Note 7 — Chapter XVI · THE SIBERIAN CHURCH (continued).

The excellent Russian book on the duty of parish priests, speaking of drunkenness fifty years ago, says, “Yet though drunkenness is a sin so grievous and deadly, there are very many in our time who scarcely pass a day without indulging their sottish passion for drink. Wherefore ... the councils forbid ... all clerks ... so much as to enter a tavern, under pain of deprivation and excommunication.” This is a painful and humiliating subject, though the more respectable amongst the Russians regard the matter in various lights. Some, of course, condemn such priests unmercifully. One man told me he had not communicated for several years; “for,” said he, “how can I in the morning receive the sacrament from the hands of my country priest when I know that before night he will probably be inebriated?” To which some, in effect, reply that he should look at the light and not only at the lantern; as a religious general said to me, “If my priest supplies me properly with the ordinances of the Church, I am not concerned with his private life—that lies between God and his own soul.” Others, again, make allowance for their great temptations. On five festivals in the year, at least, such as Christmas, New Year, Easter, etc., the priest is supposed to go the round of his parish and say a prayer in every house; and on these festive occasions refreshment stands on the sideboard, and vodka, or spirits, is offered as drink—the evil results of which, among clergy and laity, on one of the festivals, I myself could not but observe.