Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/506

480 members of the hierarchy are appointed from among the celibate monks, not from among the married secular clergy. In the writings of Solov'ev, no less than in those of Leont'ev, the aristocratic character of priestcraft is conspicuous.

The church is the city of God (the of Origen, the civitas dei of Augustine), and as such every social organisation, and in especial the state, must be subordinated to it. In and by itself, and also in association with the state, the church is theocracy (Solov'ev's free theocracy).

For as soon as the church conceives its doctrine and its guidance of life to be absolutely true, and therefore claims infallible authority alike in theoretical and in practical matters, and as soon as men come to believe in this authority and to bow before it, the primacy of the church over the state is the inevitable consequence. In so far as the state adduces ethical arguments for its own existence, in so far as it justifies on moral grounds the necessary existence of the state, an intimate association between state and church must result, for the church regards the moral guidance of society as its peculiar mission.

This intimate relationship is conspicuous in the origin of canon law side by side with the civil law to which the state owes its origin.

The church and ecclesiastical religion present themselves as objective, integral, absolute authority; ecclesiastical religion is made to appear the central spiritual force of the individual and of society.

From this outlook we can readily understand why Russian philosophy lays so much stress upon individualism (Mihailovskii's "struggle for individuality"). Equally clear becomes the significance of socialism in general and of social democracy in particular. With the absoluteness of the Marxist doctrine, the social democratic organisation is authoritatively counterposed, not to the state alone, but to the church as well.

For the same reason, Russian anarchism is anti-ecclesiastical and antireligious. This is equally true of liberalism, which upholds nationality as social organisation and authority, against the church and the church's theocratic ideal of nationality.