Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/529

Rh The nature of Orthodox passivism, its backwardness in religious and ecclesiastical matters, explains why, in quarters friendly to the church, and even within the church itself, a Catholic trend is so often and so conspicuously manifest (Čaadaev, Pečorin, Solov'ev, Leont'ev). This is no mere outcome of an adaptation in externals to those elements in the west that are ecclesiastically and religiously akin, for from within outwards Orthodoxy, now that the leaven of western philosophy has begun to work, tends logically towards Catholicism as the next stage upwards in ecclesiastico-religious evolution. Among the common people there is no Catholic trend, and the folk has no sympathy with the movement towards the union of the churches; but the inclination of the cultured classes and of instructed theologians towards Catholicism is thoroughly comprehensible.

In respect of ecclesiastical policy, no less than in respect of doctrine, Peter's adversary Javorskii continues to find followers; these endeavour to fortify clericalism and to further centralisation through the patriarchate. In connection with such efforts at ecclesiastical reform, it is essential to distinguish clearly between the progressive and the reactionary elements (§ 36).

Protestantism is less dangerous to Orthodoxy precisely