Such is the judgment of the peasants, as a very respectable and intelligent priest of a Ukraine village himself once told me, when I asked why he was not contented with his situation. He had lately left the seminary, and, wishing to pursue his studies, did not hke to go so much into company. He was unfortunately not on good terms with his colleagues, and on still worse with his flock, who provided him so ill with necessaries, that he could scarcely Uve.
" In no class of our society do more terrible things happen, and among none does what is scandalous in itself take a more revolting form, than among our priests," was the assm-ance once made to me by a Russian, and he supported his assertion by a number of abominable tales, wliich it would not be becoming in me to repeat. If we heard only such proverbs, stories, and assertions concerning the Russian priesthood, it would be better to take no further notice of such a body ; but when, on the other hand, we consider that they have some good qualities, of which good nature and toleration are not the only ones, that in these times new lights are breaking in which give hopes of a brighter future, and that the class has produced many excellent individuals, it may not be advisable to turn a deaf ear when our indulgence is sohcited, or to refuse a nearer consideration of what we may at first be inclined to pass over as a hopeless desert.
The Russian clergy are divided into the "white" and "black" clergy; the former are the secular, the latter the cloistered clergy. The appellations are derived from tbeh respective dresses, the one party being clothed from head to foot in black, the other performing divine service in white robes bordered with gold. The dress of the black clergy (it is necessary to begin with the outward man, since the outside-loung Russians make it the grand distinction) is throughout Russia the same, like the rules under which they live. The head is covered with a tall cyUndrical black cap, round which flutters a long piece of black gauze, which hangs down behind hke a lady's veil when thrown back. The principal garment is a long full tmiic, made generally of black velvet. The handsome curling beai-ds, with which the monks ai-e universally decorated, hai'niouize admirably with this
264 THE CLERGY Ot THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
dress ; they look like rich fur trimmings on the velvet robes. Their long hair, divided into three tails, one falling down the back and one over each shoulder, is not quite so ornamental.
As the monks all wear black, the secular priests, almost without exception, choose brown for their ordinary dress ; when they are officiating as ministers of rehgion, it is of course different. They wear long brown coats buttoned from top to bottom, and over them long, full open tunics, with wide sleeves. The hair and beard are worn like those of the monks. On their heads they wear high brown or red velvet caps trimmed with handsome fur, and carry excessively long brown sticks studded with wrought silver knobs. Such is the appearance of the Russian secular priest as he marches with stately step through the streets.
Many as are the Risnitzi (wardrobes) of the Russian churches that have been seen by travellers, to whom, moreover, the popes have often been goodnatured enough to serve as clothes-horses, it would yet be difficult by any expenditure of words to give even a feeble picture of a priest in pontificalibus. Such things must be left to the painter. It is enough to say that the enormous mass of gold and silk stuffs of various kinds which the Russian clergy, like the catholic, have, in the course of centuries, laid their hands on, is such, that the toilet of the vainest worldling is moderate and modest in comparison.
The highest rank in the church, since Peter the Great abolished the Patriarchate, is that of Metropolitan, of which there are three, one for Moscow, one for Kieff, and one for St. Petersburg. Of these, the Metropolitan of Kieff is first, and he of St. Petersburg the second in rank. After the Metropolitans come the Archiepiscopi, and Episcopi, also called Archipastuiri (archpastors). The bishoprics are divided into those of the first, second, and third rank. To the first, belong those of Kieff, Novgorod, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. The Archimandrites are superiors of convents, and rank next to the bishops. They are followed by the inferior clergy, that is, the Protopopes, or Protopresbiteri, the first popes of the principal churches, who are also the heads of several congregations ; the popes (simple priests), the Archidiakons, the Diakons (under priests), who may read the mass, and lastly the Diatschoks, the most insignificant lights of the church, but who must also have " studied" and who, though they perform only manual offices during the divine service, are competent to rise up the ladder of spiritual promotion.