The soul of Russia

DCSB LIBRARY

THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

THE

SOUL OF RUSSIA

C

BY

/

GHAS. T. BYFORD

•JLonfcon

THE KINGSGATE PRESS
4, SOUTHAMPTON Row, W.C.

TO

K. M. B.

CONTENTS

PREFACE .... 9

INTRODUCTION ..... 13

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY . . .29

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH . . 57

HER SACRAMENTS . . -95

BAPTISM .... 98

UNCTION . . . . . 101

CONFESSION AND COMMUNION . 104

ORDINATION . . . 108

MARRIAGE . . . . no

EXTREME UNCTION . 114

HER PRIESTHOOD . . . .129

ICONS OR HOLY PICTURES . . 155

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY . . . 171

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY .... 191

THE RASKOLNIKS . . . . .213

UNIATS . . • • .231

RUSSIAN SECTS . -247

THE DOUKHOBORS . . . 283

THE MOLOKANS . . -3*9

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS . . 337

JEWS . . . . . 369

TOLSTOI .... 379

INDEX . . . . . 391

AND dost not thou, Russia, drive away like a troika,

not to be overtaken ?

The road smokes behind thee, the bridges creak,
Thou leavest all behind thee.
The beholders, amazed, stop and say :

Was it a flash of lightning ?

What means this blood-curdling course ?

What is the secret power in these horses ?

What kind of horses are you?

Have you whirlwinds in your withers ?

Have you recognised tones from above ?

Do you now force your iron limbs, without touching
the earth with your hoofs, to fly hence through the
air, as if inspired by a god?
Russia, answer, whither art thou driving ?

There comes no answer.

We can hear the little bells on the horses tinkling strangely ;
There is a groaning in the air, increasing like a storm ;
And the Russian land continues its wild flight,
And the other nations and kingdoms of the earth
Step timorously aside, without checking its career.
Russia, whither art thou driving?

Dead Souls. — GOGOL.

PREFACE

MY aim in writing this book has been to
give to the English-speaking peoples a
concise view of the spiritual and re-
ligious forces at work in Russia to-day. Like the
majority of travellers in the land of the great
" White Tsar," I have been interested by the
place that religion holds in the life of the people.
There are very few, even amongst the "intellec-
tuals," who stand aloof from the corporate religious
life of the great Russian family.

This book is not written for the specialist
in comparative religion, or for the scholar well
advanced in the study of peculiar Russian sects,
but rather for those interested in the great and
terrific struggle, which has been in progress for
the last half century, for religious liberty and
political freedom in the Russian Empire.

I have purposely confined myself to the de-
velopments of religious life peculiar to the Russian
people themselves, and have thus omitted much
which might have been written concerning the
Lutheran Church in the Baltic provinces and
amongst German and Lettish settlers in the large
cities and grain-growing belts; of the Roman

10 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Catholics in Poland and Lithuania, of the Moham-
medans in the South-East and the Crimea, of the
Buriats and their " white horse " worship in
Southern Siberia, and of the semi-Christian, semi-
Mohammedan peoples of the Eastern frontier.
These all have their place in the religious life
of the Empire, but owing to the restrictive laws
against proselytising, they hardly affect the
Russian as such.

It has been my privilege to be the guest
of Lutheran pastors in the Eastern provinces and
the Crimea, and to study their work at first hand,
but as most of their services are conducted in
German or Lettish, they have but little in-
fluence, comparatively speaking, upon their Slav
neighbours.

In the chapters dealing with the Orthodox
Church I have not touched upon the great con-
troversies which raged between East and West,
and the subsequent division of Christendom into
two great parties, for the simple reason that
Russia received a ready-made Church, and be-
came the child of the Holy Eastern Communion.
Save in the Uniat controversy, the Orthodox
Church has had but little to do with the doctrinal
differences between Rome and Constantinople.

The limits of space have made it im-
possible for me to follow each of the various
sects in detail, in their rise and development,
but the bibliography at the head of each chapter

PREFACE 11

should be of service to any readers, if they
desire to become more fully acquainted with the
special phase of Russian religious life in which
they are interested.

As the book is written for the general reader,
I have avoided footnotes, and have incorporated
in the body of the work quotations from other
authors, and wherever possible have acknow-
ledged my indebtedness to them.

CHAS. T. BYFORD.

FlNCHLEY.

April, 1914.

THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

INTRODUCTION

u h I AHE Russian nation," writes Dostoievski, " is

a new and wonderful phenomenon in the

history of mankind. The character of

the people differs to such a degree from that of

other Europeans that their neighbours find it

impossible to diagnose them."

Great and far-reaching movements are taking
place in Russia to-day, and the eyes of the
Western world are looking anxiously towards her,
wondering what will issue from the social, political,
and economic changes which are hastening for-
ward in that land.

Anatole France writes : " On the banks of the
Neva, the Volga, and the Vistula the fate of new
Europe and the future of humanity are being
decided."

Pobiedonosteff, the late Procurator of the Holy
Synod, gave expression to the ideals, hopes, aspira-
tions, and feelings of the leaders of the greatest
empire of modern times when, in a sentence, he
declared, "Russia is no State; Russia is a world."
In her steady advance, slowly, surely, and more or
less silently, Russia is becoming the world-power.

13

14 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Eastward and southward, ever in search of
warm water and ice-free ports, Russia in the
process is assimilating to herself, and absorbing
into her national life, peoples of diverse races,
languages, temperaments, and religions. Since the
Crimean War she has absorbed whole nations, and
the end is not yet.

Despite climatic severities, or perhaps by
reason of them, recurring famines, internal dis-
orders, political revolutions, chronic poverty
among her peasantry, territorial expansion steadily
proceeds, and with this external expansion and
development, an addition to her population by
natural causes, i.e. by births over deaths, of about
two millions every year.

Here and there, students of modern history
and the movements of modern nations have dis-
cerned the facts; thus Dr. Sarolea, in his Life of
Tolstoi, says : " The twentieth century will be the
century of the Russian. Before it will have run its
course, one fourth of the habitable earth, from
the frontiers of Germany to the boundaries of
China, from the ice-bound shores of the Arctic Sea
to the sub-tropical ridges of the Himalayas, will
be occupied by a homogeneous population of three
hundred millions of people, the most formidable
aggregate of civilised humanity known to history.
No race has had a more tragic past, and no race
seems destined to a more brilliant future. The
slow, steady advance of Russia is one of the most

INTRODUCTION 15

impressive phenomena of history; and when the
vision of mankind will be directed to the future,
as to-day it is directed to the past, the schoolboy
will one day be taught the epic of Russian ex-
pansion, as to-day he is taught the epic of Imperial
Rome."

Her growing commerce and need for ice-free
ports, her great industrial developments, her con-
gested population in the old agricultural belts, her
increasing contact with other nations, all make
for this territorial expansion, but the most potent
factor in this steady advance is without doubt the
Holy Orthodox Church. Wherever the merchant,
the trader, the prospector, the engineer, the soldier,
the administrator goes, there also is to be found
the priest. Manchuria, in the process of absorption,
becomes a See of the Orthodox Church ; Tcher-
kisses have in their midst the ornate outward
evidences of the State religion; and even in
Northern Persia, the " popes " are following in
the footsteps of the army.

Finn and Tatar, Circassian and Chinaman,
Pole and Lett, Kalmuck and Samoyede, Mongol
and Yakut, are to be one, one in faith, one in
submission with the Slav to the Holy Orthodox
Church; bound together by invisible and almost
unbreakable bonds, the bonds of a simple and
common faith in the One God, the Father of man-
kind ; One Lord, the Saviour of the World ; One
Church, unchanged and unchanging, the supreme

2

16 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

authority over life and conduct, worship and faith ;
One Tsar, the vicegerent of God to the Russian
world.

" Everywhere from Kamchatchka to the Vis-
tula," writes Von der Briiggen, " Russian Churches
and priests are maintained, even in places where
no religious, but merely a political aim, prompts
the Synod to spread propaganda. The comparison
of the Russian village priest of Tambov, or
Saratov, with his brother in orders in Poland,
Lithuania, Esthonia, is often surprising. Comfort-
able, large dwelling-houses, often horses and
carriages, fields and meadows, gardens, handsome,
cheerful Churches. The pope lives comfortably
on one thousand to one thousand five hundred
roubles salary or profit on his glebe land; he has
his nice schoolroom, is not obliged to ' bend his
back,' nor to drink brandy, nor to suffer hunger."

Brotherhoods are being founded amongst the
Orthodox all over Russia, collections are being
made in the Churches to help Lithuanians, Letts,
Poles, and others to become " Orthodox " and to
be Russianised; money has been granted to found
a Manchurian Bishopric, to build a great Church
in Pekin, with which to impress the Chinese, to
establish an Orthodox Monastery in Manchuria, in
order effectually to further the Russian advance
there. The supreme function of the Church, pre-
sumably, is to lead the people to discern between
right and wrong, between good and evil, to make

INTRODUCTION 17

and keep the people simple, obedient, and united.

Despite schisms, reactionary and radical, con-
servative and revolutionary, atheistic and evan-
gelical, the leaders of the Orthodox Church and
the Russian nation keep steadily on their way ;
nothing deflects them from their purpose; all
demands for reform are sternly and even severely
resisted.

All attempts to revise the Church's creed are
anathema. The ideal is the inflexible solidarity
of the Church establishment and her absolute
identity with the State itself.

" Once an Orthodox Russian, always an Or-
thodox Russian." Hence persecutions and prisons,
beatings and banishments, confiscation of goods
and deprivation of civil rights, are the lot of all
those who dare to leave her fold.

It is the claim of the Holy Orthodox Church
that it is the oldest and purest Church in Christen-
dom, the only institution which has never changed
or changes.

Her " popes " boast that it is the only per-
manent unchangeable Church in Christendom
to-day. The power of the Church amongst the
peasantry is undeniable. The Russian child is
born arid bred in the midst of religious observances,
elaborate ceremonies, and gross superstitions, and
that fact has an effect on his disposition and
character not easily overestimated. His docile
patience when suffering from the " ills that flesh

18 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

is heir to " ; his lethargy in the presence of the
great crises of life; his adherence to primitive
methods of agriculture; his innate distrust of all
that is new and strange, can all be traced to the
primal influence of the Church upon his character.

" God wills it," is his invariable answer when
loss, disease, and death come into his experience.
And God to him is frequently but a super-Tsar.

" The Russian temperament," says Sarolea, " is
more extreme and more impulsive than the Western
temperament. Religious ideals take a firmer hold
in Russia than in any other country. No one who
has closely observed the religious life of the
Russian peasantry, no one who has spent a few days
with Russian pilgrims at Kiev or Jerusalem, will
doubt that the Russian people are to-day the most
religious nation in the world. Their soul seems
to come nearer to the simple truth of the Gospel,
and it is more nearly attuned to the doctrine of
renunciation. The Russian people seem more dis-
posed to make sacrifices for what they believe to
be the truth. In Russia the age of martyrs is not
closed. Every class, every age, each sex, has had
its sufferers for the ideal. In hundreds and thou-
sands Russians have given up their lives in the
cause of Christianity."

No student of Russian affairs can neglect what
is without reasonable doubt the greatest factor in
the life of the people — Religion. A man may know
all that there is to be known about the Russian

INTRODUCTION 19

people, in their peasant communes, town industries,
social relationships, political principles, and even
revolutionary ideas, but he will fail to grasp the
inner (secret of the Slav race until he has made a close
study of the religious life of the nation. How he
works, how he lives, how he thinks, may be
apparently an open book to the student of the
Russian character, but he will know very little
about the peasant, after all, until he knows the
religious side of him; and the religious side of
him is all sides.

" Faith is as necessary to the Russian peasant
as food and air." Nothing written about Russia
can give a full or in anywise adequate view of
the people and their problems, domestic and racial,
which leaves out of account ths religious life of
the people. Russia is a world where nothing about
her people can be rightfully understood without
some fairly comprehensive outline of the part which
religion plays in the life of her inhabitants and in
the affairs of her government; for in Russia the
Church is, on the one hand, a definite part of
the government itself; on the other hand, a chief
factor in the life of the people; on ths one side,
a rigid State institution; on the other, the beloved
of the peasantry. In this statement one does not
refer to the credal or philosophic basis of the
Church, but to those external rites and ceremonies,
customs and observances which play such an im-
portant part in the life of the peasant.

20 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Throughout that vast Empire there are mani-
fold outward evidences of the part which religion,
as such, plays in the life of the ordinary people —
Churches innumerable, wayside shrines, holy Icons,
ragged pilgrims, black clergy, and parish " popes."

The Icon is everywhere, in custom-houses and
passport offices on the frontiers, railway stations
and restaurants, government bureaux and post-
offices, on the saloons of the great river steamers
and in the posthouses on the great main roads, in
shops and warehouses, factories and offices, peasant
houses and palatial mansions, university class-
rooms and village schools, in vodka shops, and
even in the basest dens of vice and evil.

Always and everywhere, from the White Sea
to the shores of the Caspian, from the Vistula to
the Pacific, in crowded cities and in the villages
of the vast and lonely steppes, wherever the
Russian has made a home, founded a settlement, or
pushed forward the railhead into new territories,
there is to be found the Icon, the Holy picture.
It is the constant companion of the Russian in
poverty and plenty, in peace and war.

It is the outward and visible sign or mani-
festation of a profound racial religious instinct,
or rather, religious emotion, rather than an in-
tellectual grasp of an intelligent faith. The Icon
is a talisman against danger when travelling,
against disease at home, and is the inseparable
companion of the wanderer.

INTRODUCTION 21

Another outward sign of their religious
emotion is the constant crossing of themselves
when passing Icons and shrines, and one another
when about to part for some time. At railway
stations and even tramway halts, on steamer quays
and posthouse doors, one will see friends crossing
one another before starting upon a journey.

The moujik in the droshky, tearing through
the streets at a terrific pace, as if life itself
depended upon the speed of his horses, will, without
perceptible slackening of rein, cross himself as
he passes a shrine or Church; foot passengers
will uncover, cross themselves, and murmur a
prayer every few yards where Church and outdoor
shrines are in abundance.

How symbolic is this crossing ! The forehead
is touched where rested the crown of thorns ; the
side is touched where entered the cruel spear; and
the passing of the hand over the body reproduces
the Saviour's crucifixion on Calvary. All is done
quietly and yet comprehensively.

Or again, watch the devotions of the people
in the Churches. We pass through a crowd of
oftentimes loathsome beggars — " little brothers of
Christ " — crowded about the doors and on the steps
of the sacred edifice, and upon entering we notice
the blaze of candles before the sacred Icons. Here
an officer, with dangling and clanking sword by
his side, places a lighted candle before the Icon,
kisses the painted feet of the saint, and then kneels

22 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

for a few minutes in prayer. Close by, a woman,
well dressed, and evidently well to do, is pas-
sionately kissing a sacred picture. Near by, a
peasant, or street vendor, is kneeling, swaying in
prayer, whilst ever and anon his long hair sweeps
the floor as he prostrates himself before the Icon.
A' girl of the poorer classes moves along on her
knees towards the picture of a saint, and then,
rising, literally covers the picture with her kisses,
crossing and recrossing herself in the fervour of her
devotions, what time her lips move incessantly in
prayer.

The same profound religious spirit enters into
every department of life. Before the peasant will
dig a well, the priest will bless the spot, and when
water is reached, the " little father " is sent for
again. The site for a new house must be signed
with the cross, and during the building each im-
portant operation must receive a blessing. The
first log placed in position, the completion of the
thatch, the hanging of the door, all must be signed
with the mystic seal of the Cross.

The "pope," with his distinctive dress, can
be heard softly yet expressively reciting the prayer,
whilst with hand outstretched over the place where
the corner-stone is to be placed, he continues :

" May neither wind, nor water, nor anything
else, bring harm into it; may it be completed
in the benevolence, and free all those who labour
on this building from all kinds of calamity."

INTRODUCTION 2.1

The peasant, from the cradle to the grave, in
all the diversities of his life, looks to the priest.
When the locusts wrought havoc in the Eastern
Provinces in 1906, the peasants sent for the priests
to perambulate the fields and by their prayers stay
the plague.

That there is superstition in all this reverence
is undoubtedly true, as we shall see later. Not
only are the obeisance, the murmured prayer, the
sign of the Cross, outward manifestations of the
inner religious life of the men and women who
perform them, but they are also a kind of incan
tation, a formula of words and actions directed
against the evil eye and the unseen powers of
darkness, which, to the average Russian, are in
the air about us.

The normal peasant or artisan ascribes evil
happenings and frustrated purposes to evil spirits
who have been let loose upon him or his by reason
of his failure to duly observe any or all of these
religious observances.

Pobiedonosteff, in his Reflections of a Russian
Statesman, reaches the very core of this seeming
religiosity of the people when he writes :

" What a mystery is the religious life of a
people such as ours, uncultivated and left to itself.
We ask, whence does it come ? and strive to reach
the source, and yet find nothing. Our clergy teach
little and seldom; they celebrate the services in
the churches and direct the administration of the

24 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

parishes. To the illiterate the Scriptures are un-
known ; there remain the Church service and a few
prayers, which, transmitted from parents to child-
ren, serve as the only link between the Church and
its flock. It is known that in some remote districts
the congregation understands nothing of the words
of the service, or even of the Lord's Prayer, which
is repeated often with omissions and additions
which deprive it of all meaning.

" Nevertheless, in all these untutored minds
has been raised, as in Athens — one knows not by
whom — an altar to the Unknown God; to all, the
intervention of Providence in human affairs is a
fact so indisputable, so firmly rooted in conscience,
that when death arrives, these men, to whom none
ever spoke of God, open their doors to Him as
a well-known and long-expected guest. Thus, in
the literal sense, they give their souls to God."

It is these intensely religious people, orthodox
and unorthodox, cultured and illiterate, wealthy
and burdened with poverty, unspeakably filthy
in their homes, but frequently pure in heart,
and not the few thousand " intellectuals,"
steeped in German economics and French political
traditions, who reveal to the non-Russian the " Soul
of Russia." It is they alone who possess the secret
of the destinies of the great Slav race. In the
great Russian Empire, as we shall see later, we
find more phases of religious life than perhaps in
any other country in the world. A bewildering

INTRODUCTION 25

variety of religions and sects are to be met with
in close proximity to one another, and their places
of worship often stand side by side in the same
town or village, and as a general rule, without
giving rise to religious disturbances. In his
relations with Moslems, Buddhists, Fetiches, the
Russian peasant looks rather to conduct than to
creed, the latter being, in his view, simply a
matter of nationality. Indeed, towards paganism,
at least, he is perhaps even more than tolerant,
preferring to keep on good terms with pagan
divinities, and in difficult circumstances not failing
to present to them his offering.

Any idea of proselytizing is quite foreign to
the mind of the common peasant, and the out-
bursts of zeal occasionally manifested by the clergy
are really due to the desire for Russification, and
traceable to the influence of the higher clergy
and the government. This accounts for the fact
that all over the land are to be seen the Orthodox
Churches, with their pear shaped domes and spires ;
and where the frontiers of the Empire are being
pushed farther Eastward and Southward, one has
seen the travelling Church, used by the pioneers
of the Russian advance.

The general distribution of religions is as
follows :

White Russians ... Holy Orthodox, Raskolnik, and

Sectarian.
Poles Roman Catholic and Uniat.

26 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Letts, Esthonians,

and Courlanders Lutheran.
Tatars and Bashkirs Mohammedan.

Kirghizes Mohammedan, with the retention

of certain Shamanistic prac-
tices.

Voyiaks, Yoguls,
Tchere misses,
and Tcherkesses Interesting modifications of

Shamanism, under the in-
fluence of Christian and
Moslem beliefs.

Kalmuks Buddhists.

Tcherkesses ... ... Zoroastrians, and as above.

Yakuts, Samoyedes,

and Burials ... Practically Pagans, the latter
observing the ancient White
Horse worship and sacrifice.

Amongst the minor bodies scattered through
the Empire we find Hussites on the banks of the
Volga ; Molokani in the provinces of the South ;
Doukhobors in the South and in the Caucasus ;
Raskolniks have their stronghold in and around
Moscow ; Mennonites in Samara and Astrakhan ;
whilst the Stundists and Baptists are to be found
in and amongst them all.

In addition to the regular recognised bodies
who have a measure of State recognition, there
are many fanatical sects, which have sprung
into being from time to time, and have
by their very excesses brought down upon
them the strong and repressive hand of the
government.

Such are the Skoptsi, Hleests, Castrates,

INTRODUCTION 27

Nazarenes, and certain sects of Jews and Moham-
medans.

According to the census of 1897, the popu-
lation of Russia was divided religiously in the
following proportions :

Holy Orthodox ... 96,000,000 or 62 per cent.

Raskolniks ... ... .. 2,000,000

Roman Catholics ... ... 12,200,000

Lutherans ... ... ... 3,750,000

Jews ... ... ... 4,050,000

Mohammedans ... ... ... 12,150,000

Shamanists ... ... ... 1,000,000

Sectarians ... ... ... 1,200,000

Buddhists and smaller sects ... 1,500,000

These figures are exclusive of Finland, which is
wholly Protestant.

The Russians are peculiarly susceptible to an
extravagant mysticism, and recent history, as well
as the records of former days, supplies many
instances of great Russian religious reform move
ments which have gone down in an orgy of
fanaticism.

With the spread of education, more frequent
intercourse with Western nations, a wider dissemi-
nation of the Scriptures, and capable interpreters
thereof, Russia will ultimately find her " soul "
and produce a great and enduring faith which will
make for the real uplift of the people within her
borders, and have a widespread effect upon the
contiguous nations of Europe and Asia,

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

KENNARD . . . The Russian Peasant.

BARING .... The Russian People.

GRAHAM. . . . Changing Russia.

CONSTANT . . . Religion.

ROMANOFF . . . Rites and Customs of the Grceco-

Russian Church.

29

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY

SUPERFICIALLY* Russia is an intensely
religious nation. Evidences of the extreme
religiosity of the people are to be met
with everywhere. Not only in the great centres
of population, or the " holy " cities of Moscow
and Kieff, are the gorgeous externals of religion
to be found ; every little village has its Church ;
the golden domes shine in the morning light, a
landmark for the weary traveller over the appa-
rently interminable steppes. Usually the most
magnificent building in the country town or village
is the Church, and when one sees the noble edifice
towering above the squalid homes of the peasantry,
comparisons crowd upon the mind. What is the
Church here for ? What part does it play in the
life of the people ? What influence does it exert
for their uplift ? What good eventuates from it
for these wretched peasants, too often hungry and
poverty stricken, ill-clad and ill-housed ? What
comfort does it bring to their restless souls ? Of
what benefit is it for these poor creatures, many
of them sodden with the all-prevailing " vodka,"
to gaze upon the showy outside of the gorgeous
Church, and to be told that it is the Church of

3

32 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

God, the home of the Saviour, whilst next door,
in the presbytery, they may perchance see the
" pope " as drunk as one of the lowest of his
parishioners, and know that at times he indulges
in peculations and shameful bargains which are
the very negation of his high calling. Glorious
as the outside of the building may be, the interior,
regarded as a place of religion for the practice
of meditation, or for the receiving of spiritual
food, is even more of a delusion. All is garish
and glittering; magic and mystery surround one;
all is calculated, and purposely calculated, and has
been purposely calculated for centuries past by
the priestly caste, to breed in the mind of the
peasant fear and superstition. The building, and
not the Lord thereof, the priest, and not his Master,
is held in awe and fear.

The interior of the Church appeals to the
senses, the fragrant odours of the incense, the
range of superb Icons, the altar behind the Royal
Gates, all these fill the mind of the peasant with
mystery, wonderment, and awe; but his soul is
starved.

The Church, externally and internally, is an
outward manifestation of the place and power of
religion in the communal life, but the whole ten-
dency of the system is to debase the peasant, to
divorce him from spiritual religion and evangelical
truth. There is show outside — show inside-
nothing more.

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY 33

No one intimately acquainted with the Russian
peasantry can deny that they are intensely religious.
They go regularly to the Church on Sundays and
holy days, cross themselves repeatedly when they
pass a Church, or shrine, or Icon. They partake
of the Holy Communion at stated seasons, at least
once a year; they avail themselves of the Con-
fessional, scrupulously observe the fast-days of
Wednesday and Friday, and even the long period
of Lent; they are punctilious in their obedience
to the 'demands of the Church, and will go on
long pilgrimages to holy places, famous monas-
teries, and even to Jerusalem itself; but too fre-
quently here their religion ends.

Generally speaking, the peasantry are ignorant
of religious doctrines and dogmas, and know but
little of Holy Writ. Of the inner religious life
of the soul they have practically no conception.
Ceremony usually suffices, and a childlike confi-
dence in the saving efficacy of the ritual is normal.
A peasant was asked on one occasion if he could
name the Three Persons of the Trinity, and, with-
out a moment's hesitation, answered, " Every one
knows that; of course, it is the Saviour; the
Mother of God; and Saint Nicholas, the Miracle
worker." The peasant's answer represents fairly
enough the theological attainments of a numerous
section of the illiterate peasantry.

" The Russians, and especially the peasants,
perform their religious observances in the most

34 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

matter of fact way in the world. But this in no
way signifies either hypocrisy or necessarily super-
stition—although they are superstitious (and scep-
tical) with regard to signs and omens. The
peasants are as a whole an intensely religious
people, but often the signs and observances of
their religion, the frequency with which they cross
themselves, the candles they burn, are not
necessarily expressive of their religion. They look
upon these as something which must be done
properly — a part of the ordinary duty of man,
like going to the bath on Saturdays, putting on
their Sunday clothes on Sunday, feasting during
the Carnival, and fasting during Lent.

" They pay honour to their Lares and Penates
much in the same way as the Greeks and Romans
must have done to their household gods, because
it is the duty of the Russian citizen ; so the Russian
thinks that to cross himself at certain places, to
fast certain days, to burn a candle as a thank-
offering for a successful bargain, to uncover his
head before the holy image, are the things which
he knows every real Orthodox Russian does, and
a man who does not do these things is simply
something else. A man who does not keep Lent
and Easter is, in the eyes of the Russian peasant,
a Turk or a heathen.

" The religion of the peasant is the working
hypothesis taught him by life; and by his obser-
vances of it he follows what he conceives to be

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY 35

the dictates of common sense consecrated by
immemorial custom" (Maurice Baring. The
Russian People).

Pictures have played such an important part
in the development of the religious ideas of the
Russian peasantry that, as a result, they have a
very material idea of what God is like. In many
of the pictures God is represented as a very
benevolent-looking Russian official of high rank,
seated upon a throne, apparently suspended in the
heavens, surrounded with Apostles and Saints, after
the fashion of an old-time Tsar with his Boyars
at Court. One very favourite picture, supposed
to be a copy of the original one of " The Last
Judgment," as shown to Vladimir by the Monk
Constantine (which partly induced the former to
embrace Christianity), shows God passing judg-
ment upon the quick and the dead, those who
have not embraced the true faith being sent to
the left, whilst the righteous find a place on His
right.

Benjamin Constant, in his work on " Religion,"
relates that " when a Russian general in full
uniform rode into the country in a part of Siberia
but little frequented, he was regarded by the people
as God Himself, and that the memory of his
appearance got such a firm hold among them that
when, ten years later, a Russian colonel came to
the same place, he was greeted as the Son of God."

Hardly a year passes but some monk or

36 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

religious fanatic declares himself to be the Messiah,
and invariably he will obtain a great following of
men and women who will be prepared to go to
almost any lengths to show their faith in him. Last
year a cultured Russian passed through a town
in Little Russia inhabited by Cossacks. He was
asked the question, " Will you be so good as
to tell us if you have 'been in the other world ? "
He was offended, since he supposed that the in-
habitants meant to indicate to him that they did
not believe what he had said. But the fact was
that one of the inhabitants of the town had
returned from a pilgrimage, and had told them
that he had come from the other world, and those
recently deceased in the town had requested him
to bring greetings to their relatives. He had gone
away again, laden with rustic presents, to the
departed relatives of the credulous Cossacks. Now
they wanted to find out from the Russian gentle-
man whether these gifts had reached their proper
destination. In March, 1913, there was an extra-
ordinary outburst of religious mania amongst the
peasantry of the Black Earth belt in the South. A
monk named Innocentius had acquired a remark-
able reputation as a miracle-worker. In that part
of Russia it appears that lunacy is very frequent,
owing, it is supposed, to the use of unripe maize
instead of leavened bread. By the ignorant and
superstitious peasants this madness is regarded as
possession of the devil, and as Innocentius was

credited with the power of casting out devils, thou-
sands of pilgrims came to his monastery, bringing
their mad relatives or friends.

The place became "an inferno of the mad."
At last the government banished Innocentius to
another monastery in the extreme north of Russia,
on a river called the Onega. His adherents con-
founded this name of the river with the Omega
of the Apocalypse, and believing Innocentius to
be the Christ Himself, they set out on foot to
follow him to his place of exile, more than a
thousand miles away. It was the depth of a Russian
winter, and the sufferings of the devotees were
indescribable. They were stopped in their march
and sent back by train, begrimed by dirt, and
nearly all frostbitten. The women and children
were in hysterics. Many squatted on the floor of
the railway vans, praying with open Bibles in
their hands. Such incidents could be multiplied
manifold. Episodes such as these are not at all
uncommon amongst the Russian peasantry.
Religion and its mystic power is so engrained in
them, more as a thing to be feared than venerated,
that it needs but little of its gloss to polish the
most unlikely tale with the glitter of undeniable
truth.

" One day a man of dignified mien, with long
brown beard, dressed as a priest, and armed with
a long pilgrim's staff as if to denote that he had
travelled far — a supposition which was fostered by

38 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

the fact that his boots were worn into holes and
that he limped painfully at each succeeding step
— arrived in a village in the province of Orel, and
with wild enthusiasm narrated how that he had
been sent forward by the Emperor to choose a
village which contained a Church. They were
duly flattered by reason of the holy man choosing
their village out of all the villages of Russia
for the reception of the " Little Father," and more
so in that they were accounted to be such men
of genius. Further, they felt no small pride that
the Tsar should really be about to honour their
village with his presence. Some few had their
suspicions, which were deepened when the holy
man said that it would be necessary for all the
villagers to provide food and cattle of one sort
or another to be presented to the Emperor, and,
further, that at least one hundred roubles must be
collected to present to the Church, for the meeting
was not only to be presided over by the Emperor,
but was to be quite unique in the history of
Christendom; also, not only would the food and
cattle be restored twenty fold by the Emperor, but
the Church would repay ten roubles for every one
collected.

"This was a bait indeed; but the suspicious
ones still doubted the words of the holy man,
and finally asked the priest whom the Emperor was
al.out to meet. This was the question which the
man of God awaited. Said he, tearing his hair in

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY 39

apparently frenzied wrath : ' O ye miserable un-
believers, ye of little faith, may God pardon you
for your faithlessness in doubting me, His mes-
senger. The Emperor meets here no other than
God Himself.' The effect was astounding. All
were electrified, and stood dumb with amazement,
and the suspicious ones disappeared into the back
ground, and hung their heads, ashamed that they
had been impious enough to distrust the messenger
of God Himself, and that they had almost gone
the length of rejecting the proffered visit of the
Creator. Money was immediately subscribed, and
not one hundred roubles, but two hundred, for,
said the simple peasants, ' if God will return us ten-
fold the gifts we give, then let us give two hundred
roubles instead of one hundred, and in like manner
the village was cleared of its cattle, its horses, its
goods of every description, and for the same subtle
reason.

" Rejoicing was rife, and the man of God
looked on, an expression of holy enthusiasm per-
vading his features.

" The goods collected, he suggested that it
would be advisable to drive all the cattle to a
large shed five miles away, when preparations
would be made to present them to God and the
Emperor a week from that date. ' Meanwhile you
must spend your days in prayer and fasting, and
on the seventh march with reverence to the spot
agreed upon.'

40 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

" The peasants did exactly as they were told,
and fasted religiously all the week, and prayed
mightily that their gifts might be acceptable to
the august personages concerned, and more
mightily still that all would be returned to them
with ten times the amount added.

" Six days elapsed, and on the seventh day,
in long procession, the peasants marched to the
shed. Wonderful ! As they approached, nothing
unusual could be seen. ' God is mysterious. He
will be there awaiting us with multitudes of angels.
He can do things we wot not of.'

" They reached the shed. They entered the
large folding doors, and, to their blank amazement,
horses, cattle, and goods had all vanished. The
peasants could not believe their senses, and many
prayed that God would show Himself to them,
but God did not appear, neither did the Emperor,
and neither did the holy man of God, His mes-
senger, and further, to this day they have seen and
heard nothing of their money, cattle, or goods "
(H.P. Kennard. The Russian Peasant}.

There are a variety of superstitious practices
connected with every phase of the peasant's life
from the cradle to the grave. Many of them are
undoubtedly of Finnish, whilst some are of Tatar
origin. As soon after birth as possible, a child is
swaddled in red and black bands, with the idea
that these will prevent the devil from getting into
the infant.

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY 41

Immediately upon a death taking place in a
house, a glass of water is placed in the window,
that the spirit may wash itself in departing.

A dead body is carried out of the house feet
foremost, so that it may not return. At the
burial of a peasant, after the usual religious cere-
monies have been completed, many quaint usages
are observed at the grave-side. Parings of the
deceased's nails are buried with him in order to
assist him to clamber out of the grave up to heaven,
sometimes a piece of ladder, or a miniature ladder,
is buried with him in order to aid the ascent.

Money is sometimes thrown in at the last
moment, the idea being that Saint Peter may be
unwilling to unlock the gates of heaven without
a persuader in the way of coin of the realm.

When Peter the Great insisted upon the shaven
chin, many of the " Raskolniki " saved their beards
to be buried with them, so that when they arrived
at the entrance gates on high they might be
recognised and admitted by the guardians
thereof.

" The baby of one of the peasant women was
seriously ill. He refused to eat, lay in his cradle
uncomfortable and sore. The dark gleaner seemed
to be waiting for him.

" On the festival of Our Lady of Kiev, a
visitor arrived. ' Tush, tush,' said she, ' bathing,
swathing, medicines — all that is nonsense. The
illness has nothing to do with these things. Some

42 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

one of dark complexion has looked upon him
with the evil eye.'

" The visitor prepared an immense booblik.
(The booblik is a ring-shaped roll, rather thicker
than a finger, sweet and crusty, with sometimes
caraway seeds sprinkled upon it before baking.)
Whilst it was still dough, that is, before it was
baked, the old woman passed the naked baby
through it three times in the Name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That done, the
booblik was put into the oven. The baby was
then washed in a mixture of charcoal ash and
holy water. When the booblik was baked it was
given to a black dog to eat; and the baby from
that day began to improve " (Graham).

To do away with the evil eye, in which the
Russians are firm believers, the " wise woman "
takes a vessel of tepid water, in which she puts
a cinder or two and a pinch of salt. If the cinders
hiss very much, it is a first sign that " the servant
of God " is really bewitched. Having said a
prayer, she crosses the water, and begins to whisper
another, of immense length and extraordinary
mystery and incomprehensibility of language,
while holding the vessel level with her chin.

In a few minutes she begins to yawn to an
alarming degree — the second sign of bewitchment.
When the prayer is finished, she crosses the water
again, and taking a sip of it in 'her mouth, squirts
it through her lips into the face of the patient

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY 43

three times, makes him drink a little, and finally
washes his head and face with the remainder.

Charms against ague are very popular amongst
the peasantry. In most cases they are worn round
the neck on the same silken cord that the cross
is suspended by, sometimes in a small bag, or
rolled in a piece of rag.

1. A live spider, confined in a thimble or a
nutshell, and tied up with a rag.

2. Incense, or rather, cinders that have been
in the censer during three liturgies for the repose
of someone's soul.

3. A blessed Easter egg that has lain on the
Icon shelf for three Rasters.

4. The " Zarranski " herb, sometimes placed
at the head of the bed, or beneath the pillow, or
worn round the neck.

5. The word Abracadabra. It is written upon
a slip of paper with one letter missing in each line.

ABRACADABRA

BRACADABRA

RACADABRA

ACADABRA

The patient cuts off a line every day, and burns
it, murmuring prayers and crossing himself mean-
while.

6. A Passion Candle that has been used at
either Matins on Palm Sunday, Vespers on Holy
Thursday, Vespers on Good Friday, or midnight
service on Easter-day.

44 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

The candle-end is worn round the neck or a
portion is fastened on the cross which the patient
wears.

7. Camphor which has been prayed over by
a " wise woman."

8. Water fetched at break of day, taken from
a river in the direction of its flow. Strict silence
must be observed in going to and coming from the
stream, and on reaching home the Lord's Prayer,
the Creed, and the sixty-eighth Psalm must be
said three times over the water.

9. A certain way is to make a rag doll, whisper
a prayer over it, and throw it into a neighbour's
yard. The patient will lose the ague ; the one who
picks up the doll will get it.

These are only a few out of many, and all
have a religious significance.

There is no doubt that religion is one of the
chief recreations of the peasant, and plays a very
real and important part in his life. In many cases,
however, their religion is allied to gross super-
stition. Whilst they keep on good terms with God
by closely observing the ordinances and ceremonies
of the Orthodox Church, they also protect them-
selves from the evil which can be wrought against
them by lesser deities. The peasant has peopled
the homes, farms, baths, fields, woods, rivers, and
lakes with spirits, many of them of a malignant
or merely mischievous character. I am greatly
indebted to Howard P. Kennard for much of what

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY 45

follows upon the superstitions of the Russian
peasantry.

" It is generally understood amongst the Russian
peasantry that swarms of spirits — good, bad, and
indifferent — wander at will through the Universe,
and nothing will shake from them this belief, which,
again, is sedulously fostered in their all too credu-
lous brain by the iniquitous representatives of the
Church. Every spot on the world's surface har-
bours these spirits; not even the sanctity of the
Orthodox Churches is respected. These immaterial
beings are, as a rule, the personification of evil,
and the bitter and unrelenting foes of mankind.
They penetrate into private houses, into human
bodies, into holy edifices; they swarm in river,
lake, and pond. They wander at will through
forest and valley and across the boundless plains,
bringing misfortune, disease, and every conceivable
form of temptation in their train. Their number
is legion, and they are blessed by the peasantry
with all kinds of names — Tchort, Diavol, and
others, all of which can be translated by the one
word ' devil.'

" However, in different provinces, according to
supposed misdeeds of the evil one, the name under-
goes a change, and so in this way each spirit has
some thirty to forty different names. With regard
to the special attributes of the spirits, the popular
peasant imagination divides them into the follow-
ing distinct groups, and it is indicative of the

46 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

state of mind and the bringing up of our unfor-
tunate friend, and of the moral and intellectual
teaching bestowed on him by the Church, that
the only subject he knows about is the subject
of these devils. If he does not know any minor
detail regarding the life of these devils, the history
of some spirit, he says, ' I will ask the priest ' ;
proving that the source of his instruction is the
Church. The following is a list of the spirits
as known to the Russian peasant and the ecclesias-
tical world, with a slight sketch of the attributes
of each one of them:

Domovoi . . Household demon.

Domovoi dvorov . . Farmyard demon.

Bannik . . Bath demon.

Ovennik . . . Barn demon.

Kikimona . . Hole demon.

Leshi . ; . Wood demon.

Polevoi . . Field demon.

Vodiavoi . . . Water demon.

Roussilki . . Water fairies.

Obvrotni . . . Incarnations.

" The Domovoi or household demon is that
one most commonly to be heard discussed by the
peasants at work and at rest, at market and fete,
on festival days and the holidays in honour of
any official function. ' What will the Domovoi
do to-day?' is the peasants' first thought. What
can he do ? Much. He haunts dwellings and plays
disagreeable tricks on unsuspecting housewives and
their husbands ; but he can also be domesticated

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY 47

and made almost harmless. However, he is none
the less feared, and the peasantry often allude to
him as ' grandfather.' Peasants, as a rule, tell
me that the Domovoi cannot be seen, but those
who have been honoured by a private view are
looked upon with nothing short of veneration. By
these the Domovoi is stated to be in possession of
a rasping voice, and to be covered with soft hair,
like the down on a baby's skin, even to the palms
of his hands. His principal occupation is to hide
in stores, cupboards, boxes, and moan dismally,
occasionally asserting himself by sitting on men's
chests while they sleep.

" The Russian peasant, after a heavy carousal,
and a consequent invasion by the evil Domovoi,
prescribes another bottle of vodka for himself,
and gets drunk again.

" Before any extensive culinary operations the
Russian peasant woman invokes the aid of the
Domovoi, and I have frequently seen her en-
deavour to propitiate the spirit in favour of her
sinning husband, who is out late at night on a
drinking bout, by placing outside the door pro-
visions, such as bread and a bottle of kvass, in
order that the Domovoi may eat and imbibe, and
guide her husband's footsteps safely home.

" In family events of any importance, such as
marriages, births, deaths, food is placed on the
threshold both inside and outside for the Domovoi's
consumption, with the words : ' There for thee,

4

48 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

grandfather Domovoi; may your deeds be well
for us, and mayst thou aid us with thy kind
assistance, that our actions may prosper, our
children grow up, and our hens and pigs multiply.'
In return for all this attention bestowed on the
Domovoi, he, when in a friendly disposition, is
said to warn his hosts about impending trouble.
In what manner he does this I have never suc-
ceeded in ascertaining; but it would seem that
it is done through the medium of dreams. Further,
the Domovoi gives the peasant advice by means
of the same medium, and, strange to say, the
dream often takes the form of advice to steal his
master's wood, potatoes, and what not. This he
religiously proceeds to do, feeling absolutely justi-
fied in the performance of the deed, for one must
know the Russian moujik if one wishes to be
acquainted with the type par excellence of that
human being who can convince himself that is
right which he in his inmost conscience knows is
wrong, but which he ardently wishes to believe is
right."

Tolstoi, in his parable, Master and Man, brings
out this trait. ' Vassili really had believed that he
was being good to Nikita, for he could speak so
persuasively and had always been so entirely sup-
ported in his decisions by his dependents, that
even he himself had come to feel comfortably
persuaded that he was not cheating them, but
actually benefiting them.'

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY 49

" The Domovoi dvorov or farmyard spirit, is a
malign person who delights in tormenting domestic
animals. It is owing to his evil influence that cows
get weak and thin, horses get mutilated, and their
tails cut. His appearance is that of a man, but
covered completely with hair.

" He exercises complete dominion over the
farmyard, and when the good Russian housewife
takes a goose or fowl from the farmyard stock, she
often practises deception on the Domovoi dvorov
by hanging up the head of the fowl or goose in the
poultry shed, in order that the spirit, when he
Counts his protegees, may not discover that one
has been removed.

" The Bannik or bath demon haunts bath-
houses, which, in consequence, are not considered
safe after midnight. He hides under the shelves
round the bath-house, is a very malicious spirit,
and capable of the most outrageous crimes against
the person, so in consequence the peasantry do all
in their power to flatter him. At the time when the
peasants bathe, it is known that the Bannik takes his
bath at the fourth turn. This turn he usurps for his
own, and peasants always, therefore, avoid bathing
after the third, fearing that hot bricks may fall
on them, boiling water may be thrown at them,
steam scald them; and the method therefore
adopted is to leave the bath-room, in the event of
the peasants bathing singly, after the third turn

50 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

to the exclusive use of the Bannik, for a period
varying from twenty minutes to half an hour, and
then after that period to return.

" In the Russian villages no one bathes after
seven, that is to say, in those districts where the
belief in the Bannik prevails, for it is an unwritten
law, handed down from father to child for genera-
tions, that after that hour the Bannik takes pos-
session of the bath-house, and invites the devil
with his friends to wash. So much is this believed
in that in many villages I have seen grown men
and women afraid to walk in the direction of the
bath-house, and you might offer them gold to
walk past the door, but they would not accept it.

" The Ovennik or barn spirit. Village barns are
ill-built wood constructions, and owing to the
peasants' carelessness are frequently burned down;
but simple and natural reasons are not admitted
for these catastrophes. All evils of this nature
are placed to the credit of the barn spirit. This
evil personage sits in the darkest corner of the
barn, and can be seen only once a year, during
Mass on Easter-day, when he can be recognised
by all who are foolhardy enough to endeavour to
catch a glimpse of him, as a large black cat.

" He is well disposed as a rule, and much may
be done to pacify him. In the winter, rather than
that he should set the barn alight in order to
warm himself, I have known peasants in the

I*

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY si

Central Provinces of Russia burn each night a
small quantity of wood and straw in the open out-
side the barn, in order that the Ovennik may, if
he pleases, come out and warm himself; this too
in villages where wood has been scarce and poverty
prevalent, showing once more the depths of folly
to which superstition will lead them.

" The Kikimona lives in holes, and plays
tricks, and frequently is associated with the en
tangling of skeins, the mixing of threads, and
the spoiling of spinning. But the main function
of the Kikimona is the causing of epidemics of
disease. To-day, in Samara, where the famine is
raging, and typhus and scurvy with it, it is safe
to assume that in the eyes of the peasantry the evil
time has been organised by the Kikimona. In the
year 1891, the year of the great famine, the
peasants of the Kharkoff Government met, and
solemnly forwarded a petition to the Tsar, through
the hand of the Governor, to the effect that,
' seeing that that child of the devil, the Kikimona,
was absolutely and solely to blame for the terrible
want of provisions, would His Majesty take the
necessary steps towards the extermination of that
spirit.'

" The Leshi or wood spirit lives in the woods,
preferring more especially old, moss-grown, vener-
able firs. His appearance is that of an old man,

THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

his eyes burning with an unsteady flame. He
grows at will into a person of immense size, or
vanishes into thin air.

" While walking in his realms, he is taller
than the tallest elms, but on coming into the
open he can and does hide himself under a leaf.

" He is the despotic monarch of the forest,
makes people lose their way, frightens them to
death, and is reputed in many districts to have a
terribly sensual nature, and to seduce women and
girls indiscriminately. To some people he is very
friendly, and will frequently bring game almost
within reach of the hunter's hand, and lead him
straight to their haunts. The peasants often bribe
him extensively by leaving a dead hare or rabbit
in the wood for his consumption."

" The Polevoi or field spirit takes the form
of a peasant man, dressed in white. His body is
black, eyes of various colours, and instead of hair,
his head is covered with green grass. He is well
disposed, but teases unmercifully, and especially
annoys drunkards, his favourite hours for mis-
chief being mid-day — a peculiar acknowledgment
on the part of the peasant of his condition at that
hour.

" Sometimes the Polevoi gets dangerous, and
strangles the peasants sleeping in the fields. If
the agricultural tools will not work, or if some
part of the mechanism breaks, or if the soil is too

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY 53

hard to allow of sufficient working, all these diffi-
culties are put down to the account of the evil
Polevoi. He is again bribed by the peasantry. I
have seen an intoxicated peasant, before lying
down to sleep in the field, place another vodka
bottle, full of the stuff, by his side, and with the
words, ' There, that's for you, Polevoi,' sink to
slumber.

" The Vodiavoi or water spirit haunts lakes
and dangerous marshes. He keeps a strict guard
on his dominions, and it bodes ill indeed for those
who defy his wrath. Sometimes the Vodiavoi
takes up his abode in rivers and streams, and
frequently sleeps the night under the wheels of
a water mill. He can be seen sometimes as an
ordinary man, but with very long fingers, and
nails on his hands more like paws than ordinary
hands. His head is covered with long hairs; he
has a very long tail, and eyes which burn like a
red hot coal. He never comes quite out of the
water, but shows himself at half length.

" He drowns imprudent people bathing or
sailing on his domains, and delights in killing
those who never wear their baptismal crosses, and
forget God. Bruises, marks, wounds on the body
of a drowned man, are invariably taken as proof
of the torments inflicted by the Vodiavoi. He is
most disagreeable to millers and fishermen, but
some of the latter come to an understanding with

54

him, and get proofs of his friendship. But through-
out Russia the peasantry believe that he requires
human victims for his daily food, and nothing will
convince them to the contrary.

" The Roussilki or water fairies are represented
as beautiful women and girls, young angels, sing-
ing and dancing in the moonlight on lakes, pools,
and streams, trying to attract men, whom they
torment and drown. The most fervent belief in
the existence of the Roussilki, and the most
poetical stories and songs regarding their deeds,
are to be found amongst the people of little Russia.
They are credited with tearing fishermen's nets,
and it is believed that girls who drown themselves
through love become Roussilki.

" The Oborotni are either men changed by
sorcerers into animals, trees, or stones, or evil
spirits taking any form necessary to acquire their
object. The most common form is that of a she
wolf, which may transform itself into a dog, a
cat, a bust, a stone, or a tree, and then return to
the image of a man.

" Obinenki. Yet other spirits are supposed
to be devil's children, which are substituted in
the place of human babies profiting by some im-
prudence or forgetfulness on the part of the

SUPERSTITION AND CREDULITY s$

mother. This belief does sometimes very great
harm to quite innocent beings.

" One instance must suffice;

" A girl at the age of nine developed a hoarse
guttural cough and a peculiar, rather vacant, ex-
pression of countenance. At the same time it
was noticed that whatever house she entered there
was sure to be illness. A consultation of the
elders of the village was held, and it was decided
that this unfortunate girl was no human child,
but the child of one of the numerous devils,
which had been placed as a substitute in the cradle
during the period of suckling. A wise woman was
called in to give her opinion, and without any
hesitation gave it on the side of the majority.
The mother was informed of the terrible decision,
and such is the faith of the peasant in devils,
and all things appertaining to them, she acceded to
their request, which was that the wretched girl,
in order to stop her wandering in the village and
doing harm, should be chained to the wall of the
house.

" This was done, and after a while the child
became mad, but was kept chained to the wall for
thirteen years, when she died in 1906."

The superstition of the Russian peasant is not
alone in the Domovoi, but reaches beyond to the
ordinary incidents of everyday life. When start-
ing out on a business journey, for a woman to
cross the road (it is always a woman) in front of

36 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

one will mean a bad market, even if not worse
trouble. There are varying degrees of harm
brought about by a hare, cat, or a dog crossing
one's path.

To neglect to clean the Icon, to replenish the
oil in the sacred lamp, to forget to cross one's self
when rising in the morning, to lay aside for awhile
the baptismal cross, any or all of these will bring
ill-luck or disaster to one's self or to one's property.

The " wise woman " is a power in every
village. Sometimes she will brew a concoction of
herbs, more frequently use mercury, and in liberal
doses, but her usual method is by way of charms
and incantations and mysterious rites.

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

MOURAVIEFF . History of the Russian Church.
STANLEY . . The Eastern Church.
BLACKMORE . Doctrines of the Russian Church.

PALMER. . . Dissertations on the Orthodox Com-
munion.

PARES . . . Russia and Reform.

GRAHAM . . Changing Russia.

SOLOVYOV . . Otcherki iz istorii nisskoi Liter aturi.

WALLACE , Russia.

