His reactionary conservatism carried over in his actions as the Ober-procurator of the Church. Peter I’s reforms of the governance of the Church had already diminished the power of the hierarchs. These reforms abolished the position of [[Patriarch]] and placed the administration of the Russian Church into an [[Apostolic Governing Synod]] with a layman as overseer, the Ober-procurator. The influence of the hierarchy had been further reduced under the Ober-procurator N. [[Nicholas Alexandrovich Protasov|Nicholas A. Protasov ]] during his term from 1836 to 1855 and reached a culmination under Pobedonostsev as the interests of the Church were subordinated to that of the State.