to the thought. While he evidently inclined to toleration, he violently resented any reflection, in his hearing, upon the Orthodox Church. At Mitau he attended mass, and a Polish senator ventured to urge upon him the union of the Greek and Roman Churches, but Peter replied: "Sovereigns have rights only over the bodies of their people; Christ is the sovereign of their souls. For such a thing a general consent is necessary, and that is in the power of God alone." Whatever may have been Peter's intentions towards the Church, in its relations to the State, he had no wish to disturb the religious belief of the people.
The patriarch, Adrian, died in 1700, at the moment when Peter was engaged in remodelling the national code, and in establishing clear distinctions between civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The election of a successor was postponed by the tsar's orders, upon pretext of his absence with the army, and probably also on account of his solicitude that the choice should not, while he was away, fall upon a prelate hostile to his views. As a temporary measure, Stephen Yavorsky, Metropolitan of Riazan, a man of great learning, ability, and prudence, was named guardian of the see, with the title of Exarch.
The reorganization of the ecclesiastical administration was speedily commenced. Questions of theology, and of Church discipline, were reserved to the patriarchal tribunal, but the charge of the property and of the material interests of the Church, together with general supervision over clerical affairs, was confided to the "Department of the Monasteries," created for the purpose.
The religious establishments in Russia were very numerous and very wealthy; many were very ancient, with exclusive and peculiar privileges, dating back anterior to any codified laws. There were in all 557 monasteries
