabitants came to 
 pay them tribute in furs, and bowed before the greatness of 
 unseen Russia, which had awed them by the exploits of her 
 sons. With about as little risk, the New World was sub- 
 jugated by Cortez and Pizarro. Siberia was in like manner 
 a new world for Russia. By degrees towns arose in it further 
 and further to the East, and in the midst of the uninhabited 
 desert, by that piety which was peculiar to our ancestors, 
 convents were erected at the same time with the towns ; first 
 one in Verchotoursk, which was founded by a certain hermit 
 named Jonah, then in Tiumene, and so also in other places. 
 But in the mean time this extensive kingdom had no sort of 
 spiritual government; the fierce Cossacks paid scarcely any 
 obedience to the commanders of the Tsar ; they gave them- 
 selves up to the grossest licentiousness ; and for wives they 
 were used to carry off women by violence out of Russia, 
 or from among the heathens : their disorders attracted the 
 attention of the Most Holy Philaret. 
 
 Although, in consequence of the joint recommendation of 
 the patriarchs Jeremiah and Job, the number of the Russian 
 dioceses had before been considerably increased, Hermogenes 
 had still felt the necessity of erecting a new archiepiscopal 
 throne in the distant city of Astrachan, and had consecrated 
 Theodosius as its first occupant : and now again when, during 
 1607. our civil dissensions, the kingdom of Siberia had been con- 
 quered, the Patriarch Philaret could not find any better 
 1623. means for its internal organization, than the formation of the 
 new archbishopric of Tobolsk and Siberia. The choice of the 
 patriarch fell on Cyprian, the archimandrite of the Khoutin- 
 sky monastery, a man illustrious for his sufferings : he first 
 visited this distant flock, and in the four years that his epis- 
 copate lasted, laid a solid foundation for the future. Being 
 urged by the letters of the patriarch to attempt a reformation
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. III. PHILARET. 183 
 
 of the morals of the Cossacks, he began by degrees, with the CHAP. 
 assistance of the voivodes, to extend over them his beneficent 
 influence, and in order to confirm them in the observance of 
 our divine religion, he founded new convents among them in 
 Neviansk, Tagila, Tara, Tomsk, and Tourouchansk ; he 
 beautified the Znamensky convent in Tobolsk itself; and 
 brought into more perfect order those convents both of men 
 and women, which had been previously founded in Verchotoura 
 and Tourinsk ; he also obtained a grant of land for the new 
 archiepiscopal residence, in order to make it independent, in 
 that wild region, for the benefit of his successors, he himself 
 being soon translated to Moscow, to be metropolitan of the 
 Steeps, and from thence again to his native city of Novogorod. 
 Cyprian left behind him a memory to last for ever in Siberia, 
 where he collected from" the lips of the followers of Yermak, 
 who were still living, their tales of his distant expeditions; 
 and composed from thence a chronicle, which has preserved to 
 posterity the exploits of that adventurous leader. 
 
 The cares of the patriarch extended equally to Novogorod 
 in his own vicinity as to the distant Tobolsk. ' Grieving 
 for, and being anxious on account of the orthodox children of 
 the Church, who had been torn away by the treaty of 
 Stoloboff, and made subjects of Sweden, he wrote to Maca- 
 rius, metropolitan, of Novogorod, to continue to govern them 
 as his spiritual flock ; while the Swedes on their part offered 
 no impediment to their keeping up their connection with 
 their former pastor. Thus the bond of ecclesiastical unity 
 was preserved unbroken, in spite of their civil separation, till 
 they were reunited to Russia. To the successor of Macarius 
 was intrusted by the patriarch the charge of destroying 
 certain copies of the Church Directory circulated in all the 
 North, which were full of gross errors, and had been printed 
 without the cognizance of the Most Holy Hermogenes, by the 
 Directory keeper of the Trinity Lavra, a wicked heretic, named 
 Longinus, who had put many personal affronts upon the holy 
 Archimandrite Dionysius on account of his zeal and care 
 for the books. These same Directories were made some
 
 184 THE PATRIARCHS. III. PHILARET. 
 
 CHAP, time later the pretext for the outbreak at the Solovetsky 
 viii- 
 convent. 
 
 Philaret himself was principally occupied with preparing a 
 correct edition of a new Trebnik 3 and other service books 
 and books of an ecclesiastical nature, wishing to preserve his 
 flock from the publications of the Western Unia, such as the 
 Evangelical Instructions of the Archimandrite Tranquillion, 
 which were dangerous to orthodoxy. Carried on further by 
 his zeal, and by his sense of those calamities which he had 
 himself seen caused by the innovations of Rome, he decreed 
 in council, on the occasion of certain questions being pro- 
 posed by Jonah metropolitan of the Steeps, that they should 
 restore the former custom disused by Ignatius under the 
 pretender, of rebaptizing those who were converted from 
 Latinism to Orthodoxy. It was only in the reign of the 
 Emperor Peter, that this custom was done away with, as 
 inconsistent with the ancient canons of the Church ; but in 
 the days of Philaret, the persecutions of the Uniates led men 
 to widen the breach with Home ; the orthodox bishops were 
 expelled from their dioceses, and among those who sought 
 refuge in Russia was Joseph, the bishop of Vladimir in 
 Volhynia. 
 
 The political horizon of Russia was again overclouded, 
 during the latter days of Philaret, by an unsuccessful war 
 with Poland, after the expiration of the armistice. The inva- 
 sion by King Vladislaff, and the shameful surrender under 
 the walls of Smolensk of the Boyar Shein, who had formerly 
 distinguished himself by the defence of the same town, cost 
 that commander his life, and Russia many sacrifices. Besides 
 the loss of her soldiers, and of the money, which by the decision 
 of a council had been raised from the monasteries for the use 
 of the government, she was compelled, after a short war, to 
 conclude at Viazura a new treaty still more oppressive than 
 that of Stoloboff, by which she lost not only Smolensk, but 
 also Chernigoff, and other towns of Seversk. But the great 
 authors of her glorious deliverance were not now alive to 
 be witnesses of so humiliating a peace. The Bursar
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. III. PHILARET. 185 
 
 Abram had long since retired, in fulfilment of a vow which CHAP. 
 
 VIII 
 
 he had made, to the Solovetsky monastery, where he had - 
 originally received the tonsure, and there he died; and a 
 year before his own decease the Patriarch Philaret interred 
 with due honours in Moscow the holy Archimandrite 
 Dionysius. 
 
 The great prelate himself departed this life on the day of 1633. 
 the festival of the Protection of the Mother of God, who had 
 given him as a protection to the land of Russia, in the midst 
 of the tears of his country, and to the inconsolable grief of 
 his son ; Michael lost in him not only a father and a patri- 
 arch, but also an experienced assistant in the government, 
 who according to the testimony of the contemporary chronicle, 
 " rightly divided the word of God, confirmed the orthodox 
 faith, and converted many heathens to Christianity:" he also 
 improved the internal administration of the provinces, by 
 allowing no toleration of lawless violence in any part of the 
 kingdom, while he made compensation to those who had 
 suffered, and had served their country during the interregnum. 
 He was respected by all the neighbouring powers; and received 
 as a present from the Shah Abbas of Persia, then famous in 
 the East, the Seamless Coat of our Saviour, which, according 
 to an ancient tradition, was brought into Georgia by one of 
 the soldiers who parted his garments at the foot of the Cross, 
 and was preserved for many ages in the cathedral of Mtschet 4 . 
 Abbas could not have selected a better guardian for such a 
 holy relic; and the Tunic of our Lord, which was distinguished 
 by the working of numerous cures in the Russian capital, was 
 placed by the patriarch in the cathedral of the Assumption, 
 under the shade of a brazen tabernacle 5 , near which he him- 
 self is laid down to his everlasting rest.
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 IV. JOASAPH I. 
 
 CHAP. JOASAPH archbishop of PskofF, was chosen and made patri- 
 
 IX 
 
 J63J arch in his room by the council of his own bishops ; letters 
 of notification were sent to all the other patriarchs, and their 
 recognition received in return, for greater security; but the 
 meek Joasaph could not supply the place of such a statesman 
 as Philaret to the Church or to the country, any more than he 
 could that of the father, whom he had lost, to Michael. By 
 the will however of a gracious Providence it was ordained 
 when this royal luminary set in the North, another, equally 
 brilliant, should rise to shine in the South, the cradle of our 
 orthodox religion. 
 
 Peter Mogila, son of the hospodar of Moldavia, having 
 received his education in the celebrated University of Paris 1 , 
 and having distinguished himself as a soldier in the Polish 
 armies against the infidels, renounced worldly greatness, and 
 received the tonsure in the Pechersky monastery, under its 
 learned Archimandrite Zacharias Kopistensky, to whom he 
 afterwards succeeded. The first act of Peter Mogila was to 
 establish a school in the Lavra, from whence he sent forth 
 some chosen students into foreign countries, to complete their 
 education; among these were the future Metropolitan Silvester 
 Kossoff, and the learned Innocentius Gizel 2 . The patriarch 
 of Constantinople, Cyrill Lucar, having personal acquaintance 
 with the merit of the archimandrite, appointed him exarch of 
 his See; and he fully justified this choice; for he she\ved 
 himself a powerful defender of Orthodoxy in the diet of 
 Warsaw, at the time of VladislafFs accession to the throne, 
 and obtained from the new king the restoration of many 
 convents, churches, and properties, which had been taken
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. IV. JOASAPH I. 187 
 
 away from the Orthodox, together with freedom to establish CHAP. 
 
 seminaries and schools and printing presses, the re-establish- ' 
 
 ment of the dioceses of Lvoff, Loutsk, andPeremuishla, and the 
 formation of a new one in Mogileff, which was the only one that 
 remained and nourished eventually, when all the other Ortho- 
 dox sees had been one after another extinguished. Notwith- 
 standing all the intrigues of the Uniates, royal letters were 
 granted proclaiming entire freedom for the profession of the 
 orthodox faith, and the practice of its rites. The king left to 
 the Russian and Lithuanian nobility the right of electing 
 their own metropolitan, subject to the confirmation of the pa- 
 triarch of Constantinople : he restored to the metropolitans 
 of Kieff the church of St. Sophia, which had been originally 
 their cathedral; and, lastly, gave command to put a stop to all 
 disputes about religion, and annulled the constitutions of the 
 former diets. But these privileges were soon violated, partly 
 during VladislafFs own reign, but still more so during that of 
 his brother and successor, John Casimir 3 , who quitted the 
 purple of the Roman cardinalate to be invested with that 
 of royalty. 
 
 In the mean time Job the metropolitan of Kieff died, and 
 although Isaiah, archbishop of Smolensk, had already been 
 designated as his successor, the Orthodox who had been 
 present at the diet, in consideration of the services rendered 
 by the archimandrite of the Pechersky, elected him as 
 metropolitan, and sent to procure his confirmation to Cyrill, 1632. 
 the patriarch of Constantinople. The ceremony of his consecra- 
 tion by the synod was performed in the town of Lvoff, and 
 to the general delight of the people, Peter once more took 
 possession of the ancient metropolitan residence of St. Sophia, 
 retaining at the same time the office of archimandrite in the 
 Lavra. Having restored his own cathedral church, which had 
 been suffered to fall into ruins by the Uniates, he next turned 
 his attention to the sacred ruins of the original Church of the 
 Tythes of St. Vladimir, and restored one of its chapels 4 ; he 
 found under the arches of the church, the uncorrupted head 5 
 of its founder, the illuminator of Russia, and translated it to
 
 188 THE PATRIARCHS. IV. JOASAPH I. 
 
 CHAP, the Pecherskay Lavra, as a head and foundation to the whole 
 Russian Church. 
 
 Peter being zealous for the promotion of learning among the 
 clergy, united the school which he had established in the Lavra, 
 with that of the Brotherhood in Podolia, which had been begun 
 with the blessing of the patriarch of Jerusalem : he erected 
 new buildings, an Inn for poor scholars, at his own expense, 
 and a preparatory school : he established a library and a 
 printing press; and obtained from the king the title of Spiritual 
 Academy for the school of the Brotherhood; he took upon him- 
 self the title of Senior Brother and Patron, and immortalized 
 his memory in the Academy, which was commonly called the 
 Kievo-Mogilian long after his death. 
 
 Taking advantage of the short breathing-time which the 
 orthodox religion enjoyed during the reign of Vladislaff, Peter 
 Mogila was constantly sending forth from his printing press 
 different works of the Holy Fathers, and books of the ser- 
 vices of the Church, to counteract the influence of those pub- 
 lished by the Uniates ; and his larger Trebnik, or Office book, 
 became the model for the performance of the Orthodox service. 
 But the most important act of the metropolitan for the confir- 
 mation of his distracted flock, was the publication of the Ortho- 
 dox Confession of Faith, which was written partly by himself 
 and partly by the Archimandrite Isaiah Trophimovich, under 
 his direction 6 . A council of bishops was convoked in Kieff 
 for the revision of this Catechism, which had become indis- 
 pensably necessary from the agitation of men's minds and from 
 the subtle discourses and treatises of the Jesuits, and which after 
 being carefully corrected, and translated into modern Greek, 
 was sent to Parthenius, patriarch of Constantinople. The 
 appearance of such a book produced a strong impression in the 
 East, into which the Calvinistic heresy had then penetrated. 
 Crafty teachers of false doctrine, under the name of Cyrill 
 Lucar, patriarch of Constantinople, had sown tares entirely con- 
 trary to the doctrines of the Orthodox Church, and giving them 
 out as her true and authentic Confession, had caused great 
 scandal to the unlearned. Cyrill, although he had condemned
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. IV. JOASAPH I. 189 
 
 the new doctrine of Calvin, nevertheless had not stood up de- CHAP. 
 
 IX 
 
 cidedly and openly to oppose it 7 , and for his neglect he was him- 
 
 self delivered over to an anathema by his successor, Cyrill of 
 Beroea 8 ; but the agitation still continued. By the exertions 
 of John, hospodar of Moldavia 9 , a synod was convoked at i64a 
 Jassy, which once more condemned the false doctrines of 
 Calvinism. The Metropolitan Peter Mogila, with four Russian 
 bishops, confirmed by their subscriptions the acts of this synod. 
 By command of Parthenius patriarch of Constantinople, his 
 exarch, Meletius Striga, revised and finally corrected in the 
 synod of Jassy the Orthodox Confession. From thence this 
 book was sent for the confirmation of the Eastern patriarchs, 
 and was returned with their letters of approval to Kieff, after 
 the death of the great prelate Peter Mogila, who after all his 
 labours and services rested in peace in the Lavra, and has 1647. 
 ever since been justly esteemed one of the most shining 
 characters in our ecclesiastical history. 
 
 The period of his episcopate, which lasted as long as did the 
 reign of Vladislaff, although favourable to Little Russia as far 
 as regarded the improvement of clerical learning, was yet one 
 in which her sufferings in a civil point of view increased to the 
 last degree. The Polish government, in spite of the benevo- 
 lent views of their king, oppressed in all possible ways the un- 
 fortunate Ukraine, in order to subjugate the Cossacks of the 
 Horde beyond the Falls, who alone, from the inaccessible 
 islands of the Dnieper, raised a free arm to strike in defence 
 of their fellow countrymen and brethren in the faith. Their 
 hetmans, one after the other, rose up against the cruel 
 voivodes, and contended with their best commanders with 
 varying success ; at one time they spread terror over the Polish 
 provinces, destroying on all sides the Kostels 10 , for the first 
 object of their enmity was the Roman clergy; at others, 
 they fell themselves into the hands of the inexorable Polish 
 leaders, and terminated their lives by the most fearful tor- 
 tures. But the fate of Pavliouk, Ostranitsa, and other brave 
 Atamans, did not terrify their valiant successors, because the 
 same acts of injustice were continually recurring, and excited
 
 190 THE PATRIARCHS. IV. JOASAPH I. 
 
 CHAP, the general feeling beyond the bounds of endurance, until at 
 length there appeared in the Ukraine a great man, who 
 determined finally to throw off the Polish yoke, and make 
 Little Russia subject to Russia, which professed the same reli- 
 gion as herself: this was the Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky. 
 This liberation was effected during the illustrious episcopate 
 of Silvester Kossoff, the pupil of Peter Mogila, who was elected 
 from being bishop of Mogileff to the metropolitan see of 
 Kieff ; but by this time there had been a great change also 
 in the political situation of the Russian empire; she had 
 gained strength both within and without, and the helm of 
 the state was held by different hands. 
 
 The Tsar Michael Theodorovich, ruling as he did over vast 
 countries which had scarcely settled down into tranquillity 
 after so long a storm, and straitened by Poland and Sweden, 
 was unable to profit by the first proposal of Job the metro- 
 politan of Kieff, that he should take under his high protec- 
 tion the whole of the Ukraine. He could do no more than 
 dismiss with presents and flattering hopes the envoy who had 
 been sent to him by Joseph bishop of Loutsk; but these 
 hopes were realized in the time of his more powerful son the 
 Tsar Alexis. Fearing a rupture with Turkey and the 
 Crimea, which were ready to take up arms at the bidding of 
 Poland, Michael could not even retain Azoph, which the 
 Cossacks of the Don, who had gotten possession of that for- 
 tress, desired to hold in his name. The Council of the Provinces 
 advised the Tsar to give up, for his own time at least, this 
 valuable conquest; and he turned his attention rather to 
 the means of strengthening against the incursions of the 
 Tartars the frontiers of the Ukraine, and the capital itself, 
 where the memory of the Polish invasion was still fresh. 
 The illustrious liberator of his country, the Prince Pojarsky, 
 who had continued, during all the reign of Michael, to con- 
 duct his armies, or to govern important provinces, died in 
 the same year with the Muscovite Pontiff Joasaph, who 
 left behind him a reputation for meekness, though he was 
 not remarkable for any great abilities as a statesman.
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 V. JOSEPH. 
 
 His successor the patriarch Joseph, who was elected from CHAP. 
 being archimandrite of the Simonoff, and consecrated by jg^j- 
 Serapion, metropolitan of the Steeps, and a synod of bishops, 
 resembled the great Philaret in his zeal for the promotion 
 of ecclesiastical learning ; but he found the reign of Michael 
 now drawing to its close. The breaking off of the projected 
 marriage between the Prince of Denmark and the Tsarevna 
 Irene, shortened the days of her affectionate father, who had 
 ardently desired the conversion of Voldemar to the Orthodox 
 faith. There had been several discussions in the palace about 
 religion between Russian priests chosen for the purpose, and 
 pastors on the part of the prince. The Patriarch Joseph 
 himself took a lively part in these controversies, and wrote 
 treatises in the form of questions and answers to Yoldemar, in 
 which he powerfully confuted his heresy, and demonstrated 
 the truth of Orthodoxy. The speedy decease of the Tsar put 
 an end to these consultations on religion : Michael himself 
 having a presentiment of his speedy departure to God, gave 
 in charge to the patriarch his youthful son Alexis } born during 
 the life of his great Grandfather, of his happy marriage with 
 Eudocia Streshneff, and so fell as it were into a sweet sleep, 
 after having been in his own person the instrument of con- 
 ferring on Russia that breathing-time and repose, which she 
 so much required. His countenance, says the Chronicle, 
 shone like the sun at the hour of his departure. 
 
 The first part of the reign of the Tsar Alexis, which 1646. 
 lasted sixteen years, recalled to mind the troubled beginning
 
 192 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 
 
 CHAP, of his father's. The boyars who surrounded him led his inex- 
 - perience at their will, particularly his guardian, the Boyar 
 Morozoff, who soon after the Tsar's union with Maria Milos- 
 lafsky, married her sister. The people were weighed down by 
 imposts ; there was no war indeed without, but local insurrec- 
 tions broke out in the towns from the disorganized state of 
 the government. A mutiny of the Streltsi, our first regular 
 body of guards, alarmed the capital, and cost the lives of two 
 of the Tsar's private secretaries, whom the rebels accused of 
 having arbitrarily raised the price of the necessaries of life. 
 This was the first promise of those furious outbreaks by 
 w r hich the Streltsi eventually disgraced themselves during the 
 early years of Peter. There appeared also pretenders, giving 
 themselves out for sons of the pseudo-Demetrius, and of 
 Shouesky ; of whom the spiritual authorities of Greece fore- 
 warned the Tsar, from the affection they bore the Russians as 
 their brethren in the faith. One of these was given up, and 
 capitally punished; the other kept Russia for some years 
 longer by the power of his assumed name in a state of 
 needless excitement, while he wandered about in Turkey, 
 at Venice, and among the Cossacks beyond the Falls. 
 
 In the midst of these disorders, the Tsar, who was ex- 
 ceedingly devout and religious, after consulting with the 
 patriarch, the bishops, and the Council of the Boyars, de- 
 termined to make a collection of the canons of the Holy 
 Fathers, and the laws of the Greek emperors, also to correct 
 the Statute Book of the Tsar John, completing it with the 
 oukazes of later sovereigns, and to unite the whole of this 
 in one code, capable of serving as the law for the whole 
 kingdom. The redaction of this new code was intrusted to the 
 Prince Nikita Odoefsky, in conjunction with two boyars of the 
 council, and inferior secretaries ; and to aid them there were 
 called in the Tsar's Officers of the Table, of the Court, and of 
 the Household, the Sons of the Boyars, and Strangers', chosen 
 from all the greater towns ; that, by their united efforts, this 
 'work, which concerned the provinces no less than the central 
 government of the Tsar, might be successfully arranged. By
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 193 
 
 the end of the year it was completed with the blessing of the CHAP. 
 
 patriarch, and was confirmed by the subscriptions of the ' 
 
 clergy, the boyars, and all ranks of the people. 
 
 By one of the. articles of the new code was instituted the 
 Monastery Court, consisting of lay members, to judge in civil 
 suits against spiritual persons, and in matters arising out of 
 their manors and properties, which before were all decided in 
 the patriarchal court. At the same time the representatives of 
 the different civil orders and classes, who had laboured at the 
 collection of the laws, presented a petition to the Tsar, that 
 the bishops . and monasteries should be deprived of all the 
 landed property which they had acquired either by gift or 
 purchase since the time of the Tsar John, in opposition to his 
 decree prohibiting any augmentation of the immoveable 
 property of the clergy. Although the sovereign himself in 
 his zeal for the Church, which was remarkable, in imitation 
 of his father's example had already in the three years since 
 his accession bestowed estates on many monasteries, which 
 he continued to do even afterwards, nevertheless to satisfy 
 the Council of the Provinces he ordered his secretaries to 
 institute an enquiry, and make a description of the properties 
 that had been acquired by them. These two circumstances 
 were the occasion of his differences afterwards with Nikon. 
 
 Nikon was an extraordinary character in Russian history ; 
 alternately bright and dark great and feeble, sometimes the 
 benefactor of the Church and State at others doing injury to 
 both, he appears at the very commencement of the reign of 
 the mild Alexis as a kind of destiny given him from above 
 and inseparable from him to the end of his days, from the 
 influence of which proceeded alike all that was glorious and 
 all that was painful during his long reign, and which did not 
 cease to trouble his spirit even then when the author of his 
 trouble was himself wasting in confinement. 
 
 Born in the district of Nijgorod of parents who were simple 
 villagers, Nikon learned to read the holy scriptures, and secretly 
 left his home to commence his noviciate in order to become 
 a monk in the Jeltovodsky convent. At the urgent entreaty
 
 194 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 
 
 CHAP, of his father he returned to enter into the state of matrimony, 
 - was ordained a parish priest, and removed to Moscow j but 
 his original inclination for a life of seclusion remained in the 
 deep of his heart notwithstanding those bonds which con- 
 nected him with the world. The loss of all his children he 
 took as a call from above, and after having been married ten 
 years, persuaded his wife to enter into a convent, while he 
 himself went to seek the strictest kind of monastic life in the 
 depths of the North, amid the ice of Solovetsky. But not 
 even did the remote Lavra of Sabbatius and Zosimus seem 
 desolate enough to his mind ; he found out fer himself a 
 wilder solitude still on the neighbouring island of Anzer in 
 the hermitage of the venerable Eleazar, and there he spent 
 many years in prayer and fasting, mortifying his flesh by con- 
 tinual discipline : on two occasions however, he was obliged 
 to leave his beloved retreat, the first time to persuade again 
 his wife to receive the final tonsure, and the second time, in 
 company with the venerable Eleazar, to collect alms in 
 Moscow. These alms, which contrary to the counsel of 
 Nikon were kept a long time without being laid out upon the 
 embellishment of the Lavra, became the occasion of a quarrel 
 among them, and for the third time the hermit of Anzer left 
 his cell with a sad heart. In a leaky boat he committed him- 
 self to the rough waves, and with difficulty escaped from the 
 storm, and got ashore on the desert island of Kia, where he 
 planted the cross, the sign of a future monastery. A favour- 
 able wind carried him to the mouth of the river Onega, from 
 whence he went to the monastery of Kojeozersk, and then he 
 again secluded himself to follow the same rule as at Anzer 
 on an island which lay near, and excited the astonishment of 
 the brotherhood by the severity of his life. Upon the death 
 of their superior, Nikon was persuaded by the urgent 
 entreaties of the whole community to go to Novogorod, to 
 the Metropolitan Aphthonius, to ask to be blessed to the 
 1649. degree of hegumen; after three years of conventual life, 
 he was obliged by the necessities of their Church to visit 
 Moscow, and there for the first time he was seen by the young
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 195 
 
 Tsar. Struck by the noble height and bearing and by the CHAP. 
 manly eloquence of the hegumen, and having heard the - 
 report of his holy life, the pious monarch could not bring 
 himself to part with such a man, and gave him the Novos- 
 passky monastery, the burying-place of his own ancestors. 
 
 This was the beginning of the worldly greatness of Nikon, 
 but by no means the termination of his monastic austerities, 
 for in them he continued steadfast even to his last hour. 
 Here also was the beginning of those strong temptations of 
 spirit, under the weight of which he gave way at hist and 
 from being exalted was led to exalt himself. The extra- 
 ordinary favour of the Tsar distinguished the new archiman- 
 drite above all others. In the charms of his conversation 
 Alexis Michaelovich found consolation to his soul, and from 
 that time accustomed himself to be guided by his sage 
 counsels : he found in him a zeal for the Church not inferior 
 to his own, and the loftiest view not only of ecclesiastical but 
 also of political matters, which in Nikon proceeded solely from 
 the originality of his mind and from his bold openness of 
 character. During the course of three years the archimandrite 
 came every Friday to the chapel in the palace for the purpose 
 of conversing with the Tsar after Divine service ; on his way he 
 received petitions from the people, and the Tsar as he left the 
 chapel, signified his pleasure upon them, usually in favour of 
 the petitioners. In this manner Nikon already began to 
 enter partially into the direction of civil affairs. But when 
 the weakness of the virtuous Aphthonius, metropolitan of 
 Novogorod, compelled him to retire into the monastery of 
 Khoutina, the sovereign chose Nikon to be his successor, 
 and Paisius the patriarch of Jerusalem, who had come to 
 Moscow in quest of alms, consecrated him at the desire of the 
 Tsar as metropolitan of Great Novogorod. Thus by a curious 
 concurrence of circumstances, one of the eastsrn patriarchs 
 consecrated Nikon, who was destined at a subsequent period 
 to be degraded from his dignity in like manner, through the 
 instrumentality of the eastern patriarchs. His elevation and 
 his fall^were accompanied with equal eclat.
 
 196 THE PATHIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 
 
 CHAP. But Alexis had no sooner suffered Nikon to depart to take 
 possession of his see, than he began to feel himself unhappy 
 at his separation from a constant, true, and sincere friend, 
 who had become necessary to him, both from the affection 
 which he bore him personally, and for the business of the 
 state. Every winter he invited the metropolitan to Moscow, to 
 consult with him : and on account of these frequent journeys, 
 Nikon asked and obtained from the Tsar the gift of the pic- 
 turesque lake of Valdai, as a resting-place on the road; and 
 there he founded on a woody island the monastery which is 
 called the Iversky. Filled with "impressions drawn from that 
 seclusion in which he had passed the better days of his life, 
 he conceived a wish that his new convent should put him in 
 mind of mount Athos, the model of the monastic life, and he 
 built it accordingly, so as to be a close imitation of a Russian 
 monastery which was on the Holy Mountain. 
 
 Unusual authority was given by the sovereign to the 
 metropolitan in his diocese ; not only were all spiritual matters 
 subjected to the exclusive jurisdiction of his court, but even 
 all such civil causes as might affect persons belonging to 
 monasteries the parochial clergy or even the manors of the 
 Church. Nikon had, further the right of entering into the 
 prisons, and on his own personal examination releasing any 
 of the prisoners, if he found they were innocent. This con- 
 fidence of the monarch was completely justified at the time of 
 a famine which desolated Novogorod, when the metropolitan 
 built four alms-houses and daily fed all the poor among the 
 people in his own court-yard. It was justified still more in 
 the midst of a dreadful insurrection which broke out in 
 Novogorod and Pskoff. On this occasion the pastoral virtues 
 of Nikon shone in full brilliancy, for while in Pskoff the 
 irritated populace put to death their voivodes, and were with 
 difficulty got under by force of arms, in Novogorod on the 
 contrary the metropolitan was the only person who suffered. 
 He concealed in his palace the prince Khilkoff the voivode, 
 and went forth himself to the insurgent populace 2 ; blows 
 were showered thick upon him while thus desperately
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 197 
 
 exposing himself, and he was left for dead oil the square. He CHAP. 
 
 managed to rise however with the assistance of his servants, : 
 
 though with scarce any breath remaining in him, and in spite 
 of all that his body had suffered his spirit supplied him with 
 strength to walk in procession with the cross, and to celebrate 
 the liturgy in that part of the city where the insurrection was 
 raging : he was not even afraid to risk his life once more by 
 going into the very building where the rebels were assembled. 
 The magnanimous spirit of their pastor this time struck the 
 rebels themselves, though they did not cease to act against the 
 government : they cut off and blockaded the road leading to 
 the capital, and made a convention with the Swedes to betray 
 Novogorod into their hands. But here again Nikon succeeded 
 in giving such information to the Tsar as enabled him to take 
 the necessary measures of precaution, while he himself pub- 
 licly in the cathedral anathematized the traitors, and then 
 calmly awaited the conclusion of the storm. The storm at 
 length subsided broken by his immoveable firmness, and he 
 had the consolation of seeing the people in penitence apply to 
 him for spiritual absolution and for the pardon of the Tsar, 
 who had given the metropolitan absolute powers for the trial 
 and punishment of the guilty. 
 
 Such were the acts of Nikon in his diocese, in civil affairs, 
 while his pastoral zeal for the morals of his clergy and flock 
 and for the due magnificence of the ceremonies of the Church 
 was carried to the highest pitch. Gifted with a fluent eloquence 
 Nikon constantly taught in the Church, and to hear his ani- 
 mated preaching full of the holy scripture the people thronged 
 together from great distances. He substituted living addresses 
 of his own for the reading of the select instructions appointed 
 for each day; he also turned his attention to the Church- 
 plate, furniture, and vestments, in which he loved cleanliness 
 and magnificence, that they might become their high uses : 
 he regulated also the order of divine service itself, for through 
 an evil habit which had crept in those who ministered in 
 divine service for the sake of expedition read at once in both 
 the choirs, two or three voices only together. The Kathisms
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 
 
 CHAP, and Kanons 3 for Vigil, and even at the Liturgy the Ecteneias 
 ~ and Exclamations, were run together with the singing of the 
 choir. The metropolitan strictly forbade such irregularity in 
 all the churches of his diocese, and the same was put a stop 
 to in the other dioceses also by edicts of the Tsar issued at 
 the advice of Nikon. He appointed also instead of the 
 inharmonious singing then in use another of a sweeter kind, 
 which he borrowed from the ancient chants of Kieff and 
 Greece. The Tsar was so much pleased with this new style 
 of singing that he introduced it into his own private chapel, 
 from whence it soon began to spread to other churches and 
 monasteries. 
 
 The aged Patriarch Joseph viewed with dissatisfaction these 
 ecclesiastical regulations of Nikon, and considered them as 
 mere innovations, from a weakness not unnatural in a very 
 old man who was standing on the brink of the grave. Many 
 of the clergy who surrounded him, the arch-priest Abbakum, 
 the priests Lazarus and Niketas, Stephen the confessor of the 
 Tsar, the two Neronoffs, the deacon Theodore and his brother 
 Gregory, supported the old man in his most unfortunate preju- 
 dice, and abused his confidence in the printing of the Psalter, 
 the Kormchay, and the Catechism, disfiguring them by gross 
 errors and unauthorized glosses of their own. This they did 
 the more easily, as the chief of the Palace-Court where the 
 printing was carried on, the Prince Lvoff, was of the same 
 sentiments with themselves. Many of the unlearned speedily 
 began to be infected with their erroneous views, though 
 according to the testimony of a contemporary writer, Igna- 
 tius metropolitan of Tobolsk, the older and more learned 
 people refused to receive their new and false doctrines. 
 In the mean time, the indispensable necessity of a correction 
 of the Church books came to be so evident and so much felt, 
 and the demand for increased learning among the clergy 
 gained such strength, that the Tsar begged Silvester Kossoff 
 the metropolitan of Kieff to send him some monks from his 
 illustrious Academy, to compare the Slavonic translation of 
 the Bible which had been printed incorrectly by the Prince
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 199 
 
 of Ostrog, with the Greek. A private individual emulated CHAP. 
 
 the Tsar in his zeal : Theodore Rtischeff, a pious and learned 
 
 boyar, founded near Moscow the convent of the Transfigura- 
 tion, the germ of the future Academy, to consist of thirty 
 brethren being monks whom he had collected in Little Russia 
 for the translation of ecclesiastical books. Epiphanius Sla- 
 venetsky, priest and monk of the Pechersky at Kieff, the 
 most celebrated theologian of his time, was one of the learned 
 brotherhood of this convent, and under his direction were 
 published many lives and discourses of the holy Fathers, and 
 all the Canons of the Councils were translated from the 
 Greek. 
 
 Nor was it only with Kieff and Little Russia that our 
 ecclesiastical relations became closer and more frequent, but 
 the same was the case also with the East. When Paisius the 
 patriarch of Jerusalem left Moscow, Arsenius Souchanoff, the 
 bursar of the Trinity monastery, was sent with him to the 
 Holy Places of the East, to observe how the Rule of the Church 
 was followed by the four Oecumenical Thrones, inasmuch as 
 there had arisen differences of opinion and disputes about 
 certain ceremonies. Arsenius returned twice from Moldavia 
 from the patriarch of Jerusalem to the Tsar and to the Het- 
 man of the Cossacks, on business which related to the pre- 
 tender who had appeared among them. At length he left 
 Paisius, and met at Galats another Greek pontiff, Atha- 
 nasius Chartularius, who had sat for a short time in the 
 chair of Constantinople. This Athanasius after having been 
 graciously received in Moscow died on the road as he was 
 returning, at Loubni, where his uncorrupted body still lies. 
 On account of the fierce persecutions under which the Church 
 of Constantinople was then suffering and the unhappy end of 
 the patriarch Parthenius, Souchanoff was unable to see his 
 successor ; but in Alexandria he conferred with the learned 
 patriarch Joannicius, and obtained from him an answer to a 
 great number of questions relative to the Church. In Jeru- 
 salem he observed and described minutely the whole order of 
 Divine service, among the Greeks, and returned through
 
 200 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 
 
 CHAP. Damascus, where he had an interview with the patriarch of 
 Antioch, and from thence through Georgia. Thus he gave 
 in the description of his journey a sufficiently full account 
 of the Eastern Church, though somewhat shaded by his pre- 
 judiced view of the Greek character, and hy mistakes in some 
 of his observations. Arsenius returned in the last year of the 
 life of the Patriarch Joseph, when the self-willed priests about 
 him who were dissatisfied with Nikon were already intro- 
 ducing evident schisms. They took advantage of some dis- 
 agreeable observations of Arsenius, to rise in opposition 
 against the metropolitan of Novogorod, under the pretext that 
 he desired to conform in every respect with the Greek Church, 
 while that Church herself had not retained her ancient 
 orthodoxy. Thus by degrees there gathered clouds on the 
 horizon of the Church. 
 
 At this time the relics of St. Sabba of Zvenigorod, the dis- 
 ciple of the venerable Sergius, were discovered, and the Tsar 
 in joy and gratitude at their manifestation convoked soon 
 afterwards by the advice of Nikon a synod, for the purpose 
 of instituting a solemn commemoration in honour of the 
 three great prelates who had suffered for the Russian Church, 
 Job, Hermogenes, and the Holy Metropolitan Philip ; that 
 from their tombs near and afar off they might be brought 
 together and united with the assembly of prelates in that 
 cathedral of the Assumption, where they had shone con- 
 spicuous by their pastoral virtues. The Tsar Michael Theo- 
 dorovich, had paid this last duty to his predecessor the Tsar 
 Shouesky, whose remains were restored to him from their 
 grave in Poland to be deposited in the cathedral of the Arch- 
 angel ; his son Michael did the same for these three prelates. 
 The body of the great Hermogenes was solemnly translated 
 from the Choudoff monastery to his own cathedral, and was 
 placed above the floor close to the brazen tabernacle of 
 the Coat of our Lord. The aged Barlaam metropolitan of 
 Ilostoff was sent to Starits for the relics of Job ; the patriarch 
 Joseph himself, feeling already the near approach of death, 
 when he placed the first of the line of patriarchs, Job, close
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 201 
 
 to his own predecessor Joasaph, asked the Tsar to give him a CHAP. 
 
 x 
 place himself at the feet of Job; and after a few days this his 
 
 last wish was fulfilled. 
 
 In the mean time the Metropolitan Nikon, who had 
 formerly been a monk there himself, had been despatched to 
 the Solovetsky monastery on a mission of entreaty from the 
 Tsar to the relics of Philip, that that great prelate would re- 
 move from the place of his rest, and come to the capital to 
 absolve as it were by his presence the spirit of John who 
 slept there, and who had been the cause of his martyrdom ; 
 this the mild Tsar Alexis besought of him, as if pleading to a 
 living man for a living offender ; and Philip removed, at his 
 request, and again came over the waters of the White sea, 
 which he had already passed over once before in his coffin, as 
 in a funereal boat. Nikon was the steersman, and he again 
 put in at the desert island of Kia, and the mouth of the 
 Onega, where he had formerly been saved when he got to land 
 from his leaky vessel, and from thence he directed his course 
 to the convent of Bielo-ozero. Informing the Tsar from time 
 to time of his progress, Nikon continued his way by water 
 from the convent of St. Cyrill to Yaroslavla, and by land from 
 thence to the Lavra. He had then no presentiment that 
 thirty years later he himself, after having experienced all the 
 inconstancy of human fortune the highest step of grandeur 
 and the lowest depth of poverty, was to return an exile and a 
 prisoner by that same road to the convent of the new Jeru- 
 salem, alive as far as Yaroslavla, and the remainder of the way 
 after death. The young Tsar and Barlaam the aged and de- 
 crepit metropolitan of Rostoff hastened to meet the relics of 
 St. Philip at the gates of the capital, but Barlaam gave way 
 and died before he reached them, from the weight of years 
 and excessive joy. Many signs of healing marked the solemn 
 return of Philip to his former ecclesiastical diocese ; he stood 
 as it were again, though in his coffin, on the same spot from 
 whence he had rebuked John, and they who were suffering 
 from any plague or disease, as before they who were oppressed, 
 now flocked to him as to a living fountain of relief.
 
 202 THE PATRIARCHS. V. JOSEPH. 
 
 CHAP. It seemed as if Philip from his patriarchal chair again ruled 
 - the Church of all Russia, there being at that time no other 
 head : the Patriarch Joseph and the guardian of the vacant 
 see, the metropolitan of Rostoff, were both dead. The senior 
 prelate of all the rest, Nikon of Novogorod, obstinately refused 
 the patriarchal throne in spite of all the entreaties of the Tsar, 
 by whom he was beloved, and whom he loved himself. He 
 knew that those who had been about the person of Joseph, 
 and a strong party among the clergy, looked on him as a de- 
 spiser of Russian antiquity, from his attachment to the Eastern 
 Church. He saw the affection of the Tsar, but he knew also 
 how great an influence the boyars who surrounded him 
 possessed over the mild disposition of their sovereign. And 
 the austere character of Nikon, who trusted in the purity of 
 his intentions, was unhappily too little tempered with pastoral 
 condescendence and long-suffering. All this he was conscious 
 of himself when he so firmly rejected all entreaties, but the 
 Tsar's affection for him prevailed. In the church of the 
 Assumption and before the relics of Philip, with all the 
 council and the synod assembled, he once more for the last 
 time and in the strongest terms conjured Nikon not to leave 
 the Church of Russia in widowhood without a pastor, and 
 the firmness of the prelate was shaken at such an appeal ; he 
 asked, " Whether they would always honour him as their true 
 chief shepherd and spiritual father ? and whether they would 
 suffer him to regulate the affairs of the Church ?" And when 
 he had heard them all as with one soul swear that they would, 
 he declared at length his consent to undertake the high office, 
 to the general joy of the Tsar, the council, and the people, 
 and thus pronounced against himself the sentence of his 
 own doom.
 
 CHAP. XL 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 VI. NIKON. 
 THE six years of the patriarchal rule of Nikon formed the CHAP. 
 
 XI 
 
 most brilliant period of the reign of Alexis ; the genius and 
 
 1653. 
 
 enterprising character of that prelate inspired the councils of 
 the Tsar, and were reflected in the glory of his victories over 
 the neighbouring powers ; but the years which he had passed 
 in the exercises of the monastic cell and in the chair of 
 Novogorod were the best time of his life; in the cares of 
 civil government he lost his own inward peace of mind. One 
 thing only was there to console Nikon, and that was the true 
 mutual affection subsisting between himself and his sovereign, 
 which possessed them both to such a degree, that they ap- 
 peared as one and the same person in all acts of government, 
 passing all their days together in the church, in the council 
 chamber, and at the friendly board. To unite themselves still 
 closer by the bonds of spiritual relationship, the patriarch 
 became the godfather of all the children of his sovereign, and 
 they both made a mutual vow never to desert each other on 
 this side the grave. And indeed this was the most affecting 
 circumstance of all in the fortunes of both of them, that 
 even in the time of those long-continued troubles which were 
 raised between them by the envy of men who wished them 
 ill, they preserved in their hearts to the very last moment this 
 tender friendship ; and there was nothing which the courtiers 
 so much dreaded as the chance of a personal meeting between 
 them. 
 
 The correction of the Church books was the first and per- 
 manent object of the patriarch's attention. This work had
 
 204 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, been proposed as early as the time of Jolin tlie Terrible, in 
 - the Hundred Chapter Council, but had been laid aside, together 
 with many other useful undertakings, in the dark years of his 
 mental malady ; it was afterwards returned to under Theo- 
 dore, when the Church books were printed, though very im- 
 perfectly, and was again interrupted by the troubles of the 
 pretenders. The Tsar Michael Theodorovich and the patri- 
 arch his father shewed an equal sense of the indispensable 
 necessity of this, when they gradually corrected the Directories 
 and the Office-books, after having detected the errors which 
 had crept into them from transcribers and printers. But to 
 put the last hand to the work required men more learned and 
 better minded than had been those priests and deacons who 
 had been employed to print the books under Joseph. When 
 the Patriarch Nikon, under whom the Kormchay or Nomo- 
 canon which they had printed was published, perceived, 
 although too late to correct them, all the gross artifices of its 
 unprincipled editors, especially respecting the position of the 
 fingers in making the sign of the Cross, he inflicted on them 
 a severe punishment, and so increased the number of his 
 enemies. 
 
 The correction of the books by a synod was thus effected. 
 Soon after his appointment, Nikon, in examining the con- 
 firmatory letters of the Patriarch Jeremiah and the Greek 
 Council on the appointment of the first Patriarch Job, read 
 in them with alarm what a condemnation was incurred by 
 every innovation in Church matters contrary to the canons 
 of the Holy Fathers. He also read on an ancient Sakkos or 
 Vestment which had belonged to Photius, sometime metro- 
 politan of all Russia, and which had been brought from 
 Greece two hundred and fifty years before, a copy of the 
 Creed worked in pearls, and on examining the same Creed 
 as it then stood in the printed books as well as the order of 
 the Liturgy, he was shocked to discover that there were 
 discrepancies between them and the earliest copies. He then 
 1655. entreated the Tsar to convoke a council in his palace, to con- 
 sult definitively for the correction of the books ; and there
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. XIKOX. 205 
 
 assembled the Metropolitans Macarius of Novogorod, Corne- CHAP. 
 
 lius of Kazan, Jonah of Rostoff, Silvester of the Steeps, ' 
 
 Michael of Servia, and the Archbishops Marcellus of Vo- 
 logda, Sophronius of Souzdal, Michael of Riazan, and the 
 Bishop Paul of Kolomna, who in the end became the head of 
 the schism, and the cause of the condemnation of Nikon 
 himself. 
 
 The patriarch made the following proposition to the synod : 
 ""Whereas in the new books printed at Moscow there are 
 found many discrepancies from the ancient Greek and Sla- 
 vonian copies, and these errors have come from the ignorance 
 of transcribers and printers; ought we therefore to prefer 
 the new books to the old ones, which the great divines and 
 teachers of the East and of the whole Church followed, and 
 following them pleased God, which were used by Athanasius 
 and Basil, Gregory, Chrysostom, and Damascene, and by the 
 Russian saints and workers of miracles Peter, Alexis, Jonah, 
 and Philip ?" The monarch and the council unanimously 
 replied, " It is meet and right to correct the new books by 
 the old Slavonic and Greek manuscripts, that we may in all 
 things follow the primitive rule of the Church/' 
 
 Then the Tsar, in conjunction with the patriarch, gave orders 
 to collect together to Moscow the ancient manuscript books 
 which had been translated eight hundred years or more before 
 from the Greek, from the Trinity Lavra and the convents of 
 Novogorod, from the monastery of Joseph of Volokolampsk, 
 and from other places ; and in order that not only their own 
 will and pleasure but also the judgment of the Oecumenical 
 patriarchs might have a share in the undertaking, they de- 
 spatched to Constantinople with letters of enquiry a Greek of 
 ability and learning named Manuel. In accordance with their 
 commendable wishes, Paisius, patriarch of Constantinople, 
 convoked the Greek bishops, and confirmed by a synodal act 
 the decision of the council of Moscow, to follow in all things 
 the orthodox text of the Eastern doctors as it was preserved 
 in the ancient Greek and Slavonic books, and sent a copy 
 of the Nicene Creed to serve as an immutable model to
 
 206 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, which not one word should be added, and from which not 
 
 XI. 
 
 one word should be taken away. 
 
 The brotherly epistle of the patriarch to Nikon respecting 
 the order and mystical significancy of the Liturgy and many 
 other subjects, was filled at once with deep knowledge, a great 
 zeal for orthodoxy, and a fervent pastoral affection. Paisius 
 entreated him not to depart in any respect from the rule of the 
 great Church of Constantinople ; that all the five patriarchal 
 thrones, of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, 
 and Moscow, forming together one (Ecumenical Church, 
 should be one not only in doctrines and discipline, but also 
 in their very ceremonies ; he proposed the Orthodox Confes- 
 sion of Peter Mogila, corrected by all the patriarchs, as an 
 accurate expression of the doctrines of the Eastern Church. 
 But while applauding the zeal of Nikon, he at the same time 
 entreated him to be indulgent to those who had erred not in 
 any essential doctrines of the faith but only in some un- 
 important external matters, that so he might retain them 
 within the pale of the Church. And it would have been more 
 prudent, had the mild counsel of Paisius been followed ; but 
 unfortunately the natural hastiness of Nikon's temper, joined 
 to his ardent zeal for eradicating all that was evil in the 
 Church, carried him beyond the bounds which pastoral long- 
 suffering might have observed. 
 
 The Tsar and the patriarch being gratified by the letter of 
 Paisius, sent the Bursar Arsenius Souchanoff a second time 
 with rich alms in quest of ancient manuscripts to the Holy 
 Mountain of Athos, where he collected as many as five hun- 
 dred Greek books, among which was a copy of the Gospels 
 written 1050 years before. The (Ecumenical patriarchs 
 also emulated the monasteries of Athos, and sent by Arse- 
 nius two hundred similar manuscripts, which continue to the 
 present day to form the greatest treasure of the Patriarchal 
 Library at Moscow. For the sake of adding greater autho- 
 rity and circumspection to what he did the Patriarch Nikon 
 took the opportunity of the arrival at Moscow of the Patri- 
 archs Macarius of Antioch and Gabriel of Servia 1 , and of the
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. XIKOX. 207 
 
 Metropolitans Gregory of Nice and Gideon of Moldavia and CHAP. 
 
 Wallachia, to convoke another council, which confirmed the 
 
 acts of the first in the presence and with the concurrence of 
 the Eastern hierarchs. 
 
 Nikon particularly enquired of them respecting the position 
 of the fingers in making the sign of the Cross in the East, 
 and learned from every one of them that "the Orthodox 
 Greek Church from the very beginning down to the present 
 time has always joined together and still joins together to 
 make the sign of the Cross the three first large fingers, as is 
 customary also in the Russian ;" he enquired also respecting 
 the differences between the new books printed at Moscow 
 and the ancient Greek and Slavonian copies, differences which 
 had crept in during that dark period, when, from the calami- 
 tous state of the East, the Church of Russia was for an hun- 
 dred and twenty years unable to keep up regular communica- 
 tions with the throne of Constantinople, so as either to receive 
 from thence learned prelates, or send thither her own for 
 institution as before : and both the patriarchs together with 
 the metropolitans approved of the correction of the books. 
 
 Upon this decided steps were taken to effect the necessary 
 correction according to the ancient Greek and Slavonian 
 copies; and first of all there was printed at Moscow the 
 Sloujebnik, or Service-book ; after which followed others, and 
 a work entitled The Skreejal, that is, The Table, being a 
 spiritual collection of many doctrinal matters compiled out of 
 the writings of the Holy Fathers. But when all these prudent 
 measures of precaution which had guided the council in the 
 act itself of correcting and printing the books ceased, as was 
 the case, to be observed in their introduction into all the 
 churches and monasteries throughout the country, and they 
 began with severity to take away from all the monasteries 
 whatever copies they might possess of the old impression, there 
 immediately arose a murmuring among the people which 
 was taken advantage of by evil-disposed men, for they abusing 
 the ignorance of the simple people called the books of Nikon 
 " the new books," as indeed they were at the time of their
 
 208 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, appearance, and fraudulently concealed tlieir perfect agree- 
 ment with the most ancient copies in the Greek and Slavonic 
 languages ; from which on the contrary those which they 
 called "the old hooks" printed since the erection of the 
 patriarchate had departed. The most active disseminators of 
 such notions were Nikon's personal enemies, the Directory- 
 keepers of the Patriarch Joseph, who had been punished for 
 their corrupted edition of the Nomocanon, the popes Hab- 
 bakuk, Lazarus, Nicetas, and Stephen, and the two Neronoffa 
 named Gregory and Theodore, deacons, who became the 
 sowers of schisms. Thus did a most excellent and useful 
 undertaking become the cause of unexpected disturbances. 
 
 The same energy, which suddenly began to shew itself from 
 the time of the elevation of Nikon to the patriarchal throne 
 in the government of the Church, manifested itself also 
 simultaneously in the affairs of the State, and its first bril- 
 liant effect was the reunion of Little Russia. This had long 
 before been ardently desired by the Hetman Kmelnitsky, but 
 the cautious policy of the court of Moscow had kept Russia 
 still confined within those limits to which she had been re- 
 duced by the wars of the pretenders and the weakness of the 
 new government under Michael. In the mean time the 
 pride of Poland had proportionally increased, and was morti- 
 fying to our Tsars, whom she barely recognised, and that too 
 without giving them their proper title. The miseries of the 
 Ukraine increased, and it was subjected to every kind of 
 persecution, on account of its orthodoxy and spirit of nation- 
 ality. But in the mean time, without reckoning the force of 
 the horde beyond the Falls, numerous villages of the Cossacks, 
 who were divided into regiments under the command of their 
 chiefs and their hetman, could send into the field a body of 
 60,000 of the best cavalry. Bogdan Kmelitsky wa's the soul 
 of all the Ukraine. Never vanquished himself in any of his 
 numerous engagements, he surrounded the camp of the 
 King John Casimir himself, under Sboroff, and dictated to 
 him conditions, tending to the independence of Little Russia, 
 and the free exercise of her religion. The fixing of the army
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKOX. 209 
 
 of the Cossacks at 40,000, the grant of a seat in the Polish CHAP. 
 
 V T 
 
 Senate to the metropolitan of Kieff, the removal of the 
 schools of the Jesuits from Kieff, and of the Jews from the 
 villages of the Ukraine, were the most important articles of 
 this treaty : for to such a point had the persecutions caused 
 by the Unia proceeded, that the office of supplying wine and 
 oblations for the Liturgies of the Orthodox was actually let 
 out by contract to the Jews. But the hetman in his turn 
 was betrayed by his allies of the Crimea, and left at the 
 mercy of the king, from whom he was compelled to accept 
 very hard conditions near the town of Bielay-Tserkoff or 
 Whitechurch; and so seeing that there was no longer any 
 security to be looked for on the side of Poland, he began 
 to draw closer to Russia. 
 
 He began by obtaining permission for the Cossacks to 
 settle on the left bank of the Dnieper, within the Russian 
 frontiers, and he organized there five new regiments with all 
 the privileges of the other fifteen regiments of the Ukraine. 
 At length, on the Polish commanders making a movement as 
 if to attack him, he took refuge with the whole strength of 
 the Horde beyond the Falls under the powerful protection of 
 the Tsar ; and in a letter to the Patriarch Nikon, in which he 
 proposed certain terms of subjection, he petitioned him to 
 unite the Ukraine to Russia. A council of the spiritual and 
 secular orders was assembled in the palace of the Kremlin. 
 The sovereign determined before he took up arms, to demand 
 satisfaction once more from the king of Poland : he offered 
 his mediation for the protection of Orthodoxy; but the 
 peaceful propositions of the ambassadors of the Tsar, were 
 haughtily rejected by the Polish government, and war was 
 declared, while the Ukraine was received for ever into subjec- 
 tion to Russia. 
 
 The Voivode Boutourlin was sent to the hetman for the 
 completion of this important affair, which did not cost Russia 
 so much as one single drop of blood. Kmelnitsky, who was 
 at the summit of his glory and respected both by the Khan 
 of the Crimea and by the Sultan, having compelled the hos-
 
 210 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, podar of Moldavia to give his daughter in marriage to his son, 
 asked the army of Little Russia in Pereyaslavla, to whom they 
 would wish to belong ; " to the unbelieving Khan or Sultan, 
 to the Latin King or to the Orthodox Tsar?" and having 
 heard them answer with a shout as one man, "We wish to be 
 under the Orthodox Tsar;" he took the oath of allegiance 
 together with the whole of the Ukraine. The free election 
 of their hetman by the Cossacks, with the privilege of 
 having their own separate courts among themselves, and 
 the fixing their army at 60,000 men, were the principal 
 conditions. But in Kieff, the Metropolitan Silvester Kossoff, 
 and the archimandrite of the Pechersky Innocentius Gizel, 
 did not readily bring themselves to exchange their ancient 
 dependence which was merely nominal upon the See of 
 Constantinople for a real subjection to the patriarch of 
 Moscow ; however, after a short time, the same archimandrite 
 was sent by the metropolitan to Moscow to obtain the recog- 
 nition and confirmation of the rights of the clergy of Little 
 Russia : by the prudent policy of Nikon he was received in a 
 nattering manner and dismissed with presents ; the complete 
 union and amalgamation however of the metropolitan see of 
 Kieff did not take place till thirty years afterwards. 
 
 The Polish war began at the commencement of the year 
 1654; the Tsar himself accompanied his army, having left 
 both his own family and the kingdom itself in the charge of 
 the patriarch ; the Boyars of the Council were permitted to 
 do nothing without his advice. Never before had the Russian 
 arms been covered with so much glory as they were in this 
 short and brilliant campaign. The Cossacks co-operated with 
 the Tsar in the capture of Smolensk, his ancient patrimony, 
 and after it thirty of the most important towns of White 
 Russia surrendered themselves to him one after the other. 
 Polotsk, at the persuasion of her eloquent Hegumen Ignatius, 
 opened her gates to a sovereign of the same religion with her 
 own. But in the midst of these splendid victories, the Tsar 
 was afflicted by the arrival of intelligence that a dreadful 
 pestilence had broken out and was raging in Moscow and its
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKOX. 211 
 
 neighbourhood, which filled the capital with dead bodies, so CHAP. 
 that there were not hands to bury them. The patriarch 
 calmed in some degree the agitation of the people by a 
 pastoral letter, and recommending them to take certain 
 measures of precaution against the plague, occupied himself 
 with the care of the royal family, which had been entrusted 
 to his charge. He moved with them from one monastery to 
 another, and satisfied himself personally that the places where 
 they were to stop were free from danger, and at length had 
 the satisfaction of restoring in safety to his sovereign at 
 Viasma all that was dearest to his heart. The grateful 
 Alexis in the affectionate emotion of his joy bestowed on 
 Nikon the appellation of Great Lord, as his own grand- 
 father the Patriarch Philaret had formerly been styled; 
 and notwithstanding Nikon's opposition ordered this title 
 to be written in all the Acts of the kingdom, which was 
 afterwards turned against him as a matter of accusation, 
 although he himself would never allow that exalted title to 
 be given him in the Church. 
 
 During the short stay of the Tsar, the patriarchs of 
 Antioch and Servia visited the capital for the correction of 
 the books, as did also ambassadors with proposals of friend- 
 ship from Charles X. the new king of Sweden, who was him- 
 self at war with Poland. But the court of Moscow through 
 the artful persuasions of Austria alienated itself from Sweden, 
 and thus committed a capital error in policy. This false step 
 was partly caused by the unfortunate advice of Nikon, who 
 being still at that time metropolitan of Novogorod, ardently 
 desired to recover from Sweden our ancient provinces of 
 Ingria and Carelia, with all their numerous churches and 
 monasteries, which had been wrested away from Russia during 
 the calamitous period of the vacancy of the throne. Dazzled 
 by the rapid course of success which had united Little and 
 White Russia, he thought the day was come for recovering all 
 our losses ; and in truth, this was the most brilliant moment 
 of the reign of Alexis, a moment which might well recall to 
 mind the best times of Russia before the pretenders.
 
 212 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP. At the same time the adventurous Ataman Kabaroff fought 
 
 with the Daours on the banks of the Amoor, and descended 
 
 its course to the Eastern ocean, subjecting the remotest 
 bounds of Siberia to the Russian Tsar ; and our first embassy 
 penetrated to Pekin to the court of Bogdi-Khan, the emperor 
 of China, who was equally astonished at the existence and 
 power of Russia. The hordes of the Kalmouks who wandered 
 over the boundless Steppes of Astrachan became subject to 
 Russia; and Stephen, the hospodar of Moldavia, like the 
 hetman of the Ukraine, asked the Tsar to receive him under his 
 high protection, while all the neighbouring powers sought for 
 his alliance. Alexis' second Polish campaign covered him 
 with fresh glory. Grodno and Kovno fell before the Russian 
 arms, which extended our empire almost to its present limits ; 
 and Wilna itself, the capital of Lithuania, which had from of 
 old been so hostile to us, witnessed the triumphant entry of 
 the victorious Tsar. Poland was struck with terror to find 
 herself deprived of all her capitals, for Warsaw and Cracow 
 had fallen before the warlike king of Sweden ; the unfor- 
 tunate John Kasimir fled for protection to the Roman 
 empire. 
 
 Then it was that the crafty influence of the Austrian envoy, 
 the Jesuit Allegretti, had its effect, and a truce was concluded 
 with Poland, which ceded all the conquered places till a 
 lasting peace should be concluded, solely for the purpose of 
 turning our arms against our Swedish allies. To draw the 
 Tsar still further into this ruinous war, they offered him the 
 crown of Poland, and he was even solemnly proclaimed in the 
 Diet, as the heir to John Kasimir. Seduced by this artful 
 policy, the Tsar suddenly directed his army upon Swedish 
 Livonia, and that movement was the turning point of his 
 military fortune. Dinabourg and some other fortresses were 
 taken by storm, but when he assaulted the strong town of 
 Riga, the Tsar met with a repulse which cooled his love for 
 martial exploits. He returned to Polotsk, and thence to the 
 capital. There he met again his family a second time pre- 
 served safe by the care of Nikon from the infection of the
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 213 
 
 plague, which had raged without intermission during the CHAP. 
 
 whole period of the campaign, breaking out afresh in a 
 
 dreadful manner at different places. In the mean time the 
 useless war with Sweden was continued for two years with 
 varying fortune on the part of our leaders, and it was only by 
 the prudence of Ordin Naschokin, deputy of Livonia, that 
 this conquered province was preserved to Russia. In the 
 mean time died the brave General Boutourlin, who, together 
 with the son of the hetman, had ravaged the southern fron- 
 tiers of Poland. Bogdan Kmelnitsky also, the great author of 
 the deliverance of Little Russia, died almost immediately after 1657. 
 Silvester Kossoff metropolitan of Kieff, and in consequence of 
 this loss the whole of the Ukraine was for many years 
 exposed to anarchy, treason, and bloodshed. 
 
 At the same time that the external affairs of the kingdom 
 had taken such an unfavourable turn, there arose within its 
 bosom a disturbance injurious to the interests of the Church, 
 with reference to the Patriarch Nikon. During the two 
 years' absence of the Tsar, he had been a strict governor, and 
 had regulated the affairs of the kingdom authoritatively not 
 as the chief prelate but as the friend of his sovereign, whose 
 unlimited confidence he enjoyed. This had roused the hatred 
 and envy of the boyars of the first rank who were related to 
 the crown, the Morozoffs, Miloslafskys, and Streshneffs, and 
 of the Princes Troubetskoy, Dolgorouky, Odoefsky, and Ro- 
 modanofsky. The Tsaritsa herself was secretly ill-disposed 
 towards him, either from her relationship to the Miloslafskvs, 
 or from jealousy of his influence over her husband. Those 
 nobles who Arere kept down and thrown into the shade by the 
 splendour of Nikon's genius, could not endure with patience 
 to see him exercise the sole authority in the Assembly of the 
 Boyars, and in the Tsar's Council. Nikon, on the other side, 
 from the natural stiffness of his character, was ever deepening 
 the offence which they took by the roughness and arbi- 
 trariness with which he acted, and by making them feel too 
 much his superiority. Macarius the patriarch of Antioch, 
 who in his two visits 2 to Russia was witness both of the pros-
 
 214 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, perity and of the fall of this illustrious man, has written an 
 ~~ account of his life and administration during the absence of 
 the Tsar Alexis. 
 
 Nikon, although weighed down with the whole burden of 
 the civil aifairs of the empire, still continued to be the strict 
 monk on the patriarchal throne, observing all the services of 
 the Church, and that too with so much zeal for the instruc- 
 tion of the clergy, that during the Liturgy he always had by 
 him some one or other of the oldest copies of the Office-Book, 
 with which he compared the ceremonies and the prayers. 
 He shewed himself to the people only in the church, and 
 in the short passage from his apartments to the cathedral of 
 the Assumption he was used to receive petitions, which he 
 either decided on the spot, or the next day. In the morning 
 at a fixed hour on the ringing of a bell the boyars charged 
 with the administration of the government assembled in the 
 Cross-Room 3 in the palace. The patriarch came out to them 
 and decided on the business submitted to him standing ; but if 
 any one came too late for this audience he had to wait for some 
 hours in his antichamber. On one occasion when certain of 
 the boyars returning from the Polish campaign, had brought 
 with them some Icons of Latin device, and put up organs in 
 their houses, the patriarch ordered both the one and the other 
 to be taken away from them and to be committed to the 
 flames, as things inconsistent with Orthodoxy; and he himself 
 rebuked them aloud in the cathedral in the presence of the 
 sovereign, calling each one by his name. 
 
 The patriarch was not less hard upon the clergy. Having 
 himself passed through all its ranks and conditions, having 
 been a novice in a monastery, parish priest for twQ years in a 
 country village and in the capital, then again for a long time 
 monk and recluse in a wild solitude, hegumen in a poor and 
 lone convent, archimandrite of a rich monastery, metropoli- 
 tan of the first diocese, and last of all patriarch, he had 
 experienced all that a spiritual person can experience, and 
 having shewn in every station a strict pattern of good conduct 
 he exacted the same with equal strictness from all who were
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 215 
 
 under his authority. He severely punished intemperance, CHAP. 
 according to the custom of those times with stripes and 
 imprisonment, not sparing even his own confessor. Nikon 
 required also, as far as it was possible, that those who came to 
 him to be ordained either as Deacons or Priests, should have 
 received some degree of education, at the least that they 
 should be able to read and write, and he never ordained in his 
 own patriarchal diocese any one whom he had not first per- 
 sonally examined in reading ; and this too appeared at that 
 time a very oppressive measure. But above all, he was 
 remarkable for his severity in punishing every violation of 
 ecclesiastical order; he was not content with bringing to 
 punishment those evil-minded men Habbakuk, Lazarus, 
 Nicetas, and the Neronoffs, but pursued with his anger also 
 Paul of Kolomna, as soon as he observed that this bishop 
 after having given his assent to the vote of the Synod for the 
 correction of the books, was openly doing all he could to pre- 
 vent its being carried into effect. The patriarch deprived 
 him by his own authority of his bishopric, and confined him 
 in a monastery, without any trial by other bishops, and thus 
 exposed himself to the accusation of having violated the 
 Canons of the Councils, which order that every bishop 
 should have a regular trial. The superior clergy were irri- 
 tated by this conduct, and endured it only for the time ; they 
 had already long ago been mortified at the extraordinary 
 grandeur of Nikon, a grandeur which seemed only proper for 
 Philaret, as the father of the Tsar, but which excited the envy 
 of his equals against a man of obscure extraction. Those who 
 were nearest to the person of the patriarch, were at the same 
 time also his bitterest enemies, Pitirim, metropolitan of Sarai, 
 the vicar of his ecclesiastical province, and Paul, archiman- 
 drite of the Choudoff monastery, who eventually succeeded to 
 the place of Pitirim, when the latter was translated to the 
 metropolitan see of Novogorod ; also Hilarion archbishop of 
 Riazan, and others, although they had all been ordained by 
 the patriarch himself. 
 
 There was only one man who sincerely loved Nikon, from
 
 216 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, the recollection of his services and his unchangeable affection, 
 
 and that man was the mild Tsar Alexis, and to him alone was 
 
 the patriarch devoted with all his soul, and was zealous even 
 to excess for his glory. He could not see with patience the 
 influence which the boyars about his person exercised over 
 him, and they at length by their intrigues attained the end 
 they wished for, in estranging the monarch from him. The 
 Tsar's two years' absence taught him to do without the con- 
 stant advice of the patriarch ; the unsuccessful Swedish cam- 
 paign, after the brilliant successes in Lithuania, inspired an 
 involuntary feeling against the untoward counsel which had 
 prompted that war, and on his return, the general outcry of the 
 "boyars and clergy against the self-willed absolutism of Nikon 
 contributed still more to cool the affections of the Tsar. The 
 patriarch soon remarked this. Their daily friendly inter- 
 course at table and their frequent private consultations were 
 discontinued. Some ecclesiastical dispositions made by 
 Nikon were set aside by the Tsar. Thus by an oukaz, the 
 monastery of the Epiphany at Polotsk which the patriarch 
 had declared a Stauropegia, that is, to depend from henceforth 
 immediately on himself alone, Avas suddenly taken away from 
 him and placed under the jurisdiction of Callistus, who had 
 been consecrated bishop of the diocese of Polotsk. 
 
 In the mean time, the Monastery-Court, which had re- 
 mained inoperative during the powerful administration of 
 Nikon, began already gradually to judge in causes affect- 
 ing spiritual persons, and their landed properties, and some- 
 times questions were raised about the properties themselves 
 when they had been acquired contrary to the edicts of John, 
 and the Council of the Boyars began to act with more deci- 
 sion, grounding themselves upon that constitution. Nikon was 
 not of a character to yield to men with whom he had not been 
 accustomed even to divide the confidence of the Tsar. He 
 expressed himself in terms of indignation at the new state of 
 affairs, and still hoped and expected to regain the attention 
 of his sovereign; but the nobles, knowing the sensitiveness 
 of his disposition, fed it with repeated personal insults.
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 217 
 
 Every thing was prepared for a complete rupture, they only CHAP. 
 waited for a convenient opportunity. 
 
 Perceiving the loss of his former influence in the affairs of 
 the State and even in those of the Church, Nikon could no 
 longer endure to occupy himself with them under the con- 
 trol of others, and began to meditate his own retirement. 
 With this view he diligently employed himself in building three 
 convents, the Krestnoy, Iversky, and Voskresensky, which he 
 founded in memory of the three most remarkable epochs of his 
 life, his having been a hermit at Solovetsky, metropolitan of 
 Novogorod, and patriarch of all the Russias. He seemed to 
 feel ashamed of his own degradation in the capital, and passed 
 his time at a distance from it in monastic labours, while his 
 enemies took advantage of his absence to procure his entire 
 removal. Still however the affectionate heart of the Tsar 
 drew him even in spite of himself into the company of the man 
 who had once been his only friend, and their mutual feelings 
 were touchingly displayed, for the last time, at the consecra- 
 tion of the wooden church of the new convent of Voskresensk, 
 that is, of the Resurrection. The Tsar, looking down from the 
 hill now called the Mount of Olives 4 on the picturesque view 
 which surrounded him, remarked to the patriarch, that God 
 seemed from the beginning to have prepared this as a site for 
 a monastery, " for," said he, " it is as beautiful as Jerusalem 
 itself." Nikon, whose heart was moved at that name, gratified 
 the Tsar by calling the whole convent New Jerusalem, and 
 charged the bursar, Arsenius Souchanoff, who was then 
 travelling in the East for the collection of manuscripts, to 
 bring him a model 5 of the Holy Sepulchre, after the pattern 
 of which he immediately laid the foundations of a large 
 stone church. 
 
 About a year passed, and in the mean time calumnies and 
 dissatisfactions increased; the Tsar, who was quite in the 
 hands of the boyars, rarely had an interview with the 
 patriarch, and even ceased to attend at the cathedral when 
 he officiated ; the courtiers insolently railed at him, and one 
 of them, Streshneff, even dared to call his dog by the patri-
 
 218 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, arch's name. A free and ingenuous explanation between the 
 
 Tsar and the prelate was the only thing which might still 
 
 perhaps have extinguished the dissensions that had been 
 kindled and blown into a flame ; but when once a mutual 
 misunderstanding is established between those who have 
 before loved each other, the very recollection of their former 
 friendship poisons the wounds of their hearts, because the 
 change itself in their mutual relations is felt as a sort of 
 wrong and offence by both. 
 
 1638. At length the occasion arrived for a complete rupture. 
 Teymouraz, Tsar of Georgia, harassed at once by the civil 
 discords of his own people and by the invasions of the 
 Persians and Turks, came in person to seek for protection from 
 the powerful Tsar of Russia, and was received by Alexis with 
 great pomp. The patriarch also quitted his retirement, in 
 order to increase by his presence the splendour of the recep- 
 tion. When the meeting with Teymouraz took place, an 
 attendant of the Tsar, named Khitroff, in clearing the way 
 for him, struck one of the patriarch's boyars, and repeated 
 the blow with terms of abuse. Nikon, incensed at this, 
 demanded satisfaction, but through the intrigues of the 
 boyars was put off without receiving it; he reckoned on 
 coming to a personal explanation with the Tsar in the 
 church on the festival of the Robe of Christ ; but contrary to 
 his usual custom, the Tsar was withheld from leaving the 
 palace, and the prince Romodanofsky, having gone to the 
 cathedral to inform the patriarch of this circumstance, began 
 to reproach him for his pride on account of the title of Great 
 Lord. 
 
