Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/172

Rh now, in accordance with the practice of the early Church, which placed authority in the hands of its bishops, the episcopal element predominates. The three metropolitans of Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg are entitled to membership by right of their offices, and the latter is the presiding officer; the Exarch of Georgia is also admitted upon the same ground; the other members are appointed by the emperor—some for definite periods, others to hold office during his pleasure; some in full and regular standing, others as supernumeraries or assistants; they comprise four or five archbishops, bishops, or archimandrites, and two arch-priests of the secular clergy, one of whom usually is the chaplain and confessor of the emperor, the other the chaplain-general of the army. The Synod has its seat at St. Petersburg, and is permanently in session. The emperor is represented by a delegate bearing a title corresponding to attorney-general (ober-procurator), who assists at the meetings, but who is not, properly speaking, a member; this official is always a layman, frequently a military officer of high rank, and is the personification of the civil authority; he acts as the intermediary between the emperor and the Synod; all communications pass by his hands; he presents to the Synod all laws projected by the government, and submits all decisions of the Synod for imperial sanction; he proposes all measures, directs all business, and executes all decrees; no act is valid without his assent, and he has the right of veto, if any action of the Synod appears to him contrary to the laws of the State. Every year he prepares statements of the condition of the Church, of the clergy, and of religion generally throughout the empire.

The functions of the Synod are divided among several departments. Such of these as exercise supervision over clerical discipline, religious censorship, and all ecclesias-