Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/242

Rh endowed with the necessary qualifications and willing to accept the position, was discovered among the Eastern prelates. Ambrosius, formerly Primate of Bosnia, recently deposed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, consented to adopt the creed of the Old Believers, and to become their head. In 1846 he was formally installed as metropolitan, and established his official residence in an important convent of their community at Belo-Krinitsa (Fontana-alba), in Bukovina, a province of Gallicia. The situation, at a point where the three great Slavonic empires meet, was well chosen. It lies within Austrian territory, and Austria was not sorry to have within its grasp this thorn in the Russian side, wherewith to counteract or retaliate for Russian intrigues among her Slavonic population. After many vicissitudes, depending on the shifting political relations of the two empires, Ambrosius finally secured tranquil possession of his ecclesiastical throne. His authority was speedily acknowledged by the Old Believers in Austria and Turkey; in Russia there was more hesitation, but, notwithstanding the repugnance of some of the more conservative to accept a foreigner, or, as they styled him, "a priest from beyond the sea," as their spiritual chief, he was formally so recognized by the leaders of the Raskol at Rogojski, and by the great body of their followers.

His first step was the creation of a regular episcopate. He divided the empire into dioceses, and appointed bishops subject to his authority, as in England the pope of Rome established a Catholic hierarchy, independent of the English government.

These schismatic prelates and their priests, known to the initiated only, are active and zealous emissaries; they officiate in secret and in disguise, wander freely over the land, protected by the devotion of their adhe-