330 



GREEK CHURCH. 



German and French communists. It is a fact 

 that a large number of the turbulent spirits of 

 Young Russia received their education in the 

 ecclesiastical institutions. 



The Russian Government has during the 

 year 1869 commenced a radical reform of the 

 clergy by the promulgation of a decree, by 

 which the hereditary levitical character of the 

 Russo-Greek priesthood is to be forever abol- 

 ished. The measure, according to the Moscow 

 Gazette, has been carefully prepared, to avoid 

 the infringement of justice in respect to vested 

 interests. The children of the clergy lose none 

 of their rights with the abolition of the hered- 

 itary character of the clerical office. If born 

 of priests or deacons, they will in future have 

 the status of "personal nobility" (that is, the 

 social position of gentry), while those of parents 

 who are lower in the hierarchy are now placed 

 on an equality with the upper grade of the 

 mercantile class. They are to continue to have 

 the benefit of the charitable and educational 

 establishments hitherto maintained for the 

 clergy. Another important feature in the new 

 ukase is the better provision which it makes 

 for the maintenance of the priesthood. Their 

 poverty has been principally due to the exces- 

 sive number both of parishes and priests, the 

 former having been created for the latter. 

 There is to be a new distribution of cures, on 

 the basis of population, facility of communica- 

 tion between villages, the moral condition of 

 parishioners, etc. Each parish will be served 

 only by an "incumbent" and "psalmist," the 

 office of deacon being abolished except in the 

 capitals and in cathedrals, where a greater 

 number of priests can also be attached ; and no 

 priestly office can in future be held under the 

 age of thirty. The Moscow Gazette calls this 

 act the " emancipation of the clergy." Another 

 important alteration in the ecclesiastical laws 

 of Russia is about to be submitted to the Em- 

 peror for approval. It admits of civil marriages 

 in the case of Russian Dissenters who do not 

 acknowledge the Orthodox Sacraments, and is 

 calculated to obviate a great amount of immo- 

 rality among a large and not unimportant 

 class of the population. 



There are several sects among the Russian 

 schismatics, of very marked peculiarities in 

 doctrine and discipline, some of which are dis- 

 tinguished by extreme fanaticism and en- 

 durance in self-infliction. Although they have 

 existed for several centuries in the heart of the 

 empire, and even in the principal cities, but 

 little has been known of them in other coun- 

 tries till within a few years, when they have 

 been described with considerable particularity 

 in the works of Haxthausen and other writers. 

 Two hundred of these sects are said to have 

 been described by Archbishop Dimitry, in a 

 book which he wrote about them a century 

 and a half ago ; since his time some of them 

 have died out, and others have sprung up, so 

 that it would be a difficult task to describe 

 them all. 



Among the most remarkable of these sects 

 are the Morelschiki, or the Immolators. Their 

 leading idea is to mortify the flesh for the sake 

 of saving the soul, and in order to do this 

 efficiently they have recourse to various means 

 of mutilation and death. Fearful accounts are 

 given of the way in which their sacrifices are 

 pe'rformed. Sometimes a deep pit is dug in 

 the earth, and partly filled with wood and 

 straw, which are lighted, and into which the 

 victims leap, singing hymns, and are burned. 

 At other times they in a similar manner burn 

 themselves in houses, their neighbors looking 

 on at the act without interfering, for they con- 

 sider the rite a sacred one of baptism by fire. 

 To this sect belong the Scoptsi, or Society of 

 the Mutilated, who practise peculiar secret 

 rites of mutilation. The order is quite strong 

 in organization, and its members are found in 

 nearly every station of social life, and some in 

 official positions, where the tutored eye can 

 easily distinguish them by the, peculiarities of 

 their appearance. Among their religious exer- 

 cises is a peculiar dance, which they call the 

 " Boat Radyenie," which is participated in by 

 members of both sexes, and in which they be- 

 come excited to an uncontrollable frenzy, when, 

 according to their belief, they become spiritually 

 united with Christ, and the "whole Trinity" 

 descends upon them. The Scoptsi have ideas 

 about marriage, and the relations of the sexes, 

 which are justly regarded as detestable. In other 

 respects they are eminently sober and prudent. 

 They are teetotallers, and extend the principle 

 of abstinence to tobacco, and to some practices 

 which the world generally regard as innocent. 

 Even in the poorest districts they are always 

 well to do, if not affluent, and pauperism is 

 utterly unknown among them. Within their 

 own circle they are very charitable, and they 

 are not unkindly even to outsiders. It is said 

 that most of the money-changers of Russia, 

 and many of the jewellers and goldsmiths, 

 belong to the sect ; thus they have many rich 

 men among them. Their numbers have been 

 exaggerated, and are really quite small. In 1843 

 the Scoptsi known to the police were under 

 2,000. Haxthausen said in 1847 that there 

 were " from 2,000 to 3,000 known to the of- 

 ficials," but that more than ten times that 

 number really existed. Like the Shakers, they 

 depend entirely upon accessions from outside 

 for the keeping up of their numbers. Not only 

 are their social tenets objectionable, but their 

 political doctrines are fraught with danger to 

 the Government. They believe that the Em- 

 peror Peter III., whose person is tenanted by 

 the soul of Christ, is still alive. Some day, 

 they hold, he will return from Siberia, whither 

 he has fled. Then he will enter the Church of 

 the Ascension in the Kremlin at Moscow, and 

 sound the great bell. Its peal will be heard in 

 every part of the habitable world ; whereupon 

 the Scoptsi will arise and assemble around 

 their lord, and the whole earth shall be given 

 up to them, and they shall reign with him for- 



