Moscow

MOSCOW. - The sacred city of old Russia, the capital of the R.S.F.S.R. and of the U.S.S.R., rises on seven hills, along the banks of the Moskva and its small tributary the Yauza, and represents the true geographical center of the immense region.

I. GEOGRAPHY.

Before 1147 Moscow was not even mentioned in the Russian chronicles; in 1325 the metropolitan Peter established his residence at Vladimir on the Klyazma at Moscow; it then became the capital of the Russian State in the 17th century, until (1712) it was supplanted by Petersburg. The Kremlin represents the center of the city; around it, Moscow gradually expanded into five concentric zones, according to the characteristic type that could best respond to the military needs of the era. Today the city is the point of departure of more than ten great railway lines. The quantitative element (the streets and squares are of an uncommon vastness) is not matched by the qualitative element. Palaces, theaters, museums and villas rise among hovels. The center of the city is the famous Red Square, closed on the south side by the church of St. Basil and flanked on the west side by the Kremlin; this comprises numerous palaces, churches and convents, today utilized for the high offices of the State and of the Party. Moscow, which had about 150,000 inhabitants in the middle of the 18th century, had about 380,000 in 1861; immediately afterward it grew through the influx of peasants who took up the most varied trades. In the census of 1897, out of 1,035,000 inhabitants, 63% of the population was immigrant. The number oscillated around this figure also during the years of the war and the Revolution, rising to 1,949,000 in 1915, falling to 1,028,000 in 1920, to rise to 2,740,000 in 1931. Such an agglomeration could not be explained except by the progress of communications, commerce and industry.

Gastone Imbrighi

II. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

I. AUTOCEPHALOUS METROPOLIS (1448-1589)

The western dioceses, including the city of Kiev (v.), found themselves in the course of the 13th-14th centuries within the sphere of the Polish-Lithuanian State, and this caused their removal from the jurisdiction of the metropolitan of "Kiev and of all Russia" then residing at Moscow. The division - which had already occurred sporadically - became definitive when in Poland the jurisdiction of the united metropolitan of Kiev, Gregory, appointed in 1458 by Pope Callistus III, was recognized. From then on each of the two parties followed its own historical evolution.

The metropolitan Jonah (1448-61), still preserving the traditional title, also claimed the government of the entire ancient metropolis; but his successor Theodosius (1461-65) called himself only metropolitan of "Moscow and of all Russia," a title corresponding to the actual extent of his jurisdiction. The metropolitan Jonah, and then all his successors, were elected and installed without anyone requesting, as had been done until then, at least the ratification of the patriarch of Constantinople. Thus began the independence or autocephaly of the metropolis of Moscow. Among the following metropolitans, the most distinguished were Daniel (1522-39), writer and polemicist; Macarius (1542-63), writer, organizer, promoter of religious culture; Philip (d. 1569), who paid with his life for his courageous condemnation of the cruelty of Ivan the Terrible.

In the metropolis the supreme legislative and judicial power belonged to the council, which also elected and deposed the metropolitan. The bishops - all obligatorily monks - were appointed by the metropolitan and had full administrative and judicial powers in their own dioceses, including over monasteries, except for certain exempt ones ("stauropegial"). The dioceses - 10 in 1448 - numbered 13 at the end of the period. The clergy, decimated during the Tatar invasions, grew rapidly in number. The secular clergy, composed of priests, deacons and lower clerics, could marry, but only once and before the major Orders. The Council of 1503 imposed on all widowed priests and deacons either to become monks or to renounce the exercise of sacred functions, in order to prevent the possible scandal of incontinence. This unjust provision practically prevented the existence of the secular clergy even if voluntarily celibate. As for canon law, that essentially in force was the Byzantine law collected in the "Kormčia Kniga" (Pilot Book), which contained the Nomocanon with its commentaries: completed by the laws of local councils and by the statutes of the grand princes. The most important of the councils is that of 1551 (called "Stoglav" because of the division of its decrees into 100 chapters), which reorganized the whole of ecclesiastical life (instruction, liturgy, religious art, administration, discipline of ecclesiastics and laity). The ecclesiastical tribunals judged everyone in matters of religion, and the clergy and the laity dependent on the Church (peasants, employees) even in civil cases, except capital ones. Disputes between ecclesiastics and laymen belonged to mixed tribunals. Ecclesiastical property consisted principally of landed possessions exempt from many state contributions. Some bishops and famous monasteries owned tens of thousands of hectares. The metropolitan and the bishops furthermore received a special tribute from the monasteries and churches and numerous administrative and penal fees. Even the city clergy was quite well-off, while the rural clergy was rather poor and sometimes lived by its own agricultural or craft work.

The collaboration between the State and the Church was very close. The State assumed the defense of the Church against internal and external enemies. But the grand prince often had a decisive influence on the appointment or deposition of metropolitans and bishops. For his part the metropolitan supported the grand princes of Moscow, who tended to unite the Russian princes into one State, seeing in this the best guarantee of the unity of his own metropolis. His moral prestige was unparalleled. All the important documents of the princes — decrees, pacts, peace treaties, wills, etc. — are issued "with the blessing of our father the metropolitan." The clergy maintained the national spirit during the Tatar domination, and afterward encouraged the grand princes in the struggles of liberation (Demetrius Donskoy, Ivan III). The Church promoted spiritual and material culture, assisted the socially weak, maintained charitable institutions, ransomed prisoners.

The attitude toward the Holy See became definitively hostile. The continuous anti-Latin propaganda conducted by the Greeks, the wars with Catholic neighbors — the equestrian Orders in the Baltic and Poland — created in Russia a profound aversion against the Latin West. This manifested itself markedly in the deposition of the metropolitan Isidore (1441), because at the Council of Florence he united with Rome. Neither the marriage of Ivan III to Zoe-Sophia Palaiologina in 1472, nor the pontifical legations to Basil III and Ivan IV sufficed to modify this hostile attitude, continually revived by the Greek ecclesiastics.

