Ivan's next choice fell on a friend of his childhood, the monk Philip, who had retired to the wild solitude of the Solovetsky, where his influence was stimulating the monastery's missionary work round the borders of the White Sea. In his queer way the tsar felt the fascination of the venerable man's holiness, and chose him as bis spiritual adviser. Philip wept at the compulsion that dragged him from his retirement. But he went forth with the spirit of a hero and a martyr. Rarely did any man undertake a more perilous duty. He would gladly have escaped the task; but now that it was laid upon him, like his predecessor Gerontius, he determined to discharge it faithfully to the full. Philip called on the bishops to help him in opposing the tsar's tyrannical conduct. Some were openly conniving at it; others, though disapproving dared not offer a word of protest. They united in warning the metropolitan of the danger to Church and State from irritating the tyrant. But Philip would not hear of any compromise with iniquity. On the day of his consecration he uttered fearless words of admonition in his reply to the tsar's address of recognition, and Ivan submitted to them, being at present under the spell of his veneration for the speaker.
It was not long before a fresh outbreak of cruelty on the part of Ivan sent the boyars to Philip for protection. Then he behaved like a second Ambrose, but under very different circumstances. The mad Ivan was a far more dangerous person to confront than Theodosius, passionate Spaniard though he was. Yet Philip would not recognise Ivan when he came to the church with his "Peculiars," and when the metropolitan's attention was called to the tsar's presence he refused to own him. When Ivan would have silenced the bold pastor with threats, Philip exclaimed, "I am a stranger and a pilgrim upon earth, as all my fathers were, and I am ready to suffer for the truth. Where would be my faith if I kept silence?"[1]
Although the tsar left the church in a towering rage
- ↑ Mouravieff, p. 115.
