from the Book Selected Sermons
NOTE.
Page 128. “They who nourish heresy in secret,” &c.
THE above mentioned expression of the Metropolitan refers probably to the secret heretics not of Russia alone, but of other Christian countries. Nevertheless, we suppose that it will not be superfluous [More especially since the appearance of Mr. Dixon's book, entitled “Free Russia,” which abounds in incorrect information and most unsatisfactory statements concerning the Russian Church.] to acquaint the English reader in some degree with the religious sects existing in Russia, and offering to this day so large a field for the activity of the Home Mission of the Orthodox clergy.
Those who have seceded from the communion of the Orthodox Church, are divided into two principal categories; dissenters (raskol- niks,) confessing the general dogmas of the Church, but nevertheless separated from it; and heretics, rejecting or altering the very doctrines of the Orthodox faith. This division, which is thoroughly consistent with the fact itself, is also recognized by the civil law.
We call raskolniks those who adhere to the ancient rites of the Church, and who, although confessing the same doctrine as the members of the Orthodox Church, yet reject all those corrections of the ritual, and those alterations in the rites which took place in the second half of the seventeenth century, under the supervision of the renowned patriarch Nicon. Notwithstanding that these corrections and alterations did not in the least affect doctrine itself, and that they had for the most part been called forth by extreme necessity in consequence of the errors as well as wilful and ignorant additions, which in former times had crept unnoticed into the manuscript rituals, and thence been transferred without severe critical examination into printed books issued from the Government printing-office in Moscow,—notwithstanding that the reforms <380> of Nicon had no other aim than that of rendering the text of the Russian ritual thoroughly identical with the Greek originals, as well as identifying the divine service of the Russian Church with that of its Greek prototype,—and notwithstanding that they were approved by the Oriental Œcumenical patriarchs; the dissenters are persuaded that the Russian Orthodox Church has from that time lost the gift of the redeeming grace of CHRIST. Thus the using either of two or three fingers in making the sign of the cross, the repetition twice or thrice of the “halleluia,” the proceeding in the direction of the sun’s course, or against it, in some parts or ceremonies of divine service, the way of writing (in Russ!) the Name of JESUS, and a few other peculiarities, none of them greater, but rather of less importance; these are the fundamental points of the dispute, which has disturbed the peace of the Russian Church; these are at least the officially proclaimed arguments by which the raskolniks themselves justify their separation, and for the sake of which more than ten millions of the Russian people remain until this day out of the pale of the Church. There is no doubt that the soil which has engendered raskol (dissent) and which feeds it still, is the ignorance which has confounded rite with doctrine, or more strictly, which ascribes to the outward rite of the Church the significance of the doctrine of that Church. Yet, certainly, it is impossible to explain by ignorance alone, or by mere blind adherence to the ancient ceremonial, so important a fact in Russian religious life, as is raskol, but rather by an aggregation of motives extremely complicated; by the peculiarities of the national spiritual development; by historical circumstances, which have aroused the activity of national instinct in the form of conservatism; and finally, by a misconceived way of dealing with raskol, on the part of the Russian Government, spiritual as well as temporal. The truth is, that in ancient Russia, by the absence not only of schools, but of every means of enlightenment, and equally from the thorough separation from other more civilized nations, religion was the only element and instrument of civilization, for the mass of the people, as well as for the higher classes: religion, in its outward manifestations, in its divine service, in its rites, in its books, which were translated from the Greek and transcribed by godly but illiterate zealots of the faith. The Church of ancient Russia was so intimately blended with the nation and had so penetrated its whole life, that it had almost become the expression of nationality itself. And therefore an attempt to alter the ancient rites of the Church (made by the clerical <381> authorities without the counsel or participation of the secular members of the Church) could not but appear, in the eyes of the Russians of the seventeenth century, other than an attempt against the spiritual integrity and the independence of Russian nationality, and against the Russian national customs. It remains still doubtful, what would have been the further fate of Russian raskol, if the instinctive fears of spiritual and national sentiment had not found, seemingly, a full justification during the very absolute reforms of Peter the Great in the eighteenth century. Those reforms, which may be more correctly styled revolutions, and the fundamental intention of which issued from necessity, were attended by radical changes in the relations between the Church and the State, and accompanied by thorough change of the then existing form of the government of the Church, to that of German bureaucracy: by a despotic persecution of national usages