the spirit of the nation when oppressed by foreign invaders. It spurred on Ivan III. to overthrow the Mongol rule, and stirred up the people to repulse the Poles and secure national independence. One source of its power has been the use of the vernacular in all services; the church most certainly during the centuries of Tartar dominion also preserved the Slavic tongue from foreign dialects. The clergy have always held it their chief duty to pass on to their successors their faith as they received it. Schism is not tolerated; the slightest modification of ritual is forbidden. The Metropolitans of Moscow were long able to preserve the independence of the church against the encroachments of the reigning princes; Ivan the Terrible's chief plaint against the clergy was that they exercised their privilege of forbidding the execution of those whom he had condemned to death. Boris Godunov gave Moscow a Patriarch, and added to the power of the church by appointing seven of the clergy to seats in the States Council. When, in 1615, the Tsar Michael met his father, the Patriarch Philaret, on the banks of the Pressenaia (near the Drogomilov Bridge) both bowed low and remained long recumbent, unwilling that either should consider the head of the church superior or inferior to the head of the state. From that time until Philaret's death in 1639 father and son practically ruled conjointly. Nikon was scarce content to be the equal of his sovereign, and ranked the church above the state: he fell. Peter the Great scornfully suppressed the Patriarchate, but did not arrogate to himself the powers of the head of the church, substituting a synod to be elected from the hierarchy he himself appointed. So it remains to the present day, the reigning monarch having no right, from his position, to interfere in spiritual affairs, yet still controlling the administration of church law.