power, but practically has no controlling influence whatever. The
Consistorial Council, which has in the theory of ecclesiastical
procedure a very imposing appearance, is in reality the bishop's
chancellerie, and its members are little more than secretaries, whose
chief object is to make themselves agreeable to their superior. And it
must be confessed that, so long as they remain what they are, the
less power they possess the better it will be for those who have the
misfortune to be under their jurisdiction. The higher dignitaries have
at least larger aims and a certain consciousness of the dignity of their
position; but the lower officials, who have no such healthy restraints
and receive ridiculously small salaries, grossly misuse the little
authority which they possess, and habitually pilfer and extort in the
most shameless manner. The Consistories are, in fact, what the public
offices were in the time of Nicholas I.

The higher ecclesiastical administration has always been in the hands
of the monks, or "Black Clergy," as they are commonly termed, who form a
large and influential class. The monks who first settled in Russia were,
like those who first visited north-western Europe, men of the earnest,
ascetic, missionary type. Filled with zeal for the glory of God and the
salvation of souls, they took little or no thought for the morrow, and
devoutly believed that their Heavenly Father, without whose knowledge no
sparrow falls to the ground, would provide for their humble wants. Poor,
clad in rags, eating the most simple fare, and ever ready to share what
they had with any one poorer than themselves, they performed faithfully
and earnestly the work which their Master had given them to do. But
this ideal of monastic life soon gave way in Russia, as in the West, to
practices less simple and austere. By the liberal donations and bequests
of the faithful the monasteries became rich in gold, in silver, in
precious stones, and above all in land and serfs. Troitsa, for instance,
possessed at one time 120,000 serfs and a proportionate amount of land,
and it is said that at the beginning of the eighteenth century more than
a fourth of the entire population had fallen under the jurisdiction of
the Church. Many of the monasteries engaged in commerce, and the monks
were, if we may credit Fletcher, who visited Russia in 1588, the most
intelligent merchants of the country.

During the eighteenth century the Church lands were secula