Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/67



WO Romes have fallen and have passed away, the western and the eastern: destiny has prescribed for Moscow the position of the third Rome; there will never be a fourth." Such were the words wherein, after the fall of Constantinople, the Russian monk glorified and characterised the historical position of Moscow, which had now replaced Kiev as mistress of Russia.

In proportion as Constantinople lost prestige, power, and influence through the continual onslaughts of the Turks, did there ensue an increase in the prestige and power of Moscow, all the more since the enemy who conquered Constantinople was himself conquered by Moscow. The ultimate victory of Moscow over the Tatar Mohammedans seemed especially impressive to the Christian east inasmuch as it was effected soon after the fall of Byzantium.

The political centralisation of Russian territory and the power of the grand princes of Moscow were furthered by ecclesiastical centralisation. The crowning of the grand prince as tsar (Cæsar) followed the establishment of the Moscow patriarchate (1589).

The continuous struggle of Moscow against the east and the west, against the pagan and Mohammedan Tatars, and against the Catholic and Protestant nations, greatly enhanced the ecclesiastical and religious consciousness of the Russians. It is possible that the victory of the Byzantine church over the western Christianity of the Varangians was here a contributory cause. The third Rome took over from Constantinople the idea of the Roman imperium, which Byzantium first of all and subsequently Rome had carried out in theocratic guise. The cæsaropapism of Byzantium was revived by Moscow, and the third Rome became a perfected theocracy.

In Moscow as in the west the outlook on life and the universe upon which Russian cæsaropapism was founded was rigidly orthodox and theological; but in the east, and above all in Moscow, the dominance of ecclesiastical doctrine was more exclusive. In Moscow there was no classical tradition, no rivalry between different nations. Learned men were few in number, and were characteristically styled men learned in writing, book-learned. The sum total of knowledge was theology and theosophy. This ecclesiastical culture attained