The article considers for the first time the position of the Metropolitan teacher defined by legislation in the first half of the XIX century. The author shows that the absence of a single normative act (a special Charter of the capital University) and the existence instead of it of numerous documents regulating the activities of members of the academic Corporation determines the special place of St. Petersburg University in the national system of higher education. The author pays special attention to the nature of the interference of Ministerial officials in the life of the "academic class" of the capital University.