RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 1?3 



impresses introduced among their subjects the titles of counts and 

 princes, and the other distinctions of nobility that are common to 

 the rest of Europe. 



The Russian orders of knighthood are six. The order of St. 

 Andrew was instituted by Peter the Great in 1698, to animate his 

 nobles and officers in his wars against the Turks. He chose St, 

 Andrew for his patron, because by tradition he was the founder of 

 Christianity in the country. The knights are persons of the first rank 

 in the empire. The order of St. Alexander Newski was also insti- 

 tuted by Peter the Great, and confirmed by the empress Catharine I, 

 in the year 1725. The order of St. Catharine was instituted by Peter 

 the Great, in honour of his empress, for her assistance on the banks 

 of the Pruth. The order of St. George, instituted by the empress 

 Catharine II, in favour of the military officers in her service. The 

 order of St. Vlodimir was instituted October 3d, 1782, by the late 

 empress, in favour of those who serve in a civil capacity. The order 

 of St. Anne of Holstein, in memory of Anne, daughter of Peter the 

 Great, was introduced into Russia by Peter III. 



Religion. ...The established religion of Russia is that of the Greek 

 church, the tenets of which are by far too numerous and complicated 

 to be discussed here : but the great article of faith by which that 

 church has been so long separated from the Latin or Catholic church, 

 is the doctrine that the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Father 

 and the Son, but from the Father only. They deny the pope's supre- 

 macy ; and though they disclaim image-worship, they retain many 

 idolatrous and superstitious customs. Their churches are full of 

 pictures of saints, whom they consider as mediators. They observe 

 a number of fasts and lents, so that they live half the year very 

 abstemiously ; an institution which is extremely convenient for the 

 soil and climate. They have many peculiar notions with regard to 

 the sacraments. They oblige their bishops, but not their priests, to 

 celibacy. Peter the Great showed his profound knowledge in govern- 

 ment in nothing more than in the reformation of his church. He 

 broke the dangerous powers of the patriarch and the great clergy. 

 He declared himself the head of the church, and preserved the subor- 

 dinations of metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops. Their priests 

 have no fixed income, but depend, for subsistence, upon the benevo- 

 lence of their flocks and hearers. Peter, after establishing this great 

 political reformation, left his clergy in full possession of all their idle 

 ceremonies ; nor did he cut off their beards : that impolitic attempt 

 was reserved for the emperor Peter III, and greatly contributed to 

 his fatal catastrophe. Before his time, an incredible number of both 

 sexes were shut up in convents:' nor has it been found prudent, 

 entirely to abolish those societies. The abuses of them, however, are 

 in a great measure removed ; for no male can become a monk till he 

 is turned of thirty ; and no female a nun till she is fifty ; and even 

 then not without permission of their superiors. 



The conquered provinces, as already observed, retain the exercise 

 of their own religion; but such is the extent of the Russian empire 

 that many of its subjects are Mahometans, and more of them no bet- 

 ter than Pagans, in Siberia and the uncultivated countries. Many ill- 

 judged attempts have been made to convert them by force, which 

 have only tended to confirm them in their infidelity. On the banks 

 of the river Sarpa, is a flourishing colony of Moravian brethren, to 

 which the founders have given thenameofSarepta; the beginning of 



