This article describes the changes in understanding the role and identity of the Russian Orthodox priesthood during late 18th — mid-19^th centuries. The analysis of normative texts defining the image of parish priests reveals the gradual differentiation of the social contexts. While at the start of the period the priest acts within a more or less homogenous society, during the first decades of the 19th century this context is gradually reconsidered within binary opposition of church vs. civil (secular).