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the choice of one's profession largely a matter of chance. The leading Russian universities before the Revolution were those of Moscow, Petrograd, Kiev, Kharkov, Kazan, Warsaw, Odessa. Yaroslav, Tomsk and Saratov. These had a total of 39,027 students in 1914. During the Great War a women's university was founded at Petrograd and a new university was decreed at Perm.

DAVID A. MODELL,

Specialist in Russian Subjects. 10. RUSSIAN RELIGION. Pagan Period. The Russian national chroniclers have left us scanty details as to the primitive religious beliefs of the Russian tribes. Russian paganism, despite the multiplicity of its idols, rests on a monotheistic conception of the divinity. Svagor (in Sanskrit, the God coming from Heaven) is the JHWAH, the Jehovah, Jove or Jupiter of the Russian Olympus, the god of the lightning. All the other gods were born from him. The most powerful of them are the Sun and the Fire. An important divinity is Peroun, adored as the giver of rain. Stribog represents the classic Eolus. Other divinities are Siwa, the god of peace and concord among men; Tur, the god of war; Rod and the Rozhantzy, the domestic lares; Mara, the goddess of pestilence; and the Rousalki, the Russian lake and marsh nymphs.

Russia gave her divinities human form; and the national chroniclers mention the statues of Peroun, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl and Komosh. Temples do not appear to have been built. Their places of worship were the summits of hills, woods, the springs and occasionally rustic cabins and barns. They offered their idols sacrifices of slaughtered and burnt animals, and of bread and fruits. On supreme occasions, human sacrifices were offered to appease the wrath of the gods. The sacrifices were made not by priests, but by the princes, the chiefs of the tribes, the seniors and even by the chiefs of the families. The Pagan Russians believed to some extent in the immortality of the soul, and a life hereafter. According to their belief, souls after death were gathered in the island of Buyan, in the middle of the ocean; coming from time to time to visit their native country. The early Russians practised cremation, burning the dead in small canoes. A year after death, the souls were commemorated with funeral banquets, and other ceremonies. It seems also that the faith of Russian paganism in the immortality of the soul had an element of metempsychosis.

The religious calendar was based upon the change of seasons. The beginning of the new year was celebrated with special ceremonies in honor of Peroun and the Sun. They were called Koliady, a name derived from Latin Kalenda or according to Solovev, from kolo (circle, the symbol of the sun), and Lada, the goddess of spring. It was replaced later by Christmas. The same divinities were honored in great celebrations at the beginnings of spring and summer. The last one was transformed in Christian Russia into the feast of Saint John the Baptist. The festival in honor of Volos, (Skandinavian Valas), the patron god of cattle, became the day of Saint George.

Russian paganism did not vanish when the Christian gospel began to be preached. It survived in the popular language, sayings, tradi

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tions, domestic life and even religious beliefs. As late as the 18th century, serpents were adored in some remote villages. Eugenius Golubinsky, the greatest historian of the Russian Church, declares that Russia was baptized in the 9th century, but not christianized.

Russian Christianity. The history of Russian Christianity may be divided into four distinct periods: (1) The period of the metropolitans; (2) the Patriarchal period; (3) the Synodal period; (4) the Revolutionary period.

1. Russian Metropolitans.- The official history of Russian Christianity begins with the baptism of Vladimir Sviatoslavich in 987. This does not mean that Christian faith was ignored in Russia before that time. The national chronicles attribute the earliest propagation of the Gospel in Russia to the Apostle Saint Andrew, who after having established an episcopal see at Byzantium went to Korsun, in the province of Tauris, reached Kiev and Novgorod, preached to the Vareghs and lastly set out to Rome. The thesis, however, of the apostolicity of the Russian Church is of later origin, according to Golubinsky, and cannot be demonstrated as historically true.

The frequent relations with Byzantium and the existence of a Slavic colony in Constantinople explain, however, why a nucleus of baptized Russians is remembered as observing Christianity in the city of Kiev, at a time when Paganism dominated all Russia.

Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, affirms in his encyclical letter to the Eastern hierarchy that he sent a bishop to the Russians to convert them to Christ. At the time of Igor Riurikovich (913-945) a Christian church existed in Kiev, and after the death of this prince, his wife, Olga, according to Konstantin Porphyrogenetus, went to Constantinople, and received baptism there, probably in 954. She was, says Nestor, the first Russian woman who entered the kingdom of Heaven.

