the throne it might have stifled the Raskol at its birth; nearly all that had been demanded originally was accorded, but it could no longer suffice. A century and more had passed—long years of struggling, persecution, and suffering; Dissent had crystallized and hardened into schism, with habits of independence and of free inquiry; it had become impatient of control, with an individuality of its own, social and political, as well as religious, and a deeper principle than one of mere ceremony was at stake. The sincerity of those in power was doubted; Old Ritualists, now Old Believers and schismatics, feared the Church and the gifts it proffered.
Catherine's plan was in many respects akin to that of the pope when he created the Greek Uniate Church as a middle ground between the creeds of Moscow and Rome, with the Jesuitical hope, in either case, that, having traversed half the distance separating Catholicism, or the Raskol, from Orthodoxy, the semi-convert might be easily induced to complete the journey.
The restrictions imposed upon the Edinovertsi were the most obvious hinderances to the prosperity of the sect. It could not be recruited from among the members of the established Church, of whom many were in secret sympathy with Dissent, but might have been satisfied with this intermediate creed, inasmuch as secession from the Orthodox communion was absolutely prohibited; it was not acceptable to the great body of those who openly professed to be Old Believers, on account of its halting, temporizing character, and of the incompleteness of its organization. The Greek Uniate Church, to which it has been compared above, had owed its success in a large degree not merely to a special liturgy and ritual, but also to the possession of a regular and independent hierarchy; to Edinovertsism no episcopate was
