306 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



furious. Forgetting the presence of the nobleman, he 

 shouted out : 



" You wooden-heads ! it isn't Jerusalem to-day. I 

 told you it was to be Bethlehem ! " 



Priests of this class are known to the Russians as 

 " one-mass popes." 



The Orthodox Greek Church of the Holy Russian 

 Empire is the most gigantic monopoly that exists on 

 the face of the earth at the present day. It owns the 

 exclusive right to regulate the morals, direct the con- 

 sciences, and warp the souls of 100,000,000 human 

 beings. It has a patent, supported by the mighty 

 power of the Russian government, granting to it the 

 exclusive right and title to the religious exploitation 

 of a fourteenth part of the population of the earth, 

 and the power to punish severely the least infringe- 

 ment of its rights. 



Monopoly may not always be a curse in commerce. 

 Its defenders have sometimes even been able to make 

 out, owing to peculiar and exceptional conditions, 

 cases where it may have been a blessing in disguise. 

 But there can be no manner of doubt as to the influ- 

 ence and the results of tht* monopoly in religion. 



The blight of intolerance has smitten the priests 

 with moral leprosy, that has left them without any 

 resemblance to the same class in other countries. 

 Russia is the only country in Christendom where the 

 servants of the Church and the wearers of the cassock 

 and gown neither exercise, nor attempt to exercise, a 

 good moral influence on their parishioners. Excep- 

 tions there are of course, but they are exceedingly rare. 



The Russian Church is at one with the government 



