One of the most important occurrences in this reign was the attempt of the Patriarch Nikon to establish an authority in the East similar to that of the Pope in the West—­and in many ways to Latinize the Church.  This attempt to place the Tsar under spiritual authority was put down by a popular revolt—­followed by stricter orthodox methods in a sect known as the Raskolniks.

Mikhail died in 1645, and was succeeded by his son Alexis.  The new Tsar sent an envoy to Charles the First of England to announce his succession.  He arrived with his letter to the King at an inopportune time.  He was on trial for his life.  The Russian could not comprehend such a condition, and haughtily refused to treat with anyone but the King.  He was received with much ceremony by the House of Lords, and then to their consternation arose and said:  “I have come from my sovereign charged with an important message to your King—­Charles the First.  It is long since I came, and I have not been permitted to see him nor to deliver the letter from my master.”  The embarrassed English boyars replied that they would give their reasons for this by letter.  When the Tsar was informed by Charles II. of the execution of his father, sternly inflicted by his people, he could not comprehend such a condition.  He at once forbade English merchants to live in any of his cities except Archangel, and sent money and presents to the exiled son.

An interest attaches to the marriage of Alexis with Natalia, his second wife.  He was dining with one of his boyars and was attracted by a young girl, who was serving him.  She was motherless, and had been adopted by her uncle the boyar.  The Tsar said to his friend soon after:  “I have found a husband for your Natalia.”  The husband was Alexis himself, and Natalia became the mother of Peter the Great.  She was the first Princess who ever drew aside the curtains of her litter and permitted the people to look upon her face.  Thrown much into the society of Europeans in her uncle’s home, she was imbued with European ideas.  It was no doubt she who first instilled the leaven of reform into the mind of her infant son Peter.

One of the most important features of this reign was the development of the fanatical sect known as Raskolniks.  They are the dissenters or non-conformists of Russia.  Their existence dates from the time of the Patriarch Nikon—­and what they considered his sacrilegious innovations.  But as early as 1476 there were the first stirrings of this movement when some daring and advanced innovators began to sing “O Lord, have mercy,” instead of “Lord, have Mercy,” and to say “Alleluia” twice instead of three times, to the peril of their souls!  But it was in the reign of Alexis that signs of falling away from the faith spoken of in the Apocalypse were unmistakable.  Foreign heretics who shaved their chins and smoked the accursed weed were tolerated in Holy Moscow.  “The number of the Beast” indicated the year 1666.  It was evident that the end of the world was at hand!  Such was the beginning of the Raskolniks, who now number 10,000,000 souls—­a conservative Slavonic element which has been a difficult one to deal with.