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now meant only the joint guaranteeing of territories,thrones, and the status quo, "Too strong to employdespotism, too weak to establish liberty," Alexander inhis closing years was "imagining himself as the defenderof civilization against anarchy, in the same way as hehad saved it from the despotism of Napoleon''(Chateaubriand).From 1820 the Holy Alliance became identified withthe doctrine of coercive intervention against actual orthreatened revolution. Castlereagh vigorously repudiatedboth the doctrine and its applications, and Canningdemonstratively completed the withdrawal of GreatBritain from the European concert. On the other hand,Russia soon became divided from the other continentalpowers as regards her application of the doctrine ofintervention, and especially as regards the Greek revoltwhich began in 1821.Russia was widely suspected of backing the revolt, themore so since Capodistrias, the Greek patriot, wasAlexander's foreign minister. Alexander, however, didnot squarely adopt the line that revolution of Christiansubjects against a Moslem sovereign was quite differentfrom revolution of Christian subjects against a Christiansovereign. He dismissed Capodistrias and refused totake independent action, popular though that would havebeen in Russia. Gradually, however, he became convincedof the futility of his long drawn-out negotiationswith the other powers, and he broke first with England,then with Austria. Shortly before his death (1825) hehad decided on coercive action, if necessary alone,against the Turks, with whom the Greek question wasby no means the only bone of contention.Nicholas I immediately carried into effect his brother'sintentions. He was prepared 'to talk Greek' withCanning, provided that force was not ruled out. Theresult was Navarino (1827) in concert with the BritishArchimandrite Photius (1792-183 8), closely bound up withArakcheyev, was the most insidious representative of the anti-foreign,ultra-conservative circles m the church which at the end of Alexander'slife won the day for intolerance and reaction. The stirring obscurityof his apocalyptic eloquence was more than matched by the admiredseverity of his fanatical asceticism.407