A fundamental principle of the Ptussian church, laid down by the pnests and confirmed by the state, is, that no Greek-Russian shall ever forsake his church for another. Should such an act of apostacy occur within the empire, both the proselyte and those instrumental in his conversion, will incur pmiishment. The religion of the Russians is so closely intwined v^'ith their whole being, that any one abandoning his religion is regarded at the same time, as one forsaking his God, liis country, his friends, and his sovereign ; as a traitor, in short, to the state as well as to religion. It is very seldom, therefore, that a Russian in any country, or situation, changes the reli-ion of his forefathers for another.
Another law of the Greek-Russian church is, that no one, of any religion, within her empire, shall be permitted to forsake his own creed for any other but the established one. She can tolerate the blindness of obstinate but sincere heresy, but any one who once takes the step of abandoning the reUgion in which he was brought up, is deemed inexcusable if he wilfully adopts another system of errors. Within the Russian empire, no Protestant may turn Catholic, nor vice versa ; and no Jew or heathen may adopt any system of Chi'istianity, but that of the Greeks. It is also another law, that any one who has even once partaken of the sacrament from the hand of a Greek priest, shall be regarded as a convert, and compelled formally to renounce his own faith for that of the state. It often happens that a sick Lutheran or Catholic in the interior of Russia, unable to obtain the assistance of a priest of his own church, will accept the offices of religion from a Greek, and is then compelled, if he recover, to declare himself of that church. Among the thousands of Lutherans, Finns, Esthonlans, Lettes, and Germans in the Russian army, dispersed as that army is over the face of the vast empire, many are obliged for years together to abstain from the consolation of the sacrament, unless they are
398 LUTHER ANISM AND THE RUSSIAN-GREEK CHURCH.
willmgto receive it from the hands of a Russian priest. Compelled as they are to join in many of the church ceremonies, they are often tempted to receive the sacrament likewise, after which the law refuses to recognise them in any other character than as members of the Greek church.
The laws most oifensive to the Protestants of the Baltic provinces, however, are those which treat of mixed marriages, ^he Greek church decrees, that the children of any marriage, of which either husband or wife is Russian, shall all be educated as Russians. No mixed marriages can be sanctified by any but Greek priests. A marriage of this kind, performed by a Lutheran priest, is not regarded as a marriage at all ; neither the wife nor the childi-en can take the name or inherit the fortune of the husband and father.
It would seem that these laws concerning mixed marriages, are alone sufficient gradually to root out Protestantism in the Baltic provinces. Marriages between Germans and Russians are very frequent, because the Germans, a people of greater physical beauty and mental cultivation than the Russians, are constantly sought in marriage by those superior to them in rank and wealth. A Russian officer, magistrate, or merchant in the Baltic provinces, will generally consider himself fortunate to be able to obtain the hand of a poor but pretty German girl ; and the German who emigrates to Russia as a physician, a soldier, &c., finds so many high-born Russian heiresses, willing to bestow hand, heart, and fortune, on the stranger, that in general he is apt to reject the less advantageous matches oflPered him in his own country, and to consent that his children shall be taught to cross themselves and worship the saints.
The Greek religion is so interwoven with the whole being of the Russians, that to adopt it is, in fact, to become a Russian. The gradual amalgamation of the two races is, therefore, promoted by these laws concerning mixed marriages. Many of the most distinguished families of the Baltic provinces have thus become Russian, or at least Russian branches of the family have been formed. There are Russian and German Engelhardts, Russian and German Vietinghofe, &c., and many estates in the Baltic provinces have, in the same way, passed into the hands of Russian families.