call her, of one of two religious movements against the Orthodox Church within the last century, which were caused or promoted by two antagonistic bodies, and of which there are traces in the foregoing pages, the Jesuits and the Bible Society. Each had success for a time, but at length, first one and then the other was violently ejected from the country, as soon as the court and hierarchy came to see, how each in its own way was opposed to the ecclesiastical traditions and the popular sentiments of Russia. Without some mention of them as of elements lately, or even now, in action under the surface of the national religion, these memoranda of what I found there would be but one-sided; in order to remedy this defect, I here avail myself of passages, with some abridgment (which indeed, before quitting England, I read to Dr. Routh), from the work of Dr. Pinkerton, the foreign agent of the Bible Society, entitled "Russia," and published in 1833.

CHAPTER CXX.

Success in Russia and Expulsion thence of the

“I

Jesuit Fathers.

REACHED Polotsk," says Dr. Pinkerton, "then

the chief seat of the Jesuits, June 1, 1820. Entering their elegant church, I found upwards of 200 boys, mostly sons of the nobility of the surrounding country, kneeling on the stone pavement. By a late order the Jesuits had been forbidden to teach any who were not of their own Church. This order, however, was not issued before the Government had had sad proofs of the influence they had gained over the minds of many, both young and old, belonging to the Greek communion. Among others, a nephew of Prince Alexander Galitsin, who was a boarder in their seminary at Petersburg, became a Catholic. At this time (1815) it was found that a considerable number of ladies of rank had also imbibed from them sentiments unfavourable to the Greek Church. In order to counteract these opinions, and to bring back the stray sheep, the present Metropolitan of Moscow, Philaret,

then Archimandrite and Professor of Theology in the Nefsky Academy, wrote a 'Comparison between the Doctrines of the Greek and Romish Churches,' a copy of which he gave me in MS., with permission to publish it.

"In this Comparison 'he lays down as the doctrine of the Eastern Church that the only pure and allsufficient source of the doctrines of faith is the revealed word of God, contained now in the Scriptures 'everything necessary to salvation is stated in the Holy Scriptures with such clearness, that every one reading it with a sincere desire to be enlightened can understand it.' He adds, 'An enlightened interpreter of Holy Scripture is doubtless very desirable for Christians less instructed, but the idea that, in order to draw from it the articles of faith, a certain kind of despotic interpreter is necessary, lowers the dignity of the word of God and subjects faith to the will of man.' Again, 'Every one has not only a right, but it is his bounden duty to read the Holy Scripture in a language which he understands.'"

Having gone through all the nineteen articles of this Comparison," Dr. Pinkerton continues, with some abridgment, as follows: "In publishing this interesting document from the pen of a pupil of the late Metropolitan of Moscow, Platon, whose system of divinity I translated and published in 1814, and whose principles

are still taught in the Russian Spiritual Schools, I do not mean to insinuate that the Russian people, or even many of the lower clergy, possess such distinct views as Philaret of the leading doctrines of the Gospel. The people are still illiterate, and sunk in ignorance and superstition to a degree scarcely credible."

That, however, he considers, does not destroy the favourable aspect of the future which Platon and Philaret open upon us. Platon brings forth the grand antidote against all these errors in principle and practice, when he says, "We must hold to the Divine Word alone, and rest assured that it only contains the true rules by which we ought to please God; and therefore Christ said concerning the Holy Scriptures, that in them is contained eternal life." Dr. Pinkerton continues, "That such a principle is unhesitatingly admitted by Platon, Philaret, and many thousands of the clergy, who have been trained in the Spiritual Academies and Seminaries under them, opens a door of hope for the gradual advancement of purer religious worship among the Russians, and how far this desirable object has been promoted by Bible Societies in that empire. future generations will be more able to estimate than the present.

"Philaret's comparative view' did not, I believe, change the mind of young Galitsin, for whom especially it was written; but no doubt the discovery made at that

time of the depredations committed by the Jesuits upon the national Church, the fanatical Popish sentiments instilled into the nephew of the Minister for Spiritual Affairs, and the opposition which they made to the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures, hastened their final expulsion from the empire in the year 1820."

According to Dr. Pinkerton, at that time their number in Russia amounted to 674, and in 1816 they had houses in Petersburg, Moscow, Mohilef, Astrachan, Odessa, and other places, not to speak of such Fathers as were scattered about as domestic teachers and residents in families. In Polotsk their establishment was splendid, and attached to it were 11,000 serfs and extensive territories. The oukaz, he tells us, which expelled them from the empire, never more to return under any name or character," was dated March 13, 1820, and by it their whole property was confiscated, and applied to the benefit of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia.