Black Ravens
SUCH was the name given to the Orthodox clergy by the Russian playwright, Protopopov, in one of his plays.
Black habits and black souls! …
It was the least intelligent class of the people which supplied the recruits for the future spiritual shepherds of the nation. The candidates for priestly positions acquired their knowledge in seminaries established by the Holy Synod, the most idiotic and demoralising institutions, which educated rather for police work than ecclesiastical service. They regarded their profession simply as the means of securing an easy and comfortable life, which allowed them to save a little money, to indulge openly in drink, and secretly in prostitution. The parsons were always at the service of the Government, the police, the Holy Synod. They were indifferent or hostile to their parishioners, exploiting them without acknowledging the bonds that united them with the people, from whom they had sprung, and to whom they themselves belonged by origin and culture. Thus had the Synod alienated the souls of the
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