Changes in the legal status of the Russian Orthodox Church in the XVIII century (on the example of the Tobolsk bishop's house)

In the history of Russia, the XVIII century was a turning point: the strengthening of the absolute monarchy, the folding of a new bureaucratic system of state administration, which led to great changes in politics, economy and culture. For the Russian Orthodox Church, the eighteenth century was the beginning of a new attack by the state on its privileges, and the period under study can be characterized as the interference of secular authorities in its internal affairs. Church institutions were large land feudal lords: they were listed a large amount of land, movable and immovable property. Church reforms carried out by Peter I, Anna Ioannovna, Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter III and Catherine II finally turned the Church into a controlled part of the state apparatus, undermined the political and economic independence of the Church. It would be wrong to assume that the state by its actions only wished to subordinate the Church and limit its privileges. All these changes of the late XVII - the early XVIII centuries were an integral part of the transformation of Russia. In the period under study Tobolsk Bishop's house was a large land owner: owned Ust-Nitsyn, Pokrovsky and Tavdinsky fiefdoms with the villages of Preobrazhensky and Voskresensky, it was listed Tobolsk Znamensky and Ioann-Vvedensky Intercountry assigned monasteries. During the changes in the legal status of the Russian Orthodox Church, the difficulties of the Tobolsk Episcopal house were associated with the loss of its former prestige and status.