Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/165

150 granted to mankind. Ordination in the Russian Church is not necessarily for life; a priest may be relieved of his vows by the Holy Synod. If convicted of crime, he may, like any functionary, be degraded from his office; the death of his wife (a second marriage is not permitted) deprives him of his sacred character, and he can no longer officiate. In a word, the Russian pope is rather a minister at, and a servant of the altar, than the representative of the Deity.

The clergy of the Orthodox, like that of the Catholic, Church is divided into the regular and secular bodies; but here again wide differences prevail. In Russia there are monks and nuns under vows of celibacy, but there are no religious orders; there are numerous monasteries and convents, but. they are isolated establishments, independent of one another. Great federated communities, united under central governments, constituting formidable spiritual powers within the State and the Church, do not exist.

As regards marriage, the Orthodox agree in many respects with the Catholic; they hold it to be a sacrament of the Church. There is, in Russia, no civil ceremony. They do not look with favor upon remarrying, and, while they tolerate a second and a third marriage, under penances, the Church canons prohibit a fourth. They declare the tie to be indissoluble, but the law considers physical defect, absence for five years, and adultery sufficient causes for separation; in the latter case, the innocent spouse may marry again, but the guilty one cannot.

From this comparison it is evident that, contrary to what is generally supposed, the differences between the Russian and other Churches, not of the Orthodox creed, are in reality fundamental, and not merely superficial; they do not consist simply in slight variations and di-