按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
with his wishes on certain terms; whereby his autocracy would be
limited。 The Tzar immediately sent the following reply: 〃I told
you that I wanted in Novgorod a state similar to that of Moscow;
and instead of that I hear you teaching me how I ought to
organise my state in a way different from what it is at present。〃
On hearing this; the citizens sent another embassy to ask what
the Tzar meant by saying that he wanted in Novgorod a government
like that of Moscow。 He answered: 〃No popular assembly; veche; no
elected magistrate; and the whole state in the power of the
Tzar。〃(2*) This answer left no doubt as to his autocratic
intentions and their accomplishment in the Moscovite state。
Let us now inquire into the causes which produced this
increase of monarchical power。 The first seems to have been the
great change which had been brought about in the relations
between the prince and the popular assembly by the subjection of
the prince to the power of the Khans。 It is well known that the
Tartars; after having established the centre of their European
empire on the shores of the Volga; not far from where it joins
the Caspian Sea; in the neighbourhood of the modern city of
Astrachan; reduced the different principalities of Russia to the
condition of vassal states。 Leaving the government in the hands
of the dynasty of Rurik they forced the Russian princes to
receive investiture at the hands of their khans。 In such a state
of things the prince had no longer any need to trouble himself
about his acceptation by the popular assembly of the principality
that he intended to govern In order to secure the throne to
himself and his heirs; all that he had to do was to undertake a
journey to the southern parts of the Volga and make his
appearance at the court of his suzerain the Khan。 Here he had
to lay out large sums of money in presents and bribes; until at
last the Khan was induced to grant a charter; 〃jarlik;〃
acknowledging the right of the claimant to occupy the throne of
his ancestors。 From the beginning of the fourteenth century the
Moscovite princes had no longer。 to undertake the journey in
person; as the khans had consented to forward the charter of
confirmation direct to Moscow on condition that they first
received large sums of money from the prince who claimed the
throne。 The succession was settled at each vacancy by an
agreement between the suzerain and the vassal; and the popular
assembly had no opportunity of interfering。
Foreign events; especially the rise of the Florentine Union
and the capture of Constantinople by the Turks; also largely
contributed to the increase of the Moscovite autocracy。
During the period which began with the acceptance of the
tenets of the Greek Church by the Russian duke; Vladimir; at the
end of the eleventh century; and which ended with the decision of
the Byzantine Emperor to subscribe the act of union with the
Roman Church; the Russian State as well as the Russian Church
remained to a certain extent dependent on the Greek Patriarch and
Emperor at Constantinople。 In ecclesiastical matters this
dependence was manifested in the direct nomination of the Russian
Metropolitan by the Byzantine Patriarch; very often not without
interference on the part of the Emperor。 In secular matters it
was rather theoretical than practical。 The Russian clergy more
than once advised the Grand Duke of Moscovy to recognise the
〃Tzar of the Greeks〃 as his lord paramount; and each time they
repeated the popular theory that the Byzantine Emperor was the
chief of the whole Christian world and therefore the sovereign
lord of all Christian kings and potentates。 This theory had been
first brought forward by Byzantine writers; who actually declared
that Constantine the Great had conferred the title of Tabularius
on the ruler of Russia as a recompense for his allegiance to the
Greek Empire。 Up to the end of the fourteenth century the title
of 〃Tzar〃 was exclusively applied in Russia to the Emperor of
Constantinople; and no Russian prince was allowed to dignify
himself with it。 The Russian clergy; in offering public prayer
for the health of the Emperor at Constantinople; spoke of him as
of 〃the Emperor of the Romans and Ruler of the Universe。〃(3*)
The attitude of Basileus III; Grand Duke of Russia; during
the time of the Florentine Union; his bold opposition to the
Patriarch Photius and to any compromise with the Romish Church;
led the Russian clergy to look upon him and his heirs as the
champions of orthodoxy in religion。 While the Duke of Moscovy was
considered the sole protector of the Greek Church; the Emperor at
Constantinople had become; in the eyes of the Russians; a
schismatic。 It was in order to free Moscovy from all dependence
on a schismatic Emperor that the account of the conversion of the
Eastern Slavs to Christianity was altered。 The apostle St。
Andrew; who; according to Armenian and Georgian traditions had
been the first to preach the Gospel in the Caucasus; was
officially declared to have been the St。 John the Baptist of the
Russians; Constantinople; being thus deprived of the honour of
being the birthplace of Russian Christianity; was accordingly
dispossessed of any right to exercise ecclesiastical supremacy
over the Russian Church。
The fall of Constantinople; which closely followed the
Florentine Union; settled the question of the ecclesiastical
autonomy of Russia; and contributed at the same time to
strengthen the power of the Moscovite Duke。 The Greek Church had
lost her secular head in the person of the last Emperor of
Constantinople; and the Slavonic principalities of the Balkan
Peninsula; as well as the subjugated Greeks; naturally turned
their eyes towards the most powerful of the Orthodox rulers。 This
was the Grand Duke of Moscovy; whose firm allegiance to the
ancient creed; and uncompromising attitude towards the Florentine
Union; contrasted favourably with the attitude of the last
Emperors towards the Popes of Rome。 People were led to
acknowledge that the fall of Constantinople was a well…deserved
punishment on a schismatic ruler; and they were also induced to
believe that the conquest of that city by the Turks ought to be
the occasion for the transfer of civil supremacy over the Greek
Church from Constantinople to Moscovy; from the Emperor to the
Grand Duke。
These ideas grew in strength when the last Emperor's sister;
Sophia Palaeologus; became by marriage the wife and mother of
Moscovite Princes。 A report was spread that the imperial title
had been transferred to the Grand Duke Ivan by no less a person
than his wife's brother; the legal heir of the Byzantine Empire。
The Grand Duke was anointed with great solemnity; and received
the title of 〃Tzar;〃 a title which; as we have seen; had hitherto
been exclusively given to the Greek Emperors。 An offer which the
German Emperor made through his special envoy; Herbertstein; to
grant the title of 〃king〃 to the Moscovite Grand Duke on
condition of his recognising his dependence upon the Holy Roman
Empire; was solemnly rejected; and in order to confirm the new
theory of the complete autonomy of the Russian tzardom; a
genealogy was in