In 986, the Russian chroniclers tell us, Vladimir received the visits of the representatives of various religions; including the Mohammedans, Jews, Catholics and Orthodox Greeks. The Greek form of Christianity was his choice for a religion. He was baptized in the Greek town of Korsun, and here also he married the sister of Basil, emperor of Byzantium, Princess Anna. He became the apostle of his own people. He went back to Kiev with some Greek priests and ordered all the inhabitants to be baptized. The idol of Peroun was thrown into the Dniepr. Violence at times was employed in order to conquer Russians for Christianity. The pagans of Novgorod refused to receive baptism and had to be compelled to do so. During his whole reign Vladimir strove earnestly to spread Christianity, to build churches and to organize his kingdom on a Christian groundwork. His efforts; however, did not succeed in grafting Christianity on the Russian soul. For lack of religious instruction, the Russians persevered in the practice of paganism. The responsibility for this state of things rests upon the Byzantine hierarchy whose leaders were called to rule the new Russian Church.

The earliest period of the history of the Russian Church is a mere episode in the history of the Byzantine hierarchy. Russia was considered as a metropolitan church in the

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RUSSIA RUSSIAN RELIGION (10)

ecclesiastical system of Byzantium. Its first metropolitan, Leon, was sent to Vladimir in 991 by the Greek Patriarch Nikolaos Chrysoberghes (983-996). During two centuries and a half (991-1237) the Russian Church had 24 metropolitans elected and consecrated by the patriarchs of Constantinople. Most of them were Greek. They naturally considered everything from the Greek point of view, wrote polemical works against the Latins and sought to keep Russian Christianity far from the influence of the Roman Church. They thwarted any attempt to expand the influence of Latin Christianity within the Russian frontiers. The 11th century marks a period of strong vitality in the bosom of the Russian Church. It is the earliest transplantation of Greek monasticism in Russia. Kiev became the cradle of Russian monks, who with Antonius and Theodosius Pechersky (who died in 1073 and 1074, respectively) and the monk Nestor, began to give a markedly national character to the Russian Church. Russian bishops strove to loosen their bond with the Greek patriarchate. Together with these attempts to establish in Russia an autonomous church, the foundation and organization of Russian eparchies went on especially in the 13th century. Their number under Vladimir was eight; after his death, and down to the Mongol invasion, they increased to 16.

The development of Russian Christianity was hampered and almost stopped by the Mongol domination, which destroyed Kiev in 1240. For two centuries, Russia was entirely cut off from any contact with Western Christianity. The Mongol Khans did not systematically persecute the Christians. They even granted large privileges to churches and monasteries. Russian metropolitans were held in great honor at their court and were able to use their influence to ameliorate the hard lot of their flocks. But in consequence of the Mongol yoke, the moral and religious conditions of the Russian people sank very low.

The

In 1303 there took place the first attempt to divide the hierarchical unity of the Russian Church. An independent metropolis of Galicia was established. In 1316 Lithuania claimed its religious autonomy. These new fragments succeeded in severing themselves from the metropolitans of Moscow whose authority over the Russian Church was otherwise steadily growing, as a logical consequence of the growth of the political power of the grand princes of MosCOW. The Russian Church participated in the Council of Florence in 1438. The metropolitan of Moscow, Isidor (1436-41), signed the decree of union of the Russian Church with the Roman Church, and his admission was marked by the red hat. But the spirit of Byzantine Christianity was deeply rooted in both the Russian hierarchy and people; Isidor was obliged to leave Moscow, and his successors rejected the union with Rome.

In Little Russia, on the contrary, where the Western influence was stronger, the movement toward union gained ground. In 1458 Kiev became the seat of a united metropolitan, Gregorius, who, however, went back to the Orthodox Church in 1472. The tendency toward an understanding with Rome was kept alive, like a smoldering fire, and under the political and religious influence of Poland, in 1596, gave birth to the United Ruthenian Church,