This aversion to Rome and the close collaboration of the Church with the State found its characteristic expression in the theory "Moscow-the Third Rome" formulated in the 16th century by the monk Philotheus of Pskov. According to him ancient Rome fell because of the heresy of the popes, the second, Constantinople, because of its union with the pope at the Council of Florence. The ancient free "Orthodox" empire that remained was that of Moscow-the Third Rome, guardian of the purity of the Christian faith until the end of the world.

The expansion of the Church, paralyzed by the Tatar invasions, resumed, and in the 14th-15th centuries Christianity penetrated even among the Tatars themselves; some of these converts became the progenitors of notable Russian families: Aničkov, Godunov, Strogonov, etc. The systematic Christianization of the Tatars began after the conquest of their Khanates of Kazan (1536) and of Astrakhan (1563). In the apostolate, the first bishop of Kazan, Gurio (d. 1563), and his collaborators Barsonofio and Germano, good connoisseurs of the Tatar language, distinguished themselves. The monasteries of Valaam on Lake Ladoga and Murma on Lake Onega were centers of missionary activity in Karelia. In the far north, the monks of the Soloveckij monastery on the islands of the same name in the White Sea spread the faith, and other missionaries settled at the mouths of the Kola (Theodoret, d. 1577) and near Cape North (Trifone Pečenskij, d. 1583). In the northeast, the conversion of the Zyrjani continued — begun by St. Stephen of Perm (d. 396) — and then preaching extended further east on the Vyatka and Kama rivers (Trifone Vjatskij, d. 1612). With the Russian penetration into Siberia, in 1582, Russian missionaries crossed the Urals. The government favored missionaries and converts everywhere, sometimes even forcibly repressing the hostility of the unbelievers, but generally the ecclesiastical and civil authorities recommended peaceful means to the missionaries: instruction and charity. The language of the natives was used not only in preaching, but sometimes also in the liturgy. Instruction was imparted by the clergy to a greater or lesser extent, but despite the efforts of the councils, no systematically organized schools were established, not even for the formation of the clergy. The cultural level of the secular clergy, especially the rural clergy, was very low. The libraries of the monasteries, of the bishops and of the princes were sometimes very rich, and the type of the "načetčik," that is, the self-taught man, developed. Literature consists mainly of translations from Greek into Church Slavonic. The archbishop of Novgorod, Gennadius (d. 1504), collected the books already translated in the Old and New Testaments and procured new translations of the missing ones. Original literature was rather of a practical character: chronicles, liturgy, sacred discourses and pious instructions, hagiography, descriptions of pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The most eminent writers of the period are: Giuseppe Volokolamskij (d. 1515), Nilo Sorskij (d. 1508), the metropolitans Daniel and Macarius, Pacomio the Serb (d. at the end of the 15th century), Zinobio Otenkij (d. 1568), Maximus the Greek (d. 1556), the protopope Silvestro (d. 1566). The "sborniki," that is, miscellanies of articles on various subjects and by various authors, had a wide diffusion. In general, literature had a compilatory character with little criticism of sources. Hence apocryphal literature spread, condemned and combated by ecclesiastical authority.

Around 1474 there appeared in Novgorod a heretical movement called that of the "Judaizers," which was a mixture of Judaism, humanistic rationalism and astrology. The heretics denied the principal Christian dogmas and abandoned themselves to repulsive profanations of sacred places and objects. They won over to Moscow also some adherents among laymen and ecclesiastics: even the metropolitan Zosima (1490-94) was suspected of heresy. Gennadius, archbishop of Novgorod, and Giuseppe, abbot of the Volokolamsk monastery, energetically combated the doctrines of the Judaizers and obtained the conciliar condemnation of the heresy and the punishment of the principal heretics. These measures led to the liquidation — at least external and official — of the Judaizers. But their ideas, with the addition of Protestant elements, came to life again in the doctrines of Matteo Baskin and of the even more radical Teodosio Kosoj, condemned by the Council of Moscow in 1553-54. As for Protestantism, in Russia at that time the exercise of worship by foreign Protestants was tolerated, but no propaganda was permitted to them. Apostasy from the official Church was a crime punished also by the State.

Worship was celebrated with increasing splendor and the number of new churches, richly decorated and furnished, became greater than need required. In sacred art the Byzantine tradition was followed and statues were not admitted in churches. The favorite destinations of pilgrimages were the sanctuaries where icons of the Madonna were venerated (Vladimir, Kursk, Tichvin, Kazan, etc.) or relics, especially incorrupt ones, of saints. The Council of 1547 canonized 21 of them and that of 1549 canonized 20. In the liturgy great variety reigned, despite the efforts of the councils to unify liturgical practice. Not even the printing of liturgical books (from 1564) brought an effective remedy, because of the lack of correct manuscripts and of attachment to the usual texts and ceremonies.

Insufficient religious instruction led to exaggerating the importance of external worship and favored superstitious practices. Almost continuous wars made customs rough and the growing prosperity of the classes superiors gave occasion to laziness and lust, defects harshly punished - and sometimes even exaggerated - by preachers and moralists. Despite this, illustrious examples of piety and Christian virtue were not lacking among ecclesiastics and laymen. Monastic asceticism remained the ideal of Christian perfection. In the "Domostroj" of the protopope Silvester - an ascetic-moral manual of the pious layman - the Christian family becomes a kind of secularized monastery. Among the laity the practice was widespread of pronouncing, at least on one's deathbed, religious profession. Hence numerous monasteries flourished: in the period 1450-89, 300 new ones arose. The monks led either the eremitic life - as solitaries and in small groups ("skity") - or the cenobitic way in communities governed by a superior according to a precise rule. The rules of the ancient holy monks were followed (Basil, Ephrem, John Climacus, Theodore the Studite), completed by the Russian ascetics (Joseph of Volokolamsk, Nil Sorsky). The most active center of renewal of monastic life was the monastery of the Holy Trinity founded by St. Sergius of Radonezh (d. 1429) not far from M.