 At this Nikon lost all patience, and gave himself up to his 
 indignation: when he had finished the Liturgy, he declared to 
 all the people that his unworthiness was the cause of all the 
 wars and pestilences, and of all the disorders of the kingdom : 
 he then placed the staff of Peter the Thaumaturge on the Icon 
 of the Blessed Virgin which had been brought from Vladimir, 
 and declared with a loud voice that from thenceforth he was 
 no longer patriarch of Moscow; he took off his episcopal
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 219 
 
 robes, notwithstanding the entreaties of the clergy and the CHAP. 
 
 people, put on a common monk's mantle, and having written 
 
 in the vestry a letter to the Tsar advertising him of his abdi- 
 cation of the patriarchal throne, he sat down on the steps of 
 the Ambon and awaited the answer. The monarch was 
 troubled and sent the prince Troubetskoy, to exhort him to 
 remain, but this prince also was in the number of his enemies. 
 The people wept and kept the doors of the cathedral shut, 
 but Nikon remained inflexible, and refusing to return any 
 more into the patriarchal lodgings, went out of the Kremlin 
 on foot to the town house of the* Iversky monastery, and 
 from thence without waiting for any permission from the 
 Tsar he proceeded to the monastery of the Resurrection, and 
 refused to make use of the carriage that had been sent for 
 him. Prince Troubeskoy went again after him to that 
 monastery, to enquire in the name of the Tsar the reason of 
 his departure. Nikon answered, that he sought for quiet for 
 the sake of his soul's health, again renounced the patriarchate, 
 and asked only to be permitted to retain his three monasteries 
 the Voskresensky, Iversky and Krestnoy, gave his benediction 
 to Pitirim the metropolitan of the Steeps, to direct the affairs of 
 the Church, and lastly, in a touching letter humbly begged 
 the Christian forgiveness of the Tsar for his sudden departure 
 from the capital. 
 
 A report of an invasion of the Crimeans again turned upon 
 the patriarch the thoughts of the Tsar, who was alarmed at the 
 danger to which he was exposed in the undefended monastery 
 of Voskresensk. He sent to him one of his own personal 
 attendants with the proposition that he should retire while 
 the invasion lasted to the fortified monastery of Macarius 
 Koliazinsky. Nikon took this as an announcement that he 
 was to be imprisoned, and replied to the messenger that there 
 was another place in Moscow quite as well suited for the pur- 
 pose, and where he would be even more secure, close to the 
 monastery of the Conception, meaning the city prison. He 
 went himself straight to the capital, where however it was 
 three days before he could gain admission to an interview
 
 220 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, with the Tsar, and that only in the presence of the boyars 
 
 or of the Tsaritsa, after which he returned back to his own 
 
 monastery. But a return of peace and calm after the storm 
 while Nikon was within so short a distance of the court, might 
 have been dangerous to his enemies ; they therefore adopted 
 new measures for irritating him. His secret archives in the 
 patriarchal palace were suddenly broken open, and Nikon 
 bitterly complained in a letter to the Tsar of this violation 
 not only of his own private secrets and those of the state 
 which were in his keeping, but also of others which his spiri- 
 tual children had entrusted to him as to their pastor, for the 
 relief of their consciences. He ascribed this proceeding to a 
 wish to get out of his possession all the letters he had received 
 from the Tsar, in which he was styled Great Lord, and 
 testifying at the same time that he had always refused this 
 pompous and for him unsuitable title, he entreated that the 
 Tsar's wrath might be appeased. Some short time after this 
 the presumption of the metropolitan Pitirim, who assumed 
 all the rights of the Patriarch, and even personated him in 
 performing the ceremonies of Palm Sunday, and in the 
 customary procession on an ass round the city, again provoked 
 Nikon ; he was not yet able to divest himself of the idea that 
 he was still patriarch, and had already discovered in his vicar 
 a personal enemy. He removed farther from the capital to 
 the White sea, to the Krestnoy monastery, where he passed 
 more than a year in ascetic exercises. 
 
 In the mean time the affairs of the Church could not be 
 left in such a state of disorder. Alexis convoked in the 
 capital a council of the Russian bishops and of some Greek 
 prelates who happened to be there, to come to some decision 
 on the actions of the patriarch ; and in the mean time, he 
 sent an officer of the Table named Poushkin to him to the 
 White sea to desire of him to give them a definitive permission 
 to choose another patriarch. Nikon, though he confirmed 
 his own former abdication, yet feared the power his enemy 
 might have if he were to succeed him, and in consequence 
 would give no permission to others to proceed to a new
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 221 
 
 election or consecration, but reserved that right exclusively CHAP. 
 to himself. He well knew the men who were to be his judges, 
 for in their Synod all the rancour which they had treasured 
 up against him had abundantly displayed itself. The metro- 
 politan of the Steeps endeavoured to prove by a number of 
 witnesses that the patriarch had broken off without finishing 
 the Liturgy, and had left his throne with an oath that he 
 would never return to it, which was contradicted by the 
 testimony of Michael, metropolitan of Servia, and of others 
 who were present at the time but heard no such oath at all. 
 Even the Greek strangers shewed themselves hostile to 
 Nikon, and Cyrill archbishop of Cyprus maintained that for 
 the fault he had committed he ought to be deprived of all 
 the properties bestowed upon him by the sovereign, and that 
 it was not fitting to entrust monasteries to the government of 
 prelates who had retired from their episcopal duties for the 
 sake of repose, although this practice is a regular custom in 
 the Eastern Church. Another of the Greeks reproached 
 Nikon with the insolence of Haman : all agreed unani- 
 mously not only to his deposition from the patriarchal 
 throne, but even to his degradation from the episcopal 
 dignity, because he had of his own will quitted his diocese, 
 and they endeavoured to confirm this decision by extracts 
 from the Canons of the Councils. Only two but they 
 eloquent defenders took Nikon's part in the council : the one 
 Epiphanius Slavenetsky, a learned monk and priest of the 
 Pechersky monastery, who had transcribed all the acts of the 
 councils, and who declared that he had never found any 
 canon of the Church to deprive a bishop who resigned his 
 see of his orders ; the other, who was Ignatius archimandrite 
 of Polotsk, contended in opposition to the decision of the 
 council for the election of a new patriarch, that the Russian 
 bishops had not the right to judge their own primate without 
 the concurrence of the Eastern patriarchs, and his voice reached 
 the heart of the mild Tsar, who was unwilling to take upon 
 himself the condemnation of Nikon. 
 
 In the midst of circumstances of so much difficulty and
 
 222 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, disorder, there came to the capital a Greek prelate named 
 
 XI. 
 
 ~ Paisius Ligarides, who had formerly been metropolitan of 
 Gaza, and who had been long wandering about Italy and 
 Greece without a diocese. This man the patriarch Nikon 
 himself had three years before invited from Moldavia, little 
 foreseeing that he was to find in him a bitter enemy. Paisius 
 brought letters from Parthenius patriarch of Constantinople, 
 recommending him as a person well versed in all that related 
 to the discipline and offices of the Church, and qualified to 
 examine the conduct of Nikon. Ligarides was favourably 
 received by the Tsar and boyars, took the side of the enemies 
 of Nikon, and was made president of the Synod, which con- 
 tinued to sit and govern the Church during the absence of 
 the patriarch. 
 
 Nikon again returned from the Krestnoy monastery to 
 Voskresensk, that he might be nearer at hand to watch the 
 proceedings of the Synod. At first, he was well pleased at the 
 arrival of Paisius, who had formerly been kindly treated by 
 him, and wrote him a letter of complaint, stating all his 
 grievances, but he soon found out his mistake. He then 
 made application by means of a similar letter to Dionysius 
 the new patriarch of Constantinople, relating to him as to a 
 brother all that he had done from his very first accession to 
 the patriarchate, and all the injuries and insults he had 
 suffered ; but this letter was intercepted, and served only as 
 a fresh ground of accusation against him. The Boyar 
 Streshneff, one of the most virulent enemies of the patri- 
 arch, laid before Paisius thirty questions artfully prepared on 
 purpose with reference to Nikon's conduct, and Ligarides 
 wrote him answers condemnatory of it grounded upon the 
 Canons. Nikon was provoked at this, and composed in his 
 own defence a reply at length to the questions and answers 
 of them both, in which, together with a deep knoAvledge of 
 the sacred Scriptures, he freely manifested the indignation 
 which swelled within his breast. In the mean time, Paisius, 
 who was the instrument and channel of all relations between 
 the Tsar and Synod and the Eastern patriarchs, sent them
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 223 
 
 twenty-five similar questions, concerning the limits of the CHAP, 
 royal and patriarchal authorities, and the conduct, and trial ~ 
 of Nikon, not naming him, but only laying before them 
 certain cases for their decision ; and, agreeably to the 
 spirit of these questions, the answers of the four patriarchs, 
 procured through a secretary of the Tsar in Constan- 
 tinople, were all in favour of the Synod. Nectarius of 
 Jerusalem alone, though he had given his signature to the 
 common document, wrote a separate letter on his own ac- 
 count, to entreat the Tsar to bear in mind the former services 
 of Nikon, and graciously to restore him to the patriarchal 
 throne, in order to put an end to all dissension and scandal. 
 Great, indeed, was the scandal in the Church of Kussia, 
 arising from this long dissension, and the enemies of Ortho- 
 doxy rejoiced at it. On the one side, Paisius and those 
 members of the clergy who were hostile to Nikon, acting 
 irresponsibly and doing many things to gratify the boyars in 
 the election of bishops and in the affairs of the Church, were 
 less anxious for the good of the Church herself than for the 
 final downfall of Nikon, and heaped upon him all kinds of 
 reproaches and mortifications, because they had already gone so 
 far that they could not recede ; while, in the mean time, those 
 false teachers, Lazarus, Habbakuk, Nicetas, the monk Capito, 
 and others, taking advantage of the opportunity afforded 
 them by the fall of Nikon, spread abroad reports that the 
 real ground of his trial was heresy, and his having corrupted 
 the Church books. On the other side, Nikon himself, though 
 he wasted his body with prayer and fasting in his solitary 
 hermitage 6 , and worked like a common mason at the building 
 of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, was not humbled in 
 spirit. Such was the morbid and gloomy state of his soul, 
 that he took to heart every affront, and continually over- 
 stepped the due limits of the episcopal character. He did 
 not spare his enemies either in speech or in writing, but 
 delivered them over to an anathema for the wrongs they had 
 committed against the religious houses, especially in taking 
 away their estates, so that he even exposed himself to an
 
 224 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, accusation, though that was indeed utterly unfounded, of 
 - - having pronounced a curse against the Tsar. But against him 
 alone Nikon entertained no enmity : knowing however the 
 artifices of the nobles, he only complained to him by letter, 
 or through trustworthy persons ; and his generous sovereign, 
 recollecting his former affection, alone strove with the nume- 
 rous enemies of the patriarch, and would not deliver him up 
 to their malice, but was constantly sending presents and 
 offerings to the monastery at Voskresensk. At length for 
 the sake of establishing peace in the Church, the Tsar was 
 obliged to invite the Eastern patriarchs to form a court for 
 his trial, and sent his letters to that effect to the four 
 (Ecumenical thrones. 
 
 There was however among all the courtiers hostile to 
 Nikon one man who wished him well, and that was a 
 boyar named Nicetas Ziuzin. Afflicted at the injurious 
 consequences of these prolonged dissensions, and hearing 
 continually from those who were most about the Tsar, 
 how painful the obstinacy of the patriarch was to his affec- 
 tionate heart, and how much he desired his return on ac- 
 count of their mutual vow of friendship, and his wish to 
 consult him on the state of his affairs with Poland, the 
 incautious boyar determined to act upon report alone. He 
 wrote to Nikon desiring him to come unexpectedly to Moscow, 
 on the festival of Peter the Wonder-worker, to Mattins in 
 the cathedral of the Assumption, and from thence send to 
 invite the Tsar to attend the prayers as was his former 
 custom, just as if there had been no differences between 
 them, and that so the past might be consigned to oblivion. 
 The prelate received two such letters and still hesitated : but 
 the favourable reception given to the archimandrite of Vos- 
 kresensk who had been sent by him to the Sabbin monastery 
 to the sovereign, shook Nikon's resolution : at length a vision 
 which he had himself as he slept in his solitary hermitage, 
 in which it seemed to him as if the whole line of pre- 
 lates his predecessors rose up from their tombs in the church 
 of the Assumption at the call of the Wonder-worker Jonah,
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 225 
 
 and gave him their hands to raise him a second time to his CHAP. 
 
 XT 
 
 Chair, decided the patriarch. 
 
 He went secretly by night to the city, accompanied by the 
 brethren of the monastery of Voskresensk, for the festival of 
 the Metropolitan Peter, entered publicly into the church of 
 the Assumption, and after having saluted the holy relics 
 and Icons, took his stand in the patriarch's place, with 
 the staff of the Wonder-worker which he had before himself 
 laid aside and left on the same spot. The good old man 
 Jonah metropolitan of Rostoff, who had been guardian of the 
 patriarchate since the removal of Pitirim to Novogorod, 
 astounded at the sudden appearance of the patriarch himself 
 went up to him to receive his blessing with all the clergy of 
 the cathedral. The patriarch sent him to the palace with the 
 intelligence of his own arrival, as if he had just returned after 
 making a long progress about his ecclesiastical province, and 
 invited the Tsar to the cathedral to receive his blessing and to 
 assist at the prayers. 
 
 The Tsar was no less astounded than the Metropolitan 
 Jonah had been. He had already heard Matins in the 
 chapel of the upper story of his own palace, only a few steps 
 distant from the cathedral, and in perplexity he sent for the 
 boyars of his privy council and the spiritual authorities. The 
 moment was a critical one, for on it depended their own fall 
 or the final deposition of Nikon. They persuaded the Tsar 
 not to admit the patriarch to an interview, but only to receive 
 from him a letter in which he had described his vision, and 
 the princes Odoefsky and Dolgorouky with the Metropolitan 
 Paul went to the cathedral, to notify to him the Tsar's plea- 
 sure that he should return to the monastery of Voskresensk, 
 and there wait till he should be tried by the (Ecumenical 
 Patriarchs. 
 
 Nikon was now in his turn surprised, for he had supposed 
 that by his unexpected return he was gratifying the secret wishes 
 of the monarch. The patriarch could scarcely believe what 
 he heard, and suspected some underhand management of his 
 enemies. He left the cathedral, but took with him the staff 
 
 Q
 
 226 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, of the Wonder-worker as a proof that he had never left his 
 
 XI. 
 
 ~ throne with any vow of renouncing it. The monarch was 
 informed of this, and sent after him to the village of Cherncvo 
 to take the staff away from him and to ask the reason of his 
 having come to Moscow. Nikon would not deliver up the staff 
 to Paul the metropolitan of the Steeps, or Joachim the archi- 
 mandrite of the Choudoff, as they were his enemies ; but he 
 sent it by his own archimandrite direct to the Tsar, together 
 with the letters of invitation he had received from the Boyar 
 Ziuzin, who was banished to Kazan in consequence. 
 
 In the mean time, Nikon plainly perceiving that it was all 
 over with him, and that there was no longer any hope of a 
 reconciliation, declared by the same messenger his consent to 
 the election of a new patriarch, with the stipulation that he 
 should keep his three convents with their properties, in the 
 regulation of which the diocesan prelates were not to interfere, 
 nor in the appointment of the officiating clergy of those three 
 monasteries or of the churches depending upon them ; also 
 that he should retain the title of patriarch, and the second 
 place in Synods, and have free access to the Tsar and liberty 
 of communicating with all who wished to visit him ; and at 
 the same time, he promised to absolve from his anathema the 
 capital and all those whom in his anger he had subjected to it. 
 But the Synod having considered his proposals, refused to re- 
 cognise his independence of the new patriarch, or to allow him 
 liberty to ordain in his own monasteries without interference 
 of the diocesan ; it demanded the restoration of those estates 
 which he had transferred from other places to the new 
 monastery of Voskresensk, deprived it further of the high- 
 sounding name of New Jerusalem, and lastly, limited his visits 
 to the capital. At the same time the Synod imposed a 
 penance on Jonah metropolitan of Rostoff, for having dared 
 to present himself to Nikon for his blessing in the church of 
 the Assumption, and named Paul the metropolitan of the 
 Steeps as guardian of the patriarchate. But when the news 
 came that the Patriarchs Paisius of Alexandria and Macarius 
 of Antioch were coming into Russia, all the prelates who were
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 227 
 
 assembled in the capital, together with the whole of the clergy, CHAP. 
 
 alarmed by the rumours which ill-intentioned men had spread 
 
 among the people of the heterodoxy of these patriarchs who 
 had been so long oppressed by the Turkish yoke, and of the 
 incorrectness of the Greek books, unanimously took an oath 
 that they acknowledged both the Greek prelates and their 
 books to be orthodox. 
 
 The time now arrived when an end was to be put to the 
 disturbances which had for eight years agitated the Russian 
 Church, and the powerful individual Nikon, on whom the 
 general attention had been fixed for the last twenty years, was 
 to descend from that stage on which he had acted so lofty a 
 part. The Oecumenical patriarchs arrived from the East, and 
 were met and received with due honours at all the places 
 through which they passed on their road. The Archbishop 
 Joseph remained at Astrachan on purpose to receive them ; but 
 all the rest, together with the Greek bishops who either were in 
 Moscow at the time or came with the patriarchs, and together 
 with the archimandrites and hegumens of the first rank both 
 of our own nation and of the Easterns, presented in the halls 
 of the Kremlin the spectacle of a more imposing Synod than 
 the Church of Russia had ever hitherto witnessed. Besides 
 the two patriarchs, and a third, the new patriarch of Moscow, 
 who was added in the sequel, there were present four Russian 
 metropolitans, Pitirim of Novogorod, Laurentius of Kazan, 
 Jonah of Rostoff, and Paul of the Steeps ; six Greek metro- 
 politans, of Nice,Amasia,Iconium, Trebizond, Varna, and Scio, 
 one from Georgia, and one fromServia; Paisius of Gaza declined 
 sitting for fear lest he himself should be called in question for 
 deserting his own diocese in Palestine, and in fact he was so 
 exposed, though somewhat later, in a letter which Nectarius the 
 patriarch of Jerusalem wrote to the Tsar ; the archbishop of 
 Sinai and a Wallachian archbishop took their seats, together 
 with six Russian archbishops, Simon of Vologda the meek friend 
 of Nikon, Philaret of Smolensk, Stephen of Souzdal, Hilarion 
 of Riazan, a fierce accuser of the patriarch, Joseph of Tver, 
 and Arsenius of Pskoff; there were also present five bishops, 
 
 Q2
 
 228 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP. Misacl of Kolomna, the successor of Paul who had been 
 
 XI. 
 
 degraded, Alexander of Viatka, Joachim from Slavano-Srrvia, 
 
 and two from the dioceses recently reunited from Poland, 
 Lazarus Baranovich the eloquent and virtuous pastor of 
 Chernigoff, and Methodius of Mistislavla another of Nikon's 
 chief enemies; besides these there assisted at the Council 
 more than fifty archimandrites, hegumens, and arch-priests, 
 without counting monks and other spiritual persons. 
 
 Before this Council so composed Nikon was solemnly cited 
 to appear from the monastery of Voskresensk, and went with 
 the same sort of preparation as if he were going to his 
 death, having received the Viaticum of the Holy Gifts and 
 the Unction with oil 7 , for he had already a presentiment of 
 the bitter fate which awaited him. He received the third 
 summons in the village of Chernevo, and stopped in the 
 Kitai at the lodge of his monastery, which was surrounded 
 by a guard. He did not however present himself before the 
 Council in the Tsar's palace in any other character than that 
 of patriarch, and with the form which denoted his rank, that 
 is, with the cross borne before him : and when he saw that 
 there was no place prepared for him on a level with those of 
 the Eastern patriarchs, he would not seat himself but re- 
 mained standing, and so heard his accusation from the lips of 
 the monarch himself. It ran upon the disorders he had occa- 
 sioned in the Church by his self-willed retirement and his 
 capricious actions for the last eight years past. Tears fell 
 from the eyes of the mild Tsar, at having thus harshly to 
 accuse a man who had once been so near to his heart, and 
 the Council also was moved to tears. He further blamed 
 Nikon for the letter of complaint which he had written to the 
 patriarch of Constantinople, and then testified before all that 
 he entertained no personal ill-will against him. 
 
 Nikon replied that he had retired to avoid the royal anger : 
 that he had indeed fixed his residence in a convent, but still 
 that convent was within the limits of his own diocese, which he 
 had never renounced with an oath as he was falsely accused of 
 having done, but only sought to be out of the way of the factions
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 229 
 
 aiid intrigues of the boyars ; as for the letter to the (Ecumen- CHAP. 
 
 ical patriarch he said that he had written it as a private letter : 
 
 from one brother to another, and never expected that it 
 should be made public to cause any hurt or scandal. Then 
 there rose up against him his malicious accusers, Paul metro- 
 politan of the Steeps, Hilarion of Riazan, and Methodius of 
 Mistislavla, with their charge of his having left his throne with 
 an oath never to return, of his having arbitrarily degraded 
 Paul of Kolomna, and of his general harsh conduct towards 
 the clergy; while Nikon in his powerful replies gave full course 
 to his indignation and did not spare his accusers. 
 
 On the second day after this, he was again summoned before 
 the Council, and heard besides the old fresh accusations brought 
 against him ; that he had said the Russian Church was Latin- 
 izing, because of the presidency of Paisius Ligarides, who had 
 run away out of Greece into Italy and always spoke in the 
 Latin language, and that he had refused to acknowledge a 
 copy of the Nomo-canon as orthodox, because it had been 
 printed in the West. Both the patriarchs, in attestation of 
 the genuineness of its canons, kissed the book in the midst of 
 the Council. Then the Tsar Alexis turning round to his 
 boyars and seeing they were all silent, asked them whether 
 they had not some more charges to bring against the patri- 
 arch; but the prince Dolgorouky was the only one who 
 stepped out from among them to prefer any accusation, for 
 all the rest had only personal causes of enmity against Nikon, 
 which they dared not make public. In the mean time, the 
 patriarch taking advantage of the silence of the rest, con- 
 temptuously exclaimed, "That they might perhaps have a 
 chance with stones, but that they would never put an end to 
 him with words, even though they should spend nine years 
 more in collecting them." In the mean time Nikon's letter 
 to the patriarch was being 1 read, and questions were put 
 respecting the harsh expressions it contained. The affec- 
 tionate heart of the Tsar however could not endure to see 
 his former friend standing before him in so cruel a position, 
 sometimes answering to his accusers and at others remaining
 
 230 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, speechless : he quietly left his throne and approaching Nikon 
 - took him by the hand and said, " Oh Most Holy Father, why 
 hast thou put upon me such a reproach, preparing thyself 
 for the Council as if thou wert going to be put to death? 
 thinkest thou I have forgotten all thy services both to myself 
 personally and to my family during the plague, and our former 
 mutual friendship ? " 
 
 He then mildly expostulated with him for his letter to the 
 Patriarch Dionysius, with expressions of his desire for peace. 
 The patriarch answered him with equal gentleness, exposing 
 all the intrigues that had been formed against him : he ex- 
 cused himself for his private letter which had been intercepted 
 through want of sufficient precaution, and notwithstanding 
 the pacific assurances of the Tsar, feeling that it was im- 
 possible now to undo the past, he foretold his own severe sen- 
 tence of condemnation. This was their first interview and 
 their first unrestrained conversation after a separation of seven 
 years ; and by this little brief communication their hearts were 
 mutually warmed again towards each other. It was the last 
 time they were destined to meet during this mortal life. 
 
 A week was spent in the deliberations of the Council ; ex- 
 tracts were made from the Nomo-canon corresponding with 
 the different charges against Nikon; they also enumerated 
 the precedents which had occurred in the Church of Con- 
 stantinople, of patriarchs who had quitted their thrones of 
 their own accord and never returned to them, of others who 
 had returned, and lastly of those in whose places new patri- 
 archs had been elected. Only one voice, that of the Bishop 
 Lazarus, was given in opposition to the rest in favour of 
 Nikon, who he thought -should only be deprived of the patri- 
 archal chair, but allowed to retain his dignity. The two 
 Eastern patriarchs wrote letters to the (Ecumenical patriarch 
 and to the patriarch of Jerusalem, excusing themselves for 
 having found themselves obliged, in consequence of not meeting 
 them or their legates in the Muscovite capital, to proceed to 
 the trial of Nikon without them. Lastly, Nikon himself was 
 summoned for the third time before the Council, which was
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 231 
 
 now no longer assembled in the palace, for the kind-hearted CHAP. 
 Alexis could not bear to be present at his condemnation, but ~ 
 in a small church over the gates of the Choudoff monastery. 
 They read over his accusation to him : it was, that he had 
 caused disorders in the kingdom of Russia by interfering in 
 affairs that did not belong to the place and authority of the 
 patriarch ; that he had voluntarily deserted his chair with an 
 oath never to return to it for no better reason than for an 
 affront offered to one of his retinue ; that after thus retiring 
 from the patriarchate he had exercised an arbitrary authority 
 in his three monasteries, and had given them the ambitious 
 names of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Calvary, and the like; that 
 he had plundered like a robber, and if he had been suffered 
 to go on, would have gotten possession of the third part of 
 the kingdom ; that he had done all he could to hinder the 
 election of a new patriarch, anathematizing numbers, while 
 in consequence of his retirement all kinds of scandals and 
 divisions were multiplied; that he had arbitrarily deposed Paul, 
 bishop of Kolomna, and had been otherwise harsh and op- 
 pressive towards the clergy; that he had made complaints 
 against the Tsar to the Eastern patriarchs ; that he had said 
 the Church was Latinizing, and had calumniated the Canons 
 of the Councils and the patriarchs themselves in his pride. 
 Immediately after his accusations they read to him his sen- 
 tence, which was, that he should be degraded, and retain only 
 the quality of a simple monk, to do penance for the rest of his 
 life in a remote monastery. 
 
 Then the patriarchs, one of whom, the patriarch of Antioch, 
 had seen Nikon in all his greatness, and had partaken of his 
 bounty, approaching him in their mantles, ordered his 
 Khlobouk 8 , which was embroidered with cherubims in pearls, 
 to be taken from him ; but Nikon refused to lay aside this 
 mark of his monastic quality, and demanded of them " why 
 they degraded him thus unjustly and privily without the pre- 
 sence of the Tsar, and in that small church ? that they ought 
 rather to do it publicly in the cathedral of the Assumption, 
 in the place where they had formerly implored him to ascend
 
 232 THE PATRIARCHS. VI. NIKON. 
 
 CHAP, the patriarchal throne." But when they had taken away 
 - from him his Khlobouk, leaving him still his episcopal mantle 
 and crozier for fear of the people, he again reproached the 
 patriarchs for their mean subserviency and for wandering 
 about the world as they did ; and offered to present 
 them with the pearls of his Khlobouk, as something towards 
 their maintenance. Of all the Russian bishops Simon of 
 Vologda and Lazarus of Chernigoff were the only two who 
 refused to be present at this painful business. Nikon was led 
 away under a guard to the court-house of the province, and was 
 overwhelmed on his way with the reproaches of the commis- 
 sioners who conducted him, especially of the Archimandrite 
 Sergius; but he bore all with that extraordinary firmness 
 which in some passages of his life amounted to obstinacy. 
 All those who had adhered to him were scattered abroad. 
 
 On the next day the good-natured monarch moved with com- 
 passion towards him sent him money and sable furs for his long 
 journey ; but Nikon would accept of nothing, and was sent 
 poorly clad and under strict guard, to Bielo-ozero, that is, 
 to the White lake, to the monastery of Therapontoff, where 
 apartments had been prepared for his confinement. Joseph 
 archimandrite of the Pechersky, who accompanied him from 
 Kliazma, gave him a winter cloak to protect him from the 
 cold ; on his arrival at the monastery his episcopal staff and 
 mantle were taken from him, and for some months his con- 
 finement was exceedingly severe.
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 VII. JOASAPH II. 
 IN the mean time the prelates who remained in Moscow CHAP. 
 
 XII 
 
 continued to be occupied in regulating the affairs of the 
 
 1667. 
 
 Church ; and the first thing they did was to elect as patriarch 
 of all Russia the archimandrite of the Trinity Lavra, the 
 meek Joasaph, a man who by the great gentleness of his dis- 
 position disarmed all hostility. Although the arbitrary 
 acts of the late patriarch had been condemned, and the 
 high-sounding name of his Jerusalem Monastery disallowed, 
 and the estates which had been transferred to it taken away, 
 still the faith of Nikon was acknowledged to have been pure, 
 and his correction of the books was confirmed as canonical 
 and agreeable to the spirit of the Orthodox Church ; the vain 
 glosses of the Monk Capito and the Popes Lazarus, Habbakuk, 
 and Nicetas, respecting the position of the fingers, and the 
 correct form of the Cross, the Name of Jesus, the Creed, and 
 the Double Alleluia, and all their objections against the book 
 put forth by authority of the Patriarch Nikon, under the title 
 of the Skrijal or Table, were rejected and condemned. A new 
 book which was composed for the refutation of their errors, 
 entitled the Staff of Rule, served as the means of the tempo- 
 rary conversion of Nicetas, who confessed his errors and was 
 absolved from the anathema of the Council under which the 
 rest continued to lie. The acts themselves of the Council of 
 the Hundred Chapters, which had been the foundation of the 
 vain subtleties in question, were annulled by the decision of 
 the Patriarchal Council of Moscow, the authority of which
 
 234 THE PATRIARCHS. VII. JOASAPH II. 
 
 CHAP, was not far short of being (Ecumenical ' ; for the rcpresenta- 
 ' tives both of the Greek and of the Russian Churches were 
 present at it : and so in the early ages the smaller or local 
 synods were always liable to be corrected by those that were 
 greater or (Ecumenical. Besides this, many constitutions 
 were passed relating to the internal and external discipline of 
 the Church, and various customs which had crept in irre- 
 gularly were reformed, as for instance, that of rebaptizing 
 converts from the Latin Church, the prohibiting widower 
 priests to serve Churches, and some undue privileges which 
 had been conferred on the archimandrites of great monas- 
 teries. 
 
 The Pontifical which had been brought to Nikon by the 
 
 blessed Athanasius Patellarius patriarch of Constantinople, 
 
 was collated in the Council with other ancient Greek copies, 
 
 as were also all the Directories and Office-Books, and were 
 
 unanimously acknowledged to be correct. At the same time 
 
 in consideration of the need caused by the increasing extent 
 
 of the kingdom, the Council decided to raise certain dioceses 
 
 to the dignity of metropolitan sees, as those of Astrachan, 
 
 Tobolsk, and Riazan, and to form a fresh one at Bielogorod 
 
 for the newly-settled townships of the Ukraine ; to restore the 
 
 suppressed sees of Nijgorod and Vladimir ; to make Perm 
 
 separate, as it had been before, from Viatka, forming at the 
 
 same time a distinct diocese for Archangel. The ancient towns 
 
 of Chernigoff, Pskoff, and Kolomna, had the honour of being 
 
 advanced to be archbishoprics; while the metropolitans of 
 
 Novogorod, Kazan, Rostoff, and Riazan, were relieved of some 
 
 part of their burden by the appointment of bishops-vicars 
 
 to assist them, who took their titles from Kargopol, Oustiog, 
 
 Oufa, Ouglich, Tamboff and Voronege. It was also proposed 
 
 to erect new bishoprics at Tomsk and on the Lena on account 
 
 of their great distance from the metropolitan city of Tobolsk. 
 
 Such important changes and establishments in the Church 
 
 remained as a lasting memorial of this Council, in which for 
 
 the last time the Greek Church shewed by the personal 
 
 presence of her highest dignitaries the kindly interest she
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VII. JOASAPH II. 235 
 
 took in the Russian Church, which had originally derived CHAP. 
 
 XII 
 
 from her the blessing of spiritual illumination. 
 
 When the Council was terminated Paisius patriarch of 
 Alexandria took his leave, and was followed the next year by 
 Macarius of Antioch, both loaded with alms, honours, and 
 presents. But although one of the teachers of false doctrine, 
 the Priest Nicetas, had been converted from his errors, and 
 another of them, Paul, the ex-bishop of Kolomna, was confined 
 by decree of the Council in the monastery of PaleostroiF, still 
 the rest continued to be actively at work as before, nor 
 could be silenced, although some of their number had been 
 punished, and others banished to Siberia. The unsound de- 
 cisions of the Hundred Chapter Council gave them a hold upon 
 the opinion of the people, as did also the old printed books of 
 the patriarchs, and the custom which had crept in not more 
 than a century before of making the sign of the Cross with 
 the fingers in a wrong position ; while in the mean time it was 
 not every one who could discern the propriety of the reforms 
 made by the Council which had been just held. 
 
 The ancient Lavra of Solovetsky, which not long before in 
 time of war had volunteered to contribute 50,000 silver 
 roubles to assist the state, and had repelled since then fresh 
 incursions of the Swedes, now set a deplorable example of 
 error ; and it was this very circumstance of military strength 
 and resources of the monastery which became the cause and 
 means of its revolt. Some Streltses and Cossacks who had 
 been sent for the defence of the island had brought thither 
 with them the tares of schism, and having joined themselves 
 with some of the religious and with some of the exiles who 
 were there, they prevailed over the well-disposed portion of the 
 fraternity. The spark had long lain concealed and smothering ; 
 at last it burst out into a flame. Even as far back as the year 
 1556 the books of divine service which had been sent to the 
 Lavra were thrown aside, and all the offices continued accord- 
 ing to the old fashion. Soon after the council of Moscow the 
 schism shewed itself by the insubordination of the bursar 
 and treasurer who headed the brotherhood against the Archi-
 
 236 THE PATRIARCHS. VII. JOASAPH II. 
 
 CHAP, mandrite Bartholomew. They addressed to the Tsar a petition 
 
 filled with vain subtleties, which is held even to the present 
 
 day in great esteem amongst the Sectaries, and refused to 
 receive their new Archimandrite Joseph. However the re- 
 bellious Bursar Sabbatius was removed from the Lavra, as was 
 also the exiled prince Lvoff who had formerly been at the head 
 of the printing establishment in Moscow, and in that capacity 
 had favoured the corruption of the church books, and had 
 spread his infection through the monastery. Letters of ex- 
 hortation were addressed to them by the Tsar to no purpose ; 
 and a detachment of the military which was sent afterwards 
 proved too weak to produce any effect on 1,600 rebels, who 
 had established themselves in the Lavra, and were provided 
 with cannon, stores, and a military chest : in the mean 
 time their teachers of false doctrine went about all the neigh- 
 bouring coasts, and spread heresy and anarchy in the govern- 
 ment of Olonetz, where many nests were formed of those schis- 
 matics who are called Pomorians. It was not till ten years 
 later that the Tsar's general, Nescherinoff, after a long siege, 
 succeeded in taking the Lavra by storm, and so restored it to 
 the Orthodox party, when the evil had already struck deep 
 root in all the surrounding districts, and had extended itself 
 even into the distant Siberia. 
 
 The affairs of the state were not in a more nourishing con- 
 dition than those of the Church during this second period of 
 the reign of Alexis. The benevolences obtained from the 
 monasteries, like those of the Trinity and Solovetsky, could 
 not cover the extraordinary expenses of the ruinous war in 
 Poland. The consequence of this was that a change took 
 place in the coinage, and the introduction of the new copper 
 money excited first murmurs among the people, and event- 
 ually an insurrection, which brought back to mind the first 
 revolt of the Streltses. The Swedish Avar which had been so 
 unprofitable to Russia terminated in our restoring all those 
 provinces which had been subdued by our arms in the course 
 of six years. But the Polish war still continued with an 
 alternation of successes and defeats to both sides. Little
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VII. JOASAPH II. 237 
 
 Russia itself fell a\vav for a time from the Muscovite sceptre CHAP. 
 
 XII 
 
 by the treason of the Hetman Yitofsky, who had been elected 
 
 contrary to the just claims of Youry son of Kmelnitsky. 
 Deluding himself with the dream of entire independance for 
 the Ukraine, he suffered himself to be captivated by deceitful 
 promises on the part of Poland of civil and religious liberty, 
 and purpled with blood that rich country, the re-union of which 
 to Russia had been effected without the shedding of so much 
 as one single drop. The Poles and the brigands of the Crimea 
 seized the opportunity offered by the disordered state of the 
 Ukraine, to pillage sometimes as allies of Vitofsky, at others 
 as those of Youry. Youry himself made his appearance in 
 the field as claimant for his father's hetmanship 2 , was ac- 
 knowledged by Russia, betrayed her, and finally terminated 
 his strange and stormy career in the flower of his age by 
 taking the monastic vows; while he left the hetmanship of the 
 Zaporog horde first to Seter, then to Opar, and afterwards to 
 Doroshenko. The most experienced generals of the Tsar, Trou- 
 betskoy, Romodanofsky, and Sheremetieff, lost several battles 
 owing to disputes about precedence, while there was a con- 
 tention between the two Ukraines. But when the Zaporog 
 Cossacks beyond the Falls fell away, then those who were 
 settled on the Russian side remained devotedly attached to 
 the Tsar of Moscow, under the command of their brave Ata- 
 man Samki, and the new hetman of that part of the Ukraine, 
 Bruchovetsky. 
 
 The ecclesiastical hierarchy, of which Kieff was the centre, 
 had been in no less deplorable a state of disorder since the 
 death of Silvester Kossoff, in consequence of intestine divi- 
 sions. Dionysius Boloban bishop of Loutsk having with the 
 consent of the Tsar been appointed metropolitan in Pereyas- 
 lavla refused to receive consecration from the patriarch of 
 Moscow, and in consequence, Methodius, who had been or- 
 dained bishop of Mistislavla, was sent to Kieff to act as 
 guardian of the metropolitan see. Dionysius died at 
 Korsoun; and upon this the clergy assembled at Chigirin, 
 and elected in his room Joseph Toukalsky, bishop of Mogi- 1664.
 
 238 THE PATRIARCHS. VII. JOASAPH II. 
 
 CHAP, leff, as the new metropolitan, out of consideration for the 
 
 persecutions which he had suffered at the hands of the 
 
 Uniates. But the hetman of the Ukraine on the other bank 
 of the Dnieper for his part favoured the claims of Anthony 
 bishop of Vinnitsa. Besides these there appeared afterwards 
 a third candidate for the chair of Kieff in the person of 
 Joseph archbishop of Lvoff, who confided in the protection 
 of Poland, and some years afterwards in consequence of 
 having had his ambition disappointed, went over with all 
 his diocese to the Unia. 
 
 Joseph was very unfortunate at Chigirin, where he was 
 metropolitan only in name : the distinguished Polish general, 
 Chernetsky, took him prisoner, together with the Archiman- 
 drite Youry Kmelnitsky, and when he regained his liberty 
 after a three years' imprisonment, he no longer dared to go to 
 KiefF, but remained in Wilna till the conclusion of the truce 
 of Androusoff. By this Smolensk and Chernigoff were ap- 
 portioned to Russia, but the Principality of Lithuania to 
 Poland ; the Ukraine was divided between the two powers, 
 and broken up into two hetmanships. When this took place, 
 the metropolitan attached himself to the brave hetman of 
 Chigirin Doroshenko, and gave him the support of his pre- 
 sence. The truce shook the confidence of the clergy of Little 
 Russia, and although the Tsar Alexis declared himself the 
 defender of orthodoxy against the Unia, and demanded that 
 the persecutions should cease, still Kieff itself, by the terms 
 of the treaty, was after two years to pass again under the 
 yoke of Poland, and the Tsar's commanders had violated 
 the rights and privileges of the Ukraine, so that even the 
 Hetman Bruchovetsky himself deserted Russia before his 
 death. 
 
 In the mean time, the archimandrite of the Pechersky, 
 Innocentius Gizel, in vain demanded by a synodal letter the 
 election of a new metropolitan ; for the two senior bishops, 
 Lazarus of Chernigoff and Methodius of Mistislavla, were in 
 Moscow at the trial of the patriarch, and the clergy of the 
 Ukraine were obliged occasionally to have recourse to the
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VII. JOASAPH II. 239 
 
 Metropolitan Joseph in Chigirin. The guardian of the see, CHAP. 
 
 Methodius, soon after his return to Kieff, was taken prisoner ' 
 
 by the Hetman Doroshenko, and deprived of his rank by the 
 Metropolitan Joseph. He escaped from imprisonment by 
 flying to Moscow, but there he was convicted of holding 
 criminal correspondence with the Hetman Bruchovetsky, and 
 ended his days in the Novospassky monastery. Lazarus, arch- 
 bishop of Chernigoff, succeeded to his office and held it during 
 the hetmanship of Mnogogreshny, and under the brave Samue- 
 lovich, who at length succeeded in uniting the government of 
 both the Ukraines in his own person. So desperate was the 
 state of Kieff, that the hetman and the guardian proposed to 
 transfer the metropolitan chair from the ancient capital of 
 orthodoxy to Pereyaslavla or Chernigoff, while the Metropolitan 
 Joseph, in order to rid himself if possible of his two rivals, of 
 Vinnitsa and Lvoff, obtained letters of confirmation from 
 Methodius patriarch of Constantinople. He died however 
 in Chigirin, after having first lost his protector the hetman 
 Doroshenko, who was at length subdued by the arms of 
 Russia, while the greater part of the Ukraine on the other 
 side the Dnieper, with Kamenets-Podolsky, was in the hands 
 of the Turks whom he had called in, and the new king of 
 Poland, the valiant John Sobiesky, was contending, with the 
 assistance of the hetman of the Ukraine, against their im- 
 mense hosts. 
 
 But the protection of King John did not procure, after the 
 death of Joseph, the metropolitan chair of Kieff for the 
 archbishop of Lvoff, nor did his own traitorous desertion of 
 orthodoxy bring him any personal advantage. The Uniates 
 had already their own Metropolitan Cyprian in Polotsk. 
 Equally unsuccessful were the intrigues of the other com- 
 petitor Anthony of Vinnitsa; Lazarus archbishop of Cher- 
 nigoff, an experienced and virtuous pastor, continued to dis- 
 charge the duties of the see of Kieff, in conjunction with 
 Innocentius Gizel, the learned archimandrite of the Pechersky, 
 till the election of a new metropolitan. 
 
 At that period when the Hetman Doroshenko was en-
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VII. JOASAFH II. 
 
 CHAP, deavouring to obtain a complete independance both of Russia 
 
 and Poland, and was still maintaining himself in Chigirin 
 
 with the Metropolitan Joseph, and all the efforts of the Tsar 
 were turned upon the Ukraine, there appeared another in- 
 surgent leader of Cossacks of quite a different spirit and cha- 
 racter named Stenka Razin. Having collected a band of 
 desperadoes, he made marauding expeditions with them about 
 the Volga, the Oural, and the shores of the Caspian sea, took 
 Saratoff and Astrachan, and slew there the voivode in com- 
 mand and the Metropolitan Joseph. The number of his 
 followers was increased by a false report which he caused to be 
 spread abroad that the Tsarevich Alexis, who had died not 
 long before, was still alive and in his camp together with the 
 Patriarch Nikon, whom he pretended to have freed from his 
 confinement. His failure in the siege of Simbirsk was the 
 point at which Razin's good fortune left him. The ataman 
 of the forces of the Don finished what had been begun by the 
 voivodes of the Tsar, took the insurgent chieftain himself 
 prisoner, and brought him to Moscow, where he was executed. 
 This was the last violent shock the government of Alexis 
 received : during the remaining years of his reign, both 
 the internal and external affairs of the kingdom gradually 
 assumed a settled aspect. With the exception of his expedi- 
 tions into the Ukraine against Doroshenko, and the incursions 
 of the Crimeans, the Tsar was at peace with his neighbours, 
 and sent his embassies to all the European powers, and even to 
 China, for the purpose of settling our eastern boundaries 3 , which 
 were continually being enlarged. Sweden was well inclined 
 to preserve peace, Poland that had been our enemy for so 
 many years, had been much enfeebled during the reign of 
 John Kasimir, a prince who experienced more misfortunes 
 than any of his predecessors. The last of the house of Vasa, 
 he voluntarily abdicated his throne, as if he had foreseen the 
 future partition of his dominions between Russia, Austria, 
 and Prussia. His successor Michael Vishnevetsky imme- 
 diately sought to establish for himself a connection with 
 Moscow by ceding Kieff in perpetuity, while the truce of
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. VII. JOASAPH II. 241 
 
 Androusoff was converted into a peace under the glorious CHAP. 
 
 conqueror of the Turks, the King John Sobiesky, who was " 
 
 elected after the death of Michael, although Theodore, the 
 son of the Tsar Alexis, had been one of the candidates for the 
 Polish throne. But another and more permanent throne 
 was preparing for Theodore, that of Moscow, and a glorious 
 successor in the person of his younger brother Peter, who was 
 about this time born. The Tsar Alexis, after the death of his 
 first consort Maria, united himself in marriage with Natalia, 
 the adopted daughter of the Boyar Matfeeff, who was herself 
 of the family of the Narishkins, and the happy fruit of this 
 marriage was the Great Peter. For his colossal genius was 
 prepared the task of completing that orderly settlement of 
 the empire which had been begun by his father, and great 
 was the joy which was manifested by all Russia at his birth, 
 as if she had had a presentiment who it was that was then 
 given to her.
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 VIII. PITIRIM. 
 CHAP. IN the affairs of the Church alone the Tsar Alexis found 
 
 XIII 
 
 no satisfaction, for whilst he felt the necessity of keeping 
 Nikon at a distance, he could not forget their mutual vow of 
 friendship, and was troubled in spirit to be deprived of his 
 blessing ; and besides this after Nikon's degradation, he saw 
 three patriarchs pass in rapid succession before his eyes as if 
 in mysterious reprehension of his conduct, whilst he who had 
 been patriarch before them was still pining in confinement. 
 After the death of the meek Joasaph the choice of the clergy, 
 which always fell on the senior prelate, elevated to the pa- 
 triarchate men whose sentiments were unfriendly to Nikon. 
 1673. And thus Pitirim, who had been before at Novogorod, after 
 sitting only ten months, yielded up the chair to another Lord 
 of Novogorod, Joachim, of the noble family of the Savelloffs, 
 who, when archimandrite of the Choudoff monastery, had 
 together with Paul, then metropolitan of the Steeps, taken 
 away the crosier of Peter the Wonder-worker from the 
 Patriarch Nikon. This same Paul also was still alive, and 
 employed the latter years of his life, in conjunction with Epi- 
 phanius Slavenetsky and other learned men, in correcting 
 the translation of the Bible from the Greek into the Slavonic 
 language, but his labours remained unfinished in consequence 
 of his premature decease.
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 IX. JOACHIM. 
 
 ALEXIS lightened the original severity of Nikon's confine- CHAP. 
 
 ment, and ordered the iron bars and fastenings to be taken 
 
 from the windows and doors of his apartments, so that he en- 
 joyed complete liberty in the monastery, and had his own 
 chapel to himself, where he continued to serve as a bishop 1 
 with those monks who shared his confinement. The Tsar 
 continually sent him rich alms, food, and vessels for the 
 service of the Church, as if he had forgotten his having been 
 degraded by the Council; and what was more than all this, in 
 his last will he called him his "Father/' "Great Lord/' "Most 
 Holy Pontiff," and " Most Blessed Pastor." Nikon for his 
 part also became by degrees reconciled to the Tsar ; at first he 
 refused every kind of present, but at length he began to accept 
 them, and wrote affectionate letters to his sovereign, hoping 
 to be allowed to return to the monastery at Voskresensk, 
 which was the constant object of his solicitude, and in which 
 he had prepared for himself a tomb under the Calvary. He 
 refused to accept any presents of money for commemorations 
 of the Tsaritsa Maria, reckoning it as his duty without any 
 special request to pray for the repose of her soul. He rejoiced 
 at the new marriage of the Tsar and the birth of Peter, and 
 wept bitterly at the intelligence of his sovereign's death. 
 
 Nikon learned this melancholy news in the depths of his 
 solitude, and exclaimed with a groan, "The will of God be 
 done. What though he never saw me to take leave 2 of me here, 
 we shall meet and be judged together at the terrible coming 
 
 R2
 
 244 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 
 
 CHAP, of Christ." A messenger was sent to ask him to give a letter 
 A! v. 
 
 ~ of absolution to the deceased; Nikon gave a verbal absolution, 
 
 but no letter, lest it should seem to have been extorted from 
 a prisoner. Soon new trials came upon him, for his former 
 enemies taking advantage of the weakness of the youthful 
 Tsar Theodore, and the dislike borne against him by the patri- 
 arch Joachim, brought calumnious accusations against his life 
 in the monastery where he was confined. They were not 
 ashamed to accuse him of having taken part with the traitor 
 Razin, and even to impute moral impurities to an old man, 
 whose monastic life had been spotless even from the earliest 
 days of his youth. He was transferred from the Therapontoff 
 monastery, which had become in a manner his own, to the 
 fortified monastery of St. Cyrill 3 , and was placed under the 
 strictest inspection; and for the space of three years more 
 he lingered on there confined in close apartments, and for- 
 gotten alike by the patriarch and the Tsar. 
 
 There were, however, still some individuals at the Tsar's 
 court who wished Nikon well: among these was Theodore's 
 preceptor, the monk Simeon Polotsky, who had received his 
 education in the schools of the West, and together with pro- 
 found learning, had imbibed in them some of the opinions of 
 the Romish Church. He exercised a powerful influence over the 
 mild disposition of the Tsar, and did all he could to favour the 
 early education of Peter, whom the Miloslafskys endeavoured 
 without success to separate from his royal brother, though 
 they had already succeeded in procuring the imprisonment of 
 the virtuous Boyar Matfeeff. The Patriarch Joachim was 
 displeased to find in Simeon Polotsky a powerful opponent 
 about the person of the monarch, and only agreed with him 
 in their common wish and endeavour to promote an improve- 
 ment of education and learning among the clergy, the iiidis- 
 pensible necessity for which became the more sensible, the 
 more the schisms which had been engendered by ignorance 
 increased. 
 
 The school for the Greek and Latin languages which had 
 been first founded at Moscow, as early as the time of the
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 245 
 
 Patriarch Philaret, and enlarged and remodelled by Nikon, CHAP. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 appeared to Simeon inadequate for the end proposed. He 
 
 therefore persuaded the Tsar, who was well inclined to 
 patronise learning, to establish at Moscow in the Zaikonos- 
 passky monastery a spiritual Academy after the model of that 
 at Kieff, and the Tsar applied to the (Ecumenical patriarchs 
 by a letter begging them to send him Orthodox teachers for 
 this his new Academy. Two brothers of distinguished abilities 
 and learning from Cefalonia, the priest-monks Joannicius and 
 Sophronius Lichoudi, were accordingly sent with the benedic- 
 tion of the patriarch to Russia, but neither the Tsar nor 
 Simeon Polotsky lived to witness their arrival, and so the 
 establishment of the Academy which followed was the fruit of 
 the labours of the Most Holy Joachim alone. 
 
 Among other strange projects that floated in the .visionary 
 mind of Simeon, which still preserved the impressions 
 of the West, was one of erecting in Russia twelve new 
 metropolitan sees, and four patriarchates in lieu of the 
 former metropolitan sees of Novogorod, Kazan, Rostoff, and 
 Sarai or the Steeps, after the likeness of the four (Ecumenical 
 thrones, and then, in imitation of the hierarchy of Rome, to 
 appoint one Pope over them all ; and his Pope he intended 
 should be Nikon, in order to humble Joachim, who was his 
 enemy. These strange ideas of Simeon were mingled with 
 astrological divinations, which were the favourite object of his 
 studies, according to the spirit of that time. However he 
 was destined to be the means of disposing the good-natured 
 Theodore to alleviate the lot of his godfather. His prudent 
 aunt the Tsarevna Tatiana Michaelovna, who had ever been 
 Nikon's friend, persuaded the Tsar to visit his neglected 
 monastery of the New Jerusalem, and to receive from the 
 brethren who remained there a petition for the return of their 
 founder. Struck with the magnificent scale of the buildings 
 which had been commenced after the model of the Church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre, the monarch ordered them to be con- 
 tinued, and, moved with compassion, laid before the Synod a 
 proposition to allow the aged Nikon to die in the monastery
 
 246 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 
 
 CHAP, which he had founded. The patriarch remained for a long 
 
 time inflexible, till at length the news coming that Nikon 
 
 had put on the Schema, and was altogether broken and en- 
 feebled, his heart was touched, and he consented. 
 
 On the very same day on which the gracious permission of 
 the Tsar and the patriarch arrived at the monastery of 
 St. Cyrill, Nikon, while it was yet very early, from a secret 
 presentiment had prepared himself for the journey, and to the 
 astonishment of every body, ordered the religious who were 
 in personal attendance upon himself to hold themselves in 
 readiness. With difficulty they placed the old man, now worn 
 out with sickness and infirmity, in the sledge which took him 
 by land to a barge on the river Sheksna, by which he 
 descended to the Volga. Here he was met by brethren from 
 the Voskresensky monastery, that is, the monastery of the 
 Resurrection or New Jerusalem, who had been sent for that 
 purpose. Nikon gave orders to drop down the Volga as far 
 as Yaroslavla, and having put in to shore at the Tolskoy 
 monastery, he received the Communion of the Sick, for he 
 began to be exceedingly feeble. The hegumen with all the 
 brotherhood went out to meet him accompanied by a former 
 enemy of Nikon, the Archimandrite Sergius, the same that 
 during his trial kept him under guard, and covered him with 
 reproaches, but had since been sent to this monastery in dis- 
 grace to perform penance. This Sergius, having fallen asleep 
 in the Trapeza or Refectory 4 at the very hour of the arrival of 
 Nikon, saw in a dream the patriarch appearing to him, and 
 saying, " Brother Sergius, arise ; let us forgive and take leave 
 of each other \" when suddenly at that moment he was 
 awakened and told that the patriarch was actually approaching 
 by the Volga, and that the brotherhood had already gone out 
 to the bank to meet him. Sergius followed immediately, and 
 when he saw Nikon dying, he fell at his feet, and shedding 
 tears of repentance asked and obtained his forgiveness. Death 
 had already begun to come upon the patriarch, by the time 
 that the barge was again moving down the stream. The citi- 
 zens of Yaroslavla hearing of his arrival crowded to the river,
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 
 
 and seeing the old man lying on his couch all but dead, thiv\\ n \r 
 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. 
 
 The sufferer was already so exhausted that he could not 
 speak, but only gave his hand to them all. The Tsar's Secre- 
 tary ordered them to tow the barge to the other side of 
 the river to avoid the crowds of the people. Just then tin 
 bells were struck for evening prayers. Nikon was on the 
 point of death: suddenly he turned and looked about as if 
 some one had come to call him, and then arranged ln^ li:m, 
 beard, and dress for himself, as if in preparation for his last 
 and longest journey. His confessor, togrtlirr \\itli all the 
 brethren standing round, read the Commendatory prayers for 
 the dying ; and the patriarch, stretching himself out to his 
 full length on the couch, and laying his arms cross-wise upon 
 his breast, gave one sigh, and departed from this world in 
 peace. In the mean time the pious Tsar Theodore, not 
 knowing that he was dead, had sent his own carriage to meet 
 him with a number of horses. When he was informed of it 
 he shed tears, and asked what Nikon had desired respecting 
 his last will ? and when he learned that the departed prelate 
 had chosen him as his godson to be his executor, and had 
 confided every thing to him, the good-hearted Tsar n-|iln-d 
 with emotion, "If it be so, and the Most Holy Patriarch Nikon 
 has reposed all his confidence in me, the will of th<: I-ord !< 
 done. I will not forget him." He gave orders for conveying 
 the body to the New Jerusalem. 
 
 New difficulties were raised by the Patriarch Joachim with 
 regard to the funeral of Nikon, to whom he would not con- 
 sent to render episcopal honours, objecting that he had been 
 degraded by the sentence of the (Ecumenical patriarch*. 
 However, the Tsar persuaded Cornelius, the metropolitan of 
 Novogorod, to officiate at hi interment without any per- 
 mission from Joachim ; and he himself in person took a part
 
 248 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 
 
 CHAP, in that affecting ceremony, and helped to bear the body on 
 ~ his shoulders from the cross on the Mount of Olives, the spot 
 where formerly the deceased had stood with his royal father 
 when he gave the name of New Jerusalem to his monastery, 
 to the tomb under Calvary which he had himself prepared 
 for his everlasting rest. Not more than eight months 
 were to intervene before the amiable prince who had thus 
 assisted at the funeral of Nikon was to be himself peacefully 
 removed from a temporal to an eternal kingdom; he how- 
 ever made use of this short space to obtain letters of absolu- 
 tion for the deceased from the four (Ecumenical patriarchs, 
 who unanimously received him again into their pontifical 
 assembly. 
 
 Thus did this illustrious prelate finish his strange and 
 troubled course ; a prelate who had exercised so powerful an 
 influence on the destinies of the Russian Church, and upon 
 whose personal lot the attention of the whole kingdom had 
 been fixed for the space of about forty years, the last fifteen 
 of which he spent in confinement. During the course of his 
 seventy years* life on earth, Nikon was more or less con- 
 temporary with all the Russian patriarchs. He was born 
 while the patriarchate was still held by Job ; he was a boy 
 in the time of Hermogenes, a monk under the great Philaret, 
 superior of a convent under Joasaph I., metropolitan of Novo- 
 gorod in the time of Joseph, and a prisoner in bonds during 
 the rule of the three patriarchs who came after himself, 
 Joasaph II., Pitirim, and Joachim; he died when the last 
 patriarch, Adrian, was already archimandrite of the Choudoff, 
 while the last guardian of the patriarchal chair, Stephen 
 Yavorsky, had become distinguished by his virtues through- 
 out the south of Russia, and was preparing himself for his 
 high calling. Thus the colossal character of Nikon took up 
 to itself almost the whole age of the patriarchs in our 
 annals. 
 
 Every thing began to assume a settled character during 
 the six years of the peaceful reign of Theodore. Little Russia 
 was brought into a state of tranquillity, and a peace was con-
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 249 
 
 eluded with the Porte, while that which already existed with CHAP. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 our neighbours of Sweden and Poland gave every promise of - 
 continuance. At one word from the Tsar in a mixed council 
 of all the spiritual and temporal authorities of the state, after 
 an exhortation from the patriarch, those destructive disputes 
 concerning the local antiquity and precedence of families, 
 which had caused so many evils to Russia, were terminated 
 for ever; and the Books of Pedigrees were solemnly com- 
 mitted to the flames. The Church also prospered : for with 
 the co-operation of the Tsar the vigilant Pastor Joachim 
 stopped the spread of schisms, did much to promote the 
 spread of learning in the spiritual schools, and, for the better 
 superintendence of the clergy and their flocks, proposed 
 further to institute as many as fifty new episcopal sees either 
 local or vicarial. But this project fell to the ground upon 
 the death of Theodore, and the kingdom was for a time 
 plunged into a state of faction, disorder, and agitation, from 
 which it was rescued only by the powerful arm of Peter, when 
 he began to grow up to manhood. 
 
 The commencement of these evils was a furious mutiny of 1682. 
 the Streltsi which broke out upon the proclamation of Peter, 
 then a vigorous boy of ten years old, to be Tsar, in preference 
 to his elder brother John. This was done by the patriarch 
 in concert with the most loyal and well-disposed of the 
 nobles, on the ground that John was incapacitated by his 
 imbecility for reigning; and they placed Peter under the 
 regency of his mother the Tsaritsa Natalia, and the virtuous 
 Boyar MatfeefF. The ambitious sister of the young princes, 
 the Tsarevna Sophia, acting secretly in concert with her 
 relations the Miloslafskys, instigated the Streltsi to a 
 mutiny, to which in the space of three days Matfeeff, the 
 Xarishkins, and all those wheAad been the chief supporters of 
 the thrones of Alexis and Theodore, fell victims. The patri- 
 arch himself narrowly escaped with his life from the fury of the 
 mob, when he attempted to address a crowd of the insurgents 
 from the Krasnoy stairs. The compulsory proclamation of 
 John to reign jointly with Peter, and the invitation of Sophia
 
 250 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 
 
 to govern the kingdom together with her younger brothers 
 
 -A..I V. 
 
 ~ were the effects of this first revolt of the Streltsi, which cost 
 the state so many valuable lives. 
 
 These civil disturbances soon had ill consequences for 
 the Church. Taking advantage of the weakness of the 
 government, the Priest Mcetas, a hypocritical pretender to 
 sanctity, after having once been reconciled and then a second 
 time fallen into schism, began to get about him on the other 
 side of the Yaouza, and in the public square, the grosser sort of 
 the populace, in defence as he pretended of the Orthodox reli- 
 gion against ravening wolves, by which name he called the 
 whole body of the clergy. His insolence reached to such a 
 height that he made his way into the Kremlin with a crowd 
 of his adherents, set himself a lectern with Icons upon it in 
 the cathedral of the Archangel, and demanded that the patri- 
 arch himself, who was then performing the Liturgy in the 
 cathedral of the Assumption, should come and dispute with 
 him. A priest who was sent to him scarcely got back with 
 his life. At that crisis, in order to pacify the populace, the 
 two Tsars conjointly issued an order that all the bishops 
 should assemble in their palace, and the rioters were called 
 to appear before the patriarch, assisted by seven metropolitans, 
 five archbishops, and two bishops, one of whom was Metro- 
 phanes, the recently ordained bishop of Voronege. The sham- 
 saint, finding himself exposed and powerfully refuted in 
 all his sophistries by the eloquent Athanasius, archbishop of 
 Kholmogori, in an outbreak of rage rushed at him and 
 attempted to seize him by the throat, but was prevented 
 by those who were about him; while the young Tsar, the 
 boy Peter, rose up "from his throne with such an air of com- 
 mand as made itself felt in the midst of the general confusion, 
 and with one sternly-pronounced word drove the mutinous 
 populace out of the hall. The band was broken up in conse- 
 quence of the disaffected being put to shame by the evident 
 madness or possession of their false teacher, who was seized 
 with a violent fit of epilepsy on the public square where he 
 was capitally punished. His secret adherents, however, did
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 251 
 
 not cease to promulgate their pernicious doctrines, espe- CHAP. 
 cially among the Streltsi and in the neighbourhood of the - 
 capital. 
 
 Two priests of their number, named Kosma and Stephen, 
 terrified at the fate of the arch-hypocrite their master, took to 
 flight, and went in the first instance to Little Russia, to the 
 location of the Starodoubofsky Cossack regiment or polk, and 
 afterwards into the neighbouring districts of Poland, where 
 they formed a second settlement upon the river Vetka. Their 
 successor, whose name was Theodosius, built a church there 
 which became the root and head quarters of Popoftshinism, 
 that is, in the literal sense of the word, of Presbyterianism, or 
 of those schismatics who acknowledge the priesthood, but so 
 as to have no other priests themselves than such as have been 
 expelled or have run away from the Church. Another and 
 much more pernicious form of schism was that of Bez-popofts- 
 chinism, or Absque-Presby terianism, which asserted that from 
 the time of Nikon the grace of the priesthood was lost, and 
 that the period of Antichrist had commenced. This had rooted 
 itself in the North under the denomination of Pomorians, 
 that is, people of the sea coast, and in Siberia under various 
 denominations after one or other of their false teachers: 
 for according to their individual peculiarities of opinion they 
 were divided into a number of sects, mutually hostile to each 
 other. Their ignorance and superstition led them to the highest 
 pitch of fanaticism. The followers of the Priest Habbakuk and 
 the Monk Joseph the Armenian, in Olonetz, Nijgorod, and 
 Siberia, to which last region the two leaders themselves had 
 been banished in the time of Nikon, solemnly burned them- 
 selves alive by whole families in hopes of a reward in heaven, 
 fancying themselves to be thus voluntary martyrs. Not far 
 from the Paleostroff monastery, where Paul ex-bishop of Ko- . 
 lomna had been confined and died, many nests were formed 
 of the Pomorians, who were reinforced by such of the rebels 
 of the Solovetsky as had escaped in time from the siege; 
 and two brothers, Andrew and Simeon Denisoff of the ancient 
 family of the Princes Mnishetsky, settled a colony of schis-
 
 252 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 
 
 CHAP, matics at Vigoretz in the government of Olonetz, and col- 
 
 XIV, 
 
 ~ lected by all the means in their power ancient manuscripts 
 and books for the purpose of deceiving the ignorant. 
 
 Under such difficult circumstances both in Church and 
 State, the prudent Patriarch Joachim was continually on the 
 alert; he assisted in repressing the Streltsi who had been 
 infected with the same spirit of insubordination, because their 
 principal commanders, the Princes Khovansky, favoured, 
 certainly not from religious motives, the schism, as offering 
 a powerful means for the excitement of insurrections. He 
 also refuted the heretics by synodical instructions. His 
 book entitled "A Spiritual Exhortation," and his numerous 
 letters, remain as memorials of those distressing times. 
 Before long the patriarch was compelled to arm himself 
 against a new doctrine introduced from the West concern- 
 ing the time of the transubstantiation 5 of the Holy Gifts. 
 Silvester Medvedeff, a pupil of Simeon Polotsky, and supe- 
 rior of the Zaikonospassky monastery, incorrectly taught, 
 according to the Romish traditions, that it is not through 
 the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the blessing of the 
 Gifts, but through the words themselves of our Saviour, 
 " Take and eat this &c.," and " Drink ye all of this &c.," 
 that the bread and wine are changed into the Body and 
 Blood of Christ. The two distinguished brethren, natives 
 of the Ionian islands, Sophronius and Joannicius Lichoudi, 
 who had been sent to Russia by the (Ecumenical patriarchs, 
 were the first to expose this error, and entered into a con- 
 troversy in writing with Silvester, in which a considerable 
 number of persons took part. 
 
 Under the protection of this enlightened prelate, they fixed 
 themselves at first in the monastery of the Theophany, where 
 their school, composed of a small number of the nobility and 
 clergy, in a short time attained an extraordinary degree of 
 prosperity ; and afterwards, in a building erected on purpose 
 for them at the Zaiconospassky, their unwearied activity pro- 
 duced the Slaveno-Greeko-Russian Academy. But the zeal 
 of the Lichoudi for learning and Orthodoxy, which was duly
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 253 
 
 appreciated under the Patriarch Joachim, subjected them to CHAP. 
 a long imprisonment under his successor. Although Silvester, 
 upon the refutation of his error by their writings had been 
 degraded by Joachim, who convoked a Synod against him, 
 and even for greater security addressed enquiries to the 
 bishops of Little Russia concerning the doctrine in question, 
 still many were offended at the zeal with which the learned 
 brethren interested themselves about the purity of the Eastern 
 doctrine. 
 
 The Church of Little Russia had now at this point become 
 an integral part of our hierarchy, and this was one of the 
 most important events of the patriarchate of Joachim. When 
 both the Ukraines were restored to tranquillity under the 
 dominion of the Hetman Samuelovich, and John Sobiesky, 
 king of Poland, was inclined to conclude a lasting treaty of 
 peace after ceding Kieff and Smolensk, the occasion which 
 presented itself was made use of to re-establish the metro- 
 politan chair of Kieff, which had now remained vacant for 
 twenty-eight years without any regular pastor, the primate's 
 chair having been filled during that period only by guardians. 
 The one who occupied it the longest time of all was Lazarus, 
 archbishop of Chernigoff. This venerable prelate, now much 
 enfeebled by age, together with the learned archimandrite of 
 the Lavra, Barlaam Yasinsky, the w r orthy successor of Inno- 
 centius Gisel, were among the candidates thought of for the 
 chair of Kieff. But the choice fell on Gideon, bishop of 
 Loutsk and prince of Chetvertinsk, who had retired from his 
 own diocese in consequence of the persecution of the Uniates 
 and the encroachments of Joseph bishop of Lvoff, who had 
 intrigued to obtain that diocese for his own brother. The 
 hetman being devoted to Russia, and desirous of the firmest 
 union with her, decided that the new metropolitan of Kieff 
 should go for consecration to the patriarch of Moscow, and 
 should be in full dependence upon him, which neither Lazarus 
 nor Barlaam would consent to, but did all they could to main- 
 tain the rights of the see of Constantinople. But when Gideon, 
 who was received with extraordinary honours at Moscow, had
 
 254 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 
 
 CHAP, been instituted by Joachim as metropolitan of Kieff, Galicia, 
 ~ and all Little Russia,"with jurisdiction also over the arch- 
 bishopric of Chernigoff, the Pecherskay Lavra, and the dioceses 
 of Southern Russia, the same individuals again opposed this 
 arrangement, and the Patriarch Joachim was obliged to ac- 
 knowledge the Lavra as a Stauropegia, and to allow Cherni- 
 goff an honorary precedence over all the other Russian arch- 
 bishoprics, without being dependent upon Kieff. 
 
 On this the hetman and both the Tsars, to set at rest the 
 clergy of the Ukraine, sent ambassadors to Constantinople 
 with letters of request to the patriarchs that they would con- 
 firm the dependence of Kieff on the patriarchate of Moscow, 
 in order to its better defence and more distinct separation from 
 the Unia; and two patriarchs, Dionysius of Constantinople 
 and the learned Dositheus of Jerusalem, acknowledged by 
 letters patent in due form the final union of the hierarchy of 
 Kieff and all the South with that of Great Russia. In this 
 way was terminated the long separation of these two Churches, 
 both of which had ever held one and the same doctrine, a 
 division which had lasted for more than two centuries and 
 a half, from the period when Yitoft, by the compulsory ap- 
 pointment of Gregory Simblak as metropolitan of Kieff, 
 rent off Southern Russia from her spiritual union with 
 'Moscow. 
 