2. Russian Patriarchate.- The second period of the Russian Christianity embraces the shortlived patriarchate of Moscow. It puts an end to the dependence of the Russian Church on the Greek hierarchy. The idea of the establishment of a Russian patriarchate was a natural consequence of the downfall of the Byzantine Empire and of the growth of Muscovite Russia. Moscow was hailed as the third Rome. In 1588 Ieremia, patriarch of Constantinople, went to Moscow. Tsar Teodor Ivanovich and Boris Godounov received him with great honors and asked him to grant full autonomy to the Russian Church, and the establishment of a patriarchate at Moscow. After some hesitation, Ieremia allowed himself to be won by the promises of the tsar. Iov, archbishop of Novgorod, was elected patriarch by a council of Russian and Greek bishops, held at the cathedral of the Assumption on 23 Jan. 1589. Another council held at Constantinople in May 1590, ratified, although reluctantly, the concession made by patriarch Ieremia. The new patriarchate embraced four metropolitan jurisdictions, eight archbishoprics and eight eparchies. It lasted a little more than one century, and during this period 11 patriarchs ruled the Russian Church, namely, Iov (1589-1605); Ignatius (1605-06); Hermogen (1606-12); Filaret (1619-34); Ioasaph I (1634-41); Iosif (1642-52); Nikon (1652-67); Ioasaph II (1667-72); Pitirim (1672-73); Ioakim (1674-90); Adrian (16911700).

The patriarchs exerted considerable influence, both religious and political. They were looked upon as grand princes. They had their court, their dignitaries and an immense income. Filaret, the chief of the dynasty of the Romanovs, was, during his patriarchate, the real tsar of Russia. Patriarch Nikon struggles with Tsar Aleksiei Mikhailovich, seeking the supremacy of the ecclesiastical upon the civil power. The issue of the struggle was fatal to him. A council held at Moscow in 1667 condemned him as a rebel to the legitimate authority of the tsars, to whom a large power was recognized in ecclesiastical matters. Peter the Great, in order to carry on his vast plan of reform in every branch of Russian life, abolished the patriarchate, entrusting the government of the Russian Church to a patriarchal vicar, Stefan Iavorsky, and charged Theofan Prokopovich, a Malorossian, a theologian of great renown and a warm admirer of German Protestantism, to draw up a schedule of reforms to be effected in the Russian Church. Theofan, who was later named metropolitan of Pskov, fulfilled the task assigned to him, and wrote the 'Spiritual Regulation,' which became for two centuries the official constitution of the Russian Church.

3. The Synodal Period.-The Spiritual Regulation was written in 1720. On 25 Jan. 1721 the ukase establishing an ecclesiastical board to be endowed with supreme authority over the Church was promulgated. The board under the name of the Holy Governing Synod held its first meeting in Petrograd on the 14th of February. The Holy Synod was composed of several archbishops, priests and a lay dignitary, the high procurator, who, according to the Spiritual Regulation, was to be chosen preferably from among the most energetic officers of the army,

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With the foundation of the Holy Synod the Russian Church became a department of the civil bureaucracy of the Russian Empire, and its history is thenceforth a portion of the lives and policies of the Procurators. A vigorous censorship was established for all the theological writings. The foundation of new eparchies, the nomination of the bishops, the monastic life, the missions either inside or outside of Russia were topics all necessarily subject to the supervision and approval of the government. The influence of the Russian Church in the social and religious field was unceasingly checked by its bureaucratic yoke. Russian Christianity could not exert the beneficent influence rightfully its Own

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due to it. Control of the Church gained by the Slavophil party which tried closely to associate autocracy and orthodoxy as the joint pillars of the Russian state. This was notably true in the recent ecclesiastical dictatorship of the Procurator Konstantin Pobiedonostzev. The result of this policy was that the Church lost the intellectual classes, the so called intelligentsia, and became a mere tool in the hands of the Russian bureaucracy for the support of tsarism.

In

4. The Revolutionary Period.- This period begins in 1905, as the outcome of a new spirit pervading Russia and exerting its influence over the clergy. A group of liberal priests of Petrograd issued a proclamation of freedom for the Church. This movement was frowned upon by the high clergy, but met with an unconditional support from the lower clergy. order to answer the demand, the Holy Synod proposed the convocation of a General Synod of the Russian Church. The bishops were invited to outline their plans of reform. A special commission was charged with a preliminary discussion of the radical changes to be introduced into the constitution and inner life of the Russian Church. At the end of 1907, however, the forces of reaction had regained the ascendency and the project of the general council sank into oblivion.

