The practical life of monks has shown that their economic activity has a corrupting effect on the inner side of their lives. Only a few monasteries succeeded in organically incorporating agricultural and commercial activities into the routine of monastic life. The Orthodox Church in Russia owned three million hectares of land as property. A sign of the state's respect for millions of believing citizens and real material support for the Church was the transfer of land to the ownership of the temple. The land issue had a huge impact on the life of all the people of Russia and on its economy. In Russia, and in other countries of the world that are going through a time of change, the land issue is very important.
TopIntroduction
In the XIX - early XX centuries the church played a significant role in the spiritual life of the people and in the economic relations of the country. In Russian historiography, much attention was paid to the spirituality of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In the 19th century, the issues of land ownership, land use, and the financial situation of the clergy were insufficiently disclosed. The question of the privileges of the clergy and their economic support, both financially and legally, by the state was not developed and was not considered.
An analysis of the socio-economic situation of the Russian Orthodox Church made it possible to reveal that the clergy were partially reoriented towards state salaries and moved away from traditional ways of providing. In the 19th century, the main sources of income for most of the parish clergy, at least the rural clergy, were still donations of agricultural products and parishioners' fees for services. During the 19th century, the government tried to improve the financial situation of the clergy, but it was not possible to completely transfer the priests to state salaries.
In imperial Russia, church land ownership was in difficult conditions. The life of the clergy, their material well-being and church activities depended on the amount of land, the quality of agricultural machinery. Data on the growth of church land ownership in the 19th - early 20th centuries are available only for individual spiritual subjects.
In his book «Land Ownership of Churches and Monasteries of the Russian Empire», historian I.A. Lyubinetsky cites information that 36 monasteries owned less than 100 acres of land; less than 50 acres - 16 monasteries. 44 monasteries had from 100 to 200 acres of land; 90 monasteries had from 200 to 1000 acres; from 1000 to 2000 acres - 12 monasteries; more than 10 thousand acres of land - 5 monasteries. In total, at that time, the monasteries of Russia owned 1 million acres of land.
In 1801, a law was issued on the initiative of the public figure N.S. Mordvinov, according to which persons of all classes and the clergy were allowed to acquire uninhabited lands. Thus, land ownership began to have a public character, which led to the emergence of a larger number of landowners.
The property rights of the Church, the allocation and management of land were given much attention in the “Code of Laws on the Conditions of People in the State” in 1835, 1842 and 1851. Lands on which churches were erected were recognized as inviolable property, and no one could have any claims on them (Article 446, vol. IX). In the event of the liquidation of the parish, lands and other lands were transferred to the church to which the parishioners of the liquidated parish were classified (Article 448, vol. IX). According to the Code of Laws, church lands were divided into manor lands, which were located under churches and houses of the clergy, vegetable gardens, orchards; and field fields, which included arable land (Art. 400 vol. IX).
For each church clerk («pricht»), according to the laws on land surveying, from 33 to 99 acres were allocated from the lands of the peasants. When surveying, they usually proceeded from the amount of land that was in use by the parishioners (Article 349 of the Code of Survey Laws).
«Pricht» — Cult ministers, clergy of some church. In the Russian Orthodox Church, «pricht» is the name of a group of persons serving at any one temple (parish): both clergy (priest and deacon) and clergy (psalmist, reader (cleric), church choir singer, etc.). The clergy at each church was formed according to the staff assigned to it, which was compiled by the spiritual consistory and the bishop at the request of members of the parish and if there were sufficient funds to support all members of the clergy. For the establishment of a new clergy, as well as for changes in its composition, the bishop each time requested the permission of the Holy Synod. The maintenance of the rural clergy was mainly provided by income from the “corrections” of the laity (shared among the members of the clergy according to the rules approved by the Synod), landed church property, sometimes ready-made premises in church houses, less often salaries.
The original right of the laity to elect members of the clergy, as a general one, was abolished, but the laity retained the right to declare to the diocesan bishop their desire to have a well-known person a member of the clergy of their church.
If each peasant accounted for less than 4 acres of land or there was no land at all, the parishioners were obliged to pay a reward in cash or food.