1682–1740

Peter the Great's Church Reform: Abolishing the Patriarchate and the Holy Synod

Peter the Great, on the throne from 1682, sought to bring Russia closer to the West. After Patriarch Adrian's death in 1700 he blocked the election of a successor. In 1721 he finally abolished the patriarchate altogether, replacing it with the Holy Synod he created. This was a state collegial body headed by a lay procurator. It subjected the church to state control for nearly two centuries.

Theologian Feofan Prokopovich and his followers, unlike the Latin-influenced Kyiv school, leaned toward Protestantism. His ideas had reached even the Kyiv school by 1715. Under Catherine II a Prokopovich-influenced churchman, Platon Levshin, became Metropolitan of Moscow.