 But while Kieff was thus re-united to Russia, the other 
 Orthodox sees in Lithuania and Poland, Lvoff, Peremuishla, 
 and Loutsk, were all within the space of a few years after- 
 wards extinguished, with the single exception of Mogileff. 
 The Polish government of that day, like Vitoft, dreaded the 
 consequences of their Ecclesiastical dependence on Moscow, 
 and fresh and more violent persecutions, notwithstanding the 
 favourable conditions of the lately-concluded peace, extirpated 
 the remains of Orthodoxy in the Polish provinces ; while the 
 Uniate archbishop of Polotsk, with the title of metropolitan 
 of Kieff and all Russia, by degrees appointed bishops in the 
 room of the Orthodox prelates, who either died or were 
 expelled by his persecutions.
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 255 
 
 In the mean time an important change had taken place in CHAP. 
 
 the kingdom. Peter, tall and manly beyond his years, could ~ 
 
 not endure to lead an idle life in the palace of the Kremlin : 
 thirsting after knowledge, he availed himself for his educa- 
 tion of the services of a Genevese emigrant, named Lefort, 
 and was himself his own master in military exercises, which he 
 practised with a band of noble youths whom he had selected 
 and formed into a company for his amusement : at the same 
 time he openly shewed his dissatisfaction at his sister the 
 Tsarevna Sophia's retaining the government. Her favourite 
 and lover the Prince Basil Galitsin, notwithstanding his two 
 unsuccessful expeditions to the Crimea, was covered with 
 honours, and succeeded in throwing the blame which belonged 
 to himself upon the Hetman Samuelovich. The hetman was 
 most unjustly banished to Siberia, and in his place they ap- 
 pointed a captain of Cossacks, the false and crafty Mazepa. 
 In a state of no less disorder were the internal affairs also of 
 the kingdom, while Peter now seventeen years old and already 
 a giant both in mind and body, could not endure to remain 
 under female rule, and demanded that his sister should yield 
 up the honours of sovereignty. So determined was he on 
 this point, that once on occasion of a religious procession he 
 absolutely refused to walk with her side by side, and went off 
 in anger to the village of Preobrajensk, the usual place of his 
 royal studies and labours. A new mutiny of the Streltsi 
 which was secretly excited by Sophia, and a conspiracy 
 against the life of the young Tsar, were the consequences of 
 this reckless conduct. But Peter had well-wishers who gave 
 him timely notice of the danger, and succeeded in retiring in 
 safety to the Trinity Lavra, where the members of the royal 
 family and the patriarch himself gradually gathered them- 
 selves together around him. The Streltsi confounded at 
 this new failure returned to their duty, and awaited the Tsar 
 in the capital with a peace-offering of the heads of their ring- 
 leaders. The authoress of the rebellion was also discovered, 
 whose confidence Shaklovity the prefect of the department 
 for the Streltsi had enjoyed. It was to no purpose that the
 
 256 THE PATRIARCHS. IX. JOACHIM. 
 
 CHAP. Tsarevna and the patriarch entreated Peter to pardon Sophia: 
 
 they were all themselves too well convinced of her criminal 
 
 designs : equally to no purpose was it that Sophia went in 
 person to the monastery to beg for mercy; she was not admitted 
 to see her brother. The conspirators were capitally punished ; 
 she herself was forced to receive the tonsure in the Novodai- 
 vichy convent, where the ambitious Sophia was transformed 
 into the humble nun Susannah. Peter became the governor 
 and autocrat of Russia, for the feeble and sickly John was 
 Tsar only in name, and by remaining constantly in Moscow 
 gave his enterprising brother an opportunity of travelling 
 throughout Russia, of examining her capabilities and re- 
 sources, and so adapting his own vast genius to that immense 
 empire which at his powerful bidding was suddenly to burst 
 forth and grow into the ninth part of the world. 
 
 The primates of Little and Great Russia both died about 
 the same time. The place of the metropolitan of Kieff was 
 filled by Barlaam the superior of the Pechersky, and he went 
 like his predecessor to be consecrated at Moscow, but found 
 the Patriarch Joachim no longer living. Having promoted 
 Peter's election at the first, and his actual succession after- 
 wards, this true guardian of the kingdom during the minority 
 of his two sovereigns, and zealous promoter of learning under 
 the patronage of Theodore and Sophia, ruled the Church for 
 only one year after the actual accession of the youthful 
 Peter. With Peter's mother the pious Tsaritsa Natalia he 
 was grieved at the spirit of innovation and the partiality for 
 foreign customs, which were already apparent in the royal 
 youth. These feelings he poured forth in an eloquent testa- 
 mentary exhortation, in which he implored the Tsar to adhere 
 firmly to the national maxims which he had received from his 
 ancestors, for the welfare and establishment of Russia.
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS, 
 
 X. ADRIAN. 
 
 IT is to be regretted that after such a distinguished pastor CHAP. 
 as Joachim, Adrian the aged metropolitan of Kazan should 1690 
 have been elected to the patriarchal chair: for though he 
 was adorned with episcopal virtues, he was ill qualified to 
 appreciate the necessity of those changes which fermented in 
 the creative mind of Peter, and which circumstances them- 
 selves imperiously required. For from the time of the Tsar 
 Alexis and the enterprising Nikon every thing in the king- 
 dom had been tending gradually to a settled order of im- 
 provement and civilization, although not so rapidly as Peter 
 effected it. Opinions of the boyars and prelates unfavour- 
 able to all his undertakings frequently reached the ears of 
 the sovereign; and unfortunately his habits of intercourse 
 with foreigners of low rank, whom he had invited into his 
 dominions for the equipment of his fleet and the training of 
 his forces, gave ground for the common complaints; and they 
 who condemned him were unable to distinguish his great 
 actions from such weaknesses as are incidental to human 
 nature. Peter on the other hand who had passed through 
 so many trials from his childhood, and had been obliged in 
 all the heat of youth to moderate his anger against those 
 who threw impediments in the way of his projects, for both 
 his mother and his elder brother were generally of the same 
 mind with the boyars and the patriarch, looked with no
 
 258 THE PATRIARCHS. X. ADRIAN. 
 
 CHAP, friendly feeling upon Adrian, whom lie regarded as the 
 - representative of antiquated prejudices contending against his 
 own bright genius. The creative spirit of Peter having once 
 formed to itself in idea Russia the object of his ardent 
 affections such as she was to become hereafter, from thence- 
 forward, as if he had her actually before his eyes, was offended 
 whenever his contemporaries were unable to divine that 
 which only their posterity, after the lapse of a century, 
 were to see the embodying of his idea in the Russia of our 
 times. 
 
 However, the patriarch himself, together with the prelates 
 and boyars of the first rank, all joined in giving pecuniary 
 contributions for the construction of the first Russian fleet, 
 when Peter having conquered his natural aversion to water first 
 on the still lake of Pereyaslavla, and then on the rough waves 
 of the White sea, began to build vessels at Voronege for the 
 reduction of Azoff. At this time the pastoral virtues of 
 Metrophanes, first bishop of Voronege, and since reckoned 
 among the saints, shone conspicuously. In him the great 
 Peter found a true friend and assistant in his labours, while 
 he was occupied there with the formation of his fleet, and at 
 the same time no less a zealous and uncompromising main- 
 tainer of the doctrines of the Church, in defence of which he 
 was ready to have laid down his life 1 . 
 
 Other bright lights also shone at the same time in the 
 now united Church of Great and Little Russia. In the 
 North two zealous refuters of the heresies of their times, 
 Athanasius archbishop of Kholmogori, and Ignatius metro- 
 politan of Siberia, of the family of the Romano-Corsakoffs, 
 strove both by word and deed to counteract those pernicious 
 schisms with which their remote dioceses were infected. 
 Three Letters or Charges of Ignatius, together with other 
 Pastoral Admonitions, contain a description of the evil com- 
 mencements of these heresies; and the Patriarch Adrian him- 
 self following the example of his predecessor, wrote against 
 them a controversial book, called the Shield of the Orthodox 
 Faith. In the South, under the paternal wing of the sage
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. X. ADRIAN. 259 
 
 Barlaam Yasinsky, appeared two distinguished churchmen CHAP. 
 who afterwards exercised a most important influence on the 
 destinies of the Russian Church, St. Demetrius, and Stephen 
 Yavorsky. The first of these after having received a very 
 superior education in the schools of Kieff and Lithuania, had 
 seqiiestered himself for a long time in the convent of Batourin, 
 the place of the residence of the hetmans, and there Barlaam 
 entrusted to him the continuation of a work commenced by 
 Peter Mogila and Innocentius Gizel, on the lives of the 
 Greek and Russian saints, which had been collected in the 
 MS. copies of the Great Chetee-Menae of the Metropolitan 
 Macarius in the reign of John IV. This vast and im- 
 portant work which was encouraged by letters of com- 
 mendation from the Patriarch Adrian, occupied the whole 
 life of St. Demetrius, and still remains a rich treasure of 
 spiritual edification to feed the souls of Christians, exciting 
 them to the imitation of those saints whose labours and 
 conflicts it records. The other of the two, Stephen, as yet 
 only Preacher of the Word of God in Kieff, was destined to 
 be called to the arduous duty of feeding the whole Church of 
 Russia, and carrying into effect the bold designs of Peter, 
 with a firm and vigilant adherence at the same time to the 
 principles of Orthodoxy. 
 
 After the capture of Azoff, which crowned with glory the 
 first military enterprise of the Tsar, and after the death of 
 his brother John, which was marked to him by a fresh mutiny 
 of the Streltsi, Peter determined to gratify his thirst for in- 
 formation by visiting foreign countries. He committed the 
 government of the kingdom to the Prince Romodanofsky with 
 the title of Caesar, in conjunction with the boyars who were 
 related to him, and the patriarch ; and set out himself on his 
 travels, following in the suite a Grand Embassy, in which his 
 Preceptor Lefort appeared as the chief person. His route lay 
 through Prussia to Holland, where the Tsar throwing off all 
 his greatness devoted some months as a common workman to 
 the acquisition of the art of ship-building, but his divesting 
 himself of his outward splendour only made the inward bright- 
 
 s2
 
 260 THE PATRIARCHS. X. ADRIAN. 
 
 CHAP, ness of his genius to shew more clearly, as a lamp burning 
 ' brighter in the dark. England in her turn presented her- 
 self to the inquisitive observation of Peter. The Roman 
 Emperor Leopold conferred with him in Vienna on the 
 question of war or peace with Turkey, whose power under 
 the Great Soliman had become a cause of apprehension to 
 Europe. The death of John Sobiesky and the election of 
 another king by the restless republic of Poland also occupied 
 the mind of Peter. He favoured the pretensions of Augus- 
 tus Elector of Saxony, and sent some regiments of Streltsi 
 to assist him ; but this service served as a pretext for their 
 last mutiny, and hastened the return of the Tsar. 
 
 A dreadful fate awaited the guilty. Peter, rendered severe 
 by so many revolts, resolved utterly to extirpate this hotbed 
 of mutiny in the capital. Many thousands were sent away 
 to different distant towns ; and many hundreds were con- 
 demned to public execution. In vain the patriarch moved 
 by feelings of humanity went in solemn procession with the 
 Icon of Vladimir, to entreat Peter to have mercy. The 
 mildness of the prelate only the more -provoked the monarch, 
 who saw that their strict punishment would be productive of 
 the general good, and therefore rejected the intercession of 
 Adrian. The Tsarevna Sophia was placed under still closer 
 inspection in her monastic cell, on account of the designs of 
 the Streltsi, who wished to see her again on the throne; 
 and at the same time another sister named Martha was 
 compelled to receive the tonsure in the same monastery 
 on account of certain family quarrels. Even the young 
 wife of Peter herself, the Tsaritsa Eudocia, of the family of 
 the Lopouchins, did not escape the same sad fate : her fixed 
 attachment to those old-fashioned opinions, which were so 
 offensive to the sovereign, destined her to be confined in 
 the convent of Souzdal during the whole course of Peter's 
 reign. 
 
 After his return from abroad, his inclination for foreign 
 customs and dress became still more apparent than before, 
 and he resolved to introduce them gradually amongst his
 
 THE PATRIARCHS. X. ADRIAN. 261 
 
 subjects, that he might in this way make them approach CHAP. 
 
 more rapidly to European civilization. The beards and 
 
 kaftans of the boyars gradually disappeared in obedience to 
 the will of Peter; but the clergy and the lower classes re- 
 tained what they had inherited from their ancestors. Peter 
 also changed certain usages which did not correspond with 
 his way of thinking; such as the solemn procession of 
 the patriarch on an ass on Palm Sunday, which had crept in 
 amongst us from the "West, and which the Patriarch Joachim 
 also had already forbidden the other prelates to observe: 
 also another custom, of all the people kissing the Tsar and 
 the patriarch on the square of the Kremlin during what was 
 called the Act of the New Year. He even transferred the 
 festival of the new year itself to the first of January, so as to 
 make it agree with the custom of the rest of Europe ; he did 
 not, however, venture to introduce the Gregorian Calendar ; 
 and notwithstanding so great a change in the civil and eccle- 
 siastical reckoning, the festival of the new year of 1700 
 passed over without the slightest disturbance. 
 
 The aged patriarch, however, who was worn out with disease, 
 was offended, and refused to officiate at the solemn liturgy, 
 which Cornelius metropolitan of Novogorod celebrated in his 
 absence in the cathedral of the Assumption, and compli- 
 mented the Tsar on the new year. Adrian was still more 
 disquieted when Peter, meditating great reforms and altera- 
 tions, invited all the Functionaries of the first rank in the 
 kingdom to assist him in correcting the national code and in 
 forming a new one, with a clear separation between the pro- 
 vinces of the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The pa- 
 triarch, during the last days of his life, and whilst he was 
 standing with one foot already in the grave, gave orders in 
 vain for a collection to be made and copied out of the rights 
 and privileges of the Russian Church, beginning with the 
 Nomo-canon and the edicts of Vladimir and Yaroslaff, and in- 
 cluding also the Tallies of the Khans of the Hordes, granted 
 to the great prelates Peter, Alexis, and their successors: 
 lastly, like Joachim, he exhorted with tears the boyars who
 
 262 THE PATRIARCHS. X. ADRIAN. 
 
 CHAP, were to form the code to respect all these privileges and 
 
 - rights, and not to depart from the maxims of their ancestors. 
 
 He departed this life at the end of the year 1700, and with 
 
 him the personal dignity of patriarch in the Russian Church 
 
 came to an end.
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 TRIPHYLLIUS metropolitan of Sarai and Podonsk, in quality CHAP. 
 
 XVI 
 
 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 pre- 
 pared to take the place of the patriarch, an illustrious suc- 
 cessor 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 dis- 
 course, 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 confi- 
 dence, 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 im- 
 mutable 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
 
 264 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP, saints, and who laboured to diffuse that learning for which 
 
 XVI . . 
 
 '- 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 il- 
 luminate 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 respon- 
 sibility. 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 Pa- 
 triarchal 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 dis- 
 covered. 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 hierarch-
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 265 
 
 ical discipline or to doctrine, he committed to the cognizance CHAP. 
 
 XVI 
 
 of the metropolitan of Biazan, as president of the Spiritual - 
 Patriarchal Court, even before he was appointed Guardian. 
 However, in a A r ery short time, all suits against spiritual per- 
 sons 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 Patri- 
 archal 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 Mo- 
 nastery 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 roubles 1 a-year, and ten chetverts 2 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
 
 266 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP, 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 man- 
 ner 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 corpora- 
 tions, 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 com- 
 munication 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
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 267 
 
 of war. laid the foundations of his new capital, while Charles CHAP. 
 
 XVI 
 
 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. 
 
 lie then turned back again upon Russia, and having re- 
 jected 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 1709. 
 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,
 
 268 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP, 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 leaning 3 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 engage- 
 ments 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 Ortho- 
 dox to such indignities as neither Jews nor Mahometans had 
 ever endured at their hands. From the wretched circum- 
 stances of the time, many of the bishops themselves, Innocen- 
 tius of Peremuishla, Joseph of Lvoff, and Cyprian, formerly of
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 269 
 
 Polotsk, and afterwards metropolitan of those who had fallen CHAP. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 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 Pereyas- 
 lavla 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 king- 
 dom. 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 con- 
 centrated, 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 him- 
 self 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 salva-
 
 270 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP, tion of the country. Both the principalities of Moldavia and 
 
 XVI 
 
 ' Wallachia were favourably disposed towards Russia, but Can- 
 
 timir 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 per- 
 manent 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.
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 271 
 
 The Metropolitan Stephen co-operated zealously with the CHAP. 
 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 under- 
 neath 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 Metro- 
 politan 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 prin-
 
 272 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP, ciple 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 ceremonies 4 of our Church, con- 
 ciliated towards them many of the inexperienced, who knew 
 not how to distinguish where the bounds of secular acquire- 
 ment 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 (Ecumenical 
 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
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 273 
 
 commemorations of the departed. Many of the Streltsi and CHAP. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 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 them- 
 selves 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 en- 
 joyed by the schismatics, and the ignorance of their leaders.
 
 274 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP. His writings concerning the time of the coming of Antichrist, 
 ~ and the end of the world, dissipated those mischievous in- 
 terpretations 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 Cere- 
 monialists of the Popoftshin, or Presbyterian branch of 
 Dissent. The Polish landed proprietors received them favour- 
 ably 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 Staro- 
 douboff 5 , 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
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 275 
 
 together at about the same time with the settlement of CHAP. 
 
 XVI 
 
 Vetka and the spread of the Pomorians, by a runaway dis- 
 
 ciple 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 conse- 
 crated, 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 con- 
 tinuance 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. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP. In vain did Peter endeavour to prepare a successor worthy of 
 
 XVI. 
 
 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
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 277 
 
 Rostoff, and by the Tsar's sister, the Tsarevna Maria, making CHAP. 
 
 XVI 
 
 three, with Sophia and Martha, to rise up against their 
 brother. t She was confined in the fortress of Shliisselbourg, 
 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, com- 
 posed 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
 
 278 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP, 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 aifair 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 (Ecumenical 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 Theo- 
 phanes, 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 6 , 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
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 279 
 
 religious innovations of foreigners of other creeds. Having CHAP 
 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 
 Zamostj 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 Vol- 
 hynia, 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
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP, 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 en- 
 dured by the Orthodox in Lithuania, White Russia, and Vol- 
 hynia. 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 remon- 
 strances 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 con- 
 tinued 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 ex- 
 tended 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 dictricts, 
 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 Pekin 7 , was con- 
 secrated the first bishop of Irkutsk, and laid there a good 
 foundation for the Church, being celebrated for the holiness
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 281 
 
 of his character during life, and for the discovery of his relics CHAP. 
 
 XVI 
 
 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, w r hich 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 exist- 
 ing 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 con- 
 queror of the Swedes had laid its foundation. And accord- 
 ingly 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, Avhich had long been left in an in- 
 determinate 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 depart- 
 ments, he were to neglect the better regulation of the Church."
 
 282 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 
 
 CHAP. This was indeed a business which it was impossible to defer 
 
 XVI 
 
 ' 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 aiforded 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 com- 
 plained 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 adminis- 
 tration 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 re- 
 spective 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 deci- 
 dedly to contemplate the institution of a permanent local 
 synod, the decisions of which might at once be more im-
 
 STEPHEN GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 283 
 
 partial and carry greater weight than those of an individual CHAP. 
 ,. , xvi. 
 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 semi- 
 naries 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 commence- 
 ment of the year 1721. The whole of the Regulation was read 
 through in the presence of Stephen guardian of the patri- 
 archal throne, Silvester metropolitan of Smolensk, Pacho- 
 mius 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 digni- 
 taries of the state, and was witnessed by them all after it had 
 been signed and confirmed by the Tsar's hand. It was after- 
 wards again subscribed by all the bishops and archimandrites, 
 and hegumens of the first rank in the Russian Church.
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 THE MOST HOLY SYNOD. 
 
 CHAP. AND now was solemnly opened in the presence of the 
 
 XVII 
 
 : Emperor Peter this standing spiritual synod, which was for 
 
 the future to rule the Russian Church under the name of 
 the Most Holy Governing Synod ; and this title was inserted 
 in all the Litanies 1 and prayers where the patriarchs were 
 formerly mentioned. To its administration were committed 
 all the estates of the bishops and monasteries, which had got 
 into disorder under the management of the Monastery Court. 
 The election of bishops, the supreme right of jurisdiction over 
 spiritual persons, except in capital cases, which were to be tried 
 in the different courts, all matters of heresy and schism, as well 
 as of marriages and divorce, which had formerly belonged to 
 the patriarchal Court of Requests, and afterwards had been 
 under the cognizance of the Metropolitan Stephen, the 
 Guardian of the throne, were referred to the jurisdiction of 
 the synod; and the meek Stephen himself, after having so 
 long ruled all the Church, was honoured with the title of 
 President of the Most Holy Synod, with the same voice as 
 the other members ; and he executed the duties of this office 
 for two years longer till the time of his blessed decease. He 
 departed this life at Riazan, and was buried there in the 
 magnificent cathedral which he himself had built. Two 
 Vice-presidents were also appointed, Theodosius, who had not 
 long before been consecrated archbishop of Novogorod, and 
 Theophanes of Pskoff. The other members who took part in 
 the consultations of the synod, were Leonidas, archbishop of 
 the Steeps, Gabriel, archimandrite of the Lavra of St. Sergius, 
 the archimandrites of the three Stauropegial monasteries at
 
 THE MOST HOLY SYNOD. 285 
 
 Moscow, the Choudoff, the Novospassky, and the Simonoff, CHAP. 
 
 the distinguished Theophylact Lopatinsky 2 , Hierotheus, and 
 
 Peter, the Hegumens Athanasius Tolgsky from Yaroslavla, 
 and Barlaam Ougreshsky from near Moscow, one priest- 
 monk named Theophilus, and two arch-priests of the new 
 collegiate churches in St. Petersburgh, John of the Trinity, 
 and Peter of that of the two Chief Apostles. Such was the 
 original composition of the Most Holy Synod 3 . 
 
 This synodal form of ecclesiastical government was pro- 
 claimed to the people throughout all Russia, but there still 
 needed, in order to its permanent establishment, the recogni- 
 tion of the other Eastern Churches, that the unity of the 
 Catholic Church might not be violated. The Emperor Peter 
 had several times during the course of his reign applied to 
 the see of Constantinople, at one time for dispensations for 
 the contraction of marriages with persons of different reli- 
 gions, and for authority to discontinue the previous custom 
 of re-baptizing Lutherans and Calvinists 4 converted to the 
 Orthodox faith, whereas the proper course was to receive 
 such by administering to them only the Mystery of the Holy 
 Chrism or Confirmation; at another time for granting a 
 dispensation from the Fasts to soldiers engaged in actual 
 service in the field; and now on this occasion he wrote a 
 letter with his own hand to the Patriarch Jeremiah. In it 
 he informed him of those necessities of the Russian Church, 
 which had induced him to take it under his special care after 
 the example of other religious sovereigns in old time, and to 
 institute a spiritual synod with authority equal to that of the 
 former patriarchs for its government ; and he expressed his 
 hope that Jeremiah also, as the first hierarch of the Eastern 
 Catholic Church, would favourably recognise this institution, 
 and would inform the other most blessed patriarchs of 
 Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, of it, and that he would 
 hold communion and correspondence with the Most Holy 
 Synod in the same way that he formerly had done with the 
 patriarchs of all the Russias. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that the name of the patriarch to
 
 286 THE MOST HOLY SYNOD. 
 
 CHAP, whom Peter applied on the institution of the synod, was 
 Jeremiah, the same having been also the name of that prelate 
 with whom the Tsar Theodore held communication at the 
 time of the establishment of the Russian patriarchate. Several 
 other curious coincidences were also noticed : on this occa- 
 sion, as well as on the former, the person most of all engaged 
 in forwarding the views of the Tsar and the Lord of Con- 
 stantinople was the patriarch of Antioch, while both times 
 the patriarch of Alexandria died during the negotiations. 
 Another important business occupied the attention of the 
 (Ecumenical patriarchs at the time they received this letter from 
 the Tsar, and the Russian Church also took some slight share 
 in the same matter. A certain bishop of Thebais who apper- 
 tained to the throne of Alexandria, happening to be in Great 
 Britain in quest of alms, suggested to the Anglican bishops 
 the idea of uniting themselves to the (Ecumenical Church, 
 and was the bearer of a letter from them to the patriarchs. 
 
 The guardians of Eastern Orthodoxy, having consulted 
 together in council, made answer at length to the enquiries 
 of the British, laying before them those unalterable founda- 
 tions of the faith of their ancestors, on which alone the 
 Eastern Church could receive 5 them into her bosom, for she 
 had already in the past century 6 had an example of a false 
 union with the Calvinists, who had deceived Cyrill Lucar, 
 patriarch of Constantinople, and endeavoured to propagate 
 their heresy in the East under his name. The successor of 
 Lucar, another Cyrill, known as Cyrill of Beroea, was obliged 7 
 to deliver over the doctrines ascribed to his predecessor to an 
 anathema. But the learned Dositheus, patriarch of Jerusalem, 
 convoked a council at Bethlehem 8 , and set forth at large 
 in eighteen articles the whole Orthodox Confession of the 
 Catholic Church, with a rejection of the German 9 doctrine, 
 grounding himself upon the already existing "Orthodox Con- 
 fession" of Peter Mogila 10 , which had been acknowledged by 
 the whole Church. 
 
 In the mean time the British bishops, through James Pro- 
 tosyncellus of Alexandria, entered into communication on the
 
 THE MOST HOLY SYXOD. 287 
 
 same subiect with the Most Holy Synod, and transmitted to CHAP. 
 
 XVII 
 
 it their rejoinder to the answers of the patriarchs, with the - 
 request that they might be forwarded to Constantinople. 
 But the Russian prelates, seeing with what heresy the 
 Anglican document was filled, rejecting the traditions of their 
 fathers, for the invocation of the saints, and the reverencing 
 of Icons, proceeded in the same guarded manner as the Greek 
 bishops, requesting them to give their advice in council, 
 without which they would undertake nothing. Upon this, 
 three of the (Ecumenical patriarchs, Jeremiah of Constanti- 
 nople, Athanasius of Antioch, and Sophronius of Jerusalem, 
 together with the bishops that were in Constantinople, imme- 
 diately sent to the Most Holy Synod the synodical Confession 
 of the Patriarch Dositheus, as the best refutation to oppose 
 against the Anglican 11 and Calvinistic doctrines, and entreated 
 them by a circular letter, to remain steadfast in the pious 
 doctrines of Orthodoxy; as they had long since been 
 thoroughly sifted and decided by the (Ecumenical Councils, 
 and the holy Fathers, and had been uninterruptedly held and 
 preserved by the service of the Catholic Church, and it was 
 impossible either to add any thing to them or to take any 
 thing away. 
 
 At the same time the patriarchs wrote letters to the 
 Most Holy Synod, concerning its recognition by the whole 
 (Ecumenical Church, after the example of the throne of Con- 
 stantinople, upon which in ancient times the metropolitan 
 chair of all the Russias had depended. The letter from Con- 
 stantinople was as follows : 
 
 Jeremiah, by the mercy of God Patriarch of the city of Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 Our Humility, by the grace and power of the all-holy and 
 life-giving Spirit, the sole Author of all governance, legiti- 
 matizes, confirms and proclaims the Synod, which has been 
 instituted in the great and holy kingdom of Russia, by the 
 most pious and pacific Autocrat, the Holy Tsar, Sovereign of 
 all Muscovy, of Little and White Russia, and all the Northern
 
 288 THE MOST HOLY SYNOD. 
 
 CHAP. Eastern, Western, and many other countries, the Lord, Lord 
 Peter Alexaevich, Emperor, whom we love, and of whom we 
 desire to have refreshment in the Holy Ghost. It is, and is 
 to be named "our Brother in Christ, the Holy and Sacred 
 Synod," by all pious and Orthodox Christians, both Clergy 
 and laity, Rulers and subjects, and by all official persons and 
 dignitaries ; and it has authority to do and perform, all that 
 is done or performed by the four Apostolical and Most Holy 
 Patriarchal thrones. Moreover, we put it in remembrance, 
 we exhort and enjoin on it, to hold and preserve inviolably 
 the customs and Canons of the seven Holy and (Ecumenical 
 Councils, and all besides that the Holy Eastern Church 
 acknowledges and observes; and so may it stand fast for 
 ever. The Grace of God, and the Prayer and Blessing of our 
 Humility, be with you. In the year 1 723, this 23rd day of 
 September. 
 
 (Signed), 
 
 Jeremiah, by the mercy of God Patriarch of Constantinople, 
 your Brother in Christ.
 
 APPENDIX BY THE AUTHOR.
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE COMING OF THE PATRIARCH 
 JEREMIAH INTO RUSSIA. 
 
 IN the year 7095 from the creation of the world, and 1587 APPEND 
 
 from the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, during the reign of ' 
 
 Theodore Ivanovich, the pious Tsar and Great Prince of 
 All Russia, and the Pontificate of Job as metropolitan of 
 Moscow, there came from the East into Russia, Jeremiah, 
 archbishop of Constantinople or New Rome, and CEcu- 
 menical patriarch, in quest of alms to relieve the neces- 
 sities of his Church. He was the second patriarch who had 
 come into our country during the mild reign of Theodore. 
 
 Two years previously to this, Joachim, patriarch of 
 Antioch and All the East, had visited Russia, likewise in 
 quest of alms, by way of Astrachan and Kazan ; and the pious 
 Tsar had been so gratified at seeing the magnificence of the 
 ceremonial of the Church heightened by the presence of a 
 prelate of his exalted rank, that he conceived the idea of 
 raising the rank of the Metropolitans of All Russia; for 
 although they had hitherto reckoned themselves to form part 
 of the patriarchate of Constantinople, they had long since sur- 
 passed every one of the (Ecumenical patriarchs in power and 
 in the extent of their jurisdiction 1 . At that time the sage 
 Dionysius Grammaticus was still metropolitan ; and his 
 meeting with the prelate of Antioch may with every proba- 
 bility be said to have first suggested to the Tsar the idea of 
 instituting a new patriarchate. For when the patriarch in 
 the church of the Assumption of the Most Immaculate 
 Mother of God, after having saluted the holy Icons, went to 
 salute Dionysius, the metropolitan moved from his place not 
 more than about six feet, and gave him his benediction first ; 
 after which, the patriarch blessed the metropolitan, and 
 slightly remarked at the time that it would have been more 
 proper that he should first have received the benediction from
 
 290 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, him ; and then made no more observations on that point. 
 - The Autocrat, however, did not thus drop the subject, but 
 after having considered it over with his pious consort Irene, 
 he took counsel with his boyars, and addressed them thus : 
 
 " Originally, in the time of our forefathers, the Sovereigns, 
 Great Princes, and religious Tsars of Kieff, Vladimir, and 
 Moscow, our intercessors with God the metropolitans of 
 Kieff, Vladimir, Moscow, and All Russia, were appointed by 
 the (Ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople: afterwards, 
 by the Grace of Almighty God, and of the Most Immaculate 
 Mother of God, our Protectress, and by the prayers of the 
 great Wonder-workers of All Russia, and with the knowledge 
 and advice of the QEcumenical patriarchs, there began to be 
 appointed metropolitans in the kingdom of Moscow itself, by 
 the direction and election of our forefathers and the whole 
 Sacred Synod of the archbishops and bishops of the Russian 
 kingdom; which has lasted even to our own reign. But 
 now, through His great and unspeakable mercy, God has 
 pleased that we should see the great Patriarch of Antioch 
 come unto us ; for which let us give thanks unto the Lord ; 
 and in the mean time let us seek from Him yet another grace, 
 that He will manifest to us His loving-kindness, and give us 
 in our dominions of Moscow a patriarch of the Russian king- 
 dom : and let us confer, for the purpose of effecting this, with 
 the Most Holy Joachim, and so arrange with him, as to ob- 
 tain the blessing of all the patriarchs for the Patriarchate of 
 Moscow." 
 
 By the desire of the Tsar, his brother-in-law, the privy coun- 
 sellor and master of the horse Boris Theodorovich Godounoff, 
 made a communication respecting the royal speech to the 
 patriarch of Antioch, " that he should consult on it with the 
 (Ecumenical patriarch, and he with the other two of Alex- 
 andria and Jerusalem, and with all the Sacred Council of the 
 Greek empire, and communicate also with the Holy Moun- 
 tain and with Mount Sinai; that it might please God so 
 great a work might be happily brought to pass in the 
 kingdom of Russia, to the honour of the Christian faith ; and
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 291 
 
 that they should take counsel together, and make known in APPEND. 
 
 what way it might most properly be done." The Patriarch - 
 
 Joachim having heard this speech, said : 
 
 " It is well known to us patriarchs, as well as to all those 
 Christians who are in Greece and elsewhere, that your 
 sovereign is a lover of religion and of Christ ; that he 
 is gracious to his own Christian people, and that he looks 
 with eyes of compassion on those afflictions and persecutions, 
 which we suffer from the ungodly Hagarenes. And we 
 pray our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and His most pure 
 Mother, and all the Saints, who have pleased God from the 
 beginning, that the Lord would bestow upon your sovereign 
 all the wish of his heart, and give him health for many years 
 to come, and victory over his enemies, and dispose his reign 
 in peace. And it would indeed well become so great a heri- 
 tage as this is in his kingdom of Russia, if it should ever please 
 God to set up over it a patriarch ; only, without first con- 
 ferring with the patriarch of Constantinople and the other 
 two, and with all the Sacred Council, it is impossible to do 
 this ; for it is indeed a great work, and one which requires 
 the whole Council. But for us, since we have now heard 
 what discourse has been held by your pious Tsar, we will 
 begin to take counsel together respecting the matter; and 
 will send to the Holy Mountain and to Sinai, and will 
 heartily pray to God for grace, that by His Almighty power, 
 He may bring it to pass." 
 
 The Tsar, after having made ample presents to the pa- 
 triarch, dismissed him with honour; and, the next year, there 
 came to Moscow a Greek named Nicholas, with informa- 
 tion that the patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch had 
 communicated to him verbally respecting the wish of the 
 Tsar, to have a patriarch for Russia ; that they had con- 
 sulted together, and had sent to the patriarchs of Alexandria 
 and Jerusalem, and had desired them to come to Constan- 
 tinople, in order to hold a council on the matter ; and that 
 they proposed to send the patriarch of Jerusalem from the 
 council, with directions how to ordain a patriarch. 
 
 u2
 
 292 COMING OP THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND. The coming of the Most Holy (Ecumenical Patriarch 
 
 : Jeremiah was on this wise. In June 1588, the voivodes of 
 
 Smolensk, the Prince Michael Katireff Rostofsky and the 
 Boyar Prince Theodore Shestounoff, wrote to inform the 
 sovereign that the patriarch of Constantinople had arrived 
 there ; and that he was accompanied by Hierotheus, metro- 
 politan of Monembasia, and Arsenius, archbishop of Elasson, 
 together with many monks and merchants, and servants; 
 whom they were detaining, till they should receive the orders 
 of the Tsar, in Smolensk; and in the mean time they for- 
 warded the following letter from the patriarch. 
 
 " Jeremiah, by the grace of God, archbishop of Constanti- 
 nople, which is New Rome, and patriarch of the whole uni- 
 verse, to the religious, the chosen of God, the pacific and 
 glorious Autocrat, the Tsar of all the land of Russia, of 
 Moscow, Kazan, Astrachan, Novogorod, &c. ! We pray God 
 that thy reign may last many years in peace from all 
 enemies, visible and invisible, to be a praise and blessing 
 to all the earth, and to all good Christians. "We had heard 
 of thy kingdom, even during the life of thy father of blessed 
 memory, and we wished and would have been glad then to 
 come to thy country, that we might enjoy the grace of being 
 in a Christian land. We had heard also of the piety of the 
 great Tsar, thy father ; what devotion he shewed to all the 
 Churches of God, and how that he ordered the affairs of his 
 kingdom well, and in the love of God, and worthily of the 
 kingdom of Heaven : but the times were then so calamitous 
 as to prevent my going ; there came upon us many vexations, 
 necessities, and persecutions. I was thrown into prison by 
 the unbelievers; and all this is already well known in thy 
 dominions. But now, by the mercy of God, we have escaped 
 from this persecution, and having obtained leave, we have 
 come from Constantinople, and are arrived at a province of 
 thy kingdom which is Smolensk, and we lose no time in 
 writing to thee this letter, to ask if thou wilt be pleased to 
 permit us to enter into thy kingdom ; and we here await thy 
 answer whether we are to come or not. For ourselves we have
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 293 
 
 made all preparation that we could in order to promote the APPEND. 
 
 interests of our great Church. We write to thee this letter - 
 
 in God's name, and await thy royal commands : and may 
 Almighty God preserve thy throne for many years, and give 
 it His blessing and defence. Amen." 
 
 As soon as the Tsar Theodore had received this intelligence 
 from his voivodes, with the prelate's letter, he immediately 
 despatched to Smolensk to meet the patriarch a commissioner 
 of honour named Simeon Poushechnikoff, with an order to 
 the voivodes to allow the Most Holy Jeremiah and his suite 
 to proceed with all honour to Moscow, to supply him with suit- 
 able provisions and carriages for the journey, and to furnish 
 him with an escort of Esquires from Smolensk. And at the 
 same time he ordered Silvester, bishop of Smolensk, to re- 
 ceive the patriarch in his cathedral church of The Most Holy 
 Virgin the Conductress with all possible state, as was usual at 
 the reception of the Metropolitans of All Russia ; and that it 
 should be public, and in the presence of all the people. He 
 also ordered that an honorary supply of provisions should be 
 sent to the patriarch, the metropolitan, and the archbishop, 
 as from himself. But while Theodore thus shewed his piety, 
 in his joyful reception of the great prelate, he did not the 
 less, as a prudent ruler, think it right to take certain neces- 
 sary measures of political precaution. In the answer which 
 he wrote to the voivodes, he expressed displeasure at their 
 negligence, for "did they," asked he, "only know of the 
 coming of the patriarch, when he had actually arrived where 
 they were ? had he travelled from the frontiers of Lithuania 
 seventy versts, as if he had been in a foreign territory, with- 
 out meeting any where with any watch or guard; a thing which 
 had never before occurred ? and then had they not asked him 
 how he had passed through Lithuania? and whether it was by 
 the decision of all the patriarchs that he had left Constanti- 
 nople ? also of the particulars of the meeting itself they had 
 sent no information ; that now however to ask the patriarch 
 such questions would no longer be becoming, but only in 
 future they should be more cautious ; and that they should
 
 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, send to the government office an inventory of all the wares 
 "" and goods which were with him or the people of his train." 
 
 The Tsar also gave his commissioner a memorandum of 
 the manner in which he was to receive the patriarch, and 
 attend on him during the journey with all possible care and 
 respect; also that he was to endeavour to learn privately 
 on the road, from his monks and attendants, what was the 
 purpose of the Most Holy Jeremiah's visit to him ? and 
 whether he had any communication for him from the other 
 patriarchs ? who had taken his place at Constantinople ? 
 and where was Theoleptus who had been patriarch before 
 him? and which of the two would be patriarch upon his 
 return? He ordered him also to make enquiries, whether 
 any army of the Turkish Sultan had been sent in any direc- 
 tion ? whether he was at war with the Shah of Persia ? or 
 at peace with the kings of France and Spain, and with the 
 Emperor ? also, how the patriarch had passed through Lithu- 
 ania? whether he had seen the king? and who was king 
 there then ? and whether he had been at the Sessions of the 
 Nobles ? whether he brought any news from Lithuania, or 
 had any natives of that country in his suite ? He was to send 
 and inform the Tsar exactly of all these particulars, after 
 leaving Mojaisk ; and was to send again from the last place 
 at which he would have to halt near Moscow, and there 
 he was to remain till he received permission to enter the 
 city. 
 
 When he had been ten days on the road (the thirteenth 
 of June) another commissioner of state, Gregory Naschokin, 
 met the patriarch close to the capital at the ferry of the 
 Milofskay road over the river Moskva, and in the name of 
 the sovereign enquired after his health, as well as after that 
 of the metropolitan and the archbishop; and so conducted 
 them, by the best places, past the Dvorianoy Dvor, through 
 the Quarter of the Streltsi, close to the city to the Tverskay 
 Gates; then from the Tverskay street, by the Jitnoy Dvor, past 
 the Artillery Yard, to the town lodge of the see of Eiazan. 
 Orders had been given that they should be accommodated
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 295 
 
 there with all possible honour ; but till they should be APPEND. 
 received by the Tsar, no Greek nor other foreigner was to be 
 admitted to see them, except those who were sent by the 
 boyars and the spiritual authorities to compliment them with 
 presents of provisions ; and in the mean time the Wallachians 
 and Lithuanians were to be conducted to the Court or Hostel 
 specially appropriated for the reception of Lithuanians. The 
 commissioners received directions to communicate only with 
 the Council of the Boyars, and to do nothing without the order 
 of Andrew Schelkaloff the secretary of embassy. 
 
 After a week had passed, on the twenty-first of June, being 
 Sunday, the Tsar desired the patriarch of Constantinople's 
 presence at his court ; and the patriarch accordingly made 
 his solemn entry into the Kremlin seated on an ass, and 
 alighted on the elevated pavement before the church of the 
 Annunciation, while the metropolitan and the archbishop, 
 under the conduct of the Tsar's commissioners, alighted from 
 their horses before they arrived, without riding in. The Sons 
 of the Boyars or Esquires and the Officers of the Courts of 
 Justice, dressed in robes covered with gold, lined the steps of 
 the lofty flight of stairs, where the patriarch was to be first 
 met by Tatischeff, a boyar of the council, and Tiounoff, 
 secretary of the court, and also the passage room at the 
 middle staircase, where the patriarch was met the second time 
 by the Lord of the Presence, the Prince Lobanoff-Rostofsky, 
 and the Secretary of the Court of Requests, Sapoun Ivanoff. 
 
 In the Beautiful Corner of the Golden Hall of the Sign 
 Manual, on a throne of great richness, was seated the reli- 
 gious sovereign himself, with his crown on his head, vested 
 in his royal robes, and holding a richly-carved sceptre in his 
 hands, a golden orb figuring the universe lying by his side. 
 About him stood all his boyars, the lords of the presence 
 and the courtiers, in robes covered with gold. The Treasurer 
 Trachanioutoff announced with a loud voice the arrival of the 
 patriarch in these words : " The Most Holy Jeremiah, patri- 
 arch of Constantinople, and Hierotheus the metropolitan of 
 Monembasia, make their humble petition to thee, O Tsar."
 
 296 COMIN& OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND. Then the Tsar rose from his place, and advanced about half 
 a fathom to meet the patriarch. The prelate first of all 
 made his reverence to the holy Icon of our Heavenly Lady, 
 which shone with a blaze of precious stones immediately over 
 the throne, from under a rich canopy; he then lifted his 
 hands on high, and offered up a fervent prayer for the health 
 and long life of the Tsar, that his name might be glorious 
 both in the East and West, and that it would please God to 
 give him the blessing of heirs to reign after him ; and having 
 thus prayed, he blessed him by signing over his bended heaven- 
 crowned head the sign of the holy Cross. 
 
 In his turn, the Tsar prayed that he might have the fulfil- 
 ment of all the prelate's good wishes, and thanked him, and 
 said, " In a happy hour has thy Holiness visited our kingdom 
 during my reign ; has the Lord been gracious to thee by the 
 way ?" The patriarch replied " B the mercy of God, and 
 thy royal goodness, I have come into thy kingdom in i ood 
 health, and have forgotten all my toils at the sight of thy 
 royal countenance." 
 
 On this he offered to the monarch the presents he had 
 brought for him as a blessing : a gold Panagia with morsels 
 of the life-giving Cross, of the Eobe of the Lord, and of that 
 of the Mother of God, encased within it, as w T ell as portions 
 of the instruments of our Lord's passion, the Spear, the 
 Reed, the Sponge, and the Crown of Thorns. Also, certain 
 holy relics in a silver case, a hand of the Apostle-like 
 Emperor Constantino, which Sultan Solyman had brought 
 away out of Servia and had given to a former patriarch 
 Jeremiah for the cathedral of the Mother of God, and 
 another hand, of St. James one of the Forty Martyrs of 
 Sebaste. Another golden Panagia and some relics of the 
 holy Martyrs Solomonia and Marina of Antioch were destined 
 as a blessing for the acceptance of the pious Tsaritsa Irene. 
 
 The Tsar ordered the Treasurer Trachanioutoff to receive 
 these holy presents, and having seated himself again on his 
 raised throne, desired the patriarch to sit down close by him 
 on a bench placed on his right hand, and the metropolitan
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 297 
 
 and archbishop at a little interval farther off. Then the APPEND. 
 
 treasurer brought forth the presents of the monarch : for ' 
 
 the patriarch, a double-handled silver cup, and four pieces of 
 figured velvet, some damask silk, four-score sables, and 
 three hundred roubles in money ; while for the metropolitan 
 there were carried to his lodgings, one silver cup, three 
 pieces of velvet, besides damask and mohair, two-score sables, 
 and fifty roubles in money. The archbishop of Elasson did 
 not partake of the royal bounty, as he had been already at 
 Moscow once before, and had received rich presents from the 
 Tsar John, since which time he had constantly resided in 
 Lithuania, and had never returned to his own ecclesiastical 
 diocese. After this, Andrew Schelkaloff, secretary of em- 
 bassy, announced in the Tsar's name, that in accordance 
 with the patriarch's own wish, orders to confer with him had 
 been given to Boris Theodorovich Godounoff, privy counsellor, 
 master of the horse, brother-in-law to the Tsar, and governor 
 of Kazan and Astrachan; and that the Tsar of his bounty 
 would send him provisions to his lodgings from his own 
 table. The Most Holy Jeremiah, having once more given 
 his blessing to the monarch, went out from the presence with 
 the commissioners and all his suite into the Small Audience 
 Chamber, whither the Boyar Godounoff, accompanied by two 
 secretaries, soon followed him. Schelkaloff then presented 
 him to the patriarch, and Godounoff, after he had asked his 
 blessing, enquired after the prelate's health, and received 
 this answer : " By the mercy of God we have made the 
 journey in good health ; but what has done me most good is, 
 that I have seen the light of the Tsar's countenance." 
 
 They both seated themselves, as did also the secretaries, 
 by permission of the patriarch; but the bishops and the 
 monks were desired by the boyar to withdraw to an ante- 
 room : he then told the patriarch that by the will of the 
 monarch, and in accordance with his own desire expressed 
 through the commissioners, he had been sent to confer with 
 him on certain matters, and begged him to inform him what 
 was the cause of his coming, and also who was patriarch in
 
 298 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND. Constantinople during his absence ? further, of the circum- 
 stances of his passage through Lithuania? and what his 
 communications had been with the Pans of the Council and 
 the chancellor ? The patriarch replied : 
 
 " I was patriarch in Constantinople, when for my sins, and 
 the sins of all the Greek Christians, the Turkish Sultan rose 
 up against the Church of God. The cause of all was a Greek, 
 who had been originally with me, but ran away, turned 
 Mahometan, and became Kapoudgi to the Sultan. He then 
 began to speak to him many slanderous words against me, 
 and to descant on our great riches and hoards, and describe the 
 splendour of the ornaments and furniture of the church, 
 where my predecessors had resided ; saying, that its sacred 
 vessels were beyond all number or price. Besides this, Theo- 
 leptus began to buy over the Pashas to make him patriarch, 
 and offered to give the Sultan two thousand pieces of gold 
 more than the usual present. As for me in my old age, I 
 had already desired to abdicate my throne, and to choose a 
 successor in my place with the consent of the other patriarchs, 
 the metropolitans, and the whole sacred synod, according to 
 the custom in former time. But the Turkish Sultan broke 
 through the firmans which his predecessors had granted to the 
 patriarchs at the taking of Constantinople, and by which 
 they had promised not to interfere in any thing with the 
 spiritual orders, and commanded, without any reference to 
 our synod, that Theoleptus should be patriarch. But when 
 I upon this remonstrated freely and in many words with the 
 Pashas, that the faith of the Sultan's predecessors should not 
 be broken, Sultan Mourat made a persecution against the 
 Church of God, and inflicted disgrace upon me, and banished 
 me to the White sea, to the island of Rhodes, where I 
 remained in disgrace four years. In the mean time Theo- 
 leptus was patriarch of Constantinople. But in his fifth year, 
 the Sultan deposed him, seized upon and confiscated the 
 Church of God, and all the buildings belonging to it, and 
 converted it into a mosque ; and then sent for me to be again 
 patriarch. I arrived in Constantinople, I there see the Church
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 299 
 
 of God destroyed, and converting into a mosque, its property APPEND. 
 
 all plundered, and the cells of the Religious in ruins. The 
 
 Sultan then sent for me, and ordered me to build a patri- 
 archal church and cells in some other part of Constantinople. 
 But I had no means to do this : all that had been in our 
 treasury had been plundered : and so with the consent of the 
 synod, I petitioned the Sultan to permit me to go to collect 
 alms for the building of a church to Christian countries; and he 
 gave me permission. Now therefore, since I had heard before 
 of the piety of your Christian monarch, I have come hither, to 
 see his royal countenance, and to be witness of his Orthodox 
 faith, and to ask for his alms, that he would shew mercy 
 upon us, and assist us in our afflictions and distresses ; and 
 there is now no other patriarch in Constantinople. 
 
 " I came into Lithuania ; and when I had arrived at Lvoff, 
 I sent to the chancellor, John Zamoisky, to the city of 
 Zamosk, to procure a pass; and the chancellor desired me to 
 come to him, where I found one of the first noblemen of the 
 Prince Maximilian of Austria ; and the chancellor informed 
 me, at our interview, that the high ambassadors of the 
 sovereigns had been at the election; and that the Polish 
 nobles had chosen Sigismund, son of the king of Sweden, to 
 be their king, and had crowned him ; but that then it was 
 not clear who was their king. Jegimont in Cracow, and the 
 Council of the Pans had chosen for themselves another king, 
 Maximilian of Austria, and he was in Krasnoy-Staff; and, 
 that for their sins, they could come to no agreement 
 respecting their king." 
 
 The patriarch further said, that he had some secret com- 
 munications to make ; and when Godounoff had heard them, 
 which took no long time, he promised to report them to the 
 Tsar, and then dismissed the patriarch with honour, to the 
 town lodge of the see of Riazan; shortly afterwards the 
 pious monarch, after having consulted with his consort, 
 thus addressed his boyars : 
 
 " Some time ago, there came hither to us from Antioch the 
 Most Holy Patriarch Joachim, and we then took counsel with
 
 300 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, you, O Boyars, to the end that our Lord God might grant us 
 
 His mercy, and permit the establishment of a patriarch in this 
 
 our kingdom of Moscow. The Most Holy Joachim engaged 
 to consult on this with the other patriarchs. But now, by 
 ths great, and unspeakable mercy of God, there has come to 
 us the Most Holy Jeremiah himself, the patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople and the Universe, the like of which has never 
 hitherto occurred in the time of any of our ancestors, that a 
 patriarch should come hither from so great and principal a 
 place in the Christian world, as the orthodox city of Con- 
 stantinople; and we, after praying for the mercy of God, 
 have determined that the patriarch of Constantinople should 
 reside in our capital city of Vladimir." The monarch 
 then ordered his brother-in-law to confer with the patriarch 
 on the possibility of his remaining and taking up his resi- 
 dence in the kingdom of Russia, in the former capital of 
 Vladimir. 
 
 But in the mean time, while the Tsar was deliberating, 
 many days and weeks passed, and the Most Holy Jeremiah 
 began to petition to be allowed to take his leave for Con- 
 stantinople, when the brother-in-law of the monarch visited 
 him; and having received his patriarchal blessing, enquired 
 respecting his health in the names of the Tsar, and Tsaritsa, 
 and then spoke to him thus, in private. 
 
 " Our religious and Christian monarch has ordered me to 
 impart to you, Most Holy Patriarch, his royal views. He 
 in time past signified his wish by the patriarch of Antioch to 
 you, and to the other patriarchs, that you would all confer 
 together for the institution of a patriarchate in the kingdom 
 of Russia, to the honour and promotion of the Christian 
 Faith. And now thou hast informed him, that for the sins of 
 the Christians, the Turkish Sultan has made an attack upon 
 the Church of God, has persecuted thee, and made the patri- 
 archate itself his prey. Our religious sovereign, therefore, 
 begs your holiness to remain in the kingdom of Russia, and 
 to be patriarch on the throne of Vladimir and all Great 
 Russia; that by so doing, you may vindicate your claim
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 301 
 
 to the title of (Ecumenical patriarch, and he promises ample APPEND. 
 endowments to you and yours." ' 
 
 The patriarch replied : " To the Tsar and Great Prince, 
 and to his religious Tsaritsa, we return many thanks for their 
 magnificent offers to me. Our brother of Antioch informed 
 our Humility of the pious wish of the monarch, and we agreed 
 in council, that it would well become the honour of the 
 kingdom of Russia, that a patriarch should be instituted for 
 it ; and I myself do not recede from this decision : only it 
 will not be possible for me to reside in Vladimir, since the 
 patriarch should always be near the throne, and that would 
 be a strange kind of patriarch, who should live at a dis- 
 tance from his sovereign. Besides this, my bishops and 
 presbyters and all the brethren of the Church of Constanti- 
 nople write to me with tears, that I should return to them ; 
 and indeed it is time for me to return to that Church, which 
 I have taken charge of as of a mother, that I may tend her in 
 her old age and necessity, and support many of her children, 
 who leave her stripped of all consolation, forgetting that they 
 have received all the good they have from her." 
 
 The great monarch, on receiving the answer of the patri- 
 arch, was disappointed; and repeatedly sent his brother-in- 
 law to confer with him on the same matter ; but the Most 
 Holy Jeremiah would not consent. On this the Tsar con- 
 voked his council, and said thus ; ' ' We had proposed, that the 
 (Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah should abide with us, and 
 fill the throne of Vladimir, and all Great Russia ; and that our 
 father and beadsman, the Metropolitan Job, should remain 
 as before in this our royal city of Moscow. But the Most 
 Holy Jeremiah will not assent to this, unless we allow him to 
 reside in Moscow, at the church of the Immaculate Mother 
 of God. We however cannot bring ourselves to remove from 
 the church of the Most Pure Virgin and from the tombs of 
 the Wonder-workers such a man as our Father Job, the suc- 
 cessor and fellow of those great saints, Peter, Alexis, and Jonah, 
 a man of such an irreproachable life, so reverend and holy, and 
 to place a Greek patriarch in his room, who does not know
 
 302 COMING OP THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, either our laws or customs : and with whom I could not con- 
 i. 
 
 - verse on any spiritual matters without an interpreter. But 
 
 now let us again take counsel that the (Ecumenical Patriarch 
 Jeremiah may bless, and appoint to be patriarch of Vladimir, 
 a member of the Russian synod our father the Metropolitan 
 Job, according to the same order by which he appoints the 
 patriarchs of Alexandria, and Jerusalem ; and that we may 
 obtain from him the order of appointment, that for the 
 future our patriarchs may be appointed in the kingdom of 
 Russia by their own synod ; and that for this purpose there 
 should be instituted more metropolitans, and the number of 
 archbishops and bishops should be increased in those cities 
 where they are most required." 
 
 On the thirteenth of January Boris Godounoff, accom- 
 panied by the Secretary Andrew Schelkaloff, drove again to 
 the lodgings of the (Ecumenical patriarch, and delivered to 
 him this message from the Tsar, "that if the Most Holy 
 Jeremiah does not choose to be himself patriarch of Vladimir 
 and All Russia, he will be pleased at all events to appoint in 
 his stead such member of the Russian synod as the Lord 
 God, the Most Immaculate Mother of God, and the great 
 Wonder-workers of Moscow shall elect : for our religious an- 
 cestors the Tsars our predecessors received baptism in the 
 Christian faith, and the most reverend metropolitans of 
 Kieff their appointment, from the patriarchs of the Church 
 of Constantinople; and this faith they have steadfastly 
 maintained. And do thou, O Most Holy Jeremiah, who art 
 also, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, their successor in the 
 apostolical throne, perfect in our time the work of thy pre- 
 decessors." The patriarch, after having conferred at length 
 with the boyar, replied : " Of a truth the Holy Spirit abideth 
 in your religious Tsar, his thought has been inspired from 
 God ; and so also has this proper way of bringing it about. 
 Since old Rome has fallen through the Apollinarian heresy 2 , 
 and Constantinople, which is New Rome, is in the possession 
 of the unbelieving Turks the children of Hagar, the great 
 kingdom of Russia has surpassed all others put together in
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 303 
 
 piety, and your Orthodox sovereign is named throughout all APPEND. 
 the world as the sole pattern of a Christian king. Therefore, - 
 by the providence of God, and by the prayers of the Most 
 Immaculate Virgin and the intercession of the great Wonder- 
 workers Peter, Alexis, and Jonah, and by the advice of the 
 Tsar, let this great work be accomplished." He then gave his 
 blessing for the election to proceed according to the wish of 
 the monarch; and consented that, for the future, the patriarchs 
 should be appointed in the kingdom of Russia by their own 
 metropolitans, according to the order of the Church ; and for 
 himself he requested that he might be allowed to take his leave 
 and return to Constantinople. 
 
 On the nineteenth day of January, 1589, there met in the 
 royal city of Moscow a great spiritual synod of the whole 
 kingdom of Russia : the Most Reverend Job metropolitan of 
 All Russia, Alexander archbishop of Great Novogorod and 
 Pskoff, Jeremiah archbishop of Kazan and Sviajsk, Barlaam 
 of Rostoff and Yaroslavla, Job bishop of Souzdal and 
 Torouss, Metrophanes bishop of Riazan and Mourom, Sil- 
 vester bishop of Smolensk and Briansk, Zachariah bishop of 
 Tver and Kashinsk, Joseph bishop of Kolomna and Cashirsk, 
 Gelasius bishop of Sarai and Podonsk, and many archi- 
 mandrites, hegumens, and monks, were present at the coun- 
 cil. The great Monarch, having first informed them of his 
 consultations with both patriarchs, and of the consent of the 
 Most Holy Jeremiah to appoint a patriarch for the kingdom 
 of Moscow, ordered them to consult together, in order that 
 God might grant them to see so great and glorious a work 
 perfected in the kingdom of Russia : and all the sacred 
 synod testified a ready zeal to further his royal wishes. 
 The Tsar then ordered the secretary of embassy, Andrew 
 Schelkaloff, an experienced and learned man, and already 
 advanced in years, to question the Most Holy Jeremiah as 
 to the manner of appointing a patriarch ; and the patriarch 
 told him that it was according to the same order as that for 
 the appointment of metropolitans ; and gave him briefly 
 drawn out in writing the order for the election and nomi-
 
 304 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, nation, according to the pattern of the great Church at Con- 
 stantinople ; the contents of which were as follows : 
 
 "Whomsoever the Tsar desires to be patriarch he shall 
 send two persons to his cell to inform him that the Tsar 
 and the patriarch wish to nominate him ; and they should 
 do this privately. And when they finish chanting the 
 Evening Service in the synod, after the Moleben 3 , the patri- 
 arch elect shall take a wax -light in his hand, and a roll of 
 paper in which are written his thanks to the Tsar, the patri- 
 arch, and all the synod. One of the officers from about the 
 Tsar's person shall then come into the church and stand with 
 a wax-light in his hand over against him, and shall say : ' The 
 Holy Tsar, and the Most Holy Patriarch Jeremiah and all 
 the Sacred Synod have commanded me to speak to thee: they 
 call on you to ascend the throne of Vladimir and Moscow, 
 and All Russia/ Then he who is nominated gives this 
 answer to the officer of the Tsar : ' Since the sovereign, and 
 the (Ecumenical Lord Jeremiah, together with the whole 
 Sacred Synod, have chosen me, sinner though I am, to such 
 an exalted dignity, I return them my thanks for it, and 
 will take upon myself the office/ After this the patriarch 
 elect shall invite the whole Sacred Synod and the people to 
 pray for him, that he may be enabled to keep this -flock of 
 the Lord." 
 
 But the religious Tsar Theodore ordered further that the 
 ordinance of his father of blessed memory, for the appoint- 
 ment of the Metropolitan Dionysius Grammaticus, should be 
 written out, and having compared it with the order of the 
 patriarch, he composed out of them an order according to 
 his own mind, for the election and nomination of the patri- 
 archs; for which however he previously sent to obtain the 
 consent of the Most Holy Jeremiah in the name of the 
 whole synod, by Barlaam archbishop of Rostoff, and Silvester 
 bishop of Smolensk, accompanied by many archimandrites 
 and hegumens. 
 
 On the day appointed, being Thursday the 23rd of January, 
 the whole sacred synod of archbishops, bishops, archiman-
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 305 
 
 drites, and hegumens, assembled in the apostolical church of APPEND. 
 
 the Most Immaculate Virgin, and chanted Molebens 4 to the : 
 
 great Wonder-workers. Two of the bishops, Job of Souzdal, 
 and Metrophanes of Kiazan, together with many canonarchs 
 and monks, were sent again to the Most Holy Jeremiah to 
 invite him to come to the national synod of Russia ; and the 
 patriarch, on their entreaty, arose and proceeded, amidst the 
 ringing of bells, by the Kitai-Gorod and the Kremlin to the 
 church, where he was met and received at three several 
 times ; first, before he had yet reached the church, by Gela- 
 sius bishop of the Steeps in his mandya, with twelve archi- 
 mandrites and hegumens in their most splendid robes of 
 ceremony; secondly, at the steps, by the three bishops of 
 Smolensk, Tver, and Kolomna, accompanied by five more 
 superiors of the greatest monasteries; and lastly, by the 
 three archbishops of Novogorod, Kazan, and Rostoff, with the 
 archimandrite of the Trinity Lavra, and the fathers of the 
 cathedral, at the doors. The Most Holy Jeremiah entered 
 into the church, and signed himself with the sign of the 
 Cross before the holy Icons, and having first given his bene- 
 diction to the Great Council of the bishops, he conferred 
 in a low voice with them respecting the election : then he 
 took his stand in his proper place as patriarch, while the 
 bishops all went up to the head of the cathedral, to choose 
 a spiritual head for the Church, to the chapel of the Praise 
 of the Mother of God, which is above the vestry in the 
 cupola. 
 
 There after having prayed, they took their seats and con- 
 ferred together, and then wrote down the election in clear 
 words, and confirmed it by the signatures of their hands : 
 "By permission of our Lord God Almighty, the eternal 
 Father, his co-eternal and only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and the all-holy life-giving Spirit, and by the prayers 
 of the Most Immaculate Mother of God, and ever- Virgin 
 Mary, and of the holy and great Wonder-workers, the Most 
 Reverend Metropolitans of Kieff and All Russia, Peter, Alexis, 
 and Jonah, and by the will of our heaven-crowned Tsar, 
 
 x
 
 306 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND. Lord, and Great Prince. Theodore Ivanovich, Autocrat of All 
 i. . 
 
 Russia, and by the blessing of Jeremiah the (Ecumenical 
 
 patriarch, of Hierotheus Greek metropolitan of Monembasia, 
 Tichon archbishop of Kazan and Sviajsk, &c. &c., in the 
 venerable church of the Most Immaculate Mother of God, 
 in the chapel of her Praise, in the divinely-guarded city of 
 Moscow, near the grace-communicating tombs of the great 
 "Wonder-workers, we have met in session, and have elected to 
 the most holy and great Russian metropolitan see, of the 
 divinely-guarded city of Moscow, to the apostolic and cathe- 
 dral church of the Most Immaculate Mother of God, of her 
 honourable and glorious Rest, and of the great Saints and 
 Wonder-workers, Peter, Alexis, and Jonah, to be patriarch, 
 Job metropolitan of All Russia, Alexander archbishop of 
 Great Novogorod and Pskoff, and Barlaam archbishop of 
 Rostoff and Yaroslavla." 
 
 After this they synodically elected three for the metro- 
 politan see of Great Novogorod, the Archbishop Alexander, 
 with two archimandrites, Cyprian of the Trinity Lavra, and 
 Jonah of the monastery of the Nativity in Vladimir : like- 
 wise three for the metropolitan see of Rostoff; the Arch- 
 bishop Barlaam, and the Archimandrites Sergius of the 
 Novospassky and Theodosius of the Choudoff monasteries. 
 
 After they had finished these elections, the prelates came 
 down from the cupola of the cathedral to the patriarch, and 
 proceeded with him at their head to the royal palace. The 
 religious monarch met the Most Holy Jeremiah at the doors 
 of the Golden Hall, received his blessing, and enquired after 
 his health : he then sat down on his royal throne, and desired 
 the patriarch to be seated near himself, and all the rest of 
 the synod in order at a slight interval. The secretary of 
 embassy read out the names of those who had been elected 
 to be patriarch; and the Tsar went no further than the 
 name of Job, but forthwith sent three bishops and his own 
 boyar to call him to his presence to the palace. He himself 
 rejoiced in spirit, and rose up, and gave glory to God, for 
 having sent to him the (Ecumenical patriarch, to fulfil the
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 307 
 
 wish of his heart; and then afterwards he turned to the APPEND. 
 patriarch, and thanked him for having come to visit the 
 kingdom of Moscow. The patriarch with emotion replied: 
 "May God, whose providence is over all, fulfil always the 
 pious wishes of the Tsar, and give His blessing upon every 
 thing which is agreeable to his gentle heart." 
 
 The monarch again with all the synod went forth to the 
 doors of the hall to meet the Metropolitan Job. He was 
 desired not to lay aside his crosier to receive the salutation 
 of the patriarch, as he was to be from henceforward his equal, 
 unless the Most Holy Jeremiah himself should lay aside his own. 
 The monarch made a speech to him announcing his election, 
 and the (Ecumenical patriarch gave him his blessing. After 
 this the secretary of embassy proclaimed the names of those 
 also who had been elected to be metropolitans of Novogorod 
 and Kostoff ; and the Tsar stopped at the first names of those 
 who were before archbishops of the same sees. 
 
 The monarch conducted the patriarchs to the outer hall ; 
 they both entered the cathedral, but there the order which 
 Jeremiah had proposed was not followed ; Job did not read 
 any thing to return thanks to him and to the synod for 
 his election, but the patriarchs merely saluted each other 
 with a kiss in the name of Christ, and so left the cathe- 
 dral by different doors, each attended by a number of 
 bishops. 
 
 The following is a description of the invitation and meeting 
 which awaited the Most Holy Jeremiah on the following 
 Sunday, the twenty-sixth of January, which had been fixed 
 for the institution of the patriarch of Moscow. Three seats, 
 the one covered with golden tissue for the Tsar, the other 
 two with black velvet for the patriarchs, were placed on a 
 raised ambon or dais in the nave of the church ; and from 
 thence down the twelve steps of the dais, and all the way up 
 the nave to the sanctuary, three variegated breadths of carpet 
 were laid for the passage of the Tsar and the two patriarchs : 
 benches were placed on either side for the bishops, while in 
 front of the dais was figured on the pavement of the church 
 
 x2
 
 308 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, an eagle with one head, the wings extended, and standing 
 
 upright on his feet, while under his feet was a city with 
 
 parapeted walls and towers. The eagle seemed to stand 
 with his claws firmly fixed on the towers ; and round about 
 the eagle were twelve monks, to prevent any one but him 
 who was nominated from stepping upon it. But Job the 
 patriarch elect, with a firm voice, standing upon the eagle, 
 before the face of the whole synod sitting on either side, 
 and before the faces of the Tsar and the patriarch sitting 
 aloft in front on the raised dais in their full robes, as before 
 God and His elect Angels, made his profession of the true 
 and uncorrupted faith of Christ, the symbol of the faith, the 
 canons of the seven (Ecumenical councils, and the canons of 
 the holy Fathers ; and so he went up to the dais and received 
 the benediction of the patriarch and the salutation of the 
 bishops ; and after having paid his reverence to the Tsar, he 
 retired back to the upper chapel of the Praise of the Mother 
 of God, till the time should come for his consecration. 
 
 When the time approached, and the Oecumenical patri- 
 arch, accompanied by the whole synod, had already after the 
 lesser introit left their seats and gone up into the sanctuary, 
 and the choirs were finishing the hymn of the Thrice Holy, 
 the archpriest and the archdeacon 5 of the cathedral brought 
 out Job the patriarch elect, and led him up before the royal 
 doors, where he was received and conducted into the 
 sanctuary by two metropolitans. And the Oecumenical 
 patriarch, after he had laid his hands upon him, and laid 
 the Gospel open upon his head, invoked the Divine grace 
 on the new patriarch, and repeated over him the whole order 
 for the consecration of a bishop, as though he had need of a 
 double portion of grace to fulfil the duties of his high calling. 
 After this he took him with him according to custom to the 
 High Place 6 while the Apostle and the Gospel were read; 
 and they both together celebrated the divine Liturgy. The 
 Most Holy Jeremiah made commemoration of the Gecumen- 
 ical patriarchs, while he was himself commemorated by Job, 
 now patriarch of Moscow. The lamp and the crosier of the
 
 IXTO RUSSIA. 309 
 
 patriarch of Constantinople -were during the whole time of the APPEND. 
 service in front of the royal doors. 
 
 After the Liturgy was finished, the newly-made patriarch 
 was conducted by the synod to the raised dais in the nave 
 of the church, where they enthroned him three several times 
 on the chair which had been prepared for him, and each time 
 they sang the Polychronion, wishing him many years. The 
 (Ecumenical patriarch placed in his hands the sacred staff of 
 the Metropolitan Peter, the Wonder-worker, while the pious 
 Tsar himself placed on his neck a golden Panagia, orna- 
 mented with precious stones, and a splendid silk mandya, with 
 three stripes of Venetian silk, embroidered all over with pearls, 
 and a white khlobouk entirely covered with pearls and dia- 
 monds, with the sign of our Saviour standing on the top of 
 it, of the most valuable amethysts, with this inscription, 
 "The gift of the Tsar, to the Patriarch Job;" and he placed 
 a second carved crosier in his hands, saying, 
 
 " The Almighty and life-giving Trinity, who has entrusted 
 to us the government of the kingdom of Russia, gives thee this 
 great and holy throne of the great Wonder-worker Peter, and 
 the patriarchate of Moscow and All Russia, by the imposition 
 of hands and benediction of the Most Holy (Ecumenical 
 Patriarch Jeremiah, and of the holy fathers the archbishops 
 and bishops of our kingdom of Russia ; Now therefore, accept 
 O father this pastoral staff, and take the seat of thy primacy, 
 the throne of the great Wonder-worker Peter, in the name 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Most Immaculate Mother ; 
 and pray God, and His Most Immaculate Mother, and the 
 great Wonder-workers Peter, Alexis, Jonah, and all the Saints, 
 for us, and for our Orthodox Tsaritsa, and for all Orthodox 
 Christians, that He may give us and all good Christians what 
 may be good for our souls and bodies ; and may the Lord give 
 thee health, and a long life, even for ever and ever ! Amen." 
 
 At the court which had been that of the metropolitans, 
 but was henceforth to be the court of the patriarchs, both the 
 prelates waited till they should be called to the royal table ; 
 and then, upon being summoned by one of the Lords of the
 
 310 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND. Presence, they entered, accompanied by the whole synod, into 
 
 : the Golden Hall of the Sign Manual. The Greek strangers 
 
 were astonished at the magnificence of the table, which was 
 covered with gold and silver plate, tankards and cups of dif- 
 ferent shapes, filled with Malvoisie and Cyprus wines. Carved 
 figures of different animals in precious metal loaded the table ; 
 lions and unicorns, bears and wolves, stags, hares, and other 
 wild creatures were placed together, as if they had been in a 
 zoological collection. There were also various kinds of birds ; 
 peacocks with their spangled wings and tails, pelicans, eagles, 
 and wonderful ostriches, engaged the sight ; nor was there 
 either number, or weight, or price, to the vessels and plate of 
 all kind. With such splendour did the royal board shine. 
 
 Both the patriarchs sat at the high table with the monarch ; 
 the metropolitans and other prelates and archimandrites at 
 another table, with the boyars, and the ambassadors from 
 Iberia, who were then at Moscow ; every man according to 
 his rank. The pages carried round to them all gracious 
 presents of meats, with messages from the monarch, from his 
 own table. At the third course, the Most Holy Job, patriarch 
 of Moscow, rose from table, according to the custom of the 
 Church, and rode in procession on an ass round the old 
 Kremlin and the Kitai, to bless the city and the people, a 
 Boyar of the Presence, the Prince Peter Rostofsky, holding 
 his bridle : before him went the clerks and chanters singing 
 anthems, his own patriarchal boyars, and four torch-bearers, 
 with palms in their hands. He then returned to the Royal 
 Court, and resumed his seat at the table as before. The next 
 day he rode in the same manner round the remaining part of 
 the city called the Kamennay, or stone town of the Tsars, 
 and on that occasion the Boyar Boris Feodorovich Godounoff, 
 the Master of the Horse, led his horse by the bridle. 
 
 When the royal banquet was terminated, and they had, 
 according to custom, performed the order of lifting up the 
 Panagia 7 , the pious monarch stood up in the midst of the 
 hall, and gave to each a drink of mead from a tankard as 
 they sang the Polychronion. His treasurer Trachoniatoff
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 311 
 
 then brought forth fresh presents, which he was pleased to APPEND. 
 make ; to both the patriarchs gifts of equal value, just such ~~ 
 as had been bestowed at the first upon the Most Holy 
 Jeremiah; likewise to the metropolitans and to the arch- 
 bishop who accompanied him, this time in common with all 
 the rest of the same rank, and to all the Greek and Servian 
 fathers who had come with them. It was quite dark when 
 the patriarchs were dismissed to their lodgings. The (Ecu- 
 menical patriarch was conducted to his by a guard of 
 Streltsi, bearing lighted torches ; and the next morning, at 
 the first dawn, the royal presents, which had been given the 
 day before, were carried in state to the patriarch. 
 
 The next day, three bishops came from the patriarch of 
 Moscow with a brotherly invitation to the Most Holy Jere- 
 miah to dine at his table ; and that great prelate, after first 
 making enquiry concerning his health, arose, and followed 
 the bishops, saying, " Let it be as my brother Job desires." 
 A body of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, in their robes of 
 ceremony, with wax-lights, and censers, and the chant ^of 
 anthems, was waiting to meet and receive the (Ecumenical 
 Lord, on the staircase of the patriarch. At the doors of ,the 
 Cross-room, the patriarch of Moscow himself appeared to 
 welcome him : they then both prayed for a short space before 
 the venerable Icons, and read the "A^cov to the honour of the 
 Mother of God, and so kissed each other on the lips, like 
 brethren, as is customary between the patriarchs; and seated 
 themselves together till the banquet should be served. But 
 before they sat down, a Boyar of the Presence came to invite 
 in the Tsar's name both patriarchs to the palace, where the 
 monarch met them as before, and seated himself on his 
 throne in his royal robes, and bade them seat themselves 
 also on each side of him. His boyars who encircled him 
 were all dressed in robes of cloth of gold, and his 
 treasurer exhibited before the Tsar the acknowledgments of 
 Job, the patriarch of All Russia : an Icon of the Most 
 Immaculate Mother of God, carved and overlaid with gold set 
 with rubies, and a curtain 8 of satin worked with pearls, a
 
 312 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, double-handled silver cup, some velvet and precious stones, forty 
 - sables, and ten Georgian ducats. There were also similar pre- 
 sents for the Tsaritsa. Then there entered a Boyar of the 
 Presence from the Tsaritsa Irene, and standing in the midst 
 of the hall, and making a humble obeisance, invited both the 
 patriarchs and the whole synod into her apartments. 
 
 They all arose ; the Tsar himself went first ; after him, 
 the two patriarchs, and then the bishops and archimandrites, 
 according to their respective ranks, and the whole of the royal 
 court: they entered the outer hall, where were assembled the 
 ladies of the boyars of Moscow, of the Tsaritsa's household, in 
 dresses as white as snow, ornamented with gold and purple, and 
 embroidered with pearls and precious stones. The Golden Doors 
 of the central apartment of the Tsaritsa were thrown open, 
 and another boyar, in her name, invited the patriarchs with 
 all the synod to enter. The Boyar Godounoff alone followed 
 them ; and after him the doors were again closed. The whole 
 room, which was a rotunda, shone with the purest gold ; and 
 by the ingenious disposition of the architect, there was an 
 audible echo in it of whatever was spoken even in a whisper. 
 The walls were decorated with the most costly mosaic work, 
 which pictured forth the acts of the saints, choirs of angels, 
 martyrs, and bishops; while over the magnificent throne, 
 there shone in a blaze of jewels a large Icon, of the Most 
 Immaculate Virgin, with the eternal Child in her arms, sur- 
 rounded by choirs of saints crowned with golden crowns, 
 studded with pearls, rubies and sapphires. -The floor was 
 covered with curiously -wrought carpets, on which was repre- 
 sented to the life the sport of hawking ; and other figures of 
 birds and animals, carved of the precious metals, shone in 
 various directions all around the apartment; in the centre 
 of the arched roof, an exquisitely-carved lion held in his 
 mouth a serpent twisted in the shape of a ring, from which 
 golden lamps were suspended. 
 
 The dress of the Tsaritsa herself exceeded in splendour 
 every thing which surrounded her. Her necklace, bracelets, 
 and collar, were made of heavy, equal-sized pearls, and her
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 313 
 
 robe, trimmed with sables, was fastened with dark emeralds APPEND. 
 and brilliants ; whilst her crown, which was above all price, - 
 shone with every variety of precious stones : it was sur- 
 mounted by twelve battlements, like the wall of a town, in 
 memory of the Twelve Apostles, and diamonds hung down 
 from it, in large drops, on the bright forehead of the 
 Tsaritsa. But the angelic beauty of that forehead eclipsed, 
 for all that, the splendour of her royal ornaments. The 
 Tsaritsa arose graciously from her throne when she saw the 
 patriarchs, and met them in the middle of the Hall, and 
 humbly asked their blessing. The (Ecumenical prelate 
 blessed her, making the sign of the Cross over her with 
 prayer ; and said aloud, " Hail, most pious Irene, beloved by 
 God among queens, Tsaritsa of the East and West, and of 
 All Russia, ornament of these Northern countries, and sup- 
 port of the Orthodox Faith ! " Then the patriarch of Moscow, 
 and after him all the metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops, 
 each in their turn, gave their blessing to the religious 
 Tsaritsa, wishing her every good, both of body and soul. 
 
 From her gentle lips then proceeded the speech of wel- 
 come : " Great Lord, Most Holy Jeremiah of Constanti- 
 nople, and of the Universe, first among the patriarchs, I 
 render many thanks to Your Holiness for having undertaken 
 the trouble of such a journey as this to our dominions, that 
 you might afford us the consolation of seeing your sacred 
 person, the most revered of all throughout Orthodox Christ- 
 endom, and from which we have ourselves now received 
 grace ; and for this we give glory to Almighty God, and to 
 His Most Holy Mother, and to all the Saints, by whose 
 prayers He has vouchsafed to give us such an unspeakable 
 satisfaction. Of a truth nothing could have been more 
 worthy of praise and honour than your coming hither, which 
 has conferred such great splendour on the Church of Russia ; 
 for, from henceforth, through the elevation of her metro- 
 politans to the dignity of patriarchs, the glory of the whole 
 kingdom has been magnified throughout the world. Our 
 forefathers, the religious Mouarchs, Great Princes, and
 
 314 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND. Tsars, have, from ancient times, earnestly desired this ; but 
 
 ' it was not vouchsafed them to witness the fulfilment of their 
 
 pious wishes. But now Almighty God hath conducted hither 
 Your Holiness in the time of our reign, through the nu- 
 merous toils of a long journey, for the accomplishment of 
 what they so much desired." 
 
 After this she retired a few steps back, and stood nearly 
 in her own royal place, having the pious Tsar on her right 
 hand, and on her left her brother, the boyar, with his head 
 uncovered, while a little behind her stood in order the wives 
 of the Princes, each according to her rank, dressed in white 
 garments, with their hands placed cross-wise over their 
 breasts, and their faces inclined to the ground : at a sign 
 from the Tsar, they all, one after the other, reverently 
 advanced to receive the benediction of the Most Holy Patri- 
 archs ; while the orthodox Tsaritsa, having received from the 
 hands of the first of her ladies, a precious golden chalice, 
 studded with six thousand seed pearls and other precious 
 stones, presented it with her own hand to the patriarch ; and 
 then sat down herself, and desired him also to be seated. 
 
 But the Boyar Godounoif, coming forward into the midst, 
 exhibited the other gifts of the Tsaritsa to both the patri- 
 archs ; to each a silver cup, one piece of black velvet, two 
 pieces of damask silk, two pieces of watered Mohair silk, and 
 two of satin, forty sables, and one hundred roubles in money : 
 after which he thus addressed the (Ecumenical patriarch : 
 
 " Great Lord, Most Holy Jeremiah, Patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople and the Universe ; these gracious presents of the 
 Tsaritsa are for you, that you may charitably pray to God for 
 the Great Lady the Tsaritsa, and Grand Princess Irene; 
 and for the long life of our Great Lord the Tsar, and that 
 they may have issue." Upon which the patriarch rose and 
 thus spoke : 
 
 " May the Almighty Lord, who divided the Red sea, and 
 led through it on dry land the children of Israel, both small 
 and great, and brought water to quench their thirst out of 
 the hard rock, on the way to the promised land ; who sent
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 315 
 
 His Archangel to announce the mystery of the Incarnation APPEND. 
 
 to the Most Immaculate Virgin, the Highly-favoured, the 
 
 Pot of the heavenly manna, the Holy Hill, the Bush Uncon- 
 sumed, in which Christ abode, that He might redeem from 
 death the whole race of Adam; may He, the same, now 
 hear our prayers, and bestow upon thee the blessed fruit of 
 the womb, with the overflowings of His grace ! " 
 
 The Boyar Godounoff proceeded in the same way to ex- 
 hibit the presents intended for the rest; proclaiming their 
 titles, and desiring their prayers : " To the Most Holy Job, 
 Archbishop of the Royal city of Moscow, and Patriarch of all 
 the Northern Countries, to the Most Reverend Hierotheus, 
 Metropolitan of the illustrious city of Monembasia in the 
 Peloponnesus, and to the Humble Archbishop of Elasson, of 
 the glorious country of Greece, famed for learned men and 
 heroes, at the foot of the Western Olympus, but not of 
 the Eastern." 
 
 As soon as all the royal presents, as well as those of the 
 patriarchs in return, had been exhibited in order, the reli- 
 gious Tsaritsa sighed from the depth of her heart, and shed- 
 ding many bitter tears, thus expressed before all the sacred 
 synod her affliction : " O Great Lord, Most Holy Jeremiah, 
 (Ecumenical Patriarch, Father of Fathers ; and thou also, 
 Most Holy Job, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and all 
 ye Most Reverend Metropolitans, Archbishops, and all your 
 sacred Synod, blessed Ministers of Almighty God, to whom 
 a larger measure of mercy and grace is vouchsafed with the 
 Lord, and with His Most Immaculate Mother and all His 
 Saints, who have from the beginning pleased God, and who 
 are continually employed in putting up your prayers to them, 
 I entreat, I adjure you, from my inmost soul, with the 
 groanings of a broken spirit, that with all your power and 
 zeal, ye pray to the Lord for our Great Lord the Tsar, and 
 for me, who am the least of your daughters, that He would 
 look favourably upon us, and receive your prayers, and grant 
 us issue, and an heir, by His blessing, for this great kingdom 
 of Vladimir, Moscow, and All Russia."
 
 316 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND. All present were moved with sympathy when they heard 
 the sorrowful speech of the Tsaritsa ; the monarch himself, 
 both patriarchs, the whole synod and court, and the wives 
 of the boyars ; all the hall was filled with their sobbing ; and 
 tears of compassion flowed from every eye ; while the patri- 
 archs, and the whole synod, with one voice exclaimed : 
 " May God, who is above all, and His heavenly Mother, and 
 His Great Forerunner, and all the Saints, look upon thy 
 tears, O religious Tsaritsa, and on our groanings in thy 
 behalf, and fulfil the wish of thy heart. May the Creator 
 of all things, who looks upon all with the eye of His mercy, 
 who has filled with all manner of earthly good this great 
 kingdom, bestow on it also an heir, over and above all these 
 His benefits ! " 
 
 After this the whole synod left the Royal Palace, the 
 Monarch and his religious consort accompanying the two 
 patriarchs as far as the Golden Doors, and once more received 
 from them their benediction. The prelates then returned to 
 the Patriarchal Court, where, after the usual repast at table, 
 the Most Holy Job exhibited the rich presents he desired to 
 make to his brother the (Ecumenical patriarch, and to the 
 strangers who had come with him. These consisted of holy 
 Icons, cups, velvet, precious stones and sables ; and so he 
 dismissed them with honour to their lodgings ; and on the 
 following morning the presents of the Tsaritsa, and of the 
 patriarch, were carried thither to them. 
 
 A few days after his consecration, (on the 30th of Janu- 
 ary) the new patriarch, with the blessing of the (Ecumenical 
 patriarch, himself instituted as metropolitans, first Alexander, 
 archbishop of Great Novogorod, and then Barlaam, arch- 
 bishop of RostofF; and both of them the day after their insti- 
 tution presented themselves before the Most Holy Job, with 
 the customary acknowledgments, which consisted of purple 
 velvet, damask silk, forty sables, a gilt cup, and fifteen 
 roubles in money. Previously to the commencement of the 
 Great Fast, the (Ecumenical patriarch, with the permission 
 of the monarch, Avcnt to pay his devotions at the Trinity
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 317 
 
 Lavra, where a commissioner of honour had been ordered to APPEND. 
 
 announce his intention to the Archimandrite Cyprian, the 
 
 Bursar Eustathius, and all the monks of the church, with 
 directions to receive him according to the same form and 
 state as that with which they had been used to receive the 
 metropolitans of All Russia themselves ; and to offer him pre- 
 sents, such as an Icon of the Saviour, or of the Most Imma- 
 culate Virgin, with a frame and curtain of carved work, the 
 most curious they could for its antiquity, and another Icon, or 
 representation of the vision of St. Sergius, set in silver, with a 
 golden glory, carved, a tankard and cup of silver, some velvet, 
 satin, damask, and watered silk, forty sables, and one hundred 
 roubles in money, three pieces of linen manufactured at the 
 Trinity, a large water jug, wooden figured stands for dishes, 
 water ladles and stone bottles. Likewise to all the strangers 
 who came with the patriarch they presented some memorials 
 of the Trinity Lavra, where they spent five days in the midst 
 of brotherly entertainment. 
 
 During the Butter-week, the Boyar Godounoff paid a visit 
 to the patriarch ; and the Most Holy Jeremiah again urged 
 his request to be allowed to return to Constantinople. But 
 the boyar, in the name of the Tsar, begged him to remain 
 till Easter, on account of the bad state of the roads : and 
 that year Easter-week was rendered " Bright 9 " indeed in 
 Moscow by the presence of two patriarchs, the (Ecumenical 
 patriarch, the senior of all, and the newly-created patriarch 
 of Moscow. Previously to the departure of the Most Holy 
 Jeremiah, in the month of May, the number of the metro- 
 politans, archbishops, and bishops, was increased by desire of 
 the Tsar, and decision of the synod. Hermogenes, who was 
 to be afterwards patriarch, and who was then archimandrite 
 of the monastery of the Transfiguration in Kazan, was made 
 metropolitan of the kingdoms of Kazan and Astrachan, in 
 the place of the former archbishop Tichon : Gelasius of the 
 Steeps, was raised to be metropolitan of Sarai and Podonsk, 
 in quality of Vicar of the patriarchal diocese. Besides four 
 metropolitan sees, six new archbishoprics were added from
 
 318 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, sees which had before conferred only the title of bishop ; 
 these were Vologda, Souzdal, Smolensk, Riazan, and Tver ; 
 and to the bishoprics of Kolomna and ChernigofF, which ex- 
 isted before, were added five others, of Pskoff, Rjeff in Vladi- 
 mir, Oustiog, Bielo-ozero, and Dmitroff. The provident 
 monarch, for greater security in future times, had an account 
 of all these establishments of metropolitans, archbishops, 
 and bishops, written on parchment; and in like manner 
 also of the arrival of the Most Holy Jeremiah, the election 
 and consecration by him of Job as patriarch, and his consent 
 to the appointment in future of the patriarchs of All Russia, 
 by their own synod, with the proviso only that they were to 
 give notice of it to the (Ecumenical patriarch. He authenti- 
 cated this document by having affixed to it his own seal of 
 state, with those of the two patriarchs in red, and of seven 
 other prelates in black wax, with the autograph subscriptions 
 of all, and also with the signatures of the whole of the synod, 
 in which, besides the Greek and Russian prelates, the greater 
 part of the archimandrites and hegumens of the Russian 
 monasteries took part, as well as other archimandrites from 
 Constantinople, from the Sepulchre of our Lord, and from 
 the Holy Mountains of Sinai and Athos. 
 
 The spring came, and together with it the period of the 
 patriarch's departure. The Most Holy Jeremiah was invited 
 for the last time to the palace of the Tsar, and was received 
 with still greater pomp than on former occasions. For the 
 whole of the palace was filled with esquires and officers of the 
 courts of justice, courtiers, and boyars, who wished to receive 
 yet once more the blessing of the (Ecumenical Lord. The 
 monarch himself met the patriarch at the Golden doors of 
 the Hall of the Sign Manual, received his benediction, and 
 taking him by the hand, led him to an elevated seat, whilst 
 every one else remained standing in profound silence and 
 reverence. Then there was brought before the Tsar, on a 
 Golden Salver, a rich mitre, entirely covered with pearls 
 and precious stones, with a De'isus 10 in front, and the Cruci- 
 fixion on the top, with choirs of martyrs, and bishops,
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 319 
 
 (among which were the angels or patrons of the Tsar and APPEND. 
 
 the Tsaritsa, Theodore Stratelata, and Irene the martyr) ~ 
 
 with this inscription in pearls; "From the Tsar to the 
 patriarch." 
 
 The pious monarch arose, and taking the mitre, presented 
 it with his own hand to the patriarch ; saying, " Accept this, 
 Most Holy Lord, that there may be preserved for ever in thy 
 patriarchal palace a memorial of me and of my blessed an- 
 cestors." The patriarch, lifting up his eyes to heaven, invoked 
 Almighty God, to bestow on the orthodox Tsar, and on his 
 consort, long life and issue; and committed them to the 
 prayers of the archangels, prophets, apostles, bishops, and 
 martyrs, and of all the saints. 
 
 After this other gifts were presented to him, and to all 
 who came with him, from the monarch, and his consort ; 
 similar to those which they received at first, with the ad- 
 dition of five horses, and a tent for the journey ; and not one 
 of the archimandrites, hegumens, deacons, relatives or at- 
 tendants of the patriarch, in number amounting to thirty, 
 were passed over by the bounty of the monarch ; not only 
 his two nephews, but even their uncle was counted among his 
 relatives, and had special presents conferred upon him. 
 
 The archbishop of Elasson humbly entreated the Tsar to 
 allow him to remain in his dominions and enjoy his favour ; 
 and he was encouraged to do so by the promise of being 
 appointed to a diocese. After sitting a short time and 
 joining in prayers, the monarch conducted the patriarch to 
 the gilded doors of his palace, and there they took leave of 
 each other for ever; for the patriarch was never destined 
 again to look on the countenance of the Tsar, and he then 
 bestowed his blessing on the monarch for the last time. 
 
 But the cares of the Tsar for the sacred person of his 
 guest, extended farther to the whole time that he was in his 
 territory, and even afterwards beyond the frontier. The two 
 former commissioners were ordered to conduct the patriarch 
 of Constantinople with an escort of thirty Esquires to 
 Smolensk, and they were commanded to take all possible
 
 320 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, care by the way to choose their stations for resting and 
 - passing the nights only in the great villages or hamlets 
 where there was a post station ; and that when they turned 
 out their horses to graze in the country about them, they 
 should send people to take care of them and secure them 
 from any danger. At Mojaisk, Viazma, and Dorogobouge, 
 provisions, suitable to his rank, as well as mead were to 
 be furnished, and so from town to town, while the voivodes 
 of Smolensk received orders from the monarch to collect as 
 much as eighty vedros n of mead from the royal cellars or 
 those of the monasteries, and to forward them together with 
 other provisions for the table to Orsha, but previously to 
 shew them, on the frontiers, to the patriarch, as the last 
 present of the Tsar for his long journey ; also to write a 
 letter to the government of Orsha to procure a pass for him ; 
 and that orders should be given to the esquire who carried 
 it, to collect at Orsha all the Lithuanian news possible, and 
 return with it to Moscow. 
 
 When the patriarch had got beyond Smolensk, another 
 messenger, named Roman Toushine, was despatched by the 
 monarch, with orders to overtake him, even if he were beyond 
 the borders of Lithuania, and to deliver to him in his name 
 1,000 roubles, to go toward the erection of a new patriarchal 
 residence in Constantinople : and orders were given to the 
 voivodes of Smolensk, to collect the above money quickly, 
 wherever they could, and to give it to Toushine, when he 
 passed through the town. The messenger carried also letters 
 from the Tsar and Godounoff to the Most Holy Jeremiah, 
 and moreover a friendly letter from the monarch to the 
 Sultan, to obtain his protection for the Church of Constan- 
 tinople, of which the following were the contents : 
 
 " Our God the Trinity, which was before all worlds, the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, now, and for ever, and 
 world without end, Amen ! In Him we live, and move, and 
 have our being; by Him kings reign, and princes decree 
 righteousness, 
 
 " Theodore Ivanovich, by the mercy of Almighty God, Tsar,
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 321 
 
 and Great Prince of All Russia, Lord of Vladimir, Moscow, APPEND. 
 Novogorod, Kazan, Astrachan, Pskoff, Smolensk, Tver, Ria- ~~~~ 
 zan, Polotsk, Perm, Viatka, Bulgaria, and many other lands ; 
 Ruler of all the northern countries of Siberia, and Lord of 
 the country of Germany ; 
 
 " To the Follower of Mahomet the Sultan Mourat, Lord of 
 Constantinople, of the White and Black seas, Anatolia, Cara- 
 mania, Roumelia, and other countries, our brother and good 
 friend ; 
 
 " There has come to us from thy dominions, brother, Jere- 
 miah patriarch of Constantinople, in quest of alms, and has 
 petitioned us to write in his behalf to thee, as to our brother, for 
 his protection : and we knowing thy love to us, brother, write 
 to thee in his behalf this letter with our own hand, that thou 
 Sultan Mourat, our brother, wouldest maintain the Patriarch 
 Jeremiah in his province, and order thy pashas to protect him, 
 in the same way as thy ancestors maintained, and protected 
 his predecessors in all things according to their rank. 
 The same do thou also for our sake; and shouldest thou 
 desire us to do any thing for thee, be assured, brother, that 
 we, in return for this, are ready to shew our brotherly 
 love to thee. Written in the Court of our kingdom, in the 
 city of Moscow, in the year of the Creation 7097, in the 1539. 
 month'of May, the llth of the Indict 12 , the sixth year of our 
 reign, and of our kingdoms of Russia the 43rd, of Kazan the 
 37th, and of Astrachan the 35th year." 
 
 The Boyar Godounoff sent, together with the letter of the 
 Tsar, another also which he wrote himself to the patriarch, as 
 follows : 
 
 "To the Most Holy Jeremiah, by the mercy of God, 
 Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome, (Ecumenical 
 Patriarch, pastor and teacher of the Orthodox Law, true 
 defender of the faith against the enemies of God, who hast 
 fought the good fight piously and valiantly, my Lord and 
 Father in God, my teacher, and instructor in the way of sal- 
 vation, Boris Godounoff makes his humble petition : 
 
 "After returning many thanks to Almighty God, and 
 
 Y
 
 322 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH 
 
 APPEND, lauding thy labours and exertions in the cause of religion, 
 and thy many acts of goodness towards me, I will, in the 
 first place, pray thy Holiness, that I be not forgotten in thy 
 holy prayers to God, that He may be gracious unto me 
 through thy prayers, and may do unto me according to His 
 mercy, as shall seem best to His holy will. "We hope that 
 when thy Holiness shall have reached thy own great patri- 
 archal throne, in the imperial city of Constantinople, which 
 is New Rome, thou wilt not fail to send us intelligence of thy 
 safety ; that we, having heard of it, may rejoice continually 
 with spiritual joy. 
 
 " With respect to that of which thou spakedst with me, that 
 I should dispose our most religious monarch to write in thy 
 behalf to Sultan Mourat, I preferred thy petition to him, 
 and the letter is written, and a copy of it is forwarded to thee 
 together with this. Our monarch has written briefly to the 
 Sultan, and has not made any allusion to the confiscation of 
 the former Church, that so he might give no occasion for 
 anger against thee. I reminded our pious monarch and his 
 religious consort, that you were now beginning to build a 
 new church in the imperial city ; and they have sent to thee, 
 for their health, 1,000 roubles towards erecting it; and do 
 thou, Most Holy Lord Patriarch, pray Almighty God, and 
 the Most Immaculate Mother of God, to bestow on the Tsar 
 and the Tsaritsa health and issue. 
 
 a Moreover, my Lord, when thou art in Lithuania, inform 
 thyself, I pray thee, respecting Maximilian the brother of the 
 Csesar, where he now is, in what fashion he continues to 
 reside in Poland, or whether he has been dismissed ? and if so, 
 with what sort of understanding ? Also whether the son of the 
 king of Sweden is established on the throne of Poland, and 
 of the Great Princedom of Lithuania ? and to what degree ? 
 and what are his intentions for the future respecting our 
 sovereign ? And when thou hast made exact enquiries, pray 
 send a letter, as secretly as possible, without either discovering 
 thy own quality of patriarch, or naming me in it. And when, 
 by the mercy of God, thou shalt have arrived in the imperial
 
 INTO RUSSIA. 323 
 
 city, write us word what kind of reception thou hast met with, APPEND. 
 
 and what may be the news in Constantinople? How Sultan 
 
 Mourat now rules ? whether there are not feuds among his 
 pashas ? and whether there is any excessive violence against 
 the Christians? Also with whom the Turkish Sultan is at 
 war? Whether he has lately undertaken any expedition 
 against any kingdom of the Franks? and what they are 
 looking forward to? Or, if thou shouldest send any trust- 
 worthy person of thine own to the Tsar, give him verbal 
 instructions in these particulars, that the Tsar may be 
 informed of all. And so I remain, my Lord, thy humble 
 petitioner." 
 
 The patriarch, after expressing his feelings of gratitude in 
 a letter to the Boyar Godounoff, prayed to God " to preserve, 
 for his sake, the health of the Tsar, and bestow upon him an 
 heir, who might deliver them also from the hands of the 
 infidels." But of the commission with which the boyar had 
 charged him he wrote, that " he clearly understood the whole 
 of his letter, and if it pleased God would write him word 
 exactly of all : only he begged him to give orders to the 
 voivodes of Smolensk and Chernigoff, to send on straight to 
 him his letters, or the people he might send : that he had 
 learned in Orsha, that Maximilian had been dismissed ; and 
 that they had eaten and drank and been reconciled with the 
 king, while he who did not entertain them was entirely ruined ; 
 that the king would be at Wilna, and that nothing had been 
 heard of the Tartars." 
 
 The following was the last letter of farewell from the 
 patriarch to the Tsar, written from the frontier of his 
 territories. 
 
 "To the divinely chosen and appointed Autocrat, the Tsar 
 of All Russia, and of all the Orthodox Christians ; health to 
 thee, together with thy heaven-crowned and Orthodox Con- 
 sort Irene, with all thy court and army. 
 
 " Our tongue fails, our mind cannot express our gratitude 
 for all thy great grace and munificence, in what thou hast 
 sent to me, thy humble beadsman, not only in money, but also
 
 324 COMING OF THE PATRIARCH JEREMIAH INTO RUSSIA. 
 
 APPEND, in supplies of meat and drink, which will suffice me till 
 - I reach Wallachia. Our duty is only to pray God, night and 
 day, to preserve thy kingdom for many years, and to subdue 
 all thine enemies under thy footstool : and may the Lord give 
 thee the fruit of the womb, an heir to thy kingdom ; and may 
 He vouchsafe unto thee His heavenly kingdom. 
 
 " Do not either thou forget us in thy holy prayers while 
 we are travelling on our way, that we may reach Constanti- 
 nople safe and in good health ; also thy royal alms shall be 
 reckoned to thee in the Kingdom of Heaven. The grace 
 and mercy of God be upon thy kingdom, thy Orthodox 
 Tsaritsa, and all thy court and army. Amen."
 
 THE COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 Two years after the departure of the patriarch in May APPEND. 
 
 1591, the voivodes of Smolensk, Prince Andrew Troubetskoy 
 
 and Niceta Trachanioutoff, informed the Tsar that there had 
 arrived from the city of Tirnoff the Metropolitan Dionysius, 
 accompanied by Callistratms archbishop of Greben in Bul- 
 garia, and many archimandrites and monks of different 
 monasteries, sent by the patriarchs and the whole (Ecumenical 
 Council; and at the same time they forwarded the following 
 letter from Dionysius : 
 
 "To the Orthodox, pacific, divinely favoured, and holy 
 Tsar, the Autocrat of All Russia, of Moscow, Kazan, Astrachan, 
 Novogorod, and other countries. Orthodox Tsar, Lord Theo- 
 dore Ivanovich ! I, the humble metropolitan of Tirnoff and 
 Larsca, of the blood of the Cantacuzenes and Palseologi, a 
 friend from the patriarch and the council, the lowest slave of 
 the holy sceptre of thy kingdom, fall on my knees and make 
 my obeisance before thy majesty; and I pray Christ our God 
 to increase thy power, and to strengthen thy kingdom, and to 
 raise thee above all the kings of the earth. Amen. 
 
 " I announce to thy majesty my arrival. I am sent by the 
 Most Holy patriarchs, and the whole synod, to bear to thy 
 kingdom their prayers, and their blessing. Inasmuch as by 
 thy order the Patriarch Jeremiah appointed a patriarch in 
 Moscow, he now, for the love and the attention thou shewedst 
 him, has convoked a council of patriarchs, metropolitans, and 
 archbishops, to complete the appointment of the new patri- 
 arch, the Lord Job ; and for this purpose he has assembled 
 all the metropolitans and patriarchs, excepting the patriarch 
 of Alexandria; and it pleased the (Ecumenical synod, and 
 they decreed and all subscribed, to the effect that there 
 should be a fifth patriarch of Moscow, to rank after the
 
 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 APPEND, patriarch of Jerusalem ; and they have sent me as their con- 
 - fidential commissioner to announce to you all the truth ; and 
 that they should mention his name in their prayers to God, 
 in like manner as they mention the names of the other patri- 
 archs, throughout all the coasts of the Black sea, and that 
 he should be named as patriarch in the country of Moutansk 
 and in Wallachia, and also by the metropolitan of KiefF. And 
 now I am on my way to the footstool of thy throne, and am 
 the bearer of letters from the Council, and also of a letter 
 concerning his rank and order to the new Patriarch Job. But 
 do thou, O prudent and worthy Tsar, make such dispositions 
 concerning my journey, as may accord with thy royal will. 
 For the which, be with thee our prayers and blessing, and 
 may the Lord give thee peace, health, and long life, and 
 victory over all thine enemies visible and invisible ! Amen." 
 
 The monarch gave orders to his voivodes to send on the 
 metropolitan and archbishop with their suite from Smolensk, 
 and despatched Michael Protopopoff as his commissioner to 
 meet them at Mojaisk, and ordered him to question them 
 whilst on the road as to the circumstances of the patri- 
 archs meeting in council? whether they prayed for the 
 Tsar's health ? whether they named the patriarch Job in the 
 litanies? and whether the Turkish Sultan and his pashas 
 knew of it ? from what places were the metropolitans, arch- 
 bishops, and bishops, who were present at the Council ? At 
 the same time he ordered suitable supplies of meat and drink 
 to be provided for them by the road. And when they were 
 near Moscow, on the other side the suburbs at the Sparrow 
 hills, the Patriarch Job sent on his own account to meet 
 them, Luke the archimandrite of the Novospass, and Euphe- 
 mius bursar of the monastery of the Virgin : they were 
 directed first to invite the metropolitan and the archbishop to 
 alight from their carriages to receive the message of the patri- 
 arch, and then to give them verbally his benediction, and so 
 to enquire after their health. For their residence there was 
 assigned to them the town lodge of the see of Novogorod. 
 
 After about a month, on the twentieth of July, the monarch
 
 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 327 
 
 desired the presence of the metropolitan of Tirnoff, with Callis- APPEND. 
 
 tratus archbishop of Greben and the archimandrites, at his 
 
 court. They drove to the Kremlin in consequence, and waited 
 till he should shew himself in the Ambassadors' Hall. From 
 thence they passed by the front entrances of the churches of 
 the Archangel and the Annunciation, for at that time the royal 
 palace extended to the church of St. Nicolas of Holstoun, to 
 the grand stair-case, which was lined with esquires and officers 
 of the Courts of Justice, to the Central or Golden Hall, where 
 the monarch was seated on his throne in his royal robes ; and 
 around him stood his boyars and courtiers clad in cloth of 
 gold. 
 
 The secretary, Andrew Schelkaloff, first presented the me- 
 tropolitan, together with the Archimandrites Macarius and 
 Euthemius, as having been sent from the Council, and then 
 the Bulgarian archbishop with the archimandrites from the 
 Holy Mountain and from the Holy Sepulchre, who had come 
 in quest of alms. The monarch arose from his place, and 
 received their blessing ; and the Metropolitan Dionysius deli- 
 vered to him besides the benediction of the patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople and the other patriarchs. 
 
 The monarch demanded of him, " Whether God still con- 
 tinued to be merciful to his father and beadsman the Patri- 
 arch Jeremiah, and whether he still continued in health and 
 security ? " Dionysius replied, " By the mercy of God, and 
 thy royal goodness, the Patriarch Jeremiah is in good health, 
 and continues to pray God for thy holy, great, and royal 
 empire." He then delivered a message in his name, How 
 that he, the Most Holy Jeremiah, having by the permission 
 and petition of the sovereign appointed a patriarch in Russia, 
 had convoked a council in Constantinople, and confirmed this 
 appointment by an organic letter, which the metropolitan de- 
 livered to the Tsar from the whole synod, together with other 
 private letters from Jeremiah to him and to the religious 
 Tsaritsa. In the letter of the Council it was thus written : 
 
 " When the religious and pacific Autocrat, the Tsar of all 
 the laud of Russia, of Moscow, Kazan, Astrachan, Novo-
 
 328 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 APPEND, gorod, and of other Orthodox Christians, the Lord Theodore 
 
 Ivanovich, received our humble person, and manifested by his 
 
 reception of us how true a faith he had in God, and how great 
 love to the Church of Christ, he enquired of us concerning 
 the dignity of a patriarch, with respect to the manner of his 
 synodical election and to the canons of the Church, and 
 begged that we would appoint and nominate the archbishop 
 of Moscow patriarch, so as to be in all respects like the 
 others; of whom the (Ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople 
 was reckoned first in dignity by the first holy (Ecumenical 
 Council 1 , and the blessed and apostle-like Emperor Constau- 
 tine, and after him the Orthodox patriarchs of Alexandria, 
 Antioch, and Jerusalem. 
 
 " Our Humility saw with our own eyes, and rejoiced at 
 witnessing the grace, the greatness, and the extension given 
 by God to thy kingdom; for there is now only one great 
 monarch who is Orthodox in all the earth, and it would not 
 have been becoming to refuse to accede to his request. But 
 when we understood his wishes, we appointed agreeably to 
 them a patriarch in Moscow, whose name is the Lord Job, 
 and by the grace of God we gave him the patriarchal Chryso- 
 bulla 3 , and consented that he, the archbishop of Moscow, should 
 exercise the authority of a fifth patriarch, and in dignity and 
 honour should be reckoned equal with the other patriarchs 
 for ever. This we did on the spot. But when our Humility 
 had arrived at our throne in the city of Constantino, and 
 had made known this affair, together with the counsel and 
 request of the Orthodox Tsar, to the other honourable and 
 most holy patriarchs, it obtained their approbation and their 
 blessing. 
 
 "And further our Humility, together with the said patri- 
 archs and the whole (Ecumenical Synod, in unity and con- 
 sent in the Holy Ghost, write and declare by this synodal 
 letter : In the first place, we acknowledge and ratify the 
 appointment and nomination of the Lord Job, as patriarch 
 in the imperial city of Moscow, and will that in future he 
 shall be reckoned and named with us patriarchs, and shall
 
 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 329 
 
 have his place in the prayers after the patriarch of Jeru- APPEND. 
 salem ; and shall reckon the Apostolical throne of Constanti- 
 nople as the head and beginning 3 , as do also the other patri- 
 archs. In the second place, we consent that the name and 
 honour of the patriarchate now given, shall not only be given 
 and confirmed in perpetuity to the Lord Job personally, 
 but that the synod of Moscow shall also appoint patriarchs 
 to be the primates of their Church after him, according to 
 those rules which were first adopted in the case of the fellow- 
 servant of our Humility and our beloved brother in the Holy 
 Spirit, Job ; and for this end this organic letter is now con- 
 firmed, as a perpetual memorial for ever. The year 7098, the 1590. 
 month of May." 
 
 And to this letter were affixed the signatures of Jeremiah 
 the (Ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, of Joachim of 
 Antioch, and Sophronius of Jerusalem, and of forty -two 
 metropolitans, nineteen archbishops, and twenty bishops, 
 who assisted at the Council. 
 
 After this the Metropolitan Dionysius presented to the 
 Tsar a blessing for his consort also from the patriarch, a 
 portion of the holy relics of the martyr Panteleemon, and of 
 St. Mary Magdalene; and as a present from himself, a royal 
 crown of gold set with precious stones and pearls, and a 
 clasp of the same kind, and another crown for the Tsaritsa. 
 In like manner the Bulgarian archbishop and the four archi- 
 mandrites made their reverence to the Tsar with presents of 
 sacred relics. The pious monarch bade them to be seated 
 on a bench, at his right hand, under the middle window; 
 and after sitting a short time he dismissed them with honour 
 to their lodgings, whither provisions of meat and drink were 
 sent to them from the royal table. The metropolitan and 
 archbishop, by the direction of the Tsar, were not invited 
 before the First Festival 4 of the Saviour to the Most Holy 
 Job, whom they found putting on his robes in the midst of 
 the cathedral of the Assumption, to bless the water; and 
 having paid their salutations to the Icons, they received his 
 benediction. Dionysius then delivered a message from the
 
 330 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 APPEND. (Ecumenical patriarch, and gave him his letter, and after- 
 - wards joined the rest in the procession with the cross. 
 The Tsar, Theodore Ivanovich, on that day made his peti- 
 tions in the Simonoff monastery to the Most Immaculate 
 Mother of God. 
 
 The Most Holy Jeremiah, after having announced to the 
 Patriarch Job by a synodal letter the confirmation of his 
 election, desired that mutual prayers and commemorations 
 should be made in all the churches of Russia, in which he 
 was to be named first himself, according to his precedence, 
 and Job was to come after the patriarch of Jerusalem. He 
 exhorted him to the maintenance of unity in the Apostolic 
 Church, and recommended to him the Metropolitan Diony- 
 sius, as of the blood of the emperors the Cantacuzenes and 
 Palseologi, who in former time held the sceptre of Con- 
 stantinople. In his private letter the patriarch entreated 
 him to do whatever he could with the Tsar's Grace, and 
 endeavour both by word and deed to obtain for him that 
 extraordinary aid which the monarch had promised at his 
 departure ; as besides the Tsar of Russia there was no one 
 who was able to restore the patriarchate from its ruins. On 
 the festival of the Assumption, the metropolitan officiated 
 together with the primate of Moscow, and afterwards dined 
 at his table. 
 
 The visit of the metropolitan to the Boyar Godounoff was 
 much later than that which he paid to the patriarch ; for it 
 was only on the fifth of October that Dionysius announced, 
 through the secretary of embassy Schelkaloff, that he had 
 a message and a letter for Boris Feodorovich. Godounoff 
 informed the Tsar of it, and begged permission to receive 
 him. The interpreter Svastine DemetriefF accompanied the 
 metropolitan, who rode into Boris' court-yard past the 
 cathedral church, and alighted from his horse on the pave- 
 ment at the foot of the stairs. He was met and received at 
 three several times by the boyar's people in dresses of cere- 
 mony; at the gates, on the stair-case, and in the entrance 
 hall ; after which, on his reaching the doors of the central
 
 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 331 
 
 apartment of the mansion, Godounoff himself, in a dress of APPEND. 
 
 flowered silk, presented himself to receive the blessing of the 
 
 prelate, and enquired after his health. Dionysius delivered 
 to him the compliments 5 and benediction of the (Ecumenical 
 patriarch, and presented to him in his name a portion of the 
 relics of the great martyr Panteleemon, and some myrrh; 
 and as a slight acknowledgment from himself, two pieces of 
 satin worked with gold, a steel sabre, and two valuable vases. 
 The boyar accepted the relics, but declined the presents; 
 saying, " Great Lord, Metropolitan Dionysius, it does not 
 become us to receive gifts from you; we ought rather to 
 impart to you of those things with which God hath blessed 
 us." 
 
 But the metropolitan humbly entreated the boyar not to 
 do him such a discourtesy as to refuse his presents, and Boris 
 yielded so far as to order the two valuable vases only to be 
 accepted ; and then having taken his own seat, he desired the 
 metropolitan to be seated on the large bench at his right hand : 
 and after they had sat a short time, the boyar dismissed the 
 metropolitan, begging him not to take it amiss that he had 
 not invited him to a repast, which he was prevented from 
 doing by the press of state business with which he was 
 engaged ; but he would send him provisions from his own 
 table to his residence. Boris then accompanied the metro- 
 politan to the spot where he had received him at the first, 
 and his attendants conducted him on from thence to the 
 entrance, the stair-case, and the gates. 
 
 The metropolitan also delivered two letters to Godounoff, 
 one from the Council, with nearly the same contents as that 
 written to the Patriarch Job, but with these remarkable 
 additional expressions ; that " the whole Council rejoiced at 
 the appointment of the patriarch of Moscow, at the wish of 
 the holy Tsar, and at his, GodounofFs, desire; and that it 
 was meet, that in such a Christian country there should be a 
 patriarch at the court of the Orthodox Tsar." In his private 
 letter the Most Holy Jeremiah wrote thus : 
 
 " To the most glorious, most illustrious, most honourable,
 
 332 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 APPEND, most exalted, the great nobleman and master of the horse, 
 - the Lord Boris Feodorovich, the beloved son of our Humility 
 in the Holy Ghost, Grace, and peace, and mercy, be with 
 thy Lordship from Almighty God our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 We have sent herewith a synodal letter respecting the patri- 
 archate of Russia ; besides this we have written in the name 
 of the synod of prelates to our Orthodox Tsar, that he will 
 grant us an alms and royal bounty, as much as it seemeth 
 good to him, according to the grace given him of God ; and if 
 he send to us six thousand pieces of gold for the erection of a 
 patriarchal church and residence at Constantinople, he will 
 become a new founder of the patriarchate. And for this 
 reason we write to thy Greatness 6 that thou mayest look 
 upon our necessity, and interest thyself with the Orthodox 
 Tsar and his consort, that this good work may be accom- 
 plished, and the buildings completed. And so the patriarch 
 will reside in them ; and the poor bishops will glorify God, 
 and we will pray Him for the Orthodox Tsar and his Tsaritsa, 
 as the new founders of the new patriarchate. 
 
 " It is very well known to you, my Lord, that the Ortho- 
 dox Autocrat and his consort promised to render us effectual 
 aid : now the time is come for us to receive their royal bounty. 
 For this reason we have selected and sent to the holy Tsar 
 and to thy Lordship, a man of ability and experience, and of 
 very noble blood, being descended from the former emperors 
 of Constantinople, the Most Reverend the Lord Dionysius, 
 metropolitan of Tirnoff, and primate of All Bulgaria, the 
 brother and fellow-minister of our Humility, whom we love 
 in the Holy Ghost ; and he has been selected for this office 
 in our own patriarchal presence, by the whole of the sacred 
 synod. Wherefore do thou receive him, as thou didst receive 
 our Humility ; and shew him thy affection, and the regard 
 thou bearest to the great Church, as a lover of Christ, and 
 merciful : and the thing of which we write to thy excell- 
 ency do thou perform, and thou shalt receive it back seventy 
 times seven fold from God, with our prayers for ever. (He 
 has moreover a message which he will deliver to thy Lordship :
 
 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 333 
 
 I have sent thee, by him, my blessing, some of the relics of APPEND. 
 St. Panteleemon, and some myrrh.") 
 
 The Metropolitan Dionysius requested also, during his visit 
 to the Boyar Godounoff, permission to pay his reverence to the 
 Wonder-worker St. Sergius, in his Lavra of the Life-giving 
 Trinity ; and he Avent thither shortly afterwards, with the con- 
 sent of the Tsar. The like honours were shewn to him as had 
 been shewn to the patriarch, both as respected the table and 
 the offering of alms, in accordance with directions sent by the 
 boyar through the commissioners to the archimandrite and 
 the bursar. Also, gifts were presented to them : from the 
 archimandrite, five Icons framed and overlaid, forty sables, 
 money, and wooden vessels made at the monastery ; from 
 the bursar, with all the rest of the brethren, two Icons with 
 frames, a sable cloak, one piece of damask silk, and one of 
 watered, and a silver ewer. Presents were made in like 
 manner to all who had come with the metropolitan; that is 
 to say, to Jeremiah archimandrite of St. Sabba, to the two 
 archimandrites Macarius and Eustathius, to Cyrill the arch- 
 deacon, and to Damascene bursar of the monastery of the 
 Archangel, to Neophytus archimandrite and Joachim prior of 
 the monastery of Panteleemon on mount Athos, to Gregory 
 archimandrite of Khilendar, to Methodius of the Transfigura- 
 tion, to the Archimandrite Damascene from the mountain 
 Meteorsky, to Athanasius of the monastery of the Holy 
 Ghost, and to Sophronius a monk of the Vatopedsky monas- 
 tery, together with other priests : for the Lavra of the great 
 Wonder-worker Sergius was inexhaustible in its liberality, 
 and yielded not even to royalty itself in the magnificence of 
 its presents. 
 
 Towards the close of that year, the Tsar desired the 
 presence of the metropolitan at his court, for the pur- 
 pose of having his audience to take leave ; and Diony- 
 sius drove into the city in a sledge, and alighted at the 
 entrance of the palace, between the churches of the Arch- 
 angel and the Annunciation, and proceeded from thence to 
 the Golden Hall of the Sign Manual ; where the Tsar Theo-
 
 331 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 APPEND, dore was waiting ready to receive him seated on his throne, 
 ~ and surrounded by his boyars. 
 
 After he had received his blessing, the secretary Andrew 
 Schelkaloff, announced in the sovereign's name to the 
 metropolitan that the Tsar invited him to the royal table. 
 Dionysius, having most humbly returned thanks for all the 
 grace and favour of the pious Autocrat, left the presence, to 
 Avait till the banquet should be served in the Hall of Audience, 
 which looked towards the river and was ornamented with 
 carpets of cloth of gold; but the table was spread in the 
 central Golden Hall. On that same day there dined together 
 with the metropolitan at the monarch's table certain noble 
 Circassians from Piati-Gori, the Prince Yansoch, and his 
 suite; dishes of various meats were sent from the Tsar, 
 first to the highest boyars, and then to the metropolitan. 
 Before them cups, ladles, and dishes, blazed with gold. The 
 pages who served were dressed in coats of cloth of gold, and 
 were decorated with gold chains. After the dinner was 
 finished, a quantity of the royal mead w r as sent to the metro- 
 politan's residence, by the hand of the Page Basmanoff and 
 the clerks of the kitchen. Besides this, the monarch pre- 
 sented the metropolitan, on his departure, with a piece of 
 black Venetian velvet, three pieces of damask, three of satin, 
 a double-handled tankard and cup of silver, four score 
 sables, and six score marten skins, and 100 roubles in 
 money ; the whole to the value of 310 roubles ; besides this, 
 an Icon of the Most Immaculate Mother of God, with 
 carved frame-work made with hinges that the two halves 
 might shut up, copes of damask silk ornamented with gold, 
 and the clasps to them set in pearls : from the Tsaritsa he 
 also received similar presents, to the value of 180 roubles. 
 His two archimandrites also, Macarius and Euphemius, and 
 the archdeacon, and the other archimandrites from the Holy 
 Mountain, and the monks and attendants, all received 
 presents. 
 
 Soon after this, on the 19th of December, the metropolitan 
 received an invitation, at the desire of the monarch, from the
 
 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 335 
 
 archimandrite and brethren of the Choudoff monastery, and APPEND. 
 Avas met and received by them with honour at the Holy Gates; 
 and after the Office of the Vigil, the prior complimented him 
 in a speech, in which he thanked him for all the great labours 
 he had undertaken, and invited him for the next day to dine 
 at the table of the brethren in the refectory, on which occa- 
 sion he presented him with the usual gifts. 
 
 More than a month after he had had his audience of 
 leave, the Tsar desired the metropolitan to have an audience 
 to take leave of the Patriarch Job, in the presence of the 
 secretary of embassy, Andrew Schelkaloff; and Dionysius, 
 with his archimandrites and monks, w r ent in consequence to 
 the court of the patriarch, passing through the cathedral, 
 where he heard a Moleben to the great Wonder-workers, 
 Peter, Alexis, and Jonah. This being the first audience of 
 leave granted by the patriarch, it was ordered with all 
 possible pomp and ceremony, in order the more to impress 
 upon the Greek stranger the greatness of the Russian 
 primate. The court itself was lined with Streltsi. In the 
 entrance hall, and up the stairs, were drawn up the patriarch's 
 esquires, and the clerks of his chancery, in dresses of cere- 
 mony. Two of these met the metropolitan on the top of the 
 stairs from the corridor, and in the entrance-hall at the doors 
 of the saloon he was met and received a second time by 
 Athanasius Maligine, secretary of the Chamber of Judgment, 
 and by the patriarch's own secretary, John Shebarshine. 
 
 In the White Dining Hall the Patriarch Job himself was 
 seated in his place on a large bench ; whilst at an interval of 
 about six feet on his left, on another similar bench, sat Gela- 
 sius metropolitan of Sarai and Podonsk, and Metrophanes 
 archbishop of Riazan, and below them the clergy of the 
 cathedral ; while from the higher bench to the pillar were 
 ranged on a lower form the archpriests and other officers of 
 the churches of the Mother of God and the Archangel. On 
 another bench, to the right hand side of the patriarch, sat 
 the Archbishops Jonah of Vologda and Arsenius of Elasson, 
 with the archimandrites and hegumens ; while in that part
 
 336 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 APPEND, of the hall which belonged to the dignitaries of state, were 
 placed the courtiers of the Tsar's court, the officers of the 
 courts of justice, and esquires of the patriarch ; all chosen 
 men, and all in dresses of ceremony. 
 
 On the entrance of the metropolitan the patriarch arose, 
 and having read the "Agiov, made the customary prayer, and 
 gave his benediction to Dionysius ; and then said, " Whilst 
 thou hast abode in the great empire of our pious Tsar, hast 
 thou continued in good health and safety ? and art thou free 
 from all kind of difficulties?" Dionysius replied, "By the 
 mercy of God, the bounty of the Tsar, and thy blessing, we 
 are well, and in perfect ease and contentment." After this 
 all the Russian prelates and archimandrites received the 
 blessing of the Greek, and he in his turn received theirs; 
 and after he had been blessed by the patriarch, he seated 
 himself near at a little distance from him at his right hand, 
 on another bench. Then the Most Holy Job arose, and 
 made a speech, in which he recounted to the metropolitan the 
 whole course of events, from the very first beginning, with 
 respect to his own election and appointment, the counsel of the 
 Tsar, and the determination of the patriarch ; and lastly, 
 Dionysius' s own coming, with the synodal letters ; and con- 
 cluded by saying, that letters should also be delivered to him 
 for the patriarch and the council. 
 
 In his turn, the metropolitan entered into a long explana- 
 tion of the acts of the council of the patriarchs ; that they 
 had examined the precedents afforded by antiquity, and had 
 particularly considered how in ancient times the Orthodox 
 Emperor Constantine, when he desired to have a patri- 
 archate in his imperial city of New Rome, had conferred 
 with the pope of Rome, and the patriarch of Alexandria; 
 and so Metrophanes was appointed the first patriarch of 
 Constantinople ; and that having found in this a precedent, 
 they immediately wrote a letter to confirm the establishment 
 of a patriarchate in Moscow, and had sent him, Dionysius, to 
 Wallachia to the voivode with the intelligence, in order that 
 the bishops under his authority might also subscribe this
 
 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 337 
 
 letter, which they did with pleasure. Dionysius then advised APPEND. 
 " that they should in future act in concert in all spiritual - 
 matters with the (Ecumenical patriarch, according to the 
 custom of the other three; and that on account of their 
 distance from Constantinople, the Most Holy Job should 
 choose to represent him some one of the Greek metropolitans 
 or archbishops, who was capable, and should cause him to 
 reside constantly near the (Ecumenical patriarch, for councils 
 and other spiritual business ; for that it was usual for the 
 other patriarchs also to have commissioners to act in their 
 stead residing with the (Ecumenical patriarch at Constanti- 
 nople." 
 
 But the Most Holy Job replied to this proposal, that he 
 must first consult with the Orthodox Tsar and the sacred 
 synod, and would then do whatever was most proper. And 
 then he gave the metropolitan his blessing, with a Panagia, 
 and dismissed him ; charging him at the same time to bear 
 his blessing and duty to the (Ecumenical patriarch, and his 
 blessing and respects to the other patriarchs and the synod. 
 
 About the middle of February, the Tsar ordered that the 
 metropolitan should be suffered to depart on his journey, 
 and that the Esquire Nelioub Parthenieff should conduct 
 him as far as Chernigoff, together with ten other esquires, 
 twenty Streltsi, and a company of carabineers, which was to 
 be replaced by a larger force from the Voivode Prince 
 Gregory Zvenogorodsky at Briansk. At Pochep ten more 
 Streltsi were added to the former twenty. Nelioub was 
 ordered to take carriages for them in the towns and villages 
 at the rate of one carriage for two persons, according to the 
 usual orders given to the mayors and voivodes ; also to pur- 
 chase provender for the twenty horses of the metropolitan 
 on the road, with the money which had been allowed him 
 for that purpose, and if that were insufficient, then to take it 
 without paying in the villages, and enter it in a book, which 
 he was to transmit to the Embassy Office. An order was sent 
 from the Tsar to the Paphnutieff monastery at Borofsk, that 
 the monks should be assembled from the other religious
 
 338 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 APPEND, houses, and all together give a public meeting and reception 
 - to the metropolitan of Tirnoff, in the same manner as if he 
 were primate of All Russia ; that supplies of provisions and 
 mead suitable to his rank should be furnished, and handsome 
 gifts presented to him, inasmuch as all the Russian bishops, 
 who were in Moscow at the time that Dionysius took his 
 leave, and even the two hegumens of the monasteries of 
 St. Cyrill and St. Joseph, had severally presented him with 
 gifts to be kept as tokens of remembrance. 
 
 From Chernigoff the Voivode Gregory Borisoff was to 
 send and escort the metropolitan and his archimandrites 
 to the frontier with thirty men of his own esquires and 
 one hundred armed Streltsi. But he had not yet reached 
 Chernigoff, when the courtier Matthew Proesteff was sent 
 after him, bearing letters and presents for the patriarchs, 
 which he was ordered to deliver to the metropolitan; and 
 besides this, Boris Godounoff ordered him to deliver in his 
 name tokens of remembrance for the patriarch of Jeru- 
 salem to Damascene the bursar of the Lavra of St. Sabba, 
 who, together with his archimandrite and other superiors of 
 monasteries from Mount Athos, had accompanied Dionysius. 
 The monarch, in a long letter addressed "To the Most 
 Holy Pastor in God, Jeremiah, Teacher of the Command- 
 ments of Orthodoxy, Curator of the preaching of the Gospel, 
 firm pillar of Orthodoxy for all Christians, and patient sufferer 
 for Christ," again set forth all the history of his own counsel 
 respecting the institution of the patriarchate. That in past time 
 " for our sins, Old Rome fell away through the Apollinarian 
 heresy, and the Roman Church and the whole of Italy were 
 filled with the unsound doctrines of Pope Formosus, and after 
 him of Peter the Stammerer ; and since then, through the 
 agency of Pope Christopher, the Church of Rome finally and 
 altogether separated herself from our holy and Orthodox 
 faith ; on which account the Most Holy Sergius, patriarch of 
 Constantinople, having first accurately examined into the faith 
 of the heterodox Christopher, forbade, by the advice of the 
 (Ecumenical patriarchs, that the popes of Rome should be
 
 COMING OP THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 339 
 
 any longer commemorated in the Greek Churches. So the APPEND. 
 
 Pope Eugenius also, imitating the impiety of his prede- 
 
 cessors, assembled a double-minded eighth council; but 
 Mark, metropolitan of Ephesus, exposed and refuted his 
 corrupt tradition; while in all our kingdom of Russia, by 
 the grace of Christ, the holy Christian faith shines as the 
 sun in the heavens, and sends forth its holy rays throughout 
 all the world, agreeing in all things with the four (Ecumen- 
 ical patriarchs, even as we received it originally from our 
 pious ancestors, those great monarchs who holily rest in God, 
 even from the times of apostle-like Prince "Vladimir, the illu- 
 minator of the land of Russia; for these reasons it was fitting, 
 for the honour of our holy and pure Greek faith, that the 
 exalted throne of the great Wonder-workers, Peter, Alexis, 
 and Jonah, in the capital city of Moscow, should be raised to 
 the patriarchal dignity." 
 
 Further on, describing the fulfilment of his royal wishes, 
 and the election of Job, he says, " Since in ancient times 
 Silvester, the (Ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, was 
 honoured with that dignity by the holy (Ecumenical council 
 and by the apostle-like Emperor Constantine, it has been 
 here synodically ordained that thou shouldest be named the 
 first, and in the place of the Pope, O Jeremiah, by the mercy 
 of God archbishop of New Rome, and (Ecumenical patriarchj 
 and next to thee the patriarch of Alexandria, and then the 
 patriarch of the royal city of Moscow, the capital of our vast 
 dominions, and after him the patriarchs of Antioch and 
 Jerusalem." And this was thus circumstantially stated by 
 the pious monarch, because in the Letters sent from Constan- 
 tinople the patriarch of Moscow had been placed after all the 
 others, which probably was the cause of the metropolitan 
 being so long detained in Moscow, before he was admitted to 
 an audience with the Most Holy Job ; for the Tsar insisted 
 strongly that his Church should take precedence of those of 
 Antioch and Jerusalem ; and he was only just willing to yield 
 the second place to Alexandria, because her primate still bore 
 the name of Pope, and the title of (Ecumenical Judge.
 
 340 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 PPEND. Theodore further made mention how he had dismissed 
 with great presents the Most Holy Jeremiah to Constanti- 
 nople ; " that the great throne of the Church of Constanti- 
 nople, the mother of all the Churches in the universe of 
 the one Orthodox faith, might not be left without an able 
 shepherd ; and that the rational sheep of Christ's flock might 
 not be devoured by ravening wolves ; also, in order to obtain 
 a synodical confirmation of the patriarchate of All Russia, 
 and that in all the four (Ecumenical patriarchates of the 
 Greek empire, prayers might be offered up for the Tsar's 
 health, and that he might have a son. And the God of all 
 mercies for the prayers of his priests will loosen perhaps the 
 bonds of barrenness, and give him heirs to his house." 
 
 Lastly, touching the coming of Dionysius, he declared to 
 them ' ' that they had settled the order of commemoration in 
 full synod according to their former determination, that is to 
 say, that the patriarch of Moscow should stand third ; and 
 for the future, he desired of the Most Holy Jeremiah, that 
 he would inform by letter his brother and fellow-minister, 
 the newly-created Patriarch, Job, and his successors in like 
 manner after him, whenever it should have pleased God that 
 any one of the Most Holy patriarchs filling one of the great 
 thrones should depart from this transitory and corruptible 
 world to the other and future world of endless bliss, and 
 would announce to him the name of his successor ; which 
 same thing they would also take care to do by him on the 
 part of the empire of Russia, and the successors of the first 
 patriarch, Job, would notify their own accession to the patri- 
 archs of Constantinople, in order that in all cities and places 
 of the Greek empire and in all the four patriarchates the 
 patriarch of Moscow might be named with the same honour 
 as the other Oecumenical patriarchs, in like manner as they 
 also would be commemorated throughout the whole empire 
 of Russia. He further expressed his wish that for the future 
 in our great Catholic Church there should be unity of 
 counsel, and agreement with the four (Ecumenical patri- 
 archs, at the election of the great patriarchs ; and that they
 
 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 341 
 
 should rightly hold our holy Orthodox faith in all things, all APPEND. 
 together, and for ever, according to the tradition of the ~~ 
 Apostles, and the canons of our holy, great, and divinely- 
 inspired fathers." 
 
 The monarch also wrote three separate letters in the same 
 sense, to Meletius patriarch of Alexandria, recently appointed 
 in the room of Silvester who was dead, to Joachim of Antioch, 
 his former guest, and to Sophronius of Jerusalem. The Most 
 Holy Job also wrote on the same subject to the (Ecumenical 
 patriarch, only making use of a few different expressions re- 
 specting the pope, saying that " formerly there were in all the 
 world five patriarchs ; but that the pope of Rome had fallen 
 away from true piety, and had loved darkness rather than 
 light, and had drawn nigh unto the host of fallen angels." 
 Job also firmly insisted on the point of the degrees of pre- 
 cedency among the patriarchs, placing himself third, next 
 after the patriarch of Alexandria, for which he grounded 
 himself on the constitution of the synod ; and he requested 
 that they should make mutual commemorations of each other 
 in all places, and also that there should be unity of counsel, 
 will, desire, and agreement, among the patriarchs respect- 
 ing the holy, undefiled, Orthodox faith; that they might 
 all labour and provide together for the holy Churches of 
 God, and offer in them one united prayer to God; keeping 
 firmly to all that was enjoined by the apostolical traditions, 
 and by the seven (Ecumenical councils, and regarding it as 
 unchangeable for ever. He also informed the Most Holy 
 Jeremiah, that he had used his influence with the Tsar and 
 the Tsaritsa, to induce them to assist in the building and 
 ornamenting of his patriarchal church, and charged him 
 earnestly to pray that they might be blessed with issue. He 
 wished for the prelate " that he might be enabled to hold his 
 venerable head above all among the foreign nations, and that 
 having completed his course in peace and quietness, he might 
 receive an eternal inheritance of unspeakable rejoicing in the 
 haven of God." At the conclusion of his letter he begged 
 his acceptance of forty sables.
 
 342 COMING or THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 APPEND. With respect to the building of the church, the pious 
 ~ monarch wrote a separate letter to the Patriarch Jeremiah. 
 " Your Holiness, in conjunction with the whole Episcopal 
 Council, has informed us in your petition, that the ancient 
 patriarchal residence having been taken out of your hands, 
 and the cells for the religious, which Orthodox princes had 
 erected, having been also taken away and ruined, you have 
 in consequence looked out for and purchased a church with a 
 mansion and spacious apartments attached to it, for 6,000 
 pieces of gold ; that for this sum you are still in debt ; and 
 you have begged our royal majesty to render you assistance 
 to enable you to pay for this new residence, which you have 
 bought for the patriarchate; that so I may become the rebuilder 
 of the Church of God. We, for our parts, have not neglected 
 this application of your holiness ; and for the re-establishment 
 of the Church of God, and the building a residence for the 
 patriarch, we have sent you by the Metropolitan Dionysius an 
 Omophorion (that is, a pall) with a pearl fastening, a cup of gold 
 for holy water, and a towel worked with seed pearls, for the 
 decoration of the Orthodox Church, and your Holiness' own 
 person; also for the building itself, eighty score of sable skins, 
 sixty score of marten skins, ten ermine skins, and fifteen poods 
 of walruss ivory. But do thou, O (Ecumenical patriarch, after 
 having received these contributions from us, zealously employ 
 thyself in setting up a house to the honour of the Mother 
 of God, and a patriarchal residence. We have also sent by 
 the metropolitan, for the acceptance of Meletius the patriarch 
 of Alexandria, an episcopal mitre, a golden cup for holy water, 
 an epigonatium embroidered with seed pearls, and eight score 
 sables ; the same presents also for the patriarchs of Antioch, 
 and of Jerusalem. And do thou, O Most Holy Jeremiah, 
 forward these our packages and letters to them. As to what 
 thou wrotest to us of the many injuries which the monks of 
 the sacred monastery on the Holy Mountain had sustained 
 from the unbelieving Hagarenes, that we should look favour- 
 ably upon them, and render them some assistance, that they 
 might be relieved from their great necessity, we, for the sake
 
 COMING OP THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 343 
 
 of thy petition, have received them graciously, and having APPEND. 
 bestowed on them our royal bounty, have sent them back to ~ 
 you again." 
 
 Thus the grace and munificence of the Tsar extended itself 
 also to the monasteries of Mount Athos. He wrote to the 
 Primus, that is, the senior archimandrite of the Great Lavra, 
 on the Holy Mountain, informing him that he had sent him 
 by Neophytus, archimandrite of the monastery of Pante- 
 leemon, for the repose of the soul of his father of blessed 
 memory, 500 roubles in money, and rich copes, to be expended 
 in that monastery ; and he desired that the Primus would look 
 to the building, and if Neophytus should not arrive with the 
 things committed to his charge, that he should then entrust 
 the building in the monastery of Panteleemon to Gregory, 
 archimandrite of the religious house of Chilandara ; and that 
 he would himself send a fresh supply of money for the 
 building of the church, with vessels and ornaments, as soon 
 as he should learn that the building was finished. The 
 monarch also gave to the Archimandrite Neophytus, and to 
 Christopher the other archimandrite from Jerusalem, the 
 superior of the solitary Lavra of the Holy Sabba, letters in 
 his own name, to permit them in future to pass through his 
 territories, whenever they pleased, for the purpose of collecting 
 alms. 
 
 The Boyar Godounoff also informed the (Ecumenical 
 patriarch of the royal bounty, and entreated his prayers for 
 the fruitfulness of his sister, the Tsaritsa Irene; "that 
 numerous branches from the royal stock might flourish, as 
 the future hopes of the empire of Russia, and of all faithful 
 Christians." He also thanked him for all trouble he had 
 been at, in connection with the establishment of the patri- 
 archate of Moscow. After he had enumerated the royal gifts 
 to the other patriarchs, he desired also himself " to compli- 
 ment his great master and lord, his father, instructor, and the 
 Saviour 7 of his soul with a present of forty sables ; and his 
 wife Maria, he said, begged him to accept a linen kerchief, 
 and his son Theodore a cup of silver gilt, with a cover ;
 
 344 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 
 
 APPEND, and so he entreated him "not to forget him in his prayers, 
 
 that God might be merciful to him, and do that for them, 
 
 which He, in His holy will, saw would be best." 
 
 The boyar wrote in a similar style " To the Most Holy 
 Sophronius, by the mercy of God, patriarch of the great city 
 of Jerusalem, guardian of the Life-bearing Sepulchre of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Church of His holy Resurrec- 
 tion, the Pastor and Teacher of the Commandments of Ortho- 
 doxy, the true wrestler against the enemies of God, the valiant 
 defender of religion," and informed him of the establishment 
 of a patriarchate in Russia ; and of the bounty of the Tsar ; 
 and begged of him to offer up the usual prayers for fruitful- 
 ness in child-bearing. He then told him, that he had sent 
 by the monk and bursar Damascene to the Life-bearing Sepul- 
 chre of Christ and the Church of His Resurrection, a chalice 
 of crystal set in gold, with amethysts, rubies, and emeralds, 
 three golden dishes, a golden lamp for the Sepulchre of our 
 Lord, set with amethysts and rubies, and a golden thurible, 
 with eight score sables, for oil and frankincense, that the lamp 
 might not want for oil as long as it pleased God. He also 
 sent by Damascene to the Most Immaculate Virgin in Gethse- 
 rnane, vessels for the use of the Church, a chalice, a disk, and 
 a silver thurible ; also 500 pieces of gold for the edifice, to be 
 expended in buying a vineyard or farm, in order to establish 
 for the future a daily service in the Church of the Most Imma- 
 culate Mother of God in Gethsemane, and to keep a light ever 
 burning. "And we have desired," he wrote, " Damascene to 
 confer with thee on all, both for the holy place itself, and for 
 the establishment of the service and the light. But if the 
 farm or vineyard should cost more than the above sum, do 
 thou, Most Holy Sir, my lord and teacher, write me word 
 how many more gold pieces are required, and I will send 
 them immediately. I have also sent you, by the same 
 person, forty sables from myself; my wife Maria, humbly 
 entreats you, O great lord, to accept a piece of linen, my 
 son Theodore a gilt cup, my daughter Oxynia an Ikon, 
 being a representation of the Saviour, and a piece of linen.
 
 COMING OF THE METROPOLITAN DIONYSIUS. 345 
 
 And do thou kindly receive these things from us ; that so, for APPEND. 
 
 the sake of thy holy prayers, the Lord may do with us accord- : 
 
 ing to His mercy, as shall seem best to His holy will." 
 
 The letter of the boyar to Damascene, the bursar of 
 St. Sabba's monastery of the Archangel, dated March 1592, is 
 worthy of remark. After having enumerated to him all the 
 offerings and presents to the patriarch, he writes : " We have 
 ordered that all these things should be given to thee, vener- 
 able Sir, in the presence of the Metropolitan Dionysius ; also 
 that the 500 pieces of gold, for the Church of Gethsemane, 
 should be delivered to thee; and do thou shew those gold 
 pieces to the metropolitan. But all that which has been 
 given to thee above this sum, do thou, O venerable Sir, keep 
 to thyself, and shew it not; but apply it to the building of 
 the house of the Mother of God, as I have directed thee." 
 
 Might there not be in this mysterious order some secret 
 commemoration for the soul of the Tsarevich Demetrius ? For 
 the boyar did not entrust this money either to the Metropolitan 
 Dionysius, or to Christopher the archimandrite of the Lavra, 
 or to the patriarch of Jerusalem himself; but ordered that 
 the offerings and presents only should be delivered to him, 
 and that he should be consulted respecting the purchase of a 
 farm, for the benefit of the Church, at Gethsemane ; and in 
 the event of the money proving insufficient, promised him a 
 further supply. That therefore, which was given by him to 
 the bursar, was destined to be applied for some other special 
 purpose. 
 
 Thus terminated the great embassy of the metropolitan of 
 Tirnoff, from the council of the (Ecumenical patriarchs, for 
 the purpose of confirming the establishment of the patri- 
 archate of Moscow and All Russia. 
 
 THE END.
 
 NOTES
 
 NOTES. 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 P. 3, ] . A Lavra or Laura, is a monastery of the first class, in which 
 are many monks living in common ; from a Greek word \avpos, signifying 
 wide, populous. Aavpa, a street, is explained on di avrrjs ol Xaot peov<ri. 
 
 P. 4, 2. The Church and State of Georgia, or Gruzia, were united with 
 those of Russia in 1801. The Church was ruled till 1811 hy an Archbishop 
 and member of the Holy Synod, sent by Russia. An Exarch was appointed 
 in 1814. He was styled Exarch of Gruzia and Imeritia. He is always a 
 member of the Synod ; and the supreme ecclesiastical government of the 
 Church of Georgia is vested in the Synod, in the same way as that of the 
 whole Russian Church. The local administration is conducted by a 
 "Kontor," which is an ecclesiastical court inferior to the Synod, but superior 
 to the Diocesan Consistory. It may be denned to be a Provincial Con- 
 sistory ; and the Diocesan Consistories are subject to it. It consists of the 
 Exarch, one Archbishop, two Archimandrites or Abbots of large monas- 
 teries, and two Archpriests of Sobors, i.e. Collegiate or Cathedral Churches. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 P. 8, 1. Constantino or Cyrill was the first who wrote the Slavonic 
 language, using for that purpose the Greek letters, with the addition of 
 certain other characters, partly Armenian or Hebrew, and partly of his 
 own invention. The Slavonic alphabet thus formed consisted of forty 
 letters, and received the name of the Cyrillic. It is still used with some 
 alterations in Russia, Wallachia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, and Servia. The Poles 
 and the Latins of Moldavia make use of the Roman characters, having been 
 obliged to abandon the Slavonic by an order of Pope John XIII. The 
 characters now used in Russia for printing books not of an ecclesiastical 
 nature were introduced by Peter the First, who wished to make the 
 Slavonic character approximate in appearance to the printing of the West. 
 
