Crowned, will you be pleased, according to the former custom, to confess in the hearing of your loyal subjects the Orthodox Catholic Faith ?" And the Emperor thereupon reads the Creed, having himself, of his own. free will (as will appear below), enacted that the Sovereign of Russia is to profess the Creed of the Græco-Russian Church, because he is the Head of the Church. But of respecting all the laws of the Church and her rights and customs, and abiding always a dutiful son of the Church, there is not a word.

Formerly the Patriarch anointed the Emperor, or Tsar, thrice; saying each time Holy! ("Ayios). And then he set the crown on his head; and after that he led him to the Imperial place, and installed, or enthroned him. But now the Emperor sends for the regalia, and is assisted, ministerially, by the members of the Synod, or bishops, as he takes them and puts them on himself. They "minister to him in putting them on." And in particular, he takes the crown and puts it on to his own head; the metropolitan or bishop saying: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." And adding "This is as a sign that the Christ invisibly crowns thee."

The sceptre and globe are given to the Emperor by the bishop-that is, ministerially-and he takes them in the same way as he took from them the crown, though as the sceptre and the globe are to be held in

the hands which take them, he cannot show visibly, as he did with the crown, that he acknowledges in them no separate or independent power through which he is to receive grace from Christ.

Having crowned himself, the Emperor also crowns his Empress; and she, too, is assisted ministerially to put on the Imperial robes.

Aforetime the Emperor, having received, besides other Imperial robes, one clerical vestment, making him a "Deputatus" of the Church, went up as Deputatus to the north side-door, and led the procession at the Great Introit, and after that he took off from him the vestments denoting the quality of Deputatus, and he remained in his Imperial robes only; but now, on the contrary, that the Emperor has become Head of the Church, and source of all Spiritual jurisdiction, and Supreme Judge of his own creation, for the most holy Spiritual Synod to make him a Deputatus only would clearly be unsuitable. He therefore does not lead the procession at the Great Introit.

But there are in the present form additions as well as omissions. Such are two prayers unknown to the older forms, and used first at the coronation of the Empress Anna Ivanovna. These are to be said aloud, the first of them by the Emperor or Empress, the second by the bishop. The bishop who first said aloud the prayer was Theophanes Procopovich. In both of

these prayers all mention of the Church is avoided and it is implied that the Emperor or Empress is sole governor under God of both Church and State united in one body.

According to the old forms the Emperor or Tsar at the proper time for the Communion of the laity went up, and was communicated over an antimense set at a pillar outside the sanctuary. But according to the present form he is pleased to go up to the Holy Doors, and there is anointed, and in like manner the Empress. And after that he is conducted by two metropolitans within the sanctuary, and there communicated before the laity, contrary to the old forms.

Lastly, they brought to the newly-crowned Emperor, in one hand ashes or dust and bones, and in the other a little fine flax, which, being lighted, flared up and was consumed in a moment. And they showed him some specimens of marbles, and asked him which he would choose for his tomb. But the Emperor Paul, after being so crowned by himself as has been above related, after the Liturgy, read aloud publicly in the church that Act regulating the Imperial Succession by which the present dynasty was founded, placed it upon the altar of God, where, or behind which, it is still preserved, in which run the words which he had just before read out aloud, that the Sovereign of Russia is always to profess the creed of the Græco-Rus

sian Church "because he is the Head of the Church."

It was for this Emperor's coronation that the present Imperial crown of Russia was made.

1 [Mr. Palmer was so learned in the matters treated of in these chapters, and so accurate in his statements, that I do not feel it necessary to add the references which might be required of another writer.]

CHAPTER XXIII.

Preliminary interview with Count Pratasoff.

UNDAY, August 25 [o.s.], I returned to Peters

SUNI

burg, and on the following Tuesday I saw the Ober-Procuror Count Pratasoff, and presented to him two letters of introduction. He asked if I had any other letters; and on hearing of the one from Dr. Routh, he desired me to give that to him, as he represented the Emperor with the Synod, and in some respects he was also the servant of the Synod, alluding to the Greek Great Logothete; and it would be his duty to lay it before the bishops (though not even the majority of the members of the Synod are necessarily bishops). He read it, and when he came to the last part desiring for me the Communion, he exclaimed, "C'est bien fort." He said, "Your ambassador writes here in his note that you wish to learn Russian, and to become a member of the Greek Church.” "That is a

mistake," I said, and explained.

"What you say," he said, "is quite new to me.