The hermits led by Nil Sorsky condemned the landed properties of monasteries as an obstacle to the perfection of religious poverty. Joseph of Volokolamsk, on the other hand, the representative of strict cenobitism, with his followers upheld the usefulness of such properties as the basis of the cultural and social activity of cenobitic monasteries, in which perfect individual poverty is guaranteed by the rigorous observance of the common life. The Council of 1503 pronounced in favor of the legitimacy of the monasteries' possessions, leaving the freedom to follow one or the other ascetic tendency. Despite the defects that had infiltrated into certain communities - despotism of superiors, worldly spirit, disobedience and vagabondage of monks - the monasteries were generally true centers of religious-cultural life. They gave the Russian Church not a few excellent bishops, writers and ascetics, raised by it also to the honor of the altars: besides the already mentioned Joseph of Volokolamsk and Nil Sorsky, Zosimus of Solovki (d. 1478), Paphnutius of Borovsk (d. 1478),

German of Solovki (d. 1484), Alexander of Svir (d. 1533), Cornelius of Komel (d. 1537), Anthony of Siya (d. 1556), Nicander of Pskov (d. 1581). Moreover, special forms of asceticism are also encountered, such as the recluses (Arsenius of Novgorod, d. 1570), the stylites (Sabbas of Vishera, d. 1461) and the "jurodivyje" (fools for the love of Christ): Michael of Klopsk (d. 1452), Simon of Yurievets (d. 1584).

This period, rich in strong personalities, has the dynamic character of spiritual reconstruction tending to repair the damages of the Tatar invasion and domination. The metropolis of M., having become autocephalous, strives to become autonomous also in its religious and cultural life and begins to lend aid to the other Eastern Churches oppressed by the Turks. Unfortunately, at the same time it separates itself sharply from the Latin West. Isolation preserves it from the storm of the Protestant Reformation, but also deprives it of fruitful contacts with the life of the Catholic Church.

II. PATRIARCHATE (1589-1721)

On 26 January 1589 the Constantinopolitan patriarch Jeremiah II, then visiting M., elevated the metropolitan Job (1586-1605) to the dignity of "patriarch of M. and of all Russia." Four of the bishops as well (of Novgorod, Rostov, Kazan, Krutitsy) received the title of metropolitans, but without any special jurisdiction. This elevation, ratified by the patriarchal Synods held in 1590 and 1593 at Constantinople, increased the prestige more than the real rights of the supreme head of the Russian Church, since he had already been fully independent of the Constantinopolitan patriarchate since 1448.

In the 17th century, in the patriarchal curia, following the example of the state administration, special offices ("prikaz") were progressively organized: judicial, of the treasury, palatine, of ecclesiastical discipline. Similar "prikaz" were also instituted in the episcopal curias, generally two: of the treasury and of ecclesiastical discipline. The dioceses remained too vast; toward the end of the period there were only 23. The Councils met frequently. The largest, in 1666-67, retracting the positions of the "Stoglav" (1551), issued new decrees concerning the composition of ecclesiastical tribunals, the moral formation and instruction of candidates for the priesthood, the discipline of the clergy (dress, commerce and unsuitable professions, worldly amusements, wandering clerics) and again authorized widowed priests and deacons to continue their sacred ministry. But the institution of seminaries was not then reached, leaving to the ecclesiastics themselves the care of the instruction of their children, from among whom the secular clergy was almost exclusively recruited.

The code of Tsar Alexis ("Ulozhenije", 1649) entrusted to the special "Monastyrskij prikaz" all civil cases of ecclesiastics and their peasants. This aroused great discontent and, condemned by the Council of 1666-1667, the "Monastyrskij prikaz" was suppressed in 1675.

In other respects the economic-social position of the clergy remained broadly that of the preceding period. The State tended to limit the growth of ecclesiastical landed properties and their exemptions from public burdens. State and Church practically interpenetrated each other. The tsar retained the decisive influence on the choice of the person of the patriarch, but the patriarchal dignity became almost sovereign in the eyes of the people. During the period of troubles that followed the extinction of the reigning house of the Rurikids (1598), the patriarchs Job and Hermogenes (1606-1612) validly supported the authority of the legitimate tsars (Boris Godunov, 1598-1605, and Vasily Shuisky, 1606-10). The bishops and monasteries supported materially and morally the national movement, which under the leadership of Kuzma Minin and Prince Pozharsky led to the liberation of M. from the Poles (1612) and to the restoration of legality with the election of the new tsar Michael Romanov (1613). The new patriarch Philaret (1612-33), father of Tsar Michael (forced by Tsar Boris Godunov to become a monk in 1601) held the title of "great sovereign" like the tsar, and his word was decisive also in affairs of State. His successors Joasaph (1634-40) and Joseph

(1642-53) were more modest and submissive toward the tsars. The prestige of the patriarch reached its apogee in the times of Nikon (1652-66), who took up again the title of "great sovereign" and affirmed the superiority of the patriarchal dignity over that of the tsar. The open conflict broke out in 1658, and dragged on until the Council of 1666-67, which, with the participation of the Eastern patriarchs, condemned, deposed and degraded Nikon. But this latent conflict between the authority of the tsar and of the patriarch, dormant under Nikon's successor, Joasaph II (1667-72), revived under Joachim (1674-90) and especially under Adrian (1690-1700) who opposed the reforms of Peter the Great. Therefore after his death Peter did not permit the election of a new patriarch, but appointed only a patriarchal vicar (Stefan Yavorsky), who governed the patriarchate until its suppression in 1721.

