Devoted from their birth to the service of the Church, the Greek Priests are educated in obedience and humility, and have all learnt to obey ere they are placed in a situation to command. Having taken orders, they are in some degree the masters of their actions, from the fact that there are two distinct classes of clergy, and that they are at liberty to make their own selection. The first, called the monastic clergy, cannot marry, but, entirely devoted to the duties of their profession, are eligible to fill its highest dignities; while the second, or worldly clergy, who are fettered by no restriction of the kind, cannot rise beyond the rank of rectors or parish priests. These latter are distinguished by the black handkerchief bound about their caps, which is never worn by the monastic order.
It will be easily understood that the number of married priests is very limited. Few men sacrifice their ambition to their affections, particularly among the Greeks, who are all essentially ambitious; and to many of whom the road to advancement is so frequently made straight by intrigue and cabal. Added to this consideration, the ideas and practice of morality among the Greek clergy being notoriously more lax than altogether accords with the holiness of their profession, they prefer the equivocal liberty of celibacy; while, in the few instances wherein they make their fortunes subservient to their domestic comfort, they universally select the most beautiful women of their nation; as there scarcely exists a family who would refuse their daughter to a priest, should he demand her for his wife.
After having passed two pleasant hours with the amiable Prelate, and reluctantly declined his polite invitation to avail ourselves of his table during our detention at Moudania, we returned home, only to witness the renewed gathering of the storm-clouds, and to listen to the dash of the billows against the foundations of the house.
One little incident alone served to divert us for a time from our ennui. The waiting maid of the lady whom I have mentioned as having been thrown from her horse during the journey to the coast, had profited by our arrival at Moudania to get herself exorcised by a priest; so terrified had she been at the accident of her mistress, which she attributed entirely to the influence of the Evil Eye. Secure in the impunity that she had thus purchased for a few piastres, she was pursuing her avocations somewhat more vivaciously than her wont, when she fell from the top of the stairs to the bottom, with a force which shook the frail wooden tenement to its foundations. Merriment succeeded to our alarm, however, when, on raising herself from the floor, she began to exclaim vehemently against the inefficacy of the ceremony that she had so lately undergone; nor was our amusement diminished when, in reply to our raillery, she declared that, even if she _had_ thrown away her money, she was in no worse plight than her lady, who had paid much more dearly for the same privilege before she left Broussa, though it had availed her still less. Shouts of laughter followed the announcement of this hitherto carefully-guarded secret; and I do not think that I shall ever hear of an Exorcist again, without having before my eyes the portly person of Madame ——, extended on the earth; and a party of routed equestrians galloping hither and thither over the vast plain of Broussa, wherever their affrighted horses were for the first few minutes disposed to carry them.