Note 11 — Chapter XVI · THE SIBERIAN CHURCH (continued).

It may surprise some, as I confess it at first surprised me, to learn the place the Russian Church gives to the Bible in her “Treatise on the Duty of Parish Priests,”—a book by two Russian bishops, which has been adopted by the whole Sclavonian Church, and which all candidates for orders are required to have read, and to show their acquaintance with before being ordained. The book begins by saying that “to teach the people is the priest’s very first duty,” and then (VII.) that the priest is to teach the faith and the law; that (IX.) “all the articles of faith are contained in the Word of God—that is, in the books of the Old and New Testament”; and that (XI.) “none other books are to be held by us as Divine Scriptures, or called the Word of God, than the two volumes of the Old and New Testaments.” Again (XIII.), that “the writings of the Holy Fathers are of great use.... But neither the writings of the Holy Fathers, nor the traditions of the Church, are to be confounded or equalled with the Word of God and His commandments; for the Word of God is one thing, but the writings of the Holy Fathers and traditions ecclesiastical are another.” And further (XXXII.), “So great being this work of teaching, etc. ... we cannot fail to see how needful it is for the priest to abound both in word and in wisdom, in order to the well-fulfilling of this his vast duty; and the only way hereto is that he be skilled and nourished up from a child in Holy Scripture.”