and of the whole tenor of Russian life, raskol became still more confirmed in its errors, acquired new moral strength, and obtained the significance of a protest against foreign anti-national influences, which had become predominant in the social, governmental, and even clerical spheres. This protest did not limit itself to denegation only, but it showed itself in positive resistance; namely, in the well- known mutiny of the streltzies (a militia, existing from the time of John the Terrible). These streltzies, the armed representatives of raskol, were at length thoroughly crushed by the iron will of Peter the Great, who put the rebels to death by thousands. Raskol was silenced for a time, but, during the reign of Catherine II., reappeared in the person of Pougatchew. This rebellion arose from the midst of the raskolniks, and drew its strength therefrom: an audacious cossack, an impostor, issuing manifestoes in the name of the Emperor Peter III., granted therein to the people “the soil, the cross and the beard.” that is, he liberated them from serfdom, granting to the peasantry the land of the nobility; he restored the ancient rites of the Church, (for by “the cross” was here meant the ancient form of it, that is with eight extremities instead of four, which is the only shape of the cross recognised by the raskolniks, other crosses not receiving from them even the name,) and reestablished the national customs, of which “the beard” (so strongly forbidden by Peter,) served as the readiest symbol. From that time raskol has given no more signs of open resistance, but has contented itself with a passive, almost exclusively clerical protest, which at the present time not only offers no political danger, but does not prevent even the raskolniks themselves from giving their help to the government <382> in the critical moment of struggle with some foreign foe. The invasion of the French in 1812, the Crimean war, and the last Polish rebellion, have shown in a striking manner that no proclamations on the part of foreign countries, no instigations of revolutionary agents, not only foreign or Polish, but even Russian, are able to excite the Russian raskolniks to treason against their native country and their Sovereign. Nevertheless the raskolniks form even now a society sufficiently locked up and separated from the bulk of the nation,—a society powerful and possessing considerable wealth. If they can count in their ranks none of the nobility of the so called enlightened clan, they at least possess the third and the wealthiest part of the merchant class, as well as the greater part of the Cossacks of the Don and the whole of those of the Oural. The total number of raskolniks consists now (although the statistic information may not be very precise,) of about ten millions of men. Therefore the raskolniks represent even now that part of the Russian nation, in which there can be found more than in any other class the closest connexion with ancient Russia as it was before the time of Peter, and which class was distinguished by a peculiarly solid stamp of nationality, considering themselves pre-eminently Russian and Orthodox, while not accepting their official name of raskolniks, but styling themselves “primitive believers,” “primitive ritualists,” followers of ancient orthodoxy. Justice compels us to add, that those instinctive aspirations, although in themselves worthy of sympathy, were developed on an exceptionally religious and moreover on a totally ignorant ground, and that they never attained a clear understanding of the true principles of Russian nationality; neither have they produced any progressive activity in that direction, but have limited themselves rather to impassiveness or to conservative activity.
At the beginning of raskol, among the number of the opponents of Nicon who seceded from the Church, there were not only laymen, but also priests and even one Bishop. But when this Bishop died, then raskol found itself face to face with the following dilemma: either to remain without any priesthood at all, and consequently to cease to be a Church, since without a priesthood, even by the conviction of the raskolniks themselves, a Church cannot exist,—or to accept the hierarchy of the very Church from which they had torn themselves. On the solution of this dilemma raskol was cleft into two principal sects, the popovtshina (which admits of priests dismissed from the Established Church,) and the bespopovtshina (which rejects priesthood entirely). <383>
The former, that is the popovtshina, violating logic and sense, persisting in denying the presence of grace in the Established Church, but not desirous of remaining without a clergy, and acknowledging at the same time as the absolute condition of true priesthood the legal ordination of priests,—resolved on admitting those members of the Orthodox hierarchy, who would consent to abandon the communion of the Church that had ordained them. To this end they bought off some venal priests, or harboured those who were condemned for some committed crime and fleeing from merited punishments. Thus did popovtshina provide for itself during two hundred years. The Government, which at the beginning had relentlessly pursued those vagabond priests, resolved at last to tolerate them, yet on the condition that they should not surpass an appointed number, and reside in those places alone where the raskolniks were allowed to erect their churches. But their efforts to furnish themselves with the higher spiritual power, that is with Bishops, did not succeed until the fourth decade of the present century, Twenty-five