Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/111

96 esteemed him not; … we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."

During the Tatar subjugation the cross on the churches was replaced by the crescent, and, after their expulsion, the crescent was not removed, but was surmounted by a cross, in significance of the triumph of Christianity.

In addition to the changes enumerated above, another decree of the council, secured by Nikon's influence, evinced the larger spirit of Christian charity which characterized his efforts at reform; the validity of baptism by the Latin Church was recognized, which, although contrary to the decision of his great predecessor Philaret, and to the practice at Constantinople, was in accordance with the rules of the churches in Palestine. The alterations in the service, decided upon after much and stormy discussion, were at once promulgated and enforced throughout the empire. The people, filled with superstitious veneration for familiar forms, received these innovations with strong dislike, as an impious profanation of what they deemed most sacred, and a very large body of the clergy shared this feeling.

Nikon's enemies fomented the spirit of discontent, but his power was yet too firmly established for any successful resistance. The members of the clergy who ventured to oppose his plans were made to feel the impotency of their endeavors by banishment and prison. Paul, Bishop of Kolomna, was arbitrarily deprived of his diocese and exiled to Siberia, without trial by his peers, and in violation of ecclesiastical law.

Nikon's intolerant exercise of authority, his severity towards the clergy, his overbearing arrogance towards all, increased the growing hostility to his power; but,