the existing order of things, fretting under restrictions imposed by custom and habit, partially educated, and their minds filled with crude revolutionary ideas, are a serious danger in the body politic.
The welfare of the State and the good of the Church, alike, imperatively demand amelioration in the condition of the parish clergy. For twenty and more years past the question has been under examination, and important reforms have been commenced. The necessities of the government have restricted the appropriations for the clerical budget, but it has grown from one million of roubles in 1833 to ten millions in 1872, and the remuneration of the clergy has been raised. The number of parishes and of priests has been reduced, with, in each case, the same object in view—by diminishing the number of the recipients, to increase the share of each; but in this direction the measure of reform, limited by the immense extent of the empire and the sparseness of its population, has been pushed too far.
There are now in Russia about 43,000 churches and chapels, but while the cities, especially the more ancient, are abundantly supplied with religious edifices and an officiating clergy, the rural parishes are already too large. Of priests, in regular standing, there are less than 38,000, too few for the pastoral work. In Siberia, and in the frontier governments, the want of priests has been severely felt, and it has recently been necessary to ordain Seminarists, who had not completed their studies, and to recruit the clergy from students of lay institutions. When, as in these provinces, great distances separate the people from their places of worship, and the ministers of the altar are few, apathy and indifference are engendered, or schismatic and dissenting doctrines flourish without contradiction, and the prosperity of the Church
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