Between the Parish and the State: To the Question of the Material Maintenance of the Orthodox Parish Clergy at the End of the XIX–XX Centuries

(By the Materials of the Tula Diocese)

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of the prerequisites for the formation of an active attitude of the Orthodox parish clergy to the church reforms of the early 20th century. The purpose of the study is to show that the system of material support that existed in the prerevolutionary period, being largely imperfect, not only strengthened social inequality within the clergy, but also negatively affected the worldview not only of the clergy themselves, but also of their families. Dissatisfaction with the economic situation became the main reason for the positive attitude of the designated categories of the «white» clergy to state and church reforms, and contributed to their involvement in the public life of the Russian Empire. The material disorder gave rise to a phenomenon in which the clergy found themselves between the parish and the state, being dependent on both the flock and the state. The introduction into scientific circulation of new sources presented by the materials of the State Archives of the Tula Region allows us to speak about the persistence of the problem of material support for the majority of the parish clergy at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries, which influenced the pastoral and social ministry of the clergy, its socio-political position.