Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/129

Rh should become the capital. On the whole Pestel's ideas were remarkable, and were distinguished especially by the way in which all the important institutions of a well-ordered democratic state were conceived as comprising an organically united whole. Apart from the exceptions indicated, Pestel's mind was liberal and progressive, this being clearly shown by his views regarding the futility of punishing attempted suicides, regarding the equality of status for illegitimate children, etc. Yet the governmental centralisation to which he aspired would have been no less absolutist than was the "enlightened" tsarism of the preceding epoch. This is especially plain in his views upon religion and the church. Here Pestel is wholly at one with Peter the Great. The clergy are not to form a distinct order, being merely entitled to the exercise of a specific profession; and they must do their work as constituents of the governmental machine. The remodelling of their status in this direction was the aim of his proposed ecclesiastical reforms. Besides demanding that the clergy should be better educated and better paid, Pestel insisted that they ought to lead a truly Christian life, and desired the abolition of monasticism and of monastic control of the white or secular clergy. He prudently recognised that this aim must be secured by a process of gradual change. One of his recommendations was that no one should be allowed to take monastic vows before the age of sixty, or to become a secular priest before the age of forty. In the matter of alien creeds, Pestel held that no member of the clergy ought to be subject to any foreign authority, seeing that the clergy are state servants. Foreign monastic orders being contrary to the spirit of the Orthodox church, could not be tolerated in Russia.

Of course the proposals were mainly directed against the pope and the Catholics. Pestel's attitude towards the church serves also to explain why he desired that Poland and the Polish provinces should be separated from Russia.

Pestel's religious ideas require further study. It was natural that as a Lutheran he should take a progressive attitude vis-à-vis Orthodoxy. Puškin records that Pestel once said, "Mon cœur est matérialiste, mais ma raison s'y refuse."

A more detailed analysis of Pestel's political conceptions would here be out of place, and it is impossible to refer to the writings and sketches of the other decabrists. The only one