The Orthodox Church has a very rich past in Russia going back to the 10th century when numerous churches were constructed. Monasteries began to flourish in the 11th century. Besides being devoted to spiritual work, these played also an important role in providing more formal education.
In the 13th century, the Russian Orthodox church shielded the population from the Tatar great invasion that could have engulfed the Christian faith throughout Russia. Similarly, in the 14th century, outstanding bishops helped to unite divided principalities, progressively strengthening an emerging Imperial Russia.
By the end of the 19th century, they were more than 80,000 churches or chapels, over 1,000 monasteries or convents served by 210,000 priests, monks
There was a minor religious gap that influenced both sides. Western Europe consisted of Moors, Christians, and Jews. Russians didn’t have such a broad religious gap, comparable to that of
The Russian Orthodox Church has a very dark unspoken past. The Russian Orthodox Church changed many policies over the years leading to many casualties. The Russian Church to many people was a sign of fear and change they were uncomfortable with.
The impact of the Mongol conquest of both the Islamic heartlands and Russia was extensive and long lasting. After the Mongol conquests into the regional cities of Russia, they established a long run for two and a half centuries. Russians had to pay tribute and turn over all their goods to the Mongol overlords. These peasants essentially became serfs as they were giving their goods for protection in turn. On the other hand, Moscow prospered despite being destroyed during the conquests. With its rebuilding, it became the tribute center for the Mongol lords, and the center for the Orthodox Church. To
They also did other jobs such as protected the Tsar’ family and intercepted mail to make sure it was safe. Undercover agents were placed everywhere to protect the Tsar. The Orthodox Church was another way the government tried to improve the resentment within the country. The Orthodox Church was a major influence over the Russian people so the government turned it into a government department in the 1900’s to get more power and was run by a lay official appointed by the Tsar. Making the Orthodox Church a government department meant that the opinions within the church were expressed in favour of the Tsar and so the church in fact played a big role in the Russification of the empire as the government caused it to be this way. However this made Russia even more difficult to govern as people thought the priests were ‘no better than the peasants around him, he was paid by the state and was inferior to the middle and upper classes.’ He was seen as ‘a government agent and a hypocritical tool of the possessing classes.’ This made Russia difficult to govern as no one paid an interest in what the church had to say any more. The Okhrana tried to stop this opposition towards the government and the church but were very inefficient and did nothing to stop the assassination of
The Orthodox Church in Russia, seeing the advancing tide of Islamic power in the East, declared its independence from Constantinople in 1448, five years before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. In 1589 the patriarchate of Moscow was established and formally recognized by Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople. For the Russian people and their tsars, Moscow had become the so-called third Rome, direct heir to the imperial and ecclesiastical supremacy of ancient Rome and Constantinople. The patriarchs of Moscow
Divisions of opposing groups of the Tsar were important to the survival of Tsarist Russia. However, other factors such as the church, the belief of the divine right, the army and the Okhrana were also effective in keeping the Tsar in a state of power.
Russia before Peter the Great was disconnected from Europe and did not have the technology that the rest of the world had. This position was largely caused by the Mongol invasion of Russia around the 14th century. However, before the Mongol rule, the city-states of Kievan Rus predominated the region. This settlement was established when the Vikings began migrating from Scandinavia to the Black Sea, merging with the East Slavic people. Soon after the creation of Kievan Rus, they converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and began trade with the Byzantine Empire. About 250 years later, the Golden Horde began controlling Russia, cutting it off from the rest of the Europe. When the Russians finally broke free from Mongol rule around the 15th
Russia emerged as a significant power during the 1500s through war. It fought its neighbors and expanded its territory aimlessly. Ivan the Terrible’s expansion brought him into contact with both Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Aiming to gain a port and outlet to the Baltic,
In the Peter the Great’s case, he viewed the church as a threat and aimed to neutralize it. So when the head of the Russian church died in 1700, Peter the Great decided not to replace him. Instead a year later, Peter the Great introduced the he Monasheskiy Prikaz, which was a council that governed religious matters in
During the time period from 1400 C.E. to 1750 C.E. in Eastern Europe, Orthodox Christianity remained predominant, however, cultural practices began to change through westernization, and Russia’s government became more centralized as well as other smaller nations losing their autonomy. A continuity of culture in Eastern Europe is religious belief, in which Orthodox Christianity remained predominant and under the state’s control. Ivan III of Russia married the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, gaining control over the Christian Orthodox church. Christian Orthodox faith was used to his advantage for support of his campaigns. Later on, Alexis Romanov also gained new powers over the Eastern Orthodox church and returned Orthodox traditions of state control over the church, exiling Old Believers to Siberia.
The Russian Orthodox Church supported the White Army which in the end was the losing side of the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution. The Soviet government saw the church as a "counter-revolutionary" organization. The Soviet government also believed the church had a great influence on society. Even though the Soviet Union claimed religious tolerance, the government still discouraged organized religion and tried its best to remove religious influence from Soviet society.
The power of The Church, in The Middle Ages, was enormous. It touched almost everyone's life in many important ways. The Church baptized a person at birth, performed the wedding ceremony at people' marriages, and
Cathar’s church was in fact a parallel church, organized by the model of the early churches, with a clergy constituted of "Bons Hommes" and "Bonnes Femmes" -women were allowed to preach! - and lead by bishops and deacons. At the beginning of the 13th century, on the eve of the crusade, there were four Cathar churches or bishoprics Occitania: the Church of Toulouse, the Church of Agen, the Church of Albi and the Church of Carcassonne. In 1226 when the military conflict was already raging for more then 15 years, the "Bons Hommes" created another bishoprics that of Razès that assigned to the Corbières region
The Russian Orthodox Church was built around 1552 to 1561 in Moscow, Russia by the command of Tsar Ivan IV known as Ivan the Terrible. Ivan ordered the creation of the Cathedral after an important Russian victory over the Tartars of Kazan. Designed by
In Russia religion's influence was much different. There wasn't much influence at all in the period of 1815 to 1919. Czar Alexander proposed the Holy Alliance under which monarchs would pledge themselves to rule according to Christian teachings; here alot of them didn't have any sincerity, especially Alexander. Religion also intensified things as in France, Russia decided to intervene when the Greeks revolted against the Turks, claiming the need to protect fellow Christians from the Muslims. Russia has been Communist for a very long time already, and as such they are atheistic and they also persecuted organized religion as a rival for the people's loyalty. But since the collapse of Communist for reasons other than religion, it has allowed churches to practice freely, like the Russian Orthodox, have shown a surprising amount of popular support.