Page "Imperium" Paragraph 20

In Orthodox Russia too, when Peter I the Great assumed the Byzantine imperial titles Imperator and Autokrator, instead of the ' merely ' royal Tsar, the idea in founding the Russian Holy Synod was to put an end to the old Imperium in imperio of the free Church, by substituting the synod for the all too independent Patriarch of Moscow, who had become almost a rival of the Tsars — Peter meant to unite all authority in himself, over Church as well as State: through his Ober-Procurator and synod, the Emperor ruled his Church as absolutely as his army and navy through their respective ministries ; he appointed its members ( mostly bishops ) just as his generals ; and the Russian Government continued his policy until the end of the empire in 1917.