CHAPTER IV.
The Church in the Fifteenth Century.—Effect of Tatar Occupation.—Liberation of Russia from the Tatars.—Attempted Reforms in the Church.—The Orthodox Church in Poland.—Establishment of the Patriarchate in Russia.
The restless spirit of inquiry and enterprise, the prodigious mental activity which, at the end of the fifteenth century, had aroused Southern and Western Europe, spread into Russia and agitated the stagnant pools of Muscovite barbarism and prejudice. Civilization, elsewhere progressing with gigantic strides, was there creeping onward with slow and sluggish steps, hampered by the fatuity and apathy typical of its Oriental origin. Belief in the approaching end of the world turned men's minds towards the Church. Among the Russian people, pre-eminently ignorant and superstitious when ignorance and superstition were everywhere characteristics of the people, this expectation was generally prevalent, and the consequent devotional feeling correspondingly intensified. Public churches were multiplied, the rich erected private chapels and founded religious establishments; innumerable ecclesiastics were required for their services; restrictions for admission to the clergy were disregarded, and its ranks invaded by multitudes from the poorest and lowest of the population, seriously debasing its morals and lowering its character.
Among the great events of which this age was prolific, the greatest for Russia was its liberation from Tatar
