But Samuel's fame rests on the service which he rendered in adapting the life of the Jews of the diaspora to the law of the land.
Petersburg; Catholic and Uniate Church property sequestrated from 1836 onwards; the Lithuanian Statute, which had remained the law of the land through four centuries of union with Poland, replaced by the Russian code in 1840, while prominent natives, debarred from public service in their own country, were forced to emigrate or exiled to Siberia.
It was no small triumph that there was even a passing attempt to introduce such a code as the law of the land.
The secular courts took cognizance of ecclesiastical affairs whenever the law of the land was alleged to have been broken; and papal bulls were not allowed to be published without the leave of the state.
The principle of personal service has been strongly opposed by the Catholics and conservatives, but became the law of the land in 1898, though exemptions were conceded in favour of ecclesiastics and certain classes of students.