years ago the raskolniks succeeded in buying off with a great sum of money one of the Greek Orthodox Archbishops, residing in Turkey, the Metropolitan Ambrosius, deprived of his charge by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and established him in the character and with the title of Metropolitan of Russia in the Bukovine, at a distance of twenty versts from the Russian frontier, under the protection of the Austrian Government, in a monastery called Belaja Krinitiza. Having thus established a manufactory of ordination, the popovuhinzi were not long in creating by the venal hands of their pseudo-Metropolitan, many such false Bishops not only for the raskolniks who lived in Turkey, Wallachia, and Moldavia, but also for the adherents of their own sect in the interior of Russia itself, having formerly divided them into dioceses. During the reign of the Emperor Nicholas, those pretended Bishops visited Russia only in a secret manner, for they were severely pursued, but in the present reign, profiting by the general relaxation of persecution for religious opinions, they live freely in Russia and even in the capitals. The Government suffers them, although it acknowledges not their ecclesiastical rank. The results of this wise policy were most beneficial. The dissenting hierarchy brought from darkness into daylight, could not but appear, even in the eyes of the raskolniks themselves, a piteous caricature of that of the true Orthodox; among the raskolnik pseudo-Bishops, the greater part of whom were wanting in all matters of education, there were found those who by their conduct <384> and actions roused disputes, and became the cause of the organization among the raskolniks themselves of new parties each hostile to the other. And the best of the Bishops, troubled in their minds by their situation, doubting of the rights of their office, and sincerely aspiring after truth, came to Moscow and desired to converse with the Metropolitan Philaret, concerning matters of faith, for also in this respect, the activity of the late Metropolitan was highly remarkable. His austere, ascetic life had acquired for him the deep reverence not only of his own flock, but even of those who, though erring, were yet anxious for the true faith. The consequence of those conversations, was the conversion of the most remarkable and influential Bishops and of other members of the dissenting clergy, under the name of edinovertzi (which means men of the same faith, fellow-believers).
We must add here some information about edinoverie. In the year 1667, the council of the eastern Patriarchs assembled in Moscow to judge the Patriarch Nicon, pronounced an anathema against the raskolniks. This severe measure did not only fail to weaken raskol, but rendered it more obdurate and gave to it new strength. The anathema struck without distinction at all the adherents of the ancient rites; whereas, in former times, these same rites had been observed by many saints, revered throughout the whole country as holy men, and among whom were even Metropolitans of Moscow, whose relics repose in the cathedral of the Assumption, in the Kremlin of Moscow. This anathema was in the eyes of the raskolniks the solemn renunciation by the Church of its former national life; a blasphemous rupture with sacred national traditions. This conclusion was as unjust as it was unfair. It was evident that the anathema was pronounced not against the rites, but against resistance to the commands of the Church. In the year 1800, Platon, Metropolitan of Moscow, put the question in a truer light; acknowledging the differences in the rites as a matter without consequence wherever there was unity in the confession of the doctrine; or, at all events without importance, when compared with the evil of separation from the Church. Platon suggested to the Holy Synod and to the secular Government, to show their condescension towards those erring Christians, by allowing them the observance of all their beloved rites, but with the condition that they should again enter into the communion of the Church, acknowledge its authority, and accept from her hand legally ordained priests. This measure was then adopted by the Government, yet by reason of the <385> existing system of religious persecution in the reign of the Emperor Nicholas, as well as from the distrust of the raskolniks, it was brought into effect at first but very slowly, but in the last few years it has made great progress, mostly through the care of the Metropolitan Philaret. He founded in Moscow an edinovertsheski monastery, and himself celebrated therein divine service, after the ritual which had been printed before the time of Nicon, and observed all the ancient rites, thus bearing testimony to the amplitude and freedom of the views of the Orthodox Church, which places above all the unity of faith and the law of brotherly love.
It must be owned, that during these last ten years, in consequence of the greater liberty granted to raskol and also to the press, which has thrown the light of publicity and criticism over the dark and secret world of raskol, its fanaticism in general, but particularly that of the popovtshina, has greatly decreased. The necessity of education, the influence of civilization, and the temptations of fashion, have considerably shaken its former stubbornness, and it may be hoped that the time is not far distant when the popovtshina at least will be reunited to the Church through the path of edinoverie.
The popovtshina is the most numerous sect of the raskolniks,—its number amounts to nearly seven millions.
