was formed an ever-increasing clerical Proletariat,
which--as is always the case with a Proletariat of any kind--gravitated
towards the towns. In vain the Government issued ukazes prohibiting the
priests from quitting their places of domicile, and treated as vagrants
and runaways those who disregarded the prohibition; in vain successive
sovereigns endeavoured to diminish the number of these supernumeraries
by drafting them wholesale into the army. In Moscow, St. Petersburg, and
all the larger towns the cry was, "Still they come!" Every morning, in
the Kremlin of Moscow, a large crowd of them assembled for the purpose
of being hired to officiate in the private chapels of the rich nobles,
and a great deal of hard bargaining took place between the priests and
the lackeys sent to hire them--conducted in the same spirit, and in
nearly the same forms, as that which simultaneously took place in the
bazaar close by between extortionate traders and thrifty housewives.
"Listen to me," a priest would say, as an ultimatum, to a lackey who was
trying to beat down the price: "if you don't give me seventy-five kopeks
without further ado, I'll take a bite of this roll, and that will be
an end to it!" And that would have been an end to the bargaining, for,
according to the rules of the Church, a priest cannot officiate after
breaking his fast. The ultimatum, however, could be used with effect
only to country servants who had recently come to town. A sharp lackey,
experienced in this kind of diplomacy, would have laughed at the threat,
and replied coolly, "Bite away, Batushka; I can find plenty more of your
sort!" Amusing scenes of this kind I have heard described by old people
who professed to have been eye-witnesses.

The condition of the priests who remained in the villages was not much
better. Those of them who were fortunate enough to find places were
raised at least above the fear of absolute destitution, but their
position was by no means enviable. They received little consideration
or respect from the peasantry, and still less from the nobles. When the
church was situated not on the State Domains, but on a private estate,
they were practically under the power of the proprietor--almost as
completely as his serfs; and sometimes that power was exercised in a
most humiliating and shameful way. I have heard, for instance, of one
priest who was ducked in a pond on a cold winter day for the amusement
of the proprietor and his guests--ch