respect the clergy when they hear how one priest stole money from below
the pillow of a dying man at the moment of confession, how another was
publicly dragged out of a house of ill-fame, how a third christened a
dog, how a fourth whilst officiating at the Easter service was dragged
by the hair from the altar by the deacon? Is it possible for the
people to respect priests who spend their time in the gin-shop, write
fraudulent petitions, fight with the cross in their hands, and abuse
each other in bad language at the altar?

"One might fill several pages with examples of this kind--in each
instance naming the time and place--without overstepping the boundaries
of the province of Nizhni-Novgorod. Is it possible for the people
to respect the clergy when they see everywhere amongst them simony,
carelessness in performing the religious rites, and disorder in
administering the sacraments? Is it possible for the people to respect
the clergy when they see that truth has disappeared from it, and
that the Consistories, guided in their decisions not by rules, but
by personal friendship and bribery, destroy in it the last remains of
truthfulness? If we add to all this the false certificates which the
clergy give to those who do not wish to partake of the Eucharist, the
dues illegally extracted from the Old Ritualists, the conversion of
the altar into a source of revenue, the giving of churches to priests'
daughters as a dowry, and similar phenomena, the question as to whether
the people can respect the clergy requires no answer."

As these words were written by an orthodox Russian,* celebrated for his
extensive and intimate knowledge of Russian provincial life, and were
addressed in all seriousness to a member of the Imperial family, we
may safely assume that they contain a considerable amount of truth. The
reader must not, however, imagine that all Russian priests are of
the kind above referred to. Many of them are honest, respectable,
well-intentioned men, who conscientiously fulfil their humble duties,
and strive hard to procure a good education for their children. If they
have less learning, culture, and refinement than the Roman Catholic
priesthood, they have at the same time infinitely less fanaticism, less
spiritual pride, and less intolerance towards the adherents of other
faiths.

* Mr. Melnikof, in a "secret" Report to the Grand Duke
Constantine Nikolaievitch.

Both the good and the bad qualities of the Rus