The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1917-11-03
Church Refused
Gar Peter A Divorce

Gar Peter A Divorce
Like Henry VIII of England He Found
Rome Absolutely Unyieldine-Would
Have Probably DisestabIished Greek
Orthodoxy in Russia if Divorce Was
Sanctioned by the Pope-But Even
Such Promise Failed to Change
the Attitude of Holy See on Mar.
riage IndissoIubility.
That the Church, because of her I'M
compromising attitude on the question
of divorce incurred the reforming fury
of Henry VIII, and suffered the loss
of England from her fold is mat
ter of common knowledge. But that
similar unyielding attitude on the
same question frustrated projected
reconciliation of the Orthodox Russian
Church will come as a new and most
interesting fact to most people.
To Saint Simon, a noted French
nobleman, we owe the interesting &C
COUNT of this little known fact. In
his Complete and Authentic Memoirs
published in Paris in 1912, in 40 vol
umes, he tells, us what we also find
confirmed in the secret Memoirs of
the reign of Louis XIV and XIV by
Duclos, published in Paris in 1871 in
two volumes, that Peter l of Russia
wished to undertake seriously not only
a personal reconciliation with the Ro-
man Church, but contemplated an at
tempt to force his subjects to follow
him in such a course. His motives
for such project were, as the author
tells us, ION the one hand his vault
ing ambition burned with eagerness to
establish family connections with the
first ruling houses of the world, such
as the houses of Hapsburg and Bour-
bon, and to secure for his own dynasty,
until then scarcely known in civil
lied Europe, position of equality
with them. In this he was hindered
by the fact that no other ruling house
belonged to the Greek orthodox re-
ligion. Besides this, Peter I hoped
to find the Apostolic See more COM
plant than the Russian clergy who
stubbornly refused to legally and fin
ally divorce him from his first wife,
Eudoxia Lapuchin, from whom he pas
sionately desired to be separated. This
they refused because there was not
even the semblance of a reason for
doing so.
To encompass this his design the
Gear sent his most astute and &C.
complished diplomat, Count Kurakin,
to Rome to conduct negotiations to-
wards realizing his scheme. 1t is this
same Count Kurakin whom Saint ST.
mon gives as his personal source of
information in the matter. Our au-
thor continues his interesting revela-
ton by telling us that: "Still the ne
gotiations, conducted in greatest Sec
recy for over three years, yielded no
result, for the reason that in the first
place, the Pope without shadow OF
a doubt absolutely refused to lend
himself to divorcing the Sole Lord OF
all Russians from poor Eudoxia and
then especially because Kurakin's re-
port convinced him (Peter) that from
his own and the conversion Of his
people there would arise such an OBJ
stacle to the establishment OF that
absolutism which he so desired that
even the most brilliant family alliance
would be too great price to pay.
Peter therefore gave up the project
and allowed the Greek Church to re-
main in Russia"
Thus we have here again a most
telling example of the unyielding at
titude of the Church on so fundamental
a principle as divorce, a matter of
such vital social Importance in our
day of neo-pagan laxity. So, too, we
have here again, out of the classical
examples of Absolutism, a strong con-
firmation of the Church's champion
ship of the rights of nations and peo-
pies. The fact that at all times she
has stood against absolutism of every
form should be strongly impressed on
our minds today, when there is such
a bewilderment of opinions on differ
ent forms of government.