Religions
The state religion of the Russian Empire was that of the Russian Orthodox Christianity. Its head was the tsar, who held the title of supreme defender of the Church. Although he made and annulled all appointments, he did not determine the questions of dogma or church teaching. The principal ecclesiastical authority was the Holy Synod, the head of which, the Over Procurator of the Holy Synod, was one of the council of ministers and exercised very wide powers in ecclesiastical matters. All religions were freely professed, except that certain restrictions were laid upon the Jews. According to returns published in 1905, based on the Russian Empire Census of 1897, adherents of the different religious communities in the whole of the Russian empire numbered approximately as follows.
| Religion | Count of believers |
|---|---|
| Russian Orthodox | 87,123,604 |
| Muslims | 13,906,972 |
| Roman Catholics | 11,467,994 |
| Jews | 5,215,805 |
| Lutherans | 3,572,653 |
| Old Believers | 2,204,596 |
| Armenian Apostolics | 1,179,241 |
| Buddhists and Lamaists | 433,863 |
| Other non-Christian religions | 285,321 |
| Reformed | 85,400 |
| Mennonites | 66,564 |
| Armenian Catholics | 38,840 |
| Baptists | 38,139 |
| Karaite Jews | 12,894 |
| Anglicans | 4,183 |
| Other Christian religions | 3,952 |
The ecclesiastical heads of the national Russian Orthodox Church consisted of three metropolitans (Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev), fourteen archbishops and fifty bishops, all drawn from the ranks of the monastic (celibate) clergy. The parochial clergy had to be married when appointed, but if left widowers were not allowed to marry again; this rule continues to apply today.
Read more about this topic: Empire Of Russia
Famous quotes containing the word religions:
“The ancients adorned their sarcophagi with the emblems of life and procreation, and even with obscene symbols; in the religions of antiquity the sacred and the obscene often lay very close together. These men knew how to pay homage to death. For death is worthy of homage as the cradle of life, as the womb of palingenesis.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“All religions have based morality on obedience, that is to say, on voluntary slavery. That is why they have always been more pernicious than any political organisation. For the latter makes use of violence, the former—of the corruption of the will.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“Politics at all times lead to bloody wars, and not only politics, but also religions as well as social and economic systems of all times are spattered with blood. Invariably the big ones devoured the little ones, and the little ones the tiny ones.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)