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September 24, 1853.] THE LEADER. 919
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Menschikoff The Missionary. Tip Civiliza...
the Eastern question , or , as we should rather call it noW , the Bu 3 sian question . It is a matter of history ' that the chief object of Prince Menschikoff ' s mission was to demand tho Protectorate of the Christians of the Greek Church resident in the Turkish dominions , and , by implication , the protectorate of all the Christians in Turkey ,, excepting those of the Latin Church , who look to France and Austria for protection . We have repeatedly shown the absolute incompatibility with the independence of the Porte as a Sovereign Power of such a preposterous assumption . But from the very outset of these protracted negotiations , from
the moment when Prince Menschikoff was escorted to his embassy by a fanatical mob as the bearer of these overweening demands , aggravated by the contempt of all diplomatic decencies displayed by the ambassador , the dispute between the Sultan and the Czar was ostentatiously paraded at St . Petersburg as the battle of the Crescent and the Cross . The invasion of the territories of an ally in contempt of treaties , the infraction of the public law of Europe , was the act of a new crusader going forth to fight for the " orthodox faith . " We know that at St . Petersburg there was a religious procession , a proclamation to the people ,
directly appealing to the passions of a race who are taught to believe that Nicholas is the holy apostle of God , if not , by some mysterious incarnation , God himself . We know that in the Principalities the arrival of the invading army was hailed by Te Deumsin the Greek churches , and we read this week that by imperial ukase a new church is to be erected at Ismail to commemorate the passage of the Russian armies . We hear , moreover , that the Czar has assumed a new title of ominous and awful import ; he now calls himselfthe " God-Fearing , " and his sons , as if to distinguish themselves from other and less religious royal
families , are to be styled in addition to their other titles , " Believers in God . " All these assumptions of titles , these proclamations , these processions , these Te Deums , are evidence enough that in the eyes of the Muscovite party represented by Prince Merischikoff , and to which Nicholas , notwithstanding his German associations , is fatally attached , and of which M . de Nesselrode is the diplomatic instrument , this Turkish question is a Holy War . Christian Europe is expected to sympathise with the Cross upheld by Nicholas against the standard of the Prophet .
Christian Europe is to speak and think of the Moslem as ravages and pagans , but of the Cossack hordes as Christians and believers . Let us be permitted , then , to consult authentic and independent testimony as to that Church , as it is at home , which the Czar champions abroad . Let us examine the right and title of Nicholas to tho office of Defender of the Faith and champion of tho Cross . We shall then perhaps bo the better able , in a religious point of view , to appreciate the importance of ousting the Turk from Constantinople , and giving the keys of the Dardanelles to the Czar .
It will be seen that the Russian Greek Church , as it is at present constituted , of which the Czar is the Sovereign Lord and Popo , was wrenched from tho Patriarchate by force of bribery and persecution ; that it was finally and completely secularized and subdued to its actual helplessness by Peter the Great , who took more credit to himself for enslaving and debasing the religion of the State than for all his other mighty ncta of organization ; that ever einco his day the Russian Greek Church has boon a degraded slave of pollution , idolatry , corruption , covotousness , debauchery ; its priests drunken and ignorant hypocrites , its formularies a blasphemous
adulteration , its convents brothels , its holy synod a packed committee of priests bought and drilled by an aido-dccamp , its solemn rites a pretext for robbery , its daily life and practice ' a brutal Feticluam , its God tho Czar . This is the Church to which we are invited to look as tho CruHiider of the nineteenth century , as the sworn exterminator of Paganism , as tho avonger of the Cross . In Turkey , where tho " infidel" still roigns , we shall find tho Christian population in tho enjoyment of far other ri ghts and privileges than Protestants enjoy in Spain or Italy , or Catholics in Russia ; n « y , an we lmvo wen , than tho Greek Christian Church itself in Runsia . Arc wo to exchange tho Crescent for tho Cross , ia order