Concerning the other fraction of raskol which did not consent to admit into its body the vagabond priests of the Established Church, that fraction called bespopovtshina was always distinguished from the former by fanaticism, by stubborn persistence, and by the darkness of ignorance. And their condition was indeed tragical. Confessing in their Creed the absolute necessity for an Œcumenical, Apostolic, Catholic Church, with its sacraments and its hierarchy, they are convinced that the grace bestowed by CHRIST on His Church had abandoned it since the time of Nicon, and that the Church abides now in a state of orphanhood. They have been waiting in vain from GOD for already two hundred years, the restoration in some miraculous manner of a legally ordained hierarchy; for two hundred years already, they, while believing in the redeeming power of the sacraments, have remained without the enjoyment of them. Their temples are built exactly like those of the Orthodox Church; there are altars, but no servants of the altar; there stands the chalice, but it is empty, and seems as if waiting to be filled with the Body and Blood of CHRIST; they perform only that part of divine service which can be fulfilled by laymen, without the assistance of priests, that is the reading and singing of prayers and hymns. It <386> will be easily understood that by such an involuntary abolition of sacraments and rites, which are generally much believed in and fervently revered in the Russian people, they find not the peace of their souls,—and therefore there is nowhere to be found such agitation, nay, rather such restlessness of spirit, as among the bespopovtshinzi. It has broken up into a great number of subdivisions, or separate sects, almost all of which experience the most direful and reciprocal hate, often sending to one another violent polemic missives, and often assembling to the number of some thousands, in desert places or woods for religious debates.
All those sects, or, as they call themselves, “opinions” differ from one another by various shades of ignorance and fanaticism; but all show the same common desire, to get out in one way or other of their awkward position,—to find some solution of the moral dilemma, which wearies and oppresses them,—-to supply the want of clergy and of divine service by some self-ordained institution,—to find out the way of redemption otherwise than through the Church and its sacraments. It was natural that among the bespopovtshinzi, the doctrine of antichrist should be developed, the incarnation of whom some see in Nicon, others in Peter or in the Orthodox hierarchy in general and in the State Government. Antichrist is a necessity to them; for it is only by the reign of antichrist that the sectarians are able to excuse, even in their own sight, the unseemly anarchy which exists among them. The question of antichrist has produced in the centre of bespopovtshina an entire literature of its own (of course in manuscripts,) as well as the question of marriage, and namely, is marriage a sacrament of the Church, that is, is it one of those sacraments which require for their fulfilment the blessing of a priest,—or may it he celebrated by laymen, as is sometimes allowed with baptism? This question has also divided them into many sects. Some of them, wholly rejecting the lawfulness of marriage in the present state of the Church, prefer public sin to such unlawful marriage, saying, that they at least by doing so lose not the consciousness of their sin, and do not lull their consciences into slumber by the admission of a pretended sacrament. On an exactly similar ground, some of them, convinced of the impossibility of praying in the Church and of partaking of the holy Supper, have come to the conclusion that they can do without any visible Church and be satisfied by communicating in the spirit alone. Thus, the raskol of the bespopovtshina, having begun by a servile worship of the rite and <387> the letter, has arrived, submitting to the implacable logic of denegation in its extreme development, not only at the renunciation of sacraments in practice, but even at the denegation of the principle of their necessity as a means of salvation. It has come in short, to almost rationalistic conclusions, though but of a negative character. To those belongs for instance the sect called nietovtshina (from the word niet, i.e. no,) which represents the highest degree of negation,—so far as concerns the institutions of the State Church.
Among the sects of the bespopovtshina we must signalize that of the begounoff (runaways), strannikoff or pilgrims, in which vagabondage is reverenced as an act of piety. Proceeding upon the rule that the civil, laws arc the representation of antichrist, this sect preaches that none of the faithful may be numbered among the subjects of the state, neither pay its taxes, nor profit by its protection. Therefore the adherents of that sect disappear suddenly from their abodes, purposely that their names may be inscribed in the official registers as “runaways,” or as having disappeared without trace, and in this way they are excluded from the roll of citizens. Meantime they not seldom remain at home, hidden in secret refuges: and for this purpose they form in their houses different hiding-places: double walls, double roofs, and subterranean rooms. The chief contingent of this sect are runaway soldiers, who have founded it, to give a religious colour to their desertion. Before the emancipation of the peasantry, those who fled from, their proprietors generally entered into the same sect. Being interrogated by the magistrates of justice, they call themselves “subjects of the King of Heaven,” acknowledging no other Sovereign or authority, and declare obstinately that they know nothing either of their name or of their origin. It must be stated that in general the relations of the bespopovtshina with the State, are considerably more hostile than those of the popovtshina. Some of the sects are peculiarly hostile, even rejecting the principle of obedience towards the Government; such sects are not, of course, tolerated by the Government as soon as they put their theories into practice. None of those sects however, offers any serious political danger, as well, because each of them taken singly is not numerous (although the total number of the bespopovtshina is said to be three millions,) as that their protests also are more of a religious and passive character, inclining them rather to voluntary sufferings, to martyrdom, than to any other active resistance or rebellion. Moreover, in later times, we may note even among the bespopovtshina a considerable decrease of fanaticism. <388> Many of the most influential representatives of bespopovtshina have passed into edinoverie, that is, almost into the Established Church; and no doubt, with the entire suppression of religious persecution, and the establishment of liberty of conscience, on firmer foundations, it will thoroughly lose its intense hatred to the Church and the actual civil order.
