(4.) Marriage and Privileges of the Priestn. — As the secular clergy must be married, they cannot as- cend to a higher position than that of a protopresbyter. Widower presbyters were required by a canon of Theo- dosius, metropolitan of Moscow, to resign and withdraw to a convent. The Coinicil of Moscow in Kid? author- ized widower clergymen who led a virtuous life in the convent to continue their priestly finictions as yeromo- nach. Peter the Great forbade the bishop to force any widower priest to retire to a convent. By a second re- script, issued in 1724, he provided that widower priests who were good scholars or preachers and who should marry a second time shoidd be employed as rectors of the seminaries or in the chanceries of the bishops. At present the synod can give permission to widower priests tc remain in their office.
The secular clergy are exempt from personal taxes and from military duty. For any criminal offence the clergy are subject to the civil court, but the proceedings against them always take place in the presence of dep- uties of the ecclesiastical court. In the case of any other offence they are judged by the Church courts. No priest or deacon can be subjected to corporal punish- ment until he has been degraded by liis ecclesias- tical superior. The wives of priests and other Ciuirch employes share the privileges of their husbands as long as they are not married again.
(5.) Appointment and Support of the Clergy. — In 1722 and 1723 the synod flxed, conjointly with the senate, the number of clergymen who were to serve at every church. Since the confiscation of the Church property in 1764, the Economy College of the Holy Synod pays fixed salaries to the clergymen and employes of all churches which had real estate, or at least twenty serfs. In case a community wants a larger number of clergy- men than the government is bound to pay, it has to make satisfactory provision for a sufficient salary.
livery regiment of the army has its own priest, who is under the jurisdiction of the inclate in whose ejiarchy the regiment is stationed. Only in time of war all the military priests are placed under the jurisdiction of a su- perior priest who is specially appointed for this purpose.
The bishop has full freedom in appointing the priests of all churches which have no patron. In the army no priest is to be appointed without the consent of the bishop. The children and relatives of a parish priest must not be appointed at the same church. The noble- man on whose estate a cluirch has been erected has the right of patronage. He may ]iropose a priest whose appointment he desires to the bishop, and without his consent no priest can be appointed. In villages the pa- trons superintend the church-warden and hold the key to the Church treasury.
((5.) Monks and iXnns. — All the convents of Russia follow the ride of St. Basil. No one can become a monk before the fortieth year of age, nor a mm before the fiftieth year. Before the year 1830 the thirtieth year of age was required for monks. The synod grants, how- ever, dispensations in regard to age, especially to young men who, after completing their studies at an ecclesi- astical academy, desire to enter a convent with a view to securing as early as possible an a])pointment as prel- ate, archimandrite, or professor. Children need the con- sent of their parents to their entrance into a convent, and many legal precautions liave been taken to close the gates of the convents against persons who are un-
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■willing, or who by entering a convent would violate other duties. In those convents which are supported by the State the limit of the number of monks is fixed by law. The novitiate lasts three years. After its termination the permission of the diocesan bishop is required for admitting the novices to a preparatory de- gree. On this admission they put ou the black habit, i'rom which the monks have received the name of tlie black clergy. The taking of the monastic vows is con- nected with solemn rites. There is a third monastic degree, called the "great" or "angelic" habit, but only a few monks are admitted to it.
Every convent of monks is either imder an archi- mandrite or au igumen ; smaller convents are under a predstoyatel (president); the female convents are under an igumena. Formerly the superiors of convents were elected by the monks, now they are appointed by the Holy Synod. The monks are divided into two classes, those who have received the order of priests or dea- con and are called j'eromonachs and yerodeacons, and common monks called monachs. The number of the former is only small. The convents are under the su- perintendence of the bishop in whose eparchy they are situated; only the lauras, a small class of the most prominent convents, and the stauropigies, or exempt convents, are under the direct jurisdiction of the Holy Synod. The present regulations of the Russian con- vents date from the time of Peter the Great. By a ukase of 170 L he abolished the institution of the lay brothers, and bound the monks to receive and nurse in- valid soldiers and other aged and poor men ; the nuns, in the same way, were required to receive aged females, to educate orphans, and teach female handiwork. The regulations are, on the whole, the same as for most of the religious orders of the Eastern and Roman Catholic churches. The monks are admonished to read often in the Bible and to study, and the superiors are required to be well versed in the Scriptures and the monastic rides. The monks are exckuled from pastoral duties; only the chaplains of the navj' are taken from their ranks. The government has established a college for this special purpose at Balaklava, in the Crimea. To this college monks are called from the various eparchies, and the archimandrite of the convent elects from them chaplains for the men-of-war. As the monks receive, in general, a better education than the secular clergy, the professors in tlie seminaries and ecclesiastical academies are generally taken from them.