67

It must be manifest to every open mind that we have here no
decadent or emasculated spiritual institution. A religion which
has vivified and resuscitated nations : which throbs in the heart
of one of the mightiest and most rapidly advancing of modern
empires ; which commands the spiritual allegiance and gains the
impassioned loyalty of the manhood of the Russian Empire, as
no other Church does in any other land, is surely entitled to
careful study by all those who feel interested in the comparative
theology of the age.

DURBAN. The New Orthodoxy.

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH

EVERY Church of Christendom, like every
race of mankind, has its own special genius
and its distinct character. The Gospel
runs itself into all manner of moulds, and whilst
the essentials of prayer, faith, hope, and love are
one, the outward manifestations of the spirit are
as varied as the differing characteristics of men
and nations. There may be unity in the Spirit,
with diversity in the modes of worship. Amongst
all Christians there may be the progressive spirit,
ever seeking to comprehend some of the many
things of which the Master said " Ye cannot bear
them now," and a conservative spirit, which is
content with that which has been handed down
from father to son through many generations, and
which has become crystallised in tradition and
custom.

The Holy Orthodox Church in Russia, like
Russia among the nations, has been the most con-
servative, stationary, even to stagnation, almost,
of all the Churches in Christendom. No innova-
tion has been allowed to invade the Russian
Church for centuries. " No development, either
in doctrine or in discipline, has ever disturbed
the venerable and vast calm of the Holy Orthodox

59

60 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Church." She is the true home of use and wont,
custom and tradition; she is the true harbour
and house of refuge for all those who are deter-
mined neither to go forward nor to go backward,
but always to stand still.

" The straws of custom," says Stanley, " show
which way the spirit of an institution blows. The
primitive posture of standing in prayer still
retains its ground in the East; whilst in the West
it is only preserved in the extreme Protestant
communities by way of antagonism to Rome.
Organs and all musical instruments are as odious
to a Greek or a Russian Churchman as they are
to an old-time Scottish Presbyterian. Even the
schism that convulsed the Russian Church almost
at the same time that Latin Christendom was rent
by the German Reformation, was not a forward
movement, a protest against abuses, but against
innovations."

The Russian Church is The One, Apostolic,
Holy, Orthodox, Catholic Church, and all outside
of her communion and obedience are schismatics
and heretics. Protestants in the West are more
or less used to the lofty presumptions of Rome;
but the East looks down on us all. We are all
dissenters and schismatics to her. Rome and
Geneva, Canterbury and Edinburgh, are all in the
same condemnation.

Balsamon says ; " We excommunicate the Pope
for all his errors; and with him, all the West who,

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 61

heretically adhere to him. All the West are to
be treated simply as so many schismatics, and
an anathema must be provided for their ab-
juration."

That anathema is provided and pronounced in
every Russian Church on the first Sunday in Lent;
and that Sunday is known as Orthodox Sunday.
On that day some sixty anathemas are hurled
against all heretics and schismatics, from Arius
of Alexandria down to our own day; on the other
hand, for all the Orthodox, " Everlasting Remem-
brance."

The deadness of the Russian Church is not
alone the result of the stolidity of the Russian
character. The causes are to be sought for in
her system. She has never been a missionary
Church. The cry of the heathen has been to
her unheeded. There has never been in her
history, at least for the last three hundred years,
a spiritual impulse to carry the Gospel to the
regions beyond; and any Church which neglects
that call is doomed to stagnation. The Church of
Russia stands all the day idle in the market-place,
whilst her sisters, in many forms of faith and
practice, have gone out to inherit the waste places
of the earth. When at long last she is stirred by
a true missionary impulse, and gives herself with
all the abandon of the Russian nation to the evan-
gelisation of the world, then, and not till then,
will she awake from her long sleep, and take her

62 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

place with the Churches of the West in the develop-
ment of her "soul."

That the old spirit of intolerance and obscura-
tion is not yet dead may be gathered from the
following manifesto issued in 1908 by the Metro-
politan of S. Petersburg, Antonius :

" The Orthodox Church is a divine institution.

" We teach that salvation can only be obtained
while abiding in fellowship with the Church. By
fellowship, we understand general prayer, Church
charity, the Sacraments, all one's activity sanc-
tioned by the Church, good works done in the
Name of Christ and the Church, and not in one's
own.

" We agree that it is possible, though abiding
outwardly in the Church, to be a weak member
of the Orthodox Church, but it is perfectly plain
that a man who separates himself from the Church
breaks his fellowship with her, ceases to be one
with her in spirit. Separating himself from the
Church, a man separates himself from Christ.

" Thus teacheth the Orthodox faith. Except
of the Church, the Grace of Christ does not exist.

" Therefore, when the Orthodox Church
speaks of enemies of the Church, her meaning is
plain. Enemies of the Orthodox Church are all
those who profess any other religion, who deny
that the Orthodox Church is the only true source
of the Grace of Christ.

" Enemies of the Orthodox Church are all

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 63

those belonging to any other denomination™ Ras-
kolniks, Sectarians, Mason>, the Godless, and so on.

" To leave the Orthodox Church, and be in
enmity with her, is the greatest sin; for which
there is no justification. No sin or failure of the
clergy can serve as an excuse for apostasy. These
must be warned and fought against while still
remaining in the Church. But if any, in fighting
against the evils existing in the Church, reaches
so far as to fall away from the Church himself,
he only proves by this that he is far worse than
those whom he has been trying to convict of sin."

Russia took her faith and theology, her prac-
tice and ceremonies, over from the early monks
of the Eastern Church, and she has hardly changed
one jot or tittle from that day to this.

Nestor, the Monk and Annalist of the Pecher-
sky Monastery, at Kiev, in the year 1116 A.D.,
declares that the Russian Church owes its origin
to the travels of St. Andrew the Apostle, who,
on his way from Sinope to Rome, crossed the
Russian steppes, and from the summit of a low
hill first saw the heights upon which modern Kiev
has been built.

Planting his cross in the ground, he exclaimed
to his companions : " See you these hills ? On
these hills shall shine the light of Divine Grace.
There shall be here a great city, and God shall
have in it many Churches to His Name."

Whilst this legend accounts for the intro-

5

64 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

duction of "Christianity into the South by way of
the river Dneiper, Macarius, in his Travels, tells
of a saint (either Nicolas or Anthony) who was
thrown into the River Tiber at Rome with a
millstone round his neck, and on or with this
millstone, journeyed along the shores of the
Mediterranean, rounded Gibraltar, crossed the Bay
of Biscay, reached the Baltic by way of the North
Sea, and entering the River Neva, made his way
to Lake Ladoga, swam to the broad waters of
the River Volkhoff, and reaching the shores of
Lake Ilmen, found himself by the walls of
Novgorod the Great, the dominant republic of
Ancient Russia, and there won the people to
Christianity.

Both these accounts may be dismissed as
legends or fables, but they indicate that Chris-
tianity found its way into Russia along the banks
of the mighty rivers, and from thence penetrated
through the forests to the nomadic tribes on the
boundless steppes.

Muravieff, in his Origin of Christianity in
Russia, says :

" As far as we know, it appears that Oskold
and Dir, two Princes of Kiev and companions of
Ruric, were the first of the Russians who em-
braced Christianity. In the year 866 A.D. they
made their appearance in armed vessels before
the walls of Constantinople, when the Emperor
was absent, and threw the Greek capital into no

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 65

little alarm and confusion. Tradition reports that
the Patriarch Photius took the robe of the Virgin
Mother and plunged it beneath the waves of the
Strait, when the sea immediately boiled up from
underneath and wrecked the vessels of the heathen.

" Stricken with awe, they believed in that
God who had smitten them, and became the first-
fruits of their people to the Lord. The Hymn of
Victory of the Greek Church, ' To the Protecting
Conductress,' in honour of the Virgin, has re-
mained a memorial of this triumph, and even now
among ourselves concludes the office for the first
hour in the daily Matins, for that was indeed the
first hour of salvation to the land of Russia."

The Patriarch Photius, in a circular letter,
says : " Not only have the Bulgarians come over
to the Christian faith, but also the nation of the
Russians, who, proud of their successes, lately
even exalted themselves against the Greek Empire,
are beginning to exchange the impurities of
heathenism for the pure and Orthodox doctrines
of Christianity."

There is every likelihood that when Oskold
and Dir returned home to Kiev they carried with
them the seeds of a new faith, for in the Russian
Chronicles of eighty years later there is mention
of a Church in Kiev, named after the Prophet
Elias, whilst there are also records that the
Emperor Basil of Macedonia sent Bishops to
Russia, who were called " Photian " Bishops.

66 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

In a catalogue of Sees subject to the Patriarch
of Constantinople, the Metropolical See of Russia
appears as early as the year 891 A.D. It is not,
however, until the closing years of the tenth cen-
tury that we have authentic accounts of the in-
troduction of Christianity into Russia.

The Bulgarians of the Danube, the Moravians,
the Slavonic peoples of Illyria, had already been
evangelised about the middle of the ninth century.
Cyril and Methodius had translated into Slavonic
the New Testament and the service books used in
Divine worship, and, according to some historians,
even the whole Bible.

This early translation of the Word of God was
a most potent factor in the early introduction of
Christianity, for the missionary monks were by
it enabled to expound the Gospel to the Russ in
their native dialect and thus obtain a readier access
to them.

That these early monks carried the Gospel
far and wide, and had a hearing for their message,
may be gathered from the fact that the widowed
Princess Olga, who was Regent during the minority
of her son Sviatoslav, had evidently been brought
into touch with Christian teaching, for in the year
965 A.D. she undertook a journey to Constanti-
nople, to learn more of the Gospel and the true
knowledge of God, and to receive baptism at
the hands of the Patriarch.

Nestor, the Monk, draws a very vivid picture

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 67

of the baptism, and in reference to Olga (she
received the name of Helena on her baptism)
says :

" She was the forerunner of Christianity in
Russia, as the morning- star is the precursor of
the sun, and the dawn the precursor of the day.
As the moon shines at midnight, she shone in
the midst of a pagan people. She was like a
pearl amidst dirt, for the people were in the
mire of their sins, and not yet purified by baptism.
She purified herself in that holy bath, and re-
moved the garb of sin of the old man Adam."

Her son still clung to his heathen deities, and
refused to embrace the new faith, but affection
for his mother led him to agree, not only not to
persecute the Christians, but to allow them to
make open profession of faith under the protection
of the Princess. During his many and frequent
absences from home, mainly on military expedi-
tions, his son Vladimir was confided to Olga's
care, who sought to instruct her grandson in the
true faith. Her efforts were apparently fruitless,
for Vladimir became a ferocious prince, as
notorious for his savage crimes as for his idolatrous
zeal. The only two Christian martyrs mentioned
by Nestor in his chronicle were Theodore and John,
who were put to death because one of them had
refused, out of filial affection, to deliver his son
to be sacrificed by Prince Vladimir upon the altar
of the god "Peroun."

68 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

The military exploits of Vladimir, and the
consequent extension of his authority and influence,
naturally led the Princes of neighbouring States
to seek an alliance with him. To this end they
sent envoys, partly political and partly religious
in their mission. In about the year 986 A.D. a
company of Mussulman Bulgars came to Kiev from
the region of the Volga; they invited Vladimir to
accept their faith and to conclude an alliance with
their Prince.

" In what does your religion consist ? " asked
Vladimir.

" We believe in God," they replied, " but
we also believe in what the prophet teaches, do
not eat pork, abstain from wine, and after death
choose seventy beautiful women for our wives."
Whilst inclined to accept their faith, perhaps for
the latter reason, abstinence from pork and wine
was too much for him. "Drinking is the great
delight of Russians," said he; "we cannot live
without it." They returned to the Volga, having
failed in their mission.

Later, the Chazarian Jews came to him and
boasted of their religion and the ancient glory of
Jerusalem.

"Where is your country?" asked the Prince.
" It is ruined by God's wrath upon us," answered
the ambassadors. "What!" cried Vladimir;
" you come to teach others, and you whom God
has rejected and despised ! Do you wish for us

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 69

to embrace your faith, and suffer the same punish-
ment ? Go home ; I do not accept the religion of
a people whom God has abandoned."

From Western Christendom, according to
Karamsin, came envoys. (Muravieff says, " learned
doctors from Germany.") " We have come to
tell you that your country is like unto ours, but
not your religion. We worship God the Creator,
you worship gods made of wood, created."
"Return home," replied Vladimir; "our forbears
did not receive this religion from you."

A Greek embassy had the best success of
them all. Many factors had been at work making
their visit more likely to be received with favour.
There had been a constant interchange of visits
between Kiev and Constantinople; the seeds of
Christianity had been sown by Oskold, Dir, and
Olga; many of the people had already accepted
the new doctrines, and had forsaken the idol
Peroun; and an alliance with the powerful Greek
Empire was politically a desirable thing.

Evidently the Greek Patriarch had heard of
the other attempts to win over Vladimir from
idolatry to a more spiritual faith, for he sent
a monk named Constantine, who, after showing
at some length the insufficiency of the other com-
peting religions for Vladimir's acceptance, pressed
upon him those judgments of God which are in
all the world; the redemption of the human race
by the blood of Christ, and the retribution of the

70 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

life to come. Nestor represents Vladimir as speak-
ing thus of the preaching of the Greek monk.
" He recounted to us with much eloquence what
had taken place from the beginning of the world.
It was wonderful to hear, and excited the admira-
tion of all. They assured us that there is another
world beyond this, and that if anyone by baptism
makes a confession of that faith which they have
embraced, and die in this faith, he shall rise again
after death, and never die more throughout
eternity; but that he who will not believe shall
in that world be burned with everlasting fire."

Vladimir was undoubtedly impressed, but he
still hesitated, and after dismissing the embassy,
remained undecided as to his own action in em-
bracing the new faith. After meeting his Council
he decided to send envoys to Constantinople, to
make observations upon each religion and to
recommend to the people which they should accept.

On arriving in Constantinople the Boyars were
taken to the great Cathedral of St. Sophia. The
magnificent proportions of the building, the sub-
limity and splendour of the service, filled them
with awe and wonder. The smoke of incense
curled towards the lofty dome; chants from boyish
voices resounded throughout the spacious building ;
patriarch and priests moved to and fro in glittering
and gorgeous vestments ; deacons and sub-deacons,
with lighted torches in their hands, moved in pro-
cession, singing their hymns of praise. Every-

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 71

thing possible was done to impress the visitors.
Well might they report to their Prince : " When
we stood in the temple we did not know where
we were, for there is nothing else like it on earth ;
there, in truth, God has His dwelling with men ;
and we can never forget the beauty we saw there.
No one who has once tasted sweets will afterwards
take that which! is bitter; nor can we now any
longer abide in heathenism. If the religion of the
Greeks had not been good, your grandmother
Olga, who was the wisest 'of women, would not have
embraced it."

Vladimir was not yet ready to yield to the
enthusiasm of his Royars, but, like many of his
ancestors, he determined to win his religion with
his sword. In attacking the city of Kherson, he
vowed that if he should conquer, then he would
-be baptised. After a long and protracted siege
the city fell into the hands of Vladimir. According
to some historians, this was accomplished through
the treachery of a priest who had heard of the
Prince's vow. Vladimir demanded the hand of
Anna, the sister of the Greek Emperor, in marriage.
This was granted to him upon the condition that
he embraced Christianity. After the lapse of a
few weeks, Vladimir was baptised by the Bishop
of Kherson, at Kherson. Many of the Boyars
followed their Prince's example. The marriage
was celebrated in the Church of the Most Holy
Mother of God, and upon his return home with

72 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

his bride, his twelve sons were baptised, the huge
wooden idol, " Peroun," was thrown into the river
Dneiper, and orders were issued for a wholesale
baptism of the inhabitants of Kiev.

" Whoever, on the morrow, refuses to repair
to the river for baptism, whether rich or poor,
will be held as an enemy of the Prince." Nestor,
describing the scene, says : " Some stood in the
waters up to their necks; others up to their
breasts, holding their children in their arms; the
priests read the prayers ; and when the whole people
were baptised they returned to their homes filled
with joy."

Vladimir, with his usual energy, began to
build Churches in all the towns and villages of
his dominions, and sent priests and monks to in-
struct the people in the new faith. He established
schools for the children of the Boyars, and mis-
sionary monks were sent to Rostov, Novgorod,
and even beyond the river Volga, preaching, teach-
ing, and baptising the people.

By the year 996 A.D. the Gospel had spread
throughout all Russia, and the first five dioceses
were established and bishops appointed.

Vladimir died in 1015 A.D., and shortly after
his death he was " canonised " as the guardian
saint of Russia, being known as Saint Basil, whilst
his grandmother Olga received the same dis-
tinction as Saint Olga.

The Russian Church, like the Byzantine, was

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 73

thus from its earliest days connected in a most
intimate manner with the life and will of the
prince or ruler of the State, a condition which
has continued until this present day.

" As in all Eastern nations," says Dean
Stanley, "so in Russia, the national and the
religious elements have been identified far more
closely than in the West, and this identification
has been continued in a more or less unbroken
form." Its religious festivals are still national;
its national festivals are still religious. The Church
has become part of the warp and woof of the
national life.

THE RISE OF MONASTICISM
YAROSLAV, " The Princely Lawgiver," successor to
Vladimir, founded two monasteries in Kiev, one
for men, by the name of " Saint George," his
own patron angel, and the other for women,
named after the angel of his consort, " Saint Irene."
The Metropolitan Michael founded the
Vidoubetz or " Come out " monastery, whilst the
Boyars were also instrumental in founding religious
houses upon their estates, but the real commence-
ment of the monastic life in Russia can be traced
to a simple and pious hermit, who made his own
retreat a nursery for the monastic life. " Many
monasteries," says Nestor, " have been founded
by princes and nobles, and by wealth, but they
are not such as those which have been founded

74 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

by tears, and fasting, and prayer, and vigil :
Anthony had neither gold nor silver, but he pro-
cured all by prayer and fasting."

Anthony, a native of Lubetch, south of Kiev,
visited the famous monastery at Mount Athos, and
there conceived a desire to finish his days in
monastic seclusion, but the Hegumen who ton-
sured him counselled him to return to his own
country. Anthony obeyed, and brought back with
him the blessing of the Monastery of the Holy
Mountain. He visited the religious houses in and
around Kiev, but could not find the soul satisfaction
for which he craved, until at last he came to
the deserted cave of Hilarion, one time priest of
the Church of the Apostles at Berestov.

Here Anthony established himself, disciples
came to him, and subsequently they built the
Church of the Assumption . on the spot, whilst
the founder went some little distance away, and
excavated for himself another cell, where he could
in retirement spend his days in prayer. Anthony
nominated Theodosius to be the superior of the
brethren, and to him belongs the distinction of
founding the great Pecherski Lavra or Monastery.

Theodosius wrote out for the brethren — more
than a hundred in number by this time — the Rule
of the Studium Monastery, the strictest in all
Constantinople, which a monk had brought with
him from that city. Nestor the Annalist was
an eye-witness of the life and conduct of

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 75

Theodosius, for he entered upon his novitiate in
his seventeenth year, what time Theodosius
established the Lavra.

The Pecherski Monastery struck its roots deep
into Russian soil, and its influence was early felt,
not only in monastic seclusion, the founding of
other religious houses, but in the halls of princes
and on the thrones of the great prelates of the Church.

Monks went forth from the monastery, preach-
ing the Gospel to savage and nomadic tribes, many
of them laying down their lives for the faith
whilst engaged in their missionary labours. The
germ of the monastery in Russia has always been
the hermitage. These great institutions were
founded by men who became the disciples of
ascetic hermits, who, in withdrawing from the
world, lived in caves and huts, and spent their
days in meditation and prayer. Anthony, Hilarion,
and Theodosius were imitators of the early hermits
in Egypt, who, by the way, had the same names,
whilst we have records of imitators of Simeon
Stylites and the pillar hermits.

Even to-day the influence of the hermit and
pilgrim in Russia is greater than in any other
part of Christendom. As the hermits played such
an important part in the rise and development
of monasticism, it is worth our while to turn
aside for awhile to see them as they appeared
to contemporary historians.

Fletcher, in the Russian Commonwealth,

76 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

published in 1 588, and quoted by Dean Stanley,
writes : " There are certain eremites (hermits)
who used to go stark naked, save a clout about
their middle, with their hair hanging long and
wildly about their shoulders, and many of them
with an iron collar or chain about their necks
or middles even in the very extremity of winter.
These they take as prophets and men of great
holiness, giving them a liberty to speak what they
list without any controlment, though it be of
the very Highest Himself. So that if he reprove
any openly, in what sort soever, they answer
nothing, but that it is po grecum (' for their sins ').
And if any of them take some piece of sale
ware from any man's shop as he passeth by, to
give where he list, he thinketh himself much
beloved of God, and much beholden to the holy
man for taking it in that sort. The people liketh
very well of them, because they are as pasquils
(pasquins) to note their great men's faults, that
no man else dare speak of. Yet it falleth out
sometimes that for this rude liberty which they
take upon them, after a counterfeit manner by
imitation of the prophets, they are made away in
secret; as was one or two of them in the late
Emperor's time for being over bold in speaking
against his government ... of this kind there
are not many, because it is a very hard and
cold profession to go naked in Russia, especially
in winter.

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 77

" There is one at this time that walketh naked
about the streets of Moscow, and inveigheth
commonly against the State and Government,
especially against the Goudonoffs " (the authors of
the serfdom of the Russian peasantry). Horsey
(The Travels of Sir Jerome Horsey 1591) describes
another, named Nicolas of Pskoff or Plescov. " I
saw this impostor or magician, a foul creature;
went naked both in winter and summer; he
endured both extreme heat and frost; did many
things through the magical illusions of the devil;
much followed, praised, and renowned both by
prince and people. He did much good when
Ivan the Terrible came to massacre the whole
town as he had done at Novgorod.

" With his accustomed rudeness he sent to
Ivan a piece of raw flesh as a present during
Lent, and when remonstrated with he exclaimed,
' Thinkest thou that it is unlawful to eat a piece
of beast's flesh in Lent, and not unlawful to eat
up so much man's flesh as thou hast already ? '
Ivan trembled and cowered before the hermit,
changed his purpose, and the inhabitants of
Plescov were saved from his fell design."

No prophet of old, no reformer of modern
times, could have delivered a more striking testi-
mony in behalf of the true moral character of
Christianity than the wild hermit with his raw
flesh in Lent.

From the followers of such men the monas-

78 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

teries were founded, and in course of time
acquired their own peculiar mission in Russian
ecclesiastical and civil history.

In the troublous times through which Russia
was passing, many of the monasteries became half
sanctuaries and half fortresses; they were at the
same time refuges of national life and monuments
of victories won on behalf of an oppressed people
against Tatar and Mongol invaders, and on more
than one occasion proved to be the rallying-place
of defeated and dismayed armies, which, with fresh
courage and renewed strength, led by warlike
monks, have gone forth to do battle against their
conquerors and have been victorious in the strife.
The most notable instance of this spirit is to be
found in the history of the Monastery of the
Troitza (The Holy Trinity), about sixty miles from
Moscow. Founded in 1338, and greatly enlarged
in 1360, it combines within itself the monastery,
university, palace, cathedral, churches, and with
its high and strong walls, entrenched about
with a deep moat, there is added to all, and in a
marked degree, the elements of a military camp
or fortress.

In the suburbs of Moscow are two monas-
teries which have played an important part in
the history of Russia. One is the great fortress
of the Donskoi Monastery, near to the Sparrow
Hills, usually supposed to commemorate the victory
of the Don; and the other is the SimonofY

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 79

Monastery, on the banks of the Moskva, founded
by a nephew of the Great Sergius. It was from
this monastery that the final blow was struck
against the Khan of the Golden Horde, who was
then Ruler of Russia. The battle had gone against
Ivan III., and he was resigned to his fate, when
the Prior Bassian, with the Metropolitan Gerontius,
came- to the prince, exhorting him to rally his
army against the invaders. Ivan III. hesitated,
and the Prior exclaimed: "Dost thou dread
death? Thou too must die as well as others;
death is the lot of all — man, bird, beast alike;
none can avoid it. Give these warriors into my
hands, and old as I am, I will not spare myself,
nor will ever turn my back to the Tatars." Ivan
returned to the camp; Achmet fled without a
blow being struck. Russia was at last free from
the Tatar, and for ever.

The long struggle between the Tatar and
the Russ for the supremacy over the Russian
peoples, and the fact that the Tatars were
" heathens " to the Russians, led to a consolida-
tion of the forces of the Russian nation and gave
to the Russian Church a full share in the develop-
ment of the life of the nation.

" One result of the Tatar yoke was the
strengthening of the Russian religion. Religion
took the place of patriotism, or rather, patriotism
took the shape of religion, and became insepar-
able from it. The peculiar quality which stamps

6

80 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

the religion of the Russian people to this day
was the result of the Tatar yoke. To this day
in Russia Orthodoxy is the hall-mark and indis-
pensable adjunct of patriotism."

This view-point of the Russian peasant and
government explains much of the bitter and
severe persecution which has been meted out to
Dissenters and Sectarians from the earliest times.

The rise of Monasticism, the quasi-military
activities of the monks in repelling the Mongol
invasions, the consolidation of the republics and
separate kingdoms into a Tsardom, the spread of
the Church to the Sclavonic tribes, and the sub-
mission of the princes and boyars to Christianity,
all led to the strengthening and consolidation of
the power and influence of the Church.

In the fratricidal wars of the twelfth century,
when princes and boyars were contending for the
mastery, the only thing which served as a pledge
for the general unity was the confession of one and
the same Orthodox faith throughout all the limits
of the kingdom. The Bishops, as spiritual judges
in their dioceses, and the priors of the religious
houses, which were continually increasing in
number, served as mediators and peacemakers be-
tween the contending parties, and in the quality of
ambassadors, went backwards and forwards without
danger between the hostile camps. But the dis-
orders of civil society had their effect also upon
the affairs of the Church, Hitherto the Metro-

politans of Kiev had been appointed by the
Patriarch of Constantinople, but the growing
national consciousness led Isyaslov to declare
that the infant Russian Church would not have a
Greek again for Metropolitan.

A Synod of Russian Bishops was convoked
at Kiev, and the assembly agreed to take the
election of a Metropolitan into their own hands,
without the Patriarch's having any participation
in the matter. Clement, a monk of Smolensk,
was chosen, and subsequently ordained by the
laying on his head of the hand of Saint Clement,
Pope of Rome, whose relics had been brought from
Kherson by Vladimr.

Thus, as Professor Bernard Pares, in Russia
and Reform, shows, " In the Church there was
unity of authority before it existed in the State."

By the year 1328 the centre of gravity of
the Russian nation and Church was shifted from
Kiev, by way of Vladimir, to Moscow. Gradually,
with the building of Churches, the commence-
ment of the world-renowned Kremlin, the multi-
plication of monasteries and religious houses,
Moscow became the very personification of the
ecclesiastical history of Russia. Even to-day one
will hear the peasants in far-off provinces speak
of " our Holy Mother Moscow." So great is the
affection of the people towards her — and she is
dear to the heart of every Russian — that they
refer to the great highways as " Our dear Mother,

82 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

the great High Road from Riazan, or Koslov,
to Moscow." She has no legends of Apostles
connected with her history; no records of valiant
missionaries as from the banks of the Bosphorous;
nothing save her central position to commend her;
yet she has become the third great religious centre
of Christendom, only being surpassed by Jerusalem
and Rome.

John, Prince of Moscow, persuaded the Metro-
politan Peter to transfer his residence to Moscow,
which from that time became the ecclesiastical
capital of Russia. Peter foresaw the future of
Moscow, and persuaded the prince to commence
the building of the stone Cathedral of Assumption.
" If thou wilt comfort my old age, if thou wilt
build here a temple worthy of the Holy Mother
of God, then shalt thou be more glorious than
all the other princes, and thy posterity shall be-
come great. My bones shall remain in this city,
prelates shall rejoice to dwell in it, and the hands
of its princes shall be upon the necks of our
enemies."

In that same cathedral, where John himself
was buried, and in whose walls are interred the
remains of the Metropolitan, the successors of
John have all been crowned, not only as " Prince
of Moscow " but as " Tsar of all the Russias."

The rise of Moscow signified the gradual con-
solidation of the Russian Empire, the unity of
the Russian peoples, and the strengthening of

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 83

the hold of the Church upon the life of the nation.
Gradually the rulers became the ecclesiastical as
well as the political heads of the Russian Empire.
" He who blasphemes his Maker meets with
forgiveness amongst men, but he who reviles the
Emperor is sure to lose his head."

The Emperor is the " Keeper of the Keys,"
the " Body Servant of God " ; he is the " Holy
Tsar," the " Zembla Bogh " (God on Earth), the
" Pope of the Orthodox," the " Adjuster of the
Earth," the " Peace and Goodwill on Earth."

The Tsar is the first person in the Church,
the Metropolitan of Russia is the seond, and
the monastic orders the third. During this period
of consolidation of State and Church, the Metro-
politans of Russia never rose to any great height
of political importance. They always proved
themselves to be the supporters, and never the
rivals, of the throne.

Two great crises in Russian history occurred
during this second stage in the development of
the Church State, the first, the breaking of the
Tatar dominion, and the second, the final ex-
pulsion of the Poles. Dean Stanley says : " As
the deliverance from the Spanish Armada to the
Church and State of England, so was the deliver-
ance from the Polish yoke to the Church and
State of Russia."

In this terrific struggle it was the Church
which saved the empire, and the monastery of

84 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Sergius which saved them both. Moscow is
crowded with religious memorials of that great
deliverance, the greatest of them all being the
famous " Redeemer's Gate," the chief entrance
to the Kremlin, through which no one, not even
the Emperor himself, will presume to pass with
covered head. Over the gateway is the famous
sacred Icon, which was carried before the victorious
army, and is held in reverence by all the Ortho-
dox until this present day. •

Muravieff, in his History of the Russian Church,
gives us a long list of Metropolitans of the Church
during this period, but none of them were men
of outstanding importance in the ecclesiastical
history of the nation. The chief interest centres
in the struggles with the Tatars and the Poles,
the gradual growth in number and in influence
of the monasteries, and the development of the
Orthodox Church as a purely Russian or national
one.

The rise of the Romanoffs to power in the State,
and the election of Nicon to the Patriarchate of
the Church, indirectly led to the greatest upheaval
in the ecclesiastical history of the nation. Tsar
and Patriarch alike were responsible for the
" Great Schism." Owing to the continuous copying
and recopying of the liturgical books, many in-
accuracies crept into the text. So long as the
books were in manuscript they could be revised
and the scribe held to be responsible, but with

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 85

the introduction of printing the errors became
stereotyped. The Patriarch, noticing the in-
accuracies, decided upon a thorough revision. He
sent to Greece and Constantinople for the original
manuscripts from which the early Russian text
had been translated, and set about a thorough
revision with characteristic Russian energy.

Although the work was necessary, it came
late in the day. The people were wedded to the
version in their hands, and consequently a revolt
set in. Although Nicon was ultimately deposed
from his high office, a Council of the Church
approved of the revised liturgical books, and they
were ordered to be recognised as the official text
of the Church. In addition to the revision of
the text, Nicon also introduced reforms in the
manner of making the sign of the cross, in the
spelling of the name of Jesus, and of saying in
the creed, " The Holy Ghost and Life Giver,"
instead of " True One and Life Giver."

The fall of Nicon directly led to the abolition
of the Patriarchate.

Its abolition was the next step of importance
in the development of the Russian Church.

THE MOST HOLY SYNOD

A TREMENDOUS advance in the internal ad-
ministration of the Church was made when Peter
the Great in 1721 suppressed the Patriarchate,
and in its place instituted the Most Holy Synod,

86 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

which has been from that time the ruling
authority of the Russian Church.

The Holy Synod, whose constitution has
remained unchanged since its formation, consists
of the Metropolitans of Kiev, Moscow, St. Peters-
burg, and the Exarch of Georgia. In addition
to the foregoing the Tsar nominates six Bishops,
his chaplain, the chief chaplain of the forces,
and the Procurator.

The Synod is practically under the authority
of the Procurator, who must always be a layman,
and who acts as an intermediary between the
Tsar and the Synod.

The Synod is not a Council of Deputies
from various sections of the Church, but a per-
manent college or senate, the members of which
are appointed and dismissed by the Tsar. It
has no independent legislative authority, for its
legislative projects do not become law till they
have received Imperial sanction, and they are
always published, not in the name of the Church,
but in the name of the Supreme power. A
Council constituted in this way cannot display
much independence of thought or action. From
the time of Peter, the character of all the
more energetic sovereigns is reflected in the history
of the ecclesiastical administration. The Procurator
is the most important and influential member of
the Synod. He has the control and direction of
all Orthodox ecclesiastical institutes, religious

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 87

seminaries, and schools. He has a seat both in
the Ministerial Council and the Imperial Senate.
In all matters directly or indirectly affecting the
State Church his opinion must be consulted, and
he stands in every respect on the same footing as
the Ministers proper. Pobiedonostseff was the most
famous of all the Procurators. In his Reflections
of a Russian Statesman he states his belief that
" Religion should be used as a weapon to combat
intelligence." As a kind of political confessor,
he was able to see that his programme was carried
out. He established such a tyranny over the
whole Church system as to make it one of the
most powerful engines for the realisation of his
central idea.

He succeeded in instilling into the heir to
the Throne his own belief in the ability of
the Orthodox teachings to direct the destiny of
Russia along the only path which could save land
and people.

He also inoculated his pupil with that intoler-
ance and hate towards Dissenters and Sectarians
which were so characteristic of the later years
of Alexander's reign.

His earnestness, his zeal, his conviction that
Russian Orthodoxy and Russian Autocracy were
called upon to make, not only Russia, but also
the rest of Europe, happy and contented, had a
strong effect upon Alexander III.

At all meetings of the Holy Synod the members

68 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

present take an oath as follows : " I acknowledge
him (the Tsar) to be the supreme Judge in this
spiritual assembly."

From the formation of the Holy Synod until
this present time the Russian Church has remained
stationary in doctrine and practice. There has
been neither development nor growth; her servies
and teaching have become stereotyped.

" The Eastern Church in general, and the
Russian Church in particular, have remained for
centuries in a kind of intellectual torpor. Neither
the Slavonic nor the Russian world will be re-
suscitated so long as the Church remains in such
lifelessness, which is not a matter of chance, but
the legitimate fruit of some organic defect."
— SOLOVYOV, Otcherki iz istorii Russkoi Literaturi.

Every attempt at reform in Church ceremony,
doctrine, or practice has been stubbornly resisted
by the Holy Synod and the Higher Clergy, with
the inevitable result that thousands of " in-
tellectuals " have left the Church, and are openly
or secretly antagonistic to religion, whilst
amongst the peasantry whole villages have become
Sectarian.

" It has often been made matter of reproach
to religion that the most zealous defenders are
not always the best of men. Russia in particular
affords matter in support of this particular
sarcasm. It is there that the most illiterate, the
most degenerate sect of Christianity still sub-

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 89

stitutes dogmas in the place of morals; miracles
instead of reason; the performance of ceremonies
instead of the practice of virtue. The principal
cause of the vices of the people is the immorality
of their religion, and he who considers that in
the Russo-Greek Church are neither sermons nor
exhortations nor catechisms will be at once of
my opinion." — Secret Memoirs of the Court of
Catherine II.

The Russian of the peasant class, being of
an intensely religious nature, is bound in the
order of things to get his religion somehow. The
majority of the people find satisfaction in the
Church ritual and ceremony. They are simply
Orthodox. They have not the slightest idea of
the great fundamental doctrines of Man, God, Sin,
Salvation. To them, to be Orthodox is to be
baptised as an infant; to wear a cross round the
neck, next to the body; to possess a Holy Icon;
to pray to the Virgin and the Saints; to walk in
religious processions ; to go on pilgrimage to some
holy shrine, famous monastery, sacred city, or,
chief est of all, to Jerusalem; not to work on
Saints' Days; to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays
and during Lent ; to go to the bath on Saturdays ;
attend the sacraments; to stand in Church during
the service; to respond to the claims of beggars
(little brothers of Christ); and to venerate bishops
and high ecclesiastical dignitaries.

This is Orthodoxy to the average villager, the

90 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

height and depth, the length and breadth, of the
peasant's religion.

" In Russia the Church has for foundation the
mystical need of man; and for superstructure the
mystical history of mankind, mystically interpreted.
Prince and peasant take their place with equal
convenience there, for they are in the Church by
virtue of their manhood rather than by virtue
of rank. The pity is that the professors in the
Church are often found to be devoid of the instinct
for the safe foundation. A great number are
always to be found taking their stand on the
miraculous, and building the whole edifice of the
Church on materially misunderstood natural facts,
making the aristocracy in the Church into religious
cranks and the peasantry into superstitious clods.
Let it be granted that miracles are possible; but
God is not vulgar. Many Russian abbots would
make of Him a veritable showman. Hence the
discredit which comes down upon the Church.
I think miracle-worship is brought about by a
contempt for the peasantry and a terrible in-
ability on the part of the priests to win God's
personal favour. Obviously, when a priest has
the Grace of God, he needs no miracles to show
forth the Word."

THE SUGGESTED UNION BETWEEN THE

ANGLICAN AND RUSSIAN CHURCHES
ALTHOUGH the negotiations had no effect upon

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 91

the doctrine, polity, or general attitude of the
Orthodox Church, yet it is of interest to notice that
in 1721 Bishop Thebais, visiting the United King-
dom in quest of alms, suggested to the Anglican
Bishops the idea of union between the Established
Church of England and the CEcumenical Church,
and as a result of several conferences he was the
bearer of a letter from England to the Eastern
Church Patriarchs. The inquiries of the British
Bishops respecting certain doctrines and practices
were replied to by a Special Council sitting in
Constantinople, in which they referred to the un-
alterable foundations of the faith of their ancestors,
on which alone the Eastern Church could receive
them into her bosom. In the meantime the
Anglican Bishops, through James of Alexandria,
entered into correspondence with the Holy Synod,
and sent to it their answers to the statement of the
Patriarchal Council, 'with a request that they should
be forwarded to Constantinople.

The Holy Synod, however, detected glaring
heresies in the British document, especially in
reference to the " invocation of saints and the
reverencing of Icons," and in forwarding the papers
to the Council at Constantinople, requested that
they would preserve inviolate the traditional doc-
trines and practices of Orthodoxy, maintaining
that it was impossible either to add anything or
to take away anything from them. The Rev.
R. W. Blackmore, in his Notes, explanatory of

THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Mouravieff's History of the Russian Church, deals
at length with the discussions between the two
Churches. Apparently the British bishops re-
jected two traditional points of Eastern doctrine
— the invocation of saints and the outward
reverencing of Icons.

On the first point, the Bishops argued that
the " worshipping " of angels or saints, according
to the sense and practice of the Eastern Church,
was a deification of creatures, and consequently
a plain heresy and apostasy from the true faith !

On the second, that if the worshipping of
the creatures themselves was unlawful, much more
the worshipping of their pictures or images must
be so; and besides that, it was a direct breach
of the Second Commandment.

Upon these grounds they desired to have a
formal permission from the Synod to reject their
doctrines and usages; and yet at the same time
they signified that the Eastern Church might
continue to worship creatures, and teach idolatry
as before, without in any way thereby disqualify-
ing herself for their communion.

The Patriarchs, however, insisted upon the
doctrine of venerating and invoking the saints as
being primitive and scriptural, and that to re-
ject it was heresy, inconsistent with Catholic
religion.

On these two points, however, there was
certainly no difference in the attitude of the

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH 93

two Churches which would hinder or need have
prevented Union, for the British Bishops most
fully admitted the doctrine of the Intercession
of Saints, and already practised what the Russian
Church demanded. See Cardwell's Conferences,
p. 388, for the following prayer appointed by
the Archbishop of Canterbury :

" We beseech Thee to give us all grace to
remember and provide for our latter end, by a
careful, studious imitation of this Thy blessed
saint and martyr, and all other Thy saints and
martyrs that have gone before us, that we may
be made worthy to receive benefit by their prayers,
which they in common with Thy Church Catholic
offer up unto Thee for that part of it here
militant, and yet in fight with, and in danger
from the flesh." Prayer to be used in all
Churches on the day of King Charles the
Martyr.

On the second point of the Icons, nearly
the same reflections hold good, for the English
Bishops rejected the opinion of the Icono-
clasts, and admitted the use of images and
pictures in the Church, and by no means denied
that they, like all other things connected with
religion, ought to receive a certain respect and
reverence.

The death of Peter the Great brought the
negotiations to an end, and it is useless to con-
jecture what would have been the final outcome

94 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

if the personal conference mooted by him had
been held in Moscow.

Many efforts have been made by Anglicans
for a union between the two Churches, but all
the advances have come from the West. The
Rev. W. Palmer believed that the two Churches
were almost identical in doctrine, and sought
admission into the Orthodox Church, but on being
told that he would have to be baptised by immersion
(the Orthodox Church holds that baptism by
immersion is necessary, and doubts the validity
of any other kind; see Fortescue's Orthodox
Eastern Churcti) he considered that it would be
sacrilege to be rebaptised, and at last entered
the Roman Church and submitted to the authority
of the Pope (see Palmer, Dissertations, pp. 199).

Professor Pares, in Russia and Reform, asserts
that some priests of the Orthodox Church main-
tain that there is but little difference between
the dogmas of the two Churches.

The differences are vital, especially in the
matter of the Sacraments, and there is little
common ground.

The one thing in which they are in entire
agreement is that they are both State Churches,
governed by a lay and political body, although
the authority of the State over the Church is
greater in Russia than in England,

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
HER SACRAMENTS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

ROMANQFF . . Rites and Customs of the Grceco-
Russian Church.

MiCHAELOFFSKY A Short Catechism of the Russian
Church,

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
HER SACRAMENTS.

THE Russian Church is a child of the Greek.
As we have seen, her conversion was
accomplished in the tenth century by
missionaries from Constantinople, and since that
time the Holy Orthodox Church has hardly
changed the rites, ceremonies, and order of the
Sacraments, which were first drawn up by Cyril
and Methodius in the early ninth century for
the use of newly-converted Bulgarians. They
have been scrupulously adhered to by the
authorities of the Church with most conservative
tenacity.

The Russian Church considers that two of
the Sacraments are divinely ordained and " gener-
ally necessary to salvation," whilst of the other
five " ordinances," four they own as sacramental,
though hesitating to class them with the two of
universal application, while the last they claim
has Scriptural authority which cannot be easily
explained away.

Baptism has always held a foremost place in
the ordinances of the Church, and is usually

98 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

(always save in exceptional circumstances) by
immersion.

BAPTISM.

THERE are four distinct ceremonies performed
at a baptismal service, although it appears to be
but one service. These are, first, the Renunciation,
and confession of faith; secondly, the actual
administration of Baptism; thirdly, Baptismal
unction; and fourthly, the washing, with the
cutting off of the hair.

The service opens by the priest, who is not
yet in full canonicals, but is merely wearing his
cope over his ordinary dress, approaching the
child, who is naked, and blowing in its face,
crossing it three times over its brow, lips, and
breast. He then lays his hand on its head,
and reads over it a prayer, followed by
the exorcism of the devil, in which the Evil One,
with all his angels and legions, is commanded
to depart from the child. Another prayer follows,
addressed to the God of Sabaoth to defend him
from all spiritual and bodily harm, and to grant
him the victory over all evil spirits.

The priest then blows on the child's brow,
lips, and breast, saying three times, " May every
evil and unclean spirit that has concealed itself and
taken up its abode in his heart depart from thence."

Questions as to the renunciation of the Devil
and all his works are then put to the sponsors,
and repeated three times. As the questions are

HER SACRAMENTS 99

asked all present turn their backs towards the
East, i.e. they look towards the West, where the
sun sets and from whence no light proceeds, but
on the contrary, darkness and shadows, symbols
of the Prince of Darkness; and on the last answer
being given by the sponsors, " I have renounced
him," the priest says, " Then blow and spit on
him," setting the example himself by blowing and
then spitting at the unseen enemy in token of
horror and hatred of him.

The party then turn toward the Icon, and
the reader repeats the Nicene Creed three times
on their behalf. Before each repetition of the
Nicene Creed the sponsors are asked:
" Have you confessed Christ ? "
" I have confessed Him."
" And dost thou believe in Him ? "
" I believe in Him as King and God."
The priest then says, " Fall down and worship
Him," and the answer is given, " I worship the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Trinity
consubstantial and indivisible," prostrating them-
selves at the same time.

" Blessed be God who desireth the salvation of
all men, and that all may come to the knowledge
of His truth. Now, henceforth, and for ever,
Amen."

The Sacrament of Baptism follows. The priest
puts on his full canonicals, gaudy and sometimes
costly; lighted candles are placed in the hands

100 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

of the sponsors ; the three on the font or baptismal
pool are lighted; incense is waved about; the
deacon chants a litany; the priest whispers a
prayer for himself. Then follows the benediction
of the water, which is performed by the priest's
immersing his right hand in it crosswise three
times, blowing on it, murmuring prayers all the
time, and last of all by making the sign of the
cross on its surface with a little feather dipped
in holy oil. He and his assistants then sing
" Hallelujah ! "

All is symbolical, mystical, and mysterious. The
font is a symbol of Noah's ark; the olive branch
is typified by the olive oil on the water.

The child is then anointed, the olive oil used
being a type of the inner healing of the soul by
by baptism.

The priest anoints the child on the brow,
saying, " The servant of God, A, is anointed with
the oil of gladness. In the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, now,
henceforth, and for ever, Amen"; on the breast,
"for the healing of thy soul and body"; on the
ears, "for the hearing of the Word"; on the
hands, " Thy hands have made me and fashioned
me " ; on the feet, " that his feet may walk in
the way of Thy Commandments."

The priest then rolls up his sleeves well above
the elbows, the assistant holding back the wide
sleeves of the chasuble, and taking the child,

HER SACRAMENTS 101

he stops its ears with his thumb and little finger,
its eyes with the fourth and first fingers of the
right hand, and with the palm covers the mouth
and nostrils; with his left hand he holds the body,
and then rapidly plunges the child face down-
wards three times in the water. Meanwhile during
each immersion the words are repeated, " The
servant of God, A, is baptized in the name of
the Father, Amen; and of the Son, Amen; and
of the Holy Ghost, Amen " ; the immersion taking
place at the mention of the name.

The child is then handed to one of the
sponsors, the priest cleanses his hands by having
water poured over them, and whilst he is drying
them upon the towel he chants the thirty-second
Psalm, " Blessed is he whose sins are covered,"
etc.

The priest then hangs the cross about
the child's neck, saying, " The servant of God,
A, is arrayed in the garments of righteousness."
The little one is then dressed in a white garment
whilst the deacon chants " Grant me a white robe,
and Thou who art clothed with light as with a
garment, most merciful Christ, our God."

Immediately afterwards the Sacrament of
Unction begins.

Q. — " In what does Unction consist ? "

A. — " The baptized person is anointed with
oil, with the mysterious words, ' The seal of the
Gift of the Holy Ghost ' (Shorter Catechism)"

102

The idea of Unction took its origin, pre-
sumably, from the appearance of the Holy Ghost
in the form of a dove after the baptism of our
Lord. " It is not sufficient," says Bishop
Benjamin, in Novoe Skrijal, " for the new be-
liever to be immersed in water; he must be
baptized with the Spirit also." Unction is the
outward and visible sign of the inward and
spiritual grace conferred by the " laying on of
hands."

The service begins with the prayer:

" Blessed art Thou, O Lord God Almighty,
the Fountain of Goodness, the Sun of Righteous-
ness, shining on such as are in darkness with
the light of Salvation, by the coming of Thy
only begotten Son our Lord; and granting to
us Thy unworthy servants purification by holy
water, and Divine sanctification by Unction;
and who hast mercifully admitted this thy servant
to regeneration by water and the Spirit, and
granted him remission of his voluntary and in-
voluntary sins; grant him, O Lord and merci-
ful King, the seal of the gift of Thy all powerful
and adorable Spirit — the communion of Christ's
holy body and blood. Preserve him in Thy holi-
ness, strengthen him in the faith of the Orthodox
Church, deliver him from the Evil One and all
his snares, and keep him by Thy saving fear in
purity and righteousness of spirit, that by every
deed and word he may be acceptable to Thee,

HER SACRAMENTS 103

and become Thy child and the heritor of Thy
Kingdom. For Thou art our God, the God of
mercy and salvation, and to Thee be glory, to
the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Ghost, now, henceforth, and for ever. Amen."

The priest then makes the sign of the Cross
with the feather, dipped in a tiny bottle of holy
oil, on the brow, eyefe, nostrils, ears, lips, breast,
hands, and feet, each time with the words, " The
Seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost."

The priest, followed by the sponsors and
friends, then marches around the font, chanting
with the deacons and reader, " As many of us
as have been baptized with Christ have put on
Christ. Hallelujah ! "

The Sacrament of Unction concludes with the
Litany for the Tsar, the Imperial Family, the
baptised, and the sponsors.

The shaving of the hair follows, the theory
being that as the child has nothing of his own
to give, the first " sacrifice " to God is made by
the cutting of the hair. Two prayers are recited,
after which the priest takes a small wet sponge,
and wipes the anointed places, saying, " Thou
art baptized, thou art sanctified, thou art anointed
with oil, thou art purified, thou art washed, in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost. Amen."

The hair is cut in four different places with
a small pair of scissors, making the form of a

104 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

cross, the priest saying, meanwhile, " The servant
of God, A, is shorn in the name of the Father,"
etc.

The sponsors collect the hair, press it, with
wax from a candle, into a pellet, and throw it
into the water in which the child has been bap-
tised. If the pellet sinks, it is an omen that
the child will not live long. Water and pellet
are then thrown into a place where no impurity
can reach it and no foot tread upon it. The
whole service concludes with the same Litany,
chanted after the Sacrament of Unction, the child
is handed over to the parents, the fee is paid, and
all adjourn to drink the baby's health, priest in-
cluded.

At times, especially market-days, the priest
will have thirty or forty babies to baptise at one
time, and not infrequently all the boys will be
given one name, and all the girls treated alike,
irrespective of the wishes of the parents. Where
there are so many to deal with it saves time and
confusion only to have one name to remember
and deal with.

Baptism by the laity is permissible in cases
where the child is not likely to live until the
arrival of a priest or other qualified person.

CONFESSION AND COMMUNION

THE rite of Confirmation is not observed in the
Holy Orthodox Church. There is no long period

HER SACRAMENTS 105

of waiting years between Baptism and Com-
munion. Each baptised child receives the Com-
munion about twice a year, generally at Easter-
tide and on its saint's day, whilst amongst the
peasantry, the little ones are taken to the Com-
munion and partake of the bread and wine when-
ever they are ill. To the illiterate peasant there
is something magical in the " elements."

