Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/158

The inevitable result of this national character of Orthodox Churches has been increase of the influence of the civil power over the ecclesiastic, and, in proportion as the government has been the stronger, this result has been the more perceptible; it has been especially so in Russia, under absolute and autocratic rule. Throughout the history of this empire, harmony and concord have ever marked the relations of the two powers; religious zeal has stimulated patriotic devotion; the Church has earnestly co-operated in the creation and establishment of the State, and participated in its triumph over domestic, as well as over foreign foes; but it has fallen under the control of the State; the priest has become a functionary, and the Church, a department of the government. Intellectual stagnation followed the loss of its independence, and helped to aggravate the evil, peculiar to Russia, of isolation from the rest of the civilized world. The clergy submissively acquiesced in barring the influx of foreign ideas, and fostered the growth of national prejudices, as well as of patriotic sentiment. This isolation was also, in some measure, due to the national character which distinguished the Russian, as it did all Orthodox, Churches. Having no common religious centre, there was seldom need, or desire, for intercommunication; the various national establishments were interested, each only in its own domestic affairs, and their intercourse, one with another, was infrequent and exceptional. The use of the Slavonic tongue was an important element in the early success of the Church, and contributed largely to the rapid dissemination of its doctrines among the people, but it followed that Latin, the common medium of communication between the learned of all countries, was never an essential feature of clerical education, and, consequently, not only was the intellectual isolation of