64 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XI 



nearest approach to such a feeling appeared, greatly to 

 my surprise, in sundry references to the Greek Church 

 as it exists in Greece. In these he showed a spirit much 

 like that which used to be common among High-church 

 Episcopalians in speaking of Low-church i l Evangelicals. 

 Mindful of the earnest efforts made by the Anglican com 

 munion to come into closer relations with the Russian 

 branch of the Eastern Church, I at various times broached 

 that subject, and the glimpses I obtained of his feeling 

 regarding it surprised me. Previously to these inter 

 views I had supposed that the main difficulty in the way 

 to friendly relations between these two branches of the 

 church universal had its origin in the &quot; filioque&quot; clause of 

 the Nicene Creed. As is well known, the Eastern Church 

 adheres to that creed in its original form, the form in 

 which the Holy Ghost is represented as i proceeding from 

 the Father, whereas the Western Church adopts the 

 additional words, i i and from the Son. That the Russo- 

 Greek Church is very tenacious of its position in this re 

 spect, and considers the position of the Western Church 

 Catholic and Protestant as savoring of blasphemy, is 

 well known; and there was a curious evidence of this 

 during my second stay in Russia. Twice during that 

 time I heard the &quot;Missa Solennis&quot; of Beethoven. It 

 was first given by a splendid choir in the great hall of 

 the University of Helsingfors. That being in Finland, 

 which is mainly Lutheran, the Creed was sung in its 

 Western form. Naturally, on going to hear it given by 

 a great choir at St. Petersburg, I was curious to know 

 how this famous clause would be dealt with. In various 

 parts of the audience were priests of the Russo-Greek 

 faith, yet there were very many Lutherans and Calvinists, 

 and I watched with some interest the approach of the pas 

 sage containing the disputed words ; but when we reached 

 this it was wholly omitted. Any allusion to the &quot;proces 

 sion&quot; was evidently forbidden. Great, therefore, was my 

 surprise when, on my asking Pobedonostzeff, 1 as the rep- 



1 1 find, in a letter from Pobedonostzeff, that he spells his 

 name as here printed. 