Confession usually takes place on Fridays,
after Vespers. The penitent goes behind a screen,
placed for the time in a corner of the Church.
The priest awaits them, and on a cushion lie
the Gospels and the Cross. The priest then
addresses the penitent :

" Behold, my child, Christ stands here in-
visibly to receive thy confession. Be not ashamed,
nor afraid, and conceal nothing from me — but
without hesitation tell me what thou hast done,
and receive absolution from Jesus Christ. Be-
hold His picture (Icon) before us ! I am only a
witness, and certify before Him all that thou
tellest me; if therefore, thou concealest anything
from me, thou wilt be doubly sinful. Mark well,
therefore, that thou leave not this ghostly hospital
without receiving the healing that thou requirest."

The priest then puts " leading " questions to
the penitent, and answers are given to them — " I
have sinned " or " I have not sinned." The priests
vary in their questions according to their own
temperament and judgment of what is sin.

106

Full confession having been made, the
penitent prostrates himself or herself before the
priest, who lays his hand on his head and pro-
nounces the absolution:

" Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace and
bounty of His love to all mankind, pardon thee,
A, all thy sins; and I, unworthy priest that I
am, by the power given to me, do forgive and
absolve thee from all thy sins in the name of the
Father, and of the Son,, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen."

The penitent is then "signed" with the
Cross, and on rising from his knees kisses the
Cross. He leaves a candle and a fee for the grace
received.

A list of crimes and misdemeanours, 115 in
all, are published in the Ritual Service Book,
with the nature and extent of penances attached
to each.

It is usual after Confession to abstain from all
food and drink until the time for Communion.
The communicants assemble in the Church and
repeat after the priest the Articles of Belief:

" I believe, Lord, and confess, that Thou in-
deed art Christ, the Son of the Living God, who
earnest into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief. I also believe that this is indeed Thy
most pure body, and this Thy holy blood. I
therefore pray Thee to have mercy on me and
to forgive me all my sins, voluntary and in-

HER SACRAMENTS 107

voluntary, by word, by deed, by knowledge or
ignorance, and grant me worthily and blamelessly
to partake of Thy most pure Sacrament, for the
remission of sins and for life everlasting. Receive
me this day, O Son of God, as a partaker of
Thy Last Supper. For not as a secret enemy
I approach, not with the kiss of Judas, but like
the thief I confess Thee, ' Lord, remember me in
Thy Kingdom.' And may the Communion of Thy
Holy Sacrament be not to my judgment and con-
demnation, but to the healing of my soul and
body. Amen."

The priest takes a portion of the bread, which
is cut into small pieces and soaked with wine,
in the spoon, with a little wine, and puts it into
the mouth of the communicant, saying, " The
servant of God, A, communicates in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Amen." Meanwhile the choir continually,
by many repetitions, chants : " Receive ye the Body
of Christ; taste ye the fount of everlasting life."

The deacon holds a silk handkerchief under
the chin of the communicant to prevent the pos-
sibility of a drop falling to the ground, and wipes
it with his lips afterwards.

The communicant kisses the edge of the cup,
crosses himself, and moves to a little table, where
he places his fee, and then, kneeling before an
Icon, continues in private prayer until the service
is over. Sometimes after the final Liturgy the

108 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

priest presents the Cross to be kissed by the
devout and faithful Orthodox.

Usually the peasants go to Confession and
Communion once a year; during Lent, some go
twice; whilst those in Government employ —
soldiers, sailors, workmen, scholars, officials— are
sent or brought to Communion once a year, unless
a professed member of a " foreign " religion.

ORDINATION

PRIESTS of the Russian Church are usually re-
cruited from the sons of priests, free education
in the Bishop's seminaries for sons of priests being
one of the chief factors governing the selection of
a vocation for the lad. After finishing his course
the youth is first ordained reader. As a reader
he is not considered to be an ordained minister.
He is blessed by the Bishop, has his hair cut,
as in the ceremony described in connection
with baptism, and is allowed to wear the first
of the canonicals, an alb, denied to the uncon-
secrated lay-reader.

The next step is that of sub-deacon, when
the candidate dons the scarf over his reader's
alb. The ceremony takes place in the Church,
and as the extra canonical garment is donned
the Bishop says in a loud voice, " He is worthy,"
and the cry is repeated by the assembled clergy
and choir,

HER SACRAMENTS 109

As a full deacon the candidate receives the
cuffs and a priest the vestment and stole.

Usually a deacon is ordained after the Com-
munion service, showing that he is not indis-
pensable to the administration of the ordinance.

Before the end of the service the candidate is
led to the altar by two sub-deacons, and he is
handed over to the full deacon, who speaks to the
people the word " permit," i.e., he asks their con-
sent to the ordination of the candidate. The
question is then put to the clergy, asking their per-
mission to his entering the holy office, and finally
to the Bishop, thus asking for his blessing. The
whole of the clergy then pass in procession three
times around the altar, the candidate kissing the
corners of the throne each time, saying : " O God
of Holiness, God of Strength, God of Immortality,
have mercy on us." He then kisses the Bishop's
staff and hand, the choir meanwhile chanting a
psalm. The candidate then kneels down upon
the right knee only, places his hands, crossed, on
the throne, with his forehead between them, and
whilst in this position the Bishop lays his hand
upon him, pronounces the blessing, and the choir
sing the Kyrie Eleison, those on the right hand
in Russian, those on the left in Greek.

After prayers, read by the Bishop, he hands
to the newly-ordained one the canonicals, one by
one, accompanying each with the word Axios
(" He is worthy ").

110 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

The deacon then kisses all his brethren, and
is kissed by them, and he immediately enters upon
his new duties.

The ordination of a priest follows the same
order, save that it takes place earlier in the service,
and the candidate kneels upon both knees, and
at the conclusion the Bishop hands to him a
missal, giving directions for the performance of
Mass, Matins, and Vespers.

The prayer to be read at the end of the
Liturgy is always said by the new priest, and he
prays for his flock over whom he is to have
charge, seeking for blessings upon them in this
world and the next.

The consecration of a Bishop, Abbot, or other
Church dignitary follows the same order, and they
are robed in their canonicals in the Church, as
with their brethren in lesser office.

MARRIAGE

AN Orthodox Russian cannot marry an unbaptised
person. Marriages with foreigners or persons of
other forms of Christian religion are lawful, but
the unorthodox party must bind himself, or her-
self, in writing, not to make objections to the
baptism of any of their children in the Holy
Orthodox Church. With the increase of inter-
communication with other countries, this rule has
been considerably relaxed of recent years, especially
in the large cities, where many foreigners reside,

HER SACRAMENTS 111

Marriages cannot take place during the Fasts
prescribed by the Church, nor on Tuesdays,
Thursdays, and Saturdays. Banns are published
by the priest for three Sundays or holidays before
the actual wedding-day. The bride, bridegroom,
and witnesses sign the book before the actual
ceremony takes place.

On the arrival of the bridal party at the
Church, the choir sing, the " Royal " gates are
opened, the young couple prostrate themselves
three times, the whole party cross themselves,
and the priest, in full canonicals, makes the
sign of the cross over their heads while they
bow before him. Two wax candles, ornamented
with flowers and ribbons, are then lighted by the
priests and placed in their hands. The boys, or
servers, sway the incense, and the service commences.

After the Litany and prayers, the priest goes
to the altar, and brings two plain gold rings,
previously handed to him, and, taking one in
his right hand, makes the sign of the cross over
the bridegroom's head with it, saying:

" The servant of God, A, betroths himself
to the servant of God, B, in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen."

The ring is then handed by the priest to
the bridegroom. The same formula is used in
connection with the bride, with the change of
names only.

8

112 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

The rings are then exchanged three times,
signifying that their future joys, cares, intentions,
and actions should be mutual.

A prayer follows, seeking God's blessing, and
the Litany for the Tsar and Royal family.

Then comes the Sacrament of Marriage, or,
in the Russian, the " Crowning."

A silk handkerchief is spread before the
reading-desk, and the betrothed step upon it, at
the invitation of the priest. There is a popular
superstition that whichever steps first upon the
handkerchief will be head of the house.

The priest chants the one hundred and
twenty-eighth Psalm, whilst the choir between each
verse sing, " Glory be to Thee, O God, Glory be
to Thee."

An awkward question is then put to the
betrothed by the priest : " Have you ever
promised yourself to another ? " but the answer is
printed in the service-book : " I have not promised
myself, honourable Father."

After prayers the reader appears with a salver,
upon which are two gaudy crowns, usually of
plated silver, ornamented with medallions of
Christ, the Virgin, and favourite saints.

The priest takes one crown in his hands, makes
the sign of the Cross, with the crown, over the
head of the bridegroom, saying : " The servant
of God, A, is crowned with the handmaid of God,
B, in the name of the Father, and of the Son,

HER SACRAMENTS 113

and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." The medallion
of our Lord is then kissed by the bridegroom
and the crown is placed on his head.

The same ceremony is gone through for the
bride, with the necessary change of names. The
priest then repeats three times, " O Lord our
God, crown them with glory and honour," each
time signing the bride and bridegroom with the
sign of the Cross.

Afterwards the fifth chapter of the Epistle to
the Ephesians is read, special emphasis being
placed upon the last verse, " Let the wife see
that she reverence her husband." More prayers
and litanies follow, and the betrothed sip three
times from the Common Cup a mixture of wine
and water, reminiscent of Cana of Galilee. The
priest then joins their hands, and they walk around
the reading-desk three times, while the choir,
sings.

The ceremony can be lawfully interrupted at
any stage of the proceedings until the procession
takes place.

The following address is then read :

" Be thou exalted, O bridegroom, like unto
Abraham, and blessed like unto Isaac, and multi-
plied like unto Jacob. Walk in peace, and do
rightly according to the commandments of God."

The crowns are then removed, and turning
to the bride the priest says, " And thou, O bride,
be thou exalted like unto Sarah, and rejoice like

114 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

unto Rebecca, and multiply like unto Rachel.
Rejoice with thy husband, and keep the ways
of the Law, as is well pleasing to God."

A short prayer follows :

" O God, our God, who earnest to Cana of
Galilee and blessed the marriage there, bless these
Thy servants who have now united themselves
in holy matrimony according to Thine ordinance.
Bless Thou their goings out and their comings
in, prolong their days in goodness, record their
union in Thy kingdom, that it may remain pure,
undefiled, and unslandered for ever and ever.
Amen."

The husband and wife are then requested
to kiss each other three times, and the benediction
concludes the Sacrament. The party, led by the
newly-married ones, then kiss the Icons, and general
congratulations from friends are the order of the
day.

EXTREME UNCTION

THE Sacrament of Extreme Unction is ad-
ministered to adults only, to the dangerously sick
who are in full possession of their senses, who
are admitted subsequently to Communion of the
Sick and its indispensable preparation by Con-
fession.

It ought to be performed by seven priests,
but in many places, and by far the larger number
in Russia, one priest can perform it. Persons in

HER SACRAMENTS 115

good health are not eligible for the Sacrament,
even if about to be exposed to great danger.
Persons of other religions may be anointed with
Extreme Unction if baptised and previously
anointed with " The Seal of the Holy Ghost,"
according to the Office of Conversion.

When Extreme Unction is decided on, notice
is given to the priest or priests and to such
of the relatives as are likely to come and join
in the prayers of the family. Strangers will some-
times come in uninvited : they consider their
presence as a Christian duty. Occasionally, in
such cases as consumption, the Sacrament will be
performed in the Church, with more elaborate
ceremonies than is possible in a private house.

In the house, a table, covered with a clean
white cloth, is placed in close proximity to the
Icon; a few wheat and grains or a dish of flour
is on the table; in the dish a small empty wine-
glass is placed. Round this are seven little pointed
sticks, in honour of the seven gifts of the Holy
Spirit; on the top of each a morsel of cotton-
wool. The priest pours a little olive-oil, mixed
with wine, in remembrance of the Good Samaritan,
into the wine-glass, and lighted candles are handed
to every person in the room, including the other
priests, if any. The incense is then lighted and
waved about and around the table and towards the
people. With face towards the Icon, the priest
commences the service.

116

There are long prayers, litanies, psalms, and
afterwards the benediction of the oil. The prayer
of benediction is as follows : " O Lord, who by
Thy grace and bounty dost heal the infirmities
of both our souls and bodies, sanctify this oil
to the healing of him who is to be anointed there-
with, to the laying low of all passions and im-
purities of the flesh and spirit, and of all other
evil, that by him Thy most holy name may be
glorified — the name of the Father, and the name
of the Son, and the name of the Holy Ghost.
Amen."

The deacon reads James v. 10-16, and the
chief priest present reads Luke x. 25, the story
of the Good Samaritan.

Several prayers and a litany follow. When
the last prayer is read the priest takes one of the
little sticks, and dipping the end, wound with
cotton wool, in the oil, anoints the sick person
with it, using the sign of the cross, on his fore-
head, nostrils, cheeks, lips, breast, and hands, while
he reads a prayer for his recovery, the patient
devoutly crossing himself.

" O Holy Father, the Physician of our souls
and bodies, who sent Thine only-begotten Son
our Lord Jesus Christ to heal our sicknesses, and
to save us from death, heal also this Thy Servant,
A, of all his spiritual and bodily infirmities."

This is done seven times, and each time a
fresh stick is used, and if possible by a fresh

HER SACRAMENTS 117

priest, if there are seven present, and by turns
if only two or three.

Then follows seven readings from the Gospels
and epistles by separate priests or in turns, each
reading a different prayer after each reading of
the Gospel.

The Testament is then held open over the
head of the sick person by each priest present,
whilst the senior in age or place reads a prayer.

The service concludes by the patient asking
for a blessing and the personal forgiveness of the
priest, and then individually of all present.

Then follows the Communion Service, pre-
ceded by a commendatory prayer for a sick
person at the point of departure, called, " A form
of prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ and to the
most pure Mother of our Lord, at the separation of
the soul and body of every Orthodox believer."

When the end is nearing, an Icon is placed at
the head of the bed, or on the bench in a peasant's
house, and a lighted candle is placed before it.

EASTER IN RUSSIA

WHILST the Sacraments touch the Russian
peasant at certain great moments in life, such
as baptism, marriage, and death, there are many
festivals connected with the Church which affect
him in the ordinary round of the year. The
greatest of these is, without doubt, the Easter
service.

fc8 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Orthodox Russia for weeks has been preparing
for the great day. The whole country has been
apparently fasting during the long weeks of Lent;
the majority have been religiously denying them-
selves of meat, and the men have even gone so
far as to abstain from their beloved vodka. Easter
Eve arrives, and after midnight the faithful are
to be released from their long penance, every-
body in the village, save a few young, sleepy
children and the Sectarians at the other end of the
village street, sits up quietly waiting whilst the
' pope ' burns incense and chants prayers before
the Icons and the altar. Just before midnight
almost everybody, at least, those who have any
pretensions to Orthodoxy, gather in the dimly-
lighted Church whilst the priest drones on, " Lord
have mercy, Lord have mercy."

Just on the stroke of midnight, the Church
crowded with peasants of both sexes, the priest,
in an ecstasy of emotion, cries with a loud voice,
" Christ is risen, Christ is risen," and the whole
company take up the refrain, " Christ is risen,"
men and women saluting one another with the holy
kiss, repeating meanwhile, " Christ is risen."

Outside the Church, those who have failed
to find room within take up the cry, and from
lip to lip the glad message flies, " Christ is risen."
Some of the more daring spirits, or perhaps the
less religiously inclined, begin to beat all manner
of iron kitchen utensils until the din is terrific.

HER SACRAMENTS il9

Gradually the Orthodox scatter and wend their
way home, there to break the long fast by con-
suming an extraordinary variety of viands in
immoderate quantities. By sunrise there will be
few sober men in the place, vodka will have
claimed its victims, and the men will be found
in varying degrees of intoxication. To celebrate
the dawn of the great Christian festival and the
close of the longest fast in the Church year by
getting thoroughly drunk, is a peculiarly Slavonic
ideal -of happiness.

The following day, Easter festivities will
begin in earnest. Youths and maidens, decked
in their " best," will promenade the village street,
and a man, frequently a time-expired soldier,
will play an accordion, the favourite musical in-
strument, whilst several couples will stiffly and
solemnly dance the simple village dances.

The interior of the houses are bright with an
unwonted cleanliness; the walls have been white-
washed, and festooned with branches of fir-trees.

Easter cakes, baked specially for the occasion,
are to be found in almost every house, for the
entertainment of the visitor, chance or expected.
A portion of the Easter cake is commonly sent
to the village priest by way of an Easter offering.

During the day, companies of peasants will
parade the streets, carrying Icons, chanting
psalms, marching with uncovered heads. Church
bells will be clanging all day. A service will be

120 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

held in the Church and at the close all will
sing the national hymn, " Long life to the Tsar " ;
the " pope " will bless the ewer of water and
will sprinkle it over the people inside the Church,
and if there should be a waiting crowd outside,
and there usually is, he will go on to the steps
of the building and spray some over the waiting
throng.

All over Russia, wherever the " Great White
Tsar " holds sway, the same service will be per-
formed at the same hour, thus making for the
religious unity of the many diverse nations in
modern Russia.

ON BEING RECEIVED INTO THE HOLY
ORTHODOX CHURCH FROM

ANOTHER BODY

ADMISSION to the Holy Orthodox Church is only
permitted to those who have previously received
the Sacrament of Unction, the third part of the
ceremony of Baptism. The form of the words
used preparatory to the ceremony of Unction are
as follows :

.Q — " Wilt thou renounce the errors of the
- Church and its falsities ? "
A.— "I will."

The deacon then intones, " Let us pray to
God," whilst the choir respond, " Lord, have mercy
upon us."

Priest. — " For Thy name's sake, O Lord God

of Truth, and that of Thine only Son and the
Holy Spirit, look down on Thy servant, now
desirous of being worthy of reception into Thy
Holy Orthodox Church and of the shelter of her
wings. Deliver him from all his former errors,
and fill him with true faith, hope, and charity;
grant that he may walk in the way of Thy Holy
Commandments, and do that which shall please
Thee, which if a man does them, he shall live
by them. Write his name in Thy Book of Life;
unite him to the fold of Thy heritage, that in it
he may glorify Thy Holy Name, and that of Thy
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Life-giving
Spirit. And may Thine eyes look graciously upon
him for ever, and be Thine ears open to his
prayers; make him to rejoice in the work of
his hands, and in the confession and praise of
Thy High and Holy Name, and that he may
glorify Thee all the days of his life."

The candidate is then ordered to turn to
the West and sincerely and whole-heartedly to
renounce all former errors of doctrine and to
confess the true Orthodox faith.

Q. — " Dost thou renounce all the errors of
thy former faith? and dost thou reject all that
is contrary to God and to His truth, and that
is damnable to the soul?"

A. — ".I renounce all my former errors, and
reject all that is contrary to God and His truth,
and that is damnable to the soul?"

122 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Q. — " Dost thou renounce all convocations,
traditions, and statutes, and all (here name of
Church) teachers and their teachings, which are
contrary to the Holy Orthodox Church? and dost
thou reject them?"

A. — " I renounce and reject them."

Q. — " Dost thou renounce all ancient and
modern heresies and heretics, which are contrary
to God? dost thou reject them and condemn
them to anathema?"

A. — " All ancient and modern heresies," etc.

The candidate then turns to the East.

Q. — " Hast thou renounced all errors of (here
name of Church) ? "

A. — " I have renounced them."

.Q — " Dost thou desire to unite thyself to
the Holy Orthodox Church ? "

A.— " I desire it with my whole heart."

Q. — " Dost thou believe in one God, who
is worshipped and glorified in the Holy Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? and dost thou
worship Him as thy God and King ? "

A. — " I believe," etc.

Then, after prostration, the convert repeats
the Nicene Creed.

Priest. — " Blessed be our God, who lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. Repeat to
us the dogmas, traditions, and ordinances of the
Orthodox Church, which thou holdest."

A. — " The Apostolic and ecclesiastical or-

HER SACRAMENTS 123

dinances which were established at the Seven
Councils and the rest of the Russian traditions,
statutes, and rules, I accept and confess; also
the holy writings and the prayers that the Holy
Orthodox Church has acknowledged and acknow-
ledges, I accept and acknowledge.

" I believe and confess that the seven Sacra-
ments of the New Testament — to wit, Baptism,
Unction, Communion, Confession, Ordination,
Marriage, and Extreme Unction — were instituted
by Jesus Christ and His Church, as the means
of receiving the grace and influence that they
convey.

" I believe and confess, that in the Divine Mass
the true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
is verily received in the form of Bread and Wine,
for the remission of sins, and for the obtaining
of eternal life.

" I believe and confess, according to the under-
standing of the Holy Orthodox Church, that the
Saints in Christ who reign in heaven are worthy
to be honoured and invoked, and that their
prayers and intercessions move the All-Merciful
God to the Salvation of our souls. Also, that
to venerate their incorruptible relics, as also the
previous virtues of their remains, is well pleasing
to God.

" I admit that the Icons of Christ our Saviour,
of the Holy Virgin, and of other Saints, are worthy
to have and to honour, n.ot for the purpose of

124 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

worship, but that by having them before our
eyes we may be encouraged to devotion, and to
the imitation of the deeds of the Righteous Ones
represented by the Icons.

" I confess that the prayers of faith addressed
to God are accepted favourably by the mercy of
God.

" I believe and confess that power is given to
the Church by Christ our Saviour, to bind and
to loose; and that what is bound or loosed by
that power on earth, shall be bound or loosed
in heaven.

" I believe and confess that the Foundation,
Head, and Supreme Pastor and Bishop of the
Holy Orthodox Church is our Lord Jesus Christ;
and that from Him all Bishops, Pastors, and
teachers are ordained ; and that the Ruler and
Governor of the said Church is the Holy Ghost.

' That this Church is the Bride of Christ, I
also confess; and that in her is true salvation to
be found, and that no one can possibly be saved
in any other except her, I believe.

" To the Holy Synod directing, as to the
Pastors of the Russian Church, and to the Priests
by them ordained, I promise to observe sincere
obedience, even to the end of my days.

Priest. — " Enter thou into the Church, leav-
ing all thy former errors far behind thee; examine
thyself, that thou free thyself from the nets of
death and eternal misery; reject from this time,

HER SACRAMENTS 125

all the errors and false teachings which thou heldest
hitherto; honour the Lord God our Father
Almighty, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy
Spirit, the one true and living God, in the Holy
Indivisible and Consubstantial Trinity."

The choir chants the sixty-seventh Psalm, and
the novice prostrates himself before the Gospels
whilst the priest reads a short litany, the choir
chanting, " Lord, have mercy on us " between
each sentence.

P. — " Send down Thy Holy Spirit, and the
face of the earth shall be renewed."

Choir. — " Lord have mercy on us."

P. — " Turn Thee, O Lord, and be gracious to
the words of Thy servant." " The crooked shall
be made straight, and the rough places plain."
" Lord, save Thy servant, who putteth his trust
in Thee." " Be Thou to him a strong tower from
the face of the enemy." " The enemy shall not
come nigh unto him, neither the son of perdition
harm him." " Lord, hear my prayer, and let
my crying come unto Thee."

The priest then says :

" Rise, and stand firm; stand in fear."

The novice rises and says :

" This true Orthodox Russian Faith, which
I now of my own free will confess and sincerely
hold, I will confess and hold, with the help of
God, whole and undefiled to my latest breath, and
will teach and inculcate the same as much as lies

126 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

in my power; all its rules I will strivingly and
joyfully perform, and will endeavour to keep my
heart in virtue and innocence; and in token of
this, my true and sincere confession, I kiss the
Word and the Cross of my Saviour." The Gospel
and Cross are then kissed.

Then follows confession, the novice prostrated
with forehead on ground.

Priest. — " Bow thy knees before the Lord
God whom thou hast confessed, and received abso-
lution of thy sins."
then:

" Rise, and as a faithful servant of Jesus
Christ, pray to Him with us, that thou mayest
be worthy to receive, through the Unction of
Holy Oil, the grace of the Holy Spirit."

The Sacrament of Unction, slightly altered
from that used at the Baptism of an infant, then
commences. The oil used is manufactured in Kiev
and St. Petersburg alone, and is blessed by the
Metropolitan. The service proceeds as in the case
of a child, to its conclusion, certain words only
being altered to suit the different circumstances
of the candidate.

Communion follows the Unction, and the
novice is a novice no longer, but a fully-qualified
member of the Holy Orthodox Church.

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
HER PRIESTHOOD.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

ROMANOFF . . Rites and Customs of the Gtceco-

Russian Church.

MURAVIEFF . . History of the Russian Church.

WALLACE . . Russia.

BARING . . . The Russian People.

OETTINGEN . . Memories of a Village Priest.

LAN IN . . . Russian Characteristics.

TiKHOMlROF . Russia : Social and Political.

LATIMER . . Under Three Tsars.

WALLING . . Russia's Message.

PRIESTS AND CLERGY

ON MAKING EVERY DAY SACRAMENTAL.

" On rising from your bed, say : In the Name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, I begin this new day. When I awake
I am still with Thee ; and I shall be satisfied when I awake with
Thy righteousness, and with Thy whole image. While washing,
say : Purge me from the sins of the night, and I shall be clean.
Wash Thou me, and I shall be whiter than snow. When putting
on your clean linen, say : Create in me a clean heart, O Lord,
and clothe me with the fine linen, which is the righteousness of
the saints. When you break your fast, think of the length of
Christ's fast, and in His Name eat your morning meal with
gladness of heart. Drinking water, or tea, or sweet mead, think
of the true quenchings of the thirst of the heart. If you wish to
walk or drive, or go in a boat somewhere, first pray to the Lord
to keep this your going out and coming in. If you see and hear
a storm, think of the sea of passions in your own and in other
men's hearts. And every day, in every place, work at the new
creation which you yourselves are. Working with all your
might at your proper and peculiar calling — work out your own
salvation in every part of every day."

FATHER JOHN OF CRONSTADT. My Life in Christ.

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
HER PRIESTHOOD.

NO account of the place and power
of the Holy Orthodox Church can
possibly be complete without atten-
tion being directed to the priests and clergy.
The Russian priests are divided into two
classes, called the "Black" or regular clergy
(monks) and the " White " or parish priests. The
" Black " priests are recruited from amongst men
who have heard a " call " to service, and from
the " White " clergy, who, having been widowed,
or whose wives having retired into a convent, have
entered a monastery to finish their days. The
Bishops are always selected from the " Black "
clergy, or monks, who form a large and in-
fluential class. The monks who first settled in
Russia were, like those who first visited North
Western Europe, men of the earnest, ascetic, mis-
sionary type. Filled with zeal for the glory of
God and the salvation of souls, they took little
or no thought for the morrow, and devoutly be-
lieved that their heavenly Father would pro-
vide for their humble wants. These monks main-

139

130 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

tained a constant standard of effort, a tradition of
a better world worth trying for, a tradition which
has never been wholly or even generally lost.
The instinct of reverence for that real sanctity
which illumined their lives passed as a permanent
heritage into princes and people. Amongst the
people there are and always have been men and
women who, without seeking any kind of ordina-
tion and without ever thinking of separating them-
selves from the Orthodox Church, have set them-
selves to do some difficult exploit for their special
salvation. Such persons ordinarily court no special
attention. One may go barefooted and wear heavy
chains beneath his clothes. The Russian word
for such exploits may be translated " moving on-
wards." It is a gospel of effort. Many will walk
the whole length and breadth of Russia in their
attempt to earn salvation. The monks, poor, clad
ofttimes in rags, eating the most simple fare, and
ever ready to share what they had with any one
poorer than themselves, performed faithfully and
earnestly the work which their Master had given
them to do. But this ideal of monastic life soon
gave way in Russia, as in the West, to practices
less simple and austere. By the liberal donations
and bequests of the faithful, and the grants of
lands by princes and boyars, the monasteries be-
came rich in gold, in silver, in precious stones,
and above all, in land and serfs. The Troitza
Lavra, for instance, possessed at one time more

131

than 120,000 serfs and a proportionate amount
of land; at one period in the history of Russia
more than a fourth part of the entire population
had fallen under the jurisdiction of the monas-
teries.

During the eighteenth century, the Church
lands were secularised, and the serfs of the Church
became the serfs of the State. On the establish-
ment of the Holy Synod, the management of the
monastic property was taken away from the juris-
diction of the Monastery Court, and placed under
the superintendence of the spiritual authorities.
A special department was formed, under the
Synod, called the " Kammer-Kontora," composed
exclusively of the laity, for the purpose of look-
ing after the collection and proper expenditure
of the revenues derived from the estates belonging
to the monasteries, some part of which was used
for the upkeep of the monasteries and the main-
tenance of the clergy, and the balance to support
schools and hospitals.

Peter the Great entertained the idea of fusing
the property of the monasteries with that of the
State, and of setting aside a fixed sum for the
clergy, but his death interfered with this design.
However, under Catherine II., most of his ideas
were adopted and fulfilled. This was a severe
blow to the monasteries, but it did not prove
fatal, as many predicted. At present there are
about five hundred monastic establishments. For

132 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

the full account of the steps taken for the secularis-
ing of the property of the monasteries the reader
is referred to Oustreloff's History, vol. iii.

As in Europe, so in Russia, the story of the
monasteries and monastic life falls into three
chapters or stages.

First. — Asceticism and missionary zeal and
enterprise.

Second. — Wealth, luxury, corruption, and the
loss of ideals.

Third. — Secularisation of property and con-
sequent decline.

In Western Europe, time and again, some
earnest and zealous monk has arisen, who, by the
founding of new orders, has sought to revive
the primitive monastic spirit and to lead his fol-
lowers to the simplicity of the early days. No
such movement, however, has ever taken place
in Russia in connection with the " Black " clergy.
They have never deviated from the rule of St.
Basil, which restricts the members to religious
ceremonies, prayer, and meditation. During the
closing years of the last century there have cer-
tainly been reforms, but they have all come from
the civil authorities, imposed from without, and
never from within the monasteries themselves.
The monks, in their dislike of change,
simply cling to the traditional spirit of the
Church to which they belong; anything in the
nature of religious revival is foreign to her

HER PRIESTHOOD 133

traditions and character; she prides herself upon
being above terrestrial influences.

Our concern here, however, is mainly with
the " White " clergy or parish priests, who,
being in close touch with the peasantry, have
far more influence than the " Black " upon the
" Soul of Russia." " Like priest, like people."

The Russian " White " clergy have had a
curious history. In earlier days they were drawn
from all classes of the population and freely
elected by the parishioners. When a man was
elected by the popular vote, he was presented
to the Bishop, and if he was found to be a
fit and proper person for the office, he was at
once ordained ; but this custom has fallen into disuse.

The Bishops, finding that many of the can-
didates thus presented were illiterate peasants,
gradually assumed the prerogative of appointing
the priests, with or without the consent of the
parishioners, and their choice generally fell upon
the sons of priests as the ones best fitted to take
sacred orders.

The subsequent creation of Bishops' schools,
for the education of the sons of the clergy natur-
ally led, in the course of time, to the total ex-
clusion of all other classes from the priesthood;
thus the " White " clergy became a distinct and
separate class or caste, legally and actually in-
capable of mingling with the other classes of the
population. The fact that the clergy became an

134 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

exclusive caste, " a Levitical priesthood," had a
prejudicial effect upon their character, their habits,
their outlook upon life, and their ideals.

The tendency to become a priestly caste was
greatly strengthened by the intermarriage of
priests with priests' daughters, the living fre-
quently passing from the father-in-law to the son-
in-law. In many cases the paternal and maternal
ancestry for many generations belonged to the
priestly caste. Until very recent years a wife
would be found for the priest by the Bishop of a
diocese, always a priest's daughter, the condition
attaching to the union being that the bridegroom
should inherit the living; sometimes his thus
marrying meant that for years he would have to
support his mother-in-law (the widow of the
previous holder of the benefice) and her daughters.
Romanoff, in his Rites and Customs of the Graeco-
Russian Church, draws a picture of the young
graduate from the seminary going the round of
a number of parishes with a view to his selecting
a bride and securing a living. The " deacon "
cannot be "priested" until he marries; in the
event of his wife dying, he is forbidden to marry
again (" the Bishop must be the husband of only
one wife "), and he usually retires to a monastery
and therefore becomes eligible for the higher
ecclesiastical offices. As a married man and parish
priest he cannot rise higher than the equivalent
of a rural dean.

HER PRIESTHOOD 135

Added to the " caste " system, another cramp-
ing influence upon the priest is that at a very early
age he is taken from home, removed from the
general life of the village or town, educated in
a special seminary for priests' sons, having for
his companions boys from homes exactly similar
to his own and reared in the same atmosphere,
and, above all, the instruction is of a very
limited character, the chief subject being the
mastery of the old or sacred Slavonic books.

In our estimate of the Russian priesthood of
the present day we must remember the severe
school through which it has passed, and also con-
sider the spirit which has been for centuries
predominant in the Russian Church. I refer to
the 'strong tendency both in clergy and laity to
attribute an inordinate importance to the
ceremonial element in religion. E. B. Lanin, in
Russian Characteristics, touches upon the way in
which the parish priest confirms the peasant in
his gross superstition, for a consideration:

" Priests who persuade their congregations to
pay for the celebration of a special Church service
to induce the Almighty to dispense with eclipses,
and who allow themselves for a moderate con-
sideration to be dragged across a turnip field in
order thereby to touch the Divine heart that He
may deign to make the turnips big and round,
can scarcely claim to be considered the highest
type of spiritual advisers."

136 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Primitive man everywhere and always is
disposed to regard religion as simply a mass of
mysterious rites, which have a secret magical
power of averting evil in this world and securing
eternal happiness in the next. To this general
rule the Russian peasantry are no exception, and
the Russian Church has not done all that it might
have done to eradicate this conception, and to
bring religion into closer association with ordinary
morality. The priest is merely expected to con-
forms to certain observances and to perform
punctiliously the ordained rites and ceremonies
prescribed by the Church. If he does this without
practising extortion, his parishioners are quite
satisfied. He rarely preaches, or exhorts, or ex-
pounds Scriptures, and consequently has but little
moral influence over his flock.

That the priests sometimes feel their position
keenly and resent the charge of extortion may be
gathered from the following petition prepared by
the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg in 1905.

It is a human document, throwing considerable
light upon the present relations between the
ordinary priest and his parishioners. For the whole
petition the reader is referred to the Contemporary
Review for May, 1905.

" Both the ecclesiastical and the secular press
remark with equal emphasis upon the prevailing
lukewarmness of the inner life of the Church ; upon
the alienation of the flock from its spiritual guides,

HER PRIESTHOOD 137

the lack of pastoral activity on the part of the
clergy, who in the majority of instances confine
themselves to the conduct of Divine service and
the fulfilment of ritual observances.

" All the religious duties of members of the
Orthodox Church were strictly regulated by the
Synod. It was laid down exactly how one should
comport oneself in Church, what attitude one
should take before the sacred pictures, how one
should spend festival days, go to confession, and
see that the members of the Orthodox Church
remained loyal to their faith. These efforts
to subject to police prescription the facts and
phenomena of spiritual life undoubtedly brought
into the ecclesiastical sphere the mortifying breath
of dry bureaucratism.

" The chief aim of the ecclesiastical reforms of
Peter the Great was to reduce the Church to the
level of a mere government institution pursuing
purely politial ends.

" And as a matter of fact the government of
the Church (under the Holy Synod) speedily
became one of the numerous wheels of the com-
plicated government machine.

" Regarding the Church merely as a component
part of the State mechanism, Peter decided to
set its servants to perform purely civil duties;
and to the great misfortune of the parish clergy,
he imposed upon it police and detective work.
The priest was obliged to see that the number of

138 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

persons subject to taxation was properly indicated,
and in addition, to report without delay all actions
revealed to him in confession that tended to the
injury of the State. Thus transformed from a
spiritual guide into an agent of police supervision,
the pastor entirely lost the confidence of his flock
and all moral union with them.

" A monthly stipend of from fifteen to twenty
roubles is not sufficient for the maintenance of a
priest, even if he grows his own corn; and he is
accordingly compelled to levy upon the parish a
number of obligatory contributions in connection
with the celebration of certain ritual acts. This
has a painful effect upon the mutual relations
between the pastor and his flock. In the soul
of the priest, monetary calculations awaken at the
most unsuitable moment a consciousness of
pastoral impotence; this compulsory trafficking in
holy things withdraws from him every support
needed for practical activity. The parishioners,
who are by no means always capable of appre-
ciating the degree of material need in which their
pastor lives, find occasion in such extortions to
class the priest with extortioners and vampires.

" Thus the clergy find it difficult to rise above
the level of merely professional performance of
ritual acts, and to become the true pastors of
the people. For the people, on the other hand,
it is difficult to rally round the priest.

" The first condition is to discover means to

HER PRIESTHOOD 139

absolve the priest from the necessity of trafficking
with his parishioners on the occasions df the cele-
brations of a sacrament."

Over the vast area of Russia proper the
position of the priest is a degrading one, and no
wonder, for he is little better than a salesman of
spiritual benefits; he has no fixed charges, but
makes the best bargain possible, and as he has
the monopoly of his parish, his bargains are some-
times hard driven. When called upon to baptise
infants, to marry two young people, to bury the
dead, to repeat masses for the soul of some relative,
he will haggle for the price like a man in an open
market. This system of bargaining effectually
destroys the spiritual influence of the priest, and
causes his parishioners to seethe with discontent
with him. The remarkable thing is that, despite all
these coarse and soul-destroying methods of
ministration, the people crowd the Churches, thus
clearly showing that they dissociate the priest from
his office.

Frequently one will hear a peasant say, after
bargaining with a priest to say a mass for a dead
relative, to baptise a little one, or perform some
other priestly function:

" Hard-hearted pope ! Have you no pity on
the poor peasant?"

The Chronicles of Leskoff pourtray the position
and influence of the Russian priesthood in con-
nection with the peasantry.

140 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

" The position of the priests makes any
religious or moral influence on his parish well
nigh impossible. The purest character, the best
intentions, are checked by a Church government
which only recognises the traditional and pre-
scribed outward forms' of the ritual, and prohibits
every independent feeling and interpretation of
the Word of God. To hunt sectarians is fashion-
able, and the priest must endeavour to track them
if he is to be thought efficient. The truth is
that everywhere, even in the Church, one feels
the finger of the government and of politics.
Which saint has to be evoked, in this or that
case, this every deacon knows pat off, but the
preaching of the Gospel, the cure of souls, so
essential for the peasant, and in particular for
the Russian peasant, this path is strewn with thorns
for the priest by the Church authorities. The
natural consequence is that the attitude of the
peasant towards the Church is, like his religious
life, purely external, consisting in customs,
formulae, ceremonial sacrifices. And further, the
consequence is that, as soon as he is touched
by the Spirit of the Gospel, he turns away from
the State Church and becomes a sectarian. Then
the Church steps in. As soon as there is a chance
of political propaganda there is money for the
priest, for the missions, for the Churches, for the
schools. For the sake of a policy the Russian
willingly starves, even in the religious sense."

HER PRIESTHOOD 141

The village priest is usually contented with
his lot. As a rule he lives in a house built for
him by the peasants; he receives, even in the
smaller villages, a salary equivalent to about forty
pounds a year; he has his glebe, and besides
this, he is continually receiving additions to his
income through marriage, birth, and funeral fees,
and on .every religious holiday (and they are very
numerous in Russia) contributions of food and
money from the peasants. The village priest does
next to nothing, and is perhaps the best paid man
in the village.

Nor does he seem to enter much into the
lives of the peasants or help them in illness or
distress. The commercial element is strong in
the religion of the commune. So long as the
priest discharges his usual priestly functions,
the people are satisfied, while as a rule the priest
is not disposed to do more than the work for
which he is paid. The essentially material way
in which peasant and priest view each other's
functions is very characteristic of Russian society.
The priest, as a rule, clings rather tenaciously to
the past, and keeps a firm grip upon the re-
sources of the Church.

The secession of any of his parishioners to
another religious body is a serious matter for him.
A woman in a West Russian village, before her
marriage, was received into the Roman Catholic
Church, and she was compelled to pay to her

142 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

former village priest the capitalized sum of her
annual value to him.

The Russian peasant needs emancipation from
the economic, as well as from the spiritual, thral-
dom of the Russian Church.

Maurice Baring, in The Russian People, gives
one or two illustrations showing how the priest,
in the minds of the peasants, is divorced from
his office.

" I heard some soldiers discussing religion with
a monk, and they attacked him on this ground;
they said, ' The Church says there is only one
religion, but that is a lie, because we know there
are a dozen other religions, and that the people
who belong to them worship God, and are just
as good as we are. Therefore, all priests are
liars.' A soldier one day boasted of having
dragged a priest, drunk, from his bed in order
to say Mass. ' We said to him,' the soldier
said, ' Say Mass, you beast ' ; and he said Mass."

On the other hand, it has been my good
fortune to meet with priests of the Russian Church
who have had a real desire for the spiritual wel-
fare of their flock.

At the close of a service one evening in
September 1910, an aged priest came to me, and
after greeting me with a "holy" kiss, said, "I
welcome you as a preacher of the good Gospel
of Jesus Christ."

The following quotation from the Russian of

HER PRIESTHOOD 143

M. Oettingen, Memories of a Village Priest, will
reveal the relationship that exists between peasants
and priest from the priest's point of view:

" He arrives — no inn, no reception. Where
does the sexton live? They showed me a miser-
able "hut. And the verger? They pointed to
an even more wretched hovel. Let us drive to
the sexton. We drive thither and perceive a
small crooked Church, built of stone, enclosed by
a rotten wooden paling, and a dilapidated half-
open hut. We enter; the floor is of mud; the
two windows, fifteen inches high, are dim, the
walls damp, the corners covered with mildew.
The unfortunate couple are located with a peasant,
who has two rooms, and crams his family into
one. Then begins the bargaining with the com-
mune as to who is to supply a dwelling for the
priest. After many entreaties, much bowing, and
painful humiliation on the one side, wise in-
structions and haughty bearing on the other, I
am sent for at the expiration of a fortnight. I
am to attend a parish meeting and to ask for
a home. I have to discourse for a long time, yea,
almost to beg them individually to be good enough
to give me some separate room. At last they
make up their minds, and I receive orders to
move into a peasant's house. The room turned
out to be hardly better than the peasant's hut,
and in this dirty hole the clerical couple had to
live henceforth with the old peasants. At tea-

10

144 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

time the sexton appears, but drunk. The priest
asks him why he is drunk. ' You, " little father,"
have not settled down here. When you have been
here a little more than a year you will drink more
than I.' And truly it would not be surprising,
considering the life which the priest has to live. Of
money he has hardly any; he has to earn his
living by baptisms, funerals etc.; he has to drive
into the smaller villages of the neighbourhoood in
order to earn a farthing here, to obtain a fowl
and a little flour there, and sometimes he spends
an entire day driving about in order to return home
with twopence. This is the rule and not the
exception, and the cry is always, ' Drink.' The
parish gives him the so-called home, but as a
sort of house-warming he has to supply a pail of
brandy and to drink with them on peril of forfeit-
ing their liberality and their affection. ' You have
to deal with us alone; you must show us respect;
if so we will grant you everything and respect you
in return. But if you do not desire this, you had
better pack up at once and go. Do not spare
your back; it will be to your advantage to bow
down before the parish."

It -is easy to understand why drunkenness
amongst the lower class of priests is rife, and
why, according to the chief director of the Holy
Synod, in the service registers of the priests there
must always be mentioned " to what extent the
individual priest is accustomed to consume in-

HER PRIESTHOOD 145

toxicating liquor." A demand not made upon any
other class of official servant!

That there is immorality amongst both
" Black " and " White " clergy is abundantly testi-
fied to by many well acquainted with the Russian
priests, although one must not lose sight of the
fact that there are many " popes " who are really
concerned for the moral, social, and spiritual wel-
fare of their flock. The fact that the priesthood
is an appanage of a Government department tells
against them tremendously and tends to degrade
them.

Melnikoff, in a report to the Grand Duke
Constantine, quoted by Wallace (Russia] :

" The people do not respect the clergy, but
persecute them with derision and reproaches, and
feel them to be a burden. In nearly all the popular
stories the priest, his wife, or his labourer is
held up to ridicule, and in all the proverbs and
popular sayings where the clergy are mentioned,
it is always with derision. The people shun the
clergy, and have recourse to them, not from the
inner impulse of conscience, but from necessity.
And why do the people not respect the clergy?
Because it forms a class apart; because, having
received a false kind of education, it does not
introduce into the life of the people the teaching
of the Spirit, but remains in the / mere
dead forms of outward ceremonial, at the
same time despising these forms even to

146 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

blasphemy; because the clergy itself con-
tinually presents examples of want of respect to
religion, and transforms the service of God into
profitable trade. Can the people respect the
clergy when they hear how one priest stole money
from below the pillow of a dying man the moment
of confession ? how another was publicly dragged
out of a house of ill-fame? how a third christened
a dog ? how a fourth, whilst officiating at the
Easter service, was dragged by the hair from the
altar by the deacon ? Is it possible for the people
to respect priests who spend their time in the
gin-shops, write fraudulent petitions, fight with
the cross in their hands, and abuse each other in
bad language at the altar? One might fill several
pages with examples of this kind without over-
stepping the boundaries of the province of Nizhni
Novgorod. Is it possible for the people to re-
spect the clergy when they see everywhere amongst
them simony, carelessness in performing the
religious rites, and disorder in administering the
sacraments ? Is it possible for the people to
respect the clergy when they see that truth has
disappeared from it, and that the Consistories,
guided in their decisions, not by rules, but by
personal friendship and bribery, destroy in it the
last remains of truthfulness ? If we add to all
this the false certificates which the clergy give to
those who do not wish to partake of the Eucharist,
the dues illegally extracted from the Old Ritualists,

HER PRIESTHOOD 147

the conversion of the altar into a source of revenue,
the giving of Churches to priests' daughters as a
dowry, and similar phenomena, the question as to
whether the people can respect the clergy requires
no answer."

These words were written by an Orthodox
Russian, well acquainted with provincial life, to
a member of the Imperial family.

All priests are not like this. Many are honest,
respectable, God-fearing, well-intentioned, fulfil
their duties, strive to procure a good education
for their children, take part in social move-
ments, and strive to lead those in their spiritual
charge to higher and better things.

During the past few years, priests, as in-
dividuals, or as members of the " League of
Workers for Church Reform," have been trying
to change the status and relations of the priests
to the people. They have discovered the weak
spot in their calling, and have been distressed with
the lifelessness of the Orthodox Church. Hitherto
every attempt on their part to get the authorities
to consider and reform the abuses of the system
has met with failure; the reformers have been
jailed, imprisoned in monasteries, and exiled to
Siberia and the Caucasus. Dr. Dillon, in the
National Review, tells of one such, and he is but
a type of many.

Petrov, one of the most famous priests in
Russia, the Editor of God's Truth, a paper eagerly

148 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

read by the Russian peasantry, has paid the penalty
of his temerity by being driven from out of the
Church. In a letter to the Metropolitan of St.
Petersburg, he states his position as a priest of
the Church:

" The thing which our Holy Synod passed for
the Orthodox Church and the composition of the
Synod itself, can these be considered as at all
the true Church of Christ? . . . We have to-day,
after nineteen centuries of preaching, individual
Christians, separate persons, but no Christianity;
there is no Christian legislation; our customs and
morals are no longer Christian; there exists no
Christian government." After referring to the
massing of armed men and preparing them for
war as the very negation of the Gospel, he con-
tinues : " Christian morality would have been
limited and little developed if it had no other
end but the life and conduct of private persons
without throwing light on the organisations, the
rulers, the life and conduct of societies and States.
' But that is politics ' says the clergy ; ' our business
is religion.'

" True politics is, in fact, the art of the better
organisation of life in society and the State; but
is not the Evangel, with its doctrine of the King-
dom of God, the science of the better organisation
of life, of society, and of the entire State? . . .
Christianity has become the State religion before
the State has ceased to be pagan. . . . Chris-

HER PRIESTHOOD 149

tianity itself is accused. Defects are sought for
in the doctrine of Christ; this is wrong, for it is
the fault, rather, of the higher clergy, which, in
spite of the triumph of Christianity, has not been
able to resist the seduction of power. It is not
the clergy that has influenced the State, but on
the contrary, it has borrowed from the State its
external brilliance, its organisations, its means of
action, its constraint, and its non-spiritual punish-
ments.

" The ruling ' regular clergy,' with its cold,
heartless, bony fingers, has stifled the Russian
Church, killed its creative spirit, chained the
Gospel itself, and sold the Church to the Govern-
ment. There is no outrage, no crime, no perfidy
of the State authorities which the monks who
rule the Church would not cover with the mantle
of the Church, would not bless, would not seal
with their own hands. What power would the
voice of the Church possess were it raised in
genuine Christian words? Such words would be-
come the voice of the Eternal Gospel truths
addressed to the conscience of the country. They
would strike every heart, they would penetrate into
every corner, they would chime above the thunders
of revolution, above the clamour of execution, like
the voice of a Church bell through the howling
of the tempest.

" In the Church the creative power of truth
became withered, dried, and anaemic; separated

150 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

from life, the thought of the Church was condemned
to turn about in the world of abstract dogma and
theological discussions. God was reasoned about
without being introduced into life itself.

" The majority of the lower clergy is ignorant,
poor, dulled; nobody occupies himself with its
moral welfare. It is crowded by the reigning
monks into a corner; it has its arms tied; it is
deprived of the liberty to think, to speak, and to
act. They who are so near to the masses of the
people, to the centre of life; they who see all
its misery, the deprivation of justice from which the
whole country suffers; who hear the ceaseless
groans that rise from below; who are choked by
the tears of the people, blinded by the sight of
the frightful nightmare created all over the
country by the impious violence of the reigning
power; they have not even the right to speak
of the sufferings of their flocks; not even the
chance to cry out to the violators, ' Halt ! '

" Indeed, according to the opinion of the
monks, who are at the same time the reigning
dignitaries of the Church, all that goes against the
State goes against the Church, against Christ, and
against God. This is to reduce the great work
of salvation of humanity to the petty role of
bodyguard to the temporal autocratic organisa-
ton. . . . The Church is the universal union, the
organisation of all humanity, above nations and
States. For to the Church none of the existing

HER PRIESTHOOD 151

organisations of the State are invariable, perfect,
permanent, or infallible.

" Such an organisation is the work of the future ;
expressing one's self in the language of the evangel,
it will be the future Kingdom of God. An organisa-
tion in which everything will be maintained, not
by external violence, but by a common interior
moral bond, in which there will be neither ex-
ploitation, nor arbitrary government, nor violence,
nor master, nor workman; where all will support
equally the burdens of life and all will profit
equally from its good. This is the task of the
Church, but the organisations which exist at
present, whether they are autocratic or not, are
worth nothing. Their only difference is in the
degree of uselessness; one is more, another is less
useless; yet our old, expiring organisation is the
worst of all that exists in the Christian world."

We need only to add that during the past
ten years hundreds of priests have left the
Orthodox Church and have entered into secular
callings, to show that a new spirit is abroad, and
that thinking men, with the real passion for the
welfare of their parishioners at heart, cribbed and
confined by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, are finding
their true sphere outside the fold of the Church
and away from the dominant and arrogant spirit of
the most Holy Synod.