that instead of " God is God , and Mahomet is his Pro-]> hot , " tho conquerors of Constantinople may shout , "God 1 H God , anil Nicholas is his Prophet ; " or rather , " Nicliol ' is . God , and MoiiHchikoil' is his Prophet ! " Wo conclude these introductory remarks wjth a caution to enthusiasts against an unconditional s \ ccopt « nco of that Grcolc Umpire notion which we described to our readers KOino wecltH mw , c , and which has found ho bold and ablo " u advocacy in Knglaml . Wo do not nay that a Christian lOmpiro at ; Constantinople may not bo on tho Horoll ° | distant eventualities ; perhaps a Greek Chrintian kinpiru ; perhaps a Christian Federation ; but wo wumot forgot that n Christian Grook Empiro is Mo romance , of ull others , which peculiarly flatter /*
Russian diplomatists . It wa 8 a Christian Greek Empire that Russia thought of when she fought for the independence of Hellas , and assisted France and England at Navarino , in blowing up the fleets of " our oldest ally . " It is a Christian Greek Emperor that Russian soldiers are taught to fight for , and Russian gold to bring into the intellectual currency of Europe . We now invite the attention of our readers to the following extracts from a work on the Russian Question , by a French gentleman who has passed many years in that country in diplomatic and consular appointments . Let us remark how he , an eye-witness and an experienced observer on the spot , describes the Russian Greek Church : —
A . BTTSSIAN EMPEBOBS BESPECT FOB THE CHT / BCH . The Emperor Alexander , in . the course of a progress through the interior of his empire , was induced by a fit of devotion to enter a church in a village . He was received by the priest with the usual ceremonial , with the exception , however , of the benediction , the priest not venturing to hold out his hand for the imperial kiss . " Hold out your hand then , " said the Emperor in alow voice ; but the priest , more frightened than ever , would not budge . Then Alexander burst in a rage . " Will you hold your hand out or not , you idiot ? " The priest obeyed trembling .
SIMONY IN THE GBEEK CHUBCH . To the fixed stipend which the priests receive from the landlords they add casual fees and Impositions ; and it is in these that their cupidity has full swing . Since Peter the Great , the tariff of the church has not been reformed , and as the prescriptions of that emperor have become , through the change in the value of money , totally inapplicable , the priests have no other standard by which to regulate their salaries than their own arbitrary caprices . Simony is toith them a daily practice . They sell the sacraments- A priest has been known to refuse to carry extreme unction to a dying person whose family objected to pay what the priest demanded . The seigneur interfered and with great difficulty succeeded in arranging the dispute between the two parties .
THE CONVENTS . Let us enter the convents . It is into them that any spark of life yet remaining to the phantom of the Russian Greek church has fled . Men of science and virtue are to be found within their walls ; but as these men never step beyond the threshold of their cells , their science and virtue are of no profit but to themselves , and a few monastics who live under the same roof . Such among them as leave the cloister to assume the
dignity of bishop or archbishop , forfeit by that step of their independence , and are nothing more than decorative pontiffs , with whom , no doubt , the Czar is fond of adorning his throne , but whose mitre he would mercilessly break if ever it covered a head which had the audacity to think for itself . Wo know to what a pitch of servility the profession of a courtier was carried by that old Metropolitan of St . Petersburg , under whom was consummated tho act which united the Greek
Catholics established in the empire to the Russian orthodox church . An unparalleled scandal was that transaction , and well does it illustrate the very human fashion in which religious mattera are treated in Russia-After having in vain exhausted every description of violence against the unfortun ate dissidents , even to tho brutality of a licentious soldiery , after having imposed upon them a catechism fabricated by schismatics—sermons fabricated by schismatics ; after having condemned to punishments , ridiculous as disgraceful , those of their pastors who rejected these impious classifications—after having , in a word , heaped upon them overy excess of persecution , tho imperial Government resolved upon
what it deemed peremptory measures . It replaced the priests of tho Greek C atholic church , whom it had ejected from their p arishes , by Russian priests , and declared by ukaso that , as tho flock could not belong to another faith than that of their pastor , the union of the two churches was henceforth an accomplished fact . So trno m it that tho Russian church is nothing but a form . It is true that it would hnvo been difficult , even for tho General of cavalry who presides over tho holy synod , to find any other means of conversion . When Protestant ¦ ubjeefca of the Czftr are asked whether they would change thoir religion , and be baptised in tho orthodox faith , their reply w , " What ! do you think a man changes his religion to descend in tho scale ?"