As for relations with Rome, the patriarchal period means the stiffening of the anti-Roman attitude. The intervention of Catholic Poland in favor of the False Demetrius, later transformed into the military occupation of M., gave the subsequent struggle of liberation the character of a defense of Russian "orthodoxy" against the Latin West.

Missionary activity among the Tatars of Kazan was weak, more lively among the Mordvins in the regions of Tambov and Ryazan, especially thanks to Archbishop Missale, who died a victim of pagan fanaticism in 1654. In Siberia the establishment of the dioceses of Tobolsk (1620) and the founding of monasteries intensified the activity of the missionaries, who in the second half of the 18th century penetrated into southern Siberia and beyond Lake Baikal. In 1680 Poland definitively ceded to Russia the city of Kiev with the lands on the left bank of the Dnieper, and in 1687 the Patriarch of Constantinople consented that the metropolis of Kiev be incorporated into the patriarchate of M.

The progress of education was hindered by the lack of well-trained teachers. Therefore in 1649 the boyar Theodore Rtishchev, with the consent of the Tsar and the Patriarch, summoned to M. 30 monks trained in the Academy of Kiev, so that they might occupy themselves with translating books and teach Greek, Latin, rhetoric and philosophy to those desirous of learning. To these was added Epiphanius Slavenitsky (d. 1675). If Slavenitsky still represented Greco-Slavic culture, Simeon Polotsky, who came in 1664, was already a representative of the Latin-scholastic tendency given to the Academy of Kiev by Metropolitan Peter Mogila, and on several points, especially on the moment of transubstantiation, he upheld the doctrine of the Catholic theologians. In the struggle that arose between the two tendencies, the Greco-Slavic one prevailed, supported by Patriarch Joachim, by the monk Euthymius (1705) and by the theological Academy of M. directed by two Greeks, the brothers Joannicius (d. 1717) and Sophronius (d. 1730) Lichudis. In 1690 a Council condemned the doctrines of Simeon Polotsky (d. 1680) and degraded his disciple Silvester Medvedev (executed later in 1691). But in a short time, because of intrigues, even the Lichudis brothers were removed from the Academy of M., which then rapidly declined for lack of suitable professors. In 1627 the version of the catechism of Laurence Zizania was published, and in 1696 that of the "Orthodox Confession" of Peter Mogila; versions of Greek polemical works against Western Protestant and Catholic doctrines also appeared.

The work of correcting and unifying the liturgical books, resumed by Patriarch Philaret and continued by Patriarch Joseph II, was brought to completion by Patriarch Nikon. He corrected the Russian texts and liturgical practice according to the liturgical books then used by the Greeks, also suppressing the particular Russian customs consecrated by a long and legitimate usage. This aroused an ever-growing opposition on the part of the conservatives. The Council of 1666-67 definitively approved Nikon's liturgical reform and condemned all its opponents. But these, under the leadership of the protopope Avvakum, did not submit, setting themselves up as defenders of the "ancient faith," and thus began the movement known under the name of "starověři" or "Old Believers." They remained in opposition despite the excommunications of the Council and the often drastic repressions of the government. Dividing into several sects, the "Old Believers"

From that time on they constituted the most serious problem of the internal life of the Russian Church (v. RASKOL).

But the official Church too remained still very attached to the traditional forms of religious and civil life. For many, religious life consisted principally in the rigid observance of ceremonies and external austerities. Despite the jealous isolation from abroad, "worldly" customs and amusements penetrated into Russia from the West, even into the court of the "most pious tsar." But manifestations of sincere Christian faith were not lacking either. Works of mercy were much practiced, especially almsgiving and visits to prisoners. The Council of 1682 gave special norms for the organization of ecclesiastical charity.

The ascetic-monastic life was always considered the highest form of Christian perfection. In the 17th century 220 new monasteries arose. The Council of 1666-67 gave stricter provisions for receiving novices, forbade admitting anyone to religious profession without a sufficient period of probation, and condemned extravagant forms of ascetic practice. Among the monks of that period, not a few of whom were raised to the altars, the following distinguished themselves: Basil Mangazejskij (d. 1600), Joseph Vologodskij (d. 1612), Irinarco Rostovskij (d. 1616), Adrian Monzenskij (d. 1619), Irinarco Solovskij (d. 1628), Dionysius Troickij (d. 1633), Eleazar Anzerskij (d. 1656), Macarius Konevskij (d. 1678). Besides the monks living in community, hermits and "jurodivyje" are also encountered (Procopius Vjatskij, d. 1627).

This period is less eventful than the preceding one. The life of the Church tends to fossilize somewhat in its traditional forms. "Orthodoxy" is considered a characteristic element of Russian nationality, although not many would be able to indicate precisely what it consists in, and therefore it is easily identified with external ritual forms. An attempt is made to organize a systematic religious instruction. But even in this period instruction, especially of the secular clergy and of the masses of the faithful, remains the weakest point of Russian ecclesiastical life.

III. THE MOST HOLY SYNOD (1721-1917)

During the period of the vacancy of the patriarchal throne, the radical reform of the structure of the Russian Church matured in the mind of Peter the Great. In his youth Peter had not received the traditional education, essentially ecclesiastical, which instilled the distrustful isolation from all foreigners regarded as heretics. On the contrary, having been removed from the court to the village of Preobrazhenskoe, he had grown accustomed to familiarity with the Protestants of the German colony in the suburbs of Moscow. Having then become tsar, he chose his intimate collaborators from among foreigners, including Protestants. The Protestant Tofano Prokopović (d. 1736), despite the opposition of the patriarchal vicar Stephen Javorskij, was appointed by Peter bishop of Pskov (in 1718) and became the Tsar's principal collaborator in the ecclesiastical reform codified in the "Spiritual Regulation." On 14 February 1721, in place of the suppressed patriarchate, the Most Holy Synod was instituted, a college of bishops and priests appointed by the Tsar and all having an equal vote. From that moment the Most Holy Synod, recognized in 1723 by the Eastern patriarchs, exercised over the Russian Church the supreme legislative, administrative and judicial power. The Most Holy Synod was subject directly to the Tsar, who in the last instance ratified its decisions and controlled its activity by means of the lay high procurator of the Most Holy Synod. This structure of the Most Holy Synod underwent no essential modifications. From 1885 it was composed of bishops only — generally 7 — and comprised: the synodal chancery, the committee for religious instruction, the council for ecclesiastical schools, the economic section, the control office, the direction of the synodal printing presses, and two delegated offices (at Moscow, for the administration of the former patriarchal diocese, and at Tiflis for the Georgian Church, dependent on the Most Holy Synod from 1783). The high procurator had his own chancery in the same manner as the other ministers.

The traditional division into dioceses was preserved. The new bishops were chosen by the tsar, to whom the Most Holy Synod presented three candidates. The transfers of bishops, in the manner of state officials, later became very frequent, seriously hindering their pastoral activity. Directly dependent on the Most Holy Synod were the palace clergy headed by the tsar's confessor, the Chief Protopresbyter of the military chaplains, and a few monasteries. Ecclesiastical properties, administered by the Most Holy Synod, remained juridically the property of the Church until 1764, when Catherine II secularized them all, compensating their possessors with an annual pension, which represented only a minimal part of the actual revenues of the confiscated properties. Arsenius Macevič (d. 1772), metropolitan of Rostov, protested, but was deposed and imprisoned. The economic situation of the lower clergy, especially the rural clergy, worsened, and in the years 1862-1865 a special mixed commission studied this problem. But no provision was reached to assure the rural clergy an economic-social arrangement corresponding to its dignity and mission.

The institution of the Most Holy Synod assured the tsar complete predominance over the Church. The "Spiritual Regulation" justified the suppression of the patriarchate with the fact that the simple people were led to consider the patriarch equal and even superior to the tsar, and in case of conflict between them were disposed to follow the patriarch, convinced of thus doing the will of God. Instead the new Regulation subjected the Church economically and administratively to the State, and an energetic high procurator, skillfully availing himself of bureaucratic legislation, could make himself uncontested master of the Most Holy Synod, even defying the opposition of the episcopate (e.g., N. Protasov [1838-55], K. Pobědonoscev [1880-1905]). It was no longer a question of the close collaboration of the Church with the State in the Byzantine sense, but of the simple subordination of the Church to the State in the spirit of enlightened absolutism and then of Josephinism penetrated into Russia from the West. Such subordination could only reinforce the hostile attitude toward Rome. Proof of this is the close collaboration of the ecclesiastical and state authorities in arranging the forced submission to the Most Holy Synod of the Catholics of the Eastern rite (in 1839 and 1875), who had entered the sphere of the Russian Empire after the partitions of Poland. The freedom of Catholics of the Latin rite was also limited, despite a kind of concordat concluded in 1847 between Tsar Nicholas I and the Holy See. Passage from the official Church to other confessions was forbidden and punished until the Edict of Toleration of 1905, which permitted it with regard to Protestantism and the Catholic Church. But in its practical application it did not recognize the Catholics of the Eastern rite. Despite this, a current of unionistic thought was making headway among the faithful of the Russian Church (Vladimir Soloviev, d. 1900), and small groups of Catholics of the Eastern rite also began to form (at St. Petersburg, at Moscow and in White Russia).

The revolutionary-reformist movement of 1905 also raised the question of reorganizing the ecclesiastical administration of the Russian Church by means of a council, never convoked after the institution of the Most Holy Synod. A pre-conciliar commission was instituted, but the actual convocation was reached only in 1917.

Missionary activity continued to develop, though at times hindered by the political-ideological orientation dominant in government circles (Voltairianism under Catherine II, pseudo-mysticism under Alexander I). The missions among the Tatars received new impetus from the establishment of the missionary section of the Theological Academy of Kazan (in 1854) and from the founding of the Confraternity of St. Gurias (in 1867), which ensured material aid and the translation of books into the local language. In the southeastern steppes the Christianization of the Kalmyks intensified from 1725, and for the converts the city of Stavropol was founded (in 1738). Between 1821 and 1830 almost the entire Samoyed population (about 30,000) in the Arkhangelsk region was converted.

In Siberia Christianization progressed thanks to the new dioceses established one after another: Irkutsk in 1707, Kamchatka in 1743, Yakutsk in 1869, and that of the Aleutians in 1870, with its seat in San Francisco, comprising the Aleutian Islands, Alaska and also the faithful residing in America. Besides the missionary activity of the ordinary parishes, special missions were established for the mixed population in native centers, mostly nomadic. For example, in 1897 the Altai mission counted 70 missionaries, 56 catechists, 13 stations, 45 churches and chapels and 30,000 Christians; that of Irkutsk: 20 stations, 64 missionaries, 17 schools and about 35,000 Christians; that of Transbaikalia: 23 stations, 20 missionaries, 29 schools and about 30,000 Christians. The mission in China (Beijing) was more a center of sinological studies than of properly missionary activity. The mission in Japan, on the other hand, begun in 1861 by the priest, later bishop, Nicholas Kasatkin, already counted in 1897 225 communities with 23,800 Christians, 1 bishop, 35 priests (30 native), 16 teachers, 156 catechists. In the Caucasian regions the Ossetians were almost totally converted (60,000 faithful in 67 parishes in 1823) and between 1840-50 there were 1000-2000 conversions each year among the local populations. The missionaries used the native languages not only for religious instruction (sermons and printing) but also in the liturgy. Furthermore, it must be noted that in Russia no distinction was generally made between the metropolitan territory and the colonial territory (not even in Asia) and that therefore the natives enjoyed all the rights of Russian nationality. In 1865 the Orthodox Missionary Association arose, whose diocesan committees were to provide for propaganda in favor of the missions and for the collection of the necessary funds.

