ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIVITIES 1802-1812 57schools and a thorough understanding of the government's alms and
principles? The Commission went to work with great alacrity and by
1808 it had drafted a plan of reforms which was approved by the
Emperor.
The condition of the theological seminaries had not improved since
the time Speransky had been a student. They had been hampered in
their development and progress mainly by two factors: lack of funds
and a poor organization and geographic distribution. Not every diocese
could boast of even one school at each level of the educational ladder.
Some had no complete secondary theological seminaries, only the lower
forms. Very few had advanced schools. Some districts even lacked
elementary schools. There was no rhyme nor reason in the administrative
organization and the hierarchical subordination of the various schools.
Some depended on the local bishop, others on the archbishop in
another province; and still others were directly under the Holy Synod.
We have already had occasion to mention the inadequacy of funds.
Since 1797 the yearly budget for 115 schools with about 29,000
students was 180,000 rubles, and though in 1807 Alexander raised it
to 338,863 rubles, it was still far from adequate. With the accession of
Alexander the clergy, too, was fired with the desire to do something
about the situation and several reform projects were written. In 1804-
Metropolitan Ambrosius received permission from the Emperor to
submit an outline of the reforms he thought were necessary. In the
course of the following years several other projects were submitted,
the most important among them being that of Bishop Eugene. Bishop
Eugene was the first to suggest the abolition of the old system under
which the theological seminary included all levels of instruction for
the clergy, with the exception of the very first rudiments of reading
and writing which were imparted by priests in the villages. He
proposed the establishment of three separate types of clerical schools
to parallel the three major divisions of secular education: primary,
secondary and higher. This principle was adopted by the Commission
of 1808 and served as the basis for the new system.
The labors of the Commission on Ecclesiastical Schools resulted in
a set of regulations issued by Imperial decree on June 26, 1808 (PSZ
23,122). The essence of this reorganization, which remained in
force throughout the 19th century, was briefly as follows. The secular
school system (as set up by PSZ 20,597) was paralled by the
establishment of four academies for advanced theological studies (with
a 4 year curriculum), one theological seminary in each diocese (4 year
curriculum), equivalent to the secondary schools set up in each