and communion.[128] Little wonder that, before the 1905 Revolution, the bishops' annual reports to the Holy Synod routinely exuded such complacency and confidence about popular piety. The data do, however, also reveal a darker side. Whereas the non-compliants had consisted primarily of semi-confessors in 1797 (i.e. people who made confession, but not received communion), that category all but disappeared in the nineteenth century. As local archival materials show, they did so for various reasons: some because they fell ill or encountered other impediments, others because they simply lacked the zeal to return for communion, and still others because of 'the counsel of their spiritual father' (for failing to observe the Lenten requirements of abstinence, especially from sexual intercourse). In lieu ofthe semi-observants, there emerged a larger pool of non-compliants who were either 'excused' (mainly because of absenteeism associated with trade or migrant labour) or 'unexcused' (for 'indifference'). In short, Russia showed signs of religious differentiation: an overwhelming mass of the population remained observant, while a tiny but distinct minority neglected or outright rejected their 'spiritual duty'.
Significantly, in the late nineteenth century church authorities were more inclined to complain about the parishioners' assertiveness, not their indifference. Ever since the Petrine reform, ecclesiastical authorities had increasingly violated traditional parish prerogatives, above all, in the appointment of clergy and expenditure of parish funds. The latter was particularly sensitive: the earnings from the sale of votive candles, a prime source of parish revenues, were diverted to finance the ecclesiastical schools open only to the clergy's offspring. In the post-emancipation era, parishioners increasingly sought to assert their rights over both the local clergy and the local revenues, an aspiration that erupted into full view as revolution shattered authority and emboldened parishioners to reclaim their rights.[129]
Worldly teachings: from 'reciprocity' to social Orthodoxy
Parallel with the 're-christianisation' of the folk, the Church began to develop and articulate its social and political teachings. To be sure, it reaffirmed the traditional teaching that the existing order was divinely ordained (applying that principle even to the Mongol suzerainty in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries) and that 'subordinates' should obey their superiors - a paradigm that applied to ruler and ruled, masters and serfs, husbands and wives. But, under the influence of Western thought, the 'enlightened prelates' of Catherinean Russia added an important theme of'reciprocity': duties and responsibilities were bilateral, not reducible to a mere commandment to 'obey and submit'. Power and wealth conveyed responsibilities, not merely the right to demand obedience; the superior had a moral obligation to care for those in his charge. In turn, subordinates were not only to obey, but to perform their duties faithfully and energetically. Hence the existing order was a kind of divinely ordained social contract, entailing hierarchy but also reciprocity in social relationships.[130]
The Church also applied that precept to serfdom.[131] Although formally excluded from 'meddling' in matters of the secular domain, prelates and priests none the less sought to apply the reciprocity principle, both to protect sacraments like marriage from violation and to uphold the Ten Commandments (broadly construed). Such injunctions were explicit in sermons and other writings that admonished squires to fulfil their responsibilities and, specifically, to attend to the spiritual needs of their serfs.[132] Some turned to deeds, not words, and became embroiled in social unrest - most dramatically in the Pugachev rebellion of 1773-5,[133] but on a regular basis in villages in the first half of the nineteenth century.[134]
Significantly, by the 1840s and 1850s even some prelates, more accountable and conservative, came to disparage serfdom not only for its abuses, but for the harm it dealt to the serfs' spiritual needs. Whereas bishops had earlier counted on nobles to provide parish churches and ensure peasant religious observance, some prelates began to send reports chastising the squires for neglecting this duty. Indeed, in the Western Provinces, where the squire was non-Orthodox, bishops suspected the non-Orthodox squires of deliberately subverting religious practice: 'The chief cause [of the serfs' unsatisfactory religious condition] is the indifference of the Roman Catholic squires, who, because of their hostility toward Orthodoxy, are unconcerned about the spiritual benefit of the peasants and even try to disseminate religious indifference among them.'[135] That accusation gained momentum and even began to penetrate the reports from central dioceses. The bishop of Penza, for example, attributed the serfs' religious ignorance to the 'excessive use of serf labour during fasts and sometimes holidays'.[136]
By the 1850s, the clergy openly came to espouse the need to engage temporal questions. In part, that derived from the impending emancipation of serfs - who would need the active assistance and guidance of their parish priest in navigating the rights and perils of citizenship. Theology helped legitimise the engagement, as new currents in Christology counselled the Church to 'enter into the world', just as Christ had done, and underlined the connection between Orthodoxy and contemporaneity.[137] The profusion of new clerical periodicals, with their close attention to secular issues, reinforced the new engagement. Drawing on earlier practices (which encouraged priests to disseminate 'useful' knowledge about agriculture and medicine),[138] liberal clergy now redoubled and diversified such efforts. The seminary also played an important role; it not only produced a disproportionate number of radicals[139] but also had a significant impact on younger clergy.
The result was a 'social Orthodoxy' which emphasised the Church's responsibility to address key social ills. Sermons not only became a regular feature of parish services, but came to address a broad range of worldly problems, from spouse abuse to alcoholism. The religious press, similarly, gave growing attention to temporal issues. In practical terms too, post-reform clergy sought to tackle social problems like poverty and prostitution, encouraged parishes and monasteries to open almshouses and medical clinics, and generally endeavoured to bring the Church into the world.
128
The data include a large number who missed confession and communion because they were too young (under age seven); these have been omitted from the calculations here.
129
See G. L. Freeze, '"All Power to the Parish"? The Problem and Politics of Church Reform in Late Imperial Russia', in Madhavan Palat (ed.),
130
For a classic statement, see the discussion of the 'fifth commandment' (and its extrapolation to masters and slaves, husbands and wives in the 'Short Catechism'
131
For a discussion of the clerical attitudes and role with respect to serfdom, see G. L. Freeze, 'The Orthodox Church and Serfdom in Pre-Reform Russia', SR 48 (1989): 361-87.
132
See, for example, the work of a prelate later canonised: Tikhon (Zadonskii),
133
For the large complex of files on clerical involvement in the Pugachev rebellion, see the 'secret section' of the Synodal archive (RGIA, Fond 796, op. 205, dd. 76-99); for a Soviet summary of these files, see I. Z. Kadson, 'Krest'ianskaia voina 1773-5 gg. i tserkov'', unpublished candidate dissertation, Leningradskoe otdelenie instituta istorii (1963).
135
RGIA, Fond 796, op. 127, g. 1846, d. 1881, l. 15 ob. (1847 annual report from the bishop of Polotsk). For the famous case of the Baltic provinces in the 1840s, when diocesan authorities battled Lutheran squires over the serfs' religious needs, see G. L. Freeze, 'Lutheranism and Orthodoxy in Russia: A Critical Reassessment', in Hans Medick and P. Schmidt (eds.),
2004), pp. 297-3i7.
137
G. L. Freeze, 'Die Laisierung des Archimandriten Feodor (Buchaev) und ihre kirchen- politischen Hintergrunde',
138
For a typical statement, praising the parish clergy for 'endeavoring to give [the peasants] agricultural instruction' and encouraging 'the simple people, in case of dangerous diseases, to seek the assistance of doctors' (and eschew the traditional fatalism), see the 1851 annual report by the bishop of Riazan in RGIA, Fond 796, op. 132, g. 1851, d. 2363, l. 200.
139
See the overview in B. V Titlinov,