RELIGIOUS SECTS OF OEEAT EUSSIA. 387 



(Filipoiizî), so culled from their founder Philip, with settlements in East Prussia, 

 Moldavia, and even Dobruja, collectively known as Lippovanes, a term often 

 applied also to various Raskolnik sects. The}' taught that death was preferable 

 to uttering the Czar's name in their devotions, some going even so far as to refuse 

 coins bearing the imperial effigy. But abroad they have gradually modified 

 their views, and some of them are now amongst the mo't zealous Muscovite 

 patriots. 



The Philippites were the most ardent apostles of self-immolation, and during 

 the terrible persecutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many com- 

 mitted themselves spontaneously to the flames or the water. But suicide was 

 often their only escape from torture, for the first stakes had been kindled 

 by Orthodox executioners. Between 1687 and 1G93 about 9,000 Old Believers 

 voluntarily perished by fire in the region between Lake Onega and the White 

 Sea, and a single holocaust in the island of Paleostrov, Lake Onega, was 

 composed of 2,700 persons. Such spectacles became contagious, and many 

 sectarians openly preached suicide by the flames, interment, or starvation. On 

 more than one occasion even in this century parents have murdered their children 

 to save them from future sin, and enable them at once to enter the gates of 

 heaven. In some communities hymns are still sung ending with the words, 

 "Proclaim my will to man — to all Orthodox Christians: that for my sake they 

 throw themselves into the fire, themselves and their innocent children ! " 



Another of theBezpopovtzî sects is that of the Fugitives {Begum) or Wanderers 

 [Straunik/), founded by the deserter Euphimius towards the end of the last 

 century. They hold that all Government officials are agents of Satan ; consequently 

 that it is unlawful to obey them. An official seal is for them a "mark of the 

 beast," and they eagerly destroy all sealed documents falling into their hands. 

 Hence they would j)ass their days in prison, or in the mines of Siberia, if they did 

 not quit " Babylon in order to have no part in her sins." They prefer to wander 

 from village to village propagating their doctrines, or prowling about like the 

 wolves of the forest. 



ThePopovtzi are settled chiefly in the centre, the Bezpopovtzi in the north, and 

 the Spiritualists in the south. These last are the most persecuted, and consequently 

 preserve the greatest secrecy as to their tenets and practices. They claim to possess 

 the divine spirit, to be themselves " men of God," or " Christs." God the Father 

 again descended from heaven with his Son in the seventeenth century, in order to 

 accomplish the divine sacrifice, and the Holy Ghost still speaks through the 

 mouths of apostles and prophetesses. Their chief sect, the KhlistovM , or 

 " Flagellants," do not immolate themselves, but they dance like David, jumping 

 and whirling about till they fall prostrate witli exhaustion. Others scourge and 

 torture each other, and during the Easter services they are said occasionally to kill 

 a newly baptized infant, devouring the bleeding heart mixed with honey. 



Under the influence of the general progress of thought all the sects are 

 becoming more and more rationalistic in religion, and radical in politics. The 

 Popovtzi are adopting wholesale the ideas of the Bezpopovtzi, while these last are 



