Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/61

 This process of internal development coincides with the period of persistent confusions and revolutions which ensued upon the dying out of the successors of Vladimir, disorders lasting more than a decade, and terminating mainly in the victory of the minor aristocracy and the wealthier bourgeoisie. In 1613, Michael Theodorovič Romanov, chosen from the aristocracy, was elected by the people, that is to say by the aristocratic sobor, with some assistance from the discontented Cossacks. His father Filaret, the patriarch, ruled for fourteen years (1619–33) jointly with his son as co-tsar, and the position of the new dynasty was thus consolidated by the full authority of the church.

HE Russian church was organised from Byzantium and it was from Byzantium that the preponderant majority of the Russian people received Christianity. Socially and politically and in respect of general civilisation the Greek priesthood and hierarchy were considerably in advance of the Russians, and in Old Russia therefore the social institutions and civilisation which the Greeks introduced exercised a notable influence. The church assumed the spiritual leadership of the nation and became the educator of the people. The prince remained in supreme command, but the pupils he was to command were prepared by religious education.

From the ninth century onwards, Byzantium was threatened, at first by the Slav peoples, but before long also by Arabs and Turks, and the danger was a spur to a Christianising policy, though not always to Christianisation. In Russia. the Byzantine hierarchy, which led the Russian mission, was concerned from the very outset, not with religion alone, but with ecclesiasticism as well. The Byzantine church was a mighty social organisation, and consequently acquired in Russia, too, great political and social inﬂuence. Sociological explanations of Old Russia are apt to pay far too little attention to the direct and indirect influence exercised upon society by the church. This influence is far from inconsiderable if we contemplate merely the suggestive existence of the firmly established hierarchy with its churches and monasteries. In addition, however, it was not long before the church in Russia, like the Roman church among western nations, came to exercise a conscious and carefully planned political and social influence,