All elements of the people recognise that some-
thing of the greatest import is going on in Russia's

152 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

religious thought. It is unnecessary to show how
general this recognition is, since the Government
itself, moved by the higher clergy, has proposed
extraordinary measures to put it to an end.

SEMINARIES

A CLERGY training school, or seminary, will not
admit pupils above the age of sixteen; some enter
at fourteen. The younger may finish at nineteen;
others stay till twenty-three. The more talented
will pass on to a religious academy for four years,
and can obtain the grade of student (a simple
certificate of residence and study), candidate, or
magistrant. The candidate who would become
a magistrant must send in a thesis, which will
be tested in a debate between him and his
examiners. Candidates for the priesthood some-
times serve an apprenticeship. A term of two
or three years may be served as a " psalm singer,"
or parish clerk, or as teacher in a parish school.
Vacant benefices are advertised. Any one who
has the degree of candidate may apply. The
parish is allowed to petition in favour of one who
has been a clerk or teacher in it. The deacon,
who may not celebrate the Eucharist, is adminis-
tratively under his priest, the priest under his
Bishop or Archbishop. " Archbishop " is a personal
title without reference to a local jurisdiction, so
that a Bishop may become an Archbishop with-
out leaving his See. Bishops and Archbishops

HER PRIESTHOOD 153

are under their Metropolitan. All alike are sub-
ject to the Synod.

A boy or a man may attach himself to a
monastery and become a "servant." At thirty,
— not before — he will perhaps become a monk,
either on the official list of the establishment,
or as a supernumerary. He may also become a
deacon, then a priest, and later an archpriest.
Bishops, Archbishops, Metropolitans are all arch-
priests, and as such are equal; it is a kind of
army rank, and has nothing to do with administra-
tion. Amongst the monks, the Archimandrite is
also an archpriest; he wears a mitre, and
can be selected as the head of one of the
greater monasteries. The lesser monasteries
are ruled by Hegumens or priors. The heads
of the three historic lavras or greater monas-
teries are the three Metropolitans. These are the
Cave Monastery at Kieff, the Trinity Monastery
near Moscow, and that of St. Alexander Nevsky
in St. Petersburg. Each Metropolitan has a
lieutenant through whom he rules.

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
ICONS OR HOLY PICTURES.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

WALLACE . . . Russia.

GRAHAM . . . Changing Russia.

VlLLARi Russia under the Great Shadow.

155

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
ICONS OR HOLY PICTURES.

WE have already referred to the almost
universal prevalence of the Icon in
Russia, and undoubtedly the worship or
adoration of the Icon has a greater influence upon
the religious life of the nation than the priests,
when considered apart from their special office.

Not only are the Icons to be found in the
Churches, homes, business houses, and railway
stations, but the peasantry carry them about
with them. They are a kind of talisman against
ill-luck and evil.

Whilst spending the summer of 1905 in the
Crimea, I witnessed the return of a troopship with
war-worn troops from the Far East. The majority
of the men were severely wounded, and a pitiful
procession passed from the quayside to the market-
place, where they bivouacked for a few days.

No sooner were the men settled in their
places than they began to bring small Icons from
their blouses and trousers' pockets, and placing
them upon the ground, returned thanks to the
Madonna or their favourite saint for a favourable
voyage and a safe return to Russian soil.

Even whilst bathing in the Black Sea and in

157

158 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

public bania (baths), I noticed that the men never
removed from their necks the little medallion,
sometimes suspended by a slender gold cord, but
more often a piece of common thread. The Icon
is a continual reminder to the Russian that his
God is not locked up in a Church, but that He
is with him everywhere, on the battlefield or out
in the wide steppes, in the little home or in the
cabin of the great steamer.

To the Russian, the Real Presence is
in the home, as well as in the most stately
cathedral or sacred monastery. In all finite and
material things the Icon reminds the peasant of
the infinite and spiritual.

Whatever may be the right view of the
abstract question respecting sacred pictures or
Icons, and the showing of outward respect towards
them, even though the peasant's attitude of mind
be that commonly classed as idolatry, the Russians
cannot be reasonably blamed for reverencing a
usage which they received together with Chris-
tianity itself, and the first introduction of which
was made, in part, at least, the instrument of the
conversion of their Prince Vladimir.

An Icon is a pictorial representation of the
Saviour, of the Saviour in the arms of the
Madonna, of the Madonna herself, of a particular
saint, most frequently, Nicolas the miracle worker,
the favourite saint of the bulk of the Russian
peasantry. Many of them are executed in an.

ICONS OR HOLY PICTURES 159

archaic Byzantine style, with a yellow or gold
background, and they vary in size from a small
medallion of about an inch square to several square
feet. Very often the whole picture, with the ex-
ception of the face and hands of the figure, is
covered with a metal plaque, of gold, or silver,
or brass, embossed so as to represent the form
of the figure and the folds of the drapery.
Thousands of them are manufactured, to be sold
to the peasants for a few copecks each, whilst
others are of priceless value, the frames and
filigree work being covered with diamonds, pearls,
and precious stones.

Amongst the hundreds of Icons in the Kremlin
at Moscow is one of the " Most Immaculate Mother
of God," carved and overlaid with gold set with
rubies, and a curtain of satin worked with pearls.
Many of the Icons have solid gold frames; some-
times they have curtains; others are glazed;
whilst some are in the form of a triptych, and have
hinged doors.

In some districts of Northern Russia, where
primeval paganism or fetishism has not yet died
out, the Icons are sometimes hung with the images
(very crude in workmanship) of cows, sheep, horses,
or in the case of human beings being ill, of arms,
eyes, ears, legs, etc., as a gentle reminder to God
that the owner of the Icon needs His especial
intervention on behalf of that particular piece of
property or part of his anatomy.

160 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Icons are of two kinds — Simple and Miraculous
(tchudotvorny). The former are manufactured in
great quantities, literally by the thousand, and are
to be found in every Orthodox home, from the
Palace of the Tsar down to the vilest hovel of the
poorest peasant.

The Icon is generally placed high up in the
corner of a room, facing the door, and frequently
a small oil lamp and sometimes a candle is kept
burning before the one in the room most commonly
used. I have even seen an eight-candle power
incandescent electric lamp in full glow in broad
daylight.

An Orthodox Christian, upon entering a
room, will immediately remove his hat, bow in
the direction of the Icon, and cross himself with
the sign of the Cross.

Before and after meals, the same short
ceremony is gone through by all the participants
of the meal. On the eve of Saint's days a lamp
will be kept burning before all the Icons in the
house, if the householder be an enthusiastic and
devout Orthodox believer.

The peasants will refer to the Icon as God,
and firmly believe that all happenings in his life
are related to his own personal treatment of the
picture. If he has a stroke of luck, he ascribes
it to the Holy Icon; if he is pursued by ill-fortune,
then, of course, he has neglected to keep the
lamp burning; maybe he has forgotten himself in

ICONS OR HOLY PICTURES 161

a bad temper, and has used vile language in the
Presence; possibly he has omitted to keep the
frame clean, or he has been imbibing too freely
of " vodka " in the neighbourhood of his God.

In the Churches and shrines the favourite
pictures of the saints are worshipped by thousands
of people, and made the object of their veneration
on all important occasions in their lives.

Standing one day in St. Isaac's Cathedral in
St. Petersburg, I watched the almost ceaseless pro-
cession of the tourists of many nationalities who
had come in to see its great gilded dome, its
massive red granite pillars, the wondrous bronze
doors, cast in bas-relief, the priceless relics over
against every altar, the tomb of Christ, mar-
vellously wrought; but stones, bronze and gold,
colour and perfume were of little interest compared
with the people coming and going, passing to
and fro, some ardent worshippers, others careless
and indifferent, some being piloted around by a
" guide," primed with stories concerning the facts
and legends of the sacred edifice and the holy
pictures.

In one part of the huge cathedral Divine
service was being performed by a priest, of whom
it could be said "that Solomon in all his glory,
was not arrayed as one of these." He had a
musical voice, and rapidly intoned the gospel for
the day, and the prayers. The " server," in
ordinary civilian dress, stood by the side of the

162 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

altar, a group of people were close by, some very
poorly clad, some in mourning garments, whilst
here and there a moujik stood in humble attitude
by the jside of an erect 'military officer or prosperous
merchant. Several women knelt upon the cold
stone floor. Many candles were burning upon
huge many-branched candelabra placed before the
sacred Icons. In less than ten minutes the whole
service was over, the priest withdrew, passing
out of sight through the " deacon's door," and the
servitor took up the collection, receiving the gifts
of the faithful upon a red baize-covered platter.

One woman held my attention. Dressed in
black, though not in mourning, evidently fairly
well-to-do, she knelt throughout the service.
Thrice she touched the marble floor with her fore-
head, she frequently crossed herself, and was the
only one of the company which contributed to the
collection. Immediately after the service she
entered the small chancel and visited the Icons
one by one ! at each picture she raised herself
upon tip-toe, and impressed a long, passionate kiss
upon the feet of the saint; her adoration of the
saints being completed, she placed several candles
in the candelabra, and took her departure.

An officer in full dress, with sword rattling
upon the pavement, approached one of the pictures,
and I noticed that he not only took the precaution
to rub the glass with his handkerchief, but deli-
cately and lightly kissed the picture in the corner,

ICONS OR HOLY PICTURES 163

quite close to the frame. In a modern English
Church he would probably be an advocate of
" individual " communion cups upon hygienic
grounds.

One thing in the cathedral puzzled me. Near
to the entrance door an official was selling, amongst
other things, wax candles of varying lengths and
thicknesses.

These were purchased by the worshippers and,
after being lighted, were inserted into the sockets
of the candlesticks. After genuflecting before, and
subsequently kissing, the Icon, the worshipper
would pass to another sacred picture and burn
another candle, or leave the building.

Every few minutes a liveried servant would
emerge rapidly from one of the many doors, and
quickly passing by the candelabra, would hastily
remove a handful of candles, many of which had
not been consumed more than half an inch, and
quickly extinguishing them, retreat to his hiding-
place, then, opening a huge chest, would un-
ceremoniously thrust them in.

I saw one such chest, about three feet long,
two feet deep>, and two feet wide, almost entirely
filled with candles, only about one-eighth part
burned.

What is done with them?

To what subsequent use are they put ?

The only solution which occurs to me is that
they are returned to the candle factory to be

164 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

melted down and fashioned anew into candles. If
so, the profits in the traffic must be enormous,
for hundreds of candles were bought and lighted
during my brief stay in the building.

Another scene comes before me as I write.
A village church in far-off Samara. The little
building is crowded with peasants in their sheep-
skins. Over and above the perfume of the incense
is the all-pervading smell of the crowd. The priest,
deacon, and server are conducting worship; the
service comes to a close, and the men and women,
following one another in rapid succession, move
to the sacred picture and kiss the feet of the saint,
meanwhile crossing themselves and murmuring,
" God have mercy upon us." The Icon plays
a most important part in the religious life of the
Russian peasant. The influence of the picture is
always with him.

The " Old Believers " have in their hidden
sanctuaries in the forests and in their homes many
ancient Icons and pictures — a perfect revelation of
the mediaeval spirit with which Russia was im-
pregnated at the time of the Great Schism.
Nothing made since that time has any value for
them; they are wedded to the old. As works of
art they are very crude, but the hold they have
upon the Raskolniki is stronger than the more
modern Icon upon the ordinary Orthodox, if that
were possible.

The wonder-working or miraculous Icons are

ICONS OR HOLY PICTURES 165

comparatively few in number, and are always care-
fully preserved in a monastery or Church. The
method of bringing them into existence is worth
recording, if only to reveal the superstition fre-
quently connected with the worship of the Icon.
A monk, or priest, or even a layman will have a
vision that in a certain spot there is hidden an
Icon " not made with hands." Journeying to the
spot indicated he will generally find the Icon buried
beneath the mould, or possibly hanging upon a
tree-branch. The sacred treasure is then carefully
removed to a Church, and the news of the dis-
covery spreads like wild-fire. The whole country-
side seethes with excitement. Thousands of
pilgrims flock to prostrate themselves before it.
Innumerable candles are blessed and lighted before
it. Some of the people are apparently healed of
their diseases, and soon pilgrimages are organised
for miles around.

The Holy Synod is then officially informed of
the great discovery, details of its finding are re-
ported, and recognition is sought for. If recog-
nition be granted by the Holy Synod, the Icon
is treated with the greatest reverence. Thousands
from all parts of Russia flock to it, weeping, wail-
ing, and singing as they go, seeking healing for
their bodily ills and peace to their souls from the
newly-discovered miracle-worker.

Instances are on record of important or
ancient Churches, desiring to augment their funds,

166 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

consulting the Synod beforehand as to whether,
if an Icon be found, it would receive recognition!

Stephen Graham, in Changing Russia, says :
" But the Church which is founded on the wonder-
working Icon is a commercial Church; it knows
that the greater the miracle, the more the money
cast into the treasury. The wonder-working Icon
or relic is well in its place; if the Icon and the
relic have such powers, they have their special
place and significance in the Church. The heavens
did not open at Bethabara that the people might
open their mouths, or it would go on opening there
now when the pilgrims visit it to be baptised. But
the singular event of the Gospel story has its
definite place. It is an accompaniment of the
life of Jesus; it is not that life itself."

The Russian Church cannot afford to take
its stand on miracles. If ever there comes a revolu-
tion in the land, the Church will suffer immense
tribulation through the imputation of superstition,
idolatry, simony, and corruption. The good part
of the Church will be overwhelmed with that
which is diseased.

Some of the miraculous Icons have fete-days
instituted in their honour, as, for instance, the
Kazan Madonna. A few of them are connected
with some great event in Russian history. The
Vladimir Madonna is reputed to have once saved
Moscow from the invading Tatars; the Smolensk
Madonna accompanied the Russian Army in the

ICONS OR HOLY PICTURES 167

great campaign against Napoleon in 1812; and
when the French were at the gates of Moscow
in that year the citizens pressed the Metropolitan
to take the Iberian Madonna, which may still
be seen at one of the gates of the Kremlin, and
to lead them out, armed with axes and hatchets,
against the enemy.

The Iberian Madonna is the most famous of
all the Icons, and is kept in a small chapel in
the Voskres Senskaya Ploshtchad, between the
two arches of the gate leading to the Red
Square.

"It is a copy, executed in 1648, of a much
older Icon preserved in Mount Athos. No good
Orthodox Christian ever passes it without doffing
his hat and crossing himself many times, and
every day large numbers of people enter the chapel
to pray before the holy picture.

" Whenever the Tsar comes to Moscow, before
entering the Kremlin, he visits this shrine and
prays before it. One may see the most important
people in the land doing homage here and kissing
the Icon — generals in full uniform, councillors of
State, nobles and noble women of the highest
rank, rich merchants, not to mention crowds of
humbler folk. Many miracles are attributed to
the Iberian Madonna, among others, the con-
version of an infidel, who, on scratching the
picture, saw blood flow from the wound; the
scratch is visible to this day, to bear witness to

168 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

the truth of the story. The Virgin is adorned
with a crown of brilliants, and quantities of pearls
and precious stones, including some of great size,
and a network of pearls, and the robe is covered
with the usual silver plaques. Every day the
image is taken from the chapel, placed in a large
closed coach, drawn by six black horses, four
abreast and two in front, one of the latter ridden
by a boy postillion. Inside, opposite the image,
sit two priests in full vestments.

" Priest, driver, footmen, and postillion are
always bareheaded whatever the weather. It is
carried to the houses of people dangerously ill,
provided that they can pay a fee of fifty to two
hundred roubles (£5-£2o), or to assist at family
festivals, the inauguration of new buildings and
shops, and other similar functions. In the case
of a new building a temporary shrine is erected
in the courtyard, before which the priests hold
a service. During its absence from home the
Icon is replaced by a copy, to which great virtues
are also attributed. When the coach drives past,
the people prostrate themselves before it, touching
the ground with their foreheads in abject humility.
One day, as the vehicle was rolling along, I saw
one of the priests put his head out of the window
and spit into the street. The action was charac-
teristic, and the fact that it was not resented shows
what a wide gap there is in the eyes of the
Orthodox between the Church he venerates and

ICONS OR HOLY PICTURES 169

its ministers whom he despises. The Icon is a
large source of income to the Church, not only
from the fees which are paid when it is sent for,
but also from the offerings which most of the
worshippers leave when praying at the shrine
itself.

" Icon worship has a firm hold upon the
Russian peasantry. Every saint is supposed to
cure a particular disease and to confer special
benefits. Frequently in the Churches, the people,
instead of listening to Divine Service, will wander
about, preferring to worship their own particular
and favourite Icon. To many they do not
realize that God exists somewhere and beyond and
independent of their picture.

"The worship starves the 'soul,' materialises
the Deity, and divorces a living faith from the
moral code."*

* Villari, Russia under the Great Shadow.

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
MISSIONARY ACTIVITY.

STANLEY . .
MOURAVIEFF .
STEAD .

ZILLIACUS . .
GRAHAM . .
KROSSNOGEON

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Lectures on the Eastern Church.
History of the Russian Church.

The M.P. for Russia.
Petersburgskia Viedomosti, April,
1897.

Russian Revolution.

Changing Russia.

The Constructive Quarterly, Dec.,

in

THE EXILE'S SONG.

MISERY.

Was it for this, God's light flattered me,

An exile, spurned, sunken in deepest sorrow,
Only to know man's venomed calumny

Will pierce my soul afresh on each fresh morrow?
Dark the horizon ; sits forbidding gloom,

A hopeless melancholy, on yon day dawning;
Fear grips my heart, the seal of coming doom

Stamps on my soul the dread of to-morrow's morning.
Was it for this that God's light flattered me ?

Hot stream the tears across my careworn cheeks.
Shall youth's young dream of happiness quite shattered be?

Oh God ! 'tis false : a voice within me speaks ;

JOY.

Speaks, and lo, the future is unfolded —

Beckon me the woods to come and play,
Frolic in their depths in sweet oblivion.

Scatter darkness with the light of day,
Wander in the wilds in the midst of roses,

Listen to the whispering of the brooks,
Hear the nightingale at even warbling,

Sleep 'midst the mossy-bedded nooks.
There, in solitude with nature,

The caves my covering, the sun my heat,
Rags my clothing, bare shall be my feet.

Hills, shedding tears of joy eternal,
Weep in never-ending stream,

Lazily the rugged rocks o'erleaping,
Music to my life's long dream,

There sweet lepose will never leave me,
Far from wickedness and vice,

Waiting till God's voice shall call me,
Home — to Peace and Paradise.

THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
MISSIONARY ACTIVITY

DEAN STANLEY, in his Lectures on the
Eastern Church, writes, " The Russian
Church is not a missionary Church,
neither has it been a persecuting one."

In the sense of foreign missions, that is,
missions beyond the frontiers of Russia or beyond
the pale of Russian political influence, Stanley
may be right, but the story of Russian territorial
expansion is inextricably bound up with the mis-
sionary activities of the monks of the Orthodox
Church. His reference to it not being a persecut-
ing Church may have been true when he delivered
his lectures in Oxford fifty years ago, but the
attitude of the Churqh to other religious bodies
has changed for the worse under the malign in-
fluence of Pobiedonosteff.

Some idea of the early missionary activities
of the Church may be gathered from the History
by Mouravieff and the MSS. of Baron Rosenkampf.
The Monk Lazarus founded his monastery in the
fourteenth century on the shores of Lake Onega
for the conversion of the Lopars, and at the same

174 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

time the monks of Balaam proceeded to the Con-
version of the Carelians.

Not only spiritual instruction, but even the
occupation and colonization of the northern and
eastern districts of Russia was forwarded by
the multiplication of religious houses. Thus every
monastery which extended the boundary became
the nucleus of a new pale of settlements, and
even a stronghold of defence.

Great Perm was added to Russia by a
single monk, through the preaching of the name
of Christ. St. Stephen, penetrated with an apos-
tolic zeal, felt his heart pained at the gross
heathenism of the inhabitants of Perm; he went
alone to preach Christ in the deep and silent
woods, and by faith overcame all the opposition
of the heathen priests. He founded there his
first Church, and from thence, little by little, the
Gospel spread further eastwards. Thus, gradually,
the monks pressed into Siberia, and paved the
way for the growth of the Russian Empire. But
we need not to go back to the fourteenth century.
The same policy is in force to-day in Manchuria
ajnd Mongolia. Churches are being built, monas-
teries establaished, and bishoprics formed. At the
centre of all this activity is the policy of " Russi-
fication." The vital connection between Church
and State, and the policy of a Church State in
Russia, has led the Church, through the Holy
Synod, to establish missions amongst the non-

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY 175

Russian subjects of the Tsar, and to severely
persecute those who refuse to commune with her.

Madam Novikoff (O.K.), writing to the late
W. T. Stead, declares that " Greek Orthodoxy
is the soul of our Government, and the great
link between the Government and the people. But
devotion to our faith is immeasurably superior to
any worldly consideration. Russia is more of a
Church than a State, more of a religion than a
nationality. We are first Holy Orthodox, and
then Slavs, and then Russians."

Missionary enterprise is essentially Slavo-
philism. To make the Russian people one,—
to bind together Slav and Finn, Pole and Lett,
Tatar and Circassian, Armenian and Siberian, and
in process of time, Chinaman and Persian too,
by the invisible and unbreakable bonds of a
simple and common faith, — the roots of which run
back unbroken through the soil of centuries—
this is the ambition of the Church Statesmen of
Modern Russia.

Tsar Alexander III. was the most uncompro-
misingly zealous champion of the three Slavophile
principles: Autocracy, Orthodoxy, Nationalism;
one king, one religion, one law; and he was
firmly determined to enforce these principles in
their strongest and most unmistakable sense.

Running parallel with the missionary enter-
prise, if not actually fused with it, is the glorifica-
tion and aggrandisement of the Russian Empire.

12

176 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

The Bishops of Rome early conceived the
design of building up an Universal Christian State,;
theocratic in government, with the Pope as the
Representative of Christ on earth, in which all
the civil authorities should be subject to the sub-
ordinates of Christ's Vicar on earth. The Eastern
Church followed a contrary policy; they remained
true to their earliest traditions, and never dreamed
of a world-wide Church State. From the time
of Constantine she had been accustomed to lean
upon, and to look to, the civil authorities for
support; she had always beeen content to play
a secondary part, and never resisted the tendency
to form separate National Churches, with a large
measure of freedom in the government of their
own dioceses. From the beginnings of the fifteenth
century, in Russia especially, the head of the
State was also the ruler in ecclesiastical affairs.

With the abolition of the Patriarchate under
Peter the Great, and the formation of the Holy
Synod, the Holy Synod became the highest
ecclesiastical authority. Theoretically the Ortho-
dox Church has no visible " Head " or " Pope."
Christ is the Supreme Ruler. His mind is known
through the Synod.

Those who are at all acquainted with the
inner history of Russia are aware that there is
practically no clear line of demarcation between
that which is temporal and that which is spiritual,
and that the civil authorities have no scruples in

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY 177

using the religious organisation for purely political
ends.

The inevitable result of this use of the
Church has been that " missionary " activity
is not the direct outcome of a passion for the
religious welfare of the non-orthodox, so much
as a policy to bring the non-Russian within the
orbit of the ideal : one King, one religion, one
law. This policy has also had an ill-effect upon
the parish priests, for whilst they have lived upon
a plane little higher than the peasants them-
selves, their " missionary " brethren have had
houses and lands, money and power granted to
them in abundance.

The contrast between the conditions of life
of the priest in a village in Riazin or Tambov
and in Lettonia or Courland is most marked.

The occasional use of the ecclesiastical or-
ganisation for political purposes has now become
the settled policy of the bureaucracy. The activities
of the Church are mainly along the lines of Russi-
fication. One or two illustrations of this policy
will suffice :

In 1887 a number of priests, well furnished
with State funds, were sent to the Lettish and
Esthonian peasants to conduct a campaign in these
provinces. Their policy was not the conversion
of individuals, but to obtain the consent of a
majority in any given village to embrace the
Orthodox faith, and then to declare the whole

178 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

village as Orthodox. One of the priests, who had
been able to secure a large number of " converts,"
was rewarded with a civil decoration — the only
fitting recompense for such service.

Those of the " converts " who attempted to
attend their own Lutheran or Baptist Churches
found their way barred by the Russian law, which
makes it a penal offence for any one to leave
the Holy Orthodox confession.

Pastors who received their parishioners or
Church members, or who consented to marry them
according to the rites or customs of their Church,
were sent to prison; one pastor, universally
respected, died before the sentence could be
carried out.

In 1904 similar tactics were inaugurated
against the Lutherans and Baptists in Finland.

The Pelersburgskia Viedomosti for 1897
relates that:

" In April last, in the villages of Semlianka
and Antonofka, in the district of Bousoulok, five
children, varying in age from two to eleven years,
were taken away from their parents in virtue of
Article 39 of the legal code. The Baptist Sec-
tarians petitioned that the children should be re-
stored to them. At the same time a controversy
was raging in the Press as to whether the priests
at the Congress in Kazan had passed a resolution
calling upon the State to separate children from
their Sectarian parents." There was no need to

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY 179

argue the matter at all, for the law was already
in existence and was being enforced.

Kostromin, one of the early pioneers of the
Baptist faith amongst the Cossacks of the Don,
had his eight children taken away from him. The
boys were placed in monastic schools and the
girls in nunneries; no two in the same establish-
ment; and until this present time the parents
have failed to trace the whereabouts of three of
them.

This form of persecution is defended on the
ground that it is necessary to remove children
from the pernicious influence of their Sectarian
parents, and to give them an Orthodox education.
This excuse is based on a circular of the Minister
of the Interior, Gorevykin, who recommended the
measure on the strength of the Article 39 before
mentioned. Not alone in the Baltic provinces has
this policy been ruthlessly carried out. Down
in the Caucasus and in Poland we have records
of similar tactics upon the part, not only of the
" missionary " priests, but of the civil authorities
acting in collusion with them.

The close and vital connection between Church
and State has meant that the missionary activities
of the Church have degenerated into a policy of
Slavophile persecution.

To be Orthodox is to be a true Russian;
to be a Sectarian is to be a traitor to the Father-
land.

180 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Religious persecution has always accompanied
the attempts of the bureaucracy to Russify the
people as quickly as possible by the suppression of
the national languages. Attacks were first made on
the schools, then against the Churches and local
officials; everywhere the Russian tongue was made
compulsory. The attack against the Churches
was usually made in a veiled and indirect way,
to prevent the intolerance of the priests and
officials from creating too great a sensation in
Western Europe, and too many protests from the
fellow-believers of the persecuted ones.

Thus the " missionary " had somehow or
other (the means of obtaining it was immaterial)
to get a petition forwarded on behalf of a village
or district, that the inhabitants were desirous of
being received into the Orthodox Church, where-
upon the whole population was officially declared
to be admitted to the bosom of the Orthodox.
This subtle method is still being pursued in the
frontier provinces of the Baltic, amongst Lutherans ;
in Poland, amongst Roman Catholics; and in the
Caucasus, amongst Armenians. Not only were
these tactics adopted against non-Russians, but
whenever possible they were resorted to against
the Sectarians, such as the Molokans, Doukhobors,
and Baptists.

Prince Galitzen, Governor-General of the
Caucasus in 1896, in a report sent to the Ministry
of the Interior in St. Petersburg, expresses his

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY 181

alarm that the Armenians, living in the Caucasus
(their home before the Russians seized their terri-
tory) show a distinct national spirit, and are thus
a menace to the Government. He details his
proofs of this spirit in the fact that they have
such national institutions as charities, schools, and
churches, which they have founded and main-
tained out of their own funds; and the best way
of opposing this national spirit was to place all
such institutions under the direct control of the
Russian Government. For this reason he also
depicted in glowing colours the effect of the decree
of June 14, 1897, relating to the placing of all
Armenian schools under the Ministry of Public
Instruction, and reported that in conformity with
this decree 320 Armenian schools had been closed
on the ground of the priests' refusal to submit
to the orders of the decree, whilst thirty-one
remained open. " But," the report continues, " some
of these we later closed, for all that, on the
ground of the incompetence of the teachers." In
the report of June 17, 1897, he petitioned the
Tsar to sanction the transfer of the property of
the closed schools to the Ministry of Public
Instruction.

The Armenians were by this decree not only
robbed of the administration and control of their
schools, but of the property which they had
acquired by their own industry and sacrifice.

In a marginal note upon Prince Galitzen's

182 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

report and recommendations, the Tsar wrote :
"This is the proper way of acting"; and upon
the suggestion that the invested charitable funds
for aged and infirm Armenians should be se-
questered, His Highness commented: "This de-
serves to be carefully considered."

Zilliacus, in The Russian Revolution, records
a phase of the " missionary activity " of the
Orthodox Church.

" One of the most brutal cases of proselytising
happened in the year 1893, at the little town
of Krozhe, on the frontier of Russian Poland,
where the community, although it had been an-
nounced by one of the ' missionary priests ' as
about to embrace the Orthodox Church, refused to
leave the Roman Catholic Church. All the
admonitions of the Russian authorities remained un-
heeded. The community did not leave the Church,
in which service was regularly held by the Catholic
priests. A detachment of Cossacks was sent to
drive out the disobedient congregation, and the
command was carried out with such zeal that
twenty Catholics were killed on the spot, over a
hundred were more or less seriously wounded, and
a further considerable number drowned in an
adjoining river, into which the fugitives were
chased by the Cossacks."

That the higher clergy, at least, if not the
general body of parish priests, are at one with the
civil authorities in this policy of " missionary

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY 183

activity " through persecution, may be gathered
from the fact that in August, 1897, a Congress of
more than two hundred priests was called to
assemble in Kazan, under the auspices and
authority of the Most Holy Synod. The subject
for discussion was, " The best ways and means
to be adopted to check the lamentable spread of
Sectarianism."

From the official report of the discussions
and resolutions of the Congress it appears :

Firstly, that the Baptists were still rapidly
spreading.

Secondly, that the priests were prepared to go
further than the Government in suppressing the same.

The Baptists, since it was forbidden to them
to hold prayer-meetings, had begun to attend
Lutheran (German) Churches wherever such
were to be found, and the Lutheran clergy
had assisted them by holding Divine service
in the Russian tongue. The Congress consequently
resolved that an order should be issued prohibiting
the Lutheran clergy from rendering assistance of
this kind, and to declare the Sectarian views on
religion as blasphemy, thus enabling the village
communes to banish, without trial, members of the
obnoxious sect of Baptists, to Siberia; that Sec-
tarians should be forbidden to employ any young
people of the Orthodox faith; and that adult
Sectarians should be placed under the special
supervision of the parish priests.

184 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

The Congress also resolved that the punish-
ment for open defence of Sectarian, i.e., Baptist,
doctrines, should be amended by the omission
of the word open, so that the law could be more
rigorously enforced. All these resolutions were
carried unanimously. It is perhaps unnecessary
to add that the Procurator of the Holy Synod,
Pobiedonosteff, was the soul and leading spirit
of the Congress, and that the result was that the
Sectarians were placed in an even worse position
than formerly.

In 1901 a similar Congress was held at Orel,
to devise means to suppress the Baptist heresy.
Mr. Stakhovitch was the official representative of
the Government for the nobles. During the pro-
ceedings, Mr. Stakhovitch moved that the Con-
gress should forward a petition to the Minister
of the Interior and to the Holy Synod " that
all punishments attached to ' offences and crimes '
against religion, i.e., the Orthodox Church, should
be abolished."

An incident connected with the district of
Trubchevsk, in the government of Orel, was re-
lated by him in support of his motion.

The civil authorities, with the knowledge and
approval of the local priests, arrested a number of
persons upon suspicion of being Baptists, and
imprisoned them in the Church. A table, covered
with a clean cloth, was brought into the centre
of the Church, and on it was placed an Icon

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY 185

of the Immaculate Virgin. The Baptists were
then brought one at a time to the table and ordered
to kiss the Holy Picture. Those who refused to
do the bidding of the police and priests were
scourged with the nagaika, even in the sacred (?)
building. Some, whose faith could not stand such
severe punishment, recanted, and were thereupon
immediately received back again into the true
fold. With some of the men it took four and
five thrashings for them to yield to the " mis-
sionary."

Mr. Stakovitch questioned some of the priests
as to the number of Baptists in their parishes.
To one he said:

" You stated that a little while ago there were
forty Baptist families in your village, and that
now there are only about four or five. How do
you account for the decrease? What has become
of the others?" "Oh," was the nai've reply, "by
the grace of God they have been deported to
Siberia and the Trans-Caspian district."

The Procurator of the Holy Synod, Pobiedo-
nostseff, immediately after the accession of his
former pupil, Nicolas, to the throne, moved His
Majesty to give his approbation to fresh measures
for the persecution of the Baptists, who were abso-
lutely forbidden to assemble for worship in any
form of their belief, their " sect " being regarded,
according to a Ministerial circular, as a very
dangerous one for the Church and State.

186

The Western European nations do not seem
to know that they have next door to them a
Power more intolerant in matters of religious
liberty than Spain at her worst period, with more
unprincipled and narrow-minded persecutors of all
the Dissenting sects than were Alva and Tor-
quemada.

How can they know it ? Russia works in
silence; her methods are occult, and the victims
are mute. The Press rarely dares to publish and
brand persecution and persecutors.

Trials against heretics are frequently held be-
hind closed doors, and publicity is carefully ex-
cluded. I have talked with Russians sympatheti-
cally inclined towards religious liberty, and they
do not know a tenth part of what is actually
occurring. And if they did know, under the
bureaucracy, they are practically helpless.

General Alexander Kirief, defending Russifi-
cation by forcible conversion and persecution, says :
" We are guided by two considerations :

" i. Our country being organically united
with her Church — hence the name of Holy Russia
— everything attacking the Church attacks the very
essence of the country.

" 2. Being absolutely convinced of possess-
ing absolute Truth, all that attacks that Truth is
an aggression we can never tolerate. Only in-
difference could allow Sectarian propaganda under
such conditions. If the Twelve Apostles came

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY 187

we would receive them with open arms, because
they would only strengthen us in our faith, and
not shake it."

Following out this Slavophil programme,
PobiedonostefF and his henchmen tried to magnify
religion as a bulwark against modern ideas. Un-
doubtedly for years there was room in Russia for
a Church revival, and to a certain extent a real
revival took place, but the Procurator would have
none of it; he appointed to high office in the
Church men who would be docile instruments of
his policy. He surrounded himself with place-
hunters, and through them intimidated the local
clergy into being instruments of a political re-
action.

But he did not see that the peasants, liberated
from serfdom, meeting in the village mir, would
begin to think for themselves in matters of religion.
He did not realise that the coldness and mere
ceremonialism of the Orthodox Church could not
for ever satisfy the religious hunger of the people.
He did not appreciate to the full that Orthodoxy,
unless supported by genuine feeling and strong
religious conviction, could not for ever hold the
people in check.

Whilst the Russian Government and the
priests are following their policy of Russification
amongst the non-Russians of the West, and the
forcible conversion of the Russian Sectarians of
the Central Provinces, they do not altogether

J88 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

neglect the pagan and semi-pagan peoples of the
East. Paganism is not altogether extinct in
European Russia, but in the Eastern Provinces
there are many thousands of tribesmen, mainly
nomads, who have yet to be brought under Chris-
tian influence. Surely in this work there should
be sufficient scope for the missionary activity of
the great Russian Church !

To set herself earnestly and zealously to this
work would bring a breath of new life into the
Church and would quicken her with the very
Spirit of Jesus Christ. At present, however, as
far as one can judge from personal observation and
from current Russian literature, this great field
is almost neglected, or if worked at all, it is in a
most perfunctory spirit.

Stephen Graham, in his most interesting book,
Changing Russia, records a conversation he had
with a monk about the Abkhasian tribesmen:

" They are mostly Christian now, owing to
our influence. We stand here as the most im-
portant institution in the world. These tribes-
men used to be Mohammedans when the Turks
were here, but now they are Christians.

" Still, they can't consummate the faith, that
is the pity; they confess Christ and bow them-
selves a little, but they don't understand what it
means. They know how to cross themselves, but
they don't know why they do it. They stand
before the pictures and make the sign, or come

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY 189

to Church and imitate other people, but it is
only a new superstition."

Wherever Russia is extending her Empire,
there this policy of Russification through religion
is in progress. The priest accompanies the sur-
veyor, the engineer, and the workmen on the new
railways, with the soldiers in northern Persia, not
necessarily for the spiritual benefit of the Russians
themselves — many of them are too indifferent—
but for the stated purpose of bringing the non-
Russian inhabitants of the newly-acquired terri-
tories under the powerful influence of the Ortho-
dox Church. Thus we have seen the " railway-
car Church," with its gorgeously-apparelled priests
initiating the tribesmen into the mysteries of the
Christian religion.

Teaching there is none. The Bible can only
be had in the Old Sclavonic. Like the Abkhasians
before mentioned, the converts only acquire a new
superstition. All that the clergy demand is that
those who are within the pale of Orthodoxy should
show the Church a certain nominal allegiance; and
in this matter of allegiance they are by no means
very exacting. So long as a member refrains from
openly attacking the Church and from going over
to another confession, he may entirely neglect
all religious ordinances, and publicly profess
scientific theories logically inconsistent with any
kind of dogmatic belief, without the slightest danger
of incurring ecclesiastical censure. The Govern-

190 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

ment vigilantly protects her from attack, and all
discussions in the Press are rigorously censored,
although here and there a stray article eludes the
eagle eye of the censor.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

BIBLIOGRAPHY.
KROSSNOGEON . . Constructive Quarterly, Dec.,

VON DER BRUGGEN Russia of To-day.

MiLYOUKOV . . . Russia and its Crisis.

LATIMER .... Under Three Tsars.

LATIMER .... Life of Dt. Badeker.

BVFORD .... Peasants and Prophets.

" By lasting out the strokes of fate,
In trials long they learned to feel

Their inborn strength; as hammer's weight
Will splinter glass but temper steel."
Pushkin.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

AS we have seen in the previous chapter, all
who have dared to dissent from the
doctrine, practice, and authority of the
Orthodox Church in Russia have had their full
meed of persecution and suffering. Whilst the
Church, as an ecclesiastical organisation, has not
been entirely free from the charge of perse-
cuting those who have denied her authority, the
chief blame must undoubtedly rest upon the civil
government.

Wherever there has been an outburst of
fanatical intolerance, resulting in brutalities almost
unspeakable, the cause can almost always be
traced to the higher civil Authorities.

The Russian peasant is peculiarly tolerant of
other religious faiths (save perhaps amongst the
members of the "Union of the Russian People,"
commonly called the " Black Hundreds "), and he
takes quite a philosophic view of people who are
not Orthodox.

His general attitude is, " After all, we are
brothers." " The Tatars, when they are ill, send
for the witch-doctor to drive away the bad devils;

193

194 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

when we are ill we send for the priest to pray
to the Mother of God." " For the Tatars the
witch-doctor beats a drum, and the illness goes;
we burn a candle to our saint, and the illness
goes."

" If he calls in the witch-doctor, that is his
business; if we have the 'pope,' that is our busi-
ness. Never mind; when they are well they come
to our Church and worship our God. We are
brothers." " God made Christianity for me, and
Mohammedanism for the Tatars; and if the Tatar
finds that his witch-doctor cannot keep the devil
away he comes to our ' pope,' and if the witch-
doctor keeps him well, that is good. We are
brothers."

Christian Russian and Mohammedan Tatar
mutually respect each other's religion, they inter-
mingle socially, they are subjects of the one Tsar,
they live their ordinary life on terms of civic
and social equality, they enjoy the same privileges
and help to bear the same burdens.

Save in exceptional and rare circumstances
there, is neither racial nor religious animosity in
the nature of the Russian peasant; for bigotry
and intolerance one must turn to the higher priests
and the bureaucrats.

From the time of the Strigolnik heresy until
the present day, every movement away from the
Orthodox Church has passed through a time of
bitter sorrow and tribulation,

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 195

Whilst it is true that there is a full measure
of religious liberty for those born outside the
Orthodox fold, it is at the same time true that
those who dare to forsake her courts and be-
come Sectarians are laying themselves open
to severe and lasting persecution. The point of
view of the Orthodox Church has been ably
presented by Professor Krossnogeon of Dorpat
University. He lays down certain principles which
guide the Church and Government in their
attitude towards other religious bodies, principles
which grant to the Sectarians born outside the
fold of the Orthodox Church a fairly full measure
of religious liberty, but which must inevitably
lead to repression if not the persecution of all
those who are compelled by conscience to leave
the Orthodox Church.

He says, in an article in the Constructive
Quarterly for December 1913:

" Every Church, considering that it is
necessary to belong to it to be saved, cannot
be 'indifferent towards other creeds, or allow
indifference in the affairs of faith ; still less can
it tolerate their proselytising; yet it is its duty
to spread its teaching amongst people not belong-
ing to it/

" No Church can remain indifferent if one
of its members leaves it and joins another
religious community.

" Every Church, considering that it is

196 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

necessary to belong to it in order to be saved,
cannot allow its members to have any intercourse
with the followers of other confessions, either in
Sacraments, or religious rites, or prayers in
general ... if it permitted the promiscuous meet-
ing of various confessions in Church communion,
it would bring destruction on itself."

These principles are based upon the absolute
confidence with which the Orthodox Church
identifies religious faith with the Church's creed
and religious duty with the Church's requirements.

Professor Krossnogeon brings us back to the
old battle ground of the Reformers of three
centuries ago. The Reformation raised the
question of the relation of the free individual to
the religious society. Professor Oman, in The
Problem of Faith and Freed on, says : " That
the Reformers, as is so frequently asserted, ignored
the Church ... is not shown either by their
principles or their practices. To Calvin, as to
Augustine, the Church is our mother. At her
breasts our religious life is nourished."

The Church is something higher than the
organised society, and her true succour is some-
thing more than word and sacrament.

In Russia the Orthodox Church is considered
to be the only true and salutary religion. It
always has been the dominant religion. All the
others are tolerated upon the strict condition that
their adherents do not impugn the rights of the

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 197

dominant Church, and do not lead Orthodox
persons astray into their own confessions.

" In regions of personal religious judgment,
the State must guarantee a complete freedom of
conscience; in this region it cannot have recourse
either to sword, prison, or deprivation of civic
rights. But we must discern between freedom
of personal confession and freedom of religious
assembly in public worship and founding new
religious communities. The unlimited and un-
conditioned freedom of such assemblies passes
the limits of the demands of religious toleration;
the State cannot leave public religious communities
of this kind without supervision and regulation."

The policy of the Russian Government towards
all " alien " confessions for five centuries or more,
at least until very recent times, has been very
clear and decided.

In all lands conquered by Russian arms and
incorporated into the Empire, the inhabitants have
had granted to them, by Imperial Ukase, the right
to retain their own faith and practice. Thus in
the Crimea and the Caucasus one will frequently
see Mohammedan Mosques, Armenian, Georgian
and Greek Churches almost side by side, whilst
in Siberia and Turkestan; Buriats, Kalmuks,
Samoyedes retain their primeval forms of worship.
True, in many places there is a veneer of Ortho-
doxy over all, but it is only a veneer. So also
we find in the Baltic provinces Lutheranism in

198 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

the ascendancy, whilst in Poland the Roman
Catholics are supreme.

When Dorpat was surrendered to the
victorious Russians, the following proclamation was
issued to the inhabitants :

" The citizens of Dorpat shall keep their
religion of the Augsberg confession without any
changes, and they will not be compelled to give
it up; their Churches with all their belongings
remain as they were."

This proclamation, of course, has not pre-
vented the Orthodox Church from pursuing a
policy of vigorous propaganda amongst the
people; again, when, after a long and severe
struggle with Sweden, the latter country had to
cede the Baltic provinces to the Tsar, the Russian
Government decreed that :

" No violation of conscience shall be intro-
duced in the lands that have been conceded; on
the contrary, the Evangelical faith, its Churches
and schools and all that belongs to them, will
remain and shall be maintained on the same
foundation as they were under the last Swedish
Government, on condition, however, that in these
lands the faith of the Greek confession shall be
allowed henceforth to be practised fully and with-
out impediment."

Under Catherine the Great the boundaries
of the empire were greatly extended, and she
followed the same broad spirit of tolerance to-

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 199

wards her new subjects. The Government of her
day issued a proclamation:

" In such a great Empire, spreading its
dominions over so many different peoples, to
forbid them to have different religions would be
a defect, very harmful for the peace and safety
of the inhabitants."

And the Holy Synod followed with:

" As the Most High God tolerates on earth
all religions, languages, and confessions, Her
Majesty complying with His Holy Will, allows
to all free action, desiring only that love and
harmony should always reign among her subjects."

This policy of non-interference has been
departed from in recent years, largely owing to
the new watchword, " One Nation, One Tsar, One
Church." Strong measures have been taken to
win over whole villages and townships to the
dominant faith, money has been poured forth
constantly and liberally, and even the dreaded
Cossacks have been called in as " missionaries."

The same policy of broad toleration was fol-
lowed in connection with the settlement of the
Mennonites and Hussites in South Russia. They
were guaranteed religious liberty, the right to
assemble for public worship, and even according
to their religious principles, were granted exemp-
tion for ever from compulsory military service.
In fact, during the reign of Peter the Great,
" alien " confessions not only had freedom, but in

200 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

a large measure enjoyed his personal approval,
if not patronage, for he at times visited the
Churches and joined in the worship.

Whether among the inhabitants of con-
quered territories, or settlers from other lands,
religious toleration was granted upon the con-
dition that the non-Orthodox should make no
attempt to propagate their doctrines amongst the
Orthodox, and that the Orthodox should have
freedom to establish their Churches, and that
priests and monks could carry on an active mis-
sionary work in the midst of the " aliens " from
the true Church.

The Russian Government, in its attitude to
non-Orthodox confessions, has always been guided
by the two principles : The preservation of the
dominant Orthodox faith, and non-interference with
the inner religious life of the individual, leaving
herself free to suppress public assemblies for
public worship.

Whenever and wherever there has been any
spread of " alien " confessions amongst the
Russian Orthodox peasantry, then the strong arm
of the Government has come down upon the
propagandists swiftly and ruthlessly.

There are many, very many, black pages
in recent Russian history dealing with the ' new
methods " in the Baltic Provinces, Poland, Bes-
sarabia, and amongst the Georgians and Armenians
in the Caucasus. Whilst the policy of the Govern-

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 201

ment towards the non-Orthodox of non-Russian
nationality has been one of broad toleration,
limited by the restriction against spreading their
distinctive doctrines, a different principle has pre-
vailed concerning those born of Russian Orthodox
parents, who, upon the compulsion of conscience,
have seceded from the dominant Orthodox Church.

The fundamental law of Russia on the sub-
ject of religion is, " Every nation is free to believe
its own religion." The Tsar, some time ago, when
the matter of religious liberty was being agitated
throughout the Empire, owing to the forcible
conversion of Roman Catholics to the Orthodox
faith, wrote : " Let the Poles worship God accord-
ing to their Latin rite, but Russian people always
were and will remain Orthodox; together with
their Tsar and Tsarina they above all venerate
and love the native Orthodox Church."

Whilst theoretically there is religious free-
dom, practically there is no such thing. A
Russian Orthodox, or any other believer, is only
free to adhere to the faith in which he was born.
An exception to this rule is to be found in the
fact that the Orthodox Church is free to receive
converts into her borders from other religions.
Legally a man born in the Orthodox faith cannot
change it. He may be a heretic, a freethinker, a
Sectarian; in law he is still Orthodox; he may be
compelled to attend the confessional, to take
Holy Communion at least once a year; if he

202 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

insists on his individual belief or want of belief,
he -does not cease to be Orthodox ; he is an erring
Orthodox; he is supposed to repent and then to
be given over to his ' pope ' in order to learn
better. Strictly speaking, there is nothing in
Russian law to countenance persecution for for-
saking the Orthodox faith, no legal punishment
for the change exists. In law the convert is not
held responsible; the responsibility rests with the
converter. He is the criminal. It is just here
where persecution finds an entrance. Not being
able to chastise the converts, and according to
the law being compelled to recognise the con-
version as an accomplished fact, so far as the
next generation is concerned (a man shall remain
in the faith in which he is born), the law con-
centrates all its severity on the would-be con-
verters. Where there is a crime, there must be
a criminal. In cases where the sect is proclaimed
as " particularly dangerous," as recently with the
Baptists, then the punishment meted out to the
converter may be stripes, hard labour, or banish-
ment.

The principle that a Russian is always sup-
posed to TDC an Orthodox must inevitably lead
to persecution and crying injustice. One typical
case came to my notice whilst travelling in the

Eastern Provinces. R was a worker in a

mill. He had beeen baptised four months. Filled
with enthusiasm for his new faith, he had spoken

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 203

to some of his fellow-workmen. Three of them
subsequently were baptised, with the result that
they were interrogated by the police as to who
had persuaded them to change their faith; during
their severe cross-examination they mentioned the

name of R . He was arrested and brought

before the judge. His defence was that the New
Testament commanded him to " preach the Gospel
to every creature." Instead of being committed
to prison, he was ordered thirty strokes on the
bare back.

Dostoiesfsky, in The House of the Dead,
describes the feelings of one who had under-
gone the flogging.

" I questioned my companion often in refer-
ence to this pain, that I might know to what
kind of suffering it might be compared. It was
no idle curiosity which urged me. I repeat that
I was moved and frightened ; but it was in vain ;
I could get no satisfaction. ' It burns like fire,'
was the general answer; they all said the same
thing.

" First I tried to question M . . . ' It burns
like fire; like Hell. It seems as if one's back
were in a furnace.' "

That Carl Joubert was right when he de-
scribed the Manifesto of 1905 as " Liberty in
Matters of Faith " as a " Stock Exchange Ukase,
has been proved by subsequent events.

On November 24, 1912, the Council of Empire

THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

in Russia adopted the first paragraph of the Bill
regulating conversion from one belief to another.
According to this clause, no one can be trans-
ferred from one sect to another unless he has
attained his majority, and has given forty days'
notice to the police of his intention. Further,
transfer is only allowed from one Christian Church
to another, or from a non-Christian to a Christian
religion. The Duma wished for a wider liberty,
and proposed that an adult should have the right
to choose his Church freely, but this proposal
was rejected by the Council.

In October of that year the Minister of the
Interior published regulations forbidding the
formation of Young Men's Societies and the
holding of Sunday Schools in connection with
the Baptists. He has also forbidden the practice
of baptism in the open air, save where special per-
mission can be obtained direct from the Minister
of the Interior. Anyone at all acquainted with
the difficulties in the way of receiving permission
for anything at all contrary to the wishes of the
Orthodox Church, will recognise that the primitive
practice of baptism in river and stream is prac-
tically forbidden.

Strenuous efforts are being continually made
to bring about the abrogation of the limited
amount of religious freedom granted by the Ukase
of 1905. The Government is engaged in an active
campaign against this right, especially as it refers

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 205

to the growing body of Baptists. All manner of
charges are trumped up against the leaders of
the sect.

