[C] "By a slow though inevitable progression the honours of the original were transferred to the image; the merit and effect of a copy depends upon its resemblance with the original."--_Gibbon,--Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, chapter xlix.
The rites of the Russian Church are complex, and to the unorthodox, perplexing. The celebrant by the minute observance of minor details gives to every act a symbolic meaning, and to even the least significant of them some dogma of the church is attached. The service is in Slavonic, of which the ordinary people do not understand the letter, but can follow the general meaning; it is impressive apart from its significance, and is intended so to be. It commences with a call to worship--the _vozglass_--singing of psalms; a series of prayers--_ektenia_--for the welfare of the church, intoned; the evangels or epistles also intoned; "choral and part-singing of unequalled harmony and richness; prayers; consecration of the elements; administration of the sacrament, which the priest takes every service, and the congregation at will, but at least once yearly; thanksgiving, and the parting benediction; chanting and incense-burning are frequent throughout, and asperging is practised at the commencement and termination. For the greater part of the time the "Royal doors" are closed: the deacons remain before the ikonostas, but now and again some enter the Sanctuary for a short time. From time to time priests and acolytes pass to and fro among the congregation, incensing all the sacred ikons in turn. The voice of the officiating priest is raised within, and is answered in deep tones by the deacons without. Now from some unnoticed corner comes a clear ringing chant from many voices, from another a deep single voice is heard intoning the epistle, or evangel, of the day; then suddenly the Royal doors fly open and a glimpse is obtained of the celebrant through thick rolling clouds of incense; the people prostrate themselves and the doors close." Later the priest emerges and the service has concluded--to the unorthodox stranger of any creed it has been almost meaningless.
The history of Moscow is so intermingled with that of the Russian Church, and the cathedrals of the Kremlin and private chapels of the palace the scene of so many notable events, that the reader will not need a recountal of the stories concerning the historical characters who have made them famous. Here it will suffice if the minor details to be examined are enumerated, and the tale of the struggle between orthodoxy and dissent succinctly related.
