Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/268

242 western nations, to permeate that development with its spirit. Solov'ev was greatly impressed by the rock of Peter and its steadfastness. Doubtless Rome had been masterful and pitiless in her condemnation of the godless world; but in this unyieldingness, too, we must recognise the mysterious energy of God. Solov'ev admitted that Rome had fallen very low, but it had continued to progress, and had never failed to rise after its falls. Russia, on the other hand, had never fallen because it had continued to sit unceasingly on the same spot.

In his ecclesiastical history and in his views of church policy Solov'ev's trend was unmistakably Catholicising. The reproach he levelled against Homjakov may be turned against himself. Homjakov, said Solov'ev, while criticising Catholicism and Protestantism in their historically extant forms, gave an idealised view of Orthodoxy. But no less idealised was Solov'ev's presentation of Catholicism and the papacy, whereas he took a somewhat more realistic view of the two other leading churches. But essentially, as has already been explained, he completely failed to see the historically extant churches in their true colours.

In Russia, both clericalists and liberals have written much concerning Solov'ev's attitude to Catholicism. On many occasions he was publicly represented as a Catholic, and publicly defended himself against the accusation, to which weight was, however, given by his acquaintanceship with Bishop Strossmayer and with Pierling, and by the fact that he had his book The History and Future of Theocracy printed at Agram.

Solov'ev did not in actual fact become a Catholic while in Europe, but his intimate friends expected him to go over to Rome, considering that this step would have been the logical outcome of his opinions. When directly asked why he had not been received into the Catholic church, seeing that his inclinations towards that faith were so strong, he replied that to become a Catholic would deprive him of his influence upon the Russian people. When further asked whether consideration for the welfare of his own soul did not imperiously demand that he should become a Catholic, Solov'ev rejoined that he was not concerned about his personal salvation, but was thinking about Russia.

I consider that the logic of his friends and opponents was sounder than his own. In the end, Solov'ev went so far to admit the cogency of these arguments that, in 1896, long after his friendship with Strossmayer, he joined the Russian Uniats.