Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/63

 who, for all their cunning, found the princes too stiff-necked to drive. The metropolitans were themselves pliable enough provided only they could send plenty of money to Byzantium, for in Russia, as in the west, the church was also a financial institution, and this redounded in turn to its political power. Such was the case although the Russians had no particular affection for the Greek priests and hierarchs, so that as early as the twelfth century, in the Russian tongue the word Greek (Grek) became synonymous with rapscallion.

It is necessary to conceive and appraise the medieval churches of Rome and Byzantium as constituting social and political organisms side by side with the imperial power. Medievalism is characterised by the development of theocracy, the Roman in the west and the Byzantine in the east. Emperor and pope, emperor and patriarch, church and state, are the organs of political organisation. Theology is the basis and the associative link of social order. The throne rests upon the altar, and the altar supports the throne; state and church are one. Down to the present day, almost all states are theocratic. Theology, the doctrine of the church, is the official and political outlook on the world; ecclesiastical morality is official and political morality. In so far as society is organised upon a basis of ideas, the middle ages brought theocracy to maturity, and this theocratic social order has maintained itself in manifold forms and degrees down to the present day.

In the east, the emperor maintained the primacy in theocracy. Constantius II was able to say, "My will is law for the church." This is the practical significance of the theological doctrine of the "symphony" of soul and body, of patriarch and emperor. This symphony materialises in perfected cæsaropapism. Russian theocracy developed in a similar direction. In the east, therefore, the power of the church vis-à-vis, the state was for the most part inferior to that possessed by the western church, of which the pope maintained the primacy. The power and the influence of the church depended upon the faith and the credulity of all, emperor, pope, and patriarch.

When the subdivision of the realm among the petty princes began, the metropolitan was able to wield great political power, doing this precisely in virtue of his office, for the local churches were subject to him, and the church was so far independent of the princes inasmuch as it was subject to the