Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/121

106 committed to him the things of this earth, but I have committed to me the things of heaven." He vehemently assailed the Monastery Court, instituted by Alexis, establishing lay jurisdiction over the clergy and Church property, as illegal by the ancient ordinances of the empire, and unrighteous by the canons of the Church. Discussing the possible conflict of authority, he declares: "In spiritual things, which belong to the glory of God, the bishop is higher than the tsar, for so only can he maintain the spiritual jurisdiction. But in those things which belong to the province of this world the tsar is higher, and so they will be in no opposition, the one against the other."

The man fell a victim to bigotry, ignorance, malevolence, and jealousy, but of his work much, though the least valuable portion, remained. The council which sent him into banishment acknowledged, by its acts, the purity and orthodoxy of his faith, and, after electing Joasaph II. archimandrite of the Trinity Monastery, to fill the vacant patriarchate, it established authoritatively the changes introduced by Nikon, and annulled the decisions of the Council of the Hundred Chapters, which for many years had been a fruitful source and support of error. A few years later, during the succeeding reign, the Monastery Court was abolished, and the patriarchal tribunal re-established. But the power of inveterate habit and the force of prejudice are great, and the attachment of the people and of many of the clergy to their ancient forms was stronger than the enactments of the assembly, though backed by all the authority of the civil power. Teachers of false doctrine, pretending to be de-