Besides bishops, archbishops, and metropolitans, Rus- sia has also vicars of episcopal rank. They were at first appointed in very extensive eparchies, where the prelate found it impossible to perform all the episcopal functions. The first eparchy which had a vicar was Novgorod ; in 1764 the empress Catharine II established another for the eparchy of Moscow. The vicars have their own dioceses and full episcopal jurisdiction. They have a consistorial chancery like the other prelates, but an appeal may be taken from their judgments to the metropolitan or archbishop in whose eparchy their dis- trict is situated. In regard to salary, they are placed on a level with the prelates of the third class. At pres- ent the Russian Church has ten vicariates.
Every prelate is assisted in the administration of his diocese by a consistory which is composed of from five
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to seven members. They are presented to the synod b\' the bishop, and, after their confirmation, can only be removed with tlie consent of the synod. Each consis- tory has its own cliancery, wliich generally consists, in eparchies of the first class, of twentj'-eight persons, in eparchies of the second, of twenty-one, and in eparchies of tlie third, of nineteen. The consistory has to take the necessary measnres for preserving the purity of the faith. It superintends the sermons and the keeping of the cler- ical registers, and reports once a year on the condition of the eparchy to the synod. To its juris<liction belong also matrimonial affairs and the complaints of clergy- men and laymen against each other. If secular priests or monks wish to return to the ranks of the laity, the consistory has to subject them to an admonition, the former during three an<l the latter during six months; it has also to sentence clergymen for important or dis- graceful offences. The sentences pronounced against such clergymen are: 1, suspension; 2, degradation to a lower degree of the clergy; 3, entire degradation or dep- osition. The last-named sentence involves the sur- render of the culprit into the army or to the imperial manufactures, and, in criminal cases, to the secular au- thorities. From the judgment of a consistory an appeal may be taken to the prelate, and from the latter to the Holy Synod. In every large town of the eparchy there are offices called " ecclesiastical directories," general- ly consisting of two members, which have to receive petitions to the consistory and make reports to it. The bishop appoints, with the consent of the synod, deans for superintending the churches and the clergymen. A dean's district embraces from ten to thirty parish churches. They have to visit the churches of their district, and to revise once every six months the regis- ters of the Church and the lists of baptisms, marriages, and deaths. Under their presidency the parishes elect the church-wardens. In the cities the protopresbyter of the principal church has the superintendence of the entire clergy.
The clergy are divided into the white, or secular, clergy, and the black clergy, or monks. The white clergy chiefly recruits itself from the sons of the priests and other employes of the Church. The admission of persons from other classes of society is surrounded with difficulties. The bishop is forbidden to ordain any one without the necessary knowledge, the requisite age, and good certificates of character, and is not to exceed the number of priests wanted by his eparchy. No one shall be ordained a secular priest without having previously been married to a virgin. The other persons employed for the services of the Church, as sextons, choristers, etc., do not receive any ordination, but are also regarded as a part of the clergy.
(3.) Schoiils. — I'eter the Great was the first who com- manded the prelates to establish in the capitals of their eparchies ecclesiastical seminaries where boys — espe- cially the sons of priests — might be educated for the priesthood. All that had been required before his time was that the candidates should be aide to read, to write a little, and to perform the liturgical functions. Peter the Great also decreed that the chief convents should con- tribute one twentieth, and the principal churches one thirtieth of their corn for the gratuitous education of the pupils of the ecclesiastical schools. After tlie con- fiscation of the Church property in 17(>4, the support of the seminaries devolvcil upon the Holy Synod. The ecclesiastical schools are divided into tlie four school districti/of I'etersl)urg, Kief, Moscow, and Kasan. At the head of each of the districts is an ecclesiastical acad- emj'. At each academy is a conference consisting of the rector of the academy, one archimandrite, one yero- monach, two secular priests, an<l several professors, and presided over by the metropolitan or archbishop, who has to superintend the execution of all the decrees of the synod in regard to the education of the clergymen and of tiie i)riests. The Conference of the Academy of St. Petersburg constitutes the centre of the scientific life
in the Russian Church, as the conferences of the other school districts receive from it the decisions of the Holy Synod. The system of Church schools, which is inider tiie direct jurisdiction of tiie Holy Synod, consists of the ecclesiastical academies, the ejjarchial seminaries, the circuit schools, and the parish schools. Every pupil has first to enter the parisii school and to remain there for two years. He then attends in succession the circuit school, the eparchial seminary, and finally the academy, remaining in each of these schools for three or four years.