Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/518

492 It is not in Russia alone that church and state constitute a social integer. Everywhere definite laws exist to regulate the relationships between the two parts. To assure oneself of this fact, it suffices to consider the endeavours that began during the eighteenth century to bring about a separation between church and state. The first such separation was the one effected by the American union in 1787; France followed the example during and after the revolution (1789, 1794–1802); during the nineteenth century came the separation in Belgium (1831); and after the annihilation of the Papal States in 1870–1871, separation occurred in a number of European, American, and Australian states, among which France was the most important (1905).

The liberal program of disestablishment is a socio-political attempt to solve the religious problem; this program was formulated by liberalism in the struggle against the theocratic social order on behalf of spiritual liberty and toleration. Locke, the first philosopher of liberalism, was the first advocate of the separation of church and state. Liberalism was to be understood as an endeavour to secure freedom—freedom from the spiritual oppression exercised by theocracy, by the union of church and state. Separation of church and state would afford a guarantee of freedom of conscience. Religion was to be a private matter (the phrase is not happily chosen); vis-à-vis the state, the church was to become an institution established upon civil law; education, including popular elementary education, was to be entirely removed from the hands of the church.

In the historical introduction, we considered the character and development of the Russian theocracy. Subsequently, when dealing with individual thinkers, we examined their respective views, not only concerning religion, but likewise concerning the church and its relationship to the state. This involved a comparison between eastern and western conditions, and above all in our account of the slavophils we found it