The New York herald., 1922-12-10

orgauIZaHou.
Special Correspondence to TEE NHws YoRK
HERALD.
Copyright, fsfs, bv THE NEW YoHK HmALD.
Moscow, Nov. /.
A ccoRD1Na to the official re-
~ port of May IL, the Archprtest
vedensky, the priests Kalinov-
sky. Krasnitsky and Byelkov and the
Preceptor Stradnik made their way
to the Troitsky monastery, the great
est In Russia, If not in the world,
to see the Patriarch, who was under
arrest there. Gle Is now under
arrest in the Donoskoi monastery,
also near Moscow.) Krasnitsky emu
merated the Patriarch's wrongful
acts against the Soviet power. under
your guidance. Patriarch Tikhop,"
said Krasnitsky. ''the church has
fallen into complete anarchy. BY your
counter-revolutiona policy and par
ticularly by your opposition to the
confiscation of the church valuables, 1t
has lost all authority and all influence
over the people. call upon you to
bly, OF the church and to cease COM
pletely administering the church until
that assembly has given its decision"
Such is the Bolshevik story, which
adds that "after some reflection the
Patriarch signed his resignation, with
a transfer of his powers to one Of the
higher hierarchs until such time as
the church assembly met" The Off
cial statement carefully refrains from
giving the name of the higher hierarch
to whom Tikhon transferred his
powers; and the general impression
made by that statement Is that the
Patriarch admitted the truth Of the
charges made against him by Father
Krasnitsky and agreed to submit him.
self to the judgment OF the proposed
assembly.
The AcutaI Happenings of
That Night in the Monastery
THE NEW YORK HERALD. correspon-
dent has been able to obtain from the
highest source a full and authentic
account of what happened on this oc-
casion. It comes in q confidential note
from an eyewitness and give 1t here.
The priests mentioned above came
to the Patriarch late at night and made
him get out of bed. His Holiness came
in nervous and disturbed state Of
mind, but when he saw who were
waiting for him he quickly regained
possession of himself The Bolsheyik
priests intimated that as a result of
his arrest the church would remain
without supreme guidance: but that
as the Government would not permit
any bishop proposed by his Holiness
to replace him II would be better If he
named, as temporary acting Patriarch,
Bishop Antonine. in whom the civil
power had complete confidence. This
Tikhon refused to do. Then the priests
gave him to understand that, should
he persist in this decision, all the
eleven condemned persons would be
executed, whereas II he obliged the
Government by appointing Antonine
as his successor their pardon was pos
sible.
Some present or future Russian
painter Will be able perhaps to do Jus
tice to this scene and make of II a
worthy companion picture to that
awful one in the Tryetakovsky Gal
lery at Moscow, where John the Ter
rible is represented as embracing the
body of his son, whom he himself mur-
dered.
Scene. Night. A monks cell In the
great Troitsky monastery. On one
side the old Patriarch. holy, but weak
and simple minded. On the other side
a group of debauched Communist
priests who had all of them been police
spies. urging the Patriarch TO appoint
as his successor. with unlimited power
over the ancient Church of Russia
a degenerate Archbishop who was Sc
cretly associated with the Bolshevik
leaders and who was, moreover, of un-
sound intellect.
The argument lasted all night.
Finally Krasnitsky pointed out that
the Patriarch was a prisoner. Under
the circumstances he should, In ac-
cordance with the ordinance made by
the supreme church administration on
November 7. 1920, hand over his power
to one Of tho two substitutes put for
ward at that time. These were Agaf-
angel. the Metropolitan of Yaroslav.
and Vennamin. the Metropolitan of
Petrograd. The Patriarch agreed to
hand over his powers to one OF these
two, leaving the selection to the Gov
crnment. The priests asserted that
the Metropolitan Vennamin would
never be allowed to take over the ad-
ministration, but that there was no
objection to the Metropolitan Agafan-
gel They also assured the Patriarch
that the civil power would put no OBJ
stacle I'm the way of a general church
assembly. The idea of calling such an
assembly was welcomed, indeed, by the
Patriarch. According 10 the ordi-
nances of the 19i7-1s1s assembly,
which reestablished the Patriarchate
in Russia. assemblies were TO be sum
moned by the Patriarch every three
years.
AS result OF this long conversation.
which lasted until daylight, the Patrl-
arch signed with his own hand two
documents. letter to "Comrade" Kali
pine, president OF the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee, and a
letter to the Metropolitan Agafangel.
The text OF the first ran as follows
18th May. 1922.
In view OF the extremely difficult
position OF the church administra-
tion, which is the result of my hav-
ing been summoned before a civil
court. consider II In the interests