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THE EVOLUTION OF THE STATE ii
ii
ceremonies. He strictly observes religious holidays, and is
a conscientious churchgoer. He keeps fast-days, worships
before the ikons with which every home is adorned, and
frequently makes the sign of the Cross. Religion has, up
to the present, played a very important part in the life of
the nation, and has acquired a more national significance
than in any other European country.
The national position of the Orthodox Church in Russia
has been determined by the particular course of historic
events. Although the Christian faith was introduced into
Russia from Byzantium, and, moreover, the High, or
so-called " Black," clergy in Russia belonged during the ninth
and tenth centuries for the most part to the Greek nationality,
the Greek Orthodox Church soon acquired a Russian national
character. The Apostles of the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius,
translated the Greek liturgical books into the Slavonic
language, and thus gave to the Russian Orthodox Church
its own national service. When in 1453 Constantinople
was conquered by the Turks, the independence of the
Russian Orthodox Church from her previous religious
metropolis became assured.
At the head of the Russian Church stood the Patriarch
of Moscow, who occupied a position independent of State
rule. Peter the Great considered it necessary for the
centralisation of power to abolish the Patriarchate and
replace it by the Holy Synod, which was composed of the
high dignitaries of the Church appointed by the Tsar,
and one representative of the lay element, the Supreme
Procurator of the Holy Synod, whose duty it is to watch
the interests of the State. The resolutions of the Synod
required to be sanctioned by the Tsar, and as the Synod
controls all the administration of the Church, including its
financial affairs, the Tsar became its all-powerful guardian.
He did not care to interfere in questions of religious dogma,
which were left to be settled by the Tserkovni Sobor (the
Church Council) ; but in other respects Peter the Great
made the Church an instrument of the State, and himself
and the State instruments of the Church. This form of
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