Let us now speak of heresies: they may also be divided into two principal groups: heresies simply rationalistic or those whose principal aim is rational spiritualism, and heresies preeminently secret or mystical, where gross materialism and even sensuality lie at the bottom of false mysticism. Notwithstanding their seemingly keen differences, both groups touch one another and even, cross their respective limits,— in their extreme logical development.
To the former group belong the Molochani and Duchoborzi or spiritual Christians. It may be said of the Three Persons of the HOLY TRINITY, they worship pre-eminently and almost exclusively the HOLY GHOST, Whom they consider to be the inalienable acquirement of the faithful, as a quickening power, ever dwelling in and sanctifying him. They reject not only the Established Russian Church, but also every visible one, and pronouncing the soul of every Christian to be a Church, they reject at the same time the sacraments, rites, and every outward manifestation of inward faith. They call themselves “saints,” and honour in each other the presence of the HOLY GHOST by low obeisances. The doctrine of these sects, and especially that of the Duchoborzi, exhibits a striking similitude to that of the Quakers, and its origin in Russia is even ascribed to the preaching of an English Quaker, during the reign of the Empress Elizabeth, in the middle of the eighteenth century. These sectarians have no temples,—for every Christian soul is a temple of the HOLY GHOST,—yet they have prayer-meetings, at which they sing psalms and hymns of their own composition which are not devoid of poetic worth; they are distinguished by austerity and purity of manners by temperance in their food, by total abstinence from wine, from swearing and ribaldry (virtues, which are, alas, very rare among the lower classes of the people), by neatness in their housekeeping, by industry, and in general by spiritual aspirations, yet without asceticism, and which are easily reconcilable with solicitude concerning their material welfare. They preach perfect civil equality, for all men are equally holy, all are brothers. They are generally better instructed than is the case with men of their class, and the Bible is their chief, nay, almost their <389> only book for reading; therein they greatly differ from the other dissenters, who seldom read not only the Old Testament, but even the Gospel, and who, instead of that, assiduously study the writings of the Fathers, the Canons of the Church, and the Book of the Revelation. In general the adherents of the sects of Molochani and Duchoborzi are distinguished from the common people by a higher degree of intellectual development and instruction. Notwithstanding all this they possess almost no writing of their own confession of faith,—and the dissertation of one of the learned men of Russia, who first published the systematic contents of their belief, actually served them from that time as a sort of catechism. Their canticles and hymns breathe a spirit of peculiar enmity against the clergy of the Established Church. Towards the Government they, on the contrary, profess no particular enmity; they certainly fear it, considering it the support of the Church, but in their relations with it they are quite indifferent and passive in their submission, without hate, as well as without great attachment. They generally have not that strong national leaven, which is the chief characteristic of the adherents of the ancient forms and rites, and are in their manners unlike the Russian people in general.
These sects, which at their beginning were severely persecuted by the Government, during the eighteenth century, received in the reign of Alexander I. the munificent gift of large and fertile domains in the Taurida Government, Melitopol, district, on the banks of the river Molosnaia, where they were transferred from the central governments and where they founded several wealthy and flourishing colonies, which are still in existence. It is a notable fact, that meeting in their neighbourhood with a colony of Scotch Mennonists, the Russian sectarians were much struck by the perfect similitude of their respective doctrines: and notwithstanding their different nationality, the adherents of both sects entered into close friendly intercourse with each other, whereas generally, foreign colonists in Russia live quite estranged from the native inhabitants.