 P. 8, 2. Blachernae is a harbour at Constantinople, so called from the 
 name of a Scythian prince killed there. 
 
 P. 8, 3. The words of the anthem alluded to are as follows : T# 
 V7rep/id^ft> orpanj-yo) ra viKrjTrjpia, a>s \vrpui6fVTfs ratv 8eivS>v, fv^apifrrripia 
 dvaypd<pofi,fi> ol SouXoi crou QeoroKf. 'AXX' u>s e^oucra TO icpdros drrpocr- 
 Kiv8vixav eXevdepaxrov, Iva Kpdga>p.fv <roi' x a V e 
 KOI vvv.
 
 350 NOTES. 
 
 P. 8, 4. Ruric, the founder of the Russian monarchy, was the son of the 
 Swedish or Flemish monarch Ludbrat and his consort Oumila, who was the 
 daughter of Prince Gostomuisla, the last prince of the republic of Novo- 
 gorod. He was born at Upsal A.D. 830, and in obedience to the dying 
 advice of his grandfather to the inhabitants of Novogorod, was invited by 
 them to assume the reins of government A.D. 862. Partly by conquest of 
 the neighbouring tribes, and partly by their voluntary union, he succeeded 
 in establishing the first monarchical government in Russia. He died A.D. 
 879, and left his brother-in-law, Oleg, the guardian of his infant son Igor, 
 and regent of the kingdom, which he governed till his death, A.D. 912. 
 
 Igor, son of Ruric, was bom in Great Novogorod A.D. 877, and ascended 
 his father's throne A.D. 912. He was killed in battle by the Drevlians 
 A.D. 946, and buried in the wood where he fell. He married the cele- 
 brated Olga, by some said to have been a princess, by others the daughter 
 of a ferryman, who governed the kingdom for ten years during the mino- 
 rity of her son Sviatoslaff. She died A.D. 967, at the advanced age of 85. 
 
 The system of government introduced into Russia by Ruric and his 
 Norman followers was a modification or rather an imitation of their own 
 national customs, the principal characteristics of which were that only one 
 family among them possessed the power of ruling over the rest of the 
 nation in peace, and leading them in war ; this privilege was not exclu- 
 sively enjoyed by any one member of that family, but was divided among 
 them all. They each inherited the title of Conung, and had each their 
 own separate principality, their own little court and army, and ruled them 
 independently of the rest. And if, in consequence of this constant subdivi- 
 sion, any member of the reigning family was left without an appanage, he 
 was assisted by the others in winning one either at home or abroad by the 
 edge of his sword. In other countries which the Normans conquered, such 
 as Normandy and Naples, this system of government was modified by the 
 opposition of the natives in support of former rights, and thus became 
 either allodial or feudal ; but in Russia, from the extent and uncultivated 
 state of the country, from the paucity of inhabitants and large towns, they 
 met with no opposition, and thus introduced their own laws and customs 
 with very little alteration, the chief of which were the following : 
 
 1. Every descendant of Vladimir, as a member of the reigning family, 
 bore the title of Prince, and had a right to an appanage, and a certain 
 district or portion of countiy. 2. The appanaged prince was the complete 
 and independent ruler of his own portion of territory, had his own capital, 
 his own company of followers, or army, his own boyars, nominated per- 
 haps the bishop, erected his own towns and fortresses, issued ordinances, 
 had his own courts of judicature, rewarded and punished according 
 to his own discretion, and made war or peace with whom he pleased. 3. 
 The title of Great Prince belonged to the eldest son of the eldest branch 
 (the senior according to the rights of primogeniture) of the appanaged 
 princes. In the event of quarrels between the other princes he possessed 
 the right (a very undefined one) of compelling them to peace ; in the event 
 of war with foreign countries, to require their assistance against the common 
 enemy ; and to be their chief, or head of the confederacy. He however
 
 NOTES. 351 
 
 possessed absolute authority only in his own appanage ; he had no right to 
 interfere with the internal government of the other princes, nor to require 
 any tribute from them ; but on the other hand he was obliged to give an 
 account of the manner in which he had expended the sums collected for 
 the common weal to these very princes, who did not reckon themselves his 
 vassals, but sovereigns equally independent with himself, who were however 
 bound to have recourse to him when any thing occurred which affected the 
 general interests of Kussia. 4. The dignity of prince was hereditary in the 
 male line only. The result of this system was a loose kind of league, 
 under one feeble head, of many independent princes, who were continually 
 fighting with each other for their own selfish ends, for the attainment of 
 objects in which neither the nobility, nor the clergy, nor the communities of 
 the towns were interested. There was no war of principles waged as 
 in other countries, where the feudal laws had been established by the 
 Norman conquerors. The princes did not attempt to oppress or deprive 
 their subjects of any of their rights or privileges, nor did they on the other 
 hand rebel against their rulers, or attempt to weaken or lessen their autho- 
 rity. Hence it was that these constant quarrels, which continued upwards 
 of two centuries, led to no other result than that of enfeebling their general 
 power of defence against a foreign enemy, and thus involving them 
 with their subjects in one general ruin when they were attacked by the 
 Mongols. It is reasonable to conclude, that had Ruric and Vladimir 
 instituted a different form of government, something like that which after- 
 wards prevailed under John III., when all the appanaged princes became 
 completely subjected to the Great Prince, they would have been enabled 
 successfully to resist the incursions of the Tartars, and would thus have 
 preserved their ancient boundaries on their western frontiers. And from 
 the advantage they possessed of having a perfect and uniform language, used 
 equally by the peasant and the prince, by clergy and laity, formed after 
 the model of the Greek, (whilst those of the other nations of Europe were 
 either barbarous dialects, or still in a state of transition,) from their having 
 constant communication with the capital and provinces of the Greek 
 empire through their clergy, nobles, and merchants, (while many Of those 
 nations which have since preceded them in the career of civilization were 
 living in a state scarcely above that of savages,) had not all these advantages, 
 I say, been destroyed by the irruption of the Mongols, it is probable that 
 the Russians, instead of being nearly the last of the European nations in 
 learning and the arts of civilized life, might have been among the first, and, 
 instead of following, have set an example to others. 
 
 Orloff says, that in the battle fought between Demetrius Donskoi and 
 the Tartar Khan Mamai, 513 Russian princes lost their lives. Orloff s 
 Remarkable Events of the Church and Country. Moscow, 1818, vol. ii. p. 
 67. This gives some idea of the number of these princes, and into how 
 many petty appanages the country must have been subdivided. 
 
 P. 9, 5. I here give an extract of a passage from a book published at 
 Rome in 1826, entitled, Dissertatio de Origine Christianae Religionis in 
 Russia, page 17, SEC. descriptive of this event:
 
 352 NOTES. 
 
 " Eo (Episcopo) Sacrum Divini Evangelii librum protendente, ac qusedam 
 Salvatoris Nostri miracula Deique iu veteri testamento prodigia exponente, 
 statim Kussi subdiderunt, Nisi nos etiam ejusmodi aliquid viderimus, ac 
 potissimum quale in trium puerorum Camino accidisse dicis, nullam 
 prorsus tibi fidem habebimus, nee tuis verbis animum auresque nostras 
 ultra accommodabimus. Prassul vero de illius promissionis veritate fretus, 
 qui ait, "Si quid petieritis in nomine meo, accipietis. Qui credet in me opera 
 quae ego facio et ille faciet, et majora his faciet," turn nimirum cum non 
 ostentationis causa sed ad salutem animarum haec quae fiunt sunt futura, 
 ait ad eos, Etsi non licet dominum tentare, si tamen ex animo statuistis 
 ad Deum accedere, quod libuerit hoc et petite ; omniaque Deus 
 prsestabit propter fidem vestram, etsi nos despicabiles et minimi sumus. 
 Petiere ipsum fidei Christianae librum (Divinum scilicet sacrumque Evange- 
 lium) in rogum injici ab eis accensum, ac siquidem librum nihil flamma 
 laeserit aut exusserit ad Deum accessuros. Quibus sic dictis, ac Sacerdote 
 oculos ac manus ad Deum levante atque'dicente, " Clarifica tuum sanctum 
 nomen Jesu Christe, Deus noster, etiam nunc in oculis gentishujusuniversae," 
 Sancti Evangelii liber in rogum ignis conjectus est. Nee paucis decursis 
 horis, ac rogo exinde extincto, inventum est sacrum volumen illaesum, nee 
 edacis flammae vi ulla violatum, nulla ejus ab igne noxa aut diminutione, 
 ut ne fimbriae quidem librum claudentes ullam aut corruptionem aut labem 
 senserint." (Demum sic narrationem suam terminat) " Quo viso Barbari ac 
 miraculi magnitudiue in stuporem acti, omni sublata hesitatione, baptismo 
 intingi cceperunt." Vita Basil. Maced. num. XCVI. p. 211, et seq. inter 
 Hist. Byzant. Script, post Theophan. Edit. Paris, 1685. 
 
 P. 9, 6. Sviatoslaff I., son of Igor, was born A.D. 920, and ascended his 
 father's throne A.D. 955. He was killed A.D. 972, in a battle with the 
 Pechenegians, who it is said made a drinldng-cup of his skull, and 
 inscribed on it a sentence to this effect, " In seeking for that which 
 belonged to others he lost his own." 
 
 Yaropolk I., eldest son of Sviatoslaff, was born in 945 ; succeeded to his 
 father's throne A.D. 973 ; and after having killed his second brother, 
 Oleg Prince of the Drevlians, in battle, he was himself, in his turn, 
 assassinated by order of his youngest brother, Vladimir Prince of Novo- 
 gorod, A.D. 980. 
 
 P. 10, 7. "Trezni." These consisted of pugilistic and athletic games 
 resembling those described by Homer and Virgil, which were held in 
 honour of the dead. They were always celebrated at the funeral of persons 
 of distinction ; but from their having been mixed up with many heathen 
 rites and ceremonies, they were piously abhorred by the princess. 
 
 p. 10, 8. Peroun was one of the principal of the ancient heathen deities of 
 the Russians. He was the god of thunder, and answered in many respects 
 to the Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans.
 
 NOTES. 353 
 
 P. 11, 9. Nestor represents Vladimir as speaking thus of the preaching of 
 the Greek mission in a public meeting of his state, called by him in conse- 
 quence, A.D. 987. " They recounted to us with much eloquence what had 
 taken place from the beginning of the world. It was wonderful to hear, 
 and excited the admiration of all. They assured us that there is another 
 world beyond this, and that if any one by Baptism makes a confession of 
 that faith which they have embraced, and die in this faith, he shall rise 
 again after death, and never die more throughout eternity ; but that he 
 who will not believe, shall in that world be burned with everlasting fire." 
 
 It is worth while to remark in passing, that, whatever may be the right 
 view of the abstract question respecting pictures or Icons, and the shewing 
 of outward respect towards them, the Kussians cannot reasonably be blamed 
 for revering a usage which they received together with Christianity itself, 
 and the first introduction of which was made, in part at least, the instru- 
 ment of so blessed a result as the conversion of the Great Prince Vladimir, 
 the Constantine of their Church and nation. 
 
 P. 12, 10. A detailed account of the attack upon Constantinople in 866 
 by Oskold and Dir, is given by the Byzantine annalists, Zonaras, Cedrenus, 
 Constantine Porphyrogenitus, &c. &c., as also by the Patriarch Photius 
 and his biographer Ignatius, both of them contemporaries and eye-witnesses. 
 Photius in his Circular Letter says, that " not only have the Bulgarians come 
 over to the Christian faith, but also the nation of the Russians, who, proud 
 of their successes, lately even exalted themselves against the Greek empire, 
 are beginning to exchange the impurities of heathenism for the pure and 
 Orthodox doctrines of Christianity." The Russian Chronicles repeat the 
 same, and mention in addition that the Emperor Basil, under whose reign 
 the first attack took place, had persuaded them after the conclusion of peace 
 to become Christians ; and that the Patriarch Photius had sent them 
 priests and a bishop : the effect of which no doubt is to be traced in what 
 is mentioned by our author as occurring " eighty years afterwards," (i. e. 
 A. D. 945,) in the time of Igor ; and it is remarkable that the Chronicles 
 speak of native bishops by the name of " Photian" bishops, as acting in 
 concert with the Greek metropolitan sent from Constantinople for the 
 conversion of the Russians in the time of Vladimir. 
 
 P. 13, 1 1 . " After the ambassadors of Vladimir had been with the Niemtzi, 
 (i. e. Germans,) and had seen their religious worship, they went to Constan- 
 tinople, and came to the Emperor. The Emperor demanded -for what 
 reason they were come, and when he was informed of the cause, he was 
 rejoiced, and treated them with great honour during the day, and on the 
 following morning sent to the patriarch, and informed him, saying 
 ' There are certain Russians arrived here for the purpose of enquiring into 
 our faith ; wherefore prepare the church, and let the clergy be in readiness, 
 and clothe thyself in thy priestly robes, in order that they may see the 
 glorious magnificence of our God.' 
 
 " When the patriarch had received this intelligence, he ordered the clergy 
 to be called together ; and they celebrated a festival according to the cere-
 
 354 NOTES. 
 
 monial of their Church, and lit up the tapers, singing in chorus with all due 
 solemnity. And the Tsar conducted Vladimir's ambassadors into the church, 
 to a convenient place, from whence they could see the entire beauty and 
 wonderful arrangement of God's Church, and the devout order observed by 
 the patriarch, the priests, and deacons in their celebration of divine 
 worship. 
 
 "The ambassadors were utterly transported with astonishment, and 
 applauded the religious service of the Greeks with heartfelt rapture. The 
 Emperors Basil and Constantine dismissed them with many marks of 
 honour. They delivered their report to the prince before the assembled 
 boyars and elders in the following manner ; ' We know not whether we 
 were not in Heaven, for there is no such sight to be seen upon earth, &c.' 
 Whereupon the boyars said to Vladimir, ' If the Greek religion had been a 
 bad one, thy grandmother, who was the wisest of mortals, would not have 
 embraced it.' And Vladimir answered and said, 'Where shall we be 
 baptized?' The boyars replied, 'Wheresoever it pleaseth thee.'" Russian 
 Chronicle. 
 
 P. 13, 12. Cherson has been very recently re-erected into a (Russian) 
 bishopric. 
 
 P. 14, 13. The Metropolitan Platon says nothing of Vladimir's recovery 
 from bodily blindness ; he makes him to say, " To-day I have become 
 acquainted with the true God." 
 
 P. 14, 14. This name does not appear any where, either in the Russian 
 Calendar or the Lives of the Saints. 
 
 P. 14, 15. The same title "Veliki Kniaz" is now used to designate the 
 younger male branches of the imperial family, and is usually translated by 
 English writers after the Germans, Grand Duke, though the word and title 
 "Kniaz" when used of any but the reigning family is always rendered by 
 our word Prince. 
 
 P. 15, 16. The archdeacon who accompanied Macarius patriarch of 
 Jerusalem into Antioch, in the time of Nikon, gives a very similar descrip- 
 tion of the baptism of a whole tribe at once, of which he himself and the 
 patriarch were eye-witnesses. Travels of Macarius. 
 
 P. 16, 17. The boyars were nobles of the first class : in peace they were 
 governors of towns and districts, in which they administered justice ; also 
 they attended the court, and formed the privy council of the sovereign. In 
 war they led their retainers to the field, and exercised nearly the same 
 authority over them as the feudal nobility of France and England did over 
 their vassals. 
 
 P. 16, 18. The Petchenegians were a fierce and barbarous nomadic 
 horde, which had migrated from central Asia, and pitched their tents on the
 
 NOTES. 355 
 
 Steppes between the Oural and the Volga. But having been expelled from 
 thence by another more powerful horde the Poloftsi (whom we shall fre- 
 quently meet with in the course of this history) they advanced nearer to 
 the Russians, and occupied the country between the Don and the Northern 
 coasts of the Black sea. 
 
 P. 16, 19. Even at present there are very many of the Russian churches 
 which are built of wood. 
 
 P. 16, 20. It is stated in the Chronicle of Nestor that in the year 6491, 
 (or A.D. 983 according to our computation) " Vladimir went against the 
 Yatvagers (a Finnish tribe, up to that period still unconquered) and gained a 
 victory over them, and took possession of all their country. On his return to 
 Kieff he and his attendants and all the people celebrated their victory by a 
 religious festival in honour of their gods. And the elders of the land and the 
 boyars said unto him, ' Let us cast lots upon our sons and daughters, and on 
 whomsoever the lot shall fall, him will we sacrifice with the sword unto our 
 gods.' 
 
 " And there was a Varagian, whose residence stood on the spot now occu- 
 pied by the church of the Holy Mother of God, which Vladimir built. 
 This Varagian had come from Greece from the Imperial city, together with 
 his son, whose name was John. He dwelt in Kieff, and was firmly attached 
 to the Christian faith. His son was still young, and endowed with personal 
 and mental charms. Upon this man fell the lot through envy of the 
 devil. And the people who were sent to him declared as follows, ' Behold, 
 the lot has fallen upon thy son, and it is resolved to offer him up as a sacri- 
 fice to the gods.' And the Varagian answered them, and said, ' Yours are 
 no gods, but lifeless idols ; they remain for a day, and then become rotten ; 
 they are the works of men's hands, formed with the axe and knife. But 
 God is one only, who dwelleth in heaven ; Him the Greeks serve and 
 worship as the Creator of the heaven and the earth, who has made the stars, 
 the sun, and the moon, the Creator of man and of all creatures, whose lives 
 are in His hands. But as for your gods, what have they created ? they who 
 are themselves the work of men, and will soon perish and be forgotten ? I 
 will not give up my son to such an infatuated people.' The persons who 
 were sent to him returned and related this to the assembly ; upon which the 
 people came armed and destroyed every thing that was round the house. 
 He stood on a covered balcony with his son, and the people said to him, 
 ' Give us your son, that we may offer him up to the gods.' But he replied to 
 them, ' If they be really gods, let them send one of their number to seize 
 upon my son, but why should you wish to offer up a sacrifice to them ? ' 
 Upon this the people cried out, and hewed in pieces the beams which sup- 
 ported the balcony, and in this manner destroyed both the Varagians." 
 From MS. of the late Baron Rosenkampf. 
 
 P. 17, 21. " The Pecherskay," i. e. The Monastery of the Caves or Cata- 
 combs. Leontius is called a Photian bishop in the Chronicles. 
 
 "In the year 6498 (i. e. A.D. 990.) four of the Bulgarian chief princes 
 
 Aa2
 
 356 NOTES. 
 
 came to Kieff, and embraced the Christian faith. In the same year Michael 
 the metropolitan of Kieff and All Russia, repaired to Novogorod, with certain 
 bishops selected from the clergy who had continued in Russia from the 
 time of the Patriarch Photius. The patriarch likewise sent six bishops to 
 his assistance. They accompanied Dobrina (Vladimir's uncle) and Anas- 
 tasius to Novogorod, and there destroyed the idols. Many of the people 
 received baptism, churches were erected, and priests were ordained in the 
 towns." The annalist concludes his account by saying that " there was an 
 abundance of fruits and provisions, and peace and quiet every where 
 prevailed. Ambassadors likewise arrived from the Greek emperors for the 
 purpose of strengthening the good understanding which prevailed. The 
 next year the metropolitan repaired into the interior of Russia as far as 
 Rostoff, accompanied by Dobrina and Anastasius, together with four 
 'Photian' bishops. The other ' Photian' bishops remained in KiefF. And an 
 innumerable company of people were baptized." We find that conversion 
 proceeded with rapid strides, and that the clergy who were already in the 
 country, and well acquainted with the language and manners of the people, 
 were most active in forwarding the good work. " There came also Greek 
 architects to Kieff, who erected large stone buildings for the supreme courts 
 of justice. A Petchenegian prince also, Kutchug by name, a disciple of 
 Mahomet, came to Kieff for the purpose of embracing the faith of the 
 Greek Church, and after receiving baptism became a vassal of Vladimir, 
 who was sincerely attached to him, and he was highly esteemed by the 
 metropolitan, as well as by all the princes and boyars. In the same year 
 the Chronicle again makes mention of an embassy from Rome sent by the 
 Pope to Vladimir in order to assure him of his love and regard. 
 
 "In the following year (6499, or A.D. 991,) all the inhabitants of the 
 Souzdal country were baptized. Vladimir himself went there with two Pho- 
 tian bishops, and founded on the banks of the river Kliazma a city to which 
 he gave his own name. He built there a church dedicated to the Holy Mother 
 of God, and caused the people to be instructed by the Photian bishops. 
 Thus did Christianity diffuse her light over Russia, like the rising sun, with 
 progressively increasing splendour, and Vladimir rejoiced thereat, and was 
 liberal towards the poor and afflicted, and distributed his gifts among all 
 the people. 
 
 " An army was despatched against the Petchenegians, and returned with 
 victory. Ambassadors arrived also from Boleslaff the king of the Poles." 
 Russian Chronicle, from Rf. MS. 
 
 P. 17, 22. " On occasion of the solemn consecration of the church in the 
 year 993, Vladimir, with the benediction of his ghostly father the Metropo- 
 litan Leontius, made a grant to the Church of the tenth of all dues and fines, 
 of the production of the earth, as well as of the customs and taxes of his towns, 
 as also the tenth of the cattle, and of eveiy produce, all for the glory of God 
 and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Virgin Mary His Immacu- 
 late Mother, and to the honour of his ghostly father, the metropolitan of 
 Kieff, and of All Russia. 
 
 " This solemn act, well pleasing unto God, was completed in the presence
 
 NOTES. 357 
 
 of all the bishops and chief officers in the Russian dominions; and Vladimir 
 upon this occasion bestowed upon the clergy, in compliance with the pre- 
 cepts of the old Greek Nomocanon, all that jurisdiction, without reserve, 
 which belonged to them in conformity with the said precepts." 
 
 At the same time he proclaimed it as a law that no one of his succes- 
 sors, nor of the boyars, nor any other person, even unto the end of the world 
 should venture to encroach upon the jurisdiction of the clergy ; and he 
 confirmed this ordinance, which was deposited in writing in the church of 
 the Holy Mother of God, by imprecating a curse against any one who 
 should dare to circumscribe these privileges. 
 
 " There were present on this occasion the metropolitan of Kieff and of 
 All Russia, Leontias, and the Photian bishops, and the Russian bishops, 
 together with their presbyters and monks, as also the princes and boyars : 
 and Vladimir said, ' If any one shall transgress this my ordinance, which 
 I have enacted in conformity with the ancient Greek Nomocanon, may 
 the curse light upon him ! ' And upon this, Vladimir celebrated a great 
 festival with the metropolitan, and the bishops, and the boyars, and many 
 of his grandees, and dispensed many charitable gifts among the needy and 
 afflicted." R. Chronicle from MS. of Baron Rf. 
 
 P. 17, 23. The following is an exact and verbal copy of the edict in ques- 
 tion according to the text of the most ancient codex of the 13th century. "In 
 the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; I, Prince 
 Basil, called also Vladimir, son of Sviatoslaff, grandson of Igor and of the 
 holy Princess Olga, have received the saving rite of Baptism from the Tsars 
 of Greece, and from Photius the patriarch of Constantinople, and have 
 brought to KieflF the first Metropolitan Leontius, who thereupon has baptized 
 the whole country of the Russians. Some years after that, I built to the 
 honour of the Holy Mother of God the church called The Church of the 
 Tenths (Dessatinaya) and endowed this church as the Cathedral with the right 
 of receiving tithe from the whole country of the Russians, so far as my 
 dominion extends, with this proviso, that to this house of the Saviour and 
 of His Holy Mother belongs the tenth mite (squirrel skin) of the judicial dues 
 in the districts of the princedom, and from commercial imposts the produce 
 of the tenth week ; moreover, from every house and family, from cattle and 
 from reaped corn the tenth must be paid. And since upon reading the 
 Greek Nomocanon I have discovered that, according to a precept therein 
 contained, there are certain matters of dispute which it does not belong to 
 the prince and his boyars and judges to take cognizance of and to decide 
 upon, therefore have I, after due deliberation with my consort the Princess 
 Anna, and with my children, resolved to concede the administration of 
 justice in certain fixed cases to the Church, that is, to the metropolitan and 
 collective bishops of the Russian territory. Accordingly, neither shall my 
 children, nor grand-children, nor my latest descendants either cite before their 
 tribunals Ecclesiastical Persons, or usurp that judicial power which has 
 been conceded to the Church ; for this exclusively belongs to her according 
 to my grant, and is given by us in all towns, districts, and circles (Pogossen), 
 in all communities adjoining the towns (Sloboden), and in all villages ; and
 
 358 NOTES. 
 
 I have commanded my judges and officers (tiouns) to do no injury to the 
 jurisdiction of the Church, and to meddle with no cases belonging to her 
 office, without consulting with the episcopal representative or deputy. 
 
 " The matters which appertain unto ecclesiastical jurisdiction are as 
 follows : divorce, adultery, contests between married persons on the sub- 
 ject of property, rape, incest, magic, poisoning, witchcraft, incantations; 
 accusations of three kinds of fornication, poisoning, and heresy ; the 
 investigation of the following transgressions and offences, biting, striking 
 of parents, disputes between children, and brothers and sisters-in-law, 
 on the subject of the property of any person deceased, and legacies, 
 sacrilege, robbing of the dead, mutilation of the cross, doing injury to 
 the walls in the church, polluting the church by the introduction of cattle, 
 dogs, and birds, and other unbecoming actions in the church ; the muti- 
 lation of a man by the wife of his adversary, sodomy, worship of heathen 
 gods in retired places, in groves, and by streams, and lastly, child-murder. 
 In all these cases the Church is to pass judgment ; but the prince and his 
 boyars and judges shall not take cognizance of such judicial matters. 
 These ecclesiastical privileges I have accorded to the holy bishops, in com- 
 pliance with the decisions of the primitive Church, and the seven (Ecume- 
 nical councils. And if any person shall infringe this decree, he is incapable 
 of making any compensation, according to the Word of God, and he goes 
 to destruction. I command all my officers, and judges, and lieutenants in 
 no wise to prejudice the jurisdiction of the Church ; and of the judicial fines 
 to pay nine portions to the prince, and the tenth to the Holy Church. 
 Shall any one, however, detract from these privileges of the Church, he shall 
 be fined with the loss of his goods, and in addition, he will have to answer 
 for it before God and the assembled angels on the last day, where no action 
 of man, be it good or evil, escapes judgment, where no intercession is of 
 any avail, and righteousness alone saves man from the second death, from 
 everlasting torment, from the laver of the condemned ; that is, from the 
 unquenchable fire of hell. On that day, so saith the Lord, I will recompense 
 the unrighteous ; in his soul the fire shall not be quenched, and the worm 
 shall not die. The good inheriteth life and unspeakable blessedness, and 
 the wicked is exposed to inexorable judgment. It is also among the ancient 
 regulations, that the bishops should have the supervision of the measures, 
 weights, scales, and balances of the town and of the market. Over these 
 matters must the bishops watch, neither increasing nor diminishing them ; 
 and on the universal day of judgment they shall answer for this, and for 
 the salvation of souls. Now these are the persons who belong to the 
 Church : the stewards (tiouns) of their estates, the priests, (popes,) deacons, 
 and their children, the wife of a priest, and the whole body of clerks ; more- 
 over, the monk, the nun, the woman who bakes the holy bread, the clois- 
 tered pilgrim, the physician, the man who by a holy miracle is restored to 
 health, the slave whom his master releases for the good of his soul, the 
 stranger, the blind, and the lame ; especially the monasteries, the hospitals, 
 and establishments for the care of guests and strangers. All these are the 
 people who, for the sake of God, belong to the Church. Between these 
 parties, the metropolitan or the bishop is to act as judge, and to arrange
 
 NOTES. 359 
 
 the offences, disputes, and contentions which take place among them, as 
 also the succession of property. Notwithstanding, when any judicial mat- 
 ter arises between a person belonging to the Church and another man, the 
 tribunal appointed to judge the cause shall be partly civil and partly 
 ecclesiastical. 
 
 " In case that any one, either of my children or descendants, shall act 
 contrary to this decree, made in conformity with the regulations of the 
 Holy Fathers and of the first Tsars, or shall any lieutenant, or tioun, or 
 judge, or any other person infringe these privileges of the Church, may the 
 curse light upon him both in this and the life to come, according to the 
 judgment of the Holy Fathers and of the seven general councils." Baron 
 R. MS. 
 
 P. 17, 24. The canons of the Church had already been formed into a col- 
 lection before the third general council, and the whole of that earliest collec- 
 tion was referred to and confirmed in the acts of the fourth, held at Chalcedon 
 A.D. 451. Justinian, in the sixth century, (Novell. 131,) gave the force of 
 law to all the ecclesiastical canons made or confirmed by the four general 
 councils ; and John, surnarned the Scholastic, in his reign made a digest, 
 under fifty titles, of all the canons then received by the Greek Church, and 
 prefixed an index of reference to all the canons which are contained under 
 the same fifty titles. This was the first Nomocanon. In the seventh century, 
 the Council of Constantinople in Trullo confirmed this code as augmented 
 since the time of Scholasticus by several additions, and made 102 fresh 
 canons of its own, which the second Nicene Council, about the end of the 
 eighth century, divided between the fifth and sixth general councils, 
 neither of which had made any canons of their own, and so confirmed the 
 whole body of canons made or confirmed " by the six (Ecumenical 
 councils;" and this is the code which, together with the canon of the 
 Nicene Council itself, is invested with the authority of law by the Basilica. 
 Lib. v., tit. iii., cap. ii. 
 
 The Nomocanon was afterwards re-edited by Photius, who appended 
 the canons of two synods held in his own time at Constantinople ; and 
 these were the last additions. In the twelfth century, the Scholia of 
 Zonaras, Austin, and Balsamon were successively appended. See Preface 
 to Beverege't Synodicon. 
 
 P. 17, 25. The Russian bishops were usually selected by the prince of the 
 district to which their diocese belonged, with the consent of the superior 
 clergy and the chief of the citizens, and were then presented for consecra- 
 tion to the metropolitan. Each bishop was absolute in his own diocese, the 
 limits of which were accurately defined. Every bishop possessed the right 
 of appointing all the priests, deacons, and inferior servants of the Church 
 to their respective parishes, and if they were guilty of any fault to suspend 
 them, and after trial to eject them. He had also the right of appointing all 
 the archimandrites, or abbots, and abbesses to the religious houses in his 
 diocese, of raising them to higher rank, or depriving them of it. The 
 metropolitan had no right to interfere in the diocese, and the only power
 
 360 NOTES. 
 
 he had over a bishop was to try him if any accusation were brought against 
 him, and if he were found guilty to degrade him. 
 
 P. 17, 26. It may be useful to observe how broad a distinction seems to 
 have been taught by the Greek clergy and felt by their converts to exist 
 between the use and veneration of Christian Icons, whether pictures or 
 statues, as established by the second Nicene Council, and received, together 
 with the faith of Christ, (see note on P. 11, 9. at p. 353.) by the Russians, 
 and the Pagan idolatry, which had formerly prevailed among them. Some 
 of our own countrymen are very much given to confound the two things 
 together in speaking of "unreformed Churches," while it is commonly 
 reported that conformity on a large scale with Pagan idolatry has been 
 required and yielded in India without any man's so much as having an 
 idea that such enforcement on the part of the rulers, or compliance on the 
 part of their servants, subjects them to any excommunication from the 
 spiritual authority of their Church. 
 
 P. 17, 27. Platon, in the beginning of his History, seems to succeed in 
 proving that the ancient Slavonians had neither temples nor priests ; and he 
 shews, by many examples, that the word Trebischa, usually rendered ' temple,' 
 means merely an altar of sacrifice, generally raised in the open air in the 
 midst of the forest ; and that the Jretsi or Sacrificers were not priests by 
 profession, but the elders of the tribe or nation, whose duty it was to preside 
 and officiate when any solemn sacrifice was made to the gods. 
 
 P. 18, 28. Vladimir I., son of Sviatoslaff, was born in Kieff A.D. 948 ; 
 received the city and district of Great Novogorod as his appanage A.D. 970 ; 
 got possession of the whole Russian monarchy on the death of his brother 
 Yaropolk A.D. 980 ; embraced the Christian religion in 988 ; died July 15, 
 A.D. 1015 ; and was buried in a marble coffin in the church of the Tithes, 
 in Kieff, near his wife, the Greek Princess Anna. 
 
 P. 18, 29. The contrast between the cruelty and vices of this prince when 
 a heathen, and the mildness of his disposition and the purity of his morals 
 after his conversion, are very properly adduced by the annalists as strong 
 proofs of the Divine character of the religion he had embraced. 
 
 P. 19, 30. This sign of sanctity seems to have been taken as the ground 
 of all, or very nearly all, the canonizations of saints in the Russian Church, 
 and accordingly is of perpetual recurrence ; and in justification of this idea 
 they quote those words of the Psalmist which apply originally and strictly 
 only to our Saviour : " Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corrup- 
 tion." The phrase, " his uncorrupted relics were found," in the Greek 
 Church, is nearly equivalent to saying " He was canonized," in the Latin. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 P. 19, 1. Sviatopolk I. is said by Oustreloff, (from whose History I have 
 taken this and other statements respecting the sovereigns of Russia,) to have
 
 NOTES. 361 
 
 been the son of Yaropolk, the elder brother of Vladimir, adopted by 
 Vladimir into his family and therefore called by our author brother of 
 Vladimir's own sons. He took violent possession of the throne in 1015 ; 
 was finally expelled from it in 1019; and died in his flight to Poland 
 A.D. 1020. 
 
 Mistislaff of Tmoutaracan was prince of the modern Tamar, then a 
 powerful kingdom between the sea of Azoff and the Black sea. 
 
 P. 20, 2. Which adjoined the church of St. Sophia and his own 
 palace, in the centre of the city. 
 
 P. 21, 3. The Russian word generally used for Constantinople is 
 " Tsaregrad," which may be translated literally " the city of the Tsar," 
 " the imperial or royal city." 
 
 P. 21, 4. Alexis became patriarch of Constantinople A.D. 1025, and died 
 in 1043. His successor was Michael Cerularius, who sat till 1058, and in 
 whose time the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches was finally 
 completed. For an account of the rules of the Studium monastery, the 
 reader may consult a work published at Leipsig, by J. Emmanuel Miiller, 
 A.D. 1721, entitled " Studium Csnobium Constantinopolitanum ex monu- 
 mentis Byzantinis erutum." 
 
 P. 22, 5. " Domestic," i. e. which was used by the emperor's own singers 
 at Constantinople. 
 
 P. 22, 6. " His" or " Her Angel" is the customary phrase in the Russian 
 language to designate the patron saint after whom any one is named. At the 
 same time the Russians have also the belief that an angel, properly so 
 called, is set over every baptized person in the Church, whom they call, as 
 in the West, the guardian angel, without confounding him with the angel 
 or saint from whom they have their Christian name. 
 
 P. 22, 7. The name means " Come out," in memory of the cries made by 
 the people to the idol which had been thrown into the river, in the same way 
 as is related afterwards to have been done at Novogorod (p. 17). The people 
 cried " Come out, our Lord God." The monastery was built on the spot 
 where the current of the river threw the idol ashore. 
 
 P. 22, 8. " The Pecherskay Lavra" means the Lavra or Monastery of the 
 Caves or Catacombs, afterwards so celebrated in the annals of Russia, which 
 stood outside of the town. It was entirely destroyed by Batius the Tartar 
 in 1240 ; was rebuilt and again destroyed by the Tartars ; and lastly, in 
 1718, it was reduced to ashes by a dreadful fire, in which many valuable 
 ancient manuscripts perished. It was again rebuilt by its archimandrite 
 Joannicius, assisted by Peter the Great, and re-consecrated in 1729. It 
 contains numerous churches and other buildings, and is surrounded by a 
 high wall 550 fathoms in length. It is at present under the immediate
 
 362 NOTES. 
 
 rule of the metropolitan of Kieff, who is its archimandrite, as the metro- 
 politans of Moscow and St. Petersburgh are the archimandrites respectively 
 of the Trinity and Nefskay Lavras. 
 
 P. 23, 9. A district of Kussia to the south of Kieff. 
 
 P. 24, 10. The word in the Russian signifies "Rest" or " falling asleep," 
 and is a literal translation of the word always used in the Greek, na-ra- 
 Koipijo-is. I have generally, however, rendered it by the Latin term 
 " Assumption," because this term would always be employed in writing or 
 speaking any language but their own by the Russians and Greeks them- 
 selves. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 P. 27, 1. The word " over" may be illustrated by other expressions in use 
 to designate the customary salutation of any holy relics in a church. They 
 refer to the action of bending down over ; the relics being generally in a 
 raised tomb, often with a canopy above. 
 
 P. 27, 2. Isyaslaff, who was twice driven by his brothers and the other 
 princes from Kieff, " demanded assistance from Borislaff king of Poland, and 
 even from the German emperor Henry the Fourth, and for that purpose had 
 sought the mediation of Pope Gregory the Seventh, to whom he had sent his 
 son. The conditions upon which the pope promised him the assistance of the 
 Roman Catholic princes are mentioned in the Epistle of Gregory, which is 
 printed in Baronius' Annals, torn. xi. p. 472. " Gregorius servus servorum 
 Dei Demetrio" (this was the name which Isyaslaff received at his baptism) 
 " regi Russorum et regina3 Apostolicam benedictionem. Filius vester limina 
 Apostolorum visitans ad nos venit, et quod regnum illud dono Sancti Petri 
 per manus nostras vellet obtinere, eidem beato Petro Apostolorum Principi 
 debita fidelitate exhibita, devotis precibus postulavit, indubitanter asseverans, 
 illain suam petitionem vestro consensu ratam fore ac stabilem, si Apostolic^ 
 auctoritatis gratia ac munimine donaretur. Cujus votis et petitionibus, 
 quia justa videbantur turn ex consensu vestro, turn ex devotione poscentis, 
 tandem assensum praebuimus, et regni vestri gubernacula sibi ex parte beati 
 Petri tradidimus, ea videlicet intentione atque desiderio caritatis, ut beatus 
 Petrus vos, et regnum vestrum, omniaque vestra bona sua apud Deum inter- 
 cessione custodiat, et cum omni pace, honore quoque et gloria idem regnum 
 usque in finem vitae vestra? tenere vos faciat, et hujus militias finito cursu, 
 impetret vobis apud supernum regem gloriam sempiternam. Quinetiam 
 nos paratissimos esse noverit vestrae nobilitatis serenitas, at ad quaecumque 
 justa negotia hujus Sedis auctoritatem pro sua necessitate petierit, procul 
 dubio continue petitionum suarum consequatur effectum. Praeterea ut haec 
 et alia multa, quae litteris non continentur, cordibus vestris arctius infigantur, 
 misimus hos nuntios nostros, quorum unus vester notus est et fidus amicus ; 
 qui et ea, quae in litteris sunt, diligenter vobis exponent, et quac minus sunt, 
 viva voce explebunt. Quibus pro reverentia beati Petri, cujus legati sunt,
 
 NOTES. 363 
 
 vos mites et affabiles praebeatis : et quicquid vobis dixerint ex parte nostra, 
 patienter audiatis, atque indubitanter credatis : et quae ibi ex auctoritate 
 Apostolicze sedis negotia tractare voluerint, et statuere, nullorum malo 
 ingenio turbari perraittatis, sed potius eos sincera caritate iavendo juvetis. 
 Omnipotens Deus mentes vestras illuminet, atque per temporalia bona facial 
 vos transire ad gloriam sempiternam. Data Romae XV. Kalendas Maii, 
 Indictione decimatertia hoc est anno 1075." Baron R. MS. 
 
 P. 28, 3. Isyaslaff I., or Demetrius, son of Yaroslaff, was born in Kieff, 
 A.D. 1024 ; ascended the throne in 1054 ; was twice expelled from it, again 
 recovered it, and was killed in battle Dec. 3, A.D. 1078. 
 
 Sviatoslaff II., son of Yaroslaff, ejected his brother Isyaslaff from 
 the throne of Great Prince A.D. 1072, and died in 1076 ; on which 
 Isyaslaff recovered the throne, and died possessed of it as mentioned above, 
 in 1078. 
 
 P. 28, 4. Eustratius Garidas was elected Patriarch of Constantinople 
 A.D. 1081, and deposed in 1084. 
 
 P. 28, 5. The Patriarch Photius sent to Bulgaria, to the prince Michael 
 the Nomocanon of Johannes Scholasticus, together with a missive on the 
 office of the civil ruler towards the Church from himself. This was translated 
 into Slavonic, and passed from Bulgaria into the Russian Church, where it 
 received the additions of the Law for Judging the Laity, the Edicts of Vladimir 
 and Yaroslaff, the Russian National Law, &c. It was not till long after- 
 wards that the Nomocanon of Photius himself, with the Scholia of Aristin 
 and Zonaras, superseded it in Russia. 
 
 P. 28, 6. Vsevolod I. (Andrew,) son of Yaroslaff, born in Kieff A.D. 1030, 
 succeeded to the throne A.D. 1078, died in Kieff April 13th, A.D. 1094, 
 and was buried in the church of St. Sophia. 
 
 P. 29, 7. In 1055 the Poloftsi, or Comani, came into the district of 
 Pereyaslavla ; they were a nomadic tribe of kindred origin with the 
 Pechenegians, and probably with the people now called Kirgizi. They had 
 lived before in the Steppes of Asia near the Caspian, and are described as 
 having been a very barbarous and ferocious people. 
 
 P. 29, 8. The novice in the Eastern Church wears only the cassock ; the 
 simple monk wears also the gown, and the KajjLTJXavxiov . The mantle worn 
 over the gown on certain occasions, is the badge of the p.ticpov crxqpi> or 
 lesser habit. The great angelic habit, or simply o^/ia, is associated with 
 the idea of total seclusion, and preparation for death ; and the scapulary and 
 other badges of it are covered with emblems of death and Christian faith. 
 
 P. 30, 9. This prince is said to have married Gouda, daughter of Harold 
 king of England, for his first wife.
 
 364 NOTES. 
 
 I will here give a short extract from a paper presented to the 
 Society of Russian History and Antiquities by Eugenius, metropolitan 
 of Kieff, which is applicable to the name of the prince mentioned 
 in the next page. " The ancient Slavonians had only one name, to 
 which was added their patronymic. The Russo-Slavonians had usually 
 three names : one given by the father at their birth, another at their bap- 
 tism, and the third their patronymic ; as, for instance, Sviatopolk Michael, 
 Isyaslavich. The termination of the patronymic in ' ich' is an honourable 
 distinction, that of the common people always ending in ' eff.' The Chris- 
 tian names of many of the princes are not known, and it is imagined they 
 were purposely kept secret, that the bearers of them might not be subject 
 to sorcery or incantation, which it was supposed could not take effect unless 
 done in the right name." 
 
 Sviatopolk II. (Michael) son of Isyaslaff, bom in Kieff, A.D. 1051, suc- 
 ceeded to the throne of his uncle Vsevolod I., A.D. 1094 ; died April 16, 
 A.D. 1113 ; and was buried in the church of the Archangel Michael. 
 
 P. 31, 10. A kind of collar about the neck and breast and shoulders, 
 used at the coronation of the ancient emperors, set in which were pictures 
 of Christ, the Virgin Mary, &c. 
 
 P. 32, 11. Vladimir II. (Theodore) son of Vsevolod, surnamed Mono- 
 machus, was born in Kieff, A.D. 1053 ; by the general consent of all the 
 appanaged princes he ascended the throne of Great Prince after the death 
 of Sviatopolk, A.D. 1113; died May 19th, 1125; and was buried in the 
 church of St. Sophia in Kieff. , 
 
 P. 32, 12. The Chronicle of Nestor raises their number to 700, whilst 
 Tatisheff, with more probability, reckons them at 30. 
 
 P. 33, 13. An episcopal interdict is said by Platon, in his Ecclesiastical 
 History, to have consisted in forbidding the performance of every kind of 
 service in the churches, and every kind of rite or sacrament in the houses ; 
 therefore the sick would die without making confession, or receiving the 
 eucharist, and would be buried without funeral rites, children would remain 
 unbaptized, and marriages unblessed ; he therefore concludes that this 
 interdict could not have been general, as otherwise the innocent would 
 have suffered with the guilty, and that it was only laid on those who were 
 actually engaged in the revolt. 
 
 P. 33, 14. The word" Vech," here translated Assembly, applies exclusively 
 to the popular assemblies of the two free towns of Novogorod and Pskoff. 
 
 As the free towns of Novogorod the Great and Pskoff were governed in a 
 different manner from the rest of Russia, and the peculiarity of their consti- 
 tution is frequently of importance in order to a right understanding of 
 Russian Ecclesiastical History, I have thought it worth while to extract a 
 few notices respecting them from OustrelofTs History of Russia, 2nd edit., 
 St. Petersburg, 1839.
 
 NOTES. 3G5 
 
 The principality of Novogorod did not belong exclusively to any one 
 branch of the family of Vladimir. The successors of Yaroslaff I., from 
 having been engaged in continued contests in the South, partially lost 
 sight of the North ; and the citizens of Novogorod profited so well by these 
 and other opportunities thus given them, as to establish their right of 
 electing their own princes, and of limiting their authority, and making 
 them swear to observe all their ancient privileges and rights ; and if they 
 found that the prince elected made any attempts to encroach on them or 
 violate them, they immediately turned him out and chose another as his 
 successor. But it is worth remarking, that they never selected one of their 
 own citizens, but always a prince of the ruling family. There were few of 
 these princes who reigned longer than three years : thirty were elected and 
 dismissed in the course of a single century. During these constant changes 
 the constitution of Novogorod was formed, and remained" settled till the 
 time of John III. The supreme power of enacting laws and deciding 
 cases, either relating to their internal welfare or external relations, resided 
 in the Vech or the council of the people, consisting of the citizens of 
 Novogorod. They were assembled by the ringing of a bell, and at these 
 meetings elected their prince, their Posadnik, (or lord mayor) their 
 Vladika, Lord, or Archbishop, decided on questions of peace or war, tried 
 criminals against the state, traitors, and those who held communication with 
 an enemy. They examined the conduct of their prince and Posadnik, 
 appointed punishments corresponding to the crimes they discovered, to the 
 first banishment, to the second not unfrequently death: they also heard 
 the complaints of the poor against the rich. 
 
 The right of deciding in civil affairs belonged exclusively to the prince, 
 who was elected, as before mentioned, by the Vech. It was also his duty 
 to take care that the peace of the state was not disturbed from within, nor 
 violated from without ; and to assist him in the performance of these 
 duties he had his company or band, who in peace formed his court for 
 trying causes, and his army in war. His revenue was derived from fixed 
 fees or dues on trials, and certain other payments. In actual warfare 
 he was the leader of their armies, but was obliged to consult the Posadnik 
 as to the measures he adopted. In a word, the prince was only the judge 
 and defender of the state, and if he failed to fulfil either of these duties, the 
 Vech expelled him from his office. 
 
 The executive power was committed to the Posadnik, who was their first 
 civil dignitary, and the president of their popular assemblies. He, in con- 
 junction with their Chiliarch, commanded the regiments of Novogorod, 
 conducted treaties, went on embassies, assisted the prince in managing 
 his courts of justice, and in the event of his absence performed all his 
 other duties. In a word, he was the instrument of fulfilling all the decisions 
 of the Vech. 
 
 The authority of the ecclesiastical courts belonged to the Vladika or 
 archbishop, who was elected by the Vech, and confirmed by the metro- 
 politan of Kieff. Besides this, the Vladika enjoyed considerable authority 
 in civil matters from his office of peace-maker : he was however bound to 
 give an account of his conduct to the assembly of the people.
 
 366 NOTES. 
 
 When Russia fell under the dominion of the Mongols, Novogorod, as well 
 as Pskoff (which enjoyed the same form of government as Novogorod) were 
 always given as a kind of appanage to the Great Prince appointed by the 
 Khan, and it was this which in time gave him so great a preponderance 
 over the appanaged princes as to enable him to unite them all under his 
 sceptre. And when this title became hereditary in the descendants of 
 John Kalita, both Novogorod and Pskoff acknowledged the Great Prince 
 of Moscow as their protector. They however reserved to themselves the 
 greater part of their popular privileges, and paid him tribute in token of 
 subjection, and if ever the Great Prince on his succession to the throne 
 hesitated to take an oath to observe all their rights, they compelled him to 
 do it by threatening to put themselves under the protection of the Great 
 Prince of Lithuania. John III., on his accession to the throne, adopted 
 the same prudent policy as his predecessors ; but when he became stronger, 
 by having subjected all the appanaged princes to his sceptre, he took 
 advantage of the first opportunity which occurred to reduce both Novo- 
 gorod and Pskoff to subjection. 
 
 The Vech under the presidency of their Posadnitsa, (lady mayoress, or 
 rather absolute mayoress elected by the Vech,) the celebrated Martha 
 Boretska, a woman possessed of great wealth and ambition, attempted to 
 throw off all subjection to John, and to negotiate an alliance with the king 
 of Poland. On this John collected his army and met the insurgents near 
 Novogorod to the number of 12,000, defeated them, took Martha's son 
 prisoner and beheaded him, and did not deprive the city of its privileges, 
 but pardoned the city on the payment of eighty pood (3,200 pounds) of 
 silver of fourteen ounces each or 11,200 sterling, and placed a governor 
 there who was invested with supreme authority, and by his means formed 
 a party amongst the citizens. On the occasion of a second insurrection 
 excited by Martha, John blockaded the city, and compelled it to surrender 
 partly by the effects of famine, and partly by the strength of his own party 
 within the walls. After this he deprived the city of all its privileges, and 
 reduced it and all its dependencies to the same state of subjection as the 
 rest of his dominions, January 15th, 1478. 
 
 P. 33, 15. Mistislaff I., otherwise named Peter, son of Vladimir II., was 
 born in Kieff A.D. 1076, ascended the throne after the death of his father 
 A.D. 1125, and died there 1132, and was buried in the church of St. 
 Theodore. 
 
 P. 33, 16. Yaropolk II., son of Vladimir II., was born in Kieff A.D. 
 
 1082, ascended the throne after the death of his brother A.D. 1 132, and 
 died in Touroff, Feb. 18, A.D. 1139. 
 
 P. 33, 17. Viacheslaff I., son of Vladimir II., was born in Kieff A.D. 
 
 1083, ascended the throne upon the death of his brother A.D. 1 139, and after 
 reigning twelve days, was dethroned by Vsevolod, son of Oleg, prince of 
 Chernigoff, after whose reign, and that of his brother Igor, he partially 
 recovered his rights, and died A.D. 1155.
 
 NOTES. 367 
 
 P. 33, 18. Vsevolod II., son of Oleg,and grandson of Sviatoslaff II., born 
 A.D. 1094, seized on the throne A.D. 1139, and died July 31, A.D. 1146. 
 
 P. 34, 19. " Dolgorouky," i. e. the long-armed. This appellation de- 
 scended to another branch of the family, by whom it is still borne as a 
 regular surname. Such particular designations, which we should now term 
 nicknames, were at that period very common, and became the origin of many 
 of the family names now to be met with in Eussia. The terminations in 'off' 
 and 'eff' denote descent or derivation. Only those families which are 
 descended from some of the ancient princes have retained the names of 
 their former possessions. 
 
 P. 35, 20. Hilarion (A.D. 1051) was elected by the Russian synod with- 
 out any reference to the patriarch ; and Karamzin praises the wisdom 
 shewed by Yaroslaff on that occasion, when there had been recently a war 
 with the Greek empire, and Yaroslaff suspected that the emperors might 
 use the ecclesiastical dependence of the Russian Church for political pur- 
 poses, if the patriarchs were allowed to acquire a permanent right to confirm 
 or nominate the metropolitans of Kieff. He at the same time regards the 
 proceeding of the Russian synod as perfectly justifiable, and more canonical 
 than the custom of honouring the patriarch with the power of either nomi- 
 nating or confirming. The author of a Dissertation " de Origine Christiana; 
 Religionis in Russia," published at Rome in the year 1826, observes, that 
 the mutual anathemas of the Pope and the Patriarch Cerularius cannot 
 be reasonably said to have affected the intercommunion of the Russian 
 Church with the Latin, seeing that the Russian Church had just before 
 asserted its perfect independence of Constantinople on occasion of the 
 election of Hilarion. 
 
 P. 35, 21. The Metropolitan Platon, in his Church History, takes the 
 same view of the subject with Karamzin and Oustreloff, and entirely differs 
 from the opinion here expressed by our author. He states his own view of the 
 subject, where he treats of the permanent establishment of the independent 
 election and confirmation of the metropolitan of Moscow, which took place 
 at a later period. 
 
 P. 35, 22. Other accounts say this was actually done. The Greek Acts of 
 the martyrdom of St. Clement in the Chersonese existed in the time of 
 St. Gregory of Tours, but have been shewn to be apocryphal by Tillemont, 
 Orsi, and others. Louis Le Debonnaire having in 872 founded the abbey 
 of Cava, near Salerno, enriched it with the relics of St. Clement, which had 
 been sent to him by Pope Adrian, and they are said to remain there to this 
 day, some portions of them having been also retained in the church at 
 Rome, which bears his name, and which is of the very highest antiquity. 
 Bibl. Eccl. Vies des Saints, 8vo., p. 569. and see above p. 14. 
 
 P. 36, 24. Igor II., or David, son of Oleg, brother of Vsevolod II., was 
 bora in Kieff A.D. 1095, ascended the throne, according to the will of 
 his brother, A.D. 1146, was expelled, after reigning only a fortnight, by
 
 368 NOTES. 
 
 Isyaslaff, son of Mistislaff, and was compelled to receive the monastic 
 tonsure in Kieff, where he was afterwards murdered during a riot A.D. 
 1148. 
 
 P. 36,25. Isyaslaff II., son of Mistislaff I., grandson of Monomachus, was 
 born in Kieff A.D. 1096, ascended the throne A.D. 1146, was expelled from 
 it the same year by his uncle Youry Dolgorouky, again ascended it in 1150, 
 was again expelled from it A.D. 1152, reascended it, in conjunction with 
 his uncle Viacheslaff A.D. 1155, and died the same year. 
 
 P. 36, 26. Youry I. (George) son of Vladimir II., surnamed Dolgorouky, 
 was born A.D. 1091. He mounted the throne of Kieff by force of arms 
 the first time A.D. 1149, he was expelled from it by his nephew, Isyaslaff 
 II., A.D. 1152, reascended it, and was again expelled in 1153, and finally 
 returned A.D. 1155, after his nephew's death, and remained seated till his 
 death, which took place A.D. 1157. 
 
 P. 36, 27. Isyaslaff III., son of Igor II. (David), was born in Chernigoff 
 A.D. 1110, ascended the throne A.D. 1157, was expelled A.D. 1158 by 
 Rostislaff, ascended it again A.D. 1160, and was soon after killed in battle. 
 
 P. 37, 28. Son of Isyaslaff II. 
 
 P. 38, 29. The word Stauropegia is Greek, like most other ecclesiastical 
 terms in the Russian language, and means a church or monastery where 
 a cross has been fixed by the patriarch, or by his authority. The first act 
 preparatory to the building of any church or chapel is the fixing of a cross 
 in the ground on the spot intended to be occupied by the Holy Table ; and 
 this should properly be done by the bishop. The fixing of a cross in the 
 name of the patriarch signified that he gave the church and monastery 
 where this was done the privilege of being exempt from the diocesan autho- 
 rity, and depending immediately upon himself. So at the present day the 
 Lavras of the Pechersky, and the Trinity, &c., are Stauropegias depending 
 immediately upon the synod, which stands in the place of the former 
 patriarchs. 
 
 P. 39, 30. This letter appears in some MSS. of the Russian Kormchay or 
 Nomocanon. It is also to be found in Greek and Slavonic, under No. XIV. 
 in the Patriarchal Archives at Moscow ; and Professor Matthaei has inserted 
 it in his catalogue (No. 353). Herberstein, in his Commentaria (Francofurti, 
 A.D. 1600, pp. 22 24,) has given an extract translated from this epistle into 
 Latin with tolerable correctness. In the Russian this epistle is said to have 
 been addressed to " Clement archbishop of Rome," but Alexander III. was 
 the occupant of the Roman see at the period at which the letter was written. 
 The pope had called vipon the metropolitan to unite in communion with 
 him, which the latter declines, and refers him to the patriarch of Constanti- 
 nople, to whom he requests him to make a direct application. 
 
 " Dilexi decorem domine ac pater beatissime Apostolica sede ac vocatione
 
 NOTES. 369 
 
 dignissime, quia ex remotis ad humilitatem et paupertatem nostram et alls 
 dilectionis foves nos, et salutas nos sicuti tuos ex charitate, et interrogas 
 specialiter de nostra fide vera et orthodoxa, de qua etiam audiens, ut nobis 
 beatitudinis tuse Episcopus retulit, admiratus es. Et quia tantus es, et 
 talis Sacerdos, propterea ego pauper saluto te, honorando caput tuum et 
 deosculando manus tuas et brachia. Sis laetus, et a suprema Dei manu 
 protectus, et det Dominus omnipotens tibi, tuis spiritualibus, et nobis, 
 ordinem bonum. Nescio unde exortaa sunt haereses de vera salutis et 
 redemptionis via, et mirari satis non possum quis Diabolorum tarn mains 
 et invidus, tarn veritati inimicus ac mutuaa benevolentiae adversarius fuerit, 
 qui paternam vestram charitatem a tota Christiana, congregatione alienavit, 
 dicens nos non esse Christianos. Nos profecto Christianos vos ex Dei 
 benedictione ab initio cognovimus, licet in omnibus fidem Christianam 
 non servetis, et in multis diversi sitis, id quod ex septem magnis Synodis 
 ostendam, in quibus fides orthodoxa et Christiana instituta est ac prorsus 
 confirmata, in quibus etiam tanquam septem columnis Sapientia Dei 
 Domum sibi edificavit. In his praeterea septem Synodis, omnes Papas et 
 digni sunt habiti Cathedra S. Petri, quia nobiscum sentiebant. In prima 
 autem Synodo erat Sylvester Papa, in secunda Damasus, in tertia Caeles- 
 tinus, in quarta beatissimus Papa Leo, in quinta Vigilius, in sexta Aga- 
 thon, vir honorandus et in sacris Scripturis doctus, in septima S. Papa 
 Adrianus, qui misit primus Petrum Episcopum et Abbatein monasterii 
 Sanctse Sabae ; unde postea exortse sunt dissensiones inter nos et vos, qua3 
 pullularunt praacipue in antiqua Roma. Sunt profecto mala multa, quae a 
 vobis contra leges divinas ac statuta committuntur : de quibus pauca ad 
 charitatem tuam scribemus. Primum de jejunio Sabbati contra legem 
 observato ; secundo de Jejunio Magno, in quo septimanam abscinditis, et 
 carnes comeditis, ac propter carnium voracitatem homines ad vos allicitis. 
 Item qui a presbyteris in baptismate inuncti sunt, illos vos jam denuo 
 inungitis, dicentes ilia simplicibus sacerdotibus facere non licere, sed 
 solis Episcopis. Item de azymis malis, quas manifesto Judaicum servi- 
 tium seu cultum indicant. Et quod est caput omnium malorum, ut qua? 
 confirmata sunt per SS. Synodos, ea vos coepistis permutare et pervertere, 
 dicentes de Spiritu Sancto quod non tantum a Patre sed et a Filio procedat ; 
 et multa alia majora, de quibus tua beatitude ad Patriarcham Constantino- 
 politanum, fratrem suum spiritualem referre, et omnem diligentiam adhi- 
 bere deberet, ut aliquando tollerentur isti errores, et ut unanimes essemus 
 in concordia spirituali : sicut dicit Sanctus Paulus, informans nos ; Oro vos, 
 fratres, propter nomen Domini Jesu Christi, ut idem sentiatis et dicatis, 
 et non sit inter vos discordia, et sitis in eodem intellectu fortificati, et in 
 eadem cogitatione. De istis sex excessibus, quantum potuimus, ad vos 
 scripsimus ; deinceps et de aliis scribemus charitati tuas. Si enim ita res se 
 habet sicuti audivimus, agnosces ipse nobiscum, transgredi vos Canones 
 sanctorum Apostolorum et instituta magnarum septem Synodorum, in 
 quibus erant omnes vestri primi Patriarchae, et concorditer dicebant, quod 
 verbum vestrum esset vanum. Et quod manifesto erretis, nunc palam 
 redarguam." 
 
 itb
 
 370 NOTES. 
 
 And then, after having gone into the other five points, quoting 
 
 On the 1st, the 64th of the Apostolical Canons, as of Pope Clement ; 
 
 On the 2nd, referring to the Canons of " the 6th Great Synod ;" 
 
 On the 3rd, to two different Canons of the Synod of Gangra ; 
 
 On the 4th, to the " One Baptism" of the Creed ; 
 
 He terms the 5th " errorem praecipuum et radicem totius haeresis," and 
 
 so proceeds with the 6th and last, as follows: 
 
 " Sextus denique error est, de Spiritu Sancto. Quomodo enim dicitis, 
 'Credo in Deum Patrem, et Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum, Qui a Patre et 
 Filio procedit ?' Mirabile est profecto et horrendum dictu, quod audetis 
 fidem pervertere ; cum ab initio per universum orbem, in omnibus Chris- 
 tianorum Ecclesiis constanter canatur, ' Credo in Spiritum Sanctum 
 Dominum vivificantem et a Patre procedentem, Qui cum Patre et Filio 
 siinul adoratur et glorificatur ; ' qua? igitur vos non dicitis, sicuti alii 
 Christiani omnes ; sed additiones ponitis, et novam adducitis doctrinam ; 
 cum tamen Apostolus dicat, Si quis annunciaverit vobis, praeter ea, quaj 
 vobis diximus, Anathema sit. Utinam vos non incurratis istam maledic- 
 tionem ! Difficile est enim et horrendum, Dei scripturam, compositam per 
 Sanctos, permutare et pervertere. Nescitis quam maximus sit error. Nam 
 duas virtutes, duas voluntates, et duo principia de Sancto Spiritu adducitis, 
 adimentes et parvi facientes ejus honorem, et haeresi Macedonians conformed 
 estis ; quod absit. Oro, et me incline ad sanctos pedes tuos, ut ab hujusmodi 
 erroribus, qui inter vos sunt, cesses, et maxime ab azymis abstineas. 
 Volui etiam aliquid scribere de suffocatis et immundis animalibus et de 
 monachis edentibus carnes : sed de his postea (si Deus voluerit) scribam. 
 Parce autem propter maximam charitatem, quod de his rebus ad te scripsi. 
 An autem sunt facienda ilia, qua? fiunt, interroga scripturas, et invenies. 
 Rogo te, Domine, ut scribas ad Dominum nostrum Patriarcham Constanti- 
 nopolitanum, et ad Sanctos Metropolitas, qui verbum vitas in se habent, et 
 sicut luminaria in mundo lucent. Fieri enim potest ut Deus per illos 
 super hujusmodi erroribus inquirat, emendet, et constituat. Deinde, si tibi 
 videbitur, mihi minimo inter alios omnes rescribas. Saluto te ego Metro- 
 polita Bussiae, et alios omnes tibi subjectos clericos et laicos. Salutant 
 etiam te mecum sancti Episcopi, Monachi, et Reges, et magni homines. 
 Charitas Spiritus Sancti sit tecum, et cum omnibus tuis. Amen !" 
 
 P. 39, 31. This change of names, which was usual not only on first 
 becoming a monk, but also on taking the schema, if not borne in mind, 
 may often give rise to perplexity and misunderstanding in reading Russian 
 history. 
 
 P. 39, 32. This was a merely titular promotion, as the new archbishop 
 had no bishops under him : in fact, under whatever name, Russia seems 
 never to have had more than one archiepiscopal province ; but the first 
 bishop depending immediately upon a patriarch, it seemed to be fit, and 
 agreeable to analogy, that he should be metropolitan, at least in name ; and 
 this being so before the erection of the other sees, and there being no express 
 provision from the beginning for the erection of archbishoprics, his nominal
 
 NOTES. 371 
 
 title of metropolitan suggested afterwards the idea of conferring the nominal 
 dignity of archbishop on the chief of his suffragans; as afterwards we find the 
 nominal dignity of metropolitan also given to others, when the original 
 metropolitan was raised to the patriarchal dignity. 
 
 Some MSS. of the Russian Kormchay contain a canonical writing, 
 apparently by this Archbishop John of Novogorod, consisting of answers 
 to a number of questions on which he had been consulted by a certain priest 
 or monk named James. The Rubric or table of contents is inserted in the 
 work of Herberstein above referred to with tolerable accuracy : among the 
 more remarkable heads are the following. " Pueri in necessitate absque 
 sacerdote baptizentur." " Rhuteni cum Romanis in necessitate comedant, 
 celebrent autem minime." " Rhuteni omnes Romanes non recte baptizatos, 
 qui in aquam toti non sunt immersi, ad veram fidem convertant ; quibus con- 
 versis non statim Eucharistia, sicuti nee Tartaris aliisve a fide sua diver- 
 sis, porrigatur." " Principis filia ei, qui Communione in azymis et cibis utitur 
 immundis, non in matrimonium locetur." "Non confessi, et aliena bona non 
 reddentes ad communionem non admittantur." " Sciens cum Romanis co- 
 medens orationibus mundis mundetur." " Mercatores et peregrini ad Roma- 
 norum partes proficiscentes communione priventur ; sed ad eandem injunctis 
 quibusdam pro pcenitentia orationibus reconciliati admittantur." The docu- 
 ment from which the above headings are given cannot be later, in the late 
 Baron Rosenkampf s judgment, than the 12th century ; and he would rather 
 attribute it to John of Novogorod, who is referred to by the Chronicle of 
 Nikon under the year 1008, and who died A.D. 1035. He says it cannot 
 be later than the 12th century, and indeed it is followed in the same MS. 
 Kormchay by a set of similar answers from St. Niphont, who died A.D. 
 1156 ; but if the title of Archbishop be rightly given in it to John (though 
 he is called also Metropolitan, which must be an error, and an error by the 
 way which only makes our supposition the more probable) it cannot be 
 earlier than the time of that John who is the subject of the present note. 
 
 P. 39, 33. Rostislaff I., son of Mistislaff, bom A.D. 1119, ascended the 
 throne for the first time together with his uncle Viacheslaff, A.D. 1155, but 
 was soon expelled by Isyaslaff. He ascended it again A.D. 1158, and was 
 again expelled by the same prince, and after his death regained it for the 
 third time, A.D. 1161, and kept it till his own death in 1168. 
 
 P. 39, 34. Mistislaff II., son of Isyaslaff III., ascended the throne A.D. 
 1168, was expelled A.D. 1170, by Andrew son of Youry, and died in 1171. 
 
 Gleb, son of Youry, ascended the throne A.D. 1170, and died in Kieff 
 A.D. 1172. 
 
 Vladimir III., son of Mistislaff, ascended the throne A.D. 1172, and died 
 A.D. 1173. 
 
 Romanus I., son of Rostislaff, ascended the throne A.D. 1173, quitted it 
 in disgust in 1174, reascended it A.D. 1176, was compelled to quit it A.D. 
 1177, and died at Smolensk A.D. 1180. 
 
 Sviatoslaff, son of Vsevolod, ascended the throne of Kieff A.D. 1 177, and 
 died A.D. 1194. 
 
 sb 2
 
 372 NOTES. 
 
 Ruric II., son of Rostislaff, ascended the throne of Kieffin 1177, and 
 was expelled the same year; reascended it in 1178, and was again expelled 
 in 1201 ; he twice again experienced a repetition of the same change of 
 fortune, when at length in 1203 he was compelled to take the monastic 
 vows; after the death of his conqueror Romanus, he threw off the habit of 
 a monk, and resumed the throne in 1206 ; was again expelled, returned in 
 1208, retired, and again returned, and was finally expelled A.D. 1211, and 
 died A.D. 1215. 
 
 Vsevolod III., son of Sviatoslaff, ascended the throne of Kieff for the 
 first time A.D. 1206, for the second time A.D. 1208, for the third time 
 A.D. 1211, and was finally expelled A.D. 1214. 
 
 P. 42, 35. Meinhardt, a priest of the Augustinian order, had come from 
 the bishop of Bremen in 1186 to be the first preacher of Christianity in 
 Livonia, and was followed by Albert Buxhevden and his Sword-bearers just 
 at the end of the 12th century. Albert received the title of Bishop of Livonia 
 from the pope, built Riga, and permanently established the Germans on the 
 Dwina. He established with the sanction of the pope, in 1201, his order by the 
 title of the Brethren of the Cross of the Lord. The pope gave this order the 
 Rule of the Templars, a white mantle, and red cross, with the lordship of all 
 the lands they should conquer, so as to depend however themselves upon the 
 bishops of Livonia. ' In about thirty years they had succeeded in reducing 
 the greater part of Livonia, but finding themselves too weak to undertake 
 much more, they in 1237 with the pope's consent united themselves to 
 the Teutonic order established in Prussia, retaining however their former 
 constitution, officers, and bishops (who were nominated by the grand 
 master of the Teutonic order) and only gaining a great accession of strength 
 from so powerful an alliance or union. At the end of the 13th century dis- 
 sensions broke out between the bishops and the knights about the sovereignty 
 of the conquered territories. The order was ultimately reduced by John 
 IV. Oustreloff, vol. ii. 
 
 P. 42, 36. Mistislaff III., son of Romanus, ascended the throne of Kieff 
 A.D. 1214, and died soon after the bloody battle on the Kalka, which took 
 place May 1, A.D. 1224. 
 
 P. 43, 37. Vladimir IV., son of Ruric II., ascended the throne of Kieff 
 A.D. 1224, and was betrayed and delivered up to the Poloftsi in 1235. From 
 this period till the sacking of Kieff by the Mongols, there appear to have 
 been many pretenders to the throne of the Great Princedom rapidly suc- 
 ceeding each other, whose names it is useless to mention. 
 
 P. 43, 38. George, i. e. of Vladimir, at that time the Great Prince. 
 
 P. 43, 39. Platon remarks on the complete success of the Tartar inva- 
 sion, that such an event was to be expected, as since the death of Vladimir 
 (that is, for more than two hundred years previously to the event) civil dissen- 
 sions and wars had raged with scarcely any interruption throughout the whole 
 of the country ; and the cause of this was that there was no central govern-
 
 NOTES. 373 
 
 ment sufficiently strong to restrain the several petty princes from contending 
 with each other. For although the Great Prince of Kieff, and afterwards 
 of Vladimir, was nominally the head of the other Russian princes, his 
 authority was not sufficiently established to make the others submit them- 
 selves to him : on the contrary they paid the greatest respect to him who 
 happened to be the most powerful ; and each in his turn strove to attain to 
 this eminence. It may probably have been from a traditional recollection 
 of the miseries their country suffered under the appanaged princes, that the 
 Russians became afterwards so attached to an absolute monarchy. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 P. 45, 1. Yaroslaff II. son of Vsevolod, was born A.D. 1191, received 
 the title of Great Prince from Batius, A.D. 1238, died September 30, A.D. 
 1246, and was buried in "Vladimir. 
 
 Isyaslaff, (Michael) son of Yaroslaff II., was born in Vladimir A.D. 1229, 
 ascended the throne A.D. 1248, and was killed in an engagement with the 
 Lithuanians the same year. 
 
 Andrew II., son of YaroslafTIL, was born A.D. 1223, ascended the throne 
 A.D. 1249, was expelled by order of the Khan, A.D. 1252, and died A.D. 
 1278. 
 
 P. 47, 2. The ancient bishopric of Sarai, situated on the Volga, where 
 Saratoff now stands, was afterwards transferred to the steep hills near 
 Moscow called Kroutits ; and from that time the bishop was generally the 
 assistant or vicar of the metropolitan or patriarch ; but he had also a diocese 
 of his own, which is now comprehended in that of Kalouga and Borofsk (re- 
 erected, in 1799.) Platon. 
 
 P. 47, 3. On the death of Genghis Khan, the Tartars in four separate divi- 
 sions invaded Corea, China, India, and Eastern Europe. Batius at the head 
 of 500,000 men reduced Russia, and established the head quarters of the 
 Golden Horde at Sarai, 60 versts from the mouth of the Volga ; the Great 
 Khan himself, the supreme head of all the Tartars, residing at Karkoroum, 
 in the depth of Asia, between the Orchon and the Temir. Usbek Khan, who 
 began to rule the Golden Horde in 1313, and ruled thirty years, caused it to 
 embrace Mahometanism : but this change did not bring with it any great 
 fanaticism to propagate their new religion. 
 
 P. 47, 4. Alexander I. surnamed Nefsky, from his victory over the 
 Swedes in 1241 on the banks of the Neva, was born in Novogorod May 
 30, A.D. 1221, ascended his brother's throne A.D. 1252, and died November 
 10, 1263. The Church reckons him as one of her saints, and a festival 
 has been instituted in his honour, as well as an order of knighthood ; and 
 he has a magnificent tomb in the new capital of St. Petersburgh. 
 
 Yaroslaff III., son of Yaroslaff II., was born in 1230, succeeded to his 
 brother's throne A.D. 1263, and died A.D. 1271. 
 
 Basil I., youngest son of Yaroslaff II., was appointed by the Khan to be
 
 374 NOTES. 
 
 his brother's successor. He ascended the throne A.D. 1271, and died A.D. 
 1276. 
 
 The Metropolitan Cyrill II. finding himself without any perfect copy of 
 the Nomocanon in the Slavonic tongue after the rain of Vladimir by the 
 Tartars, applied to Sviatoslaff a prince or " despot" of Russian descent in 
 Bulgaria, and received from him a copy of " The Book Zonar" made from 
 the Slavonic Kormchay of the Bulgarian primate, who at that time bore the 
 title of Patriarch. This copy contained a preface with the reasons which 
 had induced the four patriarchs to excommunicate the Roman pope, and 
 also with those which had induced the Bulgarian Church, shortly after the 
 capture of Constantinople by the Latins, to declare its own separate inde- 
 pendence, and to elect its own metropolitan with the title of Patriarch, who 
 should be totally independent of the patriarch of Constantinople, though in 
 other respects they remained as before united with him and with the other 
 three patriarchs. This is the first notice we have of the introduction of any 
 translation of the Photian Nomocanon into Russia; and from this copy sent 
 to Cyrill many others were made, and received additions consisting of various 
 Russian canonical writings. The oldest MS. of this Zonarian Kormchay 
 known to be extant, was written at Novogorod between 1276 and 1294. 
 It seems probable that one or more copies of a translation of the Photian 
 Nomocanon with the Scholia of Aristin came also into Russia about the 
 same time, either from Bulgaria or from Mount Athos, as there is a family 
 of such MS. Kormcbays, some of which are as old as the end of the 13th 
 century : and these though less in use than the Zonarian, and rarely con- 
 taining many additions of Russian documents, yet were chiefly followed in 
 printing the Kormchay in the time of Nikon. And from them probably 
 may have been derived several peculiarities which are observable in various 
 MSS. of the Zonarian family, such as that of not giving all the canons at 
 length, or of substituting the Scholia of Aristin for those of Zonar, as is the 
 case in the oldest extant MS. of the Cyrillic or Zonarian family. 
 
 When Cyrill held his council in the year 1274, the Russian sees had been 
 reduced from 18 to 5 by the destructive invasion of the Tartars. From 
 MS. of Baron Rosenkampf. 
 
 P. 49, 5. John Bekkus, who had joined himself to the communion of 
 tlie pope, and who assisted at the Council of Lyons in 1274, was made 
 patriarch in the room of Joseph the 26th of May A.D. 1275, and sat till the 
 26th of December A.D. 1282, when he was obliged to abdicate, under 
 Andronicus. 
 
 P. 49, 6. Joseph, who, first became patriarch in 1267, was forced from 
 his chair in January A.D. 1274, because he was opposed to the union to 
 be treated of in the Council of Lyons. But the Emperor Michael dying 
 the llth of December A.D. 1282, his son Andronicus restored Joseph. 
 
 P. 49, 7. " Legotnaya Grammata," are a document by which a sove- 
 reign grants his subjects an immunity from certain taxes for a specified 
 time.
 
 NOTES. 375 
 
 P. 50, 8. Demetrius I., son of Alexander Nefsky, was born at Vladimir 
 A.D. 1250, ascended the throne A.D. 1276, was expelled from it by his 
 brother Andrew, reascended it A.D. 1291, was again expelled A.D. 1294, 
 and died in the same year at Volokolampsk. 
 
 Andrew III., son of Alexander Nefsky, ascended the throne of Vladimir 
 A.D. 1294, and died after having assumed the habit of a monk A.D. 
 1304. 
 
 P. 51, 9. Michael III., son of Yaroslaff III., born A.D. 1272, was raised 
 to the throne of Great Prince by letters patent of the Khan A.D. 1305, and 
 was killed in the Horde A.D. 1319. 
 
 P. 51, 10. Demetrius II., son of Michael III., was raised to the throne 
 of Vladimir by the Khan A.D. 1322, and was slain by his order for the murder 
 ofYoury III. A.D. 1326. 
 
 P. 51, 11. Youry III., otherwise George, son of Daniel, was born in 
 Moscow A.D. 1281, was raised to the throne by the Khan A.D. 1320, 
 dethroned in 1322, and murdered by Demetrius A.D. 1326. 
 
 P. 51, 12. Alexander II., son of Michael III., was raised to the 
 throne by the Khan A.D. 1326, and deposed by the same Khan A.D. 
 1327, for having slain Shefkal and his followers, who were attempting to 
 introduce Mahometanism into Tver: he was pardoned this crime A.D. 1336, 
 admitted to the Horde, but suffered death there A.D. 1338, through a false 
 accusation. . 
 
 P. 51, 13. So called because he was always accompanied by a servant 
 who carried his purse, or " Kalita," for the relief of the poor who applied 
 to him. 
 
 P. 53, 14. The word is in the original " Sobornuyou," signifying collective 
 or collegiate, and is here translated by our word Catholic, because it is the 
 word by which the first apostles of the Slavonian nations rendered the word 
 Ka6o\ucT)v of the Greek Creed. It is still the word in the Creed, and the 
 ordinary word in use, whenever we should use the term Catholic. The 
 Greek word, pronounced and written Capholic, is also frequently used in the 
 same sense as the Sobornuyou of the Creed, to designate the Eastern and 
 Russian Communion; while if spelt or pronounced after the German manner, 
 Caolic, it applies to the Western or Latin Church. 
 
 P. 53, 15. In 1255 the Tartars made a general census of all the lands 
 and population of Russia, for the purpose of imposing a capitation tax. This 
 was doubled to those of the peasantry who persevered in the faith of their 
 ancestors, and they were enrolled under the name of " Christians ;" which 
 name, it may be remarked, is the most common term by which the Russian 
 peasant is even now designated. The clergy were exempted from this 
 taxation.
 
 376 NOTES. 
 
 P. 55, 16. The word " Sobor" means a collection, assembly, college, 
 or council ; " Sobornaya Tserkov," if used of the Church at large, is the 
 Collective or Catholic Church. When used of a particular building, 
 Sobornaya Tserkov (or simply the substantive Sobor), designates a church 
 where there is a settled company or college of priests, as there is in towns 
 at many churches which do not at all answer to our title of cathedrals : the 
 chief Sobors alone, which are especially connected with the pontifical office, 
 can properly be called cathedrals. There is a word formed from the same 
 root, " Soborovanie,"used to denote the Unction of the Sick with Prayer, that 
 is, " the anointing by a collection or assembly of priests." For this rite, if 
 performed at full, should properly be administered by a meeting of seven 
 priests, though in case of necessity a smaller number or even one will suffice. 
 For this they quote the words of the Apostle, " Let him send for the priests," 
 not " for a priest." The writer of the Travels of Macarius, patriarch of 
 Antioch, observes that in Russia at all the chief Sobors, (i. e. cathedrals pro- 
 perly so called) " there are always exactly seven priests and seven deacons, 
 neither more nor less." 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 P. 57, 1. John I., surnamed Kalita, son of Daniel, was born in Moscow 
 A.D. 1300, was raised to the throne of Great Prince of Moscow and, All 
 Russia, by letters of the Khan dated March the 26th, A.D. 1327, died 
 March 31, A.D. 1340, after having put on the monastic habit, and was 
 buried in Moscow, in the cathedral of the Archangel. 
 
 P. 58, 2. Pskoff had formerly been subject to the bishop of Novogorod ; 
 and the metropolitan supported the dignity of his character, when he on this 
 occasion refused to consecrate a separate bishop for Pskoff, that it might 
 be thus rendered independent of Novogorod, to suit the interests of the 
 heathen prince Hedimine, or the will of its own citizens, who had no power 
 to elect as to a new see, unless a new see had first been canonically erected. 
 
 P. 58, 3. A white klobouk, or cowl, is now the distinguishing mark of 
 all prelates who bear the title of Metropolitan in Eussia, as those of St. 
 Petersburgh, Moscow, Kieff, and Kazan. 
 
 P. 58, 4. The "white" are the secular, the "black" the regular or monastic 
 clergy. The bishops are always taken from the black ; but any priest who 
 belonged originally to the white clergy may, if his wife be dead or have 
 retired into a convent, become a monk (that is, a member of the black or 
 regular clergy), and so afterwards rise to be a bishop. The monks do, in 
 fact, always wear their gowns and cassocks and mantles black, but the white 
 clergy do not wear white gowns and cassocks, but any other colour which 
 suits their taste or convenience, except black. 
 
 P. 59, 5. Simeon, surnamed the Proud, son of John Kalita, was born 
 in Moscow, was raised by the Khan to the throne of Moscow and All
 
 NOTES. 377 
 
 Russia A.D. 1341, and died of the plague April 26, A.D. 1352, having 
 first assumed the monastic habit. 
 
 P. 60, 6. Platon speaks of this appointment as being altogether irre- 
 gular ; firstly, because Theodoret was not duly elected ; secondly, because 
 Theognostes was still alive ; thirdly, because this soi-disant patriarch was 
 never acknowledged as such by either of 'the Churches of Greece or Russia. 
 His proper title seems to have been Archbishop or Metropolitan of Tirnoff. 
 
 P. 60, 7. Platon says that she had become blind from some complaint 
 in the eyes. 
 
 P. 60, 8. The word in the original is "Wonder-worker" or "Thau- 
 maturge." 
 
 P. 61, 9. The word in the original is " Hossoudarstvo," and signifies 
 lordship, or sovereignty, and is still the word most commonly used. The 
 Great Princes were equally Hossoudars with the later Tsars, and the present 
 Emperors. The word Tsar is the proper Slavonic and Russian word for king, 
 but is opposed to the Polish korol, also king, much as the Russian 
 Cap/tolic is opposed to the German Ca^olic. Tsar is used for the Roman 
 and Greek Emperors indifferently with their own word Imperator. 
 
 P. 61, 10. Demetrius III., son of Constantine, was born A.D. 1332, 
 raised to the throne of Great Prince of Moscow and All Russia by letters 
 of the Khan A.D. 1359, and dethroned by him A.D. 1362. He died, after 
 having assumed the monastic habit, A.D. 1384. 
 
 P. 61, 11. John II., surnamed the Handsome, third son of John Kalita, 
 was born in Moscow A.D. 1325, was raised to the throne of Great Prince 
 of Moscow and All Russia by the letters of the Khan A.D. 1353, and died, 
 after having assumed the monastic habit, A.D. 1358. 
 
 By the help of the Metropolitan Alexis, the Great Prince of Moscow 
 began to reduce the other appanaged princes under his authority. Platon 
 ascribes the conduct of Alexis to an enlightened policy, which, clearly per- 
 ceiving that all the miseries of his country proceeded from the exercise of 
 independent authority by so many princes, wished to terminate them by 
 enlarging the powers of the Great Prince, and subjecting the others to him. 
 
 P. 62, 12. This monastery continues to the present day to be the richest 
 and most celebrated of all the religious houses in Russia. It is said to have 
 possessed at one time 106,000 male peasants or serfs, with the land to which 
 they were attached. It withstood the attacks of a Polish army of 30,000 
 men for 16 months. It is surrounded by a wall 1500 yards in length, and 
 flanked by eight towers. Amongst other curiosities it has a belfry 290 feet 
 high, in which there is a bell weighing 144,000 pounds. All the moveable 
 treasures of Moscow were placed here for security during the invasion of 
 the French in 1812. *The monastery is governed by an archimandrite, who
 
 378 NOTES. 
 
 is at present the celebrated Philaret, the learned metropolitan of Moscow, 
 from which it is distant about 60 versts. 
 
 P. 62, 13. The battle was fought on the 8th of September A.D. 1380, 
 and tradition reports that 200,000 bodies were left upon the field. Mamai 
 himself was shortly after murdered at Kaffa, whither he had fled: but 
 Kussia being left exhausted by the effort, was unable to resist the Horde 
 of Toktamuish, which burst upon her two years afterwards from central 
 Asia, and sacked Moscow ; upon which Demetrius was obliged to make his 
 submission. 
 
 P. 63, 14. These monks had formerly been soldiers, and had quitted the 
 military for the monastic life ; and may probably have been White 
 brethren, such as are not uncommon at the present day. The disabled 
 and worn-out veteran often flies from his village to the neighbouring 
 monastery, to spend the remainder of his days in penitence and peace. 
 
 P. 63, 15. That is, on the spot where now stands the church of the 
 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in the faubourg called " The old Simonoff." 
 The bodies of Peresvet and Osliab are still preserved in this church, which 
 is only at a short distance from the present monastery, about five versts south 
 of Moscow. 
 
 P. 63, 16. The " cells" or apartments of the metropolitan are in this 
 monastery, which has been rebuilt since the French invasion of 1812. It is 
 situated near the Spassky gates, not far from the cathedral of the Assump- 
 tion and the Palace, in the Kremlin. 
 
 P. 63, 17. "Panagia." An image or picture of the Holy Virgin worn 
 by bishops, suspended from their neck by a chain of gold. 
 
 P. 64, 18. Platon says he entered the palace of the deceased metro- 
 politan, put on his mantle and klobouk, and took forcible possession of all 
 his establishment and revenues ; and acted in all respects as if he had been 
 actually appointed, except that he did not officiate as metropolitan in the 
 Church ; and this continued for a year and a half. 
 
 P. 64, 19. Platon says that Dionysius promised he would not go to 
 Constantinople to be appointed metropolitan, and that St. Sergius became 
 surety for his keeping his word. 
 
 P. 65, 20. On that occasion all the Russian princes united themselves, 
 according to the principle of the appanage system, under the Great Prince, 
 and advanced to meet the Mongols on the banks of the Don, in order 
 to prevent their uniting themselves with the Lithuanians under their 
 prince Yagello. 
 
 P. 65, 21. Platon says, that the Great Prince, who seems to have
 
 NOTES. 379 
 
 favoured Mitai's pretensions, gave him on his departure for Constantinople 
 his signature on a blank sheet of paper, by which he authorized him to 
 borrow as much money as he might require, and bound himself to repay it. 
 Pimen and the boyars having discovered the blank signature of the prince, 
 turned it to their own purpose, and wrote on it a forged letter from him 
 to the patriarch, recommending Pimen as metropolitan of Bussia, and 
 desiring that he might be consecrated. But the emperor and the patriarch 
 replied, that as there was already one metropolitan appointed, namely 
 Cyprian, whom they were willing to confirm, they did not choose, without 
 a very urgent necessity, to ordain another. On this, Pimen and the boyars 
 who had engaged in the design borrowed a large sum, which with interest 
 amounted to 20,000 roubles (17,000 sterling,) and employed it so well, 
 that both the emperor's and patriarch's objections were removed, and 
 Pimen was ordained metropolitan. 
 
 Platon does not scruple to speak of this appointment as an act of simony 
 on the part of the patriarch, and says that this and similar transactions 
 made it necessary that the Russian Church should become independent of 
 Constantinople, and appoint her metropolitan according to the canons by 
 the synod of her own bishops. 
 
 P. 65, 21. /3. Demetrius IV., Donskoy, son of John II., born at Moscow 
 A.D. 1350, obtained the throne of All Russia A.D. 1362, died May 19, 
 A.D. 1388, and was buried in Moscow in the church of the Archangel. 
 
 N.B. This is the first Great Prince who is not said to have been 
 appointed by letters from the Khan since their invasion and conquest of 
 Russia. 
 
 P. 65, 21. y. The sect of the Strigolniks first appeared A.D. 1371. Its 
 founders were one Karp (from whose craft the sect derived its name) and a 
 deacon named Nicetas. They taught first in Pskoff, and from thence went 
 to Xovogorod, where they had great success. They railed at and rejected 
 the clergy, for disorders which they alleged against it, not only at Novo- 
 gorod, but throughout the whole Church. They denied the necessity of con- 
 fession, saying it was enough to confess to God and to prostrate one's self 
 upon the ground: and indeed as they rejected the clergy, they had none 
 among them with power to bind or loose, nor any teachers really sent or 
 ordained. They pretended, according to their interpretation, that St. Paul 
 gave power to any one, even to laymen, to teach, and they elected their own 
 teachers from among themselves : instead of the episcopal ordination they 
 instituted a call from their own society. They denied that the clergy could 
 impart the grace of the Holy Ghost to the members of the Church, while 
 yet they claimed the power of imparting such grace for each one of the mem- 
 bers of their own society. As they refused the Baptism and Communion of 
 the priests of the Church, they had to make those sacraments to themselves 
 (if indeed they did so at all) through unordained persons ; and probably 
 grounded themselves on those rights of spiritual priesthood with which all 
 Christians are invested. Rejecting the offering of oblations for the dead, as 
 an invention of clerical covetousness, they rejected in fact the force and
 
 380 NOTES. 
 
 efficacy of all the customary acts of piety or affection for the benefit of the 
 departed. They said, " It is not proper to sing over the dead, nor to make 
 commemorations, nor to celebrate service for them, nor to bring oblations 
 for the dead into the church, nor to give away victuals or alms for the soul 
 of the deceased." All which pretended purity in religion is to be referred 
 to their attack upon the clergy. The Deacon Nicetas was degraded, and 
 his partizans excommunicated ; but the sect still continued to spread. 
 Karp was thrown into the Volkoff by the populace at Novogorod. From the 
 work of Nicholas Roundeff. 
 
 P. 69, 22. The Troitza (i. e. Trinity) Monastery, is situated 64 versts or 
 about 43 miles to the north-east of Moscow. 
 
 P. 69, 23. The reader may refer to Gibbon's Hist, of the Decline and 
 Fall, &c. ch. 65. A.D. 13901396. 
 
 P. 69, 24. The infidel historian, after sneering at the thought of the 
 Bussians that they might obtain help against the enemy by a public act of 
 religion, which, with whatever mixture, contained an appeal to God by faith 
 in the sign given to Ahaz, and for the sake of her who was the type at least 
 of that daughter of Jerusalem, who laughed to scorn the armies of Senna- 
 cherib, observes, that Toktamuish made " a casual and voluntary retreat," 
 being recalled by " ambition and prudence" to the South. Gibbons Hist. 
 ch. 65. A.D. 13901396. 
 
 P. 69, 25. This monastery was rebuilt in 1721, by Peter the Great. 
 
 P. 69, 26. This is now a monastery of the first class, or rather two 
 monasteries in one, the one called the Great, the other the Ivanofsky, or 
 the Lesser. It is surrounded by two strong walls flanked by large and lofty 
 towers : between the first and second wall is the Great monastery, with nine 
 churches built of stone, within the second is the Lesser monastery. Its 
 vestry exceeds perhaps in the richness of the dresses it contains that of any 
 other monastery in the empire. It has also an armoury ; and on the towers 
 of the outer wall fifty pieces of artillery are mounted. 
 
 P. 70, 27. The Solovetsky monastery is built on one of a cluster of 
 islands to the north of the bay of Onega, in the White sea. It has attained 
 such a celebrity, that it is even now visited during the summer by crowds 
 of pilgrims. It is inaccessible during nearly eight months in the year from 
 the floating ice with which it is surrounded. 
 
 P. 70, 28. The Choudes, or Tchoudes, are the same as the Finns. 
 
 P. 70, 29. The Lopars are the same as the Laplanders. 
 
 Platon relates, that in 1398 the Greek Emperor Manuel and the 
 patriarch sent to beg for assistance from the Russian princes against 
 the Turks. The clergy sent them 20,000 roubles, (17,000,) which was
 
 NOTES. 381 
 
 received with gratitude, and many miraculous images and relics of saints 
 were sent them in return. 
 
 P. 72, 30. Vitold, Great Prince of Lithuania, had been completely de- 
 feated by Edigee on the banks of the Vorskla. Edigee besieged Moscow 
 A.D. 1408, and menaced Russia not long after with a second invasion, 
 when Basil made his submission, and even went to the Horde, which however 
 from that time was so torn by internal feuds as to leave him in security. 
 
 P. 74,31. Basil II., son of Demetrius Donskoy, was born in Moscow 
 A.D. 1372, inherited the throne at his father's death, and was crowned in 
 Vladimir with the crown 'of Tsar, but did not take the title. His right 
 to the crown was, however, confirmed by letters of the Khan Tocktamuish. 
 He died February 27th, A.D. 1425, and was buried in the church of the 
 Archangel at Moscow. 
 
 P. 76, 32. Platon remarks that " the pope, the most artful of men, seeing 
 that Russia was the most powerful country which professed the Greek 
 faith, persuaded Isidore, whose sentiments he knew, to get himself conse- 
 crated and sent as metropolitan to Moscow, that he might assist at the 
 council about to be held at Florence in subjecting both the Greek and 
 Russian Churches to his Holiness's slippers ;" and that Isidore consequently 
 got himself to be consecrated at Constantinople with the express intention 
 of betraying the interests of the Church he had engaged to govern. 
 
 P. 77, 33. Of which the most important consisted of the following con- 
 fession : " In the name of the Holy Trinity, of the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost. We Latins and Greeks agree in the Holy Union of these 
 two Churches, and confess that all true Christians ought to receive this 
 genuine doctrine. That the Holy Spirit is eternally of the Father and the 
 Son, and that from all eternity It (He) proceeds from the One and the Other 
 as from a single principle, and by a single production, which we call 
 ' spiration.' We also declare that what some of the Holy Fathers have 
 said, viz., that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, 
 should be taken in such manner as to signify that the Son as well as the 
 Father, and conjointly with Him, is the principle of the Holy Spirit ; and 
 since whatsoever the Father hath, that He communicates to His Son, except- 
 ing the paternity, which distinguishes Him from the Son and the Holy 
 Spirit, so is it from the Father that the Son has received from all eternity 
 that productive virtue, through which the Holy Spirit proceeds from the 
 Son as well as from the Father." Waddingtoris Hist, of the Church, chap. 
 26, p. 623. 
 
 P. 77, 34. On this council, and the cause of it, Platon remarks, that 
 the Greek emperor was in the wrong to apply for assistance to the pope, 
 who had always been the sworn enemy of his religion, and would only have 
 helped him if it could have promoted his own selfish ends ; that he ought 
 rather to have reformed his government and life, and turned together with
 
 382 NOTES. 
 
 his people to God, whose mercy would have been of more service to him 
 than the pope and all the powers of the world. 
 
 P. 78, 35. See Pearson on the Creed, on the article of the belief in the 
 Holy Ghost, and the notes on the same subject at the end ; in which 
 he gives a compendious view of the whole question. 
 
 P. 79, 36. One of the seven episcopal robes, which is placed on the 
 shoulders ; it has four crosses worked on it. The omophorium is an 
 emblem of the lost sheep, that is, of human nature, which Christ, when 
 He has found, places on His shoulders ; the crosses worked on it inti- 
 mate to the prelate that it is his duty to follow his Lord in His suffer- 
 ings ; the taking the children on the omophovium implied that he pledged 
 his holy office as bishop for their safety. 
 
 P. 80, 37. See above, p. 367, the notes on p. 35. 20 and 21. 
 
 P. 80, 38. See above, at p. 359, the note on p. 17, 24 ; also at p. 363, the 
 note on p. 28, 5. and at p. 370, the note on p. 47, 4. 
 
 P. 83, 41. Perhaps the seniority here mentioned may have been derived 
 from the permission given by the patriarch of Constantinople to the then 
 bishop of Rostoff to reside at Vladimir, which afterwards became the seat 
 of the metropolitan. This may have given it a temporary seniority over 
 Novogorod, which otherwise, both before and after this period, has always 
 been reckoned next to Moscow. See pp. 37 and 41. 
 
 P. 84, 42. A town of the Crimea, with an excellent harbour, on the 
 Black sea, 150 miles to the north-east of Constantinople. 
 
 P. 84, 43. Immediately after his marriage John assumed the arms of 
 the Greek empire, the two-headed eagle, which the sovereigns of Russia 
 still retain. 
 
 P. 85, 44. This Aristotle of Bologna, who is said by Platon to have under- 
 stood the art of casting bells and cannon, and coining money, as well as his 
 own proper business of architect, received only ten roubles, (about 7) a 
 month, as his reward for the exercise of all these accomplishments. 
 
 P. 85, 45. A " Pridyeall"is an "affixed" altar-chapel, or sanctuary, con- 
 sidered as a separate church ; though opening by its royal and side doors 
 into the body of the same church with the principal sanctuary. Sometimes 
 the side chapel on the north of the sanctuary, which is the proper place for 
 the altar or table of preparation or prothesis with its accompanying stand, 
 (from whence the priest takes the elements to make the preparation) is 
 called by this name. The word " altar" in the Russian Church designates 
 the whole of the raised area of the sanctuary. 
 
 P. 87, 46. When the three names were placed on the altar, the son of
 
 NOTES. 383 
 
 the prince, tlien a mere boy, took two of them away, and the third which 
 remained was that of the future Vladika, or Lord. 
 
 P. 87, 47. St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia ; the festival of the translation 
 of whose relics to Bari in Italy, in the year 1087, was instituted by Urban 
 II. (who was elected pope the year after the translation itself had taken 
 place.) It is remarkable that this festival was adopted by the metropolitans 
 of Kieff and by the Russian Church, and is still marked in their calendar on 
 the 9th of May, though it has never been received by the Greeks. 
 
 P. 90, 48. See above the note on p. 65, 21. 7. at p. 375. The Strigol- 
 niks do not seem to have had any thing at all in common with the judaical 
 notions of the sect which is here spoken of as springing up a full century 
 after them, though it is true that in their hatred of the clergy and in some 
 of the arguments they employed to overthrow their authority, the judaizing 
 heresy seems to have followed closely in the steps of the Strigolniks, and 
 even to have borrowed from them. 
 
 P. 90, 49. " Secretary" or clerk. The word ' diak' answers exactly to that 
 of clerk, as used in the middle ages in the West ; the profession of letters 
 belonging entirely to the clergy and their dependents. 
 
 P. 92, 50. The Sons of the Boyars were a kind of provincial cavalry or 
 esquires, who served in all military expeditions with the boyars to whom 
 they were attached, as their body guard, in the same manner as the boyars 
 themselves formed the retinue of the princes. 
 
 P. 94, 51. Or "bishops of Kroutits;" though they were still not unfre- 
 quently called by their former title of Sarai and Podonsk. 
 
 John III., son of Basil III., was born in Moscow A.D. 1435, and was 
 nominated to be Great Prince by his father, on whose decease, A.D. 1462, 
 he ascended the throne : he died Oct. 27th, A.D. 1506, and was buried in 
 the church of the Archangel in Moscow ; he was by some styled Tsar, but 
 not uniformly so. 
 
 According to the short History of Russia by Talouzin, John III. died tLe 
 27th of March, A.D. 1506 ; but Mouravieff and Oustreloff place it a year 
 earlier, A.D. 1505. Platon gives him the following character. " This 
 monarch was ambitious and severe, but at the same time prudent in his 
 measures, and a skilful politician. He was zealous for the promotion of reli- 
 gion, built many churches and monasteries, eradicated heresies, and protected 
 the Orthodox in Poland from the persecutions of the papists ; by which means 
 he attached many of her princes to Russia. He was the first Russian 
 monarch who entirely threw off the Tartar yoke ; and he even appointed 
 himself the Tartar Tsars of Kazan. He also reduced nearly all the separate 
 principalities under his authority, and thus laid the foundation of the future 
 greatness of the Russian empire." 
 
 P. 96, 52. In the year 1505 a council had been held in Moscow to
 
 384 NOTES. 
 
 condemn the new heresy that had sprung up, and which has been above 
 spoken of as adopting in some points the tenets of the Strigolniks, though 
 its leading feature was rather that of a disposition to inculcate judaical 
 tenets and practices. It did not indeed preach circumcision, but it rejected 
 in reality all the doctrines of Christianity. Many were found guilty, and 
 according to some accounts delivered over to the civil arm, and burned as 
 heretics. This Platon condemns as being altogether abhorrent from the 
 spirit of Christianity. He says they ought to have been banished and 
 removed from the society of other men, that they might not infect them with 
 their opinions. He says also that these severe measures are not to be 
 attributed to the clergy, but to the civil authorities, who he intimates may 
 have had other reasons for proceeding to such extremities. 
 
 P. 97, 53. Platon says that formerly every monk prepared his own food, 
 and clothed himself; but Macarius ordered that they should have a common 
 table and a uniform dress. He reformed a still greater irregularity in the 
 nunneries, which had before been ruled by hegumens or priors, and had had 
 poor brethren for the performance of menial offices : he entirely expelled 
 the latter, and replaced the hegumens by prioresses. 
 
 P. 98, 54. The monastery of the Assumption called Otroch, (the word 
 signifies boy or page,) because it was built by Gregory page of Yaroslaff 
 of Tver A.D. 1266. 
 
 P. 99, 55. This act of placing the child on the tomb of St. Sergius by 
 way of placing him under the special protection of the saint, would natur- 
 ally suggest itself as significative of such an idea by association with the 
 similar act of placing children upon the altar at the churching of their 
 mothers, which was, and still is, of every-day occurrence in the Church. 
 
 P. 99, 56. Basil IV., son of John III., was born in Moscow, August 
 25, A.D. 1479, was declared heir to the throne and crowned with the 
 crown of Great Prince April 14, A.D. 1502, succeeded to it on the death 
 of his father October 28, A.D. 1506, and was the first who assumed the 
 titles of Tsar and Autocrat of All the Russias. He died in Moscow, having 
 first put on the monastic habit under the name of Barlaam, December 4, 
 A.D. 1534, and was buried in the church of the Archangel. 
 
 N.B. This prince is sometimes called Basil III. by those who reckon 
 only the Moscow dynasty : on looking back the reader will find that 
 Basil I. reigned in Vladimir from 1271 to 1276, and Basil II. and III., 
 father and son, reigned in Moscow from 1389 to 1462. 
 
 In a Latin letter which he wrote to Pope Clement VII., dated in April 
 A.D. 1525, he thus enumerates his own titles: dementi Papae, Pastori ac 
 Doctori Romans Ecclesis, Magnus Dux Basilius, Dei Gratia Imperator 
 (rendered in the Russian 'Tsar') ac Dominator totius Russiae, nee non 
 Magnus Dux Voldomerias, Moscoviae, Novogradiae, Plescoviae, Smolenscis, 
 Iberiae, Jugoriae, Permian, Viatkiae, Bulgarian, et caet. Dominator et 
 Magnus Princeps Novogorodiae Inferioris Terras, Cernigoviae, Rasaniae,
 
 NOTES. 385 
 
 Volothise, Rzeviae, Belchise, Rostovise, Jaroslaviae, Belozerise, Udoriae, Ob- 
 doriae, Condiniseque. 
 
 Pope Gregory XIII. writing to John the son of Basil A.D. 1576, thus 
 addresses him, " Serenissime Princeps, Ccesar, et magne Dux," &c. 
 
 P. 101, 57. Platon accuses the Russian bishops of having been made 
 the tools of the boyars in appointing a new metropolitan, while his prede- 
 cessor who was still living had never abdicated his throne, but had been 
 expelled without trial or conviction by the arbitrary will of the boyars, and 
 without even the consent of the sovereign ; which was neither consistent 
 with the canons or regulations of the Church, nor with justice. He says 
 that by their weakness and cowardice they disgraced their order. 
 
 P. 101, 58. A full description of the ceremony of the coronation is 
 given in the second volume of Platon's History. The regalia of Mono- 
 machus, and those sent with the Princess Sophia, daughter of Thomas 
 despot of the Morea, and heiress of the imperial family of Constantinople, 
 are still preserved, and may be seen in the Armoury Hall or Treasury in 
 the Kremlin at Moscow. 
 
 P. 101, 59. "As being the last scion of the ancient imperial house," 
 and so in a manner the heir of the empire ; and as such capable of being 
 with propriety crowned or blessed by the Greek patriarch. 
 
 P. 101, 60. The placing of crowns on the heads of the bride and bride- 
 groom is an indispensable part of the marriage ceremony in the Eastern 
 Catholic Church, (and indeed in all the heretical Churches or Communities 
 of the East as well;) so much so, that "to crown" or "to be crowned" is the 
 received expression for marrying or being married, and " the crowning" is 
 " the wedding" of the espoused parties. 
 
 P. 102,61. The words translated " Public Place," are in the original 
 " Lobnoe Miesto," or " the place of the skull," in allusion apparently to 
 the word Golgotha. Criminals were usually executed here as well as public 
 meetings held. 
 
 P. 104, 64. " Chetee-Menae," i. e. compiled or abridged Menologies, or 
 Lives of the Saints, according to the order of their names in the calendar, 
 throughout all the months of the year ; which it is usual to read in monas- 
 teries during dinner in the refectory, and in many places besides monasteries 
 in the vigils before Festivals or Sundays. 
 
 P. 106, 63. Archbishop Platon represents the metropolitan as exhorting 
 the army of the Tsar, which was assembled at Sviajsk, " to observe the com- 
 mandments of God, not to neglect the service of the Church, but to live 
 soberly and honestly, to avoid drunkenness and other disorders, and not to 
 shave their beards, but to serve their sovereign with fidelity, that they might 
 hope to attain the favour of God, rewards from their monarch, and blessings
 
 386 NOTES. 
 
 from the Church." He refers his readers to Prince SherbatofFs History of 
 Russia for the original letter. 
 
 P. 106, 64. In every church there are set up at the east end, in front 
 of the iconostasis, or screen, which separates the sanctuary from the body 
 of the church, one pair at least of sacred banners, " Vexilla Regis," (taken 
 probably from the Labarum of Constantine,) which are always carried in 
 processions. 
 
 P. 106, 65. "Gori." The word means literally " mountains," but is here 
 a proper name for a mountainous province of Georgia. 
 
 P. 108, 66. Platon calls him Matushka, an Apothecary, and says that 
 he was particularly inveterate against St. Nicholas. This appears to have 
 been the first occasion on which the Reformation or Protestantism of the 
 western continent of Europe came into contact with the Russian Church. 
 
 P. 109, 67. The Holy Gates, or Gates of the Saviour, are situated on 
 the north-east side of the Kremlin, into which they lead up from the Kitai 
 Gorod. No one passes through them without uncovering his head, and 
 signing himself with the sign of our salvation. The thought may pro- 
 bably have been suggested by some such text as that, " Thou shalt call thy 
 walls salvation, and thy gates praise:" Isai. Lx. 18. 
 
 P. 109, 68. "This church is named after the vision which appeared to 
 Andrew Salos in the city of Constantinople, in the days of the Emperor 
 Leo the Great ; for he saw the Mother of God in the clouds. The same 
 festival was formerly celebrated among the Greeks ; at present they are 
 unacquainted with it in practice, but give it the name of o-Kfiras rrjs Havayias, 
 or Protection of the Mother of God. The drawing of the picture is this: 
 The Virgin is in the clouds ; and Andrew Salos, by pointing to her with 
 his fingers, is shewing her to the emperor and the whole population of the 
 city." Travels of Macarius, Part iii. p. 315. 
 
 P. Ill, 69. It is usual for the sovereign whenever he comes into any 
 city (or indeed any town) especially into the capital, to proceed directly to 
 the sobor, or cathedral, where he is met with the ayiao-pa, or holy water (the 
 remembrance of the dew of baptism) and welcomed with a short speech by 
 the bishop at the head of his clergy ; after this he assists at a moleben, or 
 short office in the church, and returns his thanks to God for having brought 
 him in safety to the place where he is : and in like manner, the last thing 
 before setting out on a journey he goes to the church to pray God to pros- 
 per him and direct his way ; and so may be said in his " goings out and 
 comings in," to set out from the house of God and return to it again, 
 according to that which is written, " In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and 
 He shall direct thy paths." 
 
 P. Ill, 70. " Menaea," or rather Menology, containing the lives of the
 
 NOTES. 387 
 
 saints. The word Menaea more commonly designates the twelve volumes 
 (one for each month), containing those variable anthems and " Kanons," 
 and other poetical parts of the offices to be sung in church, which have 
 reference to the saints commemorated on each day according to the order 
 of the calendar. 
 
 P. 112, 71. A village, or rather a small borough of the government of 
 Vladimir, about 86 miles, or 107 versts from Moscow. 
 
 P. 113, 72. The word in the original is " Opreechina," from whence 
 Opreechniki, the name of John's select body-guard, is formed. This latter 
 name has been rendered by the English word " Peculiars," to keep up, if 
 possible, the idea of connection between them. 
 
 P. 113, 73. It was found impossible to render exactly the play upon 
 words which here exists in the original. They were named " Kromieshniki," 
 or " outers," from the " Kromieshnoi Tmi," or outer darkness. There is 
 also a reference and opposition expressed to the title of " Opreechniki," as 
 if, instead of " Personals," or "Peculiars" of the Tsar, they were rather 
 " Familiars of the black fiend, or a " Black Guard," from the " outer dark- 
 ness." 
 
 P. 116, 74. A cap peculiar to the Tartars, which Christians were not 
 permitted to wear at all ; and as in the church, and during these sacred 
 processions, no one was allowed to cover his head, the Opreechnik had 
 committed a double fault. Platon says that many of the boyars committed 
 this offence, and gives the metropolitan's speech on this occasion : " O 
 Tsar, according to the precepts of the Gospel men should pray with their 
 heads uncovered. Why then do those who profess the same faith with 
 ourselves stand with their heads covered, according to the custom of the 
 Tartars?" 
 
 P. 117, 75. Platon places the election of Cyrill III. in the year 1570, or 
 1572. The Novinsky monastery was in Moscow. 
 
 P. 117, 76. It may be worth while to remark that St. Philip and the 
 tyrant to whom he owed his martyrdom had been contemporaries of the 
 English Kings, Henry VIII., and Edward VI., and of Queen Mary ; and 
 that the prelate was martyred in the early part of the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 P. 118, 77. There is an agreement in this passage between the thought 
 of the author, and the actual position of the tombs of these great prelates in 
 the cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin. According to Platon, the 
 followers of Skouratoff smothered the metropolitan with pillows. He 
 however afterwards disavowed the deed, and attempted to throw the blame 
 upon the superior of the convent, as if through some negligence he had 
 been suffocated by the fumes of charcoal from his stove. 
 
 c c2
 
 388 NOTES. 
 
 P. 119, 78. Novogorod was indeed ruined by him ; and seems never to 
 have recovered itself afterwards. Oustreloff says that the territories of that 
 republic had at one time extended on the South to Torjok, on the North to 
 Kexholm, a hundred miles beyond St. Petersburgh, on the East to the 
 extremities of the modern governments of Archangel, Viatka, and Perm, 
 and on the West to Esthonia ; a space which contains at the present day 
 upwards of five millions of inhabitants. 
 
 P. 119, 79. "Sounded;" literally, "were struck;" bells being still used in 
 Bussia only in the same way as they are said to have been when they were 
 first introduced in Italy. The bells themselves are fixed, and are struck by 
 people who go up into the tower for that purpose. 
 
 P. 120, 80. This was of course altogether irregular ; but it is worthy of 
 remark that even for second marriages a slight penance is imposed by the 
 canons of the Church, as if in acknowledgment that they are not to be 
 approved, but are only permitted. 
 
 The first robber of the Church of Russia as well as of the Church of 
 England was a murderer : and with this first confiscation of Church pro- 
 perty in Russia by John, and the edict which accompanied it, commenced 
 that long struggle of the boyars against the secular influence of the Church, 
 which ended in the degradation and imprisonment of Nikon ; and the 
 effects of which have been the ultimate reduction of all the superior clergy 
 to the condition of stipendiaries of the civil government, the ruin in a 
 great measure of the monastic institute, and the most imminent danger of 
 an utter demoralization spreading to the whole nation from the higher 
 classes ; which (as well as the highest temporal Authority itself) have been 
 since the time of Nikon in a secular point of view altogether above the 
 Church, and have certainly gained neither in faith nor in morals, nor 
 even in real political power or liberty by the success of their sacrilegious 
 war upon the temporal influence and property of the Church in past times. 
 It is never to be forgotten that this evil was not properly the doing of 
 the sovereigns of Russia themselves, but of the nobility. 
 
 P. 120, 81." Of the Pechersky." This is not to be confounded with 
 the original Pechersky at Kieff, from which it derived its name. 
 
 P. 121, 82. Stephen Batori, Prince of Transylvania, and Henry, Duke 
 of Anjou. 
 
 John IV., surnamed the Terrible, son of Basil IV., was born in Moscow 
 August 25, 1530, ascended the throne 1533, was under guardians till 
 1547, when he was crowned, and assumed the reins of government as Tsar, 
 and Autocrat of All the Russias; he died March the 18th, A.D. 1584, and 
 was buried in the cathedral of the Archangel. 
 
 P. 124, 83. Platon, however, remarking upon the description given of 
 the coronation of John III., from which this does not seem to have varied, 
 says, that though there were words in the office praying " that God would
 
 NOTES. 389 
 
 anoint him with the oil of gladness," no mention is made of his having 
 been actually anointed, or of his having communicated within the altar, as 
 became the rule on similar occasions afterwards. 
 
 P. 124, 84. The Terek is a river which separates the Russian dominions 
 from Persia. 
 
 P. 124, 85. The Georgians had been Christians from an early period, 
 and still remained so as a people ; but many of them had been forced into 
 Mahometanism. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 P. 126, 1. (86.) Platon expresses an opinion on this subject which is 
 entirely opposed to that of our author, considering that the Russian Church 
 had a right by the (Ecumenical canons to elect and consecrate her own 
 primates, and that the will of the Great Prince or Tsar was quite sufficient 
 reason for setting aside a custom which had grown up naturally enough, 
 but was yet strictly speaking uncanonical. See above, p. 367, notes 20 
 and 21. 
 
 On the elevation of Job to the metropolitan chair, Platon makes the 
 following just reflection. " Since the canons of the Church permit no one 
 to take the place of another during his life, unless he shall have abdicated 
 it, or shall have been found guilty of some crime by a synod of bishops, 
 we must conclude that Job's accepting the office of metropolitan, and 
 the other archbishops and bishops giving their consent, was a proof of 
 their cowardice, and of his want of holy zeal and respect for the office of a 
 Christian bishop." 
 
 P. 127, 2. (87.) This language of the apostasy of the Roman patriarch from 
 the unity of the visible Church is maintained, though with some inconsis- 
 tency, in all the recognised divinity of the Eastern Church. M. De Maistre 
 has very well observed that there is a similar inconsistency on the Latin side 
 in the common use of such expressions as " the Eastern Church," " the 
 Greek Church," and proposes to substitute the expression "Les Eglises 
 Photiennes." On the same principle, he would very rightly object no less 
 to the titles " Church of Russia," " Church of England," or even " Anglican 
 Church," and would exclusively use in designating the Church of England, 
 the safer and more consistent language of " The Establishment," " the 
 Established," or " Reformed," or " Protestant," or " Cranmerian Church, or 
 Sect." 
 
 P. 129, 3. The Nomination is a separate ceremony from the Consecration, 
 in which a formal announcement of the election is made in the name of the 
 civil and spiritual powers to the ecclesiastic upon whom their choice was 
 fallen , and he makes a speech, giving his formal consent to undertake the office . 
 
 P. 129, 4. " Different doors," that is, outer doors of the church.
 
 390 NOTES. 
 
 P. 129, 5. In this and the preceding sentence the word Ambon is used 
 for the episcopal dais or platform in the middle of the nave. The Ambon 
 ordinarily means the projecting part in front of the Solea, on which the 
 deacon stands to bid the prayers of the Ecteneise. By other writers the 
 establishment of the patriarchate is attributed almost exclusively to Godou- 
 noff, who, they say, was desirous of thereby gratifying Job, and attaching 
 him more firmly to his person, that he might make him a more ready instru- 
 ment of forwarding his ambitious views. 
 
 P. 130, 6. This was a merely nominal promotion, as their title of Arch- 
 bishops had been before : the patriarch himself continued to be in fact the 
 only archbishop, and all the rest his suffragans, as had been the case from 
 the beginning ; only now he had received the title of patriarch and become 
 independent of the see of Constantinople. The new metropolitan of Kroutits 
 was vicar to the patriarch, and had also a diocese of his own. See above at 
 p. 370. the note headed p. 39, 32. 
 
 A further reason for the nominal dignities created at this time in tne 
 Russian Church was, that the new patriarch might be elected by metro- 
 politans, and instituted by a metropolitan. This was the case with the patri- 
 arch of Constantinople himself, who was elected by his own synod, and 
 instituted by the metropolitan of Heraclea, without any intervention of the 
 other (Ecumenical patriarchs. 
 
 P. 131,7. The -establishment of the patriarchate in Russia seems to 
 have been effected in the first instance without the convocation of any such 
 general council of the Eastern Church as had been intimated to be necessary 
 for that purpose by the patriarch of Antioch, merely by the personal 
 act of the patriarch of Constantinople, and that too without the consent or 
 attendance of the other prelates of his own patriarchate, and in a foreign 
 country, where he may possibly (as some say was in fact the case) have been 
 detained against his will, and where his compliance with the wishes of 
 the Tsar may have been the price of permission to return to his own 
 country. 
 
 However this was, the institution of the patriarchate (like that of the 
 synod afterwards by Peter the Great, against which a still more serious 
 charge of invalidity would else have lain) was made good and valid after- 
 wards by the allowance and blessing of the united synod of the four patri- 
 archs, and their metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops, met together in 
 what is called after their phraseology an (Ecumenical council ; i. e. a 
 Council, in which all the four so styled (Ecumenical patriarchs were pre- 
 sent, either in person or by their representatives. 
 
 P. 132, 8. The metropolitan of Bulgaria was said in Smith's time, (A.D. 
 1676,) to have under him eighteen bishops. De Grcecce Eccl. Hod. Slat. 
 p. 50. For a full account of the coming of Dionysius into Russia, see 
 Appendix No. II., at the end of the History, p. 325. 
 
 P. 132, 9. Our author, in his Pilgrimage to the Holy Places, (vol. i. p.
 
 NOTES. 391 
 
 188,) tells us that the title of (Ecumenical judge was assumed by Theo- 
 philus, patriarch of Alexandria, A.D. 1000, on account of the reconciliation 
 he effected between the Emperor Basil III., and Sergius patriarch of 
 Constantinople. The cause of the quarrel was that the patriarch had spoken 
 ill of the emperor, and the emperor had laid violent hands on the patriarch. 
 They had recourse to the judgment of the Lord of Alexandria, who having 
 made two wax figures, one of the emperor and the other of the patriarch, 
 cut out the tongue from that of the patriarch, and cut off the arm from that 
 of the emperor ; by which he intimated to each the severe punishments which 
 they deserved, and which their exalted rank alone preserved them from 
 suffering. Struck by the boldness and justice of his decision, they laid 
 aside their mutual animosity, and as respective proofs of their gratitude to 
 their judge, the patriarch placed on him his Epitrachelion (Omophorion) 
 and the emperor his crown, and proclaimed him to be the (Ecumenical 
 judge. In memory of this circumstance, the patriarch of Alexandria 
 wears two Omophoria over his robes, and a double crown on his mitre. 
 
 P. 135, 10. The word in the original is " Terem." 
 
 P. 135, 11. The word translated here "Litanies" is in the original 
 " Molebni," compositions, which may be described as poetical Litanies, never 
 intended to be said ; while the Ecteneiae answer more closely to our prose 
 Litany, which is quite as suitable (or rather more so, for an individual) to 
 say, as to sing. 
 
 P. 136, 12. It is only within the last few years that the Gregorian style 
 has been so much as noticed in the Kussian almanacs. Both styles 
 are now given together, though the old is still followed in the calendar, 
 and could not perhaps be changed without deeply offending the prejudices 
 of the people. 
 
 P. 138, 13. "Vladimir," not to be confounded with the capital of the 
 same name. 
 
 P. 139, 14. " Castellan" was the name generally given to the priests of 
 the Latin rite, in the Polish and Lithuanian territories, by members of 
 the Greek communion. 
 
 P. 141, 15. Hetman is the Russian, Ataman the Polish form of the 
 . word, both being originally the same as Hauptmann. 
 
 P. 142, 16. Advantage of which was taken in 1839 to facilitate the 
 return of 1,600,000 Uniates to the communion of the Russian Church. 
 This was effected on the single condition of their retracting their acknow- 
 ledgment of the pope's headship, and confessing that our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ is the only Head, that can strictly and properly be so called, over 
 His whole Church.
 
 392 NOTES. 
 
 P. 142, 17, Zaporogi, or, "living beyond the Falls of the Danube:" 
 Porog signifying a rapid fall in Russian. 
 
 P. 145, 18. Theodore I., son of John IV., was born May 31, A.D. 1537, 
 began to reign after the death of his father on the 19th of March, A.D. 1584, 
 died June 1, 1598, and was buried in the church of the Archangel. He 
 was, perhaps unintentionally, the author of the present state of vassalage of 
 the peasantry, by his edict that they should remain on those estates on 
 which they had settled, and should not be allowed to remove from one 
 village to another without the permission of the proprietors. Through an 
 abuse of this law the peasantry are now sold with the estate, and landed 
 property is not so often reckoned by the number of Dessatines it contains, 
 as by the number of " Souls" (male peasants) which inhabit it. By a fiction 
 of law certainly never intended by the lawgiver, individuals both male and 
 female are even separated from their families, and from the estates to which 
 they are attached, by selling a small portion of land with them. I have 
 been happy to learn that this abuse has lately attracted the attention of 
 the legislature. 
 
 P. 145, 19. Theodore had reigned fourteen years, and died January 6, 
 1598. His consort Irene retired into the Novodivichy convent on the 15th 
 of the same month, having refused to accept the crown. 
 
 P. 146, 20. "Bolarin," or " Boyarin" in the singular, " Boyari" in the 
 plural. The modern contracted form Barin is now commonly applied by 
 the lower orders to their superiors, much as Sir is in English. 
 
 P. 146, 21. Said to have been brought from Greece to Kieff ; and 
 for the reception of which the cathedral at Vladimir was first erected. 
 
 P. 146, 22. Boris Godounoff was crowned the 1st of September, 1599, 
 the first day of the year according to the then reckoning. During the cere- 
 mony he rent his royal robes, to testify that he should be always ready to 
 divide his property with the poor. 
 
 P. 146, 23. " Terem." The upper story of the palace, which was generally 
 smaller than the lower, was so called : it was usually inhabited by the ladies 
 of the family, as they were there not so much exposed to being seen. Terem 
 is probably the same word with Harem. Reiff's Russian and French 
 Dictionary. 
 
 P. 148, 24. These are the last words in the ordinary funeral service 
 which is performed over all Christian people : " To our brother or sister 
 M. or N. be a perpetual memory." To " decree a perpetual memory" to 
 any one in particular is to appoint a stated commemoration of him in the 
 Church. 
 
 P. 149, 25. Boris Godounoff was born in Moscow A.D. 1552: he was
 
 NOTES. 393 
 
 elected in default of legitimate heirs to the throne, and crowned the 1st of 
 September, A.D. 1598. He died April 5, A.D. 1605. 
 
 P. 150, 26. " The Public Place," or place of execution. See p. 385, n. 61. 
 
 P. 155, 26. The pseudo-Demetrius ascended the throne the 20th of 
 June, A.D. 1605, and was killed the 17th of May, 1606. His body was 
 allowed to lie exposed in the public square three days for the inspection 
 of the people, after which it was dragged to a place called the " Kettles," 
 on the road to Serpoukoff, seven versts from Moscow, where it was burnt. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 P. 157, 1. The Shliakti are a privileged order in Poland, an inferior 
 kind of nobility, often very poor, and generally too proud to work ; they 
 are the ready authors of every kind of mischief ; they were the chief insti- 
 gators of the late calamitous rebellion in Poland. At a recent revision it 
 was found that their number amounted to no less than 400,000. Their 
 patents of nobility were given by wholesale by the kings of Poland, some- 
 times to the whole of their body guard, to attach them more to their person. 
 The chief nobility followed this example, and gave letters of nobility to 
 their followers in the name of their sovereign. 
 
 The Pretender spoken of in the text gave out that a Pole who had assumed 
 his name had been killed in Moscow, that he himself had escaped, and was 
 now returned to take possession of his paternal throne. Marina the wife of 
 the former pretender Otrepieff joined herself to them, and thus supported 
 his pretensions. 
 
 P. 161, 2. A town in the government of Riazan, about ninety miles or 
 one hundred and twelve versts from Moscow. 
 
 P. 162, 3. This monastery was erected by the Venerable Paphnutius, at 
 a distance of two miles from the town of Borofsk, and is described as being 
 very rich in vestments ornamented with pearls and precious stones, and 
 vessels of gold. 
 
 P. 162, 4. Prince Shouesky, or Basil V., was born in Moscow in 1547, 
 elected as Tsar May 19, 1606, expelled from his throne July 17, 1610, and 
 died in Warsaw, September 12, A.D. 1613. 
 
 Platon has the following remarks on the treasons and miseries of these 
 times : " After diligently examining all our annals, the truth compels us 
 to acknowledge, to the honour of the Russian clergy, that not one of its 
 members ever adhered to the pretenders. Although from the fear of death 
 some kept themselves silent, and through pusillanimity and the weakness 
 of our nature did not venture openly to oppose them, yet no spiritual person 
 so took the part of either the pretenders or the traitors, as to serve them 
 or co-operate with them. But on the other hand many of our bishops and 
 almost all our monks openly rebuked the pretenders, and refused to submit
 
 394 NOTES. 
 
 to them, and many suffered death : they however left an immortal memory 
 behind them, and afforded a striking proof how strong a support the clergy 
 are to the state." 
 
 P. 165, 5. The Kitai is a kind of fortress separated from the town of 
 Moscow by a lofty crenelated wall, and forming part of the Kremlin, from 
 which however it is divided by a wall and gates. It derived its appella- 
 tion from the name of a former proprietor of the soil, although the more 
 common translation is, " The Chinese Town," owing to the accidental cir- 
 cumstance that Kitai is also the Russian name for China. 
 
 P. 166, 6. Called in Greek ayiaa-pa. It is not kept constantly in the 
 churches as by the Latins, but blessed for each separate occasion. 
 
 P. 169, 8. Platon says, "In the first place it was decided that all 
 Christian men should fast for three days, and pray to God that He would 
 graciously bestow on them a just and religious sovereign, that their choice 
 might proceed from the King of Kings, and not from men. Consequently 
 a general fast was observed so strictly, that neither men, women, nor 
 children ate or drank any thing for three days, and even infants were not 
 allowed to take the breast. After this they proceeded to the election, it 
 having been previously decided that every class of subjects should give in 
 in writing the name of him whom they preferred. 
 
 In consequence of this many of the deputies from the nobles, the mer- 
 chants of different towns, and the hetmans of the Cossacks, went to Abraham 
 Palitsin, and delivered to him each his own choice in writing, and begged 
 him to present it to the General Assembly. The venerable man wept with 
 joy when he presented these writings to the Great Council of the Spiritual 
 and Temporal Lords ; for the assembly were astonished on examining all 
 these papers, as well as others which had been sent from different towns, to 
 find that they all named one and the same person, namely, Michael the 
 nephew of the Tsar Theodore Ivanovich, and the son of him who was once 
 the great Boyar Theodore Niketich Romanoff, but who was then named 
 Philaret metropolitan of Rostoff, and was at the same time suffering 
 in behalf of his country in Warsaw. Therefore both the clergy and the 
 nobility were agreed in esteeming the choice as having proceeded from 
 God Himself. 
 
 It would seem that our author has placed the solemn fast too early, as 
 by Platon's account it was observed immediately after the re-capture of 
 Moscow, and previously to the election of the Tsar Michael, to which it was 
 preparatory. 
 
 P. 174, 9. The Trebnik answers to the Latin " Ritual," and contains 
 the order for the administration of all the sacraments, except that of the 
 Holy Communion, and all other rites and ceremonies of the Church which 
 it is the priest's duty to perform on different occasions. 
 
 P. 174, 10. There are three different ceremonies which may all equally
 
 NOTES. 395 
 
 be called by this name ; on the 6th of January, in the mid-feast between 
 Easter and Pentecost, and on the 1st of August. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 P. 176, 1. The first metropolitan who was buried in the cathedral of the 
 Assumption at Moscow. See above, p. 57. 
 
 P. 180, 2. The title here rendered "Great Sovereign" is in the original 
 " Veliki Hossoudar." It is difficult to render exactly ; " Vladika," Lord, being 
 the usual title of the bishops and archbishops of Novogorod, and also of 
 other bishops and even priests, as in the beginning of the Church service ; 
 while Hossoudar, though it approaches, yet does not (juke reach the force 
 of our word Sovereign, but is rather Lord or Sire, in a sense of feudal and 
 temporal lordship. Sometimes it was used as an expression of great respect 
 and compliment to spiritual persons, as by Godounoff to the patriarch of 
 Constantinople ; the abbreviated form Soudar or 's, when used familiarly, is 
 equivalent to our Master, or Sir. 
 
 P. 184, 3. Office or Ritual book. See above, p. 394, note 9. 
 
 P. 185, 4. Mtschet is now a small village situated about twenty versts to 
 the north of Tiflis. 
 
 P. 185, 5. This Tabernacle is in the south-western angle of the body of 
 the church of the Assumption in the Kremlin at Moscow. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 P. 186, 1. In the Dictionary of the Russian Saints, (St. Petersburg 1836,) 
 under the head of Vladimir, it is related that in 1636 Peter Mogila dis- 
 covered under the ruins of the Church of the Tithes, which had been de- 
 stroyed by Batius, two marble coffins, containing, according to the inscrip- 
 tions found on them, the bones of Vladimir and the Greek Princess Anna. 
 He took the head of Vladimir out of his coffin, leaving the other bones and 
 those of the princess untouched, and disposed of it as our author relates, and 
 closed up the tomb. 
 
 P. 188, 6. The Orthodox Confession came however, in its present shape, 
 from the hands of Meletius Syriga, and so received the approbation of the 
 four patriarchs. Dositheus followed it in some important points in the 
 synod of Jerusalem in 1672. This Catechism is upon the list of books to 
 be procured at the synodal press ; and a new edition of it was published at 
 Moscow in the year 1839. It passed without any formal or minute exami- 
 nation into the Church of Great Russia, but is acknowledged not to be free, 
 any more than the eighteen articles of the Synod of Jerusalem, from a tinge 
 of Latin scholasticism.
 
 396 NOTES. 
 
 P. 189, 7. The Confession of Cyrill Lucar, in 18 articles, was first pub- 
 lished by the Dutch ambassador, Cornelius Von der Haga, at the Hague, 
 in 1629, and was reprinted afterwards with notes and additions, (Aymon says, 
 by direction of Cyrill himself) at Geneva. The same writer also asserts that 
 he avowed himself the author of it in presence of the French ambassador of 
 Constantinople, who had invited him to his hotel in the hopes of inducing 
 him to disown it. 
 
 P. 189, 8. Cyrill Lucar was put to death by the Turks in 1628, and 
 his successor, Cyrill of Bercea, assembled a synod at Constantinople in the 
 same year, which anathematized him as a heretic, and seemed to make no 
 doubt of the Confession being really his. Cyrill of Beroea himself was 
 afterwards deposed and anathematized ; and among the charges on which 
 he was deposed, besides extortion and embezzlement of the money of the 
 Church, there was also one of having taken part in procuring the death 
 of Cyrill Lucar, by preferring a false accusation against him to the Turks. 
 The patriarch of Antioch, Macarius, then on his way to Wallachia, Moldavia, 
 and Muscovy, joined in anathematizing Cyrill of Beroea. 
 
 P. 189, 9. The synod of Jassy, held under Parthenius patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, spoke of the 18 articles of the Confession which it condemned, 
 and the author of which, with all holding similar opinions, it anathematized, 
 only as attributed to Cyrill Lucar. In this synod the Orthodox Confession 
 drawn up under the direction of Peter Mogila, in Little Russia, and 
 revised and altered by Meletius Syriga at Constantinople, was examined 
 and approved. This was afterwards referred to, and followed in some 
 respects, by the synod held under Dositheus patriarch of Jerusalem in 
 1672, which condemned for the last time the Confession of Cyrill Lucar, 
 and put forth a contrary Confession, also in 18 articles, of its own ; while it 
 stated at length reasons of considerable weight for supposing that the Con- 
 fession condemned had not really been written by Cyrill Lucar at all, but 
 was a forgeiy passed off under his name by the Calvinists. 
 
 P. 189, 10. " Kostels," i. e. Latin Churches, from whence the title 
 "Castellans" for their priests. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 P. 192, 1. Michael, son of the Boyar Niceta Romanoff, was born the 
 12th of June A.D. 1596, was elected to the crown by the general consent 
 of the nobility, clergy, and all classes of the people, Feb. 21, 1613, died 
 July 13, 1645, and was buried in the church of the Archangel in Moscow. 
 
 The Monastery Court (p. 193.) was a lay court, for deciding all affairs 
 belonging to the landed properties of the Church and the monasteries, 
 and for settling all business relating to their villages, which was formerly 
 decided in the Patriarchal Court. The following extract from the Travels 
 of Macarius may serve in some degree to illustrate the working of those 
 principles which were finally established by the condemnation of Nikon :
 
 NOTES. 397 
 
 " To return to our account of this bishopric (Kolomna). All the estates 
 of the churches and convents are in the hands of the Tsar ; so that the 
 heads of the clergy have no power over such estates or their revenues ; but 
 it is the Tsar who sends to every convent, and to every bishop, persons 
 deputed and authorized by him as inspectors over all their funds and 
 income. No head of the clergy or of a convent has any command, except 
 over what he has with him as his personal effects. Every bishopric has its 
 bailiffs and stewards appointed on the part of the Tsar ; every convent 
 keeps a register of its income, and leaves the proceeds in the treasury, to 
 supply the wants of the emperor at the time that he marches out to war, as 
 we shall shew hereafter ; so that they neither build, nor throw down, nor 
 carry any thing away but with his knowledge and consent. All these 
 matters, as we have said before, they exactly register in books kept with 
 the greatest order and accuracy, and we saw here some of the attorneys of 
 the bishopric." 
 
 At the same time the archdeacon writes thus of the ecclesiastical juris- 
 diction ; " The place where the bishop holds his court is an arched building, 
 newly built of stone ; and therein is contained also his treasury. To this 
 bishopric belongs the absolute property of many farms, with their cultiva- 
 tors ; and within the enclosure of this palace is a large prison, furnished 
 with iron chains and heavy bolts, for the offenders. Whenever any one 
 among the bishop's peasantry has committed any misdemeanour, or has 
 been guilty of theft or manslaughter, they bring him and imprison him here, 
 and punish him according to his sentence, as we witnessed more than once, 
 by death or stripes. Over them the voivode has no jurisdiction : the 
 bishop's officers take their fines, and fix the mulct on the thief by doubling 
 the value of what he stole : this is their method of administering justice. 
 So, if any one of the bishop's sen-ants was guilty of drunkenness, they put 
 heavy chains on his neck and legs, and hung upon him a huge bolt, or log, 
 such as no beast of burden could drag. For many of these offenders our 
 lord the patriarch used to intercede, and obtained their liberation from 
 confinement." 
 
 And of the disposition of the Tsar towards the Church, as follows : " The 
 Tsar favours the clergy, and the monks, and every order of priesthood, 
 setting an example to the whole country of temperance, modesty, and 
 humility, of piety, and perseverance in prayer, and of the most generous 
 liberality to the bishops and other ecclesiastics, as well as to the various 
 institutions of monks, his faith and confidence in whom are only exceeded 
 by his beneficence towards them." Travels of Macariits, pp. 316, 314, and 
 318. 
 
 P. 196, 2. His deacon in his Life, gives us the address he made in the 
 words of our Saviour himself, to the rebels. " Are ye come out against me 
 with swords ? I have been daily with you, and ye did not touch me, why 
 are ye thus come ? Do you not see how I stand up before you, and do not 
 bend to you ? As I am a shepherd, it becomes me to lay down my life for 
 the sheep."
 
 398 NOTES. 
 
 P. 202, 3. Nikon, in the letter he afterwards wrote to the patriarch of 
 Constantinople, declares, and calls God to witness that he speaks the truth, 
 That the sovereign himself came to the church of the Assumption accom- 
 panied by the bishops and nobles, and that they all threw themselves on 
 the ground together with many of the people, and that while they were 
 thus lying they entreated him even with tears to become their chief 
 pastor, and that he, witnessing the extraordinary emotion of the Tsar, and 
 seeing how earnestly he desired his promotion, felt ashamed of his own 
 obstinacy, and recollecting that the hearts of kings are in the hand of God, 
 at length agreed to gratify their wishes, but required of all who were there, 
 that they would first give him their words, and make a covenant with him 
 in the church, before Almighty God, that they would, without fail, obey 
 him in all things as their chief pastor and their father, possessing the su- 
 preme authority over them. This the Tsar, the nobles, clergy, and the 
 whole assembly, promised to do before Almighty God on his Holy Gospel 
 and the venerable images. Platan's Hist, of Russia. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 P. 206, 1. The writer of the Travels of Macarius says that when he 
 arrived with the patriarch in Moldavia, " we were preceded by the chief of 
 the bishops of Ochrizon, a city founded by the Emperor Justinian, whose 
 banner was green. He also made his way to Potiblia ; and putting forth 
 the same pretensions (as the archbishop of Cyprus mentioned before, viz. to 
 be a patriarch) was treated with like disdain, until he sent to make his 
 excuses, and to beg pardon for his error. When we were in Wallachia, 
 there appeared there a certain Kyr Gabriel, chief of the bishops of the pro- 
 vince of Servia, whose see is the residence of a Pacha, and is called Ibakio. 
 This prelate was formerly under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of 
 Ochrizon, but having asserted his independence, he now pays a yearly 
 tribute to the Bostanji Bashi. He too pretended that he was a patriarch, 
 in all pomp and majesty, and we wrangled much with him and his disciples 
 on this score. This same prelate went before us from Wallachia towards 
 Moscow, in the middle of the Great Lent. He arrived at Potiblia in great 
 glory and magnificence, with led horses, with splendid saddles, silver 
 harness and armour, and flowing bridles : and now again he presumed to 
 call himself a patriarch ; and sent word of his arrival as such at Potiblia, to 
 the patriarch at Moscow and the lieutenant of the Tsar ; for the Tsar him- 
 self was absent on an expedition. In the mean time he bribed the voivode 
 with a sum of direms, and entered into the interior before any answer came 
 to his message. Not long afterwards he was met by a messenger on the 
 road, bringing with him a rescript, in which it was ordered that the prelate 
 should be made to leave the country ; for that a sixth patriarch was an 
 impossibility. He was accordingly forced to return a distance of three days' 
 journey. Then he had recourse to entreaties ; and at length prevailed on 
 them to let him send a letter to the patriarch, in which he humbled himself 
 and craved pardon for his error, and declared that he came to enter in the
 
 NOTES. 399 
 
 name of the sovereign (that is, to become his vassal and subject for life) ; and 
 on the receipt of this letter, they sent an order for his readmission in this 
 form." Travels of Macarius, Part iii. p. 282. 
 
 P. 213, 2. The History of the Travels of Macarius was written by his 
 attendant archdeacon Paul of Aleppo, who accompanied him, in Arabic ; 
 and the account of the first journey from Syria to Moscow and back again 
 to Aleppo in eighteen books has been translated by F. C. Belfour, Esq., and 
 printed by the Oriental Translation Fund in London. 
 
 P. 214, 3. " The Cross Koom," i.e., a room set apart for prayers, but 
 without any sanctuary or altar. The Nestorians, who have been separated 
 from the Orthodox Church now for fourteen centuries, and have preserved, 
 in what they have in common with it, the traditions of (at the least) the 
 fifth century, whenever they pray in their private dwelling-houses, set up a 
 small cross, which serves them instead of the sanctuary towards the east 
 and the altar in a church. The Russians and Greeks do the same thing, 
 with the addition of lights and a holy picture, connected, like the cross 
 itself, with some association of Christian faith. 
 
 P. 217, 4. The hill now called the " Mount of Olives" is only a few 
 hundred yards distant from the gate of the monastery, which is approached 
 from it by an avenue. There is still there a small chapel and cross, 
 marking the spot where the Tsar and the patriarch stood together when the 
 name of the New Jerusalem was first given to the projected monastery. 
 
 P. 217, 5. The model in wood is still preserved in the vestry of the 
 monastery of the New Jerusalem, as is also another of the church of the 
 Nativity at Bethlehem. 
 
 P. 223, 6. A small strong tower of four stories connected by a narrow 
 winding staircase, in the meadow, at the distance of a quarter of a mile 
 from the monastery. It is still in perfect repair. 
 
 P. 228, 6. The idea most dwelt upon by the Church, and indeed the 
 end, properly speaking, which she has in view in the holy unction, is the 
 obtaining the grace of bodily recovery from sickness through the forgive- 
 ness of sins, all sickness being originally the consequence of sin. But this 
 does not prevent her allowing the unction even to persons in health who 
 are in no bodily danger on some occasions, or to persons in danger of death 
 when there is no sickness ; the office not being wholly improper or out of 
 place so long as any part of its idea and purpose can hold good, though 
 certainly there is in such cases some verbal inconsistency in the prayers of 
 the office itself. In this particular instance, the idea of Nikon was pre- 
 cisely identical, so far as it appears, with that of the extreme unction of the 
 Roman Church. 
 
 P. 231,7. The klobouk (Kap.rj\avxiov) is a high cap, much like a hat
 
 400 NOTES. 
 
 without a crown, with a veil or cowl covering it, and falling down on the 
 shoiilders behind. It is worn by all the regular or black clergy, who have 
 received the tonsure and the gown. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 P. 234, 1. The position that the Communion of the Eastern or Greek 
 Rite is of itself the whole Catholic Church, to the exclusion of the Western 
 or Latin, is generally maintained as a technical point of school divinity, 
 but is not popularly believed among persons of education. It is difficult to 
 overrate the advantage which the Roman definition of the Church derives 
 from the false position in which the Eastern Church is thus placed by her 
 theologians, a position in which one compact third part of Catholic Chris- 
 tendom, by pretending to be the whole against two-thirds, deprives itself of 
 all that influence which it might otherwise exercise upon them, and prevents 
 the members of the Roman Communion from seeing any more probable 
 definition of the visible Church than their own. While we make these re- 
 marks, it is due to the author of this history to state at the same time, that 
 he has done no more than accept and express the recognised and established 
 opinion of the Russian and Greek divines, and that which is even embodied 
 in all the modern ecclesiastical legislation of the Eastern Church. 
 
 P. 237, 2. See above, p. 141, 15. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 P. 243, 1. The form of the celebration of the Liturgy differs in some 
 respects when a bishop officiates from that which is observed when the 
 chief celebrant is only a priest ; so much so, that the order for the Episcopal 
 Liturgy is printed separately in the pontifical, while that which the priest 
 follows is contained in the Sloujebnik, or Service-book. 
 
 P. 243, 2. The words in the original express both leave-taking and 
 making up a quarrel, making one's account straight with another who has 
 any thing against us. 
 
 Alexis was born in Moscow on the 9th of March, 1629, ascended the 
 throne July 13, 1645, and died January 29, 1676. Platon gives his will at 
 full length ; a curious document, which exhibits a strong feeling of religion, 
 and contains a very beautiful prayer. Theodore II., son of Alexis, was born 
 in Moscow, June 8, 1656, ascended the throne January 30, 1676, died April 
 27, 1682, and was buried in the Sobor of the Archangel. 
 
 P. 244, 3. The Monastery of St. Cyrill is on the White lake (Bielo- 
 ozero.) 
 
 P. 246, 4. The Refectory, or Trapeza, in the older monasteries, was, in 
 fact, part of the church, answering nearly to the western part of the nave 
 in our churches, and was separated by an arch, or by doors, or by projec-
 
 NOTES. 401 
 
 tions from the outer side-walls, more or less completely from the body of 
 the church under the dome or central cupola, and the transepts. 
 
 P. 252, 5. " Transubstantiation." This word appears both in the Ortho- 
 dox Confession, and in the eighteen articles of the Synod of Jerusalem held 
 under Dositheus A.D. 1672, which followed therein the Orthodox Confession; 
 and in these two documents it is not only the word, but the whole Roman 
 definition of the manner of the change by substance and accidents which 
 is asserted. However, by a strange and providential inconsistency, the 
 Greeks, whose only object was to assert the real presence and to reject 
 Calvinism, and who suspected no new difference between their own Church 
 and the Latin, beyond the old and well-known historical differences, coupled 
 their admission of the Roman definition of the manner of the change, with 
 a declaration, that by using the word " transubstantiation" they by no 
 means intended to define, nor to allow any attempt to define, the manner 
 of the change. This declaration passed from the Orthodox Confession into 
 the eighteen articles of Dositheus, and has ever since stood side by side in 
 both documents with the Roman definition of the manner, the incautious 
 admission of which it in fact neutralizes and condemns. Within the few 
 last years the Russian synod has published a catechism based upon the 
 Orthodox Confession, and stamped with all the authority of their 
 Church, in which the word " transubstantiation " is retained and allowed 
 with the explanation that it is by no means to be taken to imply any 
 definition of the manner ; and for this reference is made to the Orthodox 
 Confession, while the definition of the manner by substance and accidents, 
 which appeared also, though inconsistently, in the Orthodox Confession, is 
 entirely omitted. Words perfectly analogous to transubstantiation, such 
 as transmutation and transelementation, having been always in use in the 
 Church, it is evident, as divines of our own Church have shewn, that the 
 mere word transubstantiation may very well be used and taken in the 
 same sense. 
 
 P. 254, 6. Lvoff, and all the adjacent country which formerly belonged 
 to Russia, was seized on by the Austrians in 1772. The inhabitants still re- 
 tain their ancient Slavonian language, and their attachment to the Orthodox 
 Greek communion, with which 719 churches and 7 monasteries are still 
 connected. There are said to be 700,000 of these Russi Carpatici, as the 
 Society of Russian History and Antiquities (from whose Transactions, 
 vol. iii. p. 220, I have taken these details) calls them. These people, 
 although separated from Russia and united to Austria, are still Slavonians 
 in heart as well as in language, and would be a source of weakness to the 
 rulers of the latter country, if attacked by the former. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 P. 258, 1 . Of Metrophanes a curious anecdote is related in the Dictionary 
 of the Russian Saints published at St. Petersburg in 1836, (p. 184.) " Peter 
 the Great, who deservedly esteemed Metrophanes, was staying at Voronege, 
 
 nd
 
 402 NOTES. 
 
 of which place he was bishop, and had there a large work-room for his naval 
 preparations : on one occasion wishing to consult the prelate, he ordered him 
 to be summoned to attend him at a small palace near the city, in front of 
 which were placed the statues of many of the heathen divinities, amongst 
 others that of Venus. But Metrophanes when he saw the statue refused 
 to enter the palace, and returned home. When Peter heard of this he 
 sent for him a second time ; but the bishop replied that until he ordered that 
 statue to be removed, which was a scandal to the people, he would not enter 
 the doors. On this Peter ordered that he should be reminded that death 
 was the penalty of disobedience to the orders of the sovereign. The bishop 
 replied to the messenger, ' The Tsar has indeed power over my life, but it 
 is unbecoming an Orthodox monarch to set up heathen idols, and thus 
 scandalize ignorant people, and I would rather endure death than by my 
 presence give any countenance or reverence to idols.' Peter bore this 
 rebuke with patience : but Metrophanes thinking he had offended his sove- 
 reign, began to prepare in earnest for death, and ordered the bells of the 
 church to be struck for evening service. When Peter heard them he sent 
 to enquire the reason of their being rung, and when he learned that the 
 bishop had ordered it, that he might celebrate the Liturgy the next morning 
 for the last time, and so the better prepare himself for death, he laughed as 
 if it had been all a joke, ordered the offensive statues to be removed, and 
 again sent for the pious pastor, who on his arrival thanked Peter not so 
 much for the preservation of his life as for the removal of the scandalous 
 idols." St. Metrophanes is the last saint whose name has been placed in the 
 Russian calendar. This took place in 1832 ; since which time, as well as 
 before, many gifts of healing are said to have been obtained through 
 him. 
 
 P. 259, 2. John, the elder brother of Peter I., was born August 27, 
 1668, ascended the throne May 23, 1682, died October 1, 1696, and was 
 buried in the Sobor of the Archangel. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 P. 265, 1. The rouble could not at the utmost be reckoned at more than 
 4s. 6d., it is now about 3s. 2d. 
 
 The first current money in Russia was a kind of government token of 
 stamped skins ; and afterwards small pieces of leather under the different 
 denominations of Cuni or Cunes, Shkuri, Mordki, Lobki, Ushki, Rezani, 
 Dolgie, Zubi, Vegvshki, and Nogati (or skin of animals,) a certain number 
 of which went to make up the Grievna. The word Grievna* has a triple 
 signification : firstly, as a mark of honour worn on the breast, probably 
 a medal of silver or gold of a pound weight suspended by a chain round 
 
 In modem times, (i. e., since Peter the Great,) a coin has been struck bearing the same 
 name, of the value of the tenth part of a rouble, or nearly 4d. of our money, some of which 
 have been preserved to the present day, and the grievna at present is the tenth part of the 
 silver rouble.
 
 NOTES. 403 
 
 the neck ; secondly, as a means of reckoning the amount of money (like 
 the English pound sterling) ; thirdly, as a weight of a pound, either that 
 of Kieff, consisting of 72 zolotniks, or that of Novogorod of 96 zol. 
 Examples of the first sense of the word occur in the preceding History. 
 A grievna in the second sense of the word consisted of 50 cunes, marten 
 skins, or rezani, (for Chaudoir thinks the words are synonymous,) or 20 
 nogati, representing a grievna of silver, of which there were two de- 
 scriptions ; that of Novogorod, which weighs the same as the modern 
 Russian pound, (which is to that of the English avoirdupois as 1,09017, to 
 that of troy weight as 1,1096,) and that of Kieff, which weighed 72 zolotniks. 
 Vladimir and Moscow adopted the Kieff weight. The grievna, or cunes, is 
 mentioned for the first time in the Russian annals in the year 971, when 
 during a famine a horse's head was sold for half a grievna. The cunes are 
 supposed to have been at first the actual skins of martens : afterwards they 
 were represented by pieces of skin or leather bearing a stamp, engravings 
 of which are given in Chaudoir's work. At first the silver grievna, the 
 pound of silver, and the cunes grievna, were of the same current value, but, 
 (as has been the case in modern times also in Russia) the representative soon 
 fell below the value of the thing represented, either from the decreased value 
 of the skins themselves, or, more probably, from the increased quantity of the 
 leather tokens. This, however, continued to be the currency of Russia for 
 many centuries. At Novogorod during a famine 6f bushels of rye sold for 1 
 grievna of silver, or 7 cune-grievnas. In 1424 the citizens of Novogorod and 
 Pskoff, finding these leather tokens would no longer pass current amongst 
 foreigners in exchange for their goods, began to coin copper Groschen to 
 supply their places. The grievna, as before mentioned, was a bar of silver of 
 96 zolotniks, which we find mentioned for the first time in the year 1144. 
 Some specimens of these have been found in Riazan, weighing about 93 zo- 
 lotniks, without any stamp. To these succeeded the grievinka (diminutive) 
 or bars of half a pound of silver. I saw many of these that were found in 
 1821 in the old wall of Novogorod : they are about 4 inches long, and of 
 the thickness of a man's finger, very imperfectly cast, and varying in weight 
 from 42^ to 46 zolotniks : some of them were rudely stamped, others entirely 
 plain When these bars were cut in half they were called Roubles, (from the 
 Russian word "roubliou," signifying, " I cut,") and under this denomination, 
 at first as bars, and afterwards as coined money, and with varying but 
 always diminishing weight, they have become the current coin of the 
 country. As the Russian pound of 96 zolotniks, (about 14 ounces,) may 
 be calculated roundly at 3 10s., it will be easy to reckon what was 
 the value of the sums mentioned at any period of this History. To 
 the year 1462 the rouble retained its original weight of of a pound. 
 According to M c Cullock's dictionary, it is now worth 3s. 2d. 
 
 P. 265, 2. A Chetvert is equivalent to five bushels, 179 gallons, imperial 
 measure. 
 
 P. 268, 3. " The same leaning," that is, to foreign or heterodox 
 opinions ; not cettainly to the doctrines of Rome, of leaning to which in 
 
 D d2
 
 404 NOTES. 
 
 his writings he has never been suspected, but rather toward Lutheran or 
 Protestant theology, for which Stephen Yavorsky (as is mentioned in page 
 79) censured his theological treatises. It must not however be supposed 
 that the writings of Theophanes are rejected by the Russian clergy, or 
 his memory branded as that of a heretic ; on the contrary they fetch a 
 high price ; and one in particular, his Treatise on the Procession, (which is 
 mainly taken from the work of Adam Zoernikav,) is held in the very 
 highest estimation ; and in truth he was any thing rather than a mere 
 disciple of Lutheranism. He was the author of a Catechism published by 
 authority of the synod in the name of the Russian Church ; a translation of 
 which appeared at London in English in the year 1725 ; also of the Spiritual 
 or Ecclesiastical Regulation, and of the Answer returned by the Russian 
 synod to the proposals of the Sorbonne. 
 
 P. 272, 4. That is, probably on state occasions, on which it is still usual 
 for all indifferently who are in any ways attached to the court, or who hold 
 official positions, to attend at the celebration of the Liturgy. 
 
 P. 274, 5. The literal meaning of the name is " The Old Oak." At 
 that time they had no church at Starodouboff, but only at Vetka, which 
 was at no great distance, and out of the Russian dominions. 
 
 P. 280, 7. In 1684 a fortress on the river Amour was defended by about 
 400 Cossacks against a very numerous army of the Chinese. After displaying 
 prodigies of courage they were at length compelled to capitulate by famine. 
 The Chinese emperor was so pleased with the courage of these men, that 
 he allowed them to settle in Pekin, and have their own Church there, 
 which has subsisted from that time to the present day ; and the settlement 
 or college so formed has supplied interpreters through whom all the com- 
 merce between the two empires is conducted. 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 P. 284, 1. The word is in the original " Ecteneiae," which answer only 
 partially to our Litany, not having the same penitential character, but 
 resembling it in the number of petitions which are given out or bidden by 
 the deacon standing on the ambon, while the people make short responses 
 after each, crossing themselves and bowing towards the sanctuary in token of 
 concurrence at the same time. 
 
 P. 285, 2. Theophylact Lopatinsky was of Volhynian extraction ; he 
 studied and received the tonsure at Kieff, was prefect of the Spiritual 
 Academy at Moscow from 1706 to 1708, and then rector of the same 
 academy till 1722, when he became archimandrite of the Choudoff, and a 
 member (counsellor) of the newly instituted synod. In 1723 he was 
 ordained bishop of Tver and Kashinsk, and in March 1725 was raised to 
 the rank of archbishop ; and became the second of the two vice-presidents 
 of the synod, (Theophanes Procopovich being the first.) In 1728 he pub- 
 lished a book against " the Lutheran and Calvinistic heresies," in defence of
 
 NOTES. 405 
 
 the " Rockoi Faith" of Stephen Yavorsky, which as well as that work gave 
 great offence to the Duke Biron, and subjected its author to various perse- 
 cutions, and to imprisonment as a common lay person for five years, till the 
 death of the Empress Anne and the fall of Biron, which took place in 1740, 
 when he was set at liberty, and publicly reinstated by the synod in full 
 assembly, but died of paralysis before he could resume the charge of his 
 diocese. He left behind him another work in MS. under the following title : 
 " A Rejoinder to the Answer of Franciscus Buddeus, addressed to a friend 
 living at Moscow, on the Lutheran heresy, against the book of the late 
 Most Beverend Metropolitan of Riazan entitled the Rock of Faith." 
 
 P. 285, 3. The synod as at present constituted consists of eight 
 members, of whom six are bishops, and two (the high-almoners of the anny 
 and fleet) archpriests, who may be said in some sense to represent the 
 White clergy. 
 
 P. 285, 4. " Of rebaptizing Lutherans and Calvinists," and also as it 
 should seem " Papists ;" though that abuse had been once before dropped 
 and a second time (after it had been resumed by the Patriarch Philaret) 
 corrected synodically with the assistance of the Patriarch Macarius of 
 Antioch, in the time of Nikon. See above, p. 184. 
 
 P. 286, 5. A treaty for union between a Church believing itself to have 
 preserved the whole Catholic Faith and discipline, and another which it 
 supposed to have fallen away in various points from both, naturally involved 
 to the former the idea of a conversion, and must ever do so unless a real 
 unity in the Catholic Faith be supposed, in spite of any apparent mis- 
 understandings or differences, to have been preserved in both Churches 
 alike throughout from the beginning. 
 
 P. 286, 6. Cyrill Lucar was first made patriarch of Constantinople, 
 November 5, A.D. 1621 : he was exiled five times, and finally strangled in 
 1638. See Smith's "Account of the Greek Church," (London 1680,) and 
 Miscellanea, (1686,) and Aymon's work, printed at the Hague in 1708. 
 
 P. 286, 7. How Cyrill of Beroea was " obliged" to do what he did will be 
 better understood by those who know the history of the struggle, which 
 was carried on at Constantinople, between the French Papists and Calvinists, 
 and in which the Turks and the Greeks were only subordinate agents. 
 
 P. 286, 8. The council of Bethlehem was not convoked on purpose to 
 condemn the Calvinists ; but the occasion was taken by Dositheus to com- 
 ply with the request and follow the suggestions of M. de Nointel, the French 
 ambassador at Constantinople. The following are the words of M. de 
 Nointel, taken from the formal declaration signed by himself and his 
 secretary, and appended to the two editions of the acts of the synod, which 
 he caused to be published shortly afterwards at Paris. " Nous * * * attestons 
 a tous qu' il appartiendra, que le Sieur Dosithec, a present patriarche Grec
 
 406 NOTES. 
 
 <le la saintc ville de Jerusalem, ayant etc oblige de venir a Constantinople, 
 nous a declare qu' il avait pleinement satisfait a ce que nous avions souhaite 
 de lui, suivant les avis qu' il en avait receus par nos lettres, et qu' il esperait 
 &c. C'est la confiance qu' il nous a temoignee, nous raettant entre les 
 mains le present livre, &c." p. 360. Edit*. 2dse. 1678. 
 
 P. 286, 9. The Russian writers frequently use the word German (much 
 as the Orientals do that of Frank) for whatever is Western or Latin, because 
 they are themselves immediately in contact with the Teutonic races, and 
 even the nations which are further off from them, as the Italians, the French, 
 the Spanish, and still more the English, are in some sense German, as 
 opposed to Slavonian. But besides this, the Orientals themselves join the 
 Calvinistic and the Lutheran forms of Protestantism together, and call 
 them both indifferently the German Heresy, because Luther was a German, 
 and the Calvinistic Reformation seemed only to follow in the wake of the 
 Lutheran or German Protestantism. So in the Preface to the Synod of 
 Bethlehem, though held professedly against the Calvinists, the patriarch 
 and his bishops refer to the answers of Jeremiah (printed at Wittemberg, 
 in 1584) to the Lutherans, as being just as much to their purpose against 
 the Calvinists, as if they had been addressed to them. " For, say they, 
 after fifty years of the madness of Luther, Martinus Crusius of Tubingen 
 in Germany, with other sophists of the novelties of Luther (for Luther is 
 in mind and spirit twin brother to Calvin, in spite of their seeming to 
 differ in some particular points) sent the heads of their heresy to the 
 patriarch who then sat at the helm of the Apostolical Church which is in 
 Constantinople." Ib. p. 22. 
 
 However, it must be confessed that the Patriarch Dositheus, in his zeal 
 to condemn Calvinism and to oblige M. de Nointel, though by no means 
 (as the Calvinists pretended of all who gave similar testimony against them) 
 a dishonest or Latinizing Greek, but a man of no small merit, and sincerely 
 attached to his own communion, still did his work rather too " effectually," 
 and went somewhat beyond the strict limits of the doctrine of his own 
 Church. For not to mention the word and definition of transubstantiation, 
 in which he followed the Orthodox Confession of Mogila, or rather (and 
 especially with respect to that very point) of Meletius Syriga, he gave also the 
 Tridentine enumeration of the books of the canon of Holy Scripture, and 
 reproached St. Cyrill with being either a fool or a knave for calling the 
 others Apocrypha, and in answer to the question, Whether all the faithful are 
 to be allowed to read the Holy Scriptures ? he made his synod to answer 
 roundly "No!" On the subject of purgatory also, he goes so far in order to 
 symbolize with the Latins, that he really leaves no more than a verbal 
 difference. But these inaccuracies, which were not made matter of exami- 
 nation or discussion at the time, and on which neither Dositheus nor 
 Parthenius before him had any notion of making new determinations in 
 the name of their Church, can never derive any authority from the reception 
 and approbation given to the documents themselves, in which they were 
 contained. Those documents, both the Orthodox Confession, and the 
 eighteen articles of the synod of Bethlehem, have been reasonably approved,
 
 NOTES. 407 
 
 as answering the end for which they were designed, and embodying in sub- 
 stance the doctrine of the Eastern Catholic Church; but any accidental 
 Latinisms which may have been adopted without reflection, in speaking at 
 the instance of the French ambassador, and through the mouth of the 
 divines of the Port Royal, to bear testimony to the common doctrine of both 
 the Greek and Latin Churches against the Calvinists, on points on which 
 the Greeks were least of all then likely to suspect or look for any differ- 
 ences, besides those which were of historical notoriety ; any such incau- 
 tious admissions, I say, of Roman phraseology or opinions (which many 
 causes would concur in making probable) are of no sort of authority to 
 establish any new decision in the name of the Church, but may as easily 
 be omitted or corrected as mere errors of grammar or typography, as soon 
 as ever they are perceived to contain any thing contrary to the traditionary 
 standard of Orthodoxy. 
 
 P. 286, 10. The Orthodox Confession of Peter Mogila (or rather of 
 Meletius Syriga) has already been mentioned above, pp. 395, 396, 401, and 
 405. It has been received and set forth by synodical authority in all the 
 four Eastern patriarchates, and also in the Church of Little Russia. In 
 Great Russia it seems to have come in of itself, by virtue of its approval else- 
 where, without any re- examination or approval ; and has served for the 
 basis of most of the catechisms which have proceeded in later times from 
 the pens of different Russian prelates. 
 
 P. 287, 11. The Eastern patriarchs accused the British of being 
 " Lutherano-Calvinists." The eighteen articles of the synod of Jerusalem 
 seem first to have come into Russia on the occasion mentioned in the text. 
 The eighteen articles themselves, have since been published in Russ, with 
 some slight but important corrections introduced by the authority of the synod. 
 
 With respect to the two points of the traditional doctrine of the Eastern 
 Church which the Anglican Bishops are here said to have rejected, and the 
 rejection of which is termed heresy, it may be worth while to make a few 
 observations, not for the sake of entering into any abstract doctrinal ques- 
 tions, but in order to let the reader know precisely what were the facts of 
 the case in the correspondence in question. The two points are the invoca- 
 tion of saints and the outward reverencing of Icons or pictures. 
 
 On the first point, the British argued as if the " worshipping" of Angels 
 or Saints according to the sense and practice of the Eastern Church was a 
 deification of creatures, and consequently a plain heresy and apostacy from 
 the true faith : 
 
 On the second, that if the worshipping of the creatures themselves was 
 unlawful, much more the worshipping of their pictures or images must 
 be so : and besides, that it was a direct breach of the second Commandment : 
 
 Upon these grounds they desired to have a formal permission from the 
 Orientals to reject their doctrines and usages ; and yet at the same time 
 they signified that the Eastern Church might continue to worship creatures, 
 and teach idolatry as before, without in any way thereby disqualifying 
 herself for their communion.
 
 408 NOTES. 
 
 The patriarchs, on the other hand, maintained that the doctrine of vener- 
 ating and invoking the saints was scriptural and primitive ; and that it as 
 well as the canon of the second Council of Nice decreeing the "worship" of 
 images, was of (Ecumenical authority, and had been received by the whole 
 Church ; that therefore to reject either the one or the other was a heresy 
 inconsistent with the catholic religion. 
 
 At the same time, it is curious and important to remark, that putting 
 aside mere verbal ambiguities, misunderstandings about facts, and self-con- 
 tradictions, on one side or the other, there does not appear to have been any 
 difference between the two parties which really need have prevented union 
 even on their own principles : For, 
 
 1. On the Invocation of Saints, the Eastern patriarchs distinctly offered 
 not to insist on the adoption of any direct addresses by the English, but 
 were ready to content themselves with the acknowledgment of the Inter- 
 cession of the Saints, by some allusion or mention of it introduced in their 
 prayers to God ; while of course, they expected that the direct Invocations 
 retained in their own offices should no longer be confounded with that 
 divine worship which it would indeed be heretical and apostatical to offer to 
 any creature. 
 
 The British bishops on the other hand, in their correspondence, most 
 fully and distinctly admitted the Intercession of the Saints, and though 
 the death of Peter the Great prevented the continuance of the correspond- 
 ence at that time, yet it is a fact, that some of the most eminent bishops 
 of their own communion in England, had already actually done all that 
 the Easterns insisted upon, namely, made mention of the prayers of the 
 saints in prayer to God ; and that not only as a matter of private liberty, 
 but in a public service appointed in the year 1661, in pursuance of an Act 
 of Parliament, and at the command of the Crown, through the archbishop 
 of Canterbury, to be used in all churches on the day of King Charles 
 the Martyr. The following is an extract : 
 
 " We beseech Thee to give us all grace to remember and provide for our 
 latter end, by a careful studious imitation of this Thy blessed Saint and 
 Martyr, and all other Thy Saints and Martyrs that have gone before us, that 
 we may be made worthy to receive benefit by their prayers, which they in 
 common with Thy Church Catholic offer up unto Thee for that part of it 
 here militant, and yet in fight with and danger from the flesh." Cardwell's 
 Conferences, fyc. p. 388. 
 
 The fact that such a prayer was issued by the archbishop and the 
 bishops his brethren to be used in all the churches of England, is sufficient 
 proof that there was nothing in the terms offered by the Eastern patriarchs 
 on the subject of the Invocation of Saints, which need have thrown any 
 impediment in the way of the re-establishment of unity between themselves 
 and the British ; inasmuch as these latter had, in fact, already done the very 
 thing that was desired of them : while their own offer to make " a solid 
 union" with the Eastern Church, although she should persist in retaining 
 that whole system which they rejected for themselves as creature-worship 
 and idolatry, was a virtual abandonment of those charges. 
 
 2. On the second point of the Icons, nearly the same reflections will hold
 
 NOTES. 409 
 
 good. The Easterns did not insist on the reception of either the opinion 
 or the practice sanctioned by the second Council of Nice, on the ground 
 that they were in themselves essential to the integrity of the Catholic faith, 
 or to the being of a Church, but on the grounds of abstract (though 
 perhaps secondary) truth, and of (Ecumenical authority : while the English 
 bishops, on the other hand, distinctly rejected the opinion of the Icono- 
 clasts, admitted the use of images and pictures in the Church, and by no 
 means denied that they, like all other things connected with religion, ought 
 to receive a certain respect and reverence. As for their own rejection of 
 the Second Council of Nice, as teaching creature-worship and idolatry, this 
 they virtually neutralized and revoked by offering afterwards to make " a 
 solid union" and communion with the Eastern Church, although it should 
 persist in maintaining both the opinion and the usages sanctioned by the 
 Nicene canon ; while on the other hand one consideration which they 
 alleged, (but to which they do not seem to have given its due importance,) 
 namely, that the Nicene canon had never been synodically received by the 
 British Church, might, if they could have made good their assertion, have 
 afforded a sufficient ground to the Eastern Church for consenting to the 
 continuance of that difference of usage between the Churches in this point 
 after the re-establishment of unity, which had already existed before the cor- 
 respondence was commenced ; and that without any breach of ecclesiastical 
 principle, or the admission of any arbitrary right to particular Churches to 
 break laws to the enactment of which they had made themselves parties, 
 and which had received, together with their own concurrence, the sanction 
 of a wider and superior unity, or even of the whole Church. 
 
 What turn the correspondence might actually have taken it is impossible 
 now to conjecture with certainty : the circumstances under which it was 
 dropped were these : On the suggestion of Peter the Great the Russian 
 Synod had written to the British bishops to request them to send two of 
 their brethren to Russia " to have a friendly conference in the name and 
 spirit of Christ with two that are to be chosen out of our brethren. Hereby, 
 (such are the words of the synodal letter, taken from an English translation 
 made apparently by Dr. Brett,) the opinions, arguments, and persuasions 
 of each party may be more sincerely produced, and more clearly under- 
 stood, and it may be more easily known what may be yielded and given up 
 by one to the other, what on the other hand may and ought for con- 
 science's sake to be absolutely denied. In the mean time, no prejudice 
 will befal either your communion or ours from such a private conference, 
 nor the hopes of union be altogether lost thereby. This is the opinion of 
 our monarch concerning this most holy negotiation ; which seems indeed 
 to us the best. We desire that as soon as may be, you will let us know 
 how it appeal's to you. In the mean time God is seriously to be entreated 
 by each of us, to be merciful to us and you." 
 
 This letter was dated from Moscow, in February, 1723 ; but James the 
 Protosyncellus (who was to be the bearer) being delayed, there arrived in 
 the mean time from Constantinople the answer of the Greek patriarchs, with 
 the book of the eighteen articles made by Dositheus against the Calvinists, 
 which the synod forwarded together with their own letter which had been
 
 410 NOTES. 
 
 detained, and another dated February 2, 1724, the contents of which were as 
 follows : "A year is now passed since we delivered letters to the Keverend 
 Father the Protosyncellus, to be carried to you, but some impediments 
 have retarded his journey to England till this time. We acquainted you 
 in them how well pleased the most potent Emperor of All the Russias, our 
 gracious sovereign, was, to be further assured of your pious desire for the 
 peace of the Churches, and what advice he gave of the best method to bring 
 this holy endeavour to effect. And because he still continues constant in 
 the same opinion, we send the very same letters together with these, and 
 we desire you will pardon this delay rather for the sake of your own good- 
 ness, than for any other excuse that might be made. We also send you a 
 writing of the Greek prelates which we received from Constantinople during 
 the time that the Father Protosyncellus was preparing for his journey, being 
 desired by a letter from them to transmit it to you. In the mean time 
 we desire your charity to know that if, according to the advice of our 
 sovereign, you will send two of your brethren to a conference, which we 
 again entreat you to do, we may hope to bring our wishes to a more easy 
 conclusion ; which that at length He, the Lawgiver of love, the God of 
 peace, the Father of mercies, may prosper, is our hearty prayer and 
 desire," &c. 
 
 After the death of Peter, the High Chancellor Gallofskin, in a letter 
 dated the 16th of September, 1725, acknowledged the receipt of letters of 
 condolence from the British bishops, together with their compliments upon 
 the new accession ; and then with respect to the negotiation for an union 
 continued thus : "As to the affair you have mentioned of an union, you 
 may assure yourselves Her Imperial Majesty will support the same in such 
 sort and manner as His late Imperial Majesty supported it ; only at these 
 mournful times your lordships will please to have some longer patience, 
 till the first opportunity I can have to represent to Her Imperial Majesty 
 of all more at large, and then I do assure you, I will not fail to acquaint 
 you thereof," &c., with which communication the correspondence closed. 
 
 AUTHOR'S APPENDIX, No. I. 
 
 P. 289, 1 . " While we were here, they informed us that the bishopric of 
 Kolomna is the poorest of all the sees in the Muscovite dominions ; and 
 yet it has jurisdiction over more than fifteen towns that are the residence 
 of voivodes, such as Kolomna ; which latter voivodate extends over more 
 than 2,000 (200?) large and small boroughs and many villages, containing 
 some of them 10,000 (1,000?) houses. Of these fifteen castles, or chief 
 military residences, one is Kashira, the voivode of which has under his 
 command above 1,000 (100?) villages ; Sarbashko, resembling the former ; 
 Toula, with its trade and manufactures, &c. These fifteen Sanjaks, or 
 governments, hold command in all over more than 20,000 (2,000?) villages, 
 the number of inhabitants in which may be more easily guessed than 
 reckoned. They are all diocesans of this bishopric ; and yet it is consi- 
 dered poor and weak, God help it! Why the three patriarchates of Antioch,
 
 NOTES. 411 
 
 Alexandria, and Jerusalem, are not, all together, equal to it!" Travels of 
 Macariiis, Part iii. book vi. section ix. p. 317. 
 
 P. 302, 2. Old Rome is again said to have fallen away through the 
 Apollinarian heresy in the letter of the Tsar to the Patriarch Jeremiah at 
 p. 338. The Apollinarian heresy was synodically condemned at Alexan- 
 dria under St. Athanasius, A.D. 362, at Rome A.D. 373, and at Antioch 
 A.D. 378. Apollinaris himself died about the year 380. He taught that 
 there are two Sons in Christ, one the Son of God, the other the son of the 
 Virgin ; that the soul of Christ had no other reason than the Word ; that 
 His flesh was co-eternal and co-essential with His divinity, that He had 
 brought it down with Him from Heaven, and that it had only passed 
 through the Virgin as through a channel ; that He now had no longer any 
 body, and that His divinity had suffered upon^the cross. His disciples 
 added many other errors to the above. Bibl. Sacr., vol. ii. 
 
 What the meaning of this accusation against Rome may be is difficult to 
 discover. 
 
 P. 304, 3. Not to be confounded with the evening sen-ice itself, which 
 it followed, just as the ordinary molebens, which are desired at any time 
 by private individuals after any of the public services of the Church, 
 whether vespers, matins, or liturgy. 
 
 P. 305, 4. See above, p. 391, note 11. 
 
 P. 308, 5. "Archdeacon," that is, according to the literal meaning of 
 the word, which alone was known in primitive times in the West no less 
 than in the East, " the Chief Deacon," not, as with us now, a priest. 
 
 P. 308, 6. The High Place, that is, the bishop's place and seat at the 
 extreme east of the Church, raised by one or more steps. 
 
 P. 310, 7. The lifting up of the Panagia is a ceremony in honour of 
 the blessed Virgin peculiar to the refectories of monasteries or palaces in 
 the Eastern Church : a description of it may be found in Du Gauge's 
 Glossary. 
 
 P. 311, 8. The Holy Pictures often have frames, sometimes with a cur- 
 tain, sometimes glazed, and opening with hinges and doors. 
 
 P. 317, 9. Easter-day is called the Bright Resurrection, or the Bright 
 Sunday, and the whole week the Bright Week ; probably from the white 
 garments then worn by the newly-baptized and others, as well as from the 
 spiritual light or brightness of the festival. 
 
 P. 318, 10. " De'isus" signifies now in the Russian language an Icon, 
 in which our Saviour is represented in the centre, with the blessed Virgin 
 and St. John, or some other disciple, on the two sides. Such Icons, when 
 brought from Greece, had the word beyo-is painted under the figures, and
 
 412 NOTES. 
 
 from thence the Icons themselves came to be called Deisis by the people 
 who did not understand Greek. 
 
 P. 320, 11. " Vedros." One Vedro contains sixteen bottles. 
 
 P. 321, 12. "The Indiction," or "Indict," refers to a mode of com- 
 puting time ; and is an epoch or period of fifteen years complete, after which 
 it begins again. The word itself is Latin, and signifies " announcement," 
 " ordinance," " imposition." Three sorts of Indiction occur in books. 
 1. The Indiction of Constantinople, which begins the first day of Sep- 
 tember. 2. The Caesarian or Imperial Indiction, which consisted in 
 making announcement to the people on the 24th of September for the pay- 
 ment of a certain tribute. 3. The Roman or Pontifical Indiction, which is 
 still used in papal bulls, and which begins on the first day of January. No 
 chronological question is more obscure than the origin of the Koman 
 Indiction. Some make Julius Casar the author of it ; others the Emperor 
 Augustus ; others Constantine the Great, who they say instituted it in Sep- 
 tember, A.D. 312, after he had overcome the Tyrant Maximus. The learned 
 tell us, that the Indictions were fixed tributes and payments, the tariff for 
 which was published annually ; but they are unable to explain why any 
 such cycle as that of fifteen years should have been instituted, or why 
 the name of Indiction should have been given to the cycle itself. It seems 
 probable that the Roman Indiction was the quota which the provinces were 
 to furnish to the troops for their subsistence ; that this impost was renewed 
 every fifteen years ; and that fifteen years were taken in succession at a 
 time, because fifteen campaigns was the time that the Roman soldiers were 
 bound to serve. Bibliotheque Sacree, vol. xiii., from Fleurys Hist. Eccl. 
 lib. 10, p. 4. 
 
 AUTHOR'S APPENDIX, No. II. 
 
 P. 328, 1. This is probably a verbal error, which should be corrected 
 by inserting the words, " of Constantinople," after " Council ;" the reference 
 being to the third canon of the " First (Ecumenical Council of Constanti- 
 nople" which was, speaking with reference to the whole number, the Second 
 OEcumenical. The words 6/xoi'ws Se KOI fv rais aXKais eVap^iatj, in the 
 sixth canon of the first Council of Nice, could not well be quoted as esta- 
 blishing the precedence of the see of Constantinople over the other eastern 
 patriarchs. 
 
 P. 328, 2. " The Chrysobulla," i. e. " the Patriarchal Golden Seal," 
 which was a sign of independence. Oustreloff argues that the independ- 
 ence of the metropolitans of Kieff, Vladimir, and Moscow, must in some 
 sense have been recognised by the patriarchs of Constantinople from the 
 beginning, from the fact that the patriarchs were used to seal all their 
 missives (or bulls) addressed to them with the Golden Seal, which it was 
 customary to use only in communicating with prelates or princes having 
 independent jurisdiction or sovereignty.
 
 NOTES. 413 
 
 P. 329, 3. The use of the word " Head" in this passage in the text 
 may serve well to illustrate the inadequacy and ambiguity of words as 
 employed in ecclesiastical controversies, which really spring from a diverg- 
 ency of practical feeling, and not from any assertion or denial of contrary 
 or contradictory propositions upon abstract truth. The Pope joined the 
 Uniates to himself, in the first instance, by the single admission of his 
 " Headship" over the Church, but in a certain practical sense ; the Russian 
 Emperor and synod have recently reunited the same Uniates to their 
 original communion with the Eastern Church, on the single condition of 
 unsaying what they then said, i. e. in the same practical sense. But in 
 another sense, if the Greek patriarchs do not hesitate to recognise their 
 brother of Constantinople as " Head," it would seem naturally to follow 
 that in the whole united Church, the title of Head must be conceded by 
 them in a similar sense to the patriarch of old Rome. The unhappiness 
 is that Rome means a very different thing, practically, by her claim of 
 Headship, from any thing which the three patriarchs of the East, fallen in 
 power though they are, have ever yet dreamed of conceding to their brother 
 of Constantinople. 
 
 P. 329, 4. The " First Festival of the Saviour" is the day of His Trans- 
 figuration, the 6th of August; the second, is that of the " Icon not Made 
 with Hands," celebrated on the 15th of August. 
 
 P. 331, 5. " The compliments," i. e. "the presents," in which sense also 
 the term "blessing" is often used, much as in our old English version 
 of the Old Testament, " I pray thee take a blessing of thy servant," 
 &c. &c. 
 
 P. 332, 6. " Thy Greatness," (Velichestvo,) or " Highness," " Amplitu- 
 dini toe." 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 I. Of the measures of Peter I. and later sovereigns with regard to the property 
 of the Church. Extracted from Oustreloff's History, vol. iii. p. 145. 
 
 In imitation of all his predecessors, Peter the Great zealously exerted 
 himself to diffuse religion throughout his empire by intimating to his 
 subjects, that he esteemed the fulfilment of their religious duties as their 
 most important obligation, and by subjecting those who violated them to 
 the severest punishments. From this source proceeded many strict edicts 
 for the preservation of good discipline and order. He introduced very 
 important changes into the administration of the ecclesiastical department. 
 Two of the most remarkable of these were the institution of the Most Holy 
 Synod, and his regulations respecting the property of the Church. 
 
 The patriarchs who ruled the Church to the times of Peter, had main- 
 tained the doctrines of Orthodoxy, had exerted themselves to diffuse 
 religion among the people, and served their sovereigns with zeal. Peter
 
 414 NOTES. 
 
 refused to allow the appointment of a successor to Adrian the last of them ; for 
 he feared to find in him a powerful opponent of those plans for a general re- 
 modelling of the kingdom which he meditated, a zealous defender of all that 
 was ancient, and one who might have a very injurious influence on the minds 
 of the people. The better to prevent any disputes, he entrusted the 
 Guardianship of the patriarchal throne for a time to Stephen Yavorsky, 
 metropolitan of Riazan. But when the reforms of the government had 
 attained some consistency, Peter restored the duties and rights of the 
 patriarch : he did not, however, entrust them to one individual, but to a 
 council of a number of persons, under the name of the Most Holy Govern- 
 ing Synod. - The style and title of Most Holy had formerly belonged to the 
 dignity of patriarch ; and the Synod retains this epithet in all those parts 
 of the Church service, in which the patriarchs were formerly mentioned. 
 
 The (Ecumenical Primates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, 
 and Jerusalem, acknowledged the Synod as their Brother in Christ, 
 possessing the same authority and the same rights with themselves, and 
 entered into the same relations and communion with it as they had 
 formerly entertained with the patriarchs of Moscow and All Russia. Thus 
 the establishment of the Synod by no means weakened the bond of union 
 between the Russian and other branches of the Eastern Catholic Church ; 
 and no change took place in the constitution of our hierarchy. In the 
 mean time the general government of the Church was greatly improved ; 
 and two important measures of Peter contributed much to this ; first, the 
 publication of the ' Spiritual Regulation,' in which the rights, the duties, 
 and the whole extent of the power and responsibility of the clergy were 
 defined with the greatest precision ; the second, the appointment of a 
 civil dignitaiy named the ' Ober-Procuror' of the Synod, with all the rights 
 and duties of the ' General-Procurer' of the Senate, for the purpose of 
 seeing that all the affairs of the Synod are conducted in a regular 
 manner, and according to law : to use Peter's own words, he was to be the 
 "eye of the sovereign." 
 
 The property of the Church also received from his hands a different 
 organization. On the establishment of the Synod, the management of this 
 property was taken away from the jurisdiction of the Monastery Court, and 
 placed again under the superintendence of the spiritual authorities. But at 
 the same time a special department was formed for it, by the name of the 
 " Kammer-Kontora," under the Synod, consisting exclusively of lay indi- 
 viduals, for the purpose of looking after the collection and proper expen- 
 diture of the revenues derived from the monastery estates, some part of 
 which was applied to the use of the monasteries and the clergy, and the 
 remainder to the support of schools and hospitals. In the sequel, Peter 
 entertained the idea of fusing the property of the Church with that of the 
 state, and of appointing a certain fixed sum for the maintenance of the 
 clergy, and thus relieving them from the care of managing their own 
 estates, but his premature death prevented his bringing this important 
 affair to a termination. His ideas, however, were adopted and fulfilled by 
 Catherine II. 
 
 Peter III. instituted the ' Economy College' for the purpose of managing
 
 NOTES. 415 
 
 the property of the Church, which he took out of the hands of the spiritual 
 department (i. e. of the Synod.) He appointed certain annual payments to be 
 made to the ministers of the Church, and the remainder of the revenues 
 to be applied to the building of houses for his invalided soldiers. 
 
 The important and vexed question of the property of the monasteries, 
 which had occupied the attention of our government for the last three cen- 
 turies, was finally settled in the reign of Catherine II., according to the 
 plan and intentions of Peter the Great. 
 
 From the times of John III., the Government had been all along 
 endeavouring to introduce a more regular organization and management 
 into the extensive property of the monasteries, one which should be more 
 consonant with the original intent of those who bestowed it. John, who was 
 a prince of great abilities, entertained a design of taking away the property 
 of the Church, and bestowing it on the State, but was not enabled to do 
 it His successors endeavoured at all events to prevent the increase of the 
 possessions of the Church. But Peter the Great accomplished the plans 
 of John with his own characteristic quickness and decision. Having re- 
 established the Monastery Court in 1701, he entrusted to its cognizance 
 all the rights of judicature, and the collection of the rents from all the estates 
 which had belonged to the patriarchs, the bishops, and the monasteries. 
 He ordered a fixed allowance in corn and money to be given to the monks 
 and nuns, and applied the surplus to the other necessities of the empire, 
 and particularly to charitable purposes. In consequence of these measures 
 the superintendence of the serfs, who were attached to the estates of the 
 patriarch, the bishops, and the monasteries, was entrusted to laymen, who 
 were to be independent of the spiritual department. Twenty years later, 
 on the representation of the Synod that the property of the Church was 
 deteriorating under this lay management, the emperor ordered it to be 
 restored to the Monastery Court, under the inspection of the Synod : and 
 soon after this, for the purpose of introducing greater regularity in the col- 
 lection of the dues, and in their management, he instituted a College, under 
 the Synod, the members of which were to dispense the revenues they collected 
 to the spiritual Authorities and to the monasteries, according to the Regula- 
 tion of 1724, and remit the surplus which remained, together with an exact 
 account of the receipts and expenditure, to the Kammer-College. During the 
 reign of Catherine I., the Kammer-Kontora was converted into the College 
 of Economy, and was placed under the control of the Senate ; during that 
 of Anne, it acquired all the rights and powers of the Monastery Court. 
 The Regent Anna altered all the dispositions of the Empresses Catherine 
 and Anne, and ordered the management of all the Church property to be 
 entrusted to the spiritual authorities, under the condition, that they should 
 transmit the revenues to the College of Economy. 
 
 The Empress Elizabeth, at the commencement of her reign, suppressed the 
 College of Economy, and entrusted the management of the whole of the 
 estates of the Church to the Synod ; and for their due administration she 
 ordered a separate department to be organized under the Synod. At the 
 end of thirteen years she issued an order that the estates of the Church 
 should be no longer administered by persons appointed by the monas-
 
 416 NOTES. 
 
 teries, but by retired officers both of the superior and inferior ranks, (i. e. 
 staff, and subaltern.) This order, however, was not carried into effect till the 
 reign of Peter III., who re-established the College of Economy at Moscow, 
 and gave it full powers to administer the property of the Church, but at the 
 same time subjected it to the Senate. Such contradictory regulations in- 
 volved the whole affair in confusion, and such sudden changes gave rise 
 to much dissatisfaction. Catherine finally decided the question in the way 
 in which Peter the Great had desired. 
 
 Immediately after her ascension to the throne, she named a commission 
 composed of persons both clerical and lay of the first rank, for the purpose 
 of finally settling the destination of the property of the Church, in a man- 
 ner the most agreeable to its true destination, to the general advantage of 
 the kingdom, and to the real intent of the menastic life. The commission de- 
 cided to take the Church property, to which 900,000 male serfs were attached, 
 away from the spiritual jurisdiction, and to entrust it to the College of 
 Economy, and imposed on the serfs, instead of their former varying contri- 
 butions in kind of hay, corn, &c., an annual payment of one rouble and rifty 
 kopeaks, and ordered that they were to apply the revenues derived from 
 that source, towards keeping up the fabrics and ornaments of the churches 
 in a suitable and even splendid state, in .paying the due appointments to 
 the spiritual Authorities, and to the different monasteries, in establishing 
 schools and such like pious purposes. There were 28 spiritual schools 
 established with 6,000 scholars ; and the sum allowed for their support 
 was 40,000 roubles. 
 
 All the monasteries in the empire were divided into three classes, and to 
 each of these was assigned a certain rank, and an allowance corresponding 
 with it. A few of the lesser solitary religious houses that had but small 
 societies, were dissolved, and converted into parish churches. The White 
 clergy (parish priests) were relieved from the oppressive contributions, both 
 in money and corn, which had been imposed upon them during the govern- 
 ment of the patriarchs, for the support of the spiritual schools. Invalided 
 soldiers were no longer to be sent to the monasteries for support, as had 
 formerly been the case ; but instead they were to be sent to live in the 
 frontier towns of the empire, and to receive a pension which was to be 
 taken from the economy revenues. The empress confirmed all these arrange- 
 ments of the commission, and with a liberal hand fixed the allowances to 
 be made. She thus freed the monastic brethren from the cares of managing 
 their property, and deciding on disputes and suits, which were unsuitable to 
 their calling, and introduced a due regularity into the spiritual department. 
 
 II. Of the state of the Russian hierarchy, and Monastic or Black clergy. 
 
 The following view of the state of the Russian hierarchy and monastic clergy 
 in the year 1830, is compiled from sources which may be depended upon ; 
 though some expressions may occur in it which indicate that the writer 
 was a layman, and not a member himself of the Russian Church. " Tl.e 
 ecclesiastical administration has been based from the beginning upon the 
 canonical prescriptions, upon the (Ecumenical and Provincial Councils,
 
 NOTES. 417 
 
 upon which the Synod still proceeds in all that it does, being bound how- 
 ever at the same time to conform to the Ecclesiastical Regulation enacted in 
 the year 1721, under Peter I., and to the imperial edicts which have been 
 is suedsince that time, (which has respect chiefly to the organization of the 
 hierarchy and the distribution of its revenues, according to the Regulations 
 of 1721, 1799, 1803, &c.) 
 
 In place of the patriarch, the Ecclesiastical Regulation instituted a spiritual 
 college called the Synod ; that is to say, a body, the appointment of the 
 members of which, as they change, depends chiefly upon the will of the 
 emperor, as supreme governor in the Church, and the representations of 
 the High-Procurator >. 
 
 The ordinance of 1764 took away from the monasteries, and from the 
 episcopal sees, all their prope.rty in peasants and villages, and so entirely 
 deprived them of all political importance, and all social influence over the 
 other classes and the people at large. 
 
 The clergy are divided into, I. the monastic or black clergy, from which 
 all the members of the superior hierarchy are taken, that is to say, all the 
 metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops of the eparchies or dioceses ; these 
 govern the Church ; after whom comes the monastic clergy, whose lives 
 and duties are confined in general to their monasteries, the archimandrites, 
 hegumens, priest-monks, and priest-deacons, who, together with the rest, 
 who are simply monks, make up this first division. II. The secular or 
 married, or White clergy. This consists of the priests or curates, who are 
 either simply priests, or archpriests (protopopes),and the deacons, who assist 
 them : they must all, deacons and priests alike, be married ; and together 
 with these are to be reckoned, the sub-deacons, readers or clerks, sextons, 
 bell-ringers, and all inferior servants of the churches, whether in the towns 
 or in the country. The following statement applies only, or almost only, 
 to the hierarchy and Black clergy : 
 
 A. Of the eparchies or episcopal sees and districts. 
 
 It is well known that All Russia was formerly only one archiepiscopal or 
 metropolitan see (divided however into two since the subjection of Kieff to 
 Poland) and continued so till the 16th century. Her metropolitans gradually 
 came to be independent, a*ce'<aXot, and were always in direct communi- 
 cation with the Greek patriarch of Constantinople. 
 
 Upon the creation of a Russian patriarch in the year 1589, the title of 
 Metropolitan was multiplied, and became (as that of Archbishop had been 
 before) purely nominal. These dignities are still merely honorary, being 
 accorded to diocesan bishops, who are all precisely equal one with another, 
 and with the rest who have only the simple title of Bishops, each in his own 
 eparchy, and who are all equally subject, for every thing that exceeds their 
 power as diocesan bishops, to the authority of the Holy Synod. Even the 
 exarch or archbishop of Georgia is not exempt from this dependence ; and 
 in this we cannot fail to observe a marked difference between the constitution 
 of the modern Russian and that of the ancient Greek hierarchy, in which 
 latter all the metropolitans (whether independent, avroK((f)ahoi, or not,) 
 
 *> In the same manner, that is, as the appointment of bishops and patriarchs had done 
 before, but no farther. 
 
 E e
 
 418 NOTES. 
 
 though ranking under the patriarch of Constantinople, still governed each his 
 archbishops, and these again the bishops who were under them. In Russia, 
 the number of the archbishops and bishops, as well as the territorial limita- 
 tion of their eparchies, has ever depended, in the main, upon the will of the 
 Tsars ; and the episcopal dioceses varied accordingly, and were sometimes 
 increased, sometimes diminished, sometimes altogether changed in name. 
 At present, (i. e. in the year 1830), there are forty eparchial or diocesan 
 bishops, with five vicar-bishops, besides the four dioceses of Georgia, which 
 are ruled by a metropolitan or exarch. The forty eparchies are divided 
 into three classes. 
 
 The first class consists of 
 
 1. The eparchy or metropolitan see of KiefF, which enjoys an honorary 
 precedence over all the rest. The metropolitan is still styled of Kieff and 
 Gallicia, though this latter province has been separated from JRussia now 
 more than 500 years. His vicar (or suffragan) takes the title of Bishop of 
 Chigirin. The vicars rank the lowest of all the bishops, and are really what 
 their name implies, mere deputies and representatives of the metropolitan 
 to whom they belong, without any independent powers. The metropolitan 
 of Kieff is at the same time archimandrite of the Pechersky monastery. 
 The metropolitan of Kieff in 1830 was Eugenius. The name of the present 
 is Philaret, who is a member of the synod, as was also his predecessor ; 
 
 2. The metropolitan see of Moscow. The bishop (the celebrated Phi- 
 laret) is a member of the synod : his title is Metropolitan of Moscow and 
 Kolomna ; and he is at the same time archimandrite of the monastery 
 of St. Sergius, or as it is more correctly termed, of the Holy Trinity. His 
 vicar has the title of Bishop of Demetriefsk. 
 
 3. and 4. The metropolitan sees of Novogorod, and of St. Peters- 
 burgh; which have often been held separately, but are sometimes, as at 
 present, united under one and the same prelate. The name of the present 
 metropolitan is Seraphim, who is also the presiding member of the synod. 
 His title is Metropolitan of Novogorod, and St. Petersburgh, Esthonia, and 
 Finland. He has two vicars, one of whom takes his title from Revel, the 
 other from Staro-Rouss. 
 
 The second class consists of 
 
 5. The see of Kazan, the occupant of which has the title of Metropolitan 
 of Kazan and Simbirsk. 
 
 6. Astrachan ; the title, Archbishop of Astrachan and Tenotaieff. 
 
 7. Tobolsk ; the title, Archbishop of Tobolsk and Siberia. 
 
 8. Yaroslavla ; the title, Archbishop of Yaroslavla and Rostoff. 
 
 9. Pskoff or Pleskoff ; title, Archbishop of Pleskoff, Livonia, and Courland. 
 
 10. Riazan ; title, Archbishop of Riazan and Saraisk. 
 
 11. Tver ; title, Bishop or Archbishop of Tver and Kashine. 
 
 12. Ekaterinoslaff ; title, Archbishop of Ekaterinoslaff, Kherson, and 
 the Tauride. 
 
 13. Mogileff ; title, Bishop of Mogileff and Vitebsk. 
 
 14. Chernigoff; title, Archbishop of Chernigoff and Neschine. 
 
 15. Minsk ; title, Archbishop of Minsk and Livonia. 
 
 16. Podolia ; title, Archbishop of Podolia and Bratslaff.
 
 NOTES. 419 
 
 17. Kishineff; title, Archbishop of Kishineff and Khotine. 
 
 18. Olonetz ; title, Bishop of Olonetz and Petersavodsk. 
 
 19. Novocherkask ; title, Bishop of Novocherkask and Georgiefsk. 
 The third class contains 
 
 20. Kalouga ; title, Bishop of Kalouga and Borofsk. 
 
 21. Smolensk ; title, Bishop of Smolensk and Dorogobouge. 
 
 22. Nijny-Novogorod ; title, Bishop of Nijny-Novogorod and Arsamas. 
 
 23. Koursk ; title, Bishop of Koursk and Biel-gorod. 
 
 24. Vladimir ; title, Bishop of Vladimir and Souzdal. 
 
 25. Vologda ; title, Bishop of Vologda and Oustiog. 
 
 26. Toula ; title, Bishop of Toula and Beleff. 
 
 27. Viatka ; title, Bishop of Viatka and Slovoff. 
 
 28. Archangel ; title, Bishop of Archangel and Kholm. 
 
 29. Voronege ; title, Bishop of Voronege and Zadonsky. 
 
 30. Irkoutsk ; title, Bishop of Irkoutsk and Nerschinsk. 
 
 31. Kostroma ; title, Bishop of Kostroma and Galich. 
 
 32. Tamboff; title, Bishop of Tamboff and Shatz. 
 
 33. Orel ; title, Bishop of Orel and Sevsk. 
 
 34. Pultava ; title, Bishop of Pultava and Pereyaslavla. 
 
 35. Volhynia ; title, Bishop of Volhynia and Jitomir. 
 
 36. Perm ; title, Bishop of Perm and Ekaterinenbourg. 
 
 37. Penza ; title, Bishop of Penza and Saransk. 
 
 38. Saratoff ; title, Bishop of Saratoff and Tsaritzin. 
 
 39. The Ukraine ; title, Bishop of The Ukraine and Karkoff. 
 
 40. Orenbourg ; title, Bishop of Orenbourg and Oufa. 
 
 Besides the forty dioceses now enumerated, there is the Georgian Church, 
 consisting of 
 
 1. The Exarchate, or Metropolitan See, which has jurisdiction over the 
 other dioceses. The exarch takes his title from Signakish and Kisigsky. 
 
 2. The Bishop or Archbishop of Gori, who is also vicar to the exarch. 
 
 3. The Archbishop of Imeretia. 
 
 4. The Metropolitan of Mingrelia. 
 
 The exarch is at the same time member of the synod at St. Petersburgh, 
 and president of the (national or) local synod of Georgia, which is named 
 the Synodal-Kontor, to mark its subordination to the supreme patriarchal 
 synod at St. Petersburgh. 
 
 [To the above list are further to be added the following dioceses, which 
 have been erected since 1830: 1. Simbirsk; 2. Polotsk; 3. Tomsk; 4. 
 The Aleoutine Islands, Kamschatka, and Russian America ; 5. Kherson ; 
 6. Wilna; 7. Vitebsk; 8. Warsaw; and five vicariates, of Riga, Podolia, 
 Volhynia, Voronege, and Ekaterinenbourg ; making the whole number of 
 sees, with the addition of the vicariates, and those of the Georgian Church, 
 (and reckoning Novogorod and St. Petersburgh apart,) to amount at the 
 present time to sixty-one. 1842.] 
 
 B. Of the Episcopate (including its officers and servants.) 
 Each see has its own officers and servants with salaries from the crown, 
 as follows : 
 
 EC2
 
 420 NOTES. 
 
 Each one of the three metropolitans, or eparchial bishops of the first 
 class, receives in accordance with the regulation of 1764 1797, since the 
 incorporation of the property of his see with the domains of the crown, 2,000 
 roubles, which were then paid in silver, but are now paid in assignats, (three 
 and a half of which equal one silver rouble,) making for the three 6,000 
 roubles. The thirteen bishops of the second class receive each from 1,000 
 to 1,500 roubles, in all 15,000 r. Those of the third class, in all 20,000 r., 
 (the sees erected since 1830 are not here taken into account.) Besides the 
 above payments in lieu of their former revenues, they receive also certain 
 government allowances ; the metropolitan of St. Petersburgh and Novo- 
 gorod to the amount of 15,692 r.,the metropolitans of Moscow and of Kieff 
 8,976 r. each. The bishops of the second class, from l,000r. to l,800r., (in 
 all 26,000 r.) ; and those of the third class, each 1,000 r. to 1,400 r., (in all 
 32,000 r.) 
 
 From these sums they are required to maintain the functionaries who 
 are attached to the see of each one of them respectively ; that is to say, to 
 provide them with a table, and wood for firing, with lodging, and equipage. 
 The functionaries of the monastic state belonging to the house of each 
 bishop, are the purveyor or economus, the confessor, the priest-monks, and 
 deacon-monks, the keepers of the vestry, church furniture, books, and orna- 
 ments, and lastly the simple monks. The appointments allowed for all 
 these differ, but are nothing considerable for any of them. The max- 
 imum for the priest-monks and deacons, &c. is 350 r. ; the minimum for 
 the simple monks, from 25 r. to 30 r. In addition, secretaries are employed, 
 who receive from 35 r. to 40 r. per annum ; servants with 24 r. to 33 r. ; and 
 lastly, servants who are serfs, belonging to what were formerly the Church 
 lands, now annexed to the crown. These last receive no wages, and the 
 bishop is bound to keep them ; only the synod pays their capitation-tax for 
 him to the crown. 
 
 Besides the above, there is an allowance of from lOOr. to 200 r. a-year 
 for bread and wine for the eucharist ; from 200 r. to 300 r. for church vest- 
 ments, &c. ; also for the repair of the cathedrals and episcopal residences, 
 1,000 r., that is to say, from 800 r. to 1,000 r. for the first two classes. Then 
 for keeping up hospitals or alms-houses, (of which there are fifty in the 
 eparchies of the first class,) 500 r. yearly ; for thirty in the eparchies of the 
 second class, 300 r. to each eparchy ; and for twenty-five in the third 
 class, 200 r. 
 
 The four vicar-bishops and their episcopal churches receive sums destined 
 to be applied in the same way, but less than the bishops of the third class. 
 The amount of these sums, according to the number of persons employed, 
 as also that of the capitation paid for the servants taken from among the 
 serfs of the crown, is set down exactly in the statement below marked C. 
 
 Besides what has been specified above, each diocese has been suffered to 
 retain some small quantity of land, ponds, or fisheries, houses, gardens, 
 and other property, (though without any peasants attached,) which yield 
 something additional in the way of revenue. This may amount for the 
 metropolitans to from 6,000 r. to 8,000 r. in addition, and for the others 
 in proportion. The maximum revenue of a metropolitan, including the
 
 NOTES. 421 
 
 money he receives as bishop, and as archimandrite, varies from about 
 25,000 r. to 30,000 r. ; that of a bishop or archbishop of the first class, from 
 15,000 r. to 18,000 r. ; of the second class, from 10,000r. to 15,000 r. ; and 
 of the third class of vicar-bishops, from 5,000 r. to 6,000 r., without reckon- 
 ing presents which they may receive from people of wealth for burials, &c. 
 When the emperor is pleased to permit any metropolitan, archbishop or 
 bishop, to retire, from age or other infirmity, from his see, an edict is issued 
 to that effect, and he then retires into some monastery. In such cases the 
 retiring bishop is allowed a pension of from 4,000 to 6,000 r. and the use 
 of some servants. But sometimes bishops have been commanded to retire, 
 and refusing, have been placed in strict confinement by the civil power. 
 
 C. A specification of the sums allowed in the year 1830, for the support 
 of all the above-mentioned metropolitan, archiepiscopal and eparchial sees 
 according to the order in which they have been already given. 
 
 1st. Class. 1. For the metropolitan see of Kieff, and its establishment of 
 officers, 9,694 roubles. . . The capitation money for the serfs allowed, 885 r. 
 2. The metropolitan see of Novogorod (in which the people employed 
 amount to seventy-six) 14,621 r., and for capitation of serfs, 885 r. ; 3. Mos- 
 cow (including the support of the Choudoff monastery) 12,593 r., and 75 
 people employed, the capitation amounting to 975 r. ; 4. St. Petersburgh 
 (with the convent of St. Alexander Nefsky) 31,114 r., and 86 people em- 
 ployed, the capitation for whom was 1,489 r. 
 
 2nd. Class. 5. For the metropolitan see of Kazan 6,879 r., and 60 people 
 employed, whose capitation is 798 r. ; 6. Astrachan 6,879 r., cap. of 60 
 servants, 738 r. ; 7. Tobolsk 6,938 r. and cap. of 60, 678 r. ; 8. Yaroslavla 
 6,979 r. and cap. of 60, 798 r. ; 9. Pleskoff 7,655 r. and cap. of 60, 678 r. 
 10. Biazan 6,979 r. and cap. of 60, 789 r. ; 11. Tver 6,938 r. and cap. of 60, 
 789 r. ; 12. Ekaterinoslaff 6,679 r. and cap. of 60, 783 r. ; 13. Mohileff 6,357 
 r. and cap. of 60, 678 r. ; 14. Chernigoff 6,783 r. and cap. of 60, 678 r. ; 15. 
 Minsk 6,277 r. and cap. of 60, 678 r. ; 16. Podolia 6,638 r. and cap. of 60, 
 678 r. ; 17. Olonetz 7,075 r. and cap. of 60, 648 r. ; 18. Novocherkask 6,843 
 r. and cap. of 60, 798 r. ; 19. Kalouga 10,077 r. and cap. of 46, 611 r. ; 20. 
 Smolensk 5,720 r. and cap. for 46, 565 r. ; 21. Nijny-Novogorod 5,172 r. and 
 cap. for 46, 611 r. ; 22. Koursk 5,272 r. and cap. for 46, 611 r. ; 23. Vladimir 
 5,572 r. and cap. for 46,611 r. ; 24. Toula 5,272 r. and cap. for 46, 611 r. ; 
 25. Viatka 5,472 r. and cap. for 46, 611 r. ; 26. Archangel 6,364 r. and cap. 
 for 46, 496 i. ; 27. Vologda 5,720 r. and cap. for 46, 565 r. ; 28. Voronege 
 5,272 r. and cap. for 46, 611 r. ; 29. Irkontsk 5,316 r. and cap. for 46, 519 r. ; 
 30. Kostroma 5,572 r. and cap. for 46,611 r.; 31. Tamboff 5,272 r. and cap. 
 for 46, 611 r. ; 32. Orloff 5,022 r. and cap. for 46, 611 r. ; 33. Pultava 5,070 r. 
 and cap. for 46, 519 r. ; 34. Volhynia and Jitomir 5,266 r. and cap. for 46, 519 
 r. ; 35. Perm 5,070 r. and cap. for 46, 565 r. ; 36. Penza 5,266 r. and cap. for 46, 
 611 r. ; 37. Saratoff 5,516 r. and cap. for 46, 611 r. ; 38. Ukraine 4,466 r. and 
 cap. for 46, 611 r. ; 39. Orenbourg 4,966 r. and cap. for 46, 611 r.; the 
 whole sums amounting for the 39 sees (with the Kopecks, which are omit- 
 ted in the above statement) to 279,797 r. 21 k., and the capitation for 2,132 
 serfs 26,046 r. 40 k., or in all 305,833 r. 61 k.
 
 422 NOTES. 
 
 Then further for the vicar-bishops. 
 
 1. Of Kieff 1 ,254 r. and cap. for 12, 147 r. ; 2. of Novogorod 1,283 r. and 
 cap. for 12, 135 r. ; 3. of Moscow 1,254 r. and cap. for 12, 159 r. ; 4. the 
 vicar of St. Petersburgh besides his salary of 1,000 r. has other advantages 
 and perquisites to the amount of 2,000 r. more, making in all 3,000 r. These 
 sums make for the vicars 6,792 r. and cap. for serfs 442 r., which added 
 to the former, make the united sum total 313,178 r. 86 k. 
 
 D. Statement of persons employed in the different consistories and their 
 salary. Taken generally, there are in the whole extent of the empire 39 
 consistories, which are ordinarily composed of from three to five members. 
 In accordance with the ordinances of 1764-1797 (and their subsequent par- 
 ticular modifications) each consistory has its own chancery to itself, in which 
 are the following functionaries ; 1 . A secretary at from 300 to 700 r. ; 
 2. an assistant with from 200 to 400 r. ; 3. four writers with from 160 to 
 280 r. ; 4. four sub-writers with from 120 to 180 r. ; 5. transcribers with 
 from 80 to 140 r. The salary of the office-keepers is from 40 to 48 r. ; 
 also nine messengers whose wages are from 40 to 48 r. The maximum 
 allowed for the expenses of any chancery, as for that of St. Petersburgh, is 
 1,296 r. ; the allowance for the rest varies from 190 to 396 r. 
 
 The expenses under this head for all the eparchies in order as above, 
 are as follows : First class: 1st eparchy, 3,925 r. ; 2nd, 4,932 r. ; 3rd, 
 3,925 r. Second class : 4th eparchy, 5,228 r. ; 5th, 3,140 r. ; 6th, 2,460 r. ; 
 7th, 2,840 r. ; 8th, 3,080 r. ; 9th, 2,549 r. ; 10th, 2,860 r. ; llth, 2,940 r. ; 
 12th, 2,460 r. ; 13th, 2,500 r. ; 14th, 2,960 r. ; 15th, 8,336 r. ; 16th, 3,360 r. ; 
 17th, 2,460 r.; 18th, 2,460 r. Third class: 19th eparchy, 2,271 r. ; 20th, 
 2,271 r. ; 21st, 2,871 r. ; 22nd, 2,771 r. ; 23rd, 2,871 r. ; 24th, 2,471 r. ; 
 25th, 2,771 r. ; 26th, 2,271 r. ; 27th, 2,271 r. ; 28th, 2,271 r. ; 29th, 
 2,271 r. ; 30th, 2,711 r. ; 31st, 2,671 r. ; 32nd, 2,671 r. ; 33rd, 2,571 r. ; 
 34th, 3,071 r. ; 35th, 2,571 r. ; 36th, 3,071 r. ; 37th, 2,270 r. ; 38th, 2,271 r. ; 
 39th, 2,271 r. The sum total of which for all the thirty-nine consistories is 
 1 14,777 r. 
 
 E. Of the administration of the districts of the Church. 
 
 The monasteries, and the curates, of each eparchy are placed under the 
 eye of Inspectors, whose duty is to see that all goes on regularly. These 
 officers report all cases that arise to the judgment of the consistory and 
 bishop of the eparchy. Each inspector or district-dean has a writer allowed 
 him, and a copier besides, who receive each of them a salary of eighty 
 roubles ; also two office-keepers at 40 r. each, and an allowance of 40 r. 
 more far the expenses of their chancery. The whole empire contains, in 
 the thirty-nine eparchies and four vicariates, two hundred and ninety-two 
 deans, or inspectors of districts, who employ one thousand four hundred 
 and sixty persons. Their average salary (of the deans) is from 400 to 
 500 r. 
 
 The consistories exercise functions which are partly administrative, and 
 partly judicial. They have the control of the deans, which is matter of 
 administration, and the business of deciding in the first instance upon all
 
 NOTES. 423 
 
 matters of marriage and penitence (i. e. ecclesiastical discipline) which is 
 judicial. 
 
 However, their decisions require to be confirmed by the bishops of the 
 dioceses ; and the more important matters, such as cases of divorce, go to the 
 synod. The bishop presents them for confirmation, and gives his own 
 opinion at the same time. The decision of the synod is returned to the 
 bishop, and from him goes to the dean. 
 
 F. Of the convents of monks and nuns, the three principal monasteries 
 have the title of Lavras, viz., those of the Pechersky (the Catacombs) at 
 Kieff, of St. Sergius in the neighbourhood of Moscow, and of St. Alex- 
 ander Xefsky at St. Petersburgh. The rest are divided into three classes, 
 the first, consisting of those which depend immediately upon the synod ; 
 these are fifteen in number, and are called Stauropegial, from the large 
 double crosses with which they are surmounted. The second class consists 
 of the eparchial or diocesan monasteries, which are subject to the jurisdiction 
 of the diocesan bishops. The third class consists of lesser monasteries, 
 which are not counted in the government list, though their members 
 receive annual allowances. Some however of these there are which receive 
 no allowance, but are permitted to hold some quantity of land instead. 
 There are also a considerable number of priories or hermitages which are 
 not reckoned, inasmuch as they depend upon some one or other of the larger 
 monasteries, and are considered to be as it were parts of them. 
 
 I. Of the three Lavras. 
 
 The archimandrites (who are also metropolitans) receive salaries of 1000 r. 
 annually, and 2000 r. besides for the table. The vicar or deputy-archiman- 
 drite receives 300 r. ; the steward or OZconomus, 150 r. ; the treasurer, 
 150 r. ; the confessor, 50 r. ; the vestry-keeper, 50 r. ; thirty priest-monks, 
 24 r. each ; twenty deacon-monks, 24 r. each ; twenty monks in service, 
 20 r. each ; twenty hospitallers, 20 r. and four bell-ringers, 20 r. There 
 are in all in these three monasteries 313 persons of the monastic state ; 
 besides whom there are singers, servants, officers of the chancery, &c. who 
 receive altogether 57,357 r. Again, besides these, there are 200 work- 
 people taken from the serfs, whose capitation amounts to 2,560 r. ; so that 
 the sum total of all amounts to 59,917 r. assignats. 
 
 II. State of the other monasteries of the first class. 
 
 As far as their personal composition is concerned, they consist of an archi- 
 mandrite with 600 r., a vicar with 70 r., a treasurer with 35 r., 8 priest- 
 monks with 24 r., 4 deacon-monks with 24 r., and 18 servitor-monks with 
 20 r. each. There are in all (besides the three Lavras) 26 monasteries of 
 the first class, in which according to the prescriptive schedule there ought 
 to be 729 monks ; but there are actually fewer than that number by 148. 
 