Take what happened in Odessa during 1913
as a typical instance; Pavlov, one of the early
pioneers of the Baptist faith, writes :

" During the last four months I have had on
four occasions to attend in the Law Courts to
answer false accusations. Twice I was acquitted,
in the third I was sentenced to one month's im-
prisonment, and one charge is still pending. In
all these cases I have not violated the Law, the
charges against me being dictated by animosity.
The last case occupied the Court for three days,
about sixty witnesses being summoned. Three
other ministers were accused with me of blas-
phemy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, His
Mother, His Church, the Holy Cross, Holy Icons,
and Holy Relics. The accusing witnesses con-
firmed on oath their depositions, but their false-
hood soon became manifest through their con-
tradictions among each other and the testimonies
of our witnesses. The accusers had, during three
years, in four different places .'of worship,
gathered from our sermons separate phrases and
sentences to prove their case, but now they were
confounded.

" The Public Prosecutor, finding that his
accusation of blasphemy might be rejected by the
jury, added a further charge of unlawful propa-

206 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

ganda of our faith. After protracted hearing the
jury declared one of the ministers ' not guilty,'
and the other three, Shamkov, Kramshenko, and
myself, guilty of propaganda, and we were
sentenced to one month's imprisonment."

This is but an illustration of what is going
on all through Russia. " Persecution rages through-
out the Empire " writes another worker, and he
gives instances of heavy punishments being in-
flicted upon the Sectarians for propaganda and
blasphemy. Blasphemy, it should be remembered,
does not necessarily mean the use of insulting
language. It is blasphemy to refer to the Icon as
an idol, and the penalty is as much as three years'
imprisonment.

Prayer-meetings were recently prohibited by
the Police of Poltava, on the ground that they
were " directed against the State," though the
congregation was legalised. After a long protest,
the Baptists got the prohibition cancelled. Then
the police refused to allow the meetings to pro-
ceed because the application contained the words,
" To meet for reading the Word of God," while
the permit was only for " singing and praying."
Eventually they were permitted to meet on con-
dition that they did nothing but pray and sing.

These are but typical instances of what is
going on all over Russia, and reveal the spirit
and the attitude of the authorities towards all
Dissenters from the Orthodox Church,

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 207

The following proclamation issued in Moscow
three years ago, on the opening of a Baptist
Church there, speaks for itself:

" Orthodox Christians, what is being done
in our Holy Russia? What is happening in our
Mother Moscow, the white-stoned city? From far-
off lands, from seas of the enemy, an unseen army
has come upon us to make war against our holy
faith. . . . The enemy remembers that in the
twelfth year of last century, i.e., the Napoleonic in-
vasion, he could not break the Russian might,
but was himself broken on the Rock Christ, that
is, the Holy Orthodox Church. And the enemy
knows he cannot break the Russian might if in the
future also our people will have strong faith in
Christ, if Moscow, the heart of Russia, in the
coming years also will be faithful to the Holy
Orthodox Church.

" See, then, on the street Pokroff, which is so
called from the Pokroff shrine of the Most Holy
Mother of God, is an inimical camp. Baptists
have laid siege. But why have they come to the
heart of Russia, to Moscow? Take notice. They
desire to teach the Orthodox Russian people what
it is to believe in Christ. Wonder of wonders !
For a thousand years the Holy Orthodox Church
of Christ has been known in Russia ; tens of millions
of the Russian people, together with their Tsar,
love Christ and His Holy Church. And now Fetler
cries aloud that the Orthodox Church do not

14

208 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

believe in Christ, and offers to show them Christ
and to instruct them in the faith of Christ. Is
this not to mock the Russian people. . . . Ah,
you see, it is not faith that Fetler is after. He
wants to break in pieces in Orthodox people their
faith in Christ in order that after that he may
destroy the Russian land itself. . . . Wake up,
then, O ye Orthodox, from your perilous dream.
Quench these diabolic arrows. . . . Think well
into what an abyss you are being drawn by
these servants of Antichrist. Be not deceived
when they quote Gospel texts : Satan also, when
tempting Christ, quoted Holy Scripture. But the
Lord replied, ' Go thou behind me Satan.' Oh,
brethren, preserve the Holy faith and the Ortho-
dox Church above everything."

Nothing more pernicious to the health of the
nation can be thought of than this violent sub-
jugation of the national soul which cries for air
and freedom. Nothing will touch the fibre of
this Russian people so much as the unfettering
of the conscience by the liberation of the religious
instinct. Nothing that the Government can do
in the way of further facilities for education, for
agrarian relief, or the almost innumerable quack
remedies proposed from the various Ministries for
the remedy of the people's wrongs, will have a
tithe of the effect upon the soul of Russia and
its fuller development, of a bold policy of free
and unfettered right to worship God according

209

to the peasant's own religious instinct. The
Russian peasant is a curious mixture. He lets
himself be almost ill-treated even to death's door;
he suffers everything almost without complaint;
physically, spiritually, and morally he shows an
enviable strength to bear and to suffer, to be
and to do; and wherever the Bible penetrates
amongst this people and they surrender their lives
to Jesus Christ, there the effect of the new faith
is seen at once. It is such as the best Government
in the world could not effect by worldly means
alone.

FROM THE Petersburg Herald. SEPT. 22, 1913.

AN OFFICIAL DECLARATION CONCERNING

THE BAPTISTS.

The " Information Bureau " notifies as under :

" In a number of papers rumours have been
circulated of late to the effect that the Ministry
of the Interior has taken up the question of declar-
ing the Baptist sect as ' illegal ' and their in-
fluence injurious.

" For this reason it appears necessary to make
the following statement:

" The existing law provides the possibility of
a restriction of the liberty of the creeds only
with respect to such sects as are of a fanatical
and openly immoral character, in which cases the
adherence to such sects involves criminal pro-
ceedings.

210 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

" In the creed professed by the Russian
Baptists hitherto there are no indications of
elements which would evidence such fanatical or
immoral characteristics. From the standpoint of
the law referred to, there are not, therefore, at
present, sufficient grounds for declaring the
Baptists criminally punishable or their teaching
as not to be tolerated.

" However, the study of the present position
of the Baptists in Russia leads to the undoubted
conclusion that the efforts of the leaders of
this sect are directed towards the farthest-
reaching proselytising, not only among othel
denominations of the population, but principally
among the masses of the purely Orthodox popula-
tion. Closely connected as they are with foreign
Baptist organisations, and receiving from the
latter directions as to their activities, the Russian
Baptists enjoy far-reaching material support from
foreign Baptist leaders, as evidenced in financial
reports of Baptist Congresses and from other data,
the said foreign leaders frankly stating that they
have found in Russia the most favourable field for
the work of their religious mission. It is obvious
that these special conditions of Baptist activity,
in view of the depreciative attitude of our Legis-
lature towards the propagation of foreign creeds,
imposes upon the Ministry of the Interior the
duty of carefully controlling this sect, and call
for energetic measures being taken to combat

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 21 i

these tendencies, within the limits of the present
laws, since such manifestations can in no wise
be founded upon the religious privileges conferred
upon Sectarians by the most high Ukase of April
17, 1905."

THE RASKOLNIKS

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

MOURAVIEFF . History of the Russian Church.
STANLEY . . . Lectures on the Eastern Church.
UROSSOV . . . Memoirs of a Russian Governor.
WALLACE . . . Russia.
MlLYOUKOV . . The Crisis in Russia.
Free Russia, 1897.

213

THE RASKOLNIKS
(OLD BELIEVERS.)

THE beginning of " the great Schism " in
Russia can be traced back to the middle
of the fifteenth century. The Orthodox
Church was until then under the Patriarch of
Constantinople. There was continual correspon-
dence between learned Greek prelates and the
Russian ecclesiastical authorities, the service-books
were carefully preserved from unauthorised inno-
vations, and mistakes in copying were regularly
corrected; but with the fall of Constantinople
and the consequent involuntary separation of
Russia from the headship of the Eastern Orthodox
Church, inaccuracies crept little by little into the
Slavonic books of Divine Service and into some
of the ceremonies, and as they could no longer
be compared with the Greek books and ceremonies,
they gradually took deep root amongst the people.
In 1551, the Tsar, John IV., being aware
of the errors which had crept into the perform-
ance of Divine Service, and the disorders which

216 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

resulted therefrom, convoked a great Council of
the Russian Bishops, under the Metropolitan
Macarius, and opened the proceedings himself in
a speech which deserves to be placed on record
for its strength and simplicity.

" My father, pastors, and teachers, see now
every one of you what counsel or discernment
is in him, and pray God at the same time for
His merciful aid; stir up your understandings,
and enlighten yourselves with sound knowledge
as to all the Divinely-inspired ordinances, so as
to discern in what way the Lord hath delivered
them; and me, your son, enlighten and instruct
to all godliness, as it ought to be with religious
Kings, in all righteous laws for the Kingdom, in
all soundness of faith and purity; and be ye
not slack to establish the whole of Orthodox Chris-
tianity, that we may keep the law of Christ in
all its truth, perfect and inviolate. I for my
part shall always be ready, as with one soul, to
join and support you either in correcting what is
amiss, or confirming what is well established,
according as the Holy Ghost shall show you; if
so be I should ever oppose you contrary to the
letter or spirit of the Divine Canons, do not ye
hold your peace at it, but rebuke me; if I should
still be disobedient, inhibit me without any fear;
so shall my soul live, and the souls of all my
subjects."

The Tsar went on to desire the Council to

THE RASKOLNIKS 217

find a solution of the many questions relating to
the Church courts, ceremonies, chants, Icons, the
making of the sign of the Cross, the correction
of the Service-books, the eradication of super-
stitions, etc.

The Council spent many months over its
labours, and at last sent forth an authoritative
answer to all the questions in a document of one
hundred chapters, thus earning for itself the name
of the Hundred Chapter Council.

The Council, however, instead of reforming
abuses and rectifying mistakes, gave their coun-
tenance to certain superstitions and local errors,
which, ultimately, under the reforming zeal of
Peter the Great and the Patriarch Nikon, pro-
duced the great schism of the " Raskolniks."

In our study of Russian Dissent, we must
not confound the Raskolniki, Starabradski, or
Staraveri with the " Sectarians," for the Dissenters,
as such, are more Orthodox than the official Ortho-
dox. They are conservatives in the social as well
as in the religious sense.

Many factors led to "the great Schism"; the
abolition of the Patriarchate and the substitution
in place thereof of the Holy Synod, the new
customs introduced by Nikon from the South, and
finally, the new spirit brought into the Church by
Peter the Great, consequent upon his travels in
the West.

The external causes seem to have been very

218 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

trivial. They objected to the change in the way
of spelling the name of Jesus, from Isus to lesus;
to them it was a mortal sin to say the name
in two syllables instead of three; they objected
to the clergy giving the benediction with three
fingers instead of two; and to sing the Hallelujah
thrice instead of once was a sin against the Holy
Ghost.

Their form of the Cross has three transverse
beams instead of the Greek two and the Latin
one, whilst they held that the course of the sun
demonstrated to all true believers that proces-
sions should proceed from left to right, instead
of right to left. The introduction of passports
was the mark of the beast, for to them the
ancient habit of the Russians to wander where
they will was the outward evidence of true Chris-
tianity. Huge bonfires were lit, and passports,
which more or less confined a man to his own
village, were publicly burned as a protest against
this negation of Christianity. They objected to
the use of modern Russian in the services and
any alteration in the service-books or revision
of the Scriptures.

The zeal of the Tsar Peter also led to violent
protests upon the part of the Old Believers. To
them it was a mortal sin to introduce into the
Churches religious pictures painted by Western
artists, or men outside the pale of the Orthodox
Church. All such pictures were an abomination

THE RASKOLNIKS 219

in the eyes of the ancient Russians. To listen to
chants, sung in the sweeter and purer notes of
the Greek deacons, and those imported by Peter
from Germany and Catherine II. from Italy, was
to be in danger of eternal torment. To smoke
tobacco was anathema. Had not the Tsar and
Patriarchs threatened to tear out the nostrils of
such offenders ? They declared that " it has been
said that it is not that which goeth into a man
defileth him, but that which cometh out."

Until quite recently it was a sin to eat the
potato, for was it not that accursed apple, the
very fruit of the devil, which led to the driving
out of their fathers from Paradise?

The alteration of the beginning of the New
Year from September — the time of the creation
of the world — to January was one of the signs
of Antichrist. Could there be any truth in the
year beginning in January when the ground was
covered in snow, whilst in September the corn
was ready for the sickle and the orchard fruits
were fully ripe?

Peter's command that the Russians should
shave their beards was denounced in no un-
measured terms. " To shave the beard was a
sin which even the blood of martyrs could not
expiate." "Man was made in the image of God;
was the image of God to be defaced?" Many,
when compelled to shave, kept their beards to
be buried with them, fearing lest without them

220 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

they would not be recognised at the gates of
heaven.

In 1714 toleration was permitted on con-
dition that the Dissenters paid double poll-tax,
and upon their paying certain fines. Many of them
who had been harried and hunted through the
forests and in almost wild and inaccessible places,
settled along the banks of the Volga and Don,
where they have large villages, neat and orderly —
a striking contrast to the ordinary village of the
Russian peasant. Under Catherine II. further
measures of religious liberty were granted, and
the faithful returned in their thousands to Moscow
and adjacent towns, and quickly became pros-
perous merchants.

These Dissenters have suffered the knout;
exile, and even execution, for their convictions,
and largely because of their persecutions they
became a militant Church, and now are some of
the most moral, energetic, and prosperous of all
the subjeccts of the Emperor.

Prince Urossov, in his Memoirs of a Russian
Governor, refers to the Dissenters in the following
glowing terms :

" I had had ever since childhood a strong
sympathy for the Raskolniks, who in our vicinity
were distinguished from the rest of the population
by, isobriety, industry, and a certain sense of
personal dignity. Consequently I was convinced
that among the Russian Christian population

THE RASKOLNIKS 221

Orthodox (which, as a matter of fact, so far as
ritualistic forms and in part also the confession
of faith are concerned, came near to idolatry)
the Raskolniks and Sectarians must be considered
the most active, and, in religious respects, the
least indifferent element, since they hold to their
belief and to their ritual, although sometimes they
seek new paths for their religious ideals. I had
come to have an unconquerable prejudice against
the great mass of the Greek Orthodox clergy,
who can hardly find a defender outside of their
own number. Hence, I used every opportunity
to accede to the modest request which they laid
before me."

Over against the testimony of the liberal
prince we have the fulmination of Gorboonov, who,
with unmistakable prejudice, describes them as
" enclosed in strong walls which effectually shut him
in from the outside world and prevent his eyes
seeing, or his ears hearing. Ancient tradition,
of which he knows only the ceremonial, consti-
tutes his faith; remove the walls, and the sect
stands exposed a hollow sham. The ignorance
of the peasantry alone maintains it. Illumine this
nest of obscurity with the light of truth, and it
stands exposed to all and each as the essence of
frivolity and meaningless emptiness — total dark-
ness. Let the light of God shine and expose
all the emptiness, all the lawlessness. Outside re-
straints, what strong walls surround this fortress

THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

of religion ! inside, nothing but emptiness. Hence,
light, more light ! "

Under toleration, strong differences of opinion
set in, and the Old Believers separated into parties
and sects. One section retained all the sacraments
and ceremonial observances in the older form.
As the original priests died, others were not
ordained in their places, and so the services were
necessarily emasculated. However, in 1844 the
Austrian Government sanctioned a Bishopric of the
Orthodox in Galicia, and since that time priests
have been regularly ordained there for the fuller
services of the Dissenters. This sect is called
the Staraobradski, and the Government has sought
to incorporate them in the Holy Orthodox Church
by making certain concessions to them in matters
of ritual, and has even allowed to them a regular
priest of the Establishment, whilst they have the
use of several Churches in and near to Moscow.

" Of all the sects, the ' Old Ritualists ' stand
nearest to the official Church. They hold the
same dogmas, practise the same rites, and differ
only in trifling ceremonial observances, which few
people consider essential. In the hope of inducing
them to return to the official fold, the Govern-
ment created at the beginning of the last century
special Churches, in which they were allowed to
retain their ceremonial peculiarities on condition
of accepting regularly consecrated priests and sub-
mitting to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. As yet the.

THE RASKOLNIKS 223

design has not met with much success. The great
majority of the ' Old Ritualists ' regard it as
a trap, and assert that the Church, in making this
concession, has been guilty of self-contradiction.
' The Ecclesiastical Council of Moscow,' they say,
' anathematised our forefathers for holding to the
old ritual, and declared that the whole course of
nature would be changed sooner than the curse
be withdrawn. The course of nature has not
changed, but the anathema, has been cancelled."*
This argument ought to have a certain weight
with those who believe in the infallibility of
Ecclesiastical Councils.

A fine diplomatic stroke was made by the
Government when, at the Coronation of the Tsar,
a number of prominent " Old Believers " were
invited to take part in some of the ceremonies
and rejoicings. But the hope that they will ulti-
mately fuse with the National Church is a futile
one. The roots of antagonism are too deeply
fixed in them for the " Old Believers " lightly to
renounce the position which they have inherited
from their fathers.

The larger number of the " Raskolniks," how-
ever, when the original Dissenting priests died,
refused to accept others, on the ground that those
ordained by the National Church had not sacra-
mental grace, and refrained from all ceremonial
observances, arguing that there could be no real
* (Wallace, Russia.)

'5

224 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

priesthood without valid ordination. They are
known as the Bezpopoftsi or " priestless ones."

" The Old Ritualists " are mainly ceremonial
conservatives; they have a profound repugnance
to all manner of innovations; theirs is mainly a
non-possumus attitude towards the official Church,
and they have been a solid, compact body from
early days ; on the other hand, the " priestless
ones " have been pioneers, seeking out new paths,
trying to discover some way of salvation, a means
of reaching the final goal of Truth. Consequently
they have split into many different bodies, their
number being almost beyond reckoning. We deal
with a few of the more lasting and important
ones here, relegating the more fanatical and bizarre
to the chapter headed " The Russian Sects."

The " priestless ones " divided into two
bodies — the " Pomortsi " and the " Theodosians."

The " Pomortsi " preserved intact the re-
ligious ideas of the Schism, but they came to a
compromise with the Government, paid their taxes,
found scriptural authority for submitting to the
civil power, and became more or less reconciled
to their position under the local authorities. They
commenced to render unto Caesar the things which
belonged to Caesar, to pray for the " Little Father "
(the Tsar), and to accept military service.
Gradually they settled down as law-abiding
citizens, the question of marriage largely in-
fluencing them in their decision. Being without

THE RASKOLNIKS 225

priests, they could not have a valid marriage
ceremony (according to them marriage was a
sacrament), and although they nominally resorted
to celibacy, children were born of their irregular
unions, and a class of " orphans " arose.

In addition, celibacy was an " economic "
failure, as the peasant needed a housewife who
would attend to the domestic side of his nature,
and at times help him with his agricultural pursuits.
After a Council of leaders, held at Moscow, many
accepted the doctrine of the necessity for marriage,
and although such a union is not recognised by
the State law, or valid in the eyes of the Orthodox
Church, yet in all other respects it makes for
purity in the relation of the sexes.

When the " Pomortsi " effected a partial
reconciliation with the civil authorities, a number
of their adherents followed a leader named
Theodosi (hence they are called " Theodosians ").
These absolutely refused to recognise the authority
of the State, and maintained that the Tsar was
Antichrist. At first they stood aloof from all
save their fellow-believers.

Gradually the necessities of trade and living
brought them into closer touch with their fellow-
men, and much of their exclusiveness was broken
down. Under Catherine II. they were allowed to
build a semi-monastic establishment near to
Moscow. The Superior was a man of much native
shrewdness, and becarrje on very good terms with

226 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

many of the officials. " His name and fame were
spoken of in Moscow, Astrakhan, Riga, St. Peters-
burg, Riazan, and beyond the frontiers." He did
much to soften the character of his " flock,"
and they began to live in the cities, engage in
trade, and generally to mingle on equal terms
with their fellow-men. They gradually forgot
their wild and extravagant ideas concerning the
" Reign of Antichrist," " The time of trouble for
the faithful," " The Day of Judgment," and other
Apocalyptic studies, and accommodated them-
selves to the ordinary routine of the daily lives
of ordinary men.

The Theodosians coming into touch with the
civil authorities led to another " split." The " mar-
riage " question was the centre round which the
storm raged. Some few of the sect had striven
to conceal the origin of the " orphan " class, but
after the sanction of the Council that regular
unions could place place and be approved of,
boldly declared that the irregular cohabitation be-
tween the sexes was a religious necessity, " be-
cause in order to be saved from sin men must
confess and repent, and in order to repent men
must sin." Their leader was a peasant, known
as Philip, hence their name of Philipists. They
reverted to the old doctrines that the Tsar is
Antichrist, that Imperial and local authorities are
the servants of Satan. However, they do not
openly resist the authorities of Church and

THE RASKOLNIKS 227

State, but they do not attempt to hide their
opinions.

They are severe in their aspect, Puritanical
in many of their views, and Pharisaical in their
horror and detestation of anything which could
be called heretical and unclean. Wallace says of
them " that they sometimes carry their Pharisaical
fastidiousness to such an extent that they will
throw away the handle of a door if it has been
touched by a heretic."

In the second half of the eighteenth century,
Euphemius revived the old doctrines, repudiated
the " truce with the civil authorities," denounced
both " Theodosians " and " Philipists," and founded
a new sect, called the Christoviye or Christ's
People. He formulated anew the doctrine that
the Tsar is Antichrist, that landed property was
invented by Peter the Great to tie people to the
soil, and thus contaminate the faithful with the
world by causing them to live in the midst of
heretics.

He brought about a complete rupture with
the civil authorities, with the State and its law,
with the Church and its ordinances, with Society
and its traditional morals.

They are known to-day variously as
" Stranniki " (Wanderers) or " Beguny " (Fugitives).
According to their creed, all who wish to escape
from the " Wrath to Come " must have no settled
home ; they must sever all ties ; they should wander

228 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

about from place to place. The true Christian
is a pilgrim and a stranger, and to be associated
with any given locality means that in the Day
of Judgment, being of the world, he will perish
with the world.

The practical needs of life, however, have led
to compromises in the past few years. The
nomadic life is still lived by hundreds of the
sect; they wander from place to place, and they
are not infrequently met with in the State rail-
ways as " hares " (Russian term for stowaways).
There are many, however, who belong to the
sect who live in villages, follow mainly agricultural
pursuits, hold their passports from the authorities,
pay their dues to the taxgatherer, and generally
act as the villagers around them. They are liberal
in their gifts to their more thorough brethren,
and never refuse food or shelter to the " pilgrim."
When they feel death approaching, they will go
into the forests and woods — or into a garden, if
there be no more secluded spot near — and in the
open air their soul will leave its tenement and bid
farewell to an apostate world.

There are many minor bodies, differing on
many points of minor doctrine. Every village
has representatives of them, especially in the
Caucasus and amongst the Cossacks of the Don
and Ural — men who are lineal descendants of the
early fugitives.

The spread of the Scriptures, however, is

THE RASKOLNIKS

modifying many of the extravagances of the
Various bodies of Dissenters, as this extract from
Free Russia will show.

The speaker is an Old Believer.

" The Scriptures which came to us from
England have been the mainstay, not of our re-
ligion only, but of our national life."

"Then they have been much read?"

" In thousands, in tens of thousands of pious
homes. The true Russian likes his Bible, yes,
even better than his dram, for the Bible tells
him of his world beyond his daily toil, a world
of angels and of spirits, in which he believes with
a nearer faith than he puts in the wood and water
about his feet. In every second house of Great
Russia — the true old Russia, in which we speak
the same language and have the same God — you
will find a copy of the Bible, and men who
have the promise in their hearts.

" I am an old man now," continued the
priest, " but my veins still throb with the fervour
of that day when we first received, in our native
speech, the Word that was to bring us eternal
life. The books were instantly bought up and
read; friends lent them to each other; family
meetings were held, in which the Promise was
read aloud. The Popes explained the text; the
elders gave out chapter and verse; even in parties
which met to drink vodka and play cards, some
neighbour would produce his Bible, when the

230 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

company gave up their games to listen while an
aged man read out the story of the Passion and
of the Cross. That story spoke to the Russian
heart, for the Russ, when left alone, has some-
thing of the Galilean in his nature; a something
soft and feminine, almost sacrificial; helping him
to feel, with a force which he could never reach
by reasoning, the patient beauty of his Redeemer's
life and death."

THE UNIATS

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

MOURAVIEFF . History of the Russian Church.

WADDINGTON . History of the Church.

LESCCEUR . . . L'Eglise Catholique in Pologne.

MEAKIN Russian Studies.

231

THE UNIATS

DURING the latter part of the fourteenth
century, strong attempts were made upon
the part of prelates of the Eastern and
Western Churches for union.

The menace of the Turk, the fall of Con-
stantinople, the pressure of the Lithuanians upon
Muscovy, led the Emperor John in 1430 to respond
to the invitation of Pope Eugenius IV. to hold a
conference with a view to the union of the two
Churches.

Eugenius was an experienced and politic old
man, and in proposing to John the calling of a
Council, promised that if the union of the Churches
was agreed to, then the forces of Western Christen-
dom would be used to rescue Constantinople from
the Turks.

Isidore, Metropolitan of Moscow, one time
Bishop of Illyria, a friend of the Pope, a man
of distinguished talents and eloquence, was chosen
to attend the Council on behalf of the Russian
Church, the Prince beseeching him to stand firm
in defence of the doctrines of orthodoxy.

Platon, writing of the embassy, says, " The
Pope, the most artful of men, seeing that Russia

233

234 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

was the most powerful country which professed
the Greek faith, persuaded Isidore, whose senti-
ments he knew, to get himself consecrated and
sent as Metropolitan to Moscow, that he might
assist at the Council about to be held at Florence
in subjecting both the Greek and Russian Churches
to His Holiness's slippers."

Isidore, accompanied by a numerous suite,
travelled, by way of Riga and Liibeck, to Ferrara,
where the Emperor, the Pope, and other dignitaries
were awaiting his arrival to open the Council.

The controversies were long and bitter con-
cerning the procession of the Holy Spirit, purga-
tory, the use of unleavened bread, and, not least
of all, the temporal and ecclesiastical power of
the Pope. The Council was transferred to Florence,
where Eugenius gained the mastery, and declared
beforehand the union of the Churches on terms
favourable to Rome. The controversy broke out
afresh, the Council was dissolved, but Isidore was
decorated with the Roman purple, and had the
title of " Cardinal Legate of the Apostolic See
in Russia " conferred upon him.

He returned to Moscow in triumph, bearing
friendly letters from the Pope to Prince Basil,
but the first time he was called upon to perform
Divine Service in the Cathedral of the Assump-
tion, he was about to name the Roman Pontiff,
when the Prince indignantly rebuked the Primate,
denounced him as a traitor to orthodoxy, and

THE UNIATS 235

charged him with being a false pastor. Bishops
and Boyars were summoned to meet and pass
judgment on the new doctrines. Not one of the
delegates would consent to acknowledge the Pope
as Vicar of Christ; and all rejected the Western
doctrine respecting the procession of the Holy
Spirit, that it is not only from the Father, but
also from the Son, in contradiction to the ancient
creed.

Isidore was confined in the Choudoff monas-
tery; escaped, and fled to Rome; was consecrated
Patriarch of Constantinople; and through a
disciple of his, he succeeded in having a number
of Latin Bishops consecrated to the See of Kieff;
but despite the powerful influence of Casimir,
sovereign of Lithuania and Poland, the attempt
to subject Russia to Rome failed.

A century and a half later the whole country
was to feel the effects of this ecclesiastical intrigue
between the Pope and Isidore in the fearful wars
and massacres between Catholic, Orthodox, and
Uniate.

In 1467, Sophia, heiress of the Greek
Emperors, was, through the instrumentality of the
Pope, Paul, betrothed to the Tsar John, in the
hope that such a union would lead the two
Churches to unite in a general crusade against
the Turks for the' recovery of Constantinople and
the holy places. Sophia had been brought up in
the doctrines of the famous Council of Florence,

236 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

but the expectations of Rome were doomed to
frustration, for no sooner .had Sophia crossed the
frontier into Russia than she embraced the Ortho-
dox faith.

Anthony, the Papal legate who accompanied
her, desired to make his public entry into Moscow,
with the Cross borne before him after the Latin
fashion, and whilst the Tsar hesitated, the Metro-
politan of Moscow, Philip, insisted upon the
supremacy of the Holy Orthodox Church in his
own country. " Whoever," declared he to the
Tsar, " praises and honours a foreign faith, that
man degrades his own. If the legate enters with
his Cross at one gate of the city, I shall go out
of it by the other." The Metropolitan won the
day, and after the celebration of the marriage,
he had several discussions with Anthony concern-
ing the faith and practice of Rome, but the wily
Roman legate avoided entering into any detailed
controversy, excusing himself upon the grounds
that he had not brought his books with him. Thus
the second attempt upon the part of Rome for
union or absorption failed, and the Orthodox
Church emerged triumphant.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century the
continual wars between Russia, Poland, and Sweden
led Gregory XIII., then Pontiff of Rome, to inter-
vene. He sent as his envoy the Jesuit, Anthony
Possevin, who, in his capacity as mediator, passed
from one camp to another, negotiating an armistice.

THE UNIATS 237

and at the same time seeking to gain the adherence
of the Tsar to the decisions of the Council of
Florence.

In every discussion with John upon political
matters the priest sought to introduce the question
of the union of the Churches, until, exasperated
and enraged, the Tsar expressed himself strongly
on the ambition and tyranny of the Romish Pontiffs
and their greed for temporal power.

The work of Anthony produced practically
no effect in Moscow and the then central
parts of Russia, yet his zealous exhortations
and wily policy resulted ultimately in the found-
ing of the Uniats in the western districts.
The propaganda of Possevin resulted in the ad-
hesion of various isolated and scattered commu-
nities to Rome upon the granting of certain
privileges. Thus, whilst they would submit to
papal authority, marriage should be granted to
the priesthood, communion in both elements should
be given to the laity, each Church should retain
its own peculiar customs and liturgy, the Latin
tongue should not be demanded in the services,
and the Slavonic should not only be tolerated, but
approved. This compromise was confirmed under
Jagellon, Prince of Lithuania, conqueror of the
White Russians. The Orthodox peasants of White
Russia, though they had learnt the habit of sub-
jection, yet, in spite of persecutions upon the
part of the Poles, held closely to their re-

238 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

ligion, and accepted the purely nominal headship
of the Pope in return for the promise of
toleration and the aforementioned privileges.

Following upon the compromise, a conference
of Uniats and Romans was held, and after
solemnly confirming their agreement for a union,
which was sealed by a joint celebration of the
liturgy in the same Church, they pronounced a
sentence of excommunication against the Ortho-
dox, and thus the Church of Russia was divided
into Uniat and Orthodox, both preserving, how-
ever, the same form, not only of external rite
in the celebration of Divine service, but even
of doctrine; for Rome allowed the Creed without
alteration, and required nothing but the one
capital point of submission to the Pope.

The internal troubles of Russia in the early
years of the seventeenth century led to a bold
attempt on the part of Rome to make a fresh
effort to subjugate the Orthodox to the papal
authority. The Pretender Demetrius, who claimed
the Imperial throne, was supported by the Jesuits
and by the papal nuncio, Rangoni, who selected
him as their instrument for the purpose of obtain-
ing the submission of the Orthodox in the very
centre of the Empire — Moscow. Every expedient
seemed lawful for such an end. Riot and rebellion
followed in quick succession. The Patriarch Job
denounced the attempt. Whilst he was celebrat-
ing the liturgy a band of insurgents rushed into

THE UNIATS 239

the Church of the Assumption and tore from him
his ecclesiastical robes. He was dragged from the
altar to the Staritsky monastery, but before leaving
he declared, " Here, before this sacred Icon, was I
consecrated to my office, and for nineteen years
have I preserved the purity of the faith : I now
see that misery is coming upon the Kingdom,
that fraud and heresy are to triumph. Oh, Mother
of God, do thou preserve orthodoxy ! " The plot
of the Jesuits for a time prevailed. Roman priests
not only performed services in the Kremlin, but
began openly to condemn the Orthodox religion,
held correspondence with the Pope, who urged
them to bring about a union between the Churches,
counselled them to maintain the closest relations
between the nuncio Rangoni and the Jesuits. The
murder of Demetrius and the firmness of the
Orthodox Bishops and priests brought this, the
third attempt, to an inglorious end.

In the year 1620 there followed a renewal
of the intrigues of Rome, and the Government,
through the boyars, recommenced the persecu-
tion of the Orthodox Bishops, whose legitimate
titles to the office were not recognised by the
papacy. The Cossacks, who had embraced ortho-
doxy, came to the help of their brethren, and
the Jesuits and Uniats ceased their attempts to
gain the ascendancy.

The next move upon the part of Rome was
during the visit of Peter the Great to Paris. Whilst

16

240 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

he was there the celebrated Academy of the Sor-
bonne took advantage of the personal presence of
the Russian Monarch to make proposals to him for
the union of the Western with the Eastern Church ;
but he declined taking upon himself so weighty
a matter, and only promised that he would com-
mand the Russian prelates to return an answer
to the document which had been presented to
him by the Sorbonne.

Upon his return home Peter delivered to the
guardian of the patriarchal throne and the Bishops
who were with him the memorial which he had
received from the Sorbonne.

It was a document of some length, in which
the Parisian doctors enlarged upon the agreement
of the two Churches, in their doctrines, sacraments,
and traditions, in their reverencing of holy relics
and Icons, in invocation of the saints, and
ecclesiastical discipline. They touched super-
ficially on the doctrine of the procession of the
Holy Spirit, endeavouring to interpret the correct
Greek expression of the mission of the Holy Spirit
from the Father through the Son, by the incorrect
Latin addition to the Creed concerning the Pro-
cession being "also from the Son"; and in testi-
mony of their desire for peace, proposed the
example of the Uniats, with whom the Greek
Creed had remained unaltered by the permission
of the Pope.

Still more slightly did the Sorbonne doctors

THE UNIATS 241

speak of the Pope, dwelling on all the liberties
of the Gallican Church, and calling him only the
first according to seniority among other Bishops his
equals, according to the testimony of the ancient
fathers, and rejecting his infallibility, made him
subject to the authority of the Catholic Church
as expressed by a general Council.

However plausible this request for unity might
be in appearance, the Russian Bishops were
cautious; they expressed for themselves the wish
for unity, but they replied that in a matter of
such great importance the decision could not rest
with a conclave of divines, but that the whole
Western Church, together with the whole Eastern,
must take part in one common agreement, and
they could not endanger their ancient unity with
the four (Ecumenical and Orthodox thrones by
forming a new league with a foreign Church. The
activities of Peter in ecclesiastical as well as civil
matters finally scattered all proposals for union,
as by the establishment of the Most Holy Synod
he placed the Orthodox Church upon a stable
State foundation, impregnable against the attacks
of Rome.

With the consolidation of the empire and
the Church, the intrigues of Rome ceased, and
gradually an outward semblance of peace was
maintained between the Orthodox and the Uniats.
With the growing power of the State, and the
spread of orthodoxy, the Uniats began to suffer

242 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

persecution in their turn. They lay at the mercy
of the State.

In 1773 Catherine made a treaty with the
Poles, which guaranteed the maintenance of the
status quo and full religious liberty to the Polish
Catholics: it was hardly signed when over 1,200
Churches were forcibly taken from the Greek
Uniats, and their priests, with their flocks, com-
pelled to join the Russian Church. This move
on the part of Catherine was purely political,
although her action was clothed with an assumed
zeal for religious toleration and liberty.

" What political advantage will be gained by
Russia if she undertakes the defence of the Uniats
and Orthodox believers ? " she asked of her repre-
sentative in Warsaw.

" Madam, four hundred miles of rich terri-
tory, and a large Orthodox population, can be
seized from Poland and become part of the
Russian Empire."

Catherine made it perfectly plain that her
interests were purely political, and the Most Holy
Synod, in supporting her, shaped her views. For
fuller details of the struggles between Roman
Catholicism and Russian orthodoxy see L'Eglise
Catholique en Pologne, by Lescceur.

In 1839 a petition was presented to the
Emperor from a number of Uniats, asking for
readmission to the Orthodox Church. The Tsar,
by a stroke of the pen, made all the Uniats

THE UNIATS 243

Orthodox; 1,600,000 men were affected. They
were called upon to denounce their allegiance to
the Sovereign Pontiff. Russian priests were sent
to officiate in their Churches. In a few districts
they were welcomed, but as a rule they found
the Churches closed against them and the people
hostile. Forcible conversion was the order of the
day. Police and Cossacks were sent for, and a
period of rigorous persecution set in which has
continued until this present time. Under Pobie-
donotseff it was vigorous and continuous. In the
first Duma was a peasant member whose family
for three generations had suffered bitter perse-
cution.

No one who knows Russia well could ever
dream of the Roman and Greek Churches uniting.
Never would the Russians submit themselves to
a foreign Pontiff.

The peasantry are wedded to the Orthodox
faith, and where they break away, it is always
along lines peculiar to their own temperament and
national genius.

" Le principe qui admet le pape comme chef
visible de 1'Eglise, comme vicaire du Christ,
est antipathique aux sentiments du peuple russe,"
wrote Turgeniev in 1847, and he went on to
say that " the fate of Italy alone would be a
sufficient warning — of Italy, so beautiful and so
unfortunate." *

* A. M. Meakin.

244 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

For a full and complete history of the re-
union of the Uniats with the Holy Orthodox Church
see " An account of the re-union of the Uniats
with the Orthodox Church in the Russian Empire."
St. Petersburg Synodal Press, 1839. Printed by
the direction of the Most Holy Synod. In general
it is a biassed account from the Holy Orthodox
point of view, but the historical documents are
of great value.

Waddington, in the History of the Church,
shows that the most important part of the Creed
allowed to the Uniats was in the following con-
fession : " In the name of the Holy Trinity, of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we
Latins and Greeks agree in the Holy Union of
these two Churches, and confess that all true
Christians ought to receive this genuine doctrine.
That the Holy Spirit is eternally of the Father
and the Son, and that from all eternity. It (He)
proceeds from the One and the Other as from a
single principle, and by a single production,
which we call spiration. We also declare that
what some of the Holy Fathers have said, viz.,
that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father
through the Son, should be taken in such manner
as to signify that the Son as well as the Father,
and conjointly with Him, is the principle of the
Holy Spirit; and since whatsoever the Father
hath, that He communicates to His Son, excepting
the paternity, which distinguishes Him from the

THE UNIATS 245

Son and the Holy Spirit, so is it from the Father
that the Son has received from all eternity that
productive virtue, through which the Holy Spirit
proceeds from the Son as well as from the
Father."

RUSSIAN SECTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

MILYOUKOV . .
POBIEDONOSTSEFF

MOURAVIEFF . .

WALLACE . . .

BARING . . . .
LATIMER .

The Russian Crisis.

Reflections of a Russian States-
man.

History of the Russian Church

Russia.

The Russian People.

Under Three Tsars.

247

THE EXILES' BEGGING SONG

Have pity on us, O our fathers,
Don't forget the unwilling travellers,
Don't forget the long imprisoned.
Feed us O our fathers — help us
Feed and help the poor and needy.
Have compassion O our fathers,
Have compassion O our mothers ;
For the sake of Christ have mercy
On the prisoners — the shut up ones.
Behind walls of stone and gratings,
Behind oaken doors and padlocks,
Behind bars and locks of iron,
We are held in close confinement ;
We have parted from our fathers,
From our mothers;
We from all our kin have parted ;
We are prisoners.
Pity us, O our fathers.

RUSSIAN SECTS

RUSSIA is the largest and most prolific breed-
ing-ground of religious sects in Europe, or
even the world, to-day. The great majority
of Russian people will always believe in God;
their religion is based on common sense and ex-
perience. In order to express it and to practise
it, they will either be satisfied with what the
Orthodox Church gives them, or they will express
their dissatisfaction with their Church by found-
ing or belonging to a sect.

From the middle of the fourteenth century,
when the deacon Nicetas formed the sect of the
Strigolniks (forerunners in doctrine of the modern
Baptists), until the present day, there has been
one continual struggle between the Orthodox
Church and those who have sought soul-satis-
faction outside her borders. The ordinary Russian
of the people has, and will always have, a religion
of his own, based, not on a theory, but on ex-
perience which proceeds from his life, and which
is the working hypothesis of his existence.

As we have already seen, the Russian is
intensely religious by nature, and the majority

249

250 THE SOUU OF RUSSIA

are content with the National Church. They are
simply Orthodox, but to them Orthodoxy merely
means to be baptised, to wear a cross round the
neck, to pray to the Virgin, to reverence the Holy
Icon, to abstain from work on the holy days, to
fast rigorously twice a week, and through Lent,
to attend the Church services and generally to
follow the customs and traditions made venerable
by long sanction and usage.

Whilst the nation as a whole is claimed by
the Bureaucrats and the Most Holy Synod as
Orthodox, only sixty-two per cent, of the people
are even nominally within the pale of the Establish-
ment.

Professor Milyoukov, in The Russian Crisis,
devotes a lecture to " The Religious Crisis," and,
dealing with the national type of religion, says:

" Orthodoxy is one of the most distinctive
features of the Russian national type. Such is
at least the common belief of Russian nationalistic
politicians. This belief necessarily implied that
Orthodoxy has remained unchanged, as befitted
a distinctive feature of an immutable national
type. It seems particularly fitting to choose for
such a distinctive feature the Orthodox creed, just
because immutability was thought to be an in-
herent quality of Christianity in general and the
Eastern form of the Christian creed especially.
As a matter of fact, Russia is no exception to
the general rule of religious change and evolu-

RUSSIAN SECTS 251

tion. There, as everywhere, Christianity suffered
change; it took as many different shapes as there
were consecutive stages of culture, and these
stages were the same in Russia as everywhere
else. First, there was a long stage of transition
from paganism to ritualism. Then followed the
stage of transition from ritualism to evangelical and
spiritual Christianity. Peculiar to Russia was the
particular circumstance that the Established Church
refused to take any active part in aid of
this religious evolution, but was very active in
its repression. Owing to the non-interference of
the Established Church, the whole process in
Russia took a somewhat incidental character. The
religious movement was deprived of its natural
leaders, and thus a regular evolution of doctrine
was made impossible. Moreover, the natural
growth of religious thought was branded schism
and heresy, and thus exposed to the persecution
of the authorities and doomed to popular dis-
grace. This, of course, could not prevent the
final triumph of new religious ideas, but it helped
greatly to retard the movement. Yet, in spite
of all these obstacles, the movement went its
natural way, and has long broken all ties of
tradition. Religious feeling was not unchangeable
in Russia, and if Orthodoxy was, so much the
worse for it. The pale of the Established Church
was therefore forsaken by everybody who wanted
any kind of living religion. If everything remained

252 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

unchanged inside the true fold it was because
there was no life. Accordingly we come to the
conclusion that religious immutability is not a
national distinction of Russia, because there was
no religious immutability, perhaps not even
within the precincts of the Established Church."

The non-Orthodox in Russia are divided into
a bewildering variety of religious bodies, ranging
from the intensely evangelical, through the
" spiritualistic," to the neurotic and basely de-
praved. So long as the Orthodox Church remains
cold and lifeless, so long will the peasants " find
their soul " in other forms, if not according to
the New Testament and primitive Christianity, then
according to their own wayward will. There is
a strong tendency in the Russian character towards
freedom of thought in matters appertaining to
religion, and it is useless for Pobiedonostseff
to fulminate against this tendency as he does
in his Reflections of a Russian Statesman.

" Meantime, from the day of its foundation,
the proud and impatient have not ceased to seek
outside the Church, and in opposition to it, new
gospels to regenerate humanity, to fulfil the law
of love and justice, to realise the ideal of peace
and prosperity upon earth. Struck by the
monstrous inconsistencies between the teachings
of Christ and the lives of Christians, they impeach
the Church and its works ; abjuring an institution
established since the foundation of Christianity,

RUSSIAN SECTS 253

they aspire to replace it by a Church of Christ,
in their opinion purified, severed from the universal
Church, and based on their own interpretation of
single precepts of the Gospel.

" It is a strange error. Here are men sub-
ject to the passion and the sin to which all their
fellow-creatures are given, condemned to will
what they cannot do, and to do what they do
not will, priding themselves on unity of spirit,
and taking up the unappointed work of the teacher
and the prophet. While all the world, and they
together with it, turn around, they delude them-
selves that they stand upon an immovable point.
They begin with the destruction of the law, yet
they are unable to establish a new law from the
scraps which they reject. They deny the Church,
yet they must needs build a Church for them-
selves, with their own preachers and ministers,
repeating among themselves that which they con-
demned and rebelled against, with the added
faults of falsehood and hypocrisy, and an insensate
pride which lifts them above the world. The
pride of intellect and contempt for men of
their own flesh and blood impel them to destroy
the old law and to establish the new. They
forget that the Divine Master whose name they
invoke, being meek and humble of heart, would
not change a single word of the law, but inspired
each with the spirit of love and charity which He
found concealed there.

254 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

" While condemning dogma and ceremony,
they themselves end as narrow and masterful
dogmatics; revolting against fanaticism and in-
tolerance, they become the fiercest fanatics and
persecutors. Unconsciously they themselves are
corrupted by malice and passion. Blinded by
pride, they know not the scandal they bear to
the Faith, destroying its simplicity and complete-
ness in the souls of those simple ones whom the
Church has not yet enlightened and taught to
know it well.

"It is easy — but how mad, how iniquitous it is!
— to seduce a simple soul in which there is a pure,
clear field of religious feeling — a soul uncultured,
and virgin to the influence of belief. It is sad
to think that such souls are approached with con-
fident denial of the Church, and persuaded that
the Church, with its doctrine and mysteries, its
symbols, its ceremonies, and its traditions, with
its poetry which has inspired from generation to
generation a multitude of Christians, is a false
and execrable institution. These souls are in
themselves humble; sectarianism leads them to
the heights of pride, while faith decays in the
narrow prison of sectarian formulas. The fruits
of this pride in its ultimate development are known.
They are, first, hypocrisy in the pretence of
righteousness; then, malice and intolerance of all
other faiths; and, lastly, a passionate desire to
lead astray from the Church its scattered flock,

RUSSIAN SECTS 255

to attain which end all means are allowable.
Whatever the aim, the end of the religious re-
former is — the wilderness, where a hundred
sinuous paths diverge, but no straight road is
found."

The intensely religious nature of the Russian
people, added to their illiteracy, has tended to
make them, in matters of independent religious
activity (i.e., away from the Orthodox Church),
separatist and fissiparous.

Thus, as we have seen, the " Old Believers "
have divided into many separate and distinct
bodies, under two main divisions, the " Priestly "
and the " No Priests."

While dealing with sects in Russia, we must
not overlook the broad distinction made by
the Government between " Dissenters " and
" Sectarians."

The Dissenters are the descendants of the
" Old Believers " who revolted against the reforms
of Peter the Great and Nicon, and who in large
measure have retained the doctrines, rites, and
ceremonies of the ancient Church and are wedded
to the old ways.

The Sectarians are those who have broken
from the Orthodox Church and have forged a
creed and a practice for themselves, sometimes
from the New Testament, and at others as fol-
lowers of some reformer or fanatic who has led
them into strange expressions of faith.

256 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Sectarianism is no modern development in
Russia, for in the late fourteenth century we have
records of several bodies who started to think
and worship independently of the ruling Church.

Georg Brandes, in his lectures on " Mysticism,"
refers to the Slavic religious temperament. " There
is no obstacle to singularity, individual peculiarity,
and absurdity, which not infrequently becomes
merged into mysticism, a Slavic peculiarity, but
one which with the Russians is wonderfully united
to realism."

It is this mysticism which is outwardly shown
in the numerous sects which are found in Russia.
The membership of the sects amounts to from
fourteen to fifteen millions of males, divided among
some fifty or sixty different moral and religious
systems.

Curiously enough, the first record of sec-
tarianism in Russia describes a sect very closely
akin to the modern Baptists in faith and polity.

SECT OF STRIGOLNIKS

THE first appearance of the sect of the Strigolniks
is in the year A.D. 1371. The founders were
Karp (from whose trade the sect derived its name)
and a deacon named Nicetas.

They began their crusade against clerical
disorders and extortions first in the city of Pskoff,
and gradually reached Novgorod, where they met
with great success in their propaganda. They

RUSSIAN SECTS 257

commenced by denouncing and rejecting the
clergy, not only in Pskoff and Novgorod, but
throughout the whole Church. From the denun-
ciation of the clergy for alleged disorders and
rapacity, they went on to deny the necessity
of confession, declaring that it was sufficient for
the penitent to make confession alone to God
and to prostrate oneself before Him. With further
study of the Scriptures they evolved the doctrine
that no man, priest or layman, had the power
to bind and unloose, that every man, according
to St. Paul, had the right to interpret the Scrip-
tures, and they therefore elected their teachers
(pastors) from amongst themselves; instead of
episcopal ordination they substituted a " call " from
their own local society or community.

Denying that the clergy in a peculiar and
priestly sense had the power, by virtue of their
office, to impart the Grace of the Holy Ghost to
members of the Church, they claimed that,
according to the Scriptures, each member, godly
in life and character, indwelt by the Holy Ghost,
could impart such grace.

They refused Baptism and the ordinance of
the Lord's Supper as being the peculiar preroga-
tives of the priestly caste, and observed those
commandments of the Lord amongst themselves,
the Sacraments being administered by the leader,
or teacher, chosen by themselves, and grounded
their faith and practice upon the doctrine of the

258 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

priesthood of all believers, maintaining that all
Christians are " priests " unto the Lord.

With the development of the sect came the
rejection of oblations for the dead, as an in-
vention of clerical covetousness, an artifice whereby
the corrupt clergy could substantially augment
their incomes; and in practice they went further
still, for they put on one side the force and
efficacy of all the customary acts of piety or
affection for the benefit of the dead. They taught,
" It is not fitting or proper to sing over the
dead, nor to make commemorations, nor to
celebrate mass for them, nor to bring oblations for
the dead into the Church, nor to give away victuals
or alms for the soul of the deceased."

Partisan historians of the Holy Orthodox
Church dismiss the whole movement as being
merely a veiled attack upon the clergy, instead
of an attempt to attain some measure of purity
and scripturalness in religion, but this almost first
attempt at reformation met with the bitter hostility
of the officers of the Church State, and Nicetas
was degraded, and finally imprisoned for life in
the Solovief Monastery, his followers were excom-
municated and scattered, whilst Karp was thrown
into the river Volkoff, at Novgorod, and drowned.
Despite these rigorous measures, the sect, in
small numbers, spread over Russia and maintained
their doctrines, until they were merged into larger
Reform movements.

