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 questions of dogma or church teaching. The principal ecclesiastical authority was the Holy Synod, the head of which, the Procurator, 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[8]
Russian Orthodox	87,123,604
Muslims	13,906,972
Roman Catholics	11,467,994
Jews	5,215,805
Lutherans[9]	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.