The downfall of the autocratic régime in Russia left the Russian Church the power of determining her own affairs. With a few exceptions in the ranks of the hierarchy, the clergy accepted joyfully the establishment of democracy. Some even advocated the complete democratization of the Church and the abolition of the hierarchy. But the extremists were unable to awaken in Russia the spirit of a radical reform like that of Luther in Western Christianity. The best elements of the Church met in the General Council of Moscow, held in September-October 1917. Bishops, priests, monks and laymen discussed the conditions of Russian Christianity and came to the conclusion that after the disappearance of Russian autocracy the Russian Church needed a visible religious head, the centre of the religious forces of the crumbling empire. The restoration of Russian patriarchate was approved by an overwhelming majority of votes. Tychon, metropolitan of Moscow, a liberal bishop who lived many years in the United States, was elected patriarch. He assumed at once an energetic attitude against the spreading wave of bolshevism and became the embodiment of the conservative forces in Russia and of sound Russian nationalism. The Russian Church is re

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covering her prestige and fitting herself for the social and political changes brought about by the democratization of Russia.

Statistics. Before the European War Russian Christianity, or according to the official expression, the Russian Orthodox Church, numbered 87,000,000 of the faithful and there were over 70,000 churches and chapels. From an administrative point of view, autocratic Russia was divided into metropolitan districts, eparchies (dioceses), vicariats, deaneries and parishes. The Russian clergy, charged with the spiritual care of the orthodox population, formed two entirely distinct castes: the "white clergy" (secular priests) and the "black clergy" (monasticism). All the higher clergy (metropolitans, bishops and vicar-bishops) in accordance with an old tradition, have been chosen from monastic ranks.

The Russian hierarchy enhanced their authority and organization under the synodal régime. At the time of Peter the Great, the Russian Church numbered only 18 eparchies and two vicariats. At the dawn of the 19th century there were 36; in 1890, 62. In 1905 the Russian hierarchy consisted of three metropolitans (Petrograd, Moscow and Kiev), 16 archbishops and 108 bishops (including 44 vicar bishops or coadjutors). Most of them have completed their studies in the Russian theological academies. A half, approximately, had been married priests, who, after the death of their wives, embraced monastic life. Under the old régime the metropolitans received a salary of 50,000 to 75,000 roubles. The salaries of the bishops varied between 1,500 and 20,000 roubles.

In spite of the repeated confiscation of their properties, the Russian monasteries grew in wealth and numbers during the synodal period. In old Russia, monasticism lived an exuberant life. Kiev possessed 17 monasteries and Nizhni-Novgorod 20. Peter the Great issued several ukases with a view to limit the number of monasteries and hinder entrance into them of postulants. At the beginning of the 18th century, Russian monasteries held 14,534 monks and 10,673 nuns. As a consequence of the restrictive laws of Peter the Great and Anna Ivanovna, their number was respectively reduced to 7,829 and 6,543. In 1764 many monasteries were suppressed and their properties were confiscated. From 954 at that time, they decreased to 452 in 1810. The protection of Tsars Paul I, Alexander I and Nicholas I restored their prosperity. The monks gathered immense riches. New monasteries were built everywhere in Russia. At the beginning of the 20th century there were over 500 monasteries of monks and 300 monasteries of women, the former with 15,000 monks and novices, and the latter with 38,000 nuns and novices. Among the Russian monasteries four of the most famous are decorated with the epithet of lavra : those of Saint Alexander Newski in Petrograd; of Saint Theodosios Pechersky in Kiev; of the Most Blessed Trinity at Serghievo, near Moscow; and of the Assumption at Pochaev. Seven other monasteries are called stavropigiaki. In the canon law of the Eastern churches, these attributes mean that the monasteries are subject to the immediate jurisdiction of the patriarch.

The white clergy is charged with the ad

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ministration of the parish churches. They number 2,340 archpriests, 44,487 priests, 14,960 deacons, 43,552 psalm readers. According to the most recent statistics, there are 37,465 parishes and 59,703 churches; the cathedralchurches existing to about the number of 700. Social Conditions of Russian Christianity. --A recognized fact in the history of Russian Christianity is the slight influence exerted by the Russian clergy upon their flock. At the outset of her Christian life Russia depended for the foundation of her churches upon the generosity of the princes, or of the mir (commune). The choice of the priests for the services of the churches belonged to the members of the parish. The candidates who offered their services for smaller salaries were given the preference. Thus ignorant or loose priests came into possession of ecclesiastical benefices and consequently the Russian priesthood lost its moral prestige. The nobility contributed to its decay as their serfs were ordained in order to increase their revenues. Russian councils, especially that of the "Hundred Chapters" (Moscow 1551) strove to improve the moral condition of the clergy and to render more difficult entrance to holy orders. In the 16th century there were villages of 30 families, served by four priests.