The Molochani and Duchoborzi differ very little from each other; the former name is not even admitted by the sectarians, and was given them by their Orthodox neighbours, who had observed that they used moloko, i.e. milk, instead of meat.
Nevertheless the name Molochani clung to them and even became their official denomination, and until now designates that part of “the spiritual Christians,” among whom the spiritualistic rigorism is weaker, <390> or rather whose spiritualism is less subtle and abstract, and admits of more outward manifestation than is the case with the so-called Duchoborzi. The best interpretation of this sect is that of the well known traveller, Baron Haxthausen, in his book, “Etudes sur la situation intérieure, la vie nationale et les institutions rurales en Russie.” Robert Pinkerton, in his “Russia,” printed in London, in 1833, communicates also some information about them. These two sects number about half a million of men; but it is difficult to know their exact number, for besides the colonies of the Taurida and the Caucasus, where they live openly, many of them dwell secretly in Central and Eastern Russia, where their existence is not officially acknowledged by the civil law.
There is nothing more difficult, nay, so positively impossible, as for man in his earthly state to abide in a sphere of pure spirituality, and to make it his normal, natural condition. It is evident that such a rejection of every form, such a persecution of every outward manifestation of faith, becomes a narrow-minded formalism of its own kind, and a fettering of the true freedom of individual spirit. On the other side the attempt to keep oneself on the height of pure spiritualism cannot exist without an over-exertion of the spiritual powers of man, to a tension which places us in a state of exaltation and which carries us away into the fantastic domain of enthusiastic mysticism,—while it not seldom requires for its support artificial, creative, and quite material means. All sects in general, in Russia as well as in other countries, which exclusively worship the HOLY GHOST, beget in their adherents a natural desire to be in immediate communion with the HOLY GHOST; to feel in themselves His living presence, hence the necessity of a peculiar kind of religiously mystic inspiration,-which however is nothing else than a state of strong nervous excitement, considered by them as a token of the real presence of the HOLY GHOST. To this end they have recourse, as it is known, to outward, sensual excitements, and namely to exaggerated movement (as does the sect of the Shakers,) to castigation and so forth.
The same interior logic presides over the development of the Russian sects, who exclusively worship the HOLY GHOST, and to their number belong also the above mentioned Molochani and Duchoborzi.
Thus, while they on one side reject in principle the form, the letter, every outward manifestation, as well as every Established Church, with its sacraments, rites and sacred traditions,—requiring that GOD should <391> be worshipped but in the spirit and accepting the holy Bible alone as the foundation of faith,—-the Molochani could not do otherwise than submit to the natural and thoroughly lawful desire of strengthening and confirming in their own conviction their only foundation—the Bible. Hence the diligent reading and study of the Bible,—hence the almost deification of the Bible, that is of the book,—hence the worshipping of the text, the letter. If we consider that this reading is performed by men, wanting in every matter of education, unacquainted with any other book than the Bible, and at the same time not acknowledging, nay, often, totally ignoring the sacred traditions and the doctrines of the Church; then it becomes evident how the sect of the Molochani in some of its points of faith sometimes almost identifies itself with Judaism. Those semi-Judaists, as they are called, cling commonly to the Bible, which says that not one jot, nor one tittle shall in any wise pass from the law: they keep the Sabbath instead of Sunday, according to the fourth commandment (wherefore they are also called Sabbatarians,) and in their confused notions of CHRIST they often fall into the purest Mosaism, i.e. Judaism, free from the alterations of the Talmud. They were also influenced by the circumstance that among the inhabitants of the Crimea there are found Karaims, who give themselves out as the descendants of those Jews who left Palestine after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, confessing the doctrine of Moses, rejecting the latter Books of the Bible, and who are really free from every talmudic influence. In comparison with the position of the talmudic Jews, the Karaims enjoy by the Russian civil law many peculiar privileges.