RUSSIAN SECTS 259

In the following century a sect arose called
the " Judaizers," a body who combined Jewish
tendencies with rationalism. They denied the
Divinity of Jesus, and rejected the worship of
Icons. The movement apparently commenced in
Novgorod, spread to Moscow, and for a time
achieved considerable success, obtaining adherents
even at Court. In 1505, however, the sect was
practically crushed in Northern Russia. Some of
the leaders were burnt to death; others were
imprisoned. Those who escaped made their way
through the forests to Western lands and
Southern Russia. The " Soubbotruki (Sabba-
tarians) are a small remnant of lineal descendants,
and are to be found in small communities in
Eastern and Southern Russia. There are good
historical grounds for connecting the " Judaizers "
with the strong, flourishing communities of
Unitarians amongst the Slav population of Transyl-
vania (Hungary).

In the year 1505 a Council was held in
Moscow to condemn the new heresy that had
sprung up, and which had been spoken of as
adopting in some points the tenets of the Strigol-
niks, though its leading feature was rather that
of a disposition to inculcate Judaical tenets and
practices. It did not indeed preach circumcision,
but it rejected in reality all the doctrines of
Christianity.

Many were found guilty, and according to

260 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

some accounts, delivered over to the civil arm,
and burned as heretics. This Platon condemns
as being altogether abhorrent from the spirit of
Christianity. He says : " they ought to have been
banished and removed from the society of other
men, that they might not infect them with their
opinions."

He declares also that " these severe measures
are not to be attributed to the clergy, but to
the civil authorities, who may have had other
reasons for proceeding to such extremities."

'In 1517 Luther nailed his thesis to the door
of the Church in Wittenburg. Six years later
we find Reformed Churches in Riga and other
Baltic towns, and by 1547, or thirty years later,
there were Churches in Kieff, Podalia, and other
towns of Central Russia. The effect of Protes-
tantism in strengthening and encouraging Russian
dissent is a constant, though never a very promi-
nent, factor. Milyoukov, in The Russian Crisis,
mentions the Reformation and its part in the
development of religious faith in the Empire.

The influence of Protestant ideas on Russian
belief appears very early; it is contemporary with
the first attempts at a religious reformation in
Europe itself. The religious movement in the
Balkans, which spread over mediaeval Europe, and
found its final expression in the building of such
sects as the Albigenses in France and the Lollards
in England in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-

RUSSIAN SECTS 261

turies, had a remote reverberation in Russia also.
This influence of ' Paulikianism,' further developed
by other mystical teachings and rationalistic
heresies, came to Russia in the fifteenth century,
through the Orthodox channel of the Greek monas-
teries at Mount Athos, and through the imme-
diate intervention of the Karaite Jews — they
being also a kind of Jewish Paulinists. But
until the period of the unification of Russia, at
the end of the fifteenth century, the influence
of those heretical doctrines was limited to the
most civilised parts of the Russia of those times,
to the rich merchant republics of Pskoff
and Novgorod. From this last city the heretical
teachings found their way to Moscow, just at the
time of the political unification, at the end of
the fifteenth century. But here, just then, a
nationalistic type of religion was being formed,
entirely opposed to the new currents. The
nationalistic religion was growing ritualistic,
formal, and subject to State influence. The ten-
dencies of the rationalistic and mystic currents
were spiritualistic, critical, and bent on indepen-
dence, moral and spiritual. Thus no other
relation was possible between the old and the
new types of religious thought than struggle.
The struggle set in indeed, and after half a
century, as was to be expected, it resulted in
the triumph of the nationalistic type. The new
' heresies ' were completely vanquished and driven

262 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

out of Russia; they found their refuge in the
neighbouring countries of Lithuania and Poland.
Every spark of the pre-Reformation ideas in
Russia seemed herewith entirely extinguished.

" But now the immediate action of the Reforma-
tion began to be felt. In Moscow, where there
was a large foreign element, this new current of
religious ideas succeeded the former one, almost
without interruption, as early as the middle of the
sixteenth century. The old heresy, imported from
the Orthodox East, from Constantinople and Mount
Athos, here came into contact with the new heresy
coming from the German West. The German
religion was then supposed, in Moscow, to be
still Roman Catholic, because little or nothing
was known as yet about the Reformation."

In the year 1550 we have the beginnings of
a new movement of a rationalistic type, under
Bashkin, and one of the first to identify himself
with it was Kassian, Bishop of Kazan.

One day, at confession, Bashkin expressed
a wish to have a reasonable knowledge of religion,
and that the holy faith might, in the persons of
its appointed servants, produce fruit amongst the
people. " In matters of religion, words are not
sufficient; deeds are required: the whole law is
summed- up in the saying, ' Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.' ' Puzzled how to deal with
a penitent of this kind, the priest reported him
to the higher authorities.

RUSSIAN SECTS 263

Bashkin did not consider Jesus to be God
equal with the Father. He did not hold the
bread and wine in the Eucharist to be truly the
flesh and blood of Christ. Icons of the Virgin
and of the saints he called idols. Confession to a
priest he looked upon as useless, saying that if a
man ceases to sin, he will be free from sin, even
though he has confessed to no priest. He did
not consider the traditions of the Church binding.
The lives of the saints he held to be fabulous.
He rejected the authority of the Councils. Of the
Bible he did not accept what was not included
in the Gospels and the Epistles. Prayer for the
dead he thought useless, and all prayer, apart
from conduct corresponding thereto, futile.

In 1552 the Metropolitan Macarius laid in-
formation of this new heresy before Ivan the
Terrible, and a Council of the Church condemned
Bashkin and some of his followers to imprisonment.

Bashkin's teaching was followed by Kosoy,
a Moscow man by birth, who had been a servant
at Court, but had run away from his master and
had entered the Byelo Lake Monastery as a monk.
There he heard of, and adopted, the doctrines of
Bashkin.

Kosoy denied the doctrines of the Trinity,
and said that Jesus was not God, but simply a
man. He rejected the theory of Redemption,
pointing out that it had not done away with death,
as it should have done had it really redeemed us

264 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

from the effects of Adam's sin. Rejecting Icons,
he also refused to believe in miracles performed
by them. He thought it wrong to pray to the
saints, and considered that their relics ought to
be buried, and not indecently exposed in Churches.
The prayers, fasts, and ceremonies of the Church,
Kosoy considered to be ordained merely by human
traditions. He rejected monasticism, reproached
the Church with lack of unanimity, and said that
the Bishops, by rejecting heretics and not accept-
ing their repentance, broke the law of the Lord
which commands us to forgive sinners even if
they repeat their sin. In general, he adopted
the teachings of Bashkin, and carried them to
further conclusions. In 1555 Kosoy was con-
demned to confinement in a monastery, but
escaped, and made his way into Lithuania. •

None of these doctrines found any further
echo in Moscow. This new conception of religion
was incomprehensible to the Russians of the six-
teenth century. The European Reformation failed
to strike root in Moscow at this time. Platon
refers to this Synod as the first occasion in which
the Reformation, or Protestant doctrines of
Western Europe, came into contact with the
Russian Church.

The " great Schism " of the seventeenth
century gave a tremendous impetus to the Sectarian
movement. The " priestless " section of the " Old
Believers " were fatally led into the most wild

RUSSIAN SECTS 265

and fantastic extravagances; whilst the emanci-
pation of the serfs led to more or less searching of
hearts as to the foundations of the faith as revealed
in the New Testament. Along with a social and
political revolution as profound as the French,
is going on a popular religious Reformation com-
parable only to the peasants' movements of Luther's
time. The peasants have created systems of
religious belief on an entirely independent basis.
A recent traveller in Russia, John Foster Fraser,
has called it a " religious revolution." It is more
far-reaching in its scope and effect than the
Reformation inseparably connected with the names
of Luther, Melancthon, Knox, and Calvin. The
subtlety, simplicity, and dignity of these beliefs,
the morality and prosperity of their adherents,
have charmed, and even won, many of their
impartial observers. Though these sects are still
in progress of growth and development, their
adherents are numbered by millions.

The Government, of course, is at present
straining every nerve and using almost any re-
source to repress and conceal these schisms from
the Orthodox Church, and to strengthen in every
possible way the National Institution of Religion.
Persecutions relaxed for a year or two after the
Tsar's Manifesto are being renewed. The warfare
between the peasants' genuine religious instinct
and the State Church is bound to go on.

The Sectarians may be roughly described as :

266 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

1. Those who take the Scriptures as the
basis of their faith and order, and use them as
their sole guide in doctrine and practice. They
are closely akin to the great Protestant Evangelical
bodies of the rest of Europe, and received their
initial impulse from Western preachers and
teachers. The main sects, answering to this de-
scription, are the Molokans, Baptists, and Evan-
gelicals (the two former are described in separate
chapters).

2. Sects which take the Scriptures as the
basis of their belief, but interpret and complete
the doctrines therein contained by means of
occasional inspiration or internal enlightenment of
their leading members. The most prominent body
coming under this description is the Doukhobors
(see separate chapter).

3. Sects which reject the spiritual interpre-
tation of Scripture and insist upon certain chosen
passages being taken in the literal sense. Under
this description we find the Skoptsi, Castrates,
Hleests, and Nazarenes.

4. Sects which believe in the continual re-
incarnation of Christ, and are occasionally led
away to find the millennium in some distant part
of the Empire. They are mainly bodies of
people, confined to one or two villages, who
follow some "miracle-working" monk. They
usually have a very brief and troubled existence.

5. Sects which confuse religion with nervous

RUSSIAN SECTS 267

excitement, and are more or less erotic in their
character. Amongst these we find communities
which address their fellow-members as "Christs,"
"Saviours," "Mothers of God," "Redeemers," and
even go to the length of praying to each other
as to real "Gods," "Madonnas" and living
" Christs."

6. Sects in which bestial orgies are the
resultant feature of their worship. Many of these
are nearly akin to the whirling dervishes of
Mohammedanism. Amongst these we place the
Shakuni and the Jumpers.

Some of the sects are exceedingly difficult to
place, as their meetings are jealously guarded and
they are very reticent as to their dogmas and
practices. Again, some of them are the offspring
of the "Old Believers," and came into being
through the personality of one man, many of them
having but comparatively few members, and by
the very extravagances of their practices being but
short-lived.

In addition to the above are a number of
sects which are peculiar to Russia alone, and are
named after some striking peculiarity in their
doctrine or morals.

Thus we find the

Nemolyaki or the " do not pray " sect, who
in their revolt against Icon worship and invoca-
tion of the saints, went to the other extreme, and
abolished prayer in public and private worship.

268 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

The Vozdy Rhateli or " sighers." One who
was privileged to meet with a small community
of this sect in Eastern Russia described them as
melancholy of countenance, and finding the world
an extremely unhappy place and but little comfort
in their religion.

The Dietoubitsi or " Slayers of Children," now
no more, who considered it their duty to send
the souls of the innocent newly-born children direct
to Heaven and to God.

The Molchalniks or " Silent Ones," who, like
some of the Fakirs of India, vow never to break
silence. They literally believe that the tongue,
like money, is the root of all evil, a member which
can only be tamed by complete suppression.

The Ne Nastrinik or " Not ours," who taught,
not only community of land and goods, but also
of wives.

The Ne Platelshchiki or " Non-tax-payers,"
who entirely repudiated the civil authorities. They
were Anarchists, but without the violence usually
connected with Anarchistic propaganda.

The Dushilschiknik or Suffocaters, who held
that it was their bounden duty to save parents
and friends from a natural death, and in cases of
serious illness to bring about that end by suffoca-
tion. This is an instance of a sect taking literally
one text of Scripture, " And from the days of John
the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force,"

RUSSIAN SECTS 269

The " Fire Baptists " had a brief but in-
glorious existence. Whole villages of them
gathered together, and after locking themselves in
a building, would set fire to it and perish gladly
in the flames. Strahl says, "It is probably the
most signal instance of martyrdom in the cause,
not even of a corrupt practice, or a corrupt
doctrine, but of a corrupt reading of a text—
' There is one baptism by fire for the remission of
sins.' "

The Samoibesnik or Sect of Suicide. This sect
usually springs into being through the fanaticism
of one man. A ragged pilgrim will appear in
the village. Even if not wearing them at the time,
he evidently has worn manacles and chains ; he has
all the appearance of an ascetic : his topic is
usually the imminence of the last judgment, when
all those left alive will be cast into hell. One
such, a few years ago, persuaded many of the
peasants to commit suicide by throwing them-
selves into the river, whilst he himself deliberately
hung himself from the branch of a pine-tree on
the eve of the " Day of Judgment."

Devil possession is also held tenaciously by
many of the peasants. In a village in Samara a
woman confessed to her neighbours that she was
Antichrist, and that Satan was using her to seduce
the faithful from the service of the true Christ. A
whole day was spent in prayer, an improvised altar
was erected just outside the village, the holy Icons

270 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

were placed in position, and five men slew her with
axes in front of the altar.

The doctrine of Antichrist accounts for
many child murders amongst the peasantry. Any
abnormal child is likely to be charged with being
Antichrist, and some meet with a violent end. In
one case a girl was chained for eight years to a
staple in the room, until death mercifully released
her.

The foregoing, however, whilst revealing the
innate religious fanaticism of the Russian, must
not be taken as being typical examples of the
sects in Russia. They are usually small
communities, easily led away by some one man
of strong personality.

The Hleests were the first Russian sect of
Spiritual Christians of more modern times. They
were a direct product of the stirring times of
the end of the seventeenth century, when all over
Russia men were daily expecting the Second
Advent, the end of the world, or the " Day of
Judgment." The " Priestless ones " had been
hunted and persecuted, through forests, across the
steppes, and beyond the rivers, and as a result, the
doctrine of voluntary martyrdom had found a
place in their beliefs; suicide and self-immolation
was not only practised in isolated cases and
amongst villagers as a whole, but an ardent
propaganda to this end was carried on. As a
result of the extravagances of religious emotion.

RUSSIAN SECTS 271

prophetism appeared. Men fell into trances and
had " Divine " revelations. They called themselves
" Men of God," then " Redeemers," " Saviours,"
then "Christs"; later on they were called Hleests,
by reason of their self-floggings, the wearing of
manacles and voluntary instruments of torture.
They trace their beginnings to a legend concerning
the founder of the sect, one Daniel Philipovitch.

He was reputed to be an old and wise man,
well versed in religious truth, and was continually
debating the question as to which contained the
real truth, the " old," i.e., Pre-Nicon books, or the
" new," i.e., the revised versions.

This question Philipovitch resolved in a
radical way. There was no need of either the
" old " or the " new " books. The only book
necessary for salvation was a " living one," the
Holy Ghost Himself. Coming to this conclusion, he
collected all the books possible and within his
reach, and finally disposed of them by throwing
them into a river.

His followers then gathered themselves to-
gether and resolved to wait and pray that God
Himself, by His Spirit, might come again to earth
and teach men the right " way." Whilst they
were praying, a chariot of fire rolled down from
the clouds; God was in it, and, according to one
version, He entered the body of Philipovitch
through his ear. Philipovitch then became a
" Christ," although the doctrine of inspiration was

18

272 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

of a very crude and unsatisfactory character.
As may be assumed, the " teaching " is a
queer mixture. " Old " and " new " are strangely
blended.

To become inspired, a very peculiar method is
adopted. It is almost entirely physiological and
outward in its manifestation. The community meet
in a large private room and sit in circles. As the
service proceeds they rise, remove the forms, and
begin to dance to the tune of their own special
hymns. The time of the song grows gradually
faster, whilst the singers quicken their movements
in the dance. Some of the " disciples," possibly
being more in tune for inspiration, begin to turn
like dervishes in the midst of the circles, dancing
the while, until they fall from sheer exhaustion upon
the floor, when they begin to give utterance to
incoherent words and wild phrases, which are seized
upon by the others as a prophecy. Such of their
number as can " turn the circle " are possessed by
the "Spirit"; they are admitted to the higher
ranks of the community; they are the "prophets"
and " prophetesses " of the faith. The ordinary
members are in a lower stage of preparation. At
the head of every community, or " ship," as it
is called, is a " Christ," and by his side a " Mother
of God."

Many of the Hleests are of Finnish origin, and
the old tribal customs of Communism, not in
goods only, but also in women, may help to

RUSSIAN SECTS 273

explain some of the most remarkable peculiarities
of the sect. The sex question plays a prominent
part in their religion, but every phase of opinion,
from the advocacy of complete chastity and
celibacy to the practice of promiscuous debauchery,
finds a place in their religious services, and may
be met with amongst the varieties of the sect.

It is common in the sect to look upon
monogamy as a selfish and wicked monopolisa-
tion, and to consider regular marital relations as
filthy and disgusting, whilst casual sexual inter-
course is regarded with tolerance and even with
approval. " Married life is impurity before men
and impiety before God " is one of their sayings.
They are an example of the lack of moderation
and balance, and the readiness to "go the whole
hog" so often met with amongst the Russian people.

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century
there began a new development of doctrine and
practice amongst the Hleests, partly through their
coming into close contact with more evangelical
bodies, and partly through dissensions in their
own community. There was an attempt, success-
ful on the whole, to purify their rites and
ceremonies, to heighten the quality of inspiration,
and to deepen the mystical sense. They desisted
largely from the practice of ending their
inspirational dances with fleshly orgies, and they
regulated, in a certain measure, their habits of
" spiritual love."

274 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Some communities have ceased altogether from
using any artificial means whatever for receiving
the " voice of the Spirit " in the soul. To them,
the Spirit was to be received by a long series
of spiritual exercises, such as " self-abnegation,"
a " surrender of self to the will of God," a " self-
burial " in Christ. Only after complete mortifica-
tion of the flesh and the suppression of fleshly
desires, can the " voice of the Spirit " be heard.
In this we have the doctrine of the " mysterious
death," followed by the " mysterious resurrection."

The Skoptsi or Castrates are a sect founded
as a reaction against the lust orgies of the Hleests.
They are "ascetic" rather than "spiritualistic,"
and have gone a long way further than the Hleests
in the development of doctrine and belief. Among
them, men and women alike are recognised as
" teachers " and " prophets," and in this character
they lead a strictly moral and even ascetic life.
Denying themselves even ordinary and harmless
recreations and pleasures, they frequently exhaust
themselves by long and rigorous fasts, and when
gathered together for service, give way to wild,
ecstatic religious exercises. Under the stimulus of
religious excitement they call one another " Christ,"
" God," " Madonna," and will even pray to one
another as to God Himself. It is commonly re-
ported that many, if not all, of the Russian
jewellers in Moscow belong to this sect. Whilst
travelling through Roumania in 1910 I came

RUSSIAN SECTS 275

across several communities of the sect who had
been exiled from their homes in Russia. In
Bucarest there are about two hundred and fifty
men, besides women, the men being mostly cab-
drivers. They are easily recognised by their hair-
less faces, high-pitched voices, and the develop-
ment of the secondary mammalian characteristics.

The men generally submit to castration, usually
after the birth of the second child (why then, I
have not been able to discover), and the women,
in their eagerness to escape sexual desire, fre-
quently have part of their breasts cut away.

In conversation with one member of the sect,
he based the practice of self-mutilation upon the
text, " There be eunuchs which have made them-
selves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake."

The Pretschoki or Jumpers are another off-
shoot of the Hleests, and, if anything, their
practices are more disagreeable than those of the
parent community. Wallace, in Russia, describes
one meeting held in the forest in the summer
time.

" After due preparation, prayers are read by
the chief teacher, dressed in a white robe, standing
in the midst of the congregation. At first he
reads in an ordinary tone of voice, and then
passes gradually to a merry chant. When he
remarks that the chanting has sufficiently acted
on the hearers, he begins to jump. The hearers,
singing likewise, follow his example. Their ever-

276 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

increasing excitement finds expression in the
highest possible jumps. This they continue as
long as they can — men and women alike yelling
like enraged savages. When all are thoroughly
exhausted, the leader declares that he hears the
angels singing " — and then begins a scene which
cannot be here described.

The Adamites, who are to be found in scat-
tered communities along the shores of the Black
Sea, are a recrudescence of the Gnostics of North
Africa of the second century. They profess to
return to the innocence of Eden, abstain from
marriage, and in their nocturnal services discard
clothing. I came across a small community of
them in Croatia — not more than seventeen in
number. Their chief argument is : " Clothing is
the outward and visible sign of sin; without sin
there is no shame; without shame there is no
need of clothing. Paul teaches that ' if any man
is in Christ he is without sin ' ; therefore, being
without sin and without shame, we have no need
of clothing in our worship, but in the world we
wear clothing to prevent shame in others." It
is interesting to notice that the Berghards or
Brethren of the Free Spirit held the same doc-
trine and practices in the fourteenth century, and
that the Doukhobors in Canada went on a nude
pilgrimage in September, 1903.

New sects of an erotic kind are continually
arising in Russia, symptoms of the general social

RUSSIAN SECTS 277

unrest, of dissatisfaction with the lifelessness of the
Orthodox Church, and an attempt on -the part of
the people to find their " soul."

The three great spiritual and evangelical
bodies, the Molokans, Doukhobors, and Baptists,
I deal with in separate chapters.

There are a number of " foreign " sects in
Russia, but they have had but little influence,
generally speaking, upon the Russian people as
a whole.

The Lutherans, whose Russian strongholds are
in the Baltic provinces, are to be found in every
large city, but as their sevices are mainly in the
German or Lettish languages, they only appeal
to the non-Russian nationalities.

The Mennonites, who originally settled in
South Russia on the invitation of Catherine II.,
have become prosperous agriculturists, and their
villages are a marked contrast to those of the
Russians even in close proximity to them. Their
houses are well arranged, their farms are large,
their gardens are well stocked with fruit-trees and
vegetables, and there is a general air of pros-
perity about them.

We need to remember in this connection that
they are exempt from conscription, and almost
entirely exempt from other than purely local taxes.
The Government has recently tried to in-
corporate them into the Russian nationality and
to break down their extreme exclusiveness. They

278 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

have resented this move on the part of the auto-
cracy, for .they rightly feel that if the barriers
which separate them from the rest of the popula-
lation are broken down, they will no longer be
able to maintain their stern Puritanical discipline.
Despite many subsequent concessions on the part
of the Government, thousands of them have
emigrated to the United States and Canada.

They are practically Baptist in doctrine and
practice, but have the ceremony of " feet wash-
ing " by one another at the close of the Lord's
Supper on Sunday mornings. It was amongst
the Mennonites that the great revival of the
" eighties " commenced which led to the Stundist
and Baptist movements.

The "Moravian Brethren," or "Hussites," as
they are sometimes called, settled in Russia in
the year 1765, and there is a large colony of
them on the banks of the Volga, in the district
of Sarepta. Many of the younger members are
sent to Hernhutt in Germany for more advanced
education than can be given to them in their
own villages. Like the Mennonites, they are
exempt from conscription and the more oppres-
sive taxation under which the Orthodox peasant
groans.

In 1803, Alexander I. granted a charter to
the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, allowing a
band of missionaries to labour amongst the Tcher-
kisses of the South, and they received from him a

RUSSIAN SECTS 279

large grant of land on what was then the frontier.
Here they founded their mission, but quickly dis-
covered that work amongst the Mohammedans
was exceedingly difficult.

The mission was suppressed in the year 1835
under ukase by Tsar Nicholas I., and all the mis-
sionaries save two returned home. Many of the
converts married daughters of German (Protes-
tant) settlers, and have scattered to various parts
of the " black earth " belt, but their corporate
life has been effectually dissolved.

The Brethren have for nearly half a century
had an active propaganda in the country, and
Mr. S. H. Broadbent has done splendid pioneer-
ing work, especially in the Eastern Provinces.
For occasional reports of this work the reader
is referred to the monthly publication, Echoes
of Service. The Brethren in Russia are closely
allied to the Baptists. There is no clear line
of demarcation between them, and they are of
mutual service to one another.

The Christian Disciples have also been greatly
blessed in their evangelical testimony, and differ-
ing, as they do, from the Baptists almost solely
upon the question of the " paid ministry," there
is good hope that in the near future they will
fuse with the older and stronger body. At present
(1914) they are considering the advisability of
establishing a preachers' school for the training
of evangelists.

280 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

The " Mildmay Mission to the Jews/' which
commenced work in Vilna in 1887, ^as been greatly
blessed of God in its labours amongst the dwellers
in the Ghetto. In Theodosia and Odessa, on the
Black Sea, I had the privilege of meeting with
their workers, and saw something of their Christ-
like generosity and kindness to the " pogrom-
hunted " ones during the black year of 1905.

The Methodist Episcopal Church of the United
States has a preaching station in St. Petersburg,
but its work is mainly in the Duchy of Finland,
and can hardly be counted amongst the forces
leading Russia to find her " Soul."

In the Baptist Missionary Herald for April
1825 there is an interesting letter from a cor-
respondent in Leipsic, showing that nearly ninety
years ago there were streaks in the sky, heralding
the new day.

"I do not know whether you have already
heard of that truly evangelical preacher, the Rev.
John Gossner, a native of Bavaria, and member
of the Catholic Church, though a decided enemy
of Rome and its impostures.

" This highly-gifted man, by whose preaching
hundreds have been snatched from the world and
converted to Christ, after having suffered perse-
cution and imprisonment in his own country, was
called to St. Petersburg, by the special wish of
the Emperor. This is now about five years ago.
In St. Petersburg his preaching was uncommonly

RUSSIAN SECTS 281

blessed, and a large congregation gathered, who
assembled in a hired hall for the purpose.

" The enemies of the Gospel were not a little
disappointed by his success, and used all means
they could to destroy his work, and at length they
also succeeded so far that last summer Mr. Gossner
was suddenly sent out of the country, by com-
mand of the Emperor. His enemies, among whom
were many of the Greek and Roman clergy, had
insinuated that, in a work which he had written
— a kind of commentary on the New Testament-
he had spoken against the Virgin Mary and the
Saints, and preached rebellion against the Emperor.
The falsehood and wickedness of these assertions,
especially of the last, is known to every one who
has read the book, which tends only to practical
godliness, and has done already much good in
Germany. After Mr. Gossner's return to Germany,
he first went to Altona, and for the last four
months has been in Leipsic. He is very far from
anything Roman Catholic, and would long ago
have joined the Protestant Church if he did not
see it so full of unbelief, and estranged from
the truth of the Gospel."

THE DOUKHOBORS

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

MAUDE . . . . A Peculiar People.

MiLYOUKOV . . . The Russian Crisis.

HARLAMOV . . . Rousskaya Misl. 1884.

TcHERKOFF . . . Christian Martyrdom in Russia.

HAXTHAUSEN . . Studien fiber die inneren

Zustande das Volkleben, und
insbesondere die landichen
Einrichtungen Russlands.

LIVANOF .... Raskolniki i Osttozhniki.

NOVITSKY . . . Doukhobortsi i Istoria i Veront-

cheni.

HEARD .... The Russian Church and

Dissent.

BlRUKOV . Tolstoi et les Doukhobors.

" There is no denying that the people are morally ill, with a
grave, although not a mortal, malady, one to which it is difficult
to assign a name. May we call it 'An unsatisfied thirst for
truth?' The people are seeking eagerly and untiringly for
truth and for the ways that lead to it, but hitherto they have
failed in their search. . . . There is a clamouring for a new
Gospel ; new ideas and feelings are manifest. . . ."

Dostoieffski.

THE DOUKHOBORS

h I A HE sect of the Doukhobors (wrestlers with

the spirit) is a typical product of the

peculiar Russian religious temperament.

In the early days it was a protest against the gross

materialism and spiritual deadness of the Orthodox

Church.

The official religious life of the nation was at
a very low ebb; with few exceptions, neither
the priests nor the general body of the peasantry
paid much heed to the teaching of the Russian
Church. For one thing, the priests were in many
cases too ignorant to be able to read the Service,
whilst in many parishes there was no priest at all.
In their religious zeal the villagers would build a
Church, but they waited in vain for a pastor to
shepherd them and to conduct Divine worship.
The moral standard of the priests had sunk very
low indeed, drunkenness and immorality being rife
amongst them. In addition, the foreign influences
at Court tended to debase the whole clergy.
Bishops, priests, and monks who offended Peter
the Great's foreign favourites were disfrocked,

285

286 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

punished, tortured, many of them being sent into
Siberia as exiles.

As a natural corollary to the lowness of the
spiritual forces of the nation, the social life was
also in a bad way. Serfdom was being rigorously
enforced in its most debased form. The evils of
the system almost beggar description. The wealthy
landowners and proprietors held the wives and
daughters of their serfs at their mercy. Profligacy
was rampant; there was practically no effective
check upon the evil passions of the masters. Serfs
ran away from the estates, and when caught, were
sometimes drowned, or expeditiously done away
with, to save the trouble and expense of restoring
them to their owners. Cases are on record where
they were even presented as a gift, or bribe, to
rapacious officials.

In the palace, court intrigues were afoot for
the deposition of the monarch; there were a series
of revolutions led by ambitious men; the general
disorder of the times affected even the clergy, for
monks in the monasteries and priests in their
parishes openly entered into league with brigands
and robbers.

In the midst of this social, political, and
religious anarchy we discover the source of Douk-
hoborism, although it is impossible, without access
to State papers, to give an exact date for its rise
amongst the peasantry.

No definite information concerning the sect

THE DOUKHOBORS 287

can be found earlier than the second half of the
eighteenth century, the name being first met with
in authentic documents in 1785.

Two theories are current as to the significance
of the name. By the Orthodox they are Douk-
hobors because they " wrestle against the Holy
Spirit," whilst they themselves claim that they
" wrestle against evil, not with carnal weapons, but
with the armour of the Spirit." Of recent years
they have called themselves " the Universal Com-
munity of the Christian Brotherhood."

Aylmer Maude says : " A very plausible con-
jecture represents them as being spiritual descend-
ants of the so-called Judaizers (see p. 259), who,
rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity and the wor-
ship of Icons and of saints, played a prominent
part in the latter part of the fifteenth century : and
yet again, they may be traced back to the Paulicians
of the seventh to the eleventh century, and to the
Bogomilites of the twelfth century."

According to the Doukhobors themselves,
their sect was founded by a German officer — cer-
tainly a foreigner — who for a time lived at the
village of Okhotch in the Government of Kharkoff,
about the years 1735-1740. He was the general
friend of the villagers, and acted as their adviser
and teacher; he arbitrated in their disputes, and
was one with them in their labour and toil; he
had no settled place or home, but, like the "pil-
grims," went from house to house.

19

288 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

His teaching was closely parallel to much of
Tolstoi's of one hundred and fifty years later. He
taught that "Governments are not necessary; all
men are equal; the hierarchy and the priesthood
are a human invention; the Church and its cere-
monies are superfluous ; monasticism is a perversion
of human nature ; the conspiracy of the proprietors
is a disgrace to mankind; and the Tsar and Arch-
bishops are just like other people." The seed
sown in the midst of such a people, at such a time,
was sure to germinate and ultimately to bring
forth fruit many fold; for the unknown leader was
evidently a man of integrity, of good character,
and deeply devoted to the welfare of his fellow-
men.

Over against the wickedness and wretchedness
of serfdom was the doctrine of the essential equality
of all men; over against the corruption and ex-
tortionate practices of the officials of all grades, the
doctrine that the sons of the Living God need no
rule but His; and the rites and ceremonies of the
Church, performed by immoral priests and monks,
led to the denunciation of the externals of religion
and the prerogatives of the religious caste and the
insistence upon the doctrine of the " Light within."

Unlike some of the other Russian sects, the
Doukhobors have been mainly recruited from the
peasantry, from those who have suffered under
the exactions of landlordism, the tyranny of militar-
ism, and the rapacity of ecclesiasticism. The

THE DOUKHOBORS 289

adherents of the sect have been just those in the
nation upon whom the crushing burden of the
bureaucracy has fallen, who have been ground
under the iron heel of a bitter and relentless des-
potism.

Following the " Unknown one," the first leader
of note was Sylvan Kolesnikov of the village of
Nikolsk, in the Government of Ekaterinoslav. He
was a man of a generous and kindly nature, tactful
and prudent, with a natural eloquence which won
the hearts and sympathies of his hearers. From
all available sources it is not possible to discover
whether he intentionally founded a new sect. " He
taught his followers that, as the externalities of
religion are unimportant, tfyey might conform to
the ceremonial religion of whatever province or
country they happened to be in, behaving as
Catholics in Poland, Orthodox in Russia, or Moham-
medans in Turkey and Persia."

With Kolesnikov there emerged the doctrine
of the " Christ " within, probably at the beginning
a modification of the doctrine of the Hleests (see
p. 270). He taught, " Let us bow to the God in
one another, for we are the image of God on
earth"; and again, "In whose hearts the Sun of
eternal truth has risen in midday brightness, there
moon and stars have no more light. For the
children of God, Tsars and authorities and every
human law are truly superfluous. Through Jesus
Christ their will is made free from any law; no

290 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

law is given for the righteous " ; and again, " By
the cleansing of repentance, and the enlightenment
of spiritual instruction, men reach the sweetness of
union with God."

Kolesnikov lived to a ripe old age, and during
his life and activities he never came into conflict
with the authorities, although his doctrines were
calculated to undermine their prestige and power.

Skovoroda, a son of Cossacks living in the
Kiev province, was in early life a chorister at
the Court of the Empress Elizabeth, and later
became a student in Kiev, where he studied Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew, in addition to philosophy,
natural history, and theology.

Declining to enter the Russian Church, he
travelled in Hungary and Austria, where he
mastered the German language and came into
close contact with scholars of repute. Afterwards
he visited Poland, Prussia, Germany, and Italy,
thus enlarging his views and deepening his know-
ledge. Returning home, he became a wanderer,
and with flute and Hebrew Bible would wander
from town to town, accepting the hospitality of
the common people and imparting to them some-
thing from his stores of knowledge. He was not
a member of the sect, but he came into close
contact with it, and undoubtedly had great
influence with the Doukhobors with whom he
occasionally lodged.

He it was who drew up for the Government

THE DOUKHOBORS 291

the Doukhobor confession of faith, and evidently,
considering the paucity of learning amongst the
members of the community, had no little hand in
formulating their doctrines.

With the advent of Ilarion Pobirohin to the
leadership, a new era commenced for the Doukho-
bors. He was a wool dealer in Tambov, and
business necessitated his travelling from village
to village and coming into contact with many
places and people. He adopted the Doukhobor
faith, became the recognised leader, and by his
powerful personality diverted the current of their
religious doctrines into a new channel.

He taught that " truth is not in books but
in the Spirit, not in the Bible but in the Living
Book." Not content with being recognised as a
Son of God like unto his fellow-worshippers, he
made the stupendous claim to be Christ Himself.
His pretensions were not repudiated by his fol-
lowers, but rather accepted by them, with the
result that he established a theocratic despotism.
He chose twelve " apostles " from amongst his
adherents, and twelve " death-bearing angels," who
were set apart to punish all who fell away from
the true faith and became " apostates." He also
promulgated the doctrine of the infallibility of
the Doukhobor Church. He it was who first intro-
duced communism amongst the sect. His son-in-
law, Ouklein, was his chief and ablest assistant,
but Ouklein, being well versed in the knowledge

292 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

of the Bible, and not rejecting its authorty, finally
broke with Pobirohin, and joined the Molokans,
where his ability and personality soon secured
for him the leadership.

Pobirohin became filled with self-assurance, and
possessed unbounded confidence in his powers,
so much so that he came into conflict with the
Government, was arrested, tried, and with his
children and some of his " apostles," was exiled
to Siberia, his activities in the Tambov district
ending about 1785.

Savely Kapoustin now became the head of
the community, and he was easily the most re-
markable of the Doukhobor leaders.

Aylmer Maude says that, " according to some
accounts he was a son of Pobirohin, and was
taken as a recruit as a punishment for being a
Doukhobor."

He served in the regiment of the Guards,
and left the army with the rank of corporal. He
assumed the leadership about 1790.

" He was a tall man, well built, had an im-
posing gait and appearance, an amazing memory,
great ability, and remarkable eloquence. His
ascendency over the Doukhobors who came under
his influence seems to have been complete."

In the early years of the reign of Alexander I.
(1801-1825) a period of religious toleration set in,
and the Doukhobors, partly to prevent their
proselytizing amongst their Orthodox neighbours,

THE DOUKHOBORS 293

were granted territory in the fertile valley of
Milky Waters, where they founded a colony, and
being free from taxation for five years, they pros-
pered exceedingly.

The migration commenced in 1801, when
thirty families were transported thither from the
Ekaterinoslav province, and the community gradu-
ally increased by other families going there. In
1805 many Tambov Doukhobors migrated thither,
amongst them Kapoustin, the leader. By 1816
there were nine villages, and in them 1,459 " souls,'
or about three thousand inhabitants. They were
easily the most compact body of Doukhobors in
Russia, and much of their prosperity and the
good order maintained in their villages was un-
doubtedly due to the personal influence of their
leader, Kapoustin.

Haxthausen says of them:

" All subjected themselves willingly to him
(Kapoustin), and he ruled like a king, or rather,
a prophet. He expounded the tenets of the
Doukhobors in a manner to turn them to
his own peculiar profit and advantage. He
attached peculiar importance to the doctrine of
the transmigration of souls, which was already
known among them; he also taught that Christ
is born again in every believer: that God is in
every one, for when the Word became flesh it
became this (i.e., man in the world) for all time,
like everything Divine. But each human soul,

294 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

at least as long as the created world exists, re-
mains a distinct individual. Now, when God
descended into the individuality of Jesus as Christ,
He sought out the purest and most perfect of
all human souls. God, since the time when He
first revealed Himself in Jesus, has always remained
in the human race, and dwells and reveals Himself
in every believer. But the individual soul of Jesus,
where has it been? By virtue of the law of the
transmigration of souls, it must necessarily have
animated another human body ! Jesus himself said,
'I am with you always, until the end of the
world.' Thus the soul of Jesus, favoured by God
above all human souls, has from generation to
generation continually animated new bodies; and
by virtue of its higher qualities, and by the
peculiar and absolute command of God, it has
invariably retained a semblance of its previous con-
ditions. Every man, therefore, in whom it
resided, knew that the soul of Jesus was in him.
In the first centuries after Christ this was so
universally acknowledged among believers that
every one recognised the new Jesus, who
was the guide and ruler of Christendom, and
decided all disputes respecting the Faith. The
Jesus thus always born again was called Pope.
False Popes, however, soon obtained possession
of the throne of Jesus; but the true Jesus only
retained a small band of believers about Him;
as He predicted in the New Testament, ' many

THE DOUKHOBORS 295

are called, but few chosen.' These believers are
the Doukhobors, among whom Jesus constantly
dwells, his soul animating one of them. ' Thus
Sylvan Kolesnikov, of Nikolsk,' said Kapoustin,
' whom the older among you knew was Jesus ;
but now, as truly as the heaven is above me and
the earth under my feet, I am the true Jesus
Christ your Lord."

Kapoustin introduced communism; the fields
were ploughed in common; common barns were
built in which to store grain against time of
famine; and the community flourished and made
good progress. He used every means possible
to retain the allegiance of the villagers as a
whole.

For the government of the community he
appointed thirty elders and twelve apostles. The
members were not encouraged to learn to read
or write, and they were discouraged from trade
and commerce, as they might imbibe the opinions
of the " Gentiles " or " Chaldeans," and thus re-
ceive harmful teachings.

He was their representative before the civil
authorities, and paid taxes for the whole colony.
He required absolute and implicit obedience from
all the members, and held that at any time he,
as leader, was free to dispose of property or
person.

Maude says, " The result of Kapoustin's in-
fluence was to convert what had been an ultra-

296 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

democratic, anti-governmental sect into a society
in which he was an autocrat controlling not only
the persons and property, but even the very
thoughts of his subjects."

Prosperity was the indirect means which
brought adversity to the community. Seeing their
flourishing condition, Orthodox peasants began to
join the community at the Milky Waters, with
the result that the Doukhobors were open to the
charge of proselytizing, and several men who had
been expelled from the community brought accusa-
tions against the sect. Some of the leaders were
arrested, and after long confinement in prison,
were at last released.

In February, 1816, a priest was sent to con-
vert them, but Father Nalimski, on the night of
his arrival, got drunk, misbehaved himself, and
started fighting, for which missionary labours, or
rather, the result of them, he was confined in a
monastery for four months.

On July 19 of the same year Kapoustin
was arrested on the charge of perverting the
Orthodox. Although he was seventy-three years
of age, he was kept in prison for some months
awaiting trial, and was at last released on bail,
and died about November 7, 1817, although many
accounts are current as to the date and place
of his death.

In 1819, William Allen and Stephen Grellet,
the Quakers, visited the Milky Waters, and made

THE DOUKHOBORS 297

inquiries into the tenets and life of the Doukhobors.
It is interesting to compare their impressions of
the Doukhobors with those they formed of the
Molokans (see p. 328).

William Allen writes in his diary:
"In the evening . . . we visited a village,
Terpenie, where there is a settlement of one of
the sects of the Doukhobors. We crossed the
Milky Waters, and on our arrival were conducted
to the house where they are in the practice of
meeting on public occasions, and where we found
several of the fraternity. They were well dressed
according to the custom of the country, but there
was something in their countenance which I did
not quite like. We had some conversation, and
informed them that we had heard in England
of the persecution they had endured, and also
of the humane interposition of the Emperor on
their behalf; that while we had felt sympathy
for them in their sufferings, we wished to know
from themselves what were their religious prin-
ciples. It soon appeared, however, that they
have no fixed principles. There was a studied
evasion in their answers, and though they
readily quoted texts, it is plain that they do
not acknowledge the authority of Scripture,
and have some very erroneous notions. I
was anxious to ascertain their belief respect-
ing our Saviour, but could learn nothing satis-
factory. Stephen (Grellet) endeavoured to con-

THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

vince them of their errors on some points, but
they appear in a very dark state; they have
driven out from among them all those who re-
ceive Scriptural truth and who are of the class
with whom we were so much pleased at Ekateri-
noslav (Molokans). My spirit was greatly affected,
and I came away from them much depressed."

Stephen Grellet writes :

" The following morning was also spent with
the Doukhobors; a considerable number attended
what they called their worship, but some of their
ceremonies were painful to witness. They mani-
fested great ignorance on the subject of religion,
and the interview did not prove more satisfactory
than that on the preceding day.

" This afternoon we went to the principal
village of the Doukhobors. We went to the
abode of the chief man among them. He is
ninety years old, nearly blind, but very active
in body and mind. He appears to be a robust,
strong man. Fourteen others of their elders or
chief men were with him. We had a long
conference with them. He was the chief speaker.
We found him very evasive in several of his
answers to our inquiries. They, however, stated
unequivocally that they do not believe in the
authority of the Scriptures. They look upon
Jesus Christ in no other light than that of a
good man. They therefore have no confidence in
Him as a Saviour from sin. They say that they

THE DOUKHOBORS 299

believe that there is a spirit in man to teach
and lead him in the right way, and in support
of this they were fluent in the quotation of Scrip-
ture texts, which they teach to their children;
but they will not allow any of their people to have
a Bible among them. We inquired about their
mode of worship. They said they met together
to sing some of the Psalms of David. Respecting
their manner of solemnising their marriages, they
declined giving an answer; but a very favourite
reply to some of our questions was : ' The letter
killeth, but the Spirit giveth Life.' We found,
however, that they have no stated times for their
meetings for worship; but that to-morrow, which
is First Day, they intend to have one, and this
they said we might attend, and see for ourselves.
We left them with heavy hearts.

"I had a sleepless night; my mind being
under great weight of exercise for the Doukho-
bors. I felt much for these people, thus darkened
by their leaders, and I did not apprehend that
I should stand acquitted in the Divine sight with-
out seeking for an opportunity to expostulate with
them, and to proclaim that salvation which comes
by Jesus Christ. . . . We rode again to their
village in the morning. . . . The Doukhobors col-
lected on a spacious spot of ground out of doors.
They all stood, forming a large circle; all the
men on the left hand of the old man, and the
women on his right; the children of both sexes

300 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

formed the opposite side of the circle; they were
all cleanly dressed; an old woman was next to
the old man; she began by singing what they
call a psalm; the other women joined in it; then
the man next the old man, taking him by the
hand, stepped in front of him, each bowed down
very low to one another three times, and then
twice to the women, who returned the salute;
that man resuming his place, the one next to
him performed the same ceremony to the old
man and to the women; then, by turns, all the
others, even the boys, came and kissed three times
the one in the circle above him, instead of bowing.
When the men and boys had accomplished this,
the women did the same to each other; then
the girls; the singing continuing the whole time.
It took them nearly an hour to perform this round
of bowing and kissing; then the old woman, in
a fluent manner, uttered what they called a prayer,
and their worship concluded; but no seriousness
appeared over them at any time. Oh, how was
my soul bowed before the Lord, earnestly craving
that he would touch their hearts by His power
and love ! I felt also much towards the young
people. I embraced the opportunity to preach
the Lord Jesus Christ, and that salvation which
is through faith in Him. . . . We then went into
the house with the old men; they had a few things
to say, but not to any more satisfaction than
yesterday. We left them with heavy hearts."

THE DOUKHOBORS 301

Again, " One of the Molokans saying that he
was formerly among the Doukhobors, I inquired
of him how he had become convinced of his errors.
He answered with great energy, ' I had the Bible
put into my hands; I read it, and is it possible to
read the Bible and not be convinced of the great
errors under which I was ? ' '

With the death of Kapoustin a day of darkness
and evil dawned for the settlers of the Milky
Waters.

Haxthausen reports the events as follows :

" After the death of Kapoustin, the office of
Christ passed to his son. He (Kapoustin) is said
to have assured his people that the soul of Christ
had the power of uniting itself with any human
body it pleased, and that it would establish itself
in the body of his son."

" The son and heir of Kapoustin was Vasilli
Kalmikof, and his son was Ilarion Kalmikof.
Neither of them inherited Kapoustin's genius.
They fell into evil practices and became drunkards.

" The elders and apostles now assumed the
authority, acting nominally in Vasilli's name.

" The Council of the Elders constituted itself
a terrible inquisitional tribunal. The principle,
' Whoso denies his God shall perish by the sword,'
was interpreted according to their caprice; the
Justice Hall was called ' Paradise and Torture ' ;
the place of execution was at the mouth of the
river. A mere suspicion of treachery was punish-

302 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

able with death. Within a few years some four
hundred people disappeared, leaving no trace be-
hind " (see Aylmer Maude's note). The authorities
intervened, and discovered bodies mutilated, whilst
some had evidently been buried alive.

In 1839 the order came for the whole sect,
then at the Milky Waters, to be transported to
the Caucasus, save such as joined the Orthodox
Church.

The order was given by proclamation of the
Governor-general in these terms :

" In the name of your religion, and by the
command of your pretended teachers, you put
men to death, treating them cruelly . . . Conceal-
ing crimes committed by your brethren, every-
where opposing disobedience and contempt to the
Government. These things, contrary to all the
laws of God and man, many of your brethren
knew, and, instead of giving information of them
to the Government, they endeavoured to conceal
them. Many are still in custody for their conduct,
awaiting the just punishment of their misdeeds."

In 1841 eight hundred were transported,
including Ilarion Kalmikov and his family. In
1842 eight hundred more were transported, and
in 1843 a further nine hundred. In all, more
than four thousand were sent to the South-East.

" Ilarion Kalmikov died soon after the migra-
tion. It is said that after Kapoustin's death, the
Doukhobors were in such a hurry to raise up

THE DOUKHOBORS 303

seed to inherit his divinity, that they supplied
Ilarion, when he was scarcely sixteen, with a
succession of six young women by whom he might
have offspring. He left two young sons, on one
of whom, at the age of thirty, the Doukhobors
hoped the soul of Jesus would descend. Mean-
while, after the death of Ilarion, an Elder called
Lyonuskha directed affairs for a time. He also
got into trouble with the authorities, and was
banished to Siberia."

One of Ilarion's sons, Peter, became leader,
and the sect flourished under his rule. He died
in 1864, whilst still a young man. He nominated
his wife as leader. " I leave you to my cuckoo
here; she will take my place, but after her the
Holy Spirit will abide with you no more."

During the " reign " of the latter the sect
spread to Tiflis, Kars, and Elizabetpol, and
numbered about 21,000 in the Caucasus.

Loukeriya died in 1886, and the sect were
apparently left without a leader. The prophecy
of Peter seemed to be likely of fulfilment.

Under Loukeriya's leadership the Elders had
taken a large share of the management of the
colonies into their hands, and had been the official
channels of intercourse with the Imperial and civic
authorities. They were prosperous, had a larger
vision than the men who came from the Milky
Waters, and had discovered that their salvation
no longer depended on keeping the Doukhobors

20

304 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

entirely secluded from other men and communities.

They looked upon themselves as the " Chosen
Ones," a race superior to all others — " God's
Elect."

Their property was of considerable value, and
as Loukeriya had no direct descendant, it seemed
that there was little likelihood of a successor to
Kalmikov's authority appearing; when, to the
surprise of all concerned, a claimant appeared in
the person of Peter Verigin.

Aylmer Maude quotes from the " Confidential
Report " from Prince Shervashidze, dated October

7, 1895-

" Under the circumstances described, the said
Verigin, quite a young Doukhobor, literate, un-
principled, and unusually handsome, had, during
the last years of Loukeriya Kalmikov's life, been
constantly in attendance upon her; and by his
turbulent character, arrogance, and efforts to raise
himself above others, had provoked against himself
the relations and entourage of Loukeriya, as well
as the influential members of the village of Goreloe,
where the Orphans' Home was situated, and where
the head of the sect dwelt. In other words, Peter
Verigin provoked against himself the most in-
fluential members of the sect. But, in the villages
at a distance, amid the ignorant mass of the
Doukhobors, educated in the absurd traditional
belief in the supernatural power of the Kalmikovs,
rumours began to circulate, even during Loukeriya's

THE DOUKHOBORS 305

life, which gave the managers of the Orphans'
Home cause for uneasiness, and which were to
the effect that this well-built, handsome young
man was of no common origin, but was the son
of the late Peter Kalmikov, the fruit of a visit he
paid, not long before his death, to Verigin's family ;
and that this was the explanation of his peculiar
nearness to Loukeriya, who kept him in attend-
ance, not as a courtier, but as an heir, preparing
him by frequent conversations and directions for
the exalted position due to his race, to the joy
and happiness of all true believing Doukhobors;
who, as a result of their education and the
traditions of their sect, could not conceive of the
possibility of doing without having a God-man
at the head of the sect; and who, therefore,
accepted with credulity a rumour which flattered
their imagination. As a result of this, the con-
viction of the exalted, divine destiny of Peter
Verigin had become so confirmed in the hearts
of the sectarians towards the end of 1896 that,
soon after the death of Loukeriya, it was quite
possible for him to advance his pretensions.

" Meeting with strong opposition from the in-
fluential men of the sect, who knew him well, and
with the object of breaking down their resistance
and definitely dispelling doubts that might arise
as to the justice of his cause, Verigin set out for
his native village. Here, in solemn gathering,
before all the people, his mother submissively

306 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

announced that her son Peter was begotten, not
by her husband, but by Peter Kalmikov, who,
to the great joy of all her family, had honoured
her by his holy attentions at the time of his last
visit to the village; and that this great secret
was well known to Loukeriya, who had only
awaited Peter's coming of age in order, during her
own lifetime, to hand over to him the inheritance
of his ancestors. After these words, both she
and her husband fell at Peter's feet, and when they
had done so, all the people imitated them. Next
followed the administration of the oath of allegiance
to Verigin, and the signing of the attestations
of allegiance. In this way the new leader's right
of succession and connection with the holy race
were established, so that it was unnecessary for
him to prove his Divine origin by miracles, his title
being acknowledged on the strength of his birth."