The ecclesiastical reforms of Peter the Great aimed first of all at reducing the number of the clergy and putting an end to the autonomy of the parishes. In 1722 he fixed one priest as the maximum for a village of 150 families. The sons of the clergy and even psalm-readers and deacons were enrolled in the army. His policy was continued by his successors and in 1841, when the statutes of Russian consistories were promulgated, the last traces of parish autonomy disappeared.

Under the synodal régime the Russian clergy transformed themselves gradually into civil employees. They became clerks, preparing numerous documents and statistics to be used by the civil and military bureaucracy. Not infrequently were their services turned to account by the police authorities. Under a ukase of 1716, the clergy had each year to submit a list of all the members of their respective parishes who had not received holy communion. This ignoble subjection to the civil bureaucracy lost the clergy their prestige and could not but result in their enslavement to the autocratic régime. It was not unnatural, therefore, that they should share with the bureaucracy the bitter hatred of the revolutionary leaders. Famous painters like Perov, Riepin, Makovsky, Korzuklin and great novelists like Solovev, Chirigov, Glukhovtzovoi, Vasilich, and especially Leonidas Andreev, depicted in the darkest colors the degradation of the clergy. A reaction followed in 1905. The better minds in the white clergy became the leaders of a movement for the independence of the Church and her separation from the State. A schedule of liberal reforms was drawn up by 32 priests of Petrograd and inserted into the Ecclesiastical Messenger. For several years the struggle between the partisans of the old régime and those of the democratization of the Church went on violently. At last, with the downfall of the Tsarism, the liberal element gained the ascendency and the Russian clergy, freed from

their servile submission to the State, will doubtless exert a great influence upon the spiritual rebirth of Russia.

Economic Conditions.- Extreme poverty has been the lot of the clergy from the beginning of Russian Christianity. Priests, Golubinsky tells us, were considered as workingmen, intended to perform liturgical ceremonies. They did not claim the rôle of leaders and teachers of their people. The laws either forbade or restricted the bequeathal of property to the parish churches; frequently the clergy has had its land confiscated. Before the war the revenues of the clergy were derived especially from the land allotments of the dioceses and the parish churches. The white clergy in the villages had the social rank of the peasants among whom they labored. They themselves were farmers and aimed to keep for their sons the fields which they cultivated. Other sources of income may be noted: the sale of candles and religious articles; tithes; state allowances (not in all parishes, however); and offerings made upon the administration of the sacraments. These offerings are usually pitifully small: 35 cents for marriage, 15 cents for baptism, 3 cents for funeral prayers. Quite frequently, a priest's net income from professional or conventional fees and offerings amounts to no more than $50 a year. They have been unable, consequently, properly to support their families. Their poverty is one of the common themes of the Russian novelists. It contributed to their estrangement from the upper strata of society, but it associated their lives with the sufferings and aspirations of the poor. The white clergy sympathized with the revolutionary movement, hopeful of an improvement of their economic lot. As yet their hopes have not been realized; but when normal conditions have been restored in Russia it may be expected that the Church will quickly recover its material prosperity.

Bibliography. For Pagan Period consult Kastorsky, M., Sketch of Slavic Mythology' in Russian (Saint Petersburg 1841); Kostomarov, N. I., Sla ic Mythology) (Kiev 1847); Nikiforovsky, M., Russian Paganism,' in Russian (Saint Petersburg 1875). For a general survey of Russian Religion consult Adeney, 'Greek and Eastern Churches) (New York 1908); Barsov, T., The Patriarch of Constantinople and His Jurisdiction Over the Russian Church (Saint Petersburg 1878); Biggs, Ch. R. D., The Russian Church' (London 1910) Blagovieshenskii, A., History of the Earliest Ecclesiastical Academy of Kazan' (Kazan 1876); Curtis, 'History of Creeds and Confessions' (Edinburgh 1911); Dampier, 'Organization of the Orthodox Eastern Churches' (Milwaukee 1913); Fortescue, The Orthodox Eastern Church (London 1907); Frere, W. H., 'Some Links in the Chain of the Russian Church' (London 1918); Gagarin, "The Russian Clergy) (London 1872); Golubinsky, E., History of the Russian Church) (3 vols., Moscow 1900, 1901, 1904); id., 'History of the Canonization of Saints in the Russian Church (ib. 1903); Gorchakov, M. F., 'The Canon Law of the Russian Church (Saint Petersburg 1909); Hamilton, Greek Saints and Their Festivals' (London 1910); Hefele, 'Con

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, Petrograd

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