DR. CHAPTER III. Difficulties with Magdalen College. R. ROUTH offered to propose at a college meeting that the Society (i.e. the college), should give me a letter of recommendation, a form for which he bade me draw up in Latin; and this, after he had altered it to his mind, he caused to be engrossed on parchment. But on Monday, July 27, when at the college meeting this letter was read, and the President proposed that the college seal should be set to it, one of the Fellows, Mr. Sibthorpe, rose, and in a tone of excitement said, "I protest, Mr. President, I protest against this Society giving any encouragement to the idea of intercommunion with the idolatrous Greek Church." And the Vice-President, with one or two others, having joined in his opposition, the President, saying with a smile, "Unity, gentlemen, is very desirable," put the parchment aside, and was proceeding to other business, when one of the objectors suggested that the college should give me instead a certificate of leave of absence for purposes of study in Russia, and this was done. The same day, after the meeting, the President sent for me to his house, and said, "I should be sorry, sir, that you should go to Russia with only that meagre document, i.e. the certificate; and, though I did not think it desirable to press the matter at the meeting, unless it could be done with unanimity, there is nothing to prevent my giving you, in my own name, any letter I please." And, so saying, he gave me back the parchment which had been read at the College meeting with some abbreviations and alterations marked upon it, that I might get it engrossed afresh ; after which he would send it after me by the post to London. "I think, sir," he said, "that I could find precedents for what I am doing, but in strictness, such letters ought to be from a Bishop." And, when I replied that in London I might probably see the Archbishop of Canterbury, and could ask him if he would countersign or otherwise authorize the letter, he desired me to do so by all means. Also, on hearing that I had declined introductions, which had been offered to me to English residents in Petersburg, and in particular one to our ambassador, Lord Clanricarde, and that I hoped to go on at once to Kieff, Dr. Routh bade me on no account decline the intro duction to our ambassador. "That," he said, "is very likely to be useful, especially in such a country as Russia:" in consequence I obtained this introduction. The letter of commendation, as altered and to be given to me by the President, was in English as follows: "To all faithful believers in Christ, to whom these letters may come, wishing grace, health, and salvation. Whereas it has been signified to me that one of our fellows-William Palmer, Master of Arts and Student in Theology, and Deacon in Holy Orders, desires to go to Russia for ecclesiastical studies, I, approving and encouraging his desire, do, by these present letters, sanction his undertaking. I wish him, after asking permission of the most potent and religious Emperor, if the piety of the Emperor grants his request, to present himself with all reverence to the Russian Bishops, and especially to the Most Holy Spiritual Synod, that by their favour and protection he may become acquainted with the doctrines, rites, and ceremonies of the Russian Church, and may learn the Russian language, either in some Spiritual Academy or elsewhere, as may be judged most convenient. "Further, I ask, and even adjure in the name of Christ, all the most holy Archbishops and Bishops, and especially the Synod itself, that they will examine. him as to the orthodoxy of his faith with a charitable mind, and, if they find in him all that is necessary to the integrity of the true and saving faith, then that they will also admit him to communion in the Sacraments. "6 'I would have him submit and conform himself in all things to the injunctions and admonitions of the Russian Bishops, only neither affirming anything, nor doing anything, contrary to the faith and doctrine of the British Churches. "To these letters I willingly affix my name and seal this fourth day of August, in the year of Christ, 1840. ΙΧΘΥΣ "MARTIN JOSEPH ROUTH, President of St. Mary Magdalen College in the University of Oxford." Our ambassador to the Court of Russia, Lord Clanricarde, being then in London, gave me several letters of introduction to persons living at Petersburg, especially one to the Count Pratasoff, Ober Prokuror (High Procurator) of the most holy Governing Synod; and another to M. de Barante, the French Ambassador. "You will be surprised," Lord Clanricarde said, "to see a General of Hussars in his uniform, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor, presiding in the Synod, directing the Bishops, and governing the Church.” |