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QUESTION OF MT. ATHOS
But in any case extraordinary measures were taken
on our side. We sent to Mt. Athos a Russian bishop,
Mgr. Nikon, a member of the Foreign Office, M.
Mansuroff, known for his great piety and thorough
knowledge of ecclesiastical affairs of the Orthodox East,
and finally our Consul-General to Constantinople as
representative of the "executive" power. Proceedings
opened with free discussion, then came canonical and
dogmatic arguments; but as spirits became ever more
heated and as the dissentient monks gradually exceeded
all the limits of obedience and respect, it ended in the
fire hose being played on the turbulent cenobites
(argu-mentum ad hominem, argumentum ad Deum, argumentum
ad baculum); after which they were seized and sent to
Russia under an escort . . . there they were received
with affection and respect into monasteries, and the
ecclesiastical authorities found no taint of heresy in
their opinions !
It would seem as if, after such an essentially
"spiritual" peace-making, one might feel reassured
as to the uprightness of our cenobites’ faith, and could
take up M. Sazonoff’s scheme again. But the carrying
out of this scheme would have raised endless difficulties
for our Foreign Office as well as for our Embassy in
Constantinople. So it was infinitely simpler and easier
to retire from the field definitely, consoling oneself
with the thought that a monastic republic at Mt. Athos
might all the same have held disagreeable surprises
for the order and the doctrine of the Orthodox Church.
Thus gradually all M. Sazonoff’s splendid ideas
collapsed and came to nothing, and finally our Balkan
diplomacy was in the same position as the hero of the
popular tale, who had exchanged a lump of gold for a
saddle-horse, the horse for a beautiful milch cow, the
cow for a pig, the pig for a goose, and the goose for a
grindstone which was so very heavy and cumbersome
that when it fell into the water the good lad was
inordinately relieved and intensely happy!
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