To rot-urn to tho convents . If those inhabited by men are , to a certain degree , entitled to respect for tho Bcienco and virtue they contain , thoso which serve an a rofugo for women uro generally remarkable only for tho ignorance and debauchery they conceal . Many and ¦ trango facts have been recounted about thcKO convents , and I might add many utill more strange , which dely contradiction . Hut why onlargo upon a subject bo diHguntingP Tho respect wo owe to tlui rondor commands a roaorvo which wo will not break . L « t tho " orthodox "
nuns sleep in their shroud of infamy ; others may stir the mud which-we refuse to touch . . OBTHODOXY NOT MORALITY . Where goes that moujiJc ?—where goes that shopkeeper ?—where-goes' that , employe ? who , as they pause before a church , turn suddenly round , sprinkle themselves with a few si gna of the Cross , bend their backs , and murmur mechanically three or four syllable * of a prayer . One goes to his bureau to rob the State ; another to his counter to defraud his customers ; another to a wineshop to get drunk . In fact ; , there is no connexion between the orthodox Church , and virtue . It is mere gymnastics .
Do you believe , for instance , that all those saints in frames , who invariably adorn the Russian houses , sanctify the abode , and the masters thereof ? Why , these saints are found even in brothels . True , that the faces of the saints are veiled . Happy indeed are those saints if they don't incur the displeasure of those who invoke them . I have known a St . Nicholas , who was implored by a thief to assist his enterprise , and responded faintly to his appeal , mercilessly whipped . Once some monks discovered in the vaults of a monastery an old dried corpse
It was canonized . Then came miracles , gifts , and offerings to the pious recluses . Soon after there was a terrible drought . The distressed peasantry rushed in crowds to the monastery to beg for rain , trying , at the same time , to tempt a miracle by presents which the priests could appreciate . The rain came not . Then these peasants were furious at having been tricked . During the night they scaled the walls of the monastery , broke into the church , and after dragging the saint from his shrine , stripped him of his finery , and smashed him .
Saints of this kind are not rare in Russia . Formerly they were discovered almost daily : it was a speculation . Lately , the Emperor Nicholas has shown himself less facile in granting canonization . When he was" recently applied to on behalf of an old scrag of a corpse discovered at Kasan , which , it was averred by those who pleaded its cause , was fully as deserving of the honour of saintship as any of its predecessors , " Well , then , you may make this one a saint , " said tho Emperor ; but " let it be the last . "
IDOLATBY . The images , which the Russians multiply to such an excess in their churches , and in the interior of their houses , are painted upon canvass or upon wood . Never any statues or reliefs . The Russian Church proscribes them as heterodox . All the Church permits is to cover the most precious images with gold and silver tinsel , so cut as to leave only the head and tho arms exposed . There are few nobles , and still fewer tradesmen , who have not one of these luxurious images suspended at one of the angles of their drawing-rooms , or
of their bed-rooms . In the isbas , or huts of tho peasantry , the place of honour is under the littlo chapel , which tho family images adorn : it ia in that corner that respectable persons and distinguished visitors are seated . Tho moujiks are seriously angry if you do not understand this peculiar compliment , and still more if you do not make the first bow to their saint . Such is the general usage in Russian houses . Tho bogs ( images ) take precedence of all . This does not prevent many transactions in their presonco which aro hazardous enou gh to Christian perfectidn . These orthodox bogs nro so indulgent !
THE PIUNCIIMVB" OF RUSSIAN I'OMTICS . Russia has no principle Two things only are sacred in her eyes—Interest and Force : the ono which points out the end , tho other how to attain it . Bo what you will , if in this double point of viow Russia porcoivea in you tho opportunity of an effective concurrence , aho will bo your ally .
THE ItUaSIAN- GIU 2 K 1 C CHUJtOU . What is tho Russian Greek Church ? It ia tlio Roman-catholic Church reduced to a tftato of potrification . THK JUJXICIIOTJS JCIJEMKNT IN" Till ! EASTKItN QUESTION . In « pito of" the repeated ultimatums of Prince Menachikoft "—in Hpito of tho notes and circulars ofM . do Nepsulrotle—in spite even of tho manifesto of the ' Kinporor Nicholas—no one . seems tw yet to appreciates at
its true valno tho rfilti which Russia socks to make tho religious element play in tho Eastern question . This rMe , in a word , is purely nominal ; it nerves nn a pretext , it cannot ; be a principle . Hut luis thin not always been tho case ? Without ; tho Dardanelles , JIukhui han not tho koy of her liouwo . That mot of tho Emperor Alexander resumes tho whole- question . Ruasiu wanta Constantinople . MUNSCUJKOW TJIJ 3 MIHS 1 ONAHY .
Go now to St . Potoirilmrg . What a magnificent outburst of enthusiasm you find thoro ! Hut do you boliovo that thoso Itiwsians of polito Boctoty ( de mlon ) ,
September 24, 1853.] The Leader. 919
September 24 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 919
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1853, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24091853/page/7/
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