But there are also sects, and namely those sects which belong to the second group of heretics before named by us, of which outward sensual excitement constitutes the principal basis and almost the chief doctrine. They also worship the HOLY GHOST, but it were useless to seek for an immediate, so to say, genealogical link between them and the sects of the former group, that is with the Molochani and Duchoborzi. The primitive origin of the latter is doubtlessly rationalistic; they were, so to say, bred on a ground of philosophical spiritualism, although they alone attain in their extreme development to the denegation of this very same spiritualism. But in the sects of the second group, there is not the least leavening of philosophy. Of these sects is that of the “Chlisti,” and another thoroughly identical with it, the sect of the “belija golubi,” i.e. white doves; they are eunuchs, founding their doctrine <392> on the Gospel of S. Matthew, xix. 12. These sects which are pre-eminently secret ones, not only by reason of persecution on the part of the Government, but also as not being tolerated by society, and at length from the very character of their teaching. Secrecy is a part of their dogma, and is enforced by dreadful oaths. Both these sects arose quite independently of that of the Duchoborzi and have their origin in the remotest antiquity. Their root is the same as that of all similar sects in Europe and in the East, the Manicheans, the Bogomilians, the Albigenses, &c.
The adherents of the Chlisti call themselves “the people of GOD." Some suppose that the former name was given them ironically by the people, in consequence of the rumour that they thrashed each other with switches, which in Russ means chlist at their meetings, but it is more probable that this name is but an alteration of the word “Christovtshina,” as this denomination stands in the spiritual writings of the first years of the eighteenth century. Whatever its origin, the designation of Chlistovtshina is adopted by the official language. But the heresy of the Chlistovtshina in its broadest sense has many shades and divisions and as many names. We shall limit ourselves to a few words on those sects who principally belong to the Chlistovtshina, and are more important than any other, their ranks being filled by the lower and more numerous class of people. The Chlisti are divided into korabli, i.e. ships, which are separate groups or communities formed by themselves and each governed by its own kormtsbi, i.e. pilot. Being thoroughly dependent on their pilots, those ships differ one from another by every possible variety, as well of belief as of custom, often so contradictory that it would be very difficult to give any general account of their doctrine. Nevertheless we may consider, according to the new investigations made by Mr. Melnikow, as their generic distinction, the belief in the mystic death and burial in Christ, and in a mystic resurrection, taking these words in a symbolic, spiritual sense. Under the words death and burial in CHRIST we must understand the mortification of the flesh, the desires, the will, a state of self-renuncition and absorption in oneself; under the name of resurrection—that state in which man hears in his own heart the voice of the inward Gospel of the HOLY GHOST, becomes himself the temple of God, a being without sin, living no longer under the law, but under grace. But this first principle, common to the Chlisti with many other mystic sects, is preserved in its original purity but by very few “ships,” and it mostly manifests itself <393> among the Chlisti under a mutilated aspect and with the grossest interpretations. We may say that a general belief among the Chlisti is that CHRIST and the Virgin Mary do not cease to manifest themselves to the world, and become incarnate in the persons of the elect. Some “ships” believing in that way, that CHRIST appears really, number a whole line of consecutive incarnations during the lapse of two hundred years, and relate whole annals about the life, miracles, martyrdom and resurrection of these new Christs. They even believe, that the LORD Sabaoth Himself became incarnate at the end of the seventeenth century, in the person of a peasant of the government of Wladimir, Daniel, son of Philip, and that afterwards ascending, he chose among them also a peasant to be CHRIST: thus founding the religion of the people of God. Among other “ships,” CHRIST is a denomination, meaning a man, who is constantly inspired by the HOLY GHOST, possessing the gift of prophecy and of grace—that is perfect infallibility,—because, in that man there dwelleth no longer his own will, but that of the HOLY GHOST, whatsoever he might do and whatever sins he might commit. There exist also “ships" in whose doctrine the narrative in the Gospel about the birth, death and resurrection of CHRIST ought not to be accepted in a literal, but a figurative sense. And as to the Virgin Mary, she is to women the same as CHRIST is to men,—the highest degree of perfection. In some “ships” women are raised to that dignity by bringing forth CHRIST in a spiritual manner, that is, by the power of prophetic revelation—they point out a man in whom CHRIST dwells. In other “ships” they confer that dignity also through revelation, upon a young and spotless virgin, who becomes thus the object of their worship.
The Chlisti admit, as is but natural, of no Church, yet to be better able to hide themselves, they keep strictly all the observances of the Orthodox Church, and some of them do even believe that the observance of the Church institutions may be useful, by preserving in men a religious disposition, although they be insufficient to salvation. And though they confirm their doctrine by various texts of the Old and New Testament, still they confess and sing in their hymns, which it appears contain their whole creed,—that there is but one book wanted for salvation,—the Golden Book, the Book of Life,—our LORD the HOLY GHOST. Besides this, these sectarians are ruled not by those inspired speeches, but by those revelations, which are chanted by their prophets, when they