The last of the pre-revolutionary patriarchs, Adrian, died in Moscow on October 16, 1700. Naturally, everyone expected that the tsar would announce his successor soon after. However, Peter decided to postpone the election of a new primate of the Russian Church, limiting himself to the appointment of Locum tenens of the Patriarchal throne – Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky of Ryzan and Murom, who had a reputation as a moderate Westernizer and supporter of education. The Locum tenens’ powers were strictly limited, especially when it came to the governance of ecclesiastical fiefdoms. For these purposes, Peter revived the Monastery Bureau, which had been abolished in 1677 by his brother Fyodor Alekseyevich. The main objective of the Bureau was to make use of former church income for state needs. Most of these funds went to the war with Sweden, but there were times when they were put to more peaceful uses, such as for the theaters established by the Monastery Bureau.
Quite soon everyone understood that while Peter was alive, Moscow would not have a patriarch. Many hoped, however, that after the death of the reformer tsar things would change, all the more so because the church, in a veiled form, would regularly remind parishioners about the abnormality of the situation. Under a decision by Stefan Yavorsky the names of the four Ecumenical patriarchs were honored during the liturgy.
These hopes were finally dashed on January 14 (25), 1721, when Peter signed a decree on the transfer of ecclesiastical control to the Holy Synod, which consisted of both clergy and lay persons. In the same year the tsar appealed to the patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremiah III, to recognize the Eastern patriarchs of the Holy Synod. The request was honored, and in September 1723, the Ecumenical patriarch and the patriarch of Antioch recognized the Synod as a “brother in Christ” with a special charter enjoying equal dignity.
By establishing the Synod, Peter sought to destroy not only the patriarchate, but its very memory. A personal decree by the tsar made it forbidden to venerate the patriarchal places in the Assumption Cathedral. Extolling the names of the Ecumenical patriarchs stopped. Even patriarchal staffs were taken away to the sacristy and sealed.
What was behind this decision of Peter’s, which was so clearly contrary to the Russian church tradition? Undoubtedly, the “Synod model” largely owed its emergence to Feofan Prokopovich, whom the tsar instructed to carry out church reform. Prokopovich, a consistent supporter of unlimited royal power, professed sharply anti-Catholic views. It is therefore not surprising that he proposed reorganizing church governance along Protestant lines whereby the head of the church is not a bishop but a secular head of state. However, it was the tsar who would make the final decision. And if he agreed to the establishment of the Synod, this means that the decision was ultimately close to him.
It is believed that Peter was afraid of the patriarchate, mindful of the sharp conflict his father had had with Nikon, who had believed the “priesthood” to be higher than the “tsardom.” It’s worth noting, though, that this confrontation never reached Peter, as Nikon was convicted once and for all several years before the birth of the reformer tsar. Communication with the patriarchs Joachim and Adrian, whom Peter knew well personally, could influence him.
Elevated to the patriarchal chair in 1674, Joachim was a retrograde and a consistent opponent of any rapprochement with the West. Among other things, the patriarch vigorously opposed admission of foreign professionals to the Russian service, including the military. As for those foreigners who had served in the Russian army, under threat of excommunication Joachim forbade Russian soldiers not only from “having company” with the infidels but also from talking with them, eating together and even burying their bodies together.
During Joachim’s patriarchate, Russian troops carried out two rather unsuccessful campaigns in the Crimea (they reached Perekop, but due to water shortages and disease, they had to turn back). According to the patriarch, this failure was God's punishment for allowing foreign infidel officers to take part in the campaign.
In the conflict between Peter and Sophia, Patriarch Joachim took the side of the future tsar reformer. The reason for this, however, were the policies of the princess and her favorite Prince Golitsyn – far too pro-Western in his view. In supporting Peter, the patriarch naively believed that he would be less susceptible to corrupting Western influence and would more firmly keep old Moscow piety.
Adrian, who replaced Joachim, was a much softer and more accommodating man, even taking part – perhaps not quite willingly – in certain innovations, particularly in the construction of the fleet in Voronezh. However, he was a man of the old school who did not approve of men shaving their beards, smoking tobacco, German dress and other Petrine innovations.
Despite his age and infirmity, Adrian still occasionally intervened in public policy. It was in vain that he attempted to alleviate the plight of musketeers, who were arrested after the failed rebellion. According to a contemporary, when rumors of such brutal and horrific torture, taking place daily, reached the patriarch, he felt obliged to draw the angry heart of gentleness and sent to the tsar the most venerated of Russian icons. His petition ended in nothing, however: Peter rudely sent the patriarch away, saying that to punish criminals and put them to death was his duty. What happened next we all saw in the Surikov episode.
The fact that there were many opponents of his reforms among the Russian clergy repeatedly surprised Peter even after Adrian’s death. During the investigation of Tsarevich Alexei, the following episode emerged: when Alexei admitted to his confessor, Jacob Ignatiev, that he wished his father's death, the latter replied: “God will forgive you, and we all wish him death for the burdens of many people.” At the same time the bishop of Rostov, Dosifei, was defrocked and executed, saying to the hierarchs judging him: “I alone in this matter fell. Take a look at what is in all your hearts.”
Despite his reputation as Westernizer, the Locum tenens of the Patriarchal throne repeatedly expressed his disapproval of Peter's policies. Beginning in 1708, he wrote a series of sermons denouncing the new order: he spoke of Balthasar drinking from vessels from the church (on the elimination of church property); protested against the forced veiling of women (an obvious allusion to Peter's divorce from Tsarina Evdokia), decried men shaving their beards, violating their posts, etc. In March 1712, Stefan Yavorsky gave a sharp sermon in Assumption Cathedral against Peter’s attempts to oversee the ecclesiastical courts. The Locum tenens contrasted the “perverse laws of humans” with the “law of the Lord,” saying that Russia would not find peace if the law of God continued to be broken.
Not trusting the Russian clergy, Peter consistently appointed Ukrainians to senior ecclesiastical posts. However, there were still not enough loyal candidates, so many chairs stood vacant for years: Novgorod from 1716-1721, Smolensk from 1704-1707, Kiev from 1718-1722, and Irkutsk from 1713-1721.
While Peter was still alive, the spirit of opposition could not emerge in full. During the years of his reign the tsar repeatedly proved that he was not afraid of tough reprisals against dissenters. But he could not help but fear that after his death, the situation would change: the old Moscow circles would try to take revenge by making the patriarch their banner. In such a situation, it was quite logical that Peter decided in advance to take the necessary “security measures.”
Be that as it may, the Synod, created by Peter, organically fit into the state structure of the Russian Empire. Therefore system of Synod administration lasted more than three hundred years, i.e., until the entire political system created by Peter the Great collapsed.
