The ultimatum, however, could be used with effect only to country servants who had recently come to town.

A sharp lackey, experienced in this kind of diplomacy, would have laughed at the threat, and replied coolly, "Bite away, Batushka; I can find plenty more of your sort!" Amusing scenes of this kind I have heard described by old people who professed to have been eye-witnesses.
The condition of the priests who remained in the villages was not much better.

Those of them who were fortunate enough to find places were raised at least above the fear of absolute destitution, but their position was by no means enviable.

They received little consideration or respect from the peasantry, and still less from the nobles.

When the church was situated not on the State Domains, but on a private estate, they were practically under the power of the proprietor--almost as completely as his serfs; and sometimes that power was exercised in a most humiliating and shameful way.