The work among the Latvian and Estonian Protestants was also successful, for whom the diocese of Riga was established (1850). In the course of the 19th century there were also negotiations for rapprochement with the "Old Catholics" and contacts with Protestants (Anglicans), but without concrete results.

Religious instruction made great progress. The "Spiritual Regulation" prescribed the establishment in all dioceses of schools for the formation of the clergy, which were reformed in 1808; there were 4 theological academies intended for higher studies in theology, 36 major seminaries, 115 minor seminaries and in all 29,000 students. Study in the seminaries was then obligatory for all the sons of ecclesiastics, even those not aspiring to the priesthood.

Under Peter the Great teaching passed once again into the hands of ecclesiastics trained at the Academy of Kiev. However, the Catholic-oriented school of thought represented by Stephen Yavorsky (d. 1722), Demetrius of Rostov (d. 1709) and Theophylact Lopatinsky (d. 1741) was overwhelmed by the Protestantizing current of Theophan Prokopovich (d. 1736), which predominated in the Russian theological schools until the first decades of the 19th century (George Konissky, d. 1851; Gabriel Petrov, d. 1807; Theophylact Gorsky, d. 1788; Plato Levshin, d. 1812; Sylvester Lebedinsky, d. 1808; Irenaeus Falkovsky, d. 1827). The reforms of theological teaching in the 19th century gave impetus to the great development of the sacred sciences cultivated by eminent professors and writers: I. Borisov (d. 1857), Philaret Gumilevsky (d. 1866); Philaret Drozdov (d. 1867); A. Gorsky (d. 1875); G. Sokolov (d. 1869); A. Amfiteatrov (d. 1879); M. Bulgakov (d. 1882); P. Uspensky (d. 1885); A. Pavlov (d. 1898); V. Bolotov (d. 1900); L. Yanyshev (d. 1900); A. Belyaev (d. 1903); Al. Lebedev (d. 1908); S. Malevansky (d. 1908); N. Malinovsky (d. 1917); E. Golubinsky (d. 1912); S. Mansvetov (d. 1885); N. Krasnoseltsev (d. 1898); M. Suvorov (d. 1909); P. Solarsky (d. 1890).

In 1751 the new edition of the Bible in the Church Slavonic language appeared, corrected according to the Septuagint with the help of other Greek, Latin and Hebrew texts. In the period 1818-25 the Bible Society (founded in 1813 in St. Petersburg in the manner of the British one) published the Russian version of the New Testament and of a part of the Old, without annotations, in the Protestant manner. In the years 1860-75, under the authority of the Holy Synod, the entire Bible was translated into Russian.

In the 19th century the Church had to struggle against the various philosophical currents penetrating into Russia from the West: idealism, positivism, materialism and Marxism, especially through the work of numerous Russian students who attended French and German universities. Furthermore, the heterodox ideas of certain lay theologians and Russian religious thinkers spread (Khomyakov [d. 1860], L. Tolstoy [d. 1910]). Thus cultivated Russian society, while remaining officially "Orthodox," was in reality drifting away from the spirit and the religious practice of its Church.

These currents touched the popular masses less because of insufficient schooling, which became possible to a great extent only after the liberation of the peasants from serfdom. Between 1859-65 the clergy organized 21,400 schools. But the state school bureaucracy hindered their development and practically also obstructed the teaching of religion in the public schools. The situation improved only when in 1884 the schools directed by the clergy passed once again under the direct dependence of the Holy Synod. The insufficient instruction of the people favored the spread of false doctrine. The movement of the "Old Believers" remained still very much alive as well as divided into various groups and tendencies. Furthermore, new more radical sects appeared: the "Khlysty" (Ivan Suslov, d. 1716), who believed in other reincarnations of Christ, and the "Skoptsy" (the Cossack Kondraty Selivanov, d. 1832), who condemned marriage to the point of obligatory castration. In southern Russia, under the influence of Protestantism, the sect of the "Dukhobors" was formed, who in absolute religious subjectivism rejected Holy Scripture and external worship, and that of the Molokans, who, admitting Holy Scripture and the obligatory nature of all Mosaic prescriptions, rejected every ecclesiastical and civil authority. In the second half of the 19th century through the work of German colonists the sect of the "Stundists" spread, a kind of Protestant Anabaptists.

The liturgical cult continued to be the characteristic element of Russian religiosity. The Holy Synod, with appropriate provisions, sought to preserve sacred art and liturgical chant from the infiltration of profane elements. Sculpture and musical instruments always remained excluded from the churches. At the Academy of Fine Arts there was from 1852 a section of sacred painting, and in 1892 the synodal school of sacred chant was opened in Moscow. In architecture, during the 18th century, Western-Latin models were also introduced, but from 1840 there was a return once again to the traditional Byzantine-Russian style.

The religious life of the people was raised thanks to the improved formation of the clergy, who, with more frequent sermons, with school teaching and with the press, strove to make the fulfillment of traditional practices of piety more conscious and sincere.

Monastic life was paralyzed by the restrictions imposed by Peter the Great, who, inspired by secular utilitarianism, in 1724 considerably limited the number of monasteries and monks.

