What good did Nicholas II do for the church

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

A short story about what good Nicholas II did for the church, that he was canonized. Upon closer examination, it turns out that the ROC, once again pulling out this little icon, demonstrates an absolute bias and ignorance in historical matters.

Nicholas II was formally the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, but he was not particularly interested in church affairs. Judging by the diaries and letters, all church problems were in the background for him. This is very sad for the church, considering that since the time of Peter I, the patriarchate has been liquidated. Let me remind you that in fact at the head of the synod and, therefore, at the head of the church was the chief prosecutor. The tsar personally appointed the chief prosecutor, and the church did not even have an advisory vote. The chief prosecutors themselves are a separate story. For example, at one time the chief prosecutor was Protasov, who wrote to his friend: "now I am the commander-in-chief of the church, I am the patriarch, I devil knows what." Metropolitan Arseny of Kiev wrote about the system of the chief prosecutor as follows: "We live in an age of cruel persecution against faith and the church under the guise of treacherous care of them."

From 1880 to 1905 the Church was ruled by the Victorious. Needless to say, what was happening inside the church. After the revolution, unrestrained fun began - one after another, not only ministers, but also chief prosecutors changed. After Pobedonostsev and until 1916, one by one, the position of head of the church was replaced by as many as eight people. Needless to say, none of them managed to sort out all the accumulated mess in church affairs. And the porridge was hefty. In 1911-1915, the chief prosecutor was Vladimir Karlovich Sabler, either a Jew or a German. It is strange that he held out for so long; the Zhidomassons must have helped.

The church was then a strange mixture of sect, police and school. In a number of cases, the clergy was assigned the role of investigators: neglecting the secret confession, the priests had to inform about prohibited organizations if they managed to get any information. Well, I generally keep quiet about spying on unreliable elements. As a result of the church policy of Nicholas II, the people became much less interested in the church, and a smaller number of seminary graduates became priests. Inside the church, corruption and squabbles reigned.

The seminarians turned from a pillar into rebels-socialists. In the seminaries they sang revolutionary songs, there were facts of riots, they smashed windows and threw firecrackers. In their free time from their studies, some seminarians were fond of socialism and anarchism. From 1880 to 1907 there were 76 (!) Riots in various theological schools. Moreover, most of them are passed for the revolution of 1905, and not for February 1917! An inspector of a theological seminary was killed in Tiflis. And then it started! The seminarians organized the Vyatka Central Committee and began an organized struggle against the regime, combining prayers and firecrackers.

Thus, it is already possible to summarize: under Nicholas II, there was devastation in the church. And he and his unsuccessful policy are also to blame for this devastation. This unsuccessful policy had a peak - the decree on religious tolerance. On December 12, 1904, the government decided to introduce religious tolerance. In 1905, the "decree on religious tolerance" was finally published:

- freedom was received by a lot of Old Believers (and a millennium has not passed), - all subjects born in Russia who did not belong to the dominant (yes, it says so there - the dominant) church received the opportunity to perform divine services according to their rites, - foreigners who converted to Orthodoxy were given the opportunity to return to Protestantism and Catholicism, - this decree also abolished the terrible monastery prisons, - "heterodox" clergy were exempted from military service.

And what happened as a result:

- from April 1, 1905 to January 1, 1909, over 300,000 cases of withdrawal from Orthodoxy were recorded in Russia. Because of this rampant departure from the church, the government was forced to suspend the "transition to other faiths" by a secret decree, - people born in Orthodoxy did not have the right to change religion or become atheists, - all religions and all churches became free, except for the Russian Orthodox Church - the post of chief prosecutor has not yet been canceled. The result is a paradoxical situation - the decree on freedom of religion has fettered the Orthodox Church in fetters.

Outcome: Nicholas II did more evil for the church than Peter I. The church has rotted, the people are not happy, Stalin and Mikoyan leave the seminaries. And … Nicholas II becomes a saint!

Recently, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called on Orthodox Russians to follow the example of Emperor Nicholas II, whose 145th birthday was celebrated on May 19 this year.

“It would seem that such a person should be carried in his arms and thanked for the fact that with his quiet voice and his meek appearance, never offending or offending anyone, he managed to organize the work of the country in such a way that in a short time, including passing through the trials of the 1905 revolution, she became strong and powerful,”said the patriarch.

According to him, Nicholas II was a real Christian and made the country a great power.

The industrial growth of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century is indeed great, but when the ROC begins to show the public such faces of saints, this demonstrates the ignorance of both the church and its flock, especially in the part where monarchist sentiments are strong.

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