Note 3 — Chapter XVI · THE SIBERIAN CHURCH (continued).

There are, or were, several curious customs and regulations among the Russian clergy with respect to matrimony. A man cannot join the ranks of the white clergy unless he be “the husband of one wife.” Formerly he was obliged, or expected, to marry a priest’s daughter; and as a priest’s daughter sometimes received her father’s living for her dowry, a young priest not infrequently found himself, in this way, settled for life; though, if the father-in-law were old and merely retired, then the son-in-law was expected to keep him. In these arrangements the bishop played a part, for knowing, on one hand, the young men coming forward for ordination, and being kept informed, on the other, regarding the marriageable daughters of his clergy, he could frequently make suggestions for the benefit of all parties concerned. There prevailed, too, in former times in Russia, a pernicious custom, that every clergyman’s son was obliged to follow the profession of his father. This is no longer compulsory: and the sons of the clergy, finding themselves free, choose other callings to such an extent that there is now a lack of candidates for the priesthood. Candidates, however, are still drawn for the most part from the homes of the clergy, and from the lower class of merchants. Quite recently, I am informed, a few of the Russian nobility have taken Holy Orders.