These restrictions, continued throughout the 18th century, reduced the monasteries from 1200 to only 453. In the 19th century the government mitigated the restrictions and slowly the number of monasteries grew (23) with the re-establishment of those suppressed (65 up to 1890) and with the founding of new ones (200 up to 1890). Besides the female convents, religious communities without monastic vows were also formed (in 1890 there were 103). The monasteries, with their schools and charitable institutions, became once again important centers of religious-cultural life. The reform of the internal life of the monasteries went hand in hand with this, especially through the work of the Russian monk Paisius Velichkovsky (d. 1794), who settled in Moldavia. Paisius insisted on meditation, on the study of the works of the Fathers, and on the spiritual direction of the more advanced monks ("starets" [v.]). He, directly and by correspondence, influenced the formation of the new generation of Russian monks, who then, in the spirit of Paisius, reformed numerous monasteries. The venerated "starets", sought out by the clergy and the laity for spiritual direction, made their monasteries famous (Zosima in Siberia, d. 1833; in Sarovskaya Pustyn Seraphim of Sarov, d. 1833; in Optina Pustyn Ambrose Grenkov, d. 1891; in Valaam on Ladoga Alexius Blinov, d. 1900). Among the bishops, always all monks, Tikhon Zadonsky (d. 1783), Ignatius Bryanchaninov (d. 1866), Theophan the Recluse (d. 1894) stood out as models and masters of ascetic life. Among the secular clergy, the archpriest John of Kronstadt (d. 1908) became famous for his apostolate and his reputation for holiness.

The synodal period is characterized on the one hand by the oppression suffered by ecclesiastical authority at the hands of the state, and on the other by the great progress of religious culture. In the course of the 19th century the Russian Church, with its theological academies, libraries and printing presses, also contributed to the cultural-religious elevation of the other "Orthodox" Churches progressively liberated from the Turkish yoke. The clergy had the possibility of a more serious formation and could better provide for the religious instruction of the people, which was still always very deficient. Toward the end of the period the educated class turned away from the Church, yielding to the anti-Christian currents that had penetrated from the West. The distrustful isolation toward the Latin West then prevented the Russian Church from taking advantage of the experiences and methods already acquired by the Catholic Church in the struggle against the same atheistic tendencies. Numerous ecclesiastics and laymen sincerely sought a profound reform of ecclesiastical life and the liberation of the Church from state bureaucracy. The most enlightened minds, such as V. Soloviev, saw the best means of reinvigorating the Russian Church precisely in breaking the fatal isolation by inserting themselves into worldwide Christian activity through union with the Roman Church.

IV. PATRIARCHATE RESTORED (from 1917)

On 15 Aug. 1917, in the tumult of the Revolution, the long-awaited All-Russian Council met in Moscow, which restored the patriarchate and on 15 Nov. elected to this dignity the metropolitan of Moscow, Tikhon. Until Sept. 1918 the Council discussed all aspects of Russian ecclesiastical life and drew up a plan of profound reforms. But their realization was prevented by the coming to power of the Bolshevik Party, which on 23 Jan. 1918 proclaimed the separation of Church from State and of school from Church, and confiscated all ecclesiastical property, including sacred buildings and furnishings. The protests of the Patriarch were of no avail; he was arrested on 9 May 1922. Released in 1923, he officially recognized the authority of the Soviet government, which however did not change its hostile attitude toward the Church. During the Patriarch's arrest and after his death (1925) the Church was governed by patriarchal vicars and vice-vicars, repeatedly arrested and released.

Meanwhile, internal schisms as well, fomented by the Bolsheviks, tore apart the patriarchal Church. Among the various currents the "Living Church" asserted itself, with a synod headed by Vvedensky ("Synodal Church"), which rejected in several points the traditional doctrines and discipline (celibacy of bishops, patriarchal regime, etc.). In 1923 it was recognized by the patriarch of Constantinople and supported by the Soviet government against the patriarchal Church. Entirely radical was the "All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church" organized by Lipkivsky, "ordained" metropolitan by the imposition of hands of priests and senior faithful.

In 1927 the Soviet government de facto recognized Metropolitan Sergius as patriarchal vicar, but this did not prevent new waves of violent persecutions between 1927 and 1932. Numerous churches were destroyed or destined for profane uses, many bishops and priests shot or deported. The organization of the "militant atheists" was charged with eradicating religion everywhere, already banned from schools and from cultural life. In 1929 and 1931 the government issued new provisions, with which it unilaterally regulated ecclesiastical affairs, imposing on the Church every sort of limitation in its activity and subjecting it to a minute police control. Despite this, in the census of 1936 many still declared themselves believers, so much so that the government never published those statistics in full.

During the German invasion of the Soviet Union (1941) Metropolitan Sergius, the episcopate, and the clergy, in solidarity with the people, gave proof of loyal patriotism. Then the government, pressed by external and internal difficulties, officially recognized the ecclesiastical administration and authorized the election of the patriarch, which was carried out on 8 Sept. 1943 in the person of Metropolitan Sergius. To him, who died on 15 May 1944, succeeded the metropolitan of Leningrad, Alexius, elected on 1 Feb. 1945 by the Council in Moscow.

The day before, the Council approved a new statute of the Russian patriarchal Church, adapting it in every respect to Soviet legislation. According to this statute, the head of the Church is the patriarch "of M. and of all Russia," who governs it assisted by a synod composed of 6 bishops. The supreme legislative and judicial authority resides in the council, to which belong, besides the bishops, also priests and laymen, but it is not specified whether they have a deliberative vote. The bishop, appointed by the patriarch with the synod, governs his diocese, divided into deaneries and respectively into parishes. To establish a parish — or a religious association according to the terminology of the Soviet Code — the faithful (at least 20) must request authorization from the municipal Soviet; but not even a parish thus established enjoys all the rights of a juridical person. The parish priest, appointed by the bishop, is assisted by the executive committee, elected by the faithful, which administers the property of worship. The civil authority may grant the faithful the use of previously nationalized buildings and objects of worship or authorize their construction or purchase.

