Explore "Peter and Alexis" by Dmitri Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"To the Most Reverend Metropolitans, Archbishop, Bishops and other members of the Clergy.
"You are sufficiently acquainted with the fact of the unprecedented transgression of my son against me, his father and sovereign. I possess full power, moral and judicial, and especially according to Russian law, by which parents even in their private homes exercise many rights over their children, to deal with him for this his transgression according to the dictates of my own will, without consulting the opinion of others. Notwithstanding this, I fear to sin before God. It is evident that each one is less competent to judge clearly his own affairs than those of other people; a doctor, even the most skilful, does not prescribe for his own ailment, but has recourse to other members of his profession. In like manner do I now confide to your care this malady of mine, and I ask you to heal it, because I fear eternal death.