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CHAPTER VI

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN MODERN RUSSIA

 

Morfill; Rambaud; Leroy Beaulieu; Heard, The Russian Church and Russian Dissent, 1887; Wallace, Russia, new edit., 1905, vol. i.; Cambridge Modern History, vol. x., chap. xiii. For Catherine ii., Mémoires of Princess Dashkoff, published by Mrs. W. Bradford, 1840; and for Alexander i., Mémoires du Prince Adam Czartoryski, et sa Correspondence avec l'Empereur Alexander i., dating from 1795; Sutherland Edwards, The Romanoffs, 1890; Bain, Pupils of Peter the Great, 1897.

 

After the death of Peter the Great (a.d. 1725) Russia was disturbed by contending factious. The great tsar's widow Catherine succeeded to the throne, but only survived him for two years. Peter, the son of the ill-fated Alexis, followed, and soon died. Next came the uneventful reign of Anne, who died in the year 1740. A series of changes in the government now rapidly supervened, till Elizabeth, the only surviving child of Peter the Great, was seated on the throne. Her father had introduced civilians into the body that managed the Church estates. Elizabeth reverted to the old custom and gave these estates back entirely into the hands of ecclesiastics. It was a time of reaction in favour of the Church. The empress showed herself very energetic in church-building, the promotion of pilgrimages, and the persecution of dissenters.

Peter iii., Elizabeth's nephew and successor, meditated a great measure of reform. This was nothing less than the appropriation of the Church lands. He was not strong enough to carry out so stupendous an enterprise. But this task was accomplished by his consort and successor, Catherine ii. (a.d. 1762–1796). She was an able

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