Czar's chaplain and the head chaplain of the forces are also members. And the chief man in the Holy Synod is the Procurator (Ober-Prokuror), a layman, generally a soldier, appointed by the Government to see that its laws are carried out. Russians themselves realize how completely their Church now lies under the heel of the autocracy. When Mr. Palmer was in Russia, the common joke was to point to the Procurator in his officer's uniform and to say, "That is our patriarch,"[1] and one continually hears of their hope of restoring the old independence of their Church by setting up the Patriarchate of Moscow again.[2]
Meanwhile the Russian Church is governed by Imperial Ukazes.[3] It would be quite untrue to say that she recognizes the Czar as her head. Every Russian would indignantly declare that the Head of his Church is our Lord Jesus Christ, which is, of course, just what Catholic children learn in their Catechism too, and what a member of any of the numberless Christian sects would affirm. As far as practical politics are concerned, however, that answer leaves things much as they were. The question only shifts one degree, and one asks through whom our Lord governs his Church. And the Russian must answer: "Through the Holy Synod." Possibly he would first say: "Through the bishops"; but there is no question that the synod rules the bishops, and the synod is its Procurator, and he represents the civil government. The incredible thing is that Russians boast of the freedom of their Church from the yoke of Rome, just as the Orthodox in Turkey do. If the Church is to have any visible government at all, one would imagine that, even apart from any consideration of theology or antiquity, the first Patriarch would be a more natural governor than the Czar or the Sultan. The Czar's Empire con-
- ↑ Visit to the Church of Russia, pp. 48, 73, 221, &c.
- ↑ E. d'Or. iv. pp. 187, 232, viii. p. 176, &c. See Palmer, passim, esp. pp. 100–105, 110–114, for examples of Russian Erastianism. On p. 160 is an amusing tu quoque argument from a Russian to the Anglican.
For the constitution and jurisdiction of the Russian Holy Synod, see Silbernagl, pp. 101–110. The eldest metropolitan presides at the meetings, but has no more authority than the others. See there also the incredibly Erastian oath taken by each member of the synod: "I acknowledge him (the Czar) for the supreme judge in this spiritual assembly," &c. Throughout the Russian Church the Holy Synod is named in the liturgy instead of a patriarch.
- ↑ Cf. e. gr. E. d'Or. ii. p. 247, seq.
