Russia [Theme]

Where are you Rus'? Where did you go? Where are ditties, rushniki, kokoshniki?! Where is the bakery, dare and scope?! Where are the samovars, ascetics, holy fools? Where is sterlet, carps, honey, granular caviar? Where are ordinary horses, damn it? Where is the chaste bashfulness of feelings?

- There is not a drop of doubt!

Well, why are you looking at me like Batu Khan at Kievan Rus?

For me - Holy Rus', for others - a pain in the ass.

Thanks to the efforts of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, by the second half of the 19th century. religious educational institutions have reached the level of the best European and Russian universities. Therefore, the educational and cultural level of Russian clergy by the beginning of the twentieth century. was tall.

The Orthodox Church was protected in the Russian Empire by a number of legislative and administrative measures. Open blasphemy was punishable by hard labor for up to 15 years, for beating a priest - imprisonment for up to 8 years, for converting from Orthodoxy to schism or seducing others into schism - exile to Siberia, for converting to any non-Christian religion - deprivation of all rights of state and exile to hard labor for a term of 8 to 10 years. Leaving the mainstream Orthodox faith before the manifesto of April 17, 1905 was considered a criminal offense.

The church, as part of the state apparatus, performed a number of functions. She had to educate her flock in devotion to the throne and obedience to authorities

By the end of the 18th century, the process of complete subordination of the church to the autocratic state was completed. On April 5, 1797, Paul I's law on succession to the throne declared the emperor the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is now dominant and dominant in Russia. Spiritual censorship was introduced, not only for religious, but also for secular literature.

During the reign of Empress Catherine II (Rules from 1762 to 1976), the church lost its economic independence. According to the Manifesto of February 26, 1764, most of the monastic and bishop's estates were transferred under the full control of the College of Economics of the Synodal Board - i.e., secular power. Bishops' houses and monasteries were transferred to the maintenance of the treasury.

According to Spiritual

Special restrictions applied to monasteries, where it was forbidden to accept persons under 30 years of age, fugitive soldiers, landowner peasants without a letter of release from the landowner, and officials without the permission of the governor. Monasteries were centers of opposition to reforms, so many strictures were introduced. Peter believed that monasteries should serve to satisfy the religious needs of certain individuals seeking solitude, as well as to prepare selected monks for the highest spiritual positions.

Parish priests were entrusted with the functions of state control over the piety and political loyalty of their parishioners: If

Along with the fact that Peter's decrees charged the church with state duties, they also supported the Orthodox Church with state funds. A decree of 1718 obliged Orthodox Christians to perform religious duties. Absence from confession and failure to attend church on holidays and Sundays was punishable by fines.

In 1720, on behalf of the sovereign, Feofan Prokopovich drew up a legislative act on the management of the Church Spiritual