Count Tolstoi’s Excommunication
VERY few people in this country who have for their love of truth renounced the Church in which they were brought up, know what it is to stand against such opposition as that now faced by the Russian Count Tolstoi for his love of the truth. The edict of excommunication against him sent out by the orthodox Russian Church declares that he has “insolently rebelled against God and His Christ and all his inheritance, and has openly before the whole world forsworn the orthodox Church his mother, which nurtured him and brought him up,” etc. To this Count Tolstoi replies: “That I have abjured the Church which terms itself orthodox is quite true, but this I did, not because I rebelled against God, but on the contrary, because I wished to serve Him with all the powers of my soul.” Since the fact of his excommunication became known, abusive and threatening letters have been pouring in upon the Count, from members of the orthodox company from which he has parted. One of these, a comparatively mild one, reads (in part): “Now you have been anathematized, and will after death go to eternal torment, and die like a dog. May you be anathema, you old devil! May you be damned!” Another loyal member of the State Church writes to him: “If the government will not get rid of you, we will ourselves force you to be silent.” “I can find means,” writes another, “to exterminate you, you blackguard!” Count Tolstoi’s offense consists in his renunciation of the superstition and idolatry of the Greek Church worship, and especially in his having denounced war as incompatible with Christianity. From this we may gather some slight idea of what it means to stand up for the truth in Russia. Yet nowhere is the message of present truth spreading faster than in that country.