Russia under the Old regime

THE CHURCH AS SERVANT OF THE STATE

personal significance at a time when people universally believed in the immortality of the soul, and associated spiritual salvation with the punctilious observance of religious rites. Korb, an Austrian who visited Russia in 1699, was undoubtedly correct when at the head of a list of things Russians 'principally guarded against' he put 'lest the religion of their forefathers should be changed'.9

Nikon enjoyed the complete confidence of Tsar Alexis, an extremely pious man, whose natural inclination to do the proper thing was further encouraged by Greek prelates flattering him with visions of a revived Byzantine Empire under his rule. With his support, Nikon forced through many ritualistic changes, altering the manner of making the cross, pronouncing the Credo and painting ikons. He abolished mnogo-penie, the custom of concurrent singing of different parts of the liturgy. But he went further yet, attempting to create in Russia a true Christian community by regulating the daily life of ordinary people in some detail. He and his supporters enforced strict rules of conduct which forbade card playing, drinking, cursing and sexual licence, and required every Russian to spend some four or five hours a day in church. So intimate was Nikon's relationship with Tsar Alexis that when the latter left for campaigns he turned over to him the management of state affairs. Through his friendship with the tsar, Nikon succeeded in restoring temporarily the balance between church and state.

Nikon, however, happened to have been a very difficult man, headstrong, tactless, and on occasion ruthlessly brutal. Having alienated with his reforms the mass of the clergy, he next aroused the anger of court dignitaries, resentful of his arrogation of sovereign prerogatives and generally overbearing manner. He was intrigued against by courtiers bent on estranging the tsar from him. Alexis gradually became persuaded that the patriarch had indeed overstepped the bounds of his authority, as his enemies charged, and visibly cooled to him. Hoping to force the tsar's hand, Nikon abandoned his post and retired to a monastery. But he miscalculated, for the tsar did not come to beg forgiveness as he had anticipated; instead, he waited and did nothing, allowing the patriarchal office to remain, in effect, vacant.

Finally, in 1666 Alexis convoked a major church synod to which he invited prominent ecclesiastics from Greece to settle his dispute with Nikon and pass judgement on his reforms. Defending himself from the charges brought against him, Nikon advanced a novel (to the Orthodox) theory of church supremacy over state:

Has thou not learned... that the highest authority of the priesthood is not received from kings or emperors (lit. Tsars), but contrariwise, it is by the priesthood that rulers are anointed to the empire? Therefore it is abundantly plain that priesthood is a very much greater thing than royalty...