presentations of orthodoxy. Accordingly both parties manipulated them for their own purposes. The Uniats altered them so as to favour Roman Catholicism, and the orthodox ruled out these innovations and brought them more into line with the authorised teaching of the Eastern Church. But Peter Mogila did more than this. He broke the silence of centuries which had brooded over the ice-bound sea of Greek theology, and published a Confession of Faith, which was written partly by himself and partly under his direction by the archimandrite Isaiah Trophiniovich. It was subsequently revised by Meletius Syriga, and in its newer form it passed into the Russian Church proper, where it is still acknowledged as a standard authority. This catechism was not only intended to defend the orthodoxy of the Church against Roman errors, it was also issued as a safeguard against Calvinism, which was now penetrating into Poland and Little Russia.
In the year 1643 there was held a synod at Jassy in Moldavia, which condemned the doctrines of Calvinism. Peter Mogila and four Russian bishops signed the acts of this synod. Thus, while as the most learned prominent theologian of his country Mogila took the lead in the campaign against Romanism, he was equally decided in his opposition to Protestantism. He was not drawn into the tentative alliance between the two great opposing forces that were contending with the papacy, which might have become a mighty force changing the current of the history of Christendom, if Cyril Lucar's large-minded liberal policy had been pursued. The Russian Church has never been liberal. More than once reforming itself in morals and discipline, it is intensely conservative in doctrine and ritual. Thus its literature is almost wholly devoted to apologetics and liturgiology. Scholarship, not speculation, characterises its most intellectual leaders.
There are many instances of great scholarship among the Russian ecclesiastics. Thus Philaret's successor Joseph was celebrated for his learning, and Michael conferred with him and the bishops in regard to a project for
