304 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



they demanded were forthcoming. Thus it has come 

 to be a common saying among the people that " the 

 pope takes money both from the living and the dead. 



From what the author saw and experienced among 

 the Russians, however, I am far from taking a one- 

 sided view of the matter between popes and peo- 

 ple. Take the popes as they are, without any pre- 

 tense to a higher degree of commercial morality than 

 their parishioners, and it is a fair battle of wits between 

 them. If the popes overreach the people in charging 

 for their services, there are, on the other hand, few 

 communicants among their flock who would not, if 

 they could, bamboozle the pope into praying for him 

 and administering the sacrament to them for nothing. 

 There are no people in the world so intent on getting 

 something from some one else for nothing as the aver- 

 age subjects of the Czar. 



In addition to being despised by the people, the two 

 orders of clergy in Russia — the black clergy or monks 

 and the white clergy or popes — hate and despise 

 one another. The popes hate the monks because it is 

 from their ranks that all the higher dignitaries of the 

 Church are chosen, and because the monastic orders 

 attract nearly all the death-bed bequests of the 

 wealthy, which they think might otherwise come their 

 own way. This abhorrence is repaid with interest by 

 the monks, who affect to despise the popes as being 

 the " small rogues of the Church," and responsible for 

 the scant esteem in which both orders are held by the 

 people. 



One day, during the ride from Moscow to the Crimea, 

 we met a pope on the road. A party of moujik tramps 



