THE MOST HATED MAN IN RUSSIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12869, 3 January 1906, Page 3

THE MOST HATED MAN IN RUSSIA.

THE PERSECUTING PROCURATOR, A Russian correspondent of the London "Daily Chronicle" writes:—M. Pobiedotnostseff, one.of the most gifted men in Russia, has ceased to be- a power for evil in that unfortunate country. He was one of that remarkable group of men, which, whilst making the Tsar apparently responsible for their evil deeds, actually ruled the Russian Empire. The ex-Procurator of the Holy Synod was probably the most feared and hated man in ail Russia. And no wonder. He was a persecutor who regarded liberty as a deadly thing. He was hated by- Old Believers, Catholics,, Lutherans, Dissenters, Doukhobors, Baptists, Stundists, Tolstoites, Pashkovites, and other sects. He was hated, too, by the priests of the Orthodox Church, who were compelled to be his unwilling instruments on pain of losing their livings or being incarcerated in far-distant monasteries where life was an unceasing burden and miserv.

" One of the most gifted, jurists and scholars in Europe, he was the most bigoted of ecclesiastics, another Laud without the prelate's sincere piety, another Torquemada, but destitute of the latter's noble qualities. The unfortunate priests of the State Church, who were made to carry out his unrighteous behests, are p'erhaps the best fitted to speak of him. One of these, a priest named Father Petroff, thus described in the columns of the "Ruskoe Slovo," "This GreatInquisitor, this Terrible Nihilist, whose blighting influence, liise the simoom of Sahara, has swept over Russia, withering and destroying everything in its path " : " Pobiedohostseff is a •wonderful man, a rare personage. Over seventy years of age, wiry,-thin, and dried-up, lie a piece of : parchment, -this man has never ceased to: occupy himself with intellectual work. His study is full of books, magazines, arid newspapers. He. has, moreover,"published a number of learned 'Dooks on jurisprudence, theology, pedagogy, and the current questions of the day. Everywhere throughout his works one finds traces of a rich knowledge, a keen and deep analysis; "but notwithstanding all this, his learning has a stifling effect on the reader, and lies like a tombstone on his soul. . H}s statemanship also creates the same impression. Tfianks, however, to his manifold, gifts, his rare culture, and his continued, attachment to the Church, he has always-enjoyed powerful support, and has, therefore, been a Tgreat power. But this enormous, power,: by a strange fatality, lias inflicted both ,on his country an'd the Church irreparable harm, for it has not permitted any. one or any thing'to go forward. It has'also been the means of keeping both.the. csergy and the people in darkness, and it-has aroused general bitterness. As for sincere believers, they have.; lost heart, and have fallen into despair., whilst weak, wavering natures have shrunk back in feai\ having in. view only one idea, and that was-ib save their own skins."

This writer goes on to say:—"l was once shown this parchment old man, .and was told in detail all about his personality and work. I met him, and looked him straight in the eyes, which he fixed on me. They were terrible eyes; God grant that no one has such! They shone with evil contempt for everything, and were full of deep aDgtiish." According to this authority, -who has studied the jrreat inquisitor so olospJy, Pobiedonosteff is the evil genius of the Russian people. Tkose who are not acquainted with thß

so closely, Pobiedonostseff -will be perhaps surprised at the vehement language used by Father Petroff. But those who have beheld the results of his secret and open persecutions of the Lutherans, Stundists, Baptists, Doukhobors, and other harmless sects, think no language too harsh to nse in speaking of the misery caused by the mistaken zeal of this man, who has broken tip the. homes of thousands and caused the death of hundreds through his persecutions. The comparison of Pobiedonostseff with Torquemada is to the credit of the latter. Torquemada lived in an age of darkness, and, as a zealous Catholic, burned and tor t-ured heretics in the belief that by so doing he was saving their souls from the wrath to come. Pobiedonostseff was under no such delusions, for his persecutions all originated for one idea, viz., to cement the ucion of €hurch and State, to bring the people more under the power of an ignorant and superstitious priesthood. • He has but -used the Orthodox Church as a means of increasing the power of the Tsar over the benighted and ignorant peasantry. ■ Like Cardinal Wolsey, he has sacrificed the best years of his life for his Tsar, and the Church, and has lived to say, in the woTds of England's greatest poet:— Had I but served my God with, half the zeal I served my king, He would -not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies.

One thing may be said of PobiedonosseflP's credit-.- he did not amass riches: notwithstanding he was head of one" of the wealthiest- Churches in the 'world, he retires from office a poor man.