Afterwards about seven-tenths of the Doukho-
bors signed attestation papers, and, with invin-
cible faith in the infallibility of their leader,
blindly submitted their fate into his hands. The
sect, after a period of turmoil and violent alterca-
tion, split in twain, and the minority appealed
to the law for a decision concerning the leader-
ship and control of the property. The judges
decided in favour of Peter's rival, the brother of
Loukeriya, Michael Goubanov. The contention was
so severe and bitter between the two parties that
they refused to acknowledge one another, and

THE DOUKHOBORS 307

even families were broken up, taking sides upon
the question of leadership.

In 1887 Verigin was banished to the province
of Archangel, in the far North, for five years,
and at the end of that time, instead of being
released, he was sent to Siberia. Whilst in exile
he read largely in Tolstoi's works and imbibed
much of his teaching, with the result that, owing
to his frequent correspondence with his followers,
he modified their doctrines considerably, and even
induced them to change their name to that of
" The Christian Community of Universal Brother-
hood." The strife and contention between the
two factions was so bitter and severe, and the
fanaticism of Verigin's followers was of such a
nature, that at last the Government interfered in
a most brutal way (letting loose the Cossacks
upon them), and Christian Europe was horror-
stricken, funds were raised in England and
America, and for the third time in their history
the Doukhobors had perforce to find a new home.
They were settled in Canada, largely by the help
and sagacity of Mr. Maude, the well-known trans-
lator of Tolstoi, and in 1902, Peter Verigin, being
freed from exile in Siberia, joined them in their
new home, and is there their leader and guide.

Some thousands of them are still in Russia,
but the troublous times through which they have
passed, the disillusionment they have gone through
in respect to their God-man, have considerably modi-

308 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

fied their doctrine of the incarnate Christ, and
they are rapidly becoming more akin to other
sectarians, who have been compelled to live with
them " by administrative order."

With the story of the Doukhobors before us
the question naturally arises, " What did they
believe?" and "How did they act?"

With reference to their conduct the testimony
varies considerably. In some cases the writers
are violently prejudiced against the sect on religious
grounds, whilst in others, humanitarianism has led
the writers, moved to compassion for a severely
persecuted people, to gloss over many of their
faults — faults inherent in their system.

Novitski says of them, although he is opposed
to their belief and religious practices, that :

" To the credit of the Doukhobors, one must
say that they are sober, laborious, and frugal;
that in their houses and clothing they are careful
to be clean and tidy; that they are attentive to
their agriculture and cattle breeding, occupations
which have been and still are their chief employ-
ment."

He refers to their superstitions, to their
quarrels amongst one another, and to their quick
anger. " The distinguishing trait in their char-
acter is obstinacy in their doctrine, insubordination
to the authorities, insults and slanders towards
those who differ from them. The dissensions and
agitations whereby they formerly disturbed the

THE DOUKHOBORS 309

public order have ceased, but the sect itself has
seethed and surged with many passions."

Novitski was of the opinion that, taken as a
community, there was, compared with other
Russians in the same stage of development, less
crime, vice, poverty, luxury, and superstition;
that although there was a gulf fixed between their
faith and practice, it was no wider or deeper
than that amongst their neighbours. Professor
Milyoukov says of them:

" The high moral tone which these sectarians
exhibit in their family life and social intercourse,
by the strict observance of their pledged word, by
the rigid keeping of their obligations toward their
fellow-men, by their readiness to help and sympa-
thise both with outsiders and with their brethren
in the faith, they present exactly the opposite to
the average Russian type. Theirs is a higher
social type — the type of the Russian of the future."

That at times they have committed excesses
and done strange things under the stress
of great religious excitement, cannot be denied,
but on the whole they have been a law-abiding,
quiet, prosperous people, and like the vast majority
of sectarians in Russia, their homes and villages
present a marked contrast to the squalid and
ofttimes filthy izbas of the Orthodox.

Aylmer Maude says of them:

" With all their limitations and deficiencies,
with their history for nearly a century before us,

310 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

one may fairly say of the Doukhobors that, without
any Government founded on force, they have
managed their affairs better than their neighbours
have done : with no army or police, they have
suffered little from crimes of violence ; and without
priests or ministers, they have had more practical
religion, and more intelligible guidance for their
spiritual life. . . . Without political economists,
wealth among them has been better distributed,
and they have suffered far less from extremes of
wealth and poverty. Without lawyers or written
laws, they have settled their disputes (save in
the case of the great dispute concerning the
leadership of Peter Verigin). Without books, they
have educated their children to be industrious,
useful, peaceable, and God-fearing men and women,
have instructed them in the tenets of their re-
ligion, and taught them to produce food, clothing,
and shelter needed for themselves and for others."
It is now more than fourteen years since more
than seven thousand of the sect settled in the
Great North- West of Canada, and impartial
observers report that they are clean, industrious,
honest, and frugal; that there is every prospect
of their becoming good citizens and valuable
colonists.

THE DOUKHOBOR BELIEF AND DOCTRINE.
NoviTSKl, in his book on the Doukhobors, com-
pares their doctrines with the

THE DOUKHOBORS 311

(1) Gnostics, in their opinion of the Holy
Spirit ;

(2) Manicheans, in their belief in an inward
light, in their opinion of Jesus Christ, and in
their belief in the pre-existence, fall, and future
state of man's soul.

(3) Paulicians, in many matters, and especi-
ally in their rejection of bishops, priests, and
deacons, and, in general, of the authority of a
visible Church.

(4) Anabaptists, in their Theocratic aspira-
tions and their dislike of mundane governments;
also in their repudiation of infant baptism.

(5) Early Quakers, especially in their belief
in the Christ within, and their non-resistant prin-
ciples.

THE CREED.

(1) There is one God. The Holy Trinity
is a being beyond comprehension; the Father is
light, the Son life, and the Holy Spirit is peace;
it is affirmed in man, the Father by memory,
the Son by reason, the Holy Spirit by will; the
One God in Trinity.

(2) Our souls existed and fell before the
creation of the material universe; they are sent
here as to a prison — as a punishment, and for
their reformation. The sin of Adam is like the
rest of the Bible stories, figurative. His sin does
not pass to his descendants, but each man has
sinned for himself.

312 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

(3) The Divinity of Jesus Christ, our Saviour,
as shown in the Old Testament, was nothing but
wisdom revealed in nature; but in the New Testa-
ment He was the spirit of piety, purity, etc.,
incarnate. He is born, preaches, suffers, dies, and
rises again spiritually in the heart of each believer.

Another view of Jesus Christ is: He is the
Son of God, but in the same sense in which we
also are sons of God. Our elders know even
more than Christ did; go and hear them. Of
miracles they said, We believe that He performed
miracles; we ourselves were dead in sin, blind
and deaf, and He has raised us up, pardoned our
sins, and given us His commandment; but of bodily
miracles we know nothing.

(4) For our salvation it is not essential to have
external knowledge of Jesus Christ; for there is
the inward word which reveals Him in the depths
of our souls. It existed in all ages, and enlightens
all who are ready to receive it, whether they be
nominally Christians or not.

(5) Those enlightened by the Spirit of God
will after death rise again — what will become of
other people is uncertain. It is the soul and not
the body that will rise — a new heavenly body.
Desires reaching man through his senses of hear-
ing, seeing, smelling, tasting, or touching, includ-
ing sexual desire, sow the seeds of future torment.
The craving for honours now torments the
ambitious man, and the craving for drink, the

THE DOUKHOBORS 313

drunkard, but much more will those who have
sown the seeds of such desires be tormented in
the future life, when they will not be able to
gratify the passions, which will nevertheless grow
stronger and stronger.

The fire of abuse and contempt will burn
and torment those who have striven for honours ;
the fire of aversion, shame, and loathing will
be the consequence of impure love ; and the flames
of fury, enmity, revenge, rancour, and implaca-
bility will punish anger.

•If this is the result of sowing evil passions in
this life, on the other hand, the result of sowing
good seed will be continued growth towards per-
fection till the purified souls become like God
Himself.

(6) Our bodies are cages restraining and
confining our souls, and as the passions sow the
seeds of evil, we should deny our lower selves,
and forego what pleases our senses, and thus
weaken their power over our souls. " If the desire
for fame is condemned among them, yet more is
luxury in food or dress, because luxury, indulg-
ing the flesh, strengthens it to stifle the inward
light coming from above."

(7) Inasmuch as all men are equal, and the
children of God do good willingly, without coercion,
they do not require any government or authority
over them. Government, if needed at all, is
needed only for the wicked.

314 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

To go to war, to carry arms, and to take
oaths, is forbidden. " Regarding war as a for-
bidden thing, they say they have set themselves a
rule not to carry arms."

(8) The Church is a society selected by God
Himself. It is invisible and scattered over the
whole world; it is not marked externally by any
common creed. Not Christians only, but Jews,
Mohammedans, and others may be members of
it, if only they hearken to the inward word; and
therefore —

(9) The Holy Scriptures, or the outer word,
are not essential for the sons of God. It is, how-
ever, of use to them because in the Scriptures,
as in nature and in ourselves, they read the decrees
and the acts of the Lord. But the Scriptures
must be understood symbolically to represent things
that are inward and spiritual. It must all be
understood to relate in a mystical manner to the
Christ within.

(10) The Christ within is the only True
Hierarch and Priest. Therefore, no external priest
is necessary. In whomever Christ lives, he is
Christ's heir, and is himself a priest unto himself.
The priests of temples made with hands are
appointed externally, and can perform only what
is external : they are not what they are usually
esteemed to be. The sons of God should worship
God in Spirit and in Truth, and, therefore, need
no external worship of God. The external sacra-

THE DOUKHOBORS 315

ments have no efficacy; they should be under-
stood in a spiritual sense. To baptise a child with
water is unbecoming for a Christian; an adult
baptises himself with the word of truth, and is
then baptised, indeed, by the true priest, Christ,
with spirit and with fire.

True Confession is heartfelt contrition before
God, though we may also confess our sins to
one another when occasion presents itself.

The external sacraments of the Church are
offensive to God, for Christ desires not signs but
realities; the real communion comes by the word,
by thought, and by faith.

Marriage should be accomplished without any
ceremonies; it needs only the will of those who
have come of age and who are united in love
to one another, the consent of the parents, and
an inward oath and vow before all-seeing God
in the souls of those who are marrying, that they
will to the end of their days remain faithful and
inseparable. An external marriage ceremony, apart
from the inward marriage, has no meaning; it
has at most this effect, that, being performed
before witnesses, it maintains the bond between
the spouses by the fear of shame should
they break the promise of fidelity they have
given.

The priesthood is not an office reserved
specially for selected people. Each real Christian,
enlightened by the word, may and should pray

316 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

to God for himself, and should spread the truth
that has been entrusted to him.

What am I then ? A temple to the Lord most high.
The Altar and the Priest, the Sacrifice am I.
Our Hearts the Altars are; ours Wills the Offering;
Our Souls they are the Priests, our Sacrifice to bring.

The forms of worship of all the external
Churches in the world, their various institutions,
all the ranks and orders of their servants, their
costumes and movements, were invented after the
time of the Apostles — those men of Holy Wisdom
— and are in themselves naught but dead signs,
mere figures and letters, externally representing
that sacred, invisible, living, and wise power of
God, which (like the sun's rays) enlightens and
pervades the souls of the elect, and lives and
acts in them, purifying them, and uniting them
to God. To pray in temples made with hands
is contrary to the injunction of the Saviour:
" When thou prayest, enter into thine inner
chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy
Father which is in secret." Yet a son of God
need not fear to enter any temples — Papal, Greek,
Lutheran, Calvinist, or other: to him they are
all indifferent.

Later the addition was made : All the cere-
monies of the Churches, being useless, were much
better left alone.

(n) Icons they do not respect or worship,
but consider as idols. The saints may be re-

THE DOUKHOBORS 317

spected for their virtues, but should not be prayed
to. Fasting should consist in fleeing from lusts
and refraining from superfluities. The Decrees
of the Churches and the Councils should not be
accepted.

(12) The Church has no right to judge or
to sentence any one, for it cannot know all man's
inward, secret motives.

THE MOLOKANS

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

MiLYOUKOV The Crisis in Russia.

TSAKNI La Russie Sectaire.

LATIMER Under Three Tsars.

WALLACE . Russia.

319

21

THE MOLOKANS

THE " Molokans," or " Milk drinkers," are so
called because, contrary to the practice
of the " Orthodox," they drink milk on
the " holy " or " fast " days of the Russian Church.

In a statement of their faith, printed at Geneva,
and written by members of the sect exiled from
home, they attribute their origin to the reign of
Ivan the Terrible. Ivan employed at Court an
"English" physician; the common people, in their
ignorance, regarded him as Antichrist, and closed
their gates and doors against him. However, at
the Court of Ivan he made the acquaintance of a
boyar (a wealthy landed proprietor) whose estates
were in the province of Tambov.

Physician and boyar had much conversation
about the Bible, which at that time, in Russia,
the people were not allowed to possess. This
landowner had a favourite servant, named Matthew
Semenof, who understood Bible truths more readily
than his master, and soon began to neglect the
services of the Russian Church and to abandon
the worship of Icons.

Semenof obtained a copy of the Sclavonic
Bible, and commenced teaching those about him

321

322 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

the truth concerning the pure worship of God,
of God who would be worshipped in spirit and in
truth.

But in those days it was dangerous to say
anything against the Church services, and finally
Semenof was arrested, tried, and sentenced to
death. He was martyred by being broken upon
the wheel. Some of his disciples, serfs of his
master, returning home from Moscow with the
Bible, secretly spread the doctrine, as they called
it, " of the true and pure worship of God." These
too were at last discovered, tried, flogged, im-
prisoned, and ultimately sent to convict labour
for life. Despite all the efforts of the priests,
the teaching spread secretly amongst the peasants
of Tambov, and reached even to the neighbour-
ing Province of Saratov.

Later, the movement received a great impetus
from the influence of Tveritinov, who was a doctor
in Moscow during the reign of Peter the Great.
He had been brought into touch with German
Calvinists and Protestants, of whom there were
very many in Russia at that time. They had
settled mainly in Moscow, upon the invitation
of Peter, who was intent upon introducing some
of the arts, sciences, and industries of the West
into his own country.

The effect of Peter's reforms, of the favour he
showed to foreigners, of his unceremonious treat-
ment of old traditions, made it possible, for a

THE MOLOKANS 323

while at least, to speak with considerable freedom
on religious matters. Tveritinov's practice as a
doctor brought him into touch with people of
all classes, and he appears to have omitted no
opportunity of denouncing the superstitions of the
Church. While adopting the attitude of Bashkin
and Kosoy towards Icons, prayers for the dead,
transubstantiation, and Church Councils, he ac-
cepted the Divinity of Jesus, and took the Bible
as the Rock on which to base his criticism of
the Holy Orthodox Church.

Tveritinov's premier position was due, not
to the originality of his views, but to the fact that
he could state his views clearly and pithily, and
he thus reached a wide audience. He carefully
circulated manuscript booklets containing the
Scripture texts upon which his followers based
their indictment of the Holy Orthodox Church.

These books carried his teaching far afield
amongst the peasants, and many of his aphorisms,
as well as his favourite texts, are still habitually
quoted among the Molokans.

God, he taught, should be worshipped in
spirit; an Icon is only a board, which burns if
thrown into the fire. He questioned the sanctity of
many of the saints, and especially of St. Nicolas
the Wonder Worker (the favourite saint in Russia).
Nicolas, he -declared, was only an ordinary peasant,
whom people took to worshipping when they had
forgotten God. He called in question the canonisa-

324 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

tion of saints, on the ground that no one has
conversed with God, or can know saint from sinner
until the Day of Judgment of the dead; and as to
prayers for them, he quoted Paul, " each shall
receive his own reward according to his own
labour " ; and added that priests, for their own
profit, invented prayers for the dead. He held
that what is written in the Bible should be believed,
but that there is no need to believe what the
Church has added thereto. Monasticism he called
a senile contrivance.

Ultimately he was brought to account. The
last Council of the Russian Church was held in
1714, and by it he was anathematised, and escaped
by abjuring his heresies.

His cousin, Thomas Ivanof, a barber, was con-
fined in the Tchoudof Monastery. There he
chopped to pieces a sculptural figure of Alexis
(Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia, 1348-78),
in consequence of which conduct he was burnt
to death.

The next figure of importance in the Molokan
movement was Grigoriev Skovoroda (1750-1790).
He travelled the country after the fashion of the
Russian pilgrims, clad only in rags. Being a
man of some education, he had with him copies
of the Scriptures in the original tongues as well
as in the Sclavonic. He went from village to
village, playing upon his flute, talking to
the people concerning the things of God, ex-

THE MOLOKANS 325

pounding to them the Scriptures, and teaching
them to sing simple hymns to simple tunes of
his own composing. He thus led many to accept
the evangelical doctrine of the sect.

These men represented the Russian School,
which bases itself on the Bible : man is free to
think, provided he thinks what is in the Bible,
and does not think that which runs counter to the
Bible.

Under Catherine the Second, a peasant tailor,
named Uklein, resident in the province of Tambov,
was brought into touch with the itinerant evan-
gelist, Skovoroda. He seceded fom the Doukhobors
because he could not hold their doctrine that
God dwells in the human soul, that the individual
is a continual reincarnation of Christ, and that
consequently the chief source of religious truth
was to be found in internal enlightenment. To
Uklein, religious truth was to be found only in
the Scriptures. With this doctrine he soon made
many converts, and within a few months, more
than seventy of them were arrested and imprisoned
at Tambov, handed over to the ecclesiastical courts,
and in the event of their remaining obdurate they
were to be tried by the civil judges.

Most of them stood by their faith and were
imprisoned, but on their release they continued
their propaganda. At the time of his death,
Uklein had more than five thousand followers in
Tambov alone.

326 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

Persecution, bitter and severe, has been brought
to bear upon them, and by the exile system they
have been scattered all over the Empire, but to-day
they still number about one hundred and twenty
thousand.

The severe trials through which they were
called upon to pass aroused the sympathies of the
Society of Friends in England, and in the year
1819 William Allen and Stephen Grellet were
sent as " messengers " from the " Committee of
Sufferings " to visit the Molokans and seek the
help of the Tsar to modify their tribulations at
the hands of the priests and civil authorities.

The two Friends sent the following report to
His Imperial Majesty the Tsar:

" The Molokans believe in the Divine authority
of the Holy Scriptures, in the deity of our Lord
and Saviour, and in the influence of the Holy
Spirit, as fully as any Christians whom we ever
met with. They believe it their duty to abstain
from all ceremonies, and think that the only
acceptable worship is that performed ' in spirit
and in truth.' They collect their families two
or three times a day to hear the Scriptures read,
and abstain from secular employment on the
first day of the week, called Sunday, con-
sidering it their duty to appropriate this
day to religious exercises. Their marriages are
performed with solemnity in their public meetings,
and the parties promise to be faithful to each other

THE MOLOKANS 327

during life. They believe that the only true
baptism is that of Christ with the Spirit,
and that the water baptism of John is not now
necessary; and they consider that the true com-
munion is altogether of a spiritual nature, and
make use of no outward ceremony. In their meet-
ings for worship they sing Psalms, and several
of those who are esteemed by the rest as more
pious, read to the others in turn. They have no
appointed preachers, but anyone who feels himself
properly qualified, through the power of the Divine
Influence upon the mind, may expound and speak
to edification; they, however, consider that it
should never be done for hire, or from any worldly
motive.

" They believe that a true Christian can never
harbour revenge, and they think it their duty
rather to suffer wrong than to seek to avenge it;
if any differences arise, they are settled amongst
themselves, and not brought to the tribunals.

" Some among them are considered as elders,
and though it does not appear that they are
regularly appointed, yet those who are most
eminent for their piety are regarded as such,
and it is their duty, when any of the fraternity
are ill, to visit them, and if able to do so, to offer
them advice, or afford them comfort. . . . No
particular ceremony is observed at their burial,
but they sing a psalm.

" If the moral conduct of anyone does not

328 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

correspond with his profession, he is tenderly
exhorted, and much labour is bestowed upon
him; but if they judge that he cannot be re-
claimed, he is dismissed from the Society. With
respect to the poor among them, they deem it
Christian duty to take care of and support each
other. It appears that they have no instance
among them of children acting irreverently to-
wards their parents, and they are very careful
to have them instructed in reading and writing."

In the interesting Memoirs of Stephen Grellet
an extended reference to the faith and practice of
the Molokans is to be found. He writes :

" Previous to our going to the meeting with
the Spiritual Christians we prepared a list of the
principal subjects respecting which we wished to
inquire of them. They were very free to give
us every information we asked for, and they did
it in few words, accompanied, generally, with some
Scripture quotations as their reasons for believing
or acting as they did; these were so much to
the purpose that one acquainted with Friends'
writings might conclude that they had selected
from them the most clear and appropriate pas-
sages to support their several testimonies. On
all the cardinal points of the Christian religion,
the fall of man, salvation through Christ by faith,
the meritorious death of Christ, His resurrection,
ascension, etc., their views are very clear; also
respecting the influence of the Holy Spirit, wor-

THE MOLOKANS

ship, ministry, baptism, the supper, oaths, etc.,
etc., we might suppose that they were thoroughly
acquainted with our Society, but they had never
heard of us, nor of any people that profess as we
do. Respecting war, however, their views are
not entirely clear, and yet many among us may
learn from them. They said, " War is a subject
that we have not yet been able fully to understand,
so as to reconcile Scripture with Scripture ; we
are commanded to obey our rulers, magistrates,
etc., for conscience sake; and again, we are
enjoined to love our enemies, not to avenge our-
selves; to render good for evil; therefore we can-
not see fully how we can refuse obedience to
the laws that require our young people to join
the army; but in all matters respecting ourselves,
we endeavour to act faithfully as the Gospel re-
quires. We have never any lawsuits; for if any-
body smites us on the one cheek, we turn to him
the other; if he takes away any part of our
property, we bear it patiently; we give to him
that asketh, and lend to him that borrows, not
asking it back again; and in all these things the
Lord blesses us. The Lord is very good to our
young men, for though several of them have been
taken to the army, not one of them has actually
borne arms; for, our principles being known, they
have very soon been placed in offices of trust,
such as attending to the provisions of the army,
or something of that sort. Their ministers are

330 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

acknowledged in much the same way as ours,
and, like us, that their only and best reward is
the dear Saviour's approval; therefore, they re-
ceive no kind of salary. They use the Slavonian
Bible; few of them, however, can read, but those
who can, read to the others, and these, from
memory, teach the children, so that their young
people are very ready in quoting the Scriptures
correctly. They pointed out to us the great dis-
tinction there is between them and the Doukhobors.
The latter deny the divinity of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, the offering up of Himself a sacrifice for
sin on Calvary, and salvation by faith in Him."

Since the days of Stephen Grellet, however,
there have been marked changes in the Molokans.
Outside influences have exercised sway over them,
and the rise of the Evangelical Baptists has helped
them considerably. The ability to read is, in
contradistinction to the Russian people, so widely
spread amongst them that hardly a member lacks
it. They are undoubtedly better housed, better
clad, more punctual in the payment of their taxes,
more prosperous than their neighbours. They im-
press one as a quiet, decent, sober people. Again
and again in conversation with them I have tried
to get them to speak freely about their religious
beliefs, but long years of persecution on the
part of the Government and much suffering at
the hands of local officials and priests, have made
them reticent in the presence of a stranger.

THE MOLOKANS 331

Quite accidentally I discovered their repug-
nance to pork. My friend, Vassily Stepanov, had
accepted an invitation to have a meal with me,
and amongst the viands on the table were some
ham sandwiches. I offered the dish to him, and
he declined, with the information that as a
Molokan he did not eat pork. Their knowledge
of Scripture leaves little to be desired. I have
met men and women who have practically
memorised the four Gospels, and numbers who
have committed to memory the greater part of
the Epistles. Their love for the Word of God is
deep and true.

As a community they are very loosely or-
ganised, and have practically no Church polity.
Two or three meet together and claim the blessing
of the presence of Christ. Consequently they have
little or no means of developing their fundamental
principles and of forming their vague religious
beliefs into a clearly defined and logical system.
With many, their theology is in a more or less
fluid state. Their principles allow great latitude
for individual and local differences of opinion.
Thus many " false prophets " have arisen amongst
them.

In 1835, a peasant from Melitopol, named
Belozborov, announced, amidst great excitement,
that the Second Advent was at hand. He declared
himself to be Elijah, and that on a given day he
would ascend into heaven in a chariot of fire.

332 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

The day came ; crowds gathered around the
"prophet"; all was expectancy; but the chariots
delayed, and the impostor was handed over to
the police for punishment.

The year following, a peasant in Tambov
Province persuaded many to dress themselves in
their best clothes and journey with him to the
Caucasus, where, upon a given day, the Millennium
was to be inaugurated.

As recently as 1904 a man named Grigorieff,
travelling with an American passport, urged com-
munity of goods, free love, abolition of personal
and private property, and then proclaimed him-
self to be the Messiah. He had no real religious
enthusiasm, and from what we can learn concern-
ing him, his teaching, and his methods, he was
a strange blend of the visionary, prophet, social
reformer, and cunning impostor. He ultimately
landed in gaol, and his dupes returned to
their previous mode of life, sadder, if wiser,
men.

But these movements, common to all re-
ligious bodies in Russia, are perhaps fewer amongst
the Molokans and other evangelical sects than
with the Orthodox.

Generally speaking, the Molokans take as
their model the early Apostolic Church, as depicted
in the New Testament, and uncompromisingly re-
ject all later authorities. Their services are very
simple. A few meet together, sometimes con-

THE MOLOKANS 333

trary to the decrees of the local police, and spend
two or three hours in psalm-singing, Scripture-
reading, prayer, and conversation.

If one of the brethren has a doctrinal diffi
culty he will state it to the assembly, and there
will be a great searching of Scripture in an attempt
to solve the same with texts.

Tsakni, in La Russie Sectaire, writes concern-
ing them:

" The Molokans, in private as in public life,
avoid all formalities and ceremonies. They have
no Churches; a house, an open yard, or, better
still, a field, serves the believer. When the leader
appears they all bow to him; he takes his place,
and begins to read aloud. After the reading,
hymns are sung, whereupon follows discussion upon
the subject read. Every Molokan enjoys com-
plete freedom with regard to religious ceremonies.
No general dogma of form or ceremony exists,
so that, for instance, the celebration of a marriage
with them is limited to the civil formality, a
mutual agreement, which, with the consent of both
parties, can be rendered void, for which the wish
of any one of the parties is sufficient. The initia-
tive in matrimonial affairs is left to the young
people. ' When the parents want to compel their
children to marry against their will, they commit
an act against the Will of God.' A marriage can
only take place before the whole of the community,
who decide whether the marriage candidates are

334 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

in a position to support a family in a spiritual
as well as in a material sense, and investigate
whether the proposed marriage is made of their
own free will and without compulsion from any
side whatever."

There is severe moral supervision. Drunken-
ness means exclusion from the Society for a longer
or shorter period. Tobacco-smoking, or the use
of tobacco in any form, is an offence against the
community. If one should be in monetary diffi-
culties the others will render him mutual assistance.
As a general rule they are more prosperous than
their Orthodox neighbours, for they are intelli-
gent and alert, industrious and thrifty, and very
conscientious in business and trade.

In common with all the Russian sects, they
have had their full meed of persecution and suffer-
ing. From the earliest days the Government has
sought to suppress them, but every attempt has
been in vain. Their leaders have been banished
to Siberia and the Caucasus, but far from diminish-
ing their zeal, it has but made them cling closer
to their faith and doctrine. Wherever they have
been driven to, their patience, humility, industry,
modest habits, and simplicity of life have but
increased their numbers.

Martyrdom has had as little effect upon them
as the suppression of their meetings.

In 1805, Tsar Alexander I. gave to the sect
the right " to perform their worship in whatever

THE MOLOKANS 335

way their conscience and their interpretation of
the Word of God directed."

In 1905 the sect held a centenary congress
in commemoration of the coming of religious
liberty — a congress with representatives from
fifteen Russian provinces, besides those who came
from Sweden, Germany, Finland, and the United
States.

At present, Zachary Feodor Zacharov is the
President of the Committee of Molokans, or Evan-
gelical Christians, as they prefer to be called,
and, as a member of the State's Duma, he is able
to place their position before the Parliament of
the Empire and to seek for them a fuller measure
of religious freedom.

A description of the Molokans, published in
1874, and quoted by R. S. Latimer in Under
Three Tsars:

" There may be some two millions of Molokans
at the present day in Russia. They live in the
provinces of Kaluga, Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan,
Tauria, and the Caucasus. To the last-named two
provinces, as well as to Siberia, they were banished
in the reign of the Emperor Nicholas.

" This sect is not only free from all adora-
tion of images, but rejects all visible means of
grace, so that even baptism and the Lord's Supper
are only used spiritually by them. They also
abstain from pork. They have a more intimate

22

336 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

acquaintance with the Word of God than may
be found in almost any Protestant Church. Every
one of them knows many of the most beautiful
psalms, and the most important chapters from
the New Testament and prophets, by heart. Their
service principally consists in reading the Word
of God, with a few explanations. Their hymn-
book, too, is the Bible. To a monotonous tune
they sing for hours a chapter, then pray a chapter
kneeling, then again sing a chapter. Thus they
usually sing nine chapters standing, and pray nine
chapters kneeling, all in chorus and by memory.

" At the close, they have the holy kiss.
Thus, every one bows down before the other three
times, and kisses twice, men and women promis-
cuously. This is hard labour, and they become
very warm with the exertion. I have seen this
myself in Odessa; but in some parts they have
some variation to this service, and less kissing.
Our rhythmical singing and extempore praying
they call ' adding to, and taking from, the WTord
of God.'"

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

LEHMANN . . . Geschichte der deutschen Baptisten.

STEPNIAK . . . King Stork and King Log.

PRELOOKER . . Russian Flashlights.

LATIMER . . . Under Three Tsars.

„ ... With Christ in Russia.

,, ... Life of Dr. Baedeker.

GREGORIEV . . Friends of Russian Freedom.
May, 1892.

SAVARIEF . . . Free Russia.

MILYOUKOV . . The Crisis in Russia.

WALLACE . . . Russia.

BYFORD . . . Peasants and Prophets.

337

THE CURSED STUNDIST

Roar, ye Church thunders,

Arise, ye cursers of the Holy Councils,

Strike with eternal anathema

The outcast Stundist's progeny.

The Stundist destroys the Dogmas,

The Stundist rejects tradition,

The Stundist scoffs at the ceremonies,

He is an Apostate — the cursed Stundist.

The Lord has bestowed His honours

Upon our Holy Russian Church,

But this, our dear Mother,

Is insulted by the cursed Stundist.

Like stars in the firmament of heaven

So shine in our native land

God's Holy Temples everywhere,

Shunned only by the cursed Stundist.

Prayers go up in the Temples,

Church hymns are resounding

And Holy Sacraments performed,

All blamed by the cursed Stundist.

All our great saints,

The intercessors of the Russian land,

And all our spiritual leaders,

Are dishonoured by the cursed Stundist.

Whether we offer thanksgiving in the fields,

Or bless the sources of the water,

Or kiss the Cross of our Lord,

We are mocked by the cursed Stundist.

He is stern and gloomy, like a demon,

Shunning the sight of the faithful Orthodox,

He hides in dark haunts,

This enemy of God, the cursed Stundist.

But as soon as the simple minded

Looks into the den of this crafty beast,

By blasphemy, insinuation or flattery,

Entraps him, the cursed Stundist.

ARCHBISHOP AMBROSIUS,
TRANSLATED BY JAAKOFF PRELOOKER m

Russian Flashlights*

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS

THE phenomenal rise, growth, and influence
of the Baptists in Russia may be largely
attributed to three great events in Russian
religious development :

First: The settlement of German and Dutch
Mennonites in Russia. Persecuted for their
religious views in the sixteenth century, a large
number of them accepted an invitation to settle
in West Prussia, where they helped to drain and
cultivate the extensive marshes between Dantzic,
Elbing, and Marienburg. Here, in course of time,
they forgot their native language, and became
identified with the Prussians. An attempt was
made by the Prussian Government to impose
military service upon them, contrary to their
religious views and terms of settlement in the
country, with the result that they once more left
their homes and accepted an invitation from
Catherine II. (1789) to settle in south-eastern
Russia. Here they founded flourishing com-
munities, mainly agricultural, and lived in com-
parative peace.

Their immigration into Russia was upon the

340 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

distinct understanding that they and their sons
should be exempted from military service, which
compact has been observed by the Russian Govern-
ment, at least, until very recent years. At present,
as Mennonites, they number, male and female,
about 50,000 souls, living in 160 colonies or settle-
ments, and between them possess about 800,000
acres of land. Travelling through their villages,
a sharp contrast is noticed between their orderli-
ness, cleanliness, and general air of prosperity,
and the reverse of these things in the purely
Russian villages.

In the middle of the nineteenth century a
company of German Baptists from the Fatherland
visited these Mennonite Communities in the South
of Russia, and a revival of religion began amongst
them which speedily spread to their Russian
employees and neighbours. The missionary zeal
of J. G. Oncken, of Hamburg, led him to visit
the brethren, and amongst his many arduous
labours he not only encouraged them, counselled
them in matters of organisation, but joyfully
baptised converts upon profession of faith.

Although the modern Baptist movement
sprang from the Mennonites, the Baptists from
amongst the latter remain in what is called the
Russo-German Union, and their services are con-
ducted in the German language. As non-Russians
they enjoy certain political and religious privileges
denied to those of pure Russian nationality.

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 341

Secondly: This religious revival synchronised
with the abolition of serfdom. The peasants were
no longer as slaves under a master, but were free,
holding their land on the communal system, having
to meet periodically in the mir to discuss matters
concerning the welfare of the local community and
the distribution of land. For the first time in their
lives they had to think for themselves in matters
appertaining to their civic welfare, and from the
discussion of political rights to religious duties was
but a short remove.

Politically, a wider horizon opened before the
one-time serf, and his new outlook upon life affected
his old-time relationship to the Orthodox Church.

Thirdly : Whilst the religious revival was in
full swing amongst the Mennonites, and the serfs
were beginning to realise their newly-found inde-
pendence, the British and Foreign Bible Society
received permission to circulate the Scriptures
broadcast throughout the Empire.

The Russian peasant, being of an essentially
religious nature, greedily received the Word of God
from the hands of the colporteurs, and frequently
the meeting of the village mir resolved itself into
an informal Bible-class. Thus the ground was pre-
pared in a threefold manner for a widely-spread
acceptance of the new evangelical doctrine.

Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, an unexpected
development was taking place. During the visit
of J. G. Oncken to the capital, in 1864, we learn

342 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

from his diary, and the Geschichte-der-deutschen
Baptisten, von J. Lehmann, that eight persons
had expressed their desire to be baptised upon
profession of faith in Christ. During his five weeks'
stay Oncken became fully acquainted with them, and
on December 3, between twelve and one o'clock
in the night, he administered the ordinance. As
far as one can trace the Baptist history in Russia,
this was the first administration of the ordinance
of believer's baptism in the capital city of Russia.

Lord Radstock, during the Crimean war, where
he served with the besieging forces, had come into
touch with some members of the Russian nobility,
and in 1874-7 he held a series of evangelistic
services, in the first instance in the American
Church, and afterwards in the home of the Princess
Lieven, close to the Winter Palace.

His influence was uncompromisingly evan-
gelical, and many well-known Russian nobles felt
the stirring of a new religious life within them.
Foremost amongst these were the Prince and
Princess Lieven, Count Korff, Count Brobinsky, and
Colonel Paschoff, of the Imperial Guards (who died
in Paris, an exile from his home, in 1902).

Colonel Paschoff opened his home to all and
sundry; he resigned his colonelcy in the Guards,
distributed his riches amongst the poor, established
charitable institutions, and not only preached the
Gospel, but translated it into everyday life. Nobles
and crossing-sweepers, ladies and laundresses,

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 343

officers and soldiers, colonels and cabmen pressed
into his home to hear the glad new tidings. Sub-
stantially, at the beginning it was a revival of re-
ligion from the dead ritual and ceremony of the
Orthodox Church, but opposition on the part of
the higher clergy, and subsequent persecution on
the part of the Government, speedily led the
scattered and fugitive members to form a new
community and a new sect. By some they were
called Radstockites, and by others Pashchovists,
but of recent years they have adopted the official
title of Russian Evangelical Christians (Baptists).
The central doctrine of the Evangelicals is " justi-
fication by faith," with the immersion of the
believer as the outward and visible expression of
that faith.

Under the leadership of Ivan Prokhanoff (one
time student in Bristol Baptist College) they are
coming into closer touch with the other Baptist
bodies in Russia. They are already federated
with the Baptist World Alliance, and the day is
not far distant when they will be in organic union
with all the Baptists in Russia. Owing to the perse-
cuting policy of the Government, they have spread
to Siberia, Transcaucasia, Kashgaria, and the
Transcaspian provinces, whilst their propaganda
has reached France, Switzerland, and Austria.

Reverting to the main stream of Baptists in
the South, the first peasant converts from
Orthodoxy were Ratushny, Lassotsky, and Rjabos-

344 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

chapa, the two former being ordinary farm workers,
and the latter a blacksmith, serf to the great landed
proprietor, Schibeks, of the village of Lubomika.
After their baptism by Abraham Unger, a German
Baptist ki Alt Danzic, they commenced work
amongst their fellow-peasants.

Great success attended their labours, but the
Government stepped in. Ratushny was sent to
Siberia, Lassotsky to Transcaucasia, and Rjabos-
chapka to Erivan, near to Mount Ararat, later
he was allowed to proceed to Bulgaria, where
he continued his preaching and missionary propa-
ganda.

The New Testament, and this alone, constitutes
the religious handbook of the Baptists. Theoreti-
cally they hold both the Old and New Testaments
to be of equal value, but in practice the latter
is their sole guide to life and faith. They hold
the doctrine that everyone has the right to inter-
pret the Scriptures according to his enlightenment
by the Holy Ghost. They reject the authority of
Church, or Council, or commentator to interpret
the Scriptures for them. Their love for the Word
of God is phenomenal, and I have frequently found
numbers of men and women who have memorised
the Gospels.

Persecutions bitter and severe broke out
against the members of the scattered Churches.
They were robbed of their Bibles and hymn-books,
were forbidden to assemble for worship at one

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 345

another's houses; their leaders were prohibited
from leaving their own villages to carry the
message to neighbouring districts; goods were
confiscated; they were turned off their farms;
scourging, imprisonment, and exile were resorted
to by the State officials to suppress the movement;
but the pioneers survived all these and similar
reactionary measures, and they continually in-
creased in numbers.

Stepniak, in King Stork and King Log, has
a long chapter upon the Stundists (Baptists) and
their persecutions. We quote fully from his work,
as he is an unbiassed and independent witness.

" The new sectarianism evidently springs from
the direct influence of the Gospel, and it is re-
markable for its uniformity. It is a return to
the simple creed of the early Christians, for which
the Stundists are striving, so that one can say that
this religious sect represents the type of the
religious aspirations of modern reformers. The
religious doctrine of the Stundists is much akin to
that of the Baptists and Anabaptists of the time
of the Reformation. They baptise only grown-up
people, rebaptising those to whom this sacrament
was administered in babyhood. Instead of the
communion they have simply the ' breaking of
bread,' accompanied with the singing of hymns.
The wedding ceremony exists, but it is a very
plain one.

" Both communion and baptism are viewed by

346 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

the Stundists, not as sacraments, but ' as rites
performed in commemoration of Christ, and for
a closer union with Him.' They consider the
Icons as no better than pictures, and do not keep
them in their houses. They recognise only the
Lord's Prayer. At their meetings they sing hymns
of their own composition, and psalms. As to
prayers, they are left to the personal inspiration
of the believers.

" As regards their moral code, suffice it to
say that it is prohibited among them to ill-use
even dumb creatures. An observer says that once
he saw a girl of eight — a Stundist — who rushed
into the house, saying, with an appearance of
great distress, that she could not restrain her
little brother, a boy of three, from throwing stones
at a dog."

The Stundists, like all Ruthenians, or Southern
Russians, hold land as private property, not in
common, like the Great Russians. Among them
there is no conscious leaning towards collective
ownership of land. According to their tenets, all
earthly goods are not given, but, so to say, lent
by God to men, who will be held responsible before
Him for the use they have made of their worldly
possessions. To prove faithful debtors, men are
bound to come to the assistance of their neigh-
bours when they are in need, sickness, or afflic-
tion. It is well known that this doctrine is in no
contradiction with their life, but on the contrary

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 347

their lives are a confirmation and illustration of
their doctrine.

One of their peculiarities is the perfect
absence of national and religious intolerance.
During the Anti-Jewish riots, they used all their
influence to restrain the Orthodox from committing
any outrage. There were no Anti-Jewish riots in
the villages where the Stundists formed even one-
third of the population. Rjasboschapka (see my
Peasants and Prophets] delivered several sermons
upon the subject. In one of them he said to his
congregation: "The Jews have received from God
a law for their guidance. When they transgressed
it He punished them. Perhaps they are suffering
now for their own sins. You have heard how
they are beaten, ruined, plundered, murdered. But
God preserve you, brothers and sisters, from
participating, even in thought, in such deeds. The
Jews are the eldest sons of God. He punishes
them more severely than the others. Woe to the
man who will take upon himself to be the
instrument of God's wrath. God preserve you
from wishing it, and still more from taking part
in these violences."

With regard to politics, the views of the
Baptists are easily formulated; they teach that one
must obey the authorities in everything, save in
matters pertaining to religion. At the close of
every meeting they pray for the Tsar. A few
years ago I accompanied a deputation of Baptist

348 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

pastors to interview the Minister . of the Interior
in St. Petersburg. After the formal introductions
were accomplished, the President of the Russian
Baptist Union led in prayer, beseeching the blessing
of Almighty God upon His Imperial Majesty the
Tsar and his Ministers of State. On another
occasion I went with a company to a high official
of State, in reference to libellous statements made
concerning the politics of the Baptists, and again,
before the discussion commenced, there was per-
fectly free and natural prayer for the Tsar, the
Empire, and the State officials. The Baptists are
absolutely loyal to constituted authority. They
are too good New Testament Christians to be
otherwise.

The Autocracy are attempting Russification
by means of the Orthodox Church and forcible
conversions thereto, but the Baptists are accom-
plishing the same end by means of their propa-
ganda. Turn where one will throughout the whole
Empire, and each nationality has its Baptist Church
and witness. Letts and Poles, Ests and Finns,
Tatars and Tcherkesses, Gypsies and Jews, Great
Russians and Little Russians, all are susceptible to
the plain, simple preaching of the Gospel. The
writer of the article on Russia in the Encyclopedia
Britannica testifies that the Baptists are the only
Christian body in the Empire winning converts
amongst all the diverse races which go to the
make-up of modern Russia.

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 349

The rapid growth of the Baptists during the
Reign of Alexander II. aroused the animosity of
the priests and higher clergy, and wherever pos-
sible, attempts were made to suppress them. The
regular courts, when called upon to judge
the " sectarians," frequently acquitted them, but
there was a sinister influence at work which moved
the authorities to arrest the leaders again and
again, throw them into prison, and keep them
there long, weary months, waiting for trial, impos-
ing heavy and even ruinous fines upon them, and
at last sending them in hundreds to Siberia and
Transcaucasia, or, when leniently disposed, exiling
them to Roumania, Bulgaria, and Turkey — in
Europe. In the bitter persecutions of the eighties
and nineties one sinister figure comes prominently
into notice.

Pobiedonosteff, the Procurator of the Holy
Synod, the confidential adviser of the Tsar, was a
militant upholder of Orthodoxy and a violent hater
of " sectarianism." To account for his violent
antipathy to the Baptists we need to peep behind
the scenes. Stepniak, in King Stork and King
Log, deals at length with this phase of his char-
acter.

"It is known that in 1887 K. Pobiedonosteff
was on the point of falling into disgrace. This
was due to two circumstances. We will not dwell
upon the first, as it is strictly private. Suffice
it to say that, thanks to a court intrigue, the Tsar

350 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

was shown an authentic letter from the Procurator,
in which the latter boasted that he could make
his master sign anything he wished. At the same
time the Tsar was much incensed against
Pobiedonostseff through his being worsted in
polemics by the Evangelical Society."

The severe persecutions of the Lutherans in
the Baltic provinces caused the Evangelical
Society to write an address to the Russian Holy
Synod. The Procurator replied, but so poorly
that he exposed himself to a crushing rejoinder
from the Evangelicals. It was rumoured at this
time that K. Pobiedonostseff would be dismissed
altogether. He got a two months' furlough in-
stead, to compose at his leisure a reply to the
Evangelical pamphlet. He made no reply, but he
got out of the difficulty by resorting to a trick
very often practised in Russian official circles.
Everything is forgiven there, and condoned,
for some zeal in the cause of Autocracy.
Pobiedonostseff contrived to make a show of this
zeal at the expense of the Stundists. With the
assistance of a South Russian Bishop, Nicanor, he
concocted against these inoffensive people the
accusation of being traitors to the Russian Tsar
and emissaries of Prince Bismarck and the German
Lutherans. Such was the purport of the famous
" Letter from Simferopol," published in the
Moscow Gazette, his own organ, after the death
of Katkoff.

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 351

The grounds for these sweeping accusations
were as follows :

(1) This sect was founded by German
Lutherans residing in Southern Russia.

(2) They had in their houses portraits of
the German Emperor and of Prince Bismarck,
instead of the Tsar.

(3) They shaved their beards in order to
look like Germans.

In reply to the " Letter from Simferopol/' the
Baptists held a General Council, and sent to the
Holy Synod a petition expressing their wish to
be officially recognised as Baptists and to be fully
tolerated in Russia. As was to be expected, it
was the Procurator himself who replied to the
petition. His answer was rough and peremptory.
He begins by declaring that there is nothing in
common between them, and warns them not to
trouble their superiors in future.

Under the malign influence of the Procurator,
persecutions broke upon the Baptists with severity
and virulence. That the higher clergy were in-
volved in the incitements to plunder, arson, and
rape may be gathered from the " Poem " by
Ambrosius, the Bishop of Kharkov, printed at
the beginning of this chapter, entitled :

THE DAMNED STUNDIST.

Boom ye Church thunders !

Flash forth ye curses of the Councils ;

Crush with eternal anathemas

The outcast race of Stundists, etc.

23

352 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

This tirade from the Archbishop was nailed to
the Church doors, scattered in the " traktirs "
(taverns), and spread broadcast throughout Russia,
and, as we shall see, led to persecution bitter and
severe.

A copy of this poem came into the hands
of Prince Dmitri A. Khilkoff, of Pavlovka, in the
diocese of Kharkov. Some of his peasants had
been flogged, others imprisoned, and the wives
of some, as we shall see later, were grossly out-
raged. The Prince thereupon forwarded the fol-
lowing open letter to His Grace the Archbishop :

" Your Grace, — Everybody sees with pleasure
the result of your labours. . . . Your Grace can
now see clearly what fruit your activity has yielded.
The repeated warnings of your Grace and other
similar shepherds, as you will find in the tenth
chapter of John, have found an echo in the
hearts of the rural police of the Kieff government;
it will give your Grace pleasure to hear this :
The proclamations which, ordered by you, were
nailed on the walls of the Churches, to incite to
hatred one part of the people against the other,
such writings as ' The Accursed Stundist,' which
were distributed with so much zeal; your sermons
and those of your followers, which incite to hatred
and intolerance; all these have had at last the
desired effect. The new champions of Orthodoxy
have found a new method to force women to make
the sign of the Cross. Infamy and baseness. If

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 353

an inquiry were to be made, the subordinate tools
would probably be found guilty; but who incited
these subordinate tools?"

For daring to come between the persecutor and
the persecuted, for having the audacity to stand
up for the peasants' right, for himself " apostasis-
ing " from the Holy Orthodox Church, the Prince
himself, with his wife, have been exiled to the
Caucasus, and their children kidnapped " by order
of the Tsar."

Two priests were sent down to Pavlovka by
the Archbishop to " confound the heretics," but
their chief argument was free vodka before and
during the disputation, and the result can be better
imagined than described. The peasants sided with
their peaceable neighbours, even though they were
sectarians, and the " missionaries " returned to
their superior utterly defeated.

In 1882 the central administration gave to
the chiefs of the local police the right to condemn
on their own initiative and authority any peasants
who, in spite of warnings, continued to attend
meetings of the hated Baptists; and to inflict
upon them fines to almost any amount. Two
years later, seeing that the previous measures had
proved useless as a deterrent to the propaganda,
a further step was taken.

The leaders were condemned to long years
of imprisonment in the company of common
criminals, banished to Siberia and the Caucasus

354 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

(to which they had to travel on foot at all seasons
of the year), and driven beyond the frontiers.
But even this restriction had no effect. Where-
ever these men went

" They took the stamp of foreign friendships

In a foreign land;

And learnt to love the music of strange tongues."

" Now they which were scattered abroad owing
to the persecutions " under the Tsar of all the
Russias, " went as far as " Siberia and Trans-
caucasia, Moldavia and Wallachia, Bulgaria and
Turkey, " preaching the Word." " And the hand
of the Lord was upon them, and a great number
believed and turned unto the Lord."

In the places where they were incarcerated and
banished, men were converted, baptised, and
Churches were formed.

Leaders were imprisoned and exiled, and
fresh ones sprang up in their place. Many
thousands were banished to the penal and free
colonies of the east and south-east, but thousands
remained faithful in the villages. In 1888 sterner
measures were taken by the Government, not only
against the leaders, but against the members
generally.

Every country policeman, village magistrate,
or even Orthodox priest could maltreat or arrest
the Sectarians with impunity, and use against them
violence of every kind.

The most usual way of rendering life un-

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 355

bearable to them was to impose upon them com-
pulsory labour — the construction of bridges, the
repairing of roads, to compel them to keep guard at
night time in their own and even distant villages,
inciting people to deeds of violence against them
and their homes; and further, to coerce them
into Orthodox baptism, or to flog them until they
made the sign of the Cross or kissed the Holy
Icon.

An endless number of disgraceful outrages
were practised upon them, some of them incredible
in their bestial coarseness and their impurity;
many of these indignities being so infamous that
it is impossible to allude to them even in veiled
words.

The record of the writer to the Hebrews leaps
to one's mind as one reads the story of the
heroic pioneers of the Baptist faith in Russia:

" And what shall we more say ! for the time
would fail me to tell of Pavloft and Makaroff, of
Ivanoff and Kostromin, of Stepanoff and Erstra-
tenko, who, through faith wrought righteousness,
escaped the edge of the sword, knew the interior
of the dungeon, out of weakness were made
strong, waxed valiant in their fight for truth.