 Here follows a specification in detail of the 26 monasteries of the first 
 class (including the 5 which depend immediately upon the synod) with the 
 sums allotted for their support. 1. The Novospassky at Moscow, 3,893 r , 
 and 332 r. for capitation of serfs allowed as servants. 2. The Voskresensky,
 
 424 NOTES. 
 
 or New Jerusalem, in the neighbourhood of Moscow, 4,615 r., and 465 r. 
 cap. 3. The Simonoff at Moscow, 3,893 r., and 332 r. cap. 4. The 
 Donskoy at Moscow, 5,153 r. and cap. 332. 5. The Solovetsky, near 
 Archangel, in the eparchy of Novogorod, 3,952 r., and 270 r. cap. 6. The 
 Choudoff at Moscow, (which was comprehended above under the head of 
 the vicar-bishop's appointments). The rest are subject to the diocesan 
 jurisdiction : viz., 7. The Michaelofsky 3,893 r. and 307 r. cap. 8. The 
 Nicholaefsky 3,893 r., and 307 r. cap. 9. The Youriefsky 3,952 r., 
 and 282 cap. 10. The Khoutinsky at Novogorod, the residence of the 
 vicar-bishop, 3,952 r., and 282 cap. 1 1 . The Tversky of the Blessed Virgin 
 3,952 r., and 282 r. cap. 12. The Cyrilloff or Bielozersky, in the diocese 
 of Moscow, 3,952 r., and 282 r. cap. 13. The Savin-Strojefsky, residence 
 of the vicar-bishop to the metropolitan of Kieff, 3,893 r., and 332 r. cap. 
 (The above-mentioned Choudsky monastery was 4,020 r., and 212 r. cap.) 
 After these come thirteen monasteries which receive very nearly the same 
 allowances, and for which is paid nearly the same capitation, viz., 14. The 
 Valaamsky in the Ladoga lake, eparchy of St. Petersburgh. 15. The 
 monastery of the Blessed Virgin, at Kazan. 16. The Tolsky, at Kazan. 
 17. The Pechersky, at Pskoff, or Pleskoff. 18. The Trinity, at Tver. 19. 
 The Ouspensky, (Assumption,) at Chernigoff. 20. The Novogorod- 
 Seversky, ib. 21. The Bogo-yavlensky, (Theophany, or Epiphany,) at 
 Minsk. 22. The Trinity, in Podolia. 23. The Nicholaefsky, ib. 24. 
 The Paphounsky. 25. The Pechersky, at Nijny-Novogorod. 26. The 
 Transfiguration, at Jitomir. The salaries allowed for all these monasteries 
 taken together, (i. e. for all of the first class,) amount to 99,727 r. ; and the 
 capitation to 7,563 r. Two of this class are Greek monasteries, the 
 Nicholaefsky, and that of St. Catherine, at Moscow, founded in the years 
 1669 and 1777, as dependencies upon the Iversky monastery, on the part 
 of the Holy Mountain of Athos ; for which reason the synod never inter- 
 feres in the filling up of any vacancies in these two ; but the Iversky 
 monastery of Mount Athos nominates the superior and the monks, who are 
 relieved every five years. 
 
 III. Monasteries of the second class. 
 
 The allowances for these monasteries are still less considerable than 
 those for the others preceding. The archimandrites receive 370 r. yearly ; 
 the treasurers or bursars 35 r. Each monastery has six priest-monks at 
 24 r. ; four deacon-monks at the same ; eight monks of service at 20 r. 
 Besides these, a proctor with from 31 r. to 58 r.; sixteen servants at from 
 20 r. to33r. ; and for other necessary expenses, repairs, &c. l,293r. In 
 all these 54 monasteries there are 918 monks, and 791 servants, of the 
 labouring class of peasants. Of this number, there are two monasteries 
 which depend immediately upon the synod. Each monastery, speaking 
 generally, comes to about from 2,300 r. to 2,600 r., making in all 156,002 r., 
 besides 11,187 r. for capitation money. The monastery of Taganrog, 
 which was founded in 1813 by a rich Greek named Varvatzius, belongs 
 also to this class. It is supported by the interest of a sum of 60,000 r., 
 placed out in the bank.
 
 NOTES. 425 
 
 IV. Monasteries of the third class. 
 
 According to the regulation of 1764, these were not allowed to have 
 archimandrites for their superiors, but only hegumens or priors. However, 
 by an edict of Dec. 13, 1797, those which are in towns, however little 
 important in other respects, are now allowed to take the title of Archiman- 
 drite. They receive an allowance of 200 r. ; and in each there is a treasurer 
 with 35 r. ; four priest-monks, with 24 r. each ; two deacon-monks, with 
 24 r. ; and four monks of service, with 20 r. ; in all, 12 monks : a lawyer 
 or proctor, with from 31 r. to 35 r. ; and eight servants, at from 20 r. to 
 23 r. each. For the necessities of the church, repairs, and expenses of the 
 table, each monastery receives 792 r., and so in all from 1,500 to 1,600 r., 
 and pays from 100 to 120 r., for cap. The total number of all these 
 monasteries is 103 ; which receive in all 159,906 r., and 11,170 r. for cap. 
 The number of the monks in them should properly be 1,282, but there are 
 94 short of this number. 
 
 V. Monasteries not comprised in the Schedule. 
 
 These consist of a superior or prior, two priest-monks, two deacon-monks, 
 and two servants, and so in all of seven monks. Thus in 121 houses of 
 this kind, there would be 847 monks, but this number has been still further 
 reduced by an edict to 463. (From the last reports it appears that there 
 w r ere 1,779 monks and 496 nuns.) The synod grants to each one of these 
 houses no more than 300 r., which amounts altogether to 37,000 r. 
 Among their number there are some, which by virtue of particular edicts 
 have received some increase, as for instance that of St. John Baptist at 
 Astrachan, 300 r., that of St. Nikanoff in the government of Pleskoff 200 r., 
 that of Thernigoff 500 r., of St. Nilus of Tveri 500 r. They are divided 
 into two kinds of monasteries with brethren and hermitages. 
 
 VI. Monasteries not endowed with any revenue or allowance in money, 
 but enjoying grants of land. 
 
 There are thirty-three of this class ; and they are almost exclusively situ- 
 ated in those provinces which formerly belonged to Poland. These thirty- 
 three houses have 414 monks. Till the year 1764, all these monasteries in 
 connection with other larger houses were sufficiently well provided if not 
 with peasants yet at least with fields, meadows, mills, fisheries, &c. There 
 was not so much as one which had to support itself on alms or other charitable 
 gifts. The greater part of their possessions had been originally given or be- 
 queathed to them by private individuals who left them lands and peasants ; 
 whence the princes, patriarchs and bishops, gave them chiefly or only lands 
 which required labour, and which they were to bring into cultivation : and 
 furnished them with prisoners of war, convicts, and serfs, to work upon 
 them. Those which were specially favoured became very rich, and had other 
 religious houses again and churches depending upon them. However the 
 accumulation of all this landed property in the sixteenth century, gave 
 occasion to a law or constitution which forbade for the future all fresh 
 donations or legacies, except with the express permission of the Tsar. But 
 in those times, as indeed even now, there were always means of obtaining
 
 426 . NOTES. 
 
 the necessary permission, and so enriching some particular monasteries. 
 Very recently, in our own time, the Yourieff monastery at Novogorod has 
 found a noble and pious benefactress, who at various times has expended 
 one or two millions of roubles in the erection of buildings and the endow- 
 ment of the community. The great reduction which we have spoken of 
 took effect chiefly in the time of Peter I. ; but though the number of the 
 establishments was then diminished, and their lands exchanged, still the 
 monasteries themselves, with their churches, retained in their own hands 
 the possession and administration of all their property. In the year 1764 the 
 principle of the above measure was carried much further, and they were not 
 only deprived of all this property, but reduced to annual salaries for their 
 subsistence. However the rouble at that day was worth three times as much 
 as it is now. Up to the year 1764, the number of monasteries for men was 
 732, and the number of the monks in them 7,639, the number of convents 
 for women 221, and of the nuns in them 4,783 ; according to the fourth 
 survey and census, they possessed 856,071 serfs ; and according to the 
 seventh, these same villages contained nearly 1 ,300,000. 
 
 Besides the Lavras, there are still 384 monasteries for men, and 108 
 convents. They contain in all 6,518 monks, and 4,070 nuns, including 
 novices, and such as have been received conditionally. If we compare the 
 present number of the monks and nuns with the figures of 1764, the result 
 shews that the number of the monasteries has been diminished one half, 
 while that of their inmates has been reduced to one sixth of what it was. 
 
 The allowances being altogether insufficient, and the religious being in 
 many cases in the greatest penury, a number of monasteries, reduced 
 to absolute extremity, applied to the emperor and petitioned him for 
 relief about the end of the year 1830. The emperor, who was already 
 aware of the urgency of their need, conferred with the high police, and gave 
 orders to the secretary of state to prepare an edict to the following effect : 
 
 " That in order that the monks and nuns may have more sufficient means 
 of subsistence, all the inmates of the monasteries and convents under the 
 legal age of profession (viz. 40) should return to the parishes and dwellings 
 to which they originally belonged, and betake themselves again to their 
 former callings." This edict was signed the beginning of the year 1831. 
 
 As soon as the Metropolitan Seraphim, the president of the Synod, was 
 informed of it, he asked and obtained an audience of the emperor ; and 
 afterwards by his desire prepared and submitted to him a memorial on the 
 subject, the substance of which was as follows : " That this measure was 
 contrary to the Canons of the Holy Fathers, as well as to the enactments of 
 the Ecclesiastical Regulation ; for every monk is a person set apart and 
 consecrated by the blessing of the Church, and already by his profession has 
 dedicated himself to God, and it would be an injustice to rob Him of even 
 one, much more then of several thousands, by forcing them back into 
 their former secular ways of life ; and though it be true that the Ecclesias- 
 tical Regulation of Peter I., of glorious memory, strictly forbids the giving 
 the tonsure and the final consecration to any before they have attained the 
 full age of forty years for monks, and fifty for nuns, (which injunction is 
 followed to the letter,) still the above-mentioned Regulation no less ex-
 
 NOTES. 427 
 
 pressly permits persons who are their own masters, of their free choice, to 
 commence the noviciate before this age, and to continue it on to the time 
 of their final reception into the monastic state. But now this is the 
 case of those monks or novices who are under forty or fifty years of age 
 respectively. They have made known to God and to their confessor the 
 Christian purpose which fixes them to this state : they have been examined 
 in the usual manner by the bishop or superior, and have entered upon the 
 noviciate, and are now engaged in the strict performance of all its duties 
 and requirements ; after which the ecclesiastical regulation permits them, 
 it is true, to quit the noviciate at any time before the age of forty or fifty 
 years, and return into the world ; but on the other hand, the monasteries 
 have no sort of discretion nor power arbitrarily to expel them either before 
 or after the usual term of the noviciate ; nor has the civil power any more 
 the right or competency to force them, whether they will or no, to resume 
 their former position in the world. In the mean time they are, upon the 
 principles of the canon law, considered to appertain to the monastic order, to 
 whichever sex they belong ; and that none the less because the final initiation 
 cannot be granted before the age of forty or fifty. And such an edict as 
 the present has never yet been known to have been enacted in any Christian 
 country such as Kussia. Even if it should please the emperor, as having 
 the supreme government, to issue an edict forbidding for the future the 
 ecclesiastical superiors to admit any to the noviciate before the age of forty 
 or fifty ; still this, as being a change and abrogation of the existing law, 
 could not apply retrospectively to such monks and nuns as have been 
 already received to the noviciate ; besides this he would venture to observe, 
 that these religious persons, if they continued to live, as they no doubt 
 would, in spite of their penury, strictly according to their vocation, would 
 gain nothing either in a religious point of view, or in any other, by having 
 to return to their original mode of life, and that the paternal care and 
 benevolence of the most religious emperor could not be supposed to be 
 unable to find the means of relieving their necessities." 
 
 In consequence of this memorial, the Oukaz was revoked and cancelled. 
 The fact was that the high police had had sufficiently accurate information 
 of the number of the religious, of both sexes, as well as of the indigence 
 from which they were suffering ; but the functionaries of this branch of 
 the administration had very little knowledge, either of the contents of 
 the Ecclesiastical Regulation, or of the Canons of the Holy Fathers c . 
 
 In order to have a complete view of all the monasteries in Russia, we 
 mast add to those of the Church which have been above treated of, twenty-six 
 monasteries of the dissenters, " Starobratsi" or Old Ceremonialists, which con- 
 tain from six hundred to seven hundred monks, and nearly as many nuns. 
 Most of these were founded in the seventeenth century, after the formation 
 of the Schism. Only three or four have in the course of the last century 
 returned into the bosom of the Church. These have been allowed to retain 
 
 c Since that time the government has undertaken plans on a liberal scale for the ameliora- 
 tion of the temporal condition of the clergy, both monastic and secular, and still more is likely 
 to be done hereafter.
 
 428 NOTES. 
 
 the use of the old MS. uncorrected books, and the other minutiae of rite for 
 which they originally separated. The rest however are not contented with 
 these concessions: it is not enough for them to be offered the election of their 
 own clergy and priors, but they must be wholly independent of the bishop 
 and of the synod ; and this because they have anathematized the Church 
 in the same way as their own sect was anathematized by the Russian 
 patriarch and two Greek patriarchs in full synod. Their monasteries are 
 generally double, or at least two near each other, one for monks and another 
 for nuns ; the largest of all is that of Danilofsky, in the government of 
 Olonetz, where there are near five hundred monks, and as many nuns. 
 They live by the produce of their lands and by the work of their hands. 
 They manufacture stuffs, and tools of various kinds for artizans, and that 
 with considerable skill. More than two hundred nuns are constantly em- 
 ployed in transcribing the old Church books and MSS. which are older than 
 the time of Nikon, and these they sell to all the adherents of their sect. 
 The copies made here are beautifully neat, and the hand- writing almost the 
 fac-simile of the originals. Though there are divers sects among these 
 Dissenters, they all agree and hold together in their value for these old 
 books. 
 
 It is stated, on good authority, that the present emperor never interferes 
 with the election of bishops ; that the synod elect three, whomsoever they 
 choose, and that he generally consults the synod also, through the High- 
 Procurator, which of the names offered should be preferred. 
 
 In 1838, two dioceses, of White Russia and Lithuania, were added to 47 
 previously existing ; so as to make a total of 49 ; viz. 4 metropolitan sees 
 of the 1st class, 16 sees of the 2nd class, and 24 of the 3rd ; the sees of Gruzia 
 or Georgia not being classed : and there were also at the same time 548 reli- 
 gious houses ; for men 435, of which 23 belonged to the Uniates ; for 
 women 113, of which 9 were Uniates. 
 
 Exclusive of Georgia, there were, in 1839,42,445 edifices for Divine wor- 
 ship; of which 32,879 were Sobors or parish churches. 29,819,218 persons 
 received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The number of persons em- 
 ployed in the service of the Church was 108,486: of these 33,591 were 
 priests, 15,423 deacons, the rest of inferior grades. In 1839, the number 
 of conversions to the Church was as follows: Of Latins, 2,120 (being as 
 many again as had been usual in the preceding years), from different forms 
 of Protestantism 378, Jews 351, Mahometans 441, Heathens 2,601 ; of 
 native Russian dissenters or schismatics 19,833 ; making a total of 25,768 
 (exclusive of the 1,600,000 Uniates who were reconciled in the same year).
 
 NOTES. 429 
 
 III. Tables of the population of the Russian Empire, of the numbers of the 
 different religious communities within its limits, and of the numbers of the 
 Communion of the Eastern Catholic Church generally whether in Russia 
 or in other countries. 
 
 A. The following is an extract from the Supplement to the Government 
 Gazette, March, 1840. 
 
 The population of Eussia in 1838, according to the calculations of the 
 Academician Koppen, employed by the Minister of the Domains of the 
 Emperor, was as follows : 
 
 European Eussia 49,265,800 
 
 Siberia . ... . . . . . 2,650,300 
 
 Provinces beyond the Caucasus . _ . . . 2,036,688 
 
 Grand Duchy of Finland V- . . 1,397,145 
 
 Kingdom of Poland . . . . ... 4,298,962 
 
 Colonies on north-west coast of America . . . 61,053 
 
 Army and Navy, with their families .... 1,300,000 
 
 Peasantry attached to the military colonies . . . 691,512 
 
 Calmucs 97,338 
 
 Kergises 76,000 
 
 61,874,798 
 
 B. The present population of Eussia, reckoning the increase since 1838, 
 may be safely set down in round numbeis at 64,000,000. 
 
 Of these there are 
 
 Heathens (of whom 113,772 Buddhists, and 75,000 others) 189,323 
 
 Mahometans 1,826,761 
 
 Jews 1,400,000 
 
 Dissenters of Eussian origin ..... 3,000,000 
 
 Calvinists and Lutherans, of the German provinces . 3,000,000 
 
 Armenians in Georgia and the Caucasus . . . 260,000 
 Poles and others of the Latin Eite, with 13,391 Latin 
 
 Armenians 6,513,391 
 
 Members of the Eussian Church . . . . 47,810,525 
 
 64,000,000 
 
 C. The following table maybe taken as a tolerably accurate statement of 
 the whole number of Christians in the communion of the Eastern Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 In Eussia 47,810,525 
 
 Turkey, in the Patriarchate of Constantinople . . 12,000,000 
 
 Kingdom of Greece, &c 800,000 
 
 Austrian dominions (in which there are besides, 3,485,298 
 
 Uniates who retain the Greek Eite) . . . 2,790,941 
 Patriarchate of Alexandria ...... 5,000 
 
 Patriarchate of Antioch 300,000 
 
 Patriarchate of Jerusalem 0,000 
 
 63,756,466
 
 430 NOTES. 
 
 IV. An account of the re-union of the Uniates with the Orthodox Church 
 in the Russian Empire. St. Petersburg Synodal Press, 1839. Printed 
 by the direction of the Most Holy Synod. 
 
 The Orthodox Church during the present year has inscribed on the tablets 
 of her history one of the most important and most joyful events. Together 
 with our beloved country she celebrates the return of those of her chil- 
 dren to her embraces, who had been taken away from her by men of 
 another faith, during their rule over them. The schism, which has been 
 called the Unia, began in the western districts of Russia in 1 596, through 
 the defection of some part of the clergy at a council held at Brest-Litofsky 
 from the orthodox faith, for the course of two centuries and a half divided 
 the Russian famiiy, descended from the same origin, and up to that period 
 possessing the same faith, and was at length terminated in 1839, by an act 
 of the council of Polotsk. What was this Unia ? A means of keeping 
 under spiritual subjection to the West a people who, having received 
 from the East the imperishable doctrines and the primitive rites of the 
 Christian faith, and with them the means of profiting by an intelligible 
 Church-service in their native tongue, did not choose, for the sake of any 
 worldly advantages, to part with these holy pledges of the salvation of their 
 souls. Such was the Russian people, always one and the same, in every 
 part of their extensive country ; when their western districts were tempo- 
 rarily subjected to the authority of the Lithuanians, every means were ex- 
 hausted in vain to convert the inhabitants to the Romish faith. At length, a 
 plan was devised, more successful than the rest, only because it allowed the 
 people to remain, as far as externals were concerned, in the ancient faith of 
 their fathers. A part of the Russian clergy were persuaded to acknowledge 
 their dependence upon Rome, being, allowed full liberty to retain all the 
 rites, and almost all the regulations of the Eastern Church. And this kind 
 of dependence received the name of Unia, that is, an union with the 
 Western Church. But what fruits did this Unia produce to the Russian 
 clergy and people? Internal discord, which unceasingly harassed them, 
 till the districts they inhabited returned to the rule of the Emperor of All 
 the Russias. The Unia, at first, only seduced the smaller portion of the 
 inhabitants, but afterwards established itself more firmly, by persecuting 
 the remainder. 
 
 But was the Unia advantageous even to Lithuania, and to Poland, which 
 was united to her ? No. Quite the contrary : it only proved how un- 
 natural the alliance was, and prepared the way for the fall of both. 
 
 Such are the questions long since decided by history, which involuntarily 
 come into the mind, when we cast a glance on the unfortunate issue of the 
 false policy of Poland. The Uniate Church itself never enjoyed any pros- 
 perity ; but like a branch, separated from its parent stock, and forcibly 
 engrafted on a foreign tree, it lived with a kind of half life, or rather on 
 the remains of its former life, and would have inevitably gradually died 
 away from before the Latin Church. 
 
 But we must take a nearer view of the march of the Unia in Westeni 
 Russia, to be fully convinced of the truth of this. But let us however first
 
 NOTES. 431 
 
 devoutly turn our eyes to the true ancient Church of Christ, which by its 
 life-giving spirit, embraces, preserves, and blesses our country, which is 
 faithful to it. 
 
 The Church, one in the unity of the power of God, and universal in its 
 different parts, has long since been governed by its spiritual pastors, under 
 its one head the Saviour. No one of them ever imagined to appropriate 
 unto himself individually the government of the whole world. No one of 
 them, even in spiritual affairs, intruded on a district not subject to himself. 
 But if he observed any aberrations from the faith, he corrected them by 
 brotherly letters to the pastor of the district, or referred them to the common 
 decision of the general councils of the Church, the rules of which, as the 
 dictates of the Holy Spirit, which always abides with the Church, have been 
 preserved inviolate, having once for all confirmed the doctrines of our 
 faith, and determined the relationship of the different pastors to each 
 other, and to the superior power of the sovereign. The Catholic Church 
 remains hitherto the same, both as far as regards the ancient external 
 appearance of its rites, as well as the internal spirit of its unchangeable 
 doctrine. A profound respect for venerable antiquity has opposed itself to 
 all innovations, and has procured for us the incomparable happiness of now 
 seeing in it with our own eyes those very things which her children saw 
 at the times of the Apostles, and of making the very same confessions of 
 faith as they did. The holy doctrines of our faith, the offices of the priest, 
 the prayers, the very robes of the ministers of the altar of our Lord, all 
 breathe the first ages of Christianity ; and the yearly circle of our services in- 
 cludes in its chauntings the full course of ancient orthodox Theology, 
 serving as a perpetual and lively testament of the primitive Church to the 
 remotest posterity. These holy hymns presented to the people in their own 
 native tongue, have preserved amongst them the purity of the faith, and 
 have consoled them in the midst of those misfortunes with which it has 
 pleased Providence to visit their Church, recalling to their memory the 
 times of the cruel persecutions of the earlier Christians. She (the Church) 
 when preaching the cross of salvation, has never shewn forth the divine 
 nature of the doctrines preserved by her by forcibly compelling others to 
 embrace them, but by shedding her own blood in defence of them. She 
 has suffered from the heathen, from cruel heresies, and the heavy yoke of 
 the Mahometans, and as she formerly did, so also now she inwardly 
 triumphs, by the power of the Spirit of God, over all outward storms. And 
 all these different trials have not been unimproved by her ; they have 
 strengthened her in the loftier exercises of patience, and not allowed her to 
 indulge in idle disputations on the unsearchable mysteries of God. Thus 
 simple and complete, and as gold tried in the furnace, appears the Orthodox 
 Church in the eyes of its Heavenly Founder. By His divine caie she has 
 experienced an unshaken attachment to herself in the empire of Russia, 
 and has, in her turn, crowned it with glory and greatness. What a 
 touching picture has Russia always exhibited from the first hour of her 
 spiritual regeneration ! Xo nation has ever embraced the holy faith with 
 more gentleness, and quietness, and no one has adhered to it with more 
 firmness. At the same time, the spirit of love and peace has prevailed in
 
 432 NOTES. 
 
 this new branch of the (Ecumenical Church over the spirit of blind zeal, and 
 has not allowed her to defile herself with deeds of fanaticism. In our country 
 we have never thought of propagating the faith by the dark powers of 
 capital punishment, but the mild light of persuasion has quietly subjected 
 her boundless provinces to the law of Christ over three parts of the world. 
 And not one of these provinces has ever received the faith from preachers 
 who bore the sword ; on the contrary, very many of them have been sub- 
 jected to it by preachers who have themselves suffered. But whilst Russia 
 has thus distinguished herself by a rare patience in the faith, she has never 
 admitted any doctrines inconsistent with Orthodoxy. 
 
 The invasion of the Tartars, renewing in her those dreadful scenes which 
 history relates of the cruel Saracens in the East, not only did not shake her 
 faith in Christ, but rather strengthened it, by decorating her Church with the 
 holy crown of martyrdom. Who could then have imagined, that in the 
 course of a few centuries, her faithful children would have been so cruelly 
 persecuted for their Orthodoxy, by Christians ? nay, even by their very 
 brethren, by men of the same origin with themselves ? But under the 
 Tartar yoke was concealed the remote cause of this. For it gave up the 
 Western districts of Russia to the power of Lithuania ; and their sepa- 
 ration from their common country, naturally brought with it the division 
 of the Russian hierarchy ; and through it the unity of the faith, yea, true 
 Catholic Church communion, and the bond of love, were almost broken. 
 Thus nearly from the beginning of the fifteenth century, at the instance of 
 Lithuania, metropolitans were already appointed independent of those of 
 Moscow, but still, like them, continuing to be subject to the patriarch of 
 Constantinople ; notwithstanding the convulsion caused in the ecclesiastical 
 and political world, by the fruitless attempts of the Florentine Council, and 
 the lamentable fall of the illustrious Byzantium. A century after this, the 
 union of Poland with Lithuania, exposed the Western parts of Russia to 
 religious dissensions, and their bitter fruits, which are inscribed in bloody 
 characters on the pages of the History of the Russian Church and nation. 
 The constant residence of the court at Warsaw, gave a preponderating 
 influence to the Polish party over the Russian, in the meetings of the 
 Paspolite, and this was the more so, because the one was inferior to the 
 other in the extent of cultivated country and in population ; also from the 
 very mode of their operations, as we shall hereafter see. The Russian 
 nobility of Lithuania imitated the court, having then no better model to 
 copy ; and thus began, by degrees, to borrow their morals, their habits, their 
 language, and lastly their religion itself from Poland : and this last the 
 Polish government and the local Romish clergy, particularly, promoted by 
 compulsory means. The first (the government) without looking to the 
 equality of rights, which had been more than once confirmed in the Diet, 
 degraded the Orthodox nobility, in comparison with those who were 
 attached to the Romish faith. The second, the clergy, aimed to rule over the 
 whole of the Russian part of Lithuania ; and expected to get possession of 
 her rich property and revenues. The Orthodox were converted into Latin 
 Churches, and it was forbidden to build new ones. Many of the ancient 
 princely and noble families being persecuted on account of their religion,
 
 NOTES. 433 
 
 emigrated into Great Russia. The clergy were oppressed, and bore it with 
 patience ; repelling all the open attacks of Romanism, which, however, 
 at length made its way into her bosom, under the cloak of the Unia. 
 
 In 1590, in the reign of Sigismund III., a blind zealot of Rome, and a 
 destroyer of the prosperity of Poland, two bishops of the south-western 
 parts of Russia, Cyrill Tirletsky, who was dissatisfied with the patriarch of 
 Constantinople, for his severe reproof of his own vicious life, and Hypa- 
 tius Potsi, a fit ally of Cyrill, were the first who entertained the idea 
 of adhering to the Romish Church ; thereby hoping to obtain the powerful 
 protection of the king, and the Diet. They also persuaded Michael Ragosa, 
 the timid metropolitan of Kieff, to adopt the same measure. All the clergy 
 of Western Russia were brought into agitation by this act, and having 
 assembled in 1596 at Brest, were divided in their sentiments. Some, 
 together with the exarchs of the patriarch, remained unshaken in their 
 Orthodoxy; others, with the Metropolitan Ragosa, inclined to Rome. 
 From those times, down to our own, two Churches have existed in Lithuania, 
 one under the name of the Orthodox, the other under that of the Uniate ; 
 and each had its own succession of metropolitans 
 
 To tranquillize the consciences of those who had adhered to the Unia, no 
 external changes were at first introduced into divine service ; they were 
 even permitted to sing the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed in their 
 churches without any addition ; and to attach the nobility and clergy more 
 strongly to it, they were promised the enjoyment of peculiar rights and 
 privileges. The Court of Rome even undertook to procure for the 
 Uniate bishops the right of sitting in the Polish senate : and that they 
 might entertain no fears for the integrity of their flocks, they were strictly 
 forbidden to embrace the Roman Faith (Rite). But, notwithstanding all this, 
 the Unia made but little progress : a new method was then devised, for 
 giving it more effect. It was decided, that Latin monks should go into the 
 Russian monasteries, assume the Greek habits, and perform all the rites of 
 the Eastern Church, in the Slavonian language. Imperceptibly all the 
 religious houses of the Uniates were filled with these agitators from the 
 West; and thus their simulated monachism entered into the number of 
 the orders of the Roman Church, under the title of the Especial Order of 
 St. Basil. Thus a path was opened to the disguised Romish clergy, by 
 which they might, without impediment, attain to the chair of professors, 
 or to the episcopal throne. 
 
 Then the rites and the regulations of the Uniate Church began to be 
 changed : instead of the ancient liturgy, short services, which were read, 
 were introduced: the Church Chaunting, which was intelligible to every one, 
 was changed for the sound of musical instruments d . The very appearance 
 of the Uniate temples was deteriorated, both in the inside, and on the 
 outside. Lastly, the government of the Church was reformed on the model 
 of the Western ; and the Polish language was brought into common use. 
 
 Fanaticism exerted itself in every way to make the Uniates aliens both 
 
 d A great part of the Russian services are chaunted ; musical instruments are not allowed 
 in their Churches, where the human voice alone is heard ; and those who have heard the per- 
 fection to which their singing is brought, do not complain of the want of instruments. 
 
 Ff
 
 434 . NOTES. 
 
 to their religion and to their country, Russia. But whilst, in the course of 
 two centuries, she attained this end, she could boast of no success with 
 regard to the Orthodox Church : she therefore expelled its professors into 
 Lithuania and Southern Russia. In vain did brave men, such as the 
 illustrious Prince Constantine Ostrojsky, shed their blood for Poland on 
 the field of battle, expecting from her laws the protection of their religion. 
 In vain was the cry of our poor co-religionists raised in the Diets, that, in 
 their case, the very laws of the kingdom, as well as the rights of humanity 
 itself, were perverted. Neither the declaration of the wisest of the Poles, 
 that their country was digging her own grave and ruining her own power, 
 nor the exertions of the very legates of the pope to soften the hardness of 
 their hearts, had any success. The measure of their sufferings was com- 
 pleted ; and Russia drank of them as from a full cup. The best monasteries 
 and churches, with their property, were taken away, for the profit of the 
 Unia or the Romish clergy. In villages and small places the proprietors 
 could with impunity subject the Orthodox servants of the altar to vexa- 
 tious inteiTogatories ; and thus entire circles remained without any clergy, 
 without the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice, or any of the consolations of 
 religion. In the towns the priests did not dare to go to the sick with the 
 sacred Mysteries, or to bury the dead. They were not always safe even in their 
 churches themselves, and it was scarcely possible for them to lead the pro- 
 cessions with the cross through the towns, or if they did (and this continued 
 till the very latest period) they were met and followed by the wild Polish 
 youth, who hissed and hooted them, and often even threw mud and stones 
 at them. Such actions would be incredible were they not recorded in 
 cotemporary annals, and even remembered by old men. In Little 
 Russia the persecution knew no bounds. The Orthodox, without any ex- 
 ception, were forbidden to discharge any civil offices, and all the churches 
 that had not embraced the Unia were given in lease to the Jews, 
 who extorted money from the priests for every time they performed divine 
 service, for every act of spiritual duty, for every time the bells were rung, 
 and even for every prosphora 6 for the celebration of the Mysteries represent- 
 ing the sufferings of Christ, on which they put a mark either with chalk or 
 coal. Thus the fanaticism of the Poles again betrayed their Saviour to the 
 insults of the Jews, imagining, with a lamentable error, that they were so pro- 
 moting the service of God. Vain were all the complaints of the oppressed. 
 In despair, they determined to make a stand for the faith of their fathers, 
 degraded in this intolerable manner. A bloody struggle ensued, which, 
 besides the horrors of war, afforded Warsaw the spectacle of inhuman exe- 
 cutions, so inhuman that the very mention of them is enough to make the 
 blood run cold. Some were boiled alive in cauldrons, some burnt on coals, 
 others spitted on sharp spits, or torn to pieces with iron cats. And these 
 executions were imitated in Little Russia on children, and those who were 
 grown up, without any distinction, unreasonably and without authority*. 
 
 "Prosphora" i. e. "oblation;" the small loaves, or cakes of bread which are offered at 
 the Eucharist. 
 
 1 The above-mentioned events have been related, more or less circumstantially, in the 
 histories of Russia and Poland: particularly in the cotemporary journals. Extracts from
 
 NOTES. 435 
 
 This unhappy country only found rest under the rule of the sovereigns of 
 All the Russias. Little Russia flew to them for protection ; this ought, one 
 would think, to have opened the eyes of the blinded government of Poland ; 
 and after this lesson, all such atrocities in the other districts should have 
 been prevented. But unfortunately, there also Russia continued to suffer 
 in both divisions of her Church. The Uniates persecuted the Orthodox, and 
 themselves in their turn suffered from the Romanists. For only the superior 
 monastic clergy of the Uniates, who, for the greater part, had come into the 
 Unia from the Romish faith, enjoyed any estimation at Warsaw, (though 
 the bishops, notwithstanding all their efforts, could never obtain their 
 promised seats in the senate,) but the more numerous portion of the clergy, 
 that is, the White, (or, the parish priests,) who had voluntarily given up 
 the language and rites of their ancestors, were disliked, degraded, left in 
 poverty, and as far as was possible in ignorance. If Orthodoxy was treated 
 as an orphan in the speeches of the Pospolite, Uniatism did not profit by 
 its love ; and from the, contempt in which it was held, it was called, and is 
 so even to the present times, the Serfs' Faith. It did not receive any vital 
 strength from the Latin Church, but on the contrary, brought to her the 
 sacrifice of its own. The disgrace of remaining in communion with 
 the Uniates caused many of the nobility, and of the mercantile classes 
 themselves, to profess the Roman Catholic faith. The entire annihilation 
 of Uniatism was meditated ; and at last, it was only tolerated for this 
 reason, because it was easier to convert the Orthodox to it, than to 
 Romanism ; and according to a just description at the time, to serve 
 as a bridge for passing over from the true religion to the Roman Catholic 
 faith. 
 
 Such was the state of both divisions of the Russian Church in those parts 
 till that period, when this ancient possession of Russia was restored to her 
 under the fortunate and ever-memorable reign of Her Majesty the Empress 
 Catherine the Second. Our brethren, of the same faith with ourselves, then 
 revived, both in their civil and spiritual life. And when full permission 
 was given to the Uniates to return, without risk, to the bosom of the Church 
 of their ancestors, a large portion at that time took advantage of the earliest 
 opportunity of doing it ; and this too the more willingly, because many of 
 them, particularly in Volhynia and Podolia, and in other places, had some 
 few years before this been compelled to embrace Uniatism. The remainder, 
 together with their clergy, under the direction of their well-intentioned 
 pastor, the Metropolitan Heraclius Lisofsky, were preparing to take the 
 same step towards this desirable union. And although from the circum- 
 stances of the times, the intentions of this remarkable man, who was so 
 zealous for the Eastern Church, were not accomplished ; and although, at 
 that time, there remained about two millions of people of the same blood 
 with ourselves, who did not embrace the advantages of a more close union 
 with our country, still the actual situation of the Uniates themselves was 
 much improved. The White (parochial) clergy found a protection in 
 Russia from the Romish clergy, whose progress in conversion was stopped 
 
 these haye lately been printed in a periodical publication of Cracow, called the Kwartalnik 
 Naukovy. Note by the Author. 
 
 Ff2
 
 436 NOTES. 
 
 by an order forbidding all changing from the one faith to the other, and 
 vice versa. The after measures of the Russian government aimed, as far 
 as it was possible, to guard this Church, which was so near to us, from 
 those who were opposed to the spirit of her Eastern origin. But only at 
 the present time has it been permitted to complete this important affair, 
 by her entire return to the bosom of Orthodoxy. 
 
 The Emperor by the blessing of God now reigning, in the midst of his 
 innumerable cares for the institutions and the prosperity of the greatest 
 empire in the world, from the first days of his accession to the throne, had 
 never ceased to turn his attention to the Uniates, who have always formed 
 a portion of the Russian people. The first action of his prudent care for 
 them was, the complete assimilation of the Greek Uniate Church with the 
 Roman Catholic in all its rights and privileges. On the 22nd of April, 
 1828, a Spiritual College was established for them, on the model of the 
 College which manages the affairs of the Roman Catholics, under the presi- 
 dency of Josaphat Bulgak, the metropolitan of the Uniate Churches in 
 Russia. The Republic of Poland might, either with or without cause, have 
 feared the elevation of the Uniates as belonging to the Russian race, which 
 was foreign to them : but this cause of fear does not exist for Russia : 
 she received them under her special protection ; and as their Church had 
 only just begun to feel her own independent existence, she, according to the 
 laws of attraction between elements of the same nature, inclined to the 
 bosom of her true mother, the Church of All the Russias. All the measures 
 of the bishops and other spiritual authorities of the Uniates tended to the 
 same end. Openly confessing that a multitude of innovations had crept 
 into their Church in the course of time, they resolutely determined to restore 
 the buildings of their temples to their original form, and to provide them 
 with all the requisites for the performance of the ancient service. Instead of 
 church-books, which were full of mistakes, and of different editions, from 
 which the Slavonian language had been long since banished, they resolved 
 to introduce into all their churches books of the same form, of a new and 
 carefully revised edition ; and lastly, not to appoint any one to any office 
 in the Church, without a strict previous examination as to his competent 
 knowledge of the rites and regulations of the Eastern Church. And all of 
 them, themselves, with unwearied zeal, and a rare success, spread abroad 
 this knowledge among the clergy who were under them. On the other 
 hand, the whole of the rising generation of the White (parochial) clergy 
 received the true Eastern direction for their studies in the two newly-esta- 
 blished seminaries, and in the twenty district and parochial schools. Justice 
 requires me to say that such a direction could not be acceptable to those 
 monks who had passed over from the Romish faith to the Unia ; but, that 
 there might be no oppression in matters of conscience, full liberty was 
 given to each individual during five years to return to his former Church ; 
 and those who desired it profited by this permission. The adherents of 
 Orthodoxy and patriotism after this acted with greater zeal ; and quickly 
 the whole of the Uniate Church, by its glorious transformation, shewed itself 
 worthy of its ancient descent. Already Divine service was everywhere 
 celebrated at altars erected according to our rules by priests in suitable
 
 NOTES. 437 
 
 robes, with an observance of our most magnificent rites, which recall to 
 one's mind the Primitive Church ; and the Uniates, attending on them with 
 pleasure, and already hearing the Word of God in their native tongue, no 
 longer saw any difference between their own and the Orthodox temples ; 
 and they found nothing strange in this, for, notwithstanding the untoward- 
 ness of their destiny, they, even before this, had never ceased to call them- 
 selves and their religion Russian. 
 
 In the midst of these almost incredible advances of the Greek Uniate 
 Church, on the road which led to her true happiness, she was deprived of her 
 chief shepherd, the Most Reverend Metropolitan Josaphat. His place was 
 filled by the senior member of the Spiritual College of the Uniates, Joseph, 
 bishop of Lithuania. In the mean time, the work, which had been begun 
 and continued with such lively zeal, with such activity and celerity, ap- 
 proached to its conclusion. The present year, 1839, arrived, and the 12th 
 of February of this year will be for ever memorable in the annals of the 
 Church of All the Russias. On that day, on which in the course of events 
 she (the Church) celebrated the week of Orthodoxy (the first Sunday of the 
 Great Fast), all the Greek Uniate Bishops in Russia being assembled, toge- 
 ther with the more distinguished of the clergy, signed an act, in which 
 they, having expressed their heartfelt wish to belong to the Church of their 
 ancestors, determined to petition their most august monarch for orders to 
 put this their wish into execution 8 . To this act they appended the testimo- 
 nials of the clergy of the several districts, under their own hands, that they 
 were animated with the same feelings of attachment to ancient Orthodoxy. 
 This action they concluded by offering up most fervent prayers in the 
 cathedral church of Polotsk to the supreme Head of the Church, our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, that He would grant success to their warmest endeavours to 
 put an end, in His holy name, to the division of the Russian Churches ; 
 and they entrusted the act, with their most humble petition 11 , to Joseph, 
 bishop of Litofsky, the senior prelate, to carry it to the capital and lay it 
 before the eyes of the emperor, through the Count Pratasoff, the Ober-Pro- 
 curor of the Most Holy Synod, who had before had the management of 
 the temporal affairs of their Confession. 
 
 The emperor having received this intelligence, so pleasing to his pious 
 heart, with deep feelings of gratitude to the King of kings, was pleased to 
 order the act which had been presented to him, with the appendices, to be 
 taken to the Holy Synod for their examination, and for rendering them 
 conformable to the institutions of the Holy Church 1 . The Most Holy 
 Synod having received from the hand of their most august monarch 
 these pledges of the salutary decisions of the Greek Uniate clergy, and 
 having glorified their Chief Shepherd who is in heaven for this new in- 
 crease to His true flock, decided to receive the bishops, the priesthood, 
 and the whole flock hitherto belonging to the Greek Uniate Church 
 into the full and entire communion of the Holy Orthodox, Catholic, 
 Eastern Church, and into an inseparable union with the Church of All the 
 Russias, and to present this act k of the synod, in a most humble report 1 , 
 
 * See Appendix No. I. * See Appendix No. II. > See Appendix No. III. 
 
 1 See Appendix No. IV. ' See Appendix No. V.
 
 438 NOTES. 
 
 to his majesty the emperor. On the 25th day of March, the festival of the 
 Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God, and on the eve of the 
 greatest festival of the Church, the Resurrection of our Lord God and 
 Saviour, Jesus Christ, the report of the Synod was confirmed by the supreme 
 resolution of His Majesty, written with his own hand: " m I thank God, 
 and accept it." And the good news imperceptibly spread that the nu- 
 merous clergy and laity of the Greek Uniates inhabiting the western 
 districts of Russia had risen into a new life, had become connected, as far 
 as heavenly interests were concerned, in the closest spiritual union with the 
 ancient (Ecumenical church of Christ ; as far as earthly, with Russia, the 
 ancient country of their forefathers. 
 
 The supreme consent of the emperor was read on the 30th of March, 
 in a full assembly of the Synod ; and when, after this, the order was issued 
 for giving effect to the will of our monarch, the Ober-Procuror of the Most 
 Holy Synod, conducted Joseph, the bishop of Litofsky, into their sitting, 
 and the senior member, Seraphim, metropolitan of Novogorod and St. 
 Petersburg!!, informed him of what had been effected, and complimented 
 him in the name of the Church of All the Russias, as the representative 
 of the reunited clergy, on so desirable an event. Philaret, metropolitan of 
 Kieff and Gallicia, read the decree n of the Synod, to the reunited bishops 
 and clergy, which was delivered by the Most Holy Metropolitan Sera- 
 phim into the hands of the Bishop Joseph. Philaret, metropolitan of 
 Moscow and Kolomna, read to him the supreme Confirmation of the decree 
 of the Synod", changing the name of the Greek Uniate Spiritual College, 
 to that of the Litofsky College of White Russia, constituting Joseph 
 its president, and raising him to the rank of an archbishop. The Most 
 Reverend Joseph, on his part, presented the thanks of the whole body of 
 those who had been reunited to the Church ; and after mutually kissing 
 each other, they repaired to the Synodal Church, where the rest of the 
 clergy awaited them, when they immediately offered up solemn prayers of 
 thanksgiving to Almighty God, invoking long life on the glorious Defender 
 of the Russian Church, her collected rulers, and the Orthodox patriarchs of 
 the (Ecumenical Church. At this solemn moment, the assembly of our chief 
 pastors, the metropolitans and archbishops of Novogorod, Kieff, Moscow, 
 Kazan, Pskoff, and Lithuania, represented in themselves the Church of all 
 the Russias, who, with zealous affection offered her embraces to her 
 children reunited to her, and called on their Divine Chief Shepherd Himself 
 and His whole Church, both in earth and heaven, as witnesses of their joy. 
 
 This animating spectacle in the city of St. Peter, was again to be re- 
 peated in the centre of the reunited dioceses, and the first opportunity for 
 doing it was offered by the journey of Philaret, metropolitan of Kieff, to 
 his own diocese, through the city of Vitebsk. On the 14th of May, the 
 festival of the Holy Trinity, the cathedral church of that place, dedicated 
 to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, first exhibited within its walls the 
 solemn fraternal communion of the ancient Orthodox clergy, with that 
 of the reunited. The Most Reverend Philaret performed the liturgy toge- 
 
 m In Latin, Ago Deo Gratias et accipio. " See Appendix No. VI. 
 
 See Appendix No. V.
 
 NOTES. 439 
 
 ther with Isidore, bishop of Polotsk, and Vasili, bishop of Orsha, who 
 presided over the reunited diocese of White Russia, with eight priests from 
 both dioceses, four from each. An immense number of people came to 
 witness this solemn festival of the Church, and joined with fervor and great 
 attention in this by them hitherto unseen form of worship, and when, after 
 the conclusion of die liturgy and the vespers, the Decree of the Most Holy 
 Synod for their reunion was read, concluding with those touching words of 
 the monarch "I thank God and accept it" they who were present were 
 so effected that their eyes were bedewed with tears of joy. 
 
 On this the metropolitan, standing on the Ambon, between the prelates 
 of both dioceses, cried out with a loud voice unto God, " Glory be to Thee, 
 who hast shewn us light, &c.," the hymn of praise ; and " Glory to God in 
 the highest, on earth peace, and good will towards men," long resounded 
 through the arches of the Church. On the next day, that on which the 
 festival for the Holy Spirit is continued by the Orthodox Church, the 
 Most Reverend Metropolitan, after receiving those citizens who belonged to 
 the reunited diocese, celebrated the divine liturgy and the prayers with the 
 same bishops in the reunited cathedral church of the chiefs of the Apostles, 
 Peter and PauL Other towns of the Western governments, as Polotsk, 
 Velije, Suraje, Orsha, Minsk, Wilna, Jirovitsa, soon became witnesses of 
 the united services of both descriptions of clergy, who, for this express pur- 
 pose collected together from the neighbouring places to the number of 50, 
 80, and even 150 parish priests. And their flocks entirely sympathised 
 with them ; recalling to mind the devotion and mutual love of the first 
 Christians. 
 
 Every where the Uniate flock, as well the old Orthodox, crowded 
 together to receive the blessing of the united prelates ; who, on leaving 
 their churches, were sometimes obliged to go on foot for a whole hour, to 
 satisfy their affectionate zeal. In these wonderful events every one saw a 
 confirmation of this undisputed truth " that all things return to their origin ;" 
 for the reunion of the Greek Uniate Church with the Orthodox, brought 
 nothing substantially new to either party ; relation returned to relation, the 
 lawful heritage to the lawful authority. At present the clergy of the two 
 Churches, or to speak more accurately, of one and the same Church offer up, 
 in unity, the Unbloody Sacrifice to the Almighty, throughout the whole ex- 
 tent of the united dioceses ; in the same places, where once the blood-stained 
 sacrifices of a cruel fanaticism perished. Means of persuasion were introduced 
 instead of the ungodly measures of the former evfl times ; and in the same 
 degree as the separation of the children from the breast of their mother was 
 dreadful, so now was their return to it rendered every where easy and pleasant 
 Old wounds were healed ; the doctrines of our faith confirmed ; the 
 mind and conscience pacified. A whole branch of the Russian Church, 
 denominated the Unia, has returned to the true Catholic unity, and Russia 
 having greatly advanced in the cause of religion, by the wise solicitude 
 and the pious example of her most august monarch, turns with him to pour 
 out her feelings of gratitude before the heavenly Author of this his 
 peaceful triumph, -which is destined to bring with it innumerable benefits. 
 From this time we may boldly say that with the exception of that part
 
 440 NOTES. 
 
 which is especially called Lithuania and Jmudi p , the whole of the original 
 population of the Western districts of the empire is not only Russian, but 
 also Orthodox, and vain would be any endeavours of our enemies to 
 assert the contrary, in opposition to historical truth and the actual state of 
 the matter. Such sentiments will find no response in the original inhabi- 
 tants of those countries, who recollect their origin, their language, and their 
 ancient faith. 
 
 Appendices to the above. 
 I. 
 
 We, by the grace of God, the bishops and assembly of ordained clergy of 
 the Greek Uniate Church in Russia, after frequent consultations, have come 
 to the following determination : 
 
 Our Church was originally in unity with that Holy, Apostolical, Catholic 
 Church, which was planted by our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ in 
 the East, and from the East enlightened the world ; and which has hitherto 
 preserved entire and unchanged the divine doctrines which were taught by 
 Christ, adding nothing to them from the spirit of human sophistry. 
 
 In this happy, most desirable, and Catholic union, our Church fanned an 
 undivided portion of the Greeko-Russian Church, as our ancestors, both from 
 their language and descent, always had formed an undivided part of the 
 Russian nation. But the deplorable separation of the districts inhabited 
 by us from our mother, from Russia, separated our ancestors also from the 
 true Catholic unity ; and the violence of foreign rule subjected them to the 
 power of the Romish Church, under the denomination of Uniates. But, 
 although the service of the Eastern Church in our native tongue, all 
 the sacred rites, and the regulations of the Eastern Church, were guaranteed 
 to them by formal acts ; and even their conversion to the Romish Faith 
 forbidden, (a clear proof how pure and unchanged our Eastern canons were 
 acknowledged to be ;) yet the cunning policy of the Republic of Poland, and 
 the wishes of the local Romish priesthood, which were in conformity with it, 
 who could not endure the spirit of the Russian people, and the ancient rites 
 of the Orthodox East, directed all their powers to efface if it were possible 
 all the traces of the ancient origin of our nation and Church. From this 
 double effort, our ancestors, after they had embraced the Unia, were exposed 
 to the greatest misery. The nobility, circumscribed in their rights, passed 
 over to the Romish communion ; the tradesmen and peasantry, who would 
 not part with those customs of their ancestors, which were still preserved in 
 the Unia, suffered grievous oppression. But very soon our usages, our 
 regulations, and the service of our Church itself, began to be sensibly 
 altered ; and instead of them, those of the Romish Church were introduced 
 in their place, which were by no means adapted to it. 
 
 The Greek Uniate parochial clergy, deprived of the means of instructing 
 themselves, in poverty, and in disgrace, were worked upon by the Romish 
 priesthood ; and would have been at length exposed to the danger of being 
 
 * It would seem, by the note p. 43, that these districts have since joined with the rest of 
 their brethren.
 
 NOTES. 441 
 
 entirely perverted and annihilated, if the Almighty had not put a stop to 
 their lengthened sufferings, by restoring to the Russian rule the districts we 
 inhabited, the ancient patrimony of Russia. Taking advantage of this so 
 fortunate an event, the greater part of the Uniates immediately joined the 
 Orthodox Eastern Catholic Church, and form at the present moment, as they 
 did before, an inseparable part of the Russian Church ; and the remainder 
 found in the beneficent government of Russia a protection, as far as it was 
 possible, from the overpowering influence of the Romish priesthood. But we 
 are indebted for that entire independence of our Church, and for those abun- 
 dant means of educating the youthful aspirants to sacred orders we now enjoy, 
 as well as for the renovation and increasing splendour of our holy temples, 
 in which the service of God is performed in the language of our ancestors, 
 and our sacred rites restored to their ancient purity, to the paternal gene- 
 rosity and protection of the most pious sovereign, now reigning by the 
 blessing of God, our Emperor Nicolai Pavlovich. The canons of our Church, 
 once Eastern, once Russian, are every where being by degrees restored 
 to their former authority. Our only remaining wish is, that these regula- 
 tions, so agreeable to God, should be permanently established for all the 
 Uniate inhabitants of Russia : that, in the complete restoration of their 
 fonner unity with the Russian Church, her ancient children may, on the 
 breast of their true mother, find that repose, and those means of advancing 
 their spiritual interests, of which they were deprived during the period of 
 their alienation from her. Although we were formerly separated from our 
 ancient mother, the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern, and particularly the 
 Russian Church, yet, by the goodness of the Lord, we were not so much so 
 in our feelings, as in our dependance on a foreign power, and by other 
 unhappy circumstances. But now, by the grace of an all-merciful God, 
 we have drawn so near to her that we have not so much need of renewing 
 as of declaring our union with her. 
 
 Having therefore, with ardent prayers proceeding from our hearts, invoked 
 to our aid the grace of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is the 
 one true Head of the one true Church ; and the Holy and All-Creating 
 Spirit, we have firmly and unalterably decided ; 
 
 Istly. To acknowledge anew the unity of our Church with the Orthodox, 
 Catholic, Eastern Church ; and consequently, henceforward, together with 
 the flocks entrusted to our care, to continue in the same sentiments with 
 the Holy, Eastern, Orthodox patriarchs; and in obedience to the Holy 
 Governing Synod of All the Russias. 
 
 2dly. Most humbly to entreat our most pious sovereign, the emperor, to 
 take this, our present decision, under his most august protection ; and to pro- 
 mote its fulfilment, for the peace and salvation of our souls, by his supreme 
 inspection, and the exercise of his sovereign will ; that we, with all the rest 
 of the Russian people under his beneficent rule, may, with one heart, with 
 united and undivided voices praise the Triune God, according to the ancient 
 apostolical order, according to the rules of the Holy General Councils, and 
 according to the tradition of the great saints and teachers of the Orthodox, 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 In testimony of which we, and all the clergy who exercise any authority
 
 442 NOTES. 
 
 in our Church, confirm this, our Synodal act, by our own authentic signa- 
 tures : and for an assurance of the consent of the rest of the Greek Uniate 
 clergy, we affix the respective declarations of one thousand three hundred 
 and five parish priests and monastic brethren, signed with their own hands' 1 . 
 
 Given, in the divinely-preserved city of Polotsk, in the year seven thou- 
 sand three hundred and forty-seven, from the creation of the world ; and 
 from the Incarnation of God, the Word, one thousand eight hundred and 
 thirty-nine, this 12th day of February, the Week of Orthodoxy. 
 (Signed), 
 
 The Humble JOSEPH, Bishop of Lithuania. 
 
 The Humble VASILI, Bishop of Orsha, and administering the diocese 
 of White Russia. 
 
 The Humble ANTHONY, Bishop of Brest, and vicar of the diocese 
 of Lithuania. 
 
 After these follow 21 other signatures at length of the different dignitaries 
 of the Greek Uniate Church. 
 
 II. 
 
 Most August Monarch, 
 Most Gracious Sovereign, 
 
 In those troublesome times, when the Western districts of Lithuania 
 were forcibly separated from Russia and united to Poland, the Orthodox 
 Russian inhabitants were exposed to heavy trials, from the persevering 
 efforts of the Polish government and the Court of Rome to separate them 
 from the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church, and to unite them to the 
 Western. Individuals of the highest station in life, having been circum- 
 scribed by every means, in their rights, embraced the Romish communion, 
 which was foreign to them, and forgot their own descent and nationality. 
 The tradesmen and peasantry were forcibly separated from their communion 
 with the Eastern Church by means of the Unia, which was introduced 
 towards the conclusion of the sixteenth century. 
 
 From the period that this people was separated from its mother Russia, 
 the persevering devices of policy and fanaticism aimed to alienate them 
 more and more from their ancient country ; and the Uniates experienced 
 in its full force the weight of a foreign yoke. But when her ancient 
 heritage was restored to Russia, the greater part of the Uniates joined 
 themselves to the Church of their ancestors, the Greece-Russian Church ; 
 and the remainder found a defence and protection against the influence of 
 the Romish priesthood. 
 
 Under the blessed reign of your Imperial Majesty, and through your 
 beneficent inspection, O most gracious monarch, the service of God and 
 the regulations of the Eastern Church were almost entirely restored 
 to their former purity. The aspirants to holy orders received an education 
 
 i Soon after this, the number of these declarations amounted to 1607 ; so that there does 
 not now remain in Russia a single parish of the Greek Uniates that has not participated in 
 this act. Kote by the Editor.
 
 NOTES. 443 
 
 suitable to their future destination ; they even already had become, and 
 might have called themselves Russians. 
 
 The Greek Uniate Church in its separate existence in the midst of other 
 Confessions, could never have attained to its full and perfect nature, nor 
 to that peace which was indispensably necessary to its prosperity ; and the 
 numerous inhabitants of the Western governments who belonged to her, 
 Russians by language and origin, were exposed to the danger of remaining 
 in a position liable to be agitated by every change of circumstance, and of 
 being estranged from their Orthodox brethren. 
 
 This cause as well as our anxiety for the eternal benefit of the flock 
 entrusted to us, have induced us, being firmly persuaded of the truth of 
 the doctrines of the Holy, Apostolic, Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church, to 
 throw ourselves at the feet of your Imperial Majesty, and most humbly to 
 pray you, O most powerful monarch, to avert this fate from the Uniates, by 
 granting your permission to them to unite themselves with the Orthodox 
 Church of All the Russias, which was the Church of our ancestors. In 
 testimony of our common agreement on this point, we have the happi- 
 ness of presenting a Synodal Act of this date which was composed by us 
 bishops and the rest of the clergy who have authority in the Church, in 
 the city of Polotsk : and to this, have been added the respective declara- 
 tions of 1305 individuals of the Greek Uniate clergy, signed with their own 
 hands. 
 
 (Signed), 
 
 JOSEPH, Bishop of Lithuania. 
 
 BASIL, Bishop of Orsha, and administering the diocese of White Russia 
 
 ANTHONY, Bishop of Brest, and vicar of the diocese of Lithuania. 
 
 Polotsk, 12<A February, 1839. 
 
 III. 
 
 Oukdz, to the Most Holy Synod. 
 
 The bishops of the Greek Uniate Church of our empire, have presented 
 to us, by the Count Pratasoff, Ober-Procuror of the Most Holy Synod, who 
 before had the management of the ecclesiastical affairs of this Confession, a 
 petition, for permission for themselves, as well as for the flocks entrusted to 
 their care, to unite themselves with the Orthodox Church of their progeni- 
 tors ; from which their ancestors were forcibly separated during the trouble- 
 some period of the dominion of Poland over those Western districts of Russia 
 which they inhabit. Together with this, they have presented to us a Synodal 
 Act, composed by them and the rest of the clergy of their dioceses, who have 
 authority in the Church, in the city of Polotsk, dated the 12th day of 
 February, in which they manifest their firm determination to acknowledge 
 the unity of their Church with the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church, and 
 to submit to the authority of the Most Holy Governing Synod of All the 
 Russias ; and as a proof of their agreement on this point, and of that of all 
 the remainder of the clergy, they have affixed to the act the declarations of 
 1305 of the parochial clergy and monastic brethren, signed with their own 
 hands.
 
 444 NOTES. 
 
 Having returned thanks, from the bottom of my soul, to Almighty God, 
 who has put it into the hearts of so numerous a body of clergy, once Russian, 
 together with their flocks, to return into the bosom of their true mother, the 
 Orthodox Church ; I have ordered the Ober-Procuror to lay the Act and 
 the Declaration before the Most Holy Synod for their examination and 
 decision, in conformity with the institutions of the Holy Church. 
 (Signed by His I. M's. own hand,) 
 
 NICOLAI. 
 
 St. Petersburg^, 1st March, 1839. 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 On the sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord 1839, by the supreme 
 command of our sovereign, the Emperor Nicolai Pavlovich, Autocrat of 
 All the Russias, a synodal Act, framed on the 12th day of February just 
 past, by the bishops and the rest of the clergy of that Church in Russia, 
 which has hitherto been called the Greek Uniate, was presented to the 
 Governing Synod of All the Russias, in which they having first set forth 
 their ancient and original unity with the Holy Apostolic, Orthodox, 
 Catholic Church in general, and particularly with the Russian Church, and 
 then their in voluntary alienation from this unity, by forcible separation in the 
 time of their ancestors from the power of Russia, solemnly declare their firm 
 and immutable resolution to acknowledge anew the unity of their Church 
 with the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church, and to continue from hence- 
 forward, together with the flocks entrusted to them, in the same sentiments 
 with the Holy Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs, and in obedience to the Holy 
 Governing Synod of All the Russias. And this their resolution they have 
 placed under the august protection of our most religious sovereign the 
 emperor. 
 
 This Act is signed by all the Greek Uniate Bishops in Russia ; also 
 by the superior clergy ; and for an assurance of the general consent of the 
 rest of the Greek Uniate clergy, the declarations of 1305 priests and monks 
 have been appended, signed with their own hands. On hearing this the 
 first and unanimous movement of the Most Holy Synod was to render praise 
 and thanksgiving to God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who by the in- 
 scrutable ways of His providence has continually promoted the fulfilment 
 of His faithful promise, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His 
 true Church ! for the various continued, and to outward appearance, suc- 
 cessful efforts of man, to alienate from the Orthodox Church of Russia no 
 small number of those who were of the same faith and of the same race, He 
 has even now brought to nought, having first put it into the heart of our most 
 pious sovereign the Emperor Nicolai Pavlovich to defend the Greek Uniate 
 community from foreign influence, and then by His invisible power 
 moved the heart of those who had been alienated to return to their original 
 and true Orthodox, Catholic unity, with the free agreement of a numerous 
 clergy, who on this point were all of one mind : which event will form a 
 remarkable example in the annals of our Church.
 
 NOTES. 445 
 
 Entering into a closer examination of the subject before them, the Most 
 Holy Synod has taken the following points into its consideration : 
 
 The forcible separation of the so-called Greek Uniates in Russia from 
 the Orthodox Eastern Church, proceeded entirely from the alienation of 
 their hierarchy from her communion. But they have still preserved the 
 ancient Eastern order of divine service and its sacred rites, which, being 
 imbued with the spirit of the Orthodox doctrines and traditions, resisted, 
 by their internal strength, the utter annihilation of the former unity, 
 although it was externally destroyed by subjection to a foreign power. 
 
 Although in the course of time this order began to be altered by external 
 influence, by which the difference between the subtleties of men and the 
 pure ancient doctrines became more marked, yet, as soon as ever they were 
 protected from foreign powers, the heads of the Greek Uniate Church 
 instantly exerted themselves for her restoration to her ancient purity : and 
 this was particularly evident to the Most Holy Synod in the year 1834, 
 when all the Greek Uniate bishops, with one voice, decided to borrow the 
 more important books for divine service of the Most Holy Synod ; and in 
 this respect they were then gratified. 
 
 The solemn confession in the Synodal Act which they have framed, that our 
 Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ is the One true Head of the one true 
 Church, and the promise to continue in the same sentiments with the Most 
 Holy, Eastern, Orthodox Patriarchs, and the Most Holy Synod, leave us 
 nothing to require from the members of the Greek-Uniate Church, for a 
 real and substantial union of faith ; and therefore nothing remains which 
 can prevent the union of the hierarchy. 
 
 Judging thus, the Most Holy Synod, by the grace, the gift, and the 
 power bestowed on them by the great God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 by the holy and All-Creating Spirit, decree and ordain, 
 
 1. To receive the bishops, clergy, and spiritual flocks, of the hitherto 
 called Greek Uniate Church, into full and complete communion with the 
 Holy Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church, and so as to be integrally and 
 inseparably incorporated with the Church of All the Russias : 
 
 2. To confer the general blessing of the Most Holy Synod on the bishops 
 and clergy in particular, with prayers of faith and love to the Supreme 
 Bishop of our Confession, Jesus Christ, that He would confirm them from 
 above in the confession they have made, and that He would rightly direct 
 the work of their ministry, to the perfecting of the saints : 
 
 3. That in the governing those flocks which are entrusted to them, they 
 shall take as their fundamental guide the word of God, the canons of the 
 Church, and the laws of the empire ; and shall confirm the flocks en- 
 trusted to them in the same sentiments with those of the Orthodox 
 faith ; and that they exhibit an apostolical indulgence to any differences 
 in local customs, which do not affect the doctrines or the sacraments, and 
 bring them back to the ancient uniformity by free persuasion, without vio- 
 lence, with gentleness and long-suffering. 
 
 In conclusion, the Most Holy Synod have decided to offer their thanks 
 to their most religious sovereign, the Emperor and Autocrat of All the 
 Russias, on the part of the Church of All the Russias for the assistance he
 
 446 NOTES. 
 
 has afforded in the good and Christian commencement of this affair, which 
 is calculated to promote the salvation of men's souls ; and after this, humbly 
 to refer the accomplishment of this Synodal resolution to his authoritative 
 protection, and to issue a Synodal Letter for the information of the Most 
 Reverend the re-united bishops, and for conferring a blessing upon them. 
 
 Written in the divinely-preserved and imperial city of St. Peter, in the 
 year seven thousand three hundred and forty-seven from the creation of the 
 world, and from the incarnation of God, the Word, one thousand eight 
 hundred and thirty-nine. 
 (Signed) 
 
 The Humble SERAPHIM, Metropolitan of Novogorod and St. Peters- 
 burgh. 
 
 The Humble PHILARET, Metropolitan of Kieff and Gallicia. 
 
 The Humble PHILARET, Metropolitan of Moscow. 
 
 The Humble JONAH, Metropolitan. 
 
 The Humble VLADIMIR, Archbishop of Kazan. 
 
 The Humble NATHANIEL, Archbishop of Pskoff. 
 
 NICOLAI MOUZOFSKOY, Confessor and Proto-presbyter. 
 
 VASILI KOUTNEVICH, Arch-Priest. 
 
 V. 
 
 (On the original is written with His Imperial Majesty's own hand :) 
 " I thank God, and accept it." 
 
 (Signed) NICOLAS. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, 25tf March, 1839. 
 
 To the Most Illustrious, Governing, Great, and Ruling Sovereign, the 
 Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. 
 
 The most humble Report of the Synod. 
 
 By a supreme Oukaz, issued in your name the first of this month, 
 your Imperial Majesty was pleased to command the Synod to enter into 
 an examination of the Synodal Act framed by the Bishops and other 
 clergy of the Greek Uniate Church in Russia, for its reunion with the 
 Church of All the Russias. 
 
 The Synod has entered into an examination of this affair, with an at- 
 tention corresponding to its importance ; and most humbly presents this its 
 Decree concerning the reception of the Greek Uniate Church, in Russia, 
 into a full and complete communion with the Holy, Orthodox, Catholic, 
 Eastern Church, and into an inseparable union with the Church of All the 
 Russias as set forth in the act of the Synod, presented together with this 
 to the gracious examination of your Imperial Majesty, and to your power- 
 ful protection, for its fulfilment 
 
 Most Gracious Sovereign ! The Synod, filled with spiritual consolation 
 and gratitude to God at this event, who has poured down benefits on His 
 Church, and blessings on the reign of your Majesty, dutifully congratulate 
 your Imperial Majesty, in the name of the Church of All the Russias, on 
 this peaceable triumph, on the spiritual reunion of so many of the sons
 
 NOTES. 447 
 
 of Russia, so agreeable to the natural and civil unity between them ; and at 
 the same time offer up their thanks to your Imperial Majesty for those 
 previous provident arrangements, which opened to the Greek Uniate 
 Church a free and unimpeded path to return to the embraces of her 
 ancient and true mother, the Church of All the Russias. 
 
 Having turned their attention to the consequences of this union, the 
 Synod decides ; 
 
 1. That the government of the reunited dioceses, and the spiritual 
 schools belonging to them, remain on their former foundation until by a 
 closer examination we can decide in what better and more suitable manner 
 they can be rendered comformable with the government of the ancient 
 Orthodox dioceses ; 
 
 2. To place the Greek Uniate Spiritual College in relation with the Most 
 Holy Synod according to the order of the hierarchy, on the footing of the 
 Kontors of the Holy Synod at Moscow, and in Gruzia and Imeritia ; 
 and to call it the Spiritual College of Lithuania and White Russia ; 
 
 3. That Joseph, Bishop of Lithuania, should be president of the 
 Spiritual College of Lithuania and White Russia ; and that he should be 
 raised to the rank of an archbishop. 
 
 Most Gracious Sovereign ; 
 
 The Synod, on presenting this decree for your most gracious inspection, 
 most humbly beg of your Majesty to grant them an Oukaz. 
 
 your most humble subjects ; 
 Then follow the signatures as before. 
 
 VI. 
 
 By the grace of God, the Most Holy Governing Synod of All the 
 Russias, 
 
 To the beloved in God, the bishops Joseph of Lithuania, Vasili of Orsha, 
 Anthony of Brest, with their priesthood and spiritual flock, grace be to you, 
 and peace from God the Father, from our Lord Jesus Christ, and from the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 Blessed be God, who has put into your hearts right, good, and saving 
 thoughts of peace, and has thus given us the consolation of offering to you 
 in return the words of peace and love. 
 
 As painful indeed as it formerly was to us, that those who had been 
 united to us for ages, by a unity of race, country,language, and faith, in divine 
 service, in holy orders, should have been exposed, by a lamentable and 
 forcible separation from us, to so many difficulties and miseries, also to the 
 danger of an entire spiritual alienation from us ; so desirable is this 
 strengthening anew of the ancient bond that had been broken, and this 
 re-establishment of perfect unity. 
 
 We rested our hopes of this desirable event particularly on this circum- 
 stance, that the holy Eastern order of divine service, imbued with the spirit 
 of the Orthodox doctrines and traditions, had been, by the grace of God, 
 preserved in your Churches. In proportion as you, after having been freed 
 from foreign dependance, by the powerfid protection of the most religious
 
 448 . NOTES. 
 
 sovereign, the Emperor Nicolai Pavlovich, redoubled your zeal for restoring 
 this holy order to its original purity, our hopes were raised ; till at length, 
 brethren, beloved by God, you have completely fulfilled them, by returning 
 to the ancient, true, and holy unity, with the consent of such a numerous 
 priesthood, as must form a memorable example in the annals of the 
 Church. 
 
 We have considered your common and solemn promise of acknow- 
 ledging anew the unity of your Church with the Orthodox, Catholic, 
 Eastern Church, and of remaining henceforward, together with the flocks 
 entrusted to your care, in the same sentiments with the Most Holy 
 Eastern, Orthodox Patriarchs, and in obedience to the Most Holy Synod 
 of All the Russias ; and having received from you this promise, before the 
 face of the Lord, we, according to the grace, gift, and power bestowed 
 upon us, by the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and by the holy 
 and the All-Creating Spirit, receive and incorporate you and the priest- 
 hood that is with you, together with their spiritual flocks, according to the 
 rules and examples of the Holy Fathers, into the full and complete 'com- 
 munion of the Holy, Orthodox, Catholic Church, and into undivided 
 union with the Church of All the Russias ; lifting up the prayer of faith 
 and love to our great High Priest, who came down from Heaven, and to 
 the Chief Bishop of our Confession, Jesus Christ, that He will confirm 
 you from on high, in the confession which has been made by you, and that 
 He will duly direct the work of youj ministry, to the perfecting of the 
 Saints. 
 
 In ruling the flocks entrusted to your care, it becomes you, as you know, 
 to follow the word of God, the rules of the holy Apostles, and of-the seven 
 holy, OZcumenical Councils, of the Provincial Councils, and of the holy 
 Fathers ; also the laws of this empire. Thus will ye, brethren beloved of 
 God, confirm the flocks entrusted to your care in the unity of the faith. 
 
 As to any differences in certain local customs, which do not affect the 
 doctrines or Sacraments, we have decided that you should exhibit towards 
 them an apostolical indulgence, and restore them to the ancient uniformity, 
 by persuasion without violence, by gentleness, and long-suffering. 
 
 Given in this imperial city of St. Peter, preserved by God, in the year 
 seven thousand three hundred and forty-seven from the creation of the 
 world, and in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine from 
 the incarnation of God, the Word ; the thirtieth day of March. Then fol- 
 low the signatures of the members of the Synod, exactly as in -No. 4, ex- 
 cept that Philaret signs himself, as he really is, metropolitan of Moscow 
 and Kolomna. 
 
 OXFORD : 
 PRINTED BY I. SHRIMPTON.
 
 40276 
 
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