Note 4 — Chapter XVI · THE SIBERIAN CHURCH (continued).

Dr. Neale, in his learned work on the Eastern Church, says, “The Russian clergy never possessed tithes. Their income arises from Easter offerings, fees, and glebe, the minimum of the glebe being 181½ acres, to be divided between four clergy.” I have heard that the usual remuneration for a country priest in Russia is from £22 to £25 a year, and his share of the glebe. To these must be added, I suppose, his fees. The town priests receive no regular stipend from Government, but in Petersburg and Moscow the income from some of the parishes amounts to £600, or more, to be apportioned amongst several clergy. At a cathedral I attended, I was informed that the protopope, from all sources, received about £500 a year and a house; two priests from £220 to £250 each; the deacon about £180; and the psalmist or dïechok from £90 to £150; the whole available sum for all the parish clergy in this cathedral being from £1,500 to £1,800 a year. At another cathedral, in the provinces, I was told that the bishop received £110 from the Government, and £75 from the monastery, with monks as servants free. A correspondent further informs me that metropolitans and archbishops receive “large sums for the maintenance of their house, church, singers, serving monks, and other comforts, of which they can take or leave as much as they like”; the “large sums” quoted, with these not insignificant expenses, being from £625 to £1,250 a year; and this for men who rank ecclesiastically with English primates!