"They had trials of cruel mockings and
scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and im-
prisonment; they were stoned, were slain with
the knout; they wandered about in sheepskins,
in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented

356 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

•

(of whom the world was not worthy) ; they
wandered in the deserts of Siberia, and in the
mountains of the Caucasus, making their homes
in dens and caves of the earth."

R. S. Latimer, in The Life of Dr. Baedeker,
writes :

"In August, 1891, M. Pobiedonosteff called
a great Conference in Moscow of Orthodox
ecclesiastics from all the forty-one Russian Epis-
copates, to consider the burning question of the
best methods of preventing the spread of sec-
tarianism in the Empire. Great alarm was ex-
pressed at the rapid growth of the Baptist, Stundist,
and Pashkovist heresies. Statistics were pre-
sented to the delegates proving that twenty-eight
out of the forty-one dioceses were badly ' in-
fected,' and that the 'virulence of the infection'
was such that it was entirely beyond the control
of the clergy. One of the delegates declared
that, under the stress of persecution, a few
Protestants were returning to the fold ; but, alas I
they were exactly those persons whom the
Protestant communities were too glad to get
rid of.

" What are we to do," he asked, " to win
back to our midst those earnest and God-fearing
men who have left us and despise us."

The answer of M. Pobiedonosteff to this
question was a determination to employ severe
measures.

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 357

" The rapid increase of these sects is a serious
danger to the State. Let all sectarians be for-
bidden to leave their own villages. Let all
offenders against the faith be tried, not by a
jury, but by ecclesiastical judges. Let their pass-
ports be marked, so that they shall neither be
employed nor harboured, and residence in Russia
shall become impossible for them. Let them be
held to be legally incapable of renting, purchas-
ing, or holding real property. Let their children
be removed from their control, and educated in the
Orthodox faith."

"Article 187. — Offence: Leaving the Church
for another religious community. Punishment :
Loss of civil and personal rights. In milder cases
eighteen months in a reformatory.

"Article 189. — Offence: Preaching or writ-
ing religious works to pervert others. Punish-
ment : First offence, the loss of certain personal
rights, and imprisonment from eight to sixteen
months; second offence, imprisonment in a fortress
from thirty-two to forty-eight months; third
offence, banishment.

"Article 196. — Offence: Spreading the views
of heretics or dissenters, or aiding such. Punish-
ment: Banishment to Siberia, Transcaucasia, or
other remote part of the empire."

That the resolutions of the Congress and the
suggestions of the Procurator were not to be a
dead letter, was speedily proved by the violence

358 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

of the persecutions which broke out against the
Baptists everywhere.

In 1892, Elias Liavovi, of the province of
Kiev, sent out the following pathetic letter, which
came into the hands of members of the Baptist
Churches in England and America and to those
of the Society of Friends of both countries. As
a human document it hardly has its equal in
the literature of any time.

" I describe to you, my dear brothers, what
happened to us here. The elder of the village,
the village policeman, and other drunkards, tor-
ment us most unmercifully. They compel us every
day to do forced labour in Babenzy or our own
village. We men are put every night on guard;
and these cruel sots, the village officials, enter our
homes when we are out, frighten our children,
and behave in a disgraceful manner towards our
wives. Late in the night of December 1 1 they
came to my wife, Chenia, and tormented her as
much as they liked in the same way as is mentioned
of Susanna in the Bible; but they acted worse
still. It is dreadful even to speak of it. They
threw her on the floor and outraged her, first
the drunken companions of the village elder, and
then the latter himself. They then compelled her
to make the sign of the cross, and threatened,
in case she did not do so, to submit her once more
to the same treatment; and all the time the poor
woman was enceinte. They twisted her hands

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 359

out of joint; and left her half dead. They smashed
all the crockery and kitchen utensils, and broke
all the windows. Even to the present day our house
is without windows. With tears in our eyes we
beseech you, brothers, to assist us, and let it be
as soon as possible. Do not delay. They torture
us so. With our eyes flooded with tears, we
entreat you to plead our cause. Perhaps our
Heavenly Father will grant us grace and protect
us."

A Russian political exile, writing his ex-
periences in the Friends of Russian Freedom, re-
lates an incident which came under his own
observation. " On the way to Kiev, two men in
chains, and with shaven heads, were placed in
our railway carriage; their wives accompanied
them, one with four children, the other with three;
the eldest boy was twelve years old. The appear-
ance of these prisoners instantly attracted our
attention; both of them had fine faces, and there
was a quiet, straightforward look about them which
impressed us pleasantly.

" On seeing us, they at once asked us what
we were, and why we were being transported, and
when we answered, ' Socialists,' their faces
brightened, and they held out their hands to us,
calling us ' brothers.' They were members of
the religious sect of Stundists, and had been tried
several years ago in the district of Kirigin, as
being among the first promoters of heresy. The

360 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

sentence passed upon them was, ' Transport to
the Caucasus, and forfeiture of all civil rights.'
When the priest of their parish accused them
of heresy, they were dragged, with blows and
insults, through their village, and brought before
the authorities. In prison they were treated with
a barbarity worthy of the Middle Ages:
the priest who had denounced them struck
them in the face, demanding the names of
their co-religionists. Whilst waiting for trial they
were deprived of their one consolation, the New
Testament, though by law every prisoner may
possess it. On arriving at Kiev, we bought a
New Testament, and gave it to them with the
consent of the officer in charge. Their delight
on receiving our present, and the passion with
which they at once began their propaganda, was
something to remember."

In the province of Kherson stern measures
were taken to stamp out the heresy. Men and
women were scourged and imprisoned, and three of
the leaders were put to death by the " Orthodox "
at the instigation of the clergy.

In the depth of winter they were taken to
the river, and water was continually poured over
them until they were frozen to death. Some of
the brutalities exercised against these men and
women are too vile to be described even in veiled
words.

In September, 1892, the Pennsylvanian Society

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 361

of Friends received the following petition from the
Baptists in the Province of Kiev:

" We implore you, beloved brothers, with tears
in our eyes, take this account of ours and give
it to somebody who can speak out loudly, and
perhaps people will hear us in our most terrible
distress. We are, as it were, stifled, and cannot
cry aloud ourselves; awful and unspeakable is
our distress."

The appeal is signed by all the members of
the local Church, and is supplemented by personal
narratives of wrong and iniquity practised against
them.

Not content with "legal" persecutions, the
clergy, with the connivance of the police, stirred
up the brutal mob to wreak vengeance upon the
" heretics."

They were flogged over and over again, com-
pelled to cross themselves after the Orthodox
fashion, made to kiss the Holy Icon, vodka was
forced into their lips, tobacco smoke was blown
into their faces, indignities and insults were heaped
upon them, if by any means they could be forced
to recant.

George Savarieff tells in Free Russia the story
of Elias Sukhach, whom he knew intimately whilst
they were both in exile in Eastern Siberia, and
whose story he learnt during the long winter
nights in that frozen land.

Elias was a devout " Orthodox " until he

362 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

became a Baptist, and was closely attached to
the Church and her services. He was " server "
to the priest, and neglected his own home affairs
to minister to the needs of the " Little Father."
His conversion, through the preaching of Rjabos-
chapka, annoyed the parish priest, and the good-
will of the latter was speedily changed into violent
hatred. The priest spoke against him incessantly,
denounced him as an enemy of God and a traitor
to the Russian nation. He declared that it was
a mortal sin against God to leave a Baptist un-
molested. At the ceremony of the Blessing of the
Waters, which takes place on January 6, O.S.,
when the weather is at its worst in Russia, he so
aroused the animosity of the villagers against
Sukhach and his fellow Church members that they
rushed to the houses of the heretics, demolished
their cottages, broke into pieces their furniture,
smashed the crockery and cooking utensils, and
dragged the offenders to the river-side, where
the priest was awaiting their coming. He ex-
horted them to abjure their heretical doctrines;
he threatened them with divers pains and
penalties ; he upbraided them as bringing calamities
upon the village whilst continuing in such sin.
On their quietly stating their adherence to the
new doctrines, the priest was so enraged that
he ordered a hole to be cut in the ice, and they
were forthwith plunged thrice into the ice-cold
water in mock baptism, each time being called

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 363

upon to forsake their heresy. Sukhach, with teeth
chattering with the cold, on emerging from the
water the third time, loudly said, " Forgive them,
O Lord, for they know not what they do."

" Be damned, you impenitent heretic, in this
world and in the future ! " the infuriated priest
made reply.

Sukhach was taken to Kiev and tried for
criminal blasphemy and sentenced to two years
in the " penal battalions," deprivation of all civil
rights, and perpetual exile in the most distant
part of Siberia. His wife Maria, and his two
children, accompanied him into exile.

Eighteen months after his settlement in
Siberia Elias received the following letter from
his former fellow-villagers :

" Beloved martyr, and our true brother in
Christ, Elias ! Will you forgive us, the wretched
perjurers and persecutors, our many offences
against you? Truly you were right when, after
we had railed at your sufferings, you, remembering
in your misery the words of our Saviour, thrice
exclaimed, ' Forgive them, O Lord, for they know
not what they do ! ' And we, unworthy, instead
of falling at your feet, committed a villainous out-
rage upon your house, and have falsely testified
against you, throwing you into prison and bring-
ing upon you condemnation and exile to •
Siberia."

Other letters followed. The heart of the exile

364 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

was cheered. His sufferings had not been in
vain, for his very persecutors had embraced the
new doctrine and had forsaken their old ways
of enmity against God's men. Although he was
never permitted to return home, and died a lonely
exile in the wretched Saghalien district, his faith
was firm until the last.

Another form of persecution was adopted in
Kapustrizy. The village authorities arrested the
brethren in a body, and sent them to forced
labour on the public buildings. They were set to
repair the fabric, men to do the woodwork, women
and children to work the clay and plaster the
walls. Some of the women had their babies with
them, so that whilst carrying the child on one
arm, or slung in a shawl, they had to carry
the wood and clay in the other. The little ones
could not be left at home, for all the elder children
(from ten and twelve years of age) were forced
to work with their parents, and oftentimes the
work to be performed was four or five miles away
from their homes.

In the evening the men were set on night
watch for the whole night, and to every two
brethren an Orthodox overseer was told off to
see that they never sat down to rest, but walked
to and fro the whole night through.

In the village of Pavlovka, the estate of
Prince Khilkoff before mentioned, the elder, with
the Dean and two priests, were reproaching the

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 365

peasants at the meeting of the Mir for their tolerat-
ing Baptists in their midst. " In other places in
Russia they are torn to pieces," said these worthies,
alluding to the province of Kiev. But their hearers
had themselves been newly awakened to faith in
the risen Christ, and were no longer susceptible
to such incitements.

Pamphlets, cartoons, and books were scat-
tered broadcast over Russia, mainly written by
the higher clergy, denouncing the Baptists. Some
of them are too vile in their accusations to be
reprinted; the temper of them may be judged by
the specimen issued by the Archbishop Ambrosius.

Another wrote : " Better had it been for us that
the pestilence of cholera had broken out amongst
us, than this heresy. For the spiritual disease is
far more deadly, and much more to be dreaded
than the physical malady."

In spite of the wholesale persecutions, or
perhaps because of them, the movement spread
with rapidity throughout the whole of Russia.
With his usual thoroughness, the Russian, when
in the grip of a new idea, will go to any length.
He not only manifests " patience through tribula-
tion," but perseverance in propaganda. Every
convert becomes a missionary, women as well as
men. I was in conversation some years ago with
Sonia Krepankov, of Tiflis, who had been in prison
for six weeks for distributing tracts to people in
the street (a heinous crime). I asked her if she

366 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

was going to continue her work, and naively she
answered, " I have nearly eighty left at home,
and they must not be wasted." In railway-trains,
on the great steamers of the Volga, in tram-
cars, in railway-stations, everywhere, these men
and women find opportunities to " tell the glad
tidings."

Petrovitch Ilija, of Eupatoria, when asked to
sign a promise not to speak to others of the
" doctrine " on penalty of going to prison, replied,
" The blessed Lord has said, ' Go ye everywhere
and preach the Gospel,' and I cannot disobey Him;
I would rather go to prison"; and to prison he
went.

No mention of the modern Baptist movement
in Russia can be complete without a reference to
W. A. Fetler, of St. Petersburg, who has rapidly
come to the front as a leader. He was originally
the minister of the Lettish Baptist Church in St.
Petersburg, but his energies and boundless en-
thusiasm led him to preach to the Russians, and
the response to his Gospel-call has been stupendous.
In less than five years he has become the head
of a great religious and social movement, the head-
quarters of which are to be found in the " Dom
Evangelia" (the House of the Gospel) in Vasilli
Ostrow.

I had the privilege of laying the foundation-
stone of the building in 1910, when representatives
of Baptist Churches from All Russia, including

BAPTISTS AND STUNDISTS 367

Siberia and the Caucasus, were present. Hun-
dreds have been converted under his ministry,
and his enthusiasm and energy have inspired many
to carry on the work in places hitherto considered
impregnable to the Evangelical appeal.

Although the severe and monstrous persecu-
tions of the " nineties " have passed away, and are
not likely to be resorted to again, and the Tsar's
Manifesto of October 30, 1905, granted a measure
of liberty and toleration, yet the spirit behind
the persecutions has not been abolished, and
Baptist leaders are still being arrested upon trivial
pretexts and imprisoned for " blasphemy " and act-
ing " contrary to the Imperial will."

The Metropolitan Antonius of St. Petersburg,
one of the most powerful of the Russian Ecclesias-
tical hierarchy, issued a proclamation in 1908 in
the following terms:

" The Orthodox Church is a Divine Institution.
We teach that salvation can only be obtained
while remaining in fellowship with the Orthodox
Church. By fellowship we understand general
prayer, Church charity, the sacraments, all one's
activity sanctioned by the Church, good works
done in the name of Christ and the Church, and
not in one's own. We agree that it is possible,
though abiding outwardly in the Church, to be a
weak member of the Orthodox Church, but it is
perfectly certain that a man who separates him-
self from the Church breaks his fellowship with

24

368 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

her, ceases to be one with her in spirit. Separat-
ing himself from the Church, a man separates
himself from Christ.

" Thus teacheth the Orthodox faith. Except
of the Church, the Grace of Christ does not exist.

" Therefore, when the Orthodox Church speaks
of enemies of the Church, her meaning is plain.
Enemies of the Orthodox Church are all those
who profess any other religion, who deny that
the Orthodox Church is the only true source of
the Grace of Christ. Enemies of the Orthodox
Church are all those belonging to any other
denomination, Raskolniks, Sectarians, Masons, the
Godless, and so on.

" To leave the Orthodox Church and be in
enmity with her is the greatest sin, for which
there is no justification. No sin or failure of
the clergy can serve as an excuse for apostasy.
These must be warned and fought against while
still remaining in the Church. But if any, in
fighting against the evils existing in the Church,
reaches so far as to fall away from the Church
himself, he only proves by this that he is far
worse than those whom he has been trying to
convict of sin" (see Under Three Tsars].

Reliable statistics are exceedingly difficult to
obtain, largely owing to looseness of organisation
and the immensity of the country, but in the
Russian Baptist Union there are more than 1,000
Churches, with about 97,000 members.

THE JEWS

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

PRELOOKER Russian Flashlights.

Experiences of a Russian Reformer.
JOUBERT . Russia as it really is.

368

THE JEWS

A LTHOUGH there are less than four
^~~]^ and a half millions of Jews out of a
population in European Russia of one
hundred and forty millions, this book would not
be at all complete without some reference to the
" Ancient People." Not that they have had any
influence upon the development of doctrine in
either the Holy Orthodox or Sectarian Churches,
but they have certainly a place in the develop-
ment of the Russian nation, socially, politically,
and religiously.

Three factors have militated against their
wielding a greater influence upon the religious life
of the people:

First: Until the reign of Paul I. (1754-1801)
the Jews had equality before the law, and they
were allowed to settle freely in Russia, but com-
paratively few of them moved from their homes
in Poland, Livonia, and Lithuania, mainly by reason
of their language, religion, and customs being
vastly different from those of the Russian people.
Under the Tsar Paul I. the first law was passed
prohibiting the Jews to leave the regions in which

371

372 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

they were settled. In 1804, Alexander I. held
an inquiry into the cause of the famine in the
province of Minsk, and the report presented to
him declared that the economic pressure of the
Jews was the primary cause of the distress, and
Jew-baiting became the order of the day.

Nicholas I. tried to absorb them into the
Russian peasantry, and the policy was continued
under Alexander II. (1856).

Zones were fixed within which Jews could
live, including fifteen provinces in Poland,
Lithuania, and Bessarabia, outside of which it was
not legal for a Jew to live or carry on trade,
or hold real estate, save under certain well-defined
exceptions.

In 1865 Jewish artisans were given the right
to settle in Russia proper, with a view to developing
the infant Russian industries, and in 1872, Jewish
chemists and merchants received the like permis-
sion.

In 1874, Jews were admitted into the Tsar's
army, and could even obtain officers' commis-
sions. Schools were opened for their children,
and the policy of assimilation went forward, but
with little success.

The wave of Nihilistic propaganda of 1874
and the complicity of Jews in the " days of terror "
brought about severe restrictions and savage
reprisals. A complete change came over the policy
of the Government towards its Jewish subjects.

THE JEWS 373

Within a month of Alexander III. ascending
the throne (1881) the first popular manifestations
against the Jews began to take place.

On May the third of the same year, a
provisional law was passed " in order to allay
popular excitement against the Jews," that in
future no Jew would be allowed to go into the
country, nor in future could Jews purchase
property in the country or hold a mortgage on
property in the country. Under this law, Jews
were not only confined to the pale, but members of
the race were driven from towns where previously
they had been allowed to settle, and were com-
pelled to live in the ghettos.

In 1886 the number of Jewish children allowed
to use a Government school was restricted to five
per cent, of the scholars admitted, and later, the
same restrictions were imposed upon them in
reference to the universities.

In 1892 they were deprived of the franchise for
the municipal elections. These successive re-
strictive measures, coming in rapid sequence,
fanned the flame of hatred against the Jew in the
hearts of the Orthodox, especially those who un-
thinkingly believed the gross stories told by the
priests as to Jewish religious customs. This policy
has led the Jew to cling tenaciously to his own
people and race. Until 1901 the anti-Jewish
demonstrations had been mostly confined to the
destruction of property, but in the following year

374 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

the Kischineff " pogrom " took place, and since
then there have been frequent outbursts against
the Jews, sometimes instigated by the police, at
other times by the priests, each of them using the
" Black Hundreds " (The Union of the Russian
People) as their willing tools.

Secondly: From time immemorial the Jew
has been persistent in clinging to the ancient
religion and ritual. The Russian Jew of the present
day is a survival of the long ago days of the
Sanhedrin. Their religion, laws, customs are the
same as when the Romans destroyed the Temple
at Jerusalem and destroyed the national character
of the people. The Talmudic Law is still observed
wherever Jews are to be found in Holy Russia. No
Orthodox Jew will live in any town in Russia
unless he is within easy reach of- a Rabbi. I have
seen in a railway-station, lamps burning be-
fore the Holy Icon, a priest conducting a service
in the waiting-room, but in the corner, a Jew,
with praying shawl over his shoulders, face to
the wall, wailing his prayers, apparently uncon-
scious of the wonder gaze of the " uncircumcised."
The great gulf fixed between the two religions,
the superstitious fanaticism of the ordinary moujik,
the persecuting policy of the clergy and the police,
all have had their effect in keeping the two races
estranged.

Thirdly: Whilst the economic factor must in-
evitably have its place in estimating the aloofness of

THE JEWS 375

the Jew, the persecutions and repressions on
account of his religion loom very largely. The
belief that the blood of a Christian child is se-
cured by the Jews on Passover day, and that
this human sacrifice is an indispensable adjunct
to the Jewish ceremonies of that day, is shared
alike by many well educated people and the most
ignorant peasants. The trial this year of Beiliss at
Kiev (after two years in prison) on this charge
shows that the monstrous falsehood has not yet
been killed. We have it on the authority of
Count Tolstoi, Minister of Education, that in the
High School for young ladies, St. Petersburg the
students were taught that it was a vital part of
Jewish ritual, and it was only upon his stringent
orders that teaching of that kind ceased.

As a general rule, Jew and Christian live in
amity and peace all over Russia, and little kind-
nesses are shown to one another all day long. But
when the order goes forth, and the peasant, well
primed with vodka, is led by a gang of the Black
Hundreds, then, for the Jew, "Hell is let loose."

I shall never forget the day when the rebel
battleship, Kniaz Potemkin, sailed into the harbour
at Theodosia, July 1905. Rumours of massacres
of Jews at Kischineff and Kieff had reached the
town, and many remembered the scenes of carnage
in Theodosia on June 2, 1881, when a "pogrom"
of Jews took place. Within an hour every avail-
able vehicle was purchased at a greatly enhanced

376 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

price, and the Jews were fleeing into the country
for their lives. Nor can one easily forget the
burnt and blackened homes of the Jews in Odessa,
Kischineff, and Kiev during that dread year.

A peculiar sect of the Jews is to be found in
the Crimea — the Karaites. They adhere to the
strict letter of Scripture, and reject oral tradition
and depreciate the Talmud. They have existed
since the middle of the eighth century, and found
their home on the shores of the Black Sea, after the
time of the Crusades, when they were driven from
Jerusalem by the invading Christians.

In the early eighties, Jacob Prelooker, a Jew
of Odessa, had been reading the New Testament,
and discovered that the essence of Christ's teach-
ing was love, forgiveness, and the brotherhood
of man. He continued to study the Gospels in
all earnestness, and the general history of Chris-
tianity.

Gradually, though only a young man of twenty
years of age, he began to teach the necessity of
a reconciliation between Jew and Christian. By
some he was repulsed with hatred and contempt,
whilst a few listened to him, and subsequently
there was formed the " New Israel Brotherhood."

The founder calmly put on one side the
authority of the Talmud, declared that circum-
cision should be of the spirit only, that the Jew
might partake of food clean enough for the Chris-
tian, that a Christian Church was as holy as a

THE JEWS 377

Jewish synagogue, and (most daring of all) that
Jews and Christians might intermarry.

The new movement was, for the time being,
wrecked by the fanaticism of the Orthodox Jews,
and Prelooker suffered bitterly at their hands. He
was excommunicated from the Synagogue, but
despite the " Sanhedrin," he retained for a while
his position as a master in the Jewish School. For
eight years he carried on his propaganda and
received recruits to the new idea, but at last
he decided to leave Russia and breathe the freer
air of England.

For a full account of this turning-point in
Russian Jewry, those interested should read his
fascinating book, The Experiences of a Russian
Reformer.

TOLSTOI

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

TOLSTOI . My Confession.
My Religion.
Thoughts on God.

The Kingdom of God is Within Yon.
The Christian Teaching.
That Whereby Men Live.
Where Love is, there is God also.
The Two Old Men.
The Three Old Men.
The Penitent Sinner.
God Sees the Right, Though He be Slow

to Declare it.

Labour, Death, and Disease.
The Godson.

SAROLEA . Life of Tolstoi
MAUDE . A Peculiar People.

Tolstoi and His Problems.

STEINER. . Tolstoi, the Man and His Message.
RAPAPERT . Tolstoi, His Life, Works, and Doctrine.
KEN WORTHY Tolstoi, His Life and Works.

379

For me the doctrine of Jesus is simply one of those
beautiful doctrines which we have received from Egyptian, Jewish,
Hindoo, Chinese, and Greek antiquity. The two great principles
•of Jesus ; Love of God, (in a word, absolute perfection), and
Love of one's neighbour (that is to say, Love of all men without
distinction), have been preached by all the sages of the world,
Krishna, Buddha, Laotze, Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Epictetus,
Marcus Aurelius, and among the moderns, Rousseau, Pascal,
Kant, Emerson, Channing, and many others. Religion and
moral truth is everywhere and always the same. I have no
predilection whatever for Christianity. If I have been particu-
larly interested in the doctrine of Jesus, it is ; Firstly, because
I was born in that religion, and have lived among Christians ;
secondly, because I have found a great spiritual joy in freeing- the
doctrine in its purity from the astounding falsifications wrought
by the Churches.

TOLSTOI, 1909.

(Sarolea — Life of Tolstoi.)

TOLSTOI

IN estimating the influence of Tolstoi upon
the development of the " Soul of Russia," we
need to take into account two main factors;
firstly, his life and teaching are of too recent a date
for any full and just appreciation of the extent
of his influence to be made; and second, so far
as the overwhelming majority of the ordinary
Orthodox peasants are concerned, the fact of his
excommunication from the Holy Orthodox Church
would tell against his teaching, even where it
would be possible to obtain his works and to
read them.

As far as one can judge from personal obser-
vation in Russia, more especially away from the
large centres of population, Tolstoi's influence upon
the social and political evolution of the Russian
Empire will be more far-reaching and permanent
than upon its religious life. In many of his later
works, i.e., those written since his " conversion,"
there is a deep, true, and even passionate spiritual
note, and from them emerge his three articles of
belief, his creed, if you will:

i. The easing of the heavy burden of labour
on the masses of mankind. " Even now only a few
have really begun to divine that work ought not

381

382 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

to be a byword or a slavery, but should be a
thing common to all, and so ordered as to bring
all happily together in peace and unity."

2. The right to and the human need of happi-
ness. Tolstoi's scheme for happiness in life is
laid down in his book, What I Believe, and may
be summarised, as much as a philosophy of life
can be, into the following cardinal principles :
Life in the open air; sufficient manual labour for
each day; a full share of the pleasures of family
life; to be on good terms with one's neighbours
and to invite and enjoy their fellowship; to have
a sound mind in a sound body; always to be in
good physical health.

3. To seek by faith in God for a solution of
the mysteries of life, and for courage to meet death
calmly and with a good heart. In the parable,
Master and Man, Tolstoi describes the " Master "
Vassili Andreitch, caught in a blinding snowstorm,
slowly sinking into a long sleep, the sleep of
death, and vividly portrays the thoughts passing
through the mind of the dying man. " Then
he began to think about his money, his store,
his house, his sales and his purchases, and
MirinofF s millions. He could not understand how
that man whom men called Vassili Brekhunoff
could bear to interest himself in such things as
he did. ' That man can never have known what is
the greatest thing of all,' he thought of this Vassili
Brekhunoff. ' He can never have known what I

TOLSTOI 383

know. Yes, I know it for certain now. At last
— I KNOW.' Once again he heard the MAN calling
him who had called to him before, and his whole
being seemed to respond in joy and loving-kindness
as he replied : ' I am coming, I am coming.' For
he felt that he was free at last, and that nothing
could hold him further. And indeed, nothing
further than that did Vassili Andreitch see or
hear or feel in this world."

Tolstoi taught that underneath all social and
economic problems, whether in the individual or
the community, there is a tremendous factor, the
condition (good or ill) of the soul.

Aylmer Maude writes : " When the clamour
of partisans and of detractors has died down-
when Tolstoi's errors and exaggerations have all
been frankly admitted — it will be only the more
distinctly realised how immense is the debt
humanity owes to this man, whose intellectual
force, love of the people, courage and out spoken-
ness, have given to his words a power of arousing
men's consciences, unapproached by any of his
compatriots and unequalled by any of his con-
temporaries."

Until early manhood, Tolstoi was a typical
product of the aristocratic society of St. Petersburg.
His rank and his fame as a writer opened all doors
to him, and to a man of his temperament the life
was alluring. The Crimean war, and later, his
marriage, led him to a crisis. He was no longer

25

384 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

content with what birth or opportunity had given
to him, he was not satisfied with his selfish
philosophy of life. He started out on the great
quest for Truth. His Confessions, written some
years later, dealing with the spiritual crisis in his
life, will rank as one of the world's great master-
pieces of devotional literature. In them he does
not spare himself ; he lays bare his inmost thoughts
and feelings; one can clearly trace his severe
spiritual struggles; the inner strivings as flesh
contended with spirit for the mastery of his life;
and gradually the emergence into light and the
deeper culture of his own soul.

When turned fifty years of age he passed
through a severe spiritual crisis, and of the
emotions of that time he writes : " Five years
ago something very strange began to happen to
me. I experienced moments of perplexity and
arrest of life, as though I did not know how to
live or what to do."

He made vain attempts to put his perplexities
on one side. He plunged resolutely and with
absolute conscience into his work as a great
landowner, as a working farmer, as a practical
agriculturist. His days were filled with hard and
arduous toil in the fields, but the solution of his
problems was not to be found in manual toil.
Again and again the thought of suicide came
to him. To end his life would be to end his
perplexities. He plays with the idea, and seems

TOLSTOI 385

at times to become fascinated with it. But to
him suicide was not the way out. The meaning
of life was an enigma. The burden of life seemed
to be too heavy for him. The sorrows of life
were too poignant for tears.

Then the thought came to him, " You cannot
understand the meaning of life, so do not think
about it, but just live, live for the day." "Two
drops of honey diverted my eyes from the cruel
truth longer than the rest — my love of family,
and of writing.

"Family — said I; but my family are also
human.

" Writing — I soon saw that that too was a
fraud.

" The question came again and again : ' What
will come of what I am doing to-day, or shall do
to-morrow ? What will come of my whole life ? '
Then I began to consider the lives of the men
of my own kind, and found that they met the
problem in one or other of four ways. The first
way was that of ignorance. Some people, mostly
women, or very young or very dull people, have
not understood the question of life; but I, having
understood it, could not again shut my eyes.

" The second way was that of the Epicureans,
expressed by Solomon when he said : ' Then I
commended mirth, because a man hath no better
thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink,
and to be merry.' . . .

386 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

" The third way of escape is that of strength
and energy. It consists in understanding that
life is an evil and an absurdity, and in destroying
it. It is a way adopted by a few exceptionally
strong and consistent people. I saw that it was
the worthiest way of escape, and I wished to
adopt it.

" The fourth escape is that of weakness. It
consists in seeing the truth of the situation, and
yet clinging to life as though one still hoped
something from it, and I found myself in that
category. . . .

" On examining the matter I saw that the
billions of mankind always have had, and still
have, a knowledge of the meaning of life, but
that knowledge is their faith, which I could not
but reject. ' It is God, one and three, the creation
in six days, the devil and angels, and all the
rest that I cannot accept as long as I retain my
reason/ said I to myself.

" My position was terrible. I knew I could
find nothing along the path of reasonable know-
ledge, except a denial of life; and in faith I could
find nothing but a denial of reason, still more
impossible to me than a denial of life.

" What am I ? A part of the Infinite. In those
few words lies the whole problem. . . .

" I was now ready to accept any faith, if only
it did not demand from me a direct denial of reason
— which would be a falsehood. I studied Buddhism

TOLSTOI 387

and Mohammedanism from books, and most of
all I studied Christianity, both from books and
from living people."

Tolstoi began to question people in his own
circle of society, then theologians, monks, sec-
tarians, Evangelicals, but he could find no satis-
faction. He then turned to pilgrims, travelling
monks, peasants, poor, unlettered, simple folk, but
again he was baffled. For two years he had a
time of introspection, and again and again the
thought came to him, Why not end it all ? a
noose or a bullet would soon solve the problem.

" All that time . . . my heart was oppressed
with a painful feeling which I can only describe
as a search for God.

" . . .1 turned my gaze upon myself, on what
went on within me, and I remembered that I only
lived at those times when I believed in God. As
it was before, so it was now; I need only be aware
of God to live; I need only forget Him, or dis-
believe in Him, and I die. . . . ' What more do
you seek ? ' exclaimed a voice within me. ' This
is He. He is that without which one cannot live.
To know God and to live is one and the same
thing. God is life. Live seeking God, and then
you will not live without God. . . .'

" And I was saved from suicide. . . ."

For a time Tolstoi found a measure of relief
from his doubts in the dogma of the Infallibility of
the Church.

388 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

" I told myself that Divine truth cannot be
accessible to a separate individual; it is only re-
vealed to the whole assembly of people united
by love."

He commenced to attend the services of the
Orthodox Church, to fulfil her rites; he humbled
his reason, submitted to tradition. Of this period
in his experience he writes :

" When rising before dawn for the early
Church services, I knew that I was doing well,
if only because I was sacrificing my bodily ease
to humble my mental pride, and for the sake of
finding the meaning of life. ... I fasted, pre-
pared for communion, observed the fixed hours
of prayer at home and in Church. During Church
service I attended to every word, and gave it a
meaning whenever I could." This phase lasted
but a short while. Doubts and perplexities crowded
upon him. They were brought to a head when he
was about to partake of the communion service.

" Never shall I forget the painful feeling I ex-
perienced the day I received the Eucharist for
the first time after many years. The service,
confession, and prayers were quite intelligible, and
produced in me a glad consciousness that the
meaning of life was being revealed to me. The
communion itself I explained as an act performed
in remembrance of Christ, and indicating a puri-
fication from sin and the full acceptance of Christ's
teaching. If that explanation was artificial I did

TOLSTOI 389

not notice its artificiality, so happy was I at
humbling myself before the priest. . . . But when
I approached the altar gates, and the priest made
me say that what I was about to swallow was
truly flesh and blood, I felt a pain in my heart :
it was not merely a false note; it was a cruel
demand made by some one or other who evidently
had never known what faith is. . . ." Three years
were spent after this in struggles to find a living
faith acceptable to him, but at last he came to
the conclusion that he could no longer remain
in the fellowship of the Orthodox Church. He had
been probing to the very roots of religion as
manifested in the Orthodox Church. He could
not reconcile the attitude of the Church to other
Churches — to Catholics, Old Believers, Sectarians,
and the relation of the Church to war and capital
punishment. He set himself to study and in-
vestigate the writings and traditions of the Church,
to a close examination of theology.

" I must find what is true and what is false,
and must disentangle the one from the other. I
am setting to work upon this task."

Dr. Sarolea says : " He set himself to establish
the Christian religion, but purged of dogmas and
mysticism, a practical religion, not promising
future bliss, but giving bliss on earth."

Most of his parables and short stories were
the direct fruitage of this period of soul unrest
and quest for Truth. The reader is referred to

390 THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

them for a fuller idea of the attitude of Tolstoi
to essential Christian teaching. It is by his
parables, published singly and in cheap form, and
scattered broadcast in Russia, that he will ultimately
affect the development of a purer form of Chris-
tianity in that land. In them he deliberately turns
from the husks of religion, ritual and ceremony;
to the kernel, " by their fruits ye shall know
them."

In Tolstoi's creed, religion must inspire all
individual and social morality, but religion, to
Tolstoi, is based on a simple conception of
brotherly love, the desire to do to others as we
would have others do unto us.

He defines religion as an attempt to establish
the relation of man to the world and its central
principle. God is the principle of the world, but
the will of God is to bring about the welfare of
man : the end of religion is social service. The
end of society, on the other hand, is God. " For
man, through man, to God," is Tolstoi's latest
formulation of his social creed. God's will is the
spiritual welfare of mankind.

Whilst Tolstoi is influencing his thousands,
the simple Evangelical preachers are winning their
tens of thousands, and their influence upon the
" Soul of Russia " is immeasurably greater and
more far-reaching.

INDEX

Abkhasian tribe, 188, 189.
Abracadabra, 43.
Achmet, 79.
Adamites, sect of, 276.
Ague, cure for, 43.
Albigenses, 260.
Alexander I, Tsar, 87, 292, 334.
Alexander II, Tsar, 349
Alexander III, Tsar, 175.

Baptists, 167, 266, 339.

Baring, Maurice, quoted, 29, 34,

35. H2.
Bashkin, 262.
Bashkirs, 26.

Basil, Kmperorof Macedonia, 65.
Basil, Saint, 132.
Beguny, sect of, 227.
Beresov, 74.

Allen, William, Quaker, 296, 326. Berghards, Brethren of the Free
Ambrosius, Bishop, 351. Spirit, 276.

Peters- Bezpopoftsi, sect of, 224.

Bible Society, British and For-
eign, 341.

Bishops' Schools, J33.
Black Hundreds, Union

American Church, S.

burg, 342.
Anglican and Russian Churches,

suggested union of, 90.
Anointing, ceremony of, 100.
Antonius, Metropolitan, 62.
Antonius, Metropolitan of S. Blackmore, Rev. R. \V., 91.

Petersburg, proclamation by, Bogomilites, sect of, 287.

367-

of

Russian People, 374.

Anthony, monk, 74.
Anthony, Papal Legate, 236.

Booblik, 42.
Boyars, 35.

Brandes, Georg, quoted, 256.
Brethren, The, 279.
Broadbent, S. H., 279.
Brotherhoods, Orthodox, 16.
Bruggen, Von der, quoted, 16.
Buddhists, 26.
Bulgarians, 65, 66, 97.
Burials, 26.

Apocalypse, study of, 37.
Archimandrite, office of, 153.
Armenians, persecution of, 181.
Articles of Belief, 106.
Assumption, Cathedral of, 82.
Athos, Mount Monastery, 74.
Augsberg Confession, The, 198.
Austrian Bishopric, 222.

Card well's Conferences, quoted,

93- .

Carelians, conversion of, 174.
Eastern Casimir, 235.

Castrates, sect of, 26, 266, 274.

Catechism, Russian Church, 101.
Herald Catherine II, 131, 198, 242.

Catherine II, Secret Memoirs of ,

Balsamon quoted, 60.

Bannik, 49.

Baptism, rite of, in

Church, 97.
Baptism, by laity, 104.
Baptist Missionary

quoted, 280.
Baptist World Alliance, 343.

391

quoted, 89.

392 INDEX

Ceremonies at Birth, Illness, Eastern Church, Lectures on,

Death, 40, 41. quoted, 173.

Changing Russia, quoted, 166, Encyclopedia Britannica,

1 88. quoted, 348.

Charms, 43. Esthonians, 26, 177.

Christian Community of Uni- Eugenius, Pope, 233, 234.

versal Brotherhood, The, 307. Euphemius, 227.

Christoviye, sect of, 227. Evil eye, 42.

Chronicles of Leskoff, quoted, Experiences of a Russian Re-

139. former, The, 377.
Church Reform, League of

Workers for, 147. Faith and Freedom, The problem

Communism, practice of, 272. 0^ ^

Confession, rite of, 104. Ferr'ara, Council of, 234.

Confirmation, absence of, 104. Fetishism i^o.

Constant, Benjamin, quoted, 29. Fetler, W*. A., 207, 366.

Constantine, monk, 35. Finland, persecution in, 27, 178.

Constantinople, 69, 70. Fletcher, quoted, 75.

Constructive Quarterly, quoted, France, Anatole, quoted, 13.

X95- Free Russia, quoted, 229, 361.

Contemporary Review, quoted, Friends of Russian Freedom,

13&- quoted, 3=59.
Conversion, office of, 115, 120.

Cossacks. 36, 239. Galicia, 222.

Council of Florence, 234. Galitzen, Prince, quoted, 180.

Courlanders, 26. Gallican Church. 241.

Credulity, 29, 31. Gerontius, Metropolitan, 79.

Crowning, ceremony of, at Geschichte der deutschen Bap-

marriage, 112. tisten, quoted 342.

Cyril, 66, 97. Gnostics, 276, 311.

Gogol, quoted, 7.

Deacon, ordination of, 108, 109. Gorboonov, quoted, 221.

Dead Souls, quoted, 7. Gorevykin, Minister of the

Demetrius, Pretender, 238. Interior, 179.

Dietoubitsi, sect of, 268. Goubanov, Michael, 306.

Dillon, Dr., quoted, 147. Goudonoff, 77.

Dissenters, 255. Graham. Stephen, quoted, 29,

Domovoi, 46, 55. 166, 188.

Domovoi Dvoroff, 49. Gregory XIII, Pope, 236.

Donskoi Monastery, 78. Grellet, Stephen, Quaker, 296,

Dorpat, Proclamation of, 182. 326.
Dostoievski, F., quoted, 13, 203,

284. Hair, shaving, ceremony of, 103.

Doukhobors, sect of, 180, 266, Haxthausen, quoted, 293, 301.

276, 285. Hermits, 76.

Dushilschiknik, sect of, 268. Hilarion, 74, 75.

History of the Church, Wad-
Easter, Russian, 117. dington, 244.

INDEX

393

Hleests, sect of, 26, 266, 270.
Holy Communion, 33.
Horsey, Travels of Sir John, 77.
House of the Dead, quoted, 203.
Hundred Chapter Council, The,

216, 217.
Hussites, 26, 199. 278.

Iberian Madonna, 167.
Iconoclasts, 93.
Icons, 20, 32, 33, 157.
Icons, miraculous, 165.
Immutability of Russian Re-
ligion, The, 251.
Incense, 32.
Innocentius, monk, 36.
Intellectuals, Russian, 24.
Isaac, Cathedral of St., 161.
Isidore, Metropolitan, 233, 235.
Isyaslov, 81.
Ivanof, Thomas, 324.

agellon, Prince, 237.

ews, 27, 347, 371.

ews, Chazarian, 68.

ews, Karaite, 261, 376.
.,'ob, Patriarch, 238.
John of Cronstadt, 128-
John, Prince of Moscow, 82.
John IV, Tsar, 215.
Joubert, Carl, quoted, 203.
Judaizers, sect of, 259, 287.

Kalmuks, 26.
Kalmikof, Vasilli, 301.
Kalmikof, Ilarion, 301.
Kammer, Kontora, 131.
Kapoustin, Savely, 292.
Karaite Jews, 261, 376.
Karamsin, quoted, 69.
Karp, N., 256.
Kassian, Bishop, 262.
Kazan Madonna, 166.
Kennard, H., 29.
Kharkoff, 51.
Kherson, 71.

Khilkoff, Prince Dmitri, 352.
Kiev or Kieff, 31.

Kikimona, 51.

King Stork and King Log,

quoted, 345, 349.
Kirief, Gen. Alexander, quoted,

186.

Kolesnikov, Sylvan, 289.
Kosoy, 263.
Kostromin, P., 163.
Kremlin, Moscow, 81, 159.
Krossnogeon, Prof., quoted, 179,

181.
Kvass, 47.

Lanin, E. B., quoted, 135.
Latimer, R. S., quoted, 335, 356.
Lazarus, monk, 173.
Lehmann, J., 342.
L'Eglise Catholique en Pologne,

242.

Lent, 33.
Leshi, 51.
Lescceur, 242.
Letts, 26, 177.
Lieven, Princess, 342.
Life of Dr. Bcedeker, quoted, 356.
Lollards, 260.
Lopars, conversion of, 173.
Loukeriya, P., 303.
Lunacy, 36.
Luther, 260.

Lutherans, 26, 178, 183, 277.
Lyonuskha, 303.

Macarius, 64, 216, 263.
Madonna, Kazan 166, Iberian

167, Smolensk 166, Vladimir

166.

Manchuria, 15, 158.
Manicheans, sect of, 311.
Marriage, sacrament of, no.
Martyrs, first Russian, 67.
Master and Man. quoted, 48, 382.
Maude, Aylmer, quoted, 287,

295. 304, 309, 383.
Melnikof, 145.
Memoirs of a Russian Governor,

quoted, 220.

394

INDEX

Memoirs of Stephen Grellet,

quoted, 296, 326.
Memories of a Village Priest,

quoted, 143.
Mennonites, sect of, 26, 199, 277,

339-

Messiah, 36, 332.
Methodist Episcopal Mission,

280.

Methodius, Bishop, 66, 97.
Mildmay Mission to Jews, 280.
Milky Waters, valley of, 293.
Missionary activity, 157.
Missionary monks, 75.
Milyoukov, Prof., quoted, 250,

260, 309.

Mohammedans, 26, 172.
Molchalniks, sect of, 268.
Molokans, sect of, 26, 180, 266,

321.

Monasteries, 130.
Monasticism, 73, 80.
Mongolia, 158.
Mongols, 78.
Moscow, 31, 82, 207.
Moscow, Ecclesiastical Council

of, 223.
Mouravieff, A. N., quoted, 64,

173-
M.P. for Russia, quoted, 159,

T75.

My Life in Christ, quoted, 128.
Mysticism, Russian, 27, 256.

Nalimski, Father, 296.
Nationalism, 159.
National Review, quoted, 147.
Nazarenes, sect of, 27, 266.
Nemolyaki, sect of, 267.
Ne Nastrinik, sect of, 268.
Ne Platelshchiki, sect of, 268.
Nestor, monk, 63, 66, 70, 72-74.
New Israel Brotherhood, 376.
Nicanor, Bishop, 350.
Nicene Creed, 99.
Nicetas, Deacon, 249.
Nicolas, Tsar, 185.
Nicon, Patriarch, 84, 217.

Novikoff, Madam O., quoted,

159. 175-
Novitski, quoted, 308, 310.

Obinenki, 54.

Oborotni, 54.

Oettingen, M., quoted, 143.

Old Believers, 164, 215.

Olga, Princess, 66.

Oman, Prof., quoted, 196.

Omega, 37.

Oncken, J. G., 340, 341.

Onega River, 37.

Ordination, ceremony of, 108,110.

Orel, 38.

Orthodox Eastern Church, The,

94-

Otcherki iz istorii Russkoi Lit-

eraturi, quoted, 88
Ouklein, 291.
Oustriloff, History, 132.
Ovennik, 50.

Paganism, 188.

Palmer, Rev. W., 94.

Pares, Bernard, quoted, 81, 94.

Paschoff, Colonel, 342.

Passports, burning of, 218.

Patriarchate, abolition of, 176.

Paulicians, sect of, 287, 311.

Paulicianism, 261.

Pavlov, V. I., 205.

Pecherski, Lavra, 74.

Peculiar People, A, quoted, 287,

295-

Perm, Great, 174.
Peroun, God, 67, 69, 72.
Peter the Great, 41, 85, 131, 160,

176, 183.
Petersburgia Viedomosti,

quoted, 178.

Petersburg Herald, quoted, 209.
Philipists, 226.
Philipovitch, Daniel, 271.
Photian Bishops, 65.
Photius, Patriarch, 65.
Pictures, religious, 35.
Pilgrimages, 33.

INDEX

395

Pilgrims, 18, 20.

Platon, quoted, 233, 260, 264.

Pobiedonosteff, 13, 23, 87, 157,
168, 169, 184, 185, 243, 252, 349.

Pobirohin, Ilarion, 291.

Poles, 25, 83.

Polevoi, 52.'

Poltava, meetings forbidden in,
206.

Pomortsi, sect of, 224.

Possevin, Anthony, Papal Le-
gate, 236.

Prelooker, J., 337.

Presbyterian Mission, 278.

Pretschoki, sect of, 275.

Priest, ordination of, 1 10.

Priestless ones, The, 224.

Priests and Clergy, 129.

Problem of Faith and Freedom,
The, quoted, 196.

Prokhanoff, Ivan, 343.

Propaganda, Orthodox, 16.

Pushkin, quoted, 176.

Radstock, Lord, 342.
Rangoni, Papal Nuncio, 238.
Raskolnik, 26, 164, 215.
Real Presence, The, 158.
Redeemer's Gate, The, 84.
Reflections of a Russian States-
man, quoted, 23, 87, 252.
Reform, Church, 88.
Religion, B. Constant, quoted,

35-.

Religions, distribution of, 25, 27.
Renunciation, 98.
Rites and Customs of the Grceco-

Russian Church, quoted, 134.
Roman Catholics, 26.
Romanoff, 29, 84.
Roussilki, 54.
Royal Gates, The, 32.
Russia, territorial expansion of,

14. IS-
Russia, Wallace, quoted, 145,

223, 227, 275.
Russia and Reform, quoted, 81,

94-

Russia under the great shadow,

quoted, 167-9.

Russian, Character of, 17, 19.
Russian Characteristics, quoted,

135;

Russian Church, '1 he History

of, quoted, 84, 157.
Russian Commonwealth, The,

quoted, 75.
Russian Crisis, The, quoted, 250,

260.
Russian Flashlights, quoted,

337;
Russian Peasant, The, quoted,

38- .
Russian People, The, quoted,

33.. 1 42-

Russian People, Union of, 193.
Russian Revolution, The,

quoted, 182.
Russian Temperament, The, 18,

193-

Russie Sectaire, La, quoted, 333.
Russification, policy of, 25, 161,

174, 177, 1 86, 189, 348.
Russo-German Baptist Union,

340-

Sabbatarians, sect of, 259.

Sacraments, 96.

Samara, 26.

Samoibesnik, sect of, 269.

Samoyedes, 26.

Sarolea, Dr. C., quoted, 14, 18,

389-

Schism, The Great, 84, 164.
Sectarianism, suppression of, 183.
Sectarians, 27, 255, 266.
Sects, Russian, 249.
Semenov, Matthew, 321.
Seminaries, 152.
Sergius, 84.
Shakuni, sect of, 267.
Shamanists, 26.
Siberia, 35, 158.
Simonoff Monastery, 78.
Skopsti, sect of, 26, 266.
Skovoroda, Grigoriev, 290, 324.

396

INDEX

Slavophilism, 175, 179, 187.
Smolensk Madonna, 166.
Solovief Monastery, 258.
Solovyov, 88.
Sophia, Empress, 235.
Sorbonne, Academy of, 240.
Stakovitch, M., 184, 185.
Stanley, Dean, quoted, 60, 73,

83. !73-

Staraobradski, sect of, 222.

Staritsky Monastery, 239.

Stead, W. T., quoted, 175.

Stepniak, quoted, 345, 349.

Strahl, quoted, 269.

Stranniki, sect of, 227.

Strigolniks, sect of, 194, 249, 256.

Stundists, see Baptists.

Superstition, 23, 29.

Sweden, war with, 198.

Synod, The Most Holy, 85, 183)
241.

Synod, The Most Holy, Pro-
curator of, 86, 184.

St. Basil, 72.

St. Nicolas, 33.

Tatars, 26, 78, 79, 177.
Tcherkesses, 26.
Thebais, Bishop, 91.
Theodosians, sect of, 224, 226.
Theodosius, Metropolitan, 74.
Tolstoi, Life of, Sarolea, 14,387.
Tolstoi, quoted, 48, 381.
Troitza Monastery, 78.
Trubchevsk, 184.
Tsakni, quoted, 333.
Turgeniev, quoted 243.
Tveritinov, Dr., 32,2.

Uklein,325.

Unction, Baptismal, 98, 101.

Unction, Extreme, 114.

Under Three Tsars, quoted, 335,

368.

Uniats, 233, 237.
Unitarians. 259.
Union of Russian People, The,

374-
Urossov, Prince, quoted, 220.

Verigin, Peter, 304.

Vidoubetz Monastery, 73.

Villari, L., quoted, 167-9.

Vladimir, 35, 67, 158.

Vladimir Madonna, 166.

Vodiavoi, 53.

Voguls, 26.

Volga, 26.

Voyiaks, 26.

Vozdy Rhateli, sect of, 268.

Waddington, History of the

Church, 244.
Wallace, Russia, 145, 223, 227,

275-

White Clergy, 133.
White Russians, 25.
Wise Woman, 42, 44, 55.

Yakuts, 26.
Yaroslav, 73.

Zilliacus, 182.
Zoroastrians, 2,-.

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