RASKOLNIKS 241 



was filled with the idea of union with Rome, in Central and 

 Northern Russia there was the fear of the Polish invasion 

 and the turning to Latin customs. When Nikon corrected 

 the Church service books, into which many errors had crept 

 by careless copying, and conformed them with the original 

 Greek text, great complaint was expressed that he was de- 

 parting from old Slavonic hallowed words, and was making 

 cause with the stranger outside of Russia. When he under- 

 took to change the style of popular forms and ceremonies, such 

 as the sign of the cross, the spelling and pronunciation of 

 "Jesus," shaving the beard, or to differ in the number of Alle- 

 luias before the Gospel, he aroused popular resentment, which 

 rose until there came an open break in which every point he 

 proposed was rejected. Afterwards when Peter the Great 

 came to the throne (1689-1725) and introduced western cus- 

 toms, abolished the Patriarchate of Moscow, substituted the 

 Holy Synod and made himself the head of Church authority, 

 changed the forms of the ancient Russo-Slavonic letters, and 

 set on foot a host of new things in Church and State, the fol- 

 lowers of the old order of things publicly condemned him as 

 the Antichrist and renounced the State Church forever, while 

 clinging to the older forms of their fathers. But both Nikon 

 and Peter had the whole Russian Episcopate with them, as well 

 as the great majority of the Russian clergy and people. The 

 dissenters who thus separated from the established Greco- 

 Russian Orthodox Church became also known as Stario- 

 briadtsi (old Ritualists) and Staroviertsi (old Believers), in 

 allusion to their adherence to the forms and teaching prevail- 

 ing before Nikon's reforms. 



As none of the Russian bishops seceded from the Established 

 Church the Raskolniks therefore had but an incomplete form 

 of Church. Of course a number of priests and deacons ad- 

 hered to them, but as they had no bishops they could not pro- 

 vide new members of the clergy. Soon death began to thin 

 the ranks of their clergy and it became apparent that within a 

 brief period they would be left without any priesthood what- 

 ever. Then some of their leaders began to deny that a priest- 

 hood was necessary at all. This led to the splitting of the Ras- 

 kolniks into two distinct branches : the Popovtsi (Priestly, i. e., 

 "Pope"-ly), who insisted on the hierarchy and priesthood, 

 and the Bezpopovtsi (Priestless, i. e., without "Popes"), who 



