The higher ecclesiastical administration has always been in the hands of the monks, or “Black Clergy,” as they are commonly termed, who form a large and influential class.  The monks who first settled in Russia were, like those who first visited north-western Europe, men of the earnest, ascetic, missionary type.  Filled with zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, they took little or no thought for the morrow, and devoutly believed that their Heavenly Father, without whose knowledge no sparrow falls to the ground, would provide for their humble wants.  Poor, clad in rags, eating the most simple fare, and ever ready to share what they had with any one poorer than themselves, they performed faithfully and earnestly the work which their Master had given them to do.  But this ideal of monastic life soon gave way in Russia, as in the West, to practices less simple and austere.  By the liberal donations and bequests of the faithful the monasteries became rich in gold, in silver, in precious stones, and above all in land and serfs.  Troitsa, for instance, possessed at one time 120,000 serfs and a proportionate amount of land, and it is said that at the beginning of the eighteenth century more than a fourth of the entire population had fallen under the jurisdiction of the Church.  Many of the monasteries engaged in commerce, and the monks were, if we may credit Fletcher, who visited Russia in 1588, the most intelligent merchants of the country.

During the eighteenth century the Church lands were secularised, and the serfs of the Church became serfs of the State.  This was a severe blow for the monasteries, but it did not prove fatal, as many people predicted.  Some monasteries were abolished and others were reduced to extreme poverty, but many survived and prospered.  These could no longer possess serfs, but they had still three sources of revenue:  a limited amount of real property, Government subsidies, and the voluntary offerings of the faithful.  At present there are about 500 monastic establishments, and the great majority of them, though not wealthy, have revenues more than sufficient to satisfy all the requirements of an ascetic life.

Thus in Russia, as in Western Europe, the history of monastic institutions is composed of three chapters, which may be briefly entitled:  asceticism and missionary enterprise; wealth, luxury, and corruption; secularisation of property and decline.  But between Eastern and Western monasticism there is at least one marked difference.  The monasticism of the West made at various epochs of its history a vigorous, spontaneous effort at self-regeneration, which found expression in the foundation of separate Orders, each of which proposed to itself some special aim—­some special sphere of usefulness.  In Russia we find no similar phenomenon.  Here the monasteries never deviated from the rules of St. Basil, which restrict the members to religious ceremonies, prayer, and contemplation.