Church people

Church people (tserkovni liudy). Individuals who until the end of the 18th century were under the church's or, more precisely, the bishop's jurisdiction. Besides the clergy, the church people included the servants and families of the clergy and all those who worked for the church or lived under the church's protection in its charitable institutions (declassés, ie izhoi, bankrupt merchants, freed slaves, church peasants, etc).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]