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$16 COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
homily, which they repeat every Friday and Sunday. Nor is it in the leaft furprifing
that fome are fo illiterate, when we confider the feanty maintenance which they derive
from their profeflion. Befide the furplice fees, which in the pooreft benefices amount
to 4l. per annum, and in the moft profitable to but 20l.; they have only a wooden
houfe, fcarcely fuperior to that of the meaneft among their parifhioners, and a fmall
portion of land which they ufually cultivate with their own hands; while the higheft
dignity to which they can ever attain, as long as they continue married, is that of a
protopope of a cathedral, whofe income fcarcely exceeds 20l. a year. As the parifh-
priefts are undoubtedly the principal fources from which inftruétion muft be generally
diffufed among the lower clafs of people, if they, who ought to enlighten others, are fo
ignorant, how grofs mult be the ignorance of their parifhioners! In no inftance, per-
haps, has the Emprefs contributed more towards civilizing her people, than by inftitut-
ing feminaries for the children of priefts, by endeavouring to promote among the clergy
a zeal for liberal fcience, and to rouze them from that profound ignorance in which
they are plunged *.
‘The monks are not permitted to marry, while the parifh-priefts are compelled to take
a wife as a preliminary to ordination ; and if their wives happen to die, they may enter
into a convent, and become dignitaries of the church. They cannot engage in a fecond
marriage unlels they become laymen; neither can they continue parifh-priefts without
the exprefs permiflion of a bifhop. ‘The children of the fecular clergy are all free:
their fons are ufually brought up for orders, or employed in the fervice of the
church.
All the clergy wear long beards and long hair, which flows down their fhoulders,
without being tied or curled. Their drefs is a fquare bonnet, and a long robe of a
black or dark colour, reaching to the ancles. The fecular and regular priefts ufe, in
fome in{tances, a different habit, and the dignitaries of the church are diftinguifhed by
a more coftly veftment t.
I cannot forbear mentioning that, during the five months we paffed at Peterfburgh,
and in our daily intercourfe with the nobility and gentry, I never once faw in company
a fingle perfon of the facred profeffion. It muft be allowed, indeed, that the parifh-
priefts are, for the moft part, too low and ignorant to be qualified for admiffion into
genteel focieties; while the dignitaries, being a feparate order, and reftrained by ftri&
regulations, refide chiefly in their palaces within the monafteries; and contract an
averfion, perhaps an unfitnefs, for focial intercourfe. This general character of the
Ruflian hierarchy does by no means comprehend all the individuals; as fome of them,
with whom I occafionally converfed, were men of liberal manners and enlightened un-
derftandings f.
The third divifion of Ruffian fubjects comprehends that intermediate clafs of men
between the nobles and peafants, which is thus defined by the Emprefs, in the fixteenth
chapter of her inftruCtions for a new code of laws.
© An inftance of Her Majefty’s zeal in this particular fell under my obfervation. When I vifited the
prefs ef the Holy Synod at Mofcow, three volumes of fermons were printing in the Ruffian tongue ; they
were tranflations, by the Emprefs’s command, from the beft Englifh, French, and German authors, of
thofe principally which contained a clear difcuffion of the moral duties. They were to be diftributed among
the parochial clergy, who had orders,to read them occafionally in the time of divine Service.
+ See prints of the feveral ecclefialtical dreffes in King’s State of the Greek Church in Ruffia.
t The dignitaries occafionally dine at the tables of the nobility upon days of great ceremony, as on that
of St. Alexander Nevfki, when I met the Archbithop of Roftof at Prince Volkonfki’s, See vol. i. book
i, chap. ii,
“¢ This
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