386 EUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



stamped papers and passports became tlie " seal of Antichrist ;" the registration 

 books, " registers of the devil ;" the poll tax, the " price of the soul." The Raskol- 

 niks thus represent both the spirit of extreme conservatism and of reform, as well 

 as that of a relative political freedom. 



The Popovtzî, who continue the traditions of the old Church, are the true 

 adherents of the ancient rites {staro-obradtzi), the "true believers" {staro-vertzi)- 

 Rejecting the changes introduced into the liturgy by the Patriarch Nikon with 

 the assistance of Greek and Little Hussian ecclesiastics, the Old Believers have 

 perpetuated the practices of former times. But while denouncing the official rites, 

 they have themselves unwittingly modified their own observances according to 

 circumstances and the persecutions to which they have been subjected. Peter I., 

 whose life had been endangered by the insurrection of the Streltzi, adherents of the 

 old belief, hounded down like wild beasts all those who refused to conform. But 

 the sects only became more numerous and more irreconcilable than ever. The 

 Raskolniks, recognising Antichrist in this friend of the foreigner, who divorced his 

 wife, tortured his son, and oppressed the people with his wars, buildings, canals, 

 and merciless taxation, saw in him the abomination foretold in Holy Writ, and, 

 to their denunciations of a corrupt church, added anathemas against an emperor 

 who ordered his subjects to " shave their beards, to wear Latin garments, and 

 smoke the thrice-accursed weed." 



But persecution was not the hardest fate of the Popovtzî. First their priests, 

 and then their only bishop died, so that no new priests could be ordained to 

 administer the sacraments. Hence, to still the voice of conscience, they had 

 recourse to the most eccentric subterfuges, kneading their own communion bread 

 with a bit of the consecrated host, bribing the Orthodox clergy, attempting even 

 to carry otf the hand of a holy Metropolitan of Moscow wherewith to ordain their 

 priests, and thus dispense with the hands of living bishops. Their hierarchy, 

 however, was not duly re-established till 1844, when a Bulgarian bishop, conse- 

 crated in Constantinople, consented to reside with a Paskolnik colony settled in 

 Bukovina. They have now their own bishops, and openly hold their synods in 

 Moscow, asking for nothing but complete freedom of worship. About a million 

 of them, the so-called Yedùiovertzî, or " United Believers," have, moreover, become 

 indirectly attached to the Orthodox Church, accepting their popes (priests) at its 

 hands, on the condition of being allowed to retain their books and old images. 



But the more zealous of the old believers mostly escaped to the northern 

 forests, where the convent of Vig, on the river of like name, was long their chief 

 centre. These are the Bezpojwiizi, or Priestless, the " fold that feeds itself." 

 Some reject all the sacraments, and have no ministers except the "holy angels; " 

 others remain during the service with open mouths, in expectation of the divine 

 food descending ready consecrated from heaven. The Bezpopovtzî became 

 naturally more allied to western Protestantism, and developed far more varieties 

 than the Popovtzî, every isolated refuge and every fresh prophet forming the 

 centre of a new group. The most numerous is that of the Theodosians, an 

 offshoot of the Vîg community ; but the best known are probably the Philippites 