Religious associations may procure the means necessary for the maintenance of the clergy and for the exercise of worship only through free offerings of the faithful made in money or in kind. Religious instruction is forbidden in all private and public schools; even outside them it may be imparted to minors (up to 18 years of age) exclusively by their parents. It is not lawful to organize public teaching of the catechism or to establish libraries of religious literature. Only preaching as an integral part of sacred functions is authorized. Nor is it lawful for the Church to establish cultural, sporting, or charitable organizations, since all these activities are reserved to state organizations. As for the religious press, it is reduced to the monthly publication of the patriarchate's bulletin and to a few rare books. In fact, art. 124 of the Soviet Constitution guarantees freedom of atheistic propaganda, but not of religious propaganda.

The exercise of worship is authorized only in buildings of worship; each parish may have at its disposal for this purpose a single premises. The dioceses on the territory of the Union number 83. The number of parishes is not known. Official reports in 1946 spoke of 22,000 functioning churches, which would necessarily imply as many parishes, without counting those that lack one. On the number of the faithful there are no official data, because in censuses religion is now no longer recorded. In the volume of the official Great Soviet Encyclopedia published in 1948 (article "Religion and the Church in the U.R.S.S.") it is said only that "religious prejudices are still considerably widespread among the population" and that the "far greater part" of believers belongs to the patriarchal Church.

In its relations with the government the patriarchal Church continues to affirm the most straightforward loyalty. This has been acknowledged by the government itself, which has decorated numerous ecclesiastics for their patriotic merits. In fact, the highest representatives of the Church at home and abroad let no occasion pass to praise the heads of the government and to recommend to the faithful docile submission to the civil authorities. Yet, in its hostile attitude toward Rome, the patriarchal Church evidently follows the directives of Soviet policy. The ecclesiastical authorities promptly collaborated in the liquidation of the Catholic Church of the Eastern rite in Ukraine, which in 1946 was officially "reunited" with the patriarchate of M. The bishops and priests who remained faithful to Rome were arrested and deported, and their places were taken by bishops and priests of the patriarchal Church.

Despite all this, the Soviet government, through the council for Orthodox ecclesiastical affairs, exercises a minute control over all the activity of the patriarchal Church. While leaving the Church its legal existence and the exercise of worship, it deprives it of all means of propaganda — except preaching in church — with which it could oppose the official propaganda of atheistic Marxism, carried out systematically in the schools, through the press, radio and cinema. Moreover, the leadership of the "Komsomol" — the official organization of Soviet youth — prohibited its members in 1947 from attending churches and from entering into relations with the clergy. Thus the very existence of the Church is seriously compromised for the future, since it is practically deprived of the possibility of forming the young generations.

In the years following the Bolshevik Revolution, numerous Russians, laymen and ecclesiastics, emigrated abroad. A part of them recognized the authority of the Synod of Bishops Abroad, presided over by Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky (d. 1936), with its seat at Karlovci in Yugoslavia. Another group, led by Metropolitan Eulogius, residing in Paris, submitted to the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople. Metropolitan Eulogius also succeeded in opening in 1925 in Paris an "Orthodox" theological Institute. After the war (1945) some Russian bishops abroad submitted to the jurisdiction of the patriarch of M. But others continued to recognize either the authority of the Synod of Russian Bishops in Munich or the successor of Metropolitan Eulogius (d. 1946), Archbishop Vladimir, now in Paris.

Also abroad, important publications by ecclesiastical and lay authors appeared: N. Glubokovsky (d. 1937), S. Bulgakov (d. 1944), Sergius Starogrodsky (d. 1944), N. Berdyaev (d. 1948), N. Arseniev,

G. Fedotov, V. Vysheslavtsev, N. Lossky, G. Florovsky, V. Zenkovsky, etc.

Evaluating historically the life and activity of the Russian Church, the important part it played in the diffusion of Christianity clearly appears, defending it and propagating it from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean, from the Baltic to the Pacific. But its missionary activity could not, because of the schism, be carried out in close collaboration with Catholic missionaries, with grave harm to the Christianization of Asia. The long separation from the Catholic Church internally weakened the vitality of the Russian Church and did not permit it to bring to the development of culture and of universal Christian life that contribution which its important geographical position and the considerable number of the faithful imposed upon it.

Statistics. — Here is the picture of the evolution of the Russian Church from the second half of the century; official figures for 1914 and, in parentheses, those for 1840-41. Faithful: 98,363,874 (44,005,833); to the Russian Church there passed in 1842-1891 from other Christian confessions (Catholic, Protestant, Armenian) 582,954; from the "Old Believers" 311,279; from Jews, Muslims, pagans 267,872; in all: 1,172,758; churches: 54,174 (34,049); chapels: 23,593 (9,305); dioceses: 68 (49); priests in service: 51,105 (36,563); deacons in service: 15,035 (16,024); male monasteries: 550 (435); monks: 11,845 (5,112); novices: 9,485 (3,259); female convents: 475 (112); nuns: 1,448 (2,287); novices: 56,016 (4,583); schools: theological academies: 4 (3); teachers: 164 (53); students: 995 (372); major seminaries: 57 (45); teachers: 1,448 (501); students: 22,734 (16,204); minor seminaries: 185 (175); teachers: 2,374 (822); students: 29,419 (26,533); schools dependent on the Holy Synod: 38,244 (2,700) with pupils: 2,144,742 (25,000); popular libraries at the churches: 33,497 (11,170); charitable institutions: hospitals: 291 (53), shelters for the poor: 1,113 (522). — See plate XCVIII.

Peters des Grossen, Berlin 1936; G. Florovskij, Puti russkago bagoslovija, Paris 1937; I. Smolitsch, Das altrussische Mönchtum, Würzburg 1940; A. Wuyts, Le Patriarchat de Moscou au Concile de Moscou de 1917-18, Rome 1941; G. Schweigl, L'articolo 124 della Costituzione sovietica sulla libertà dei culti, ibid. 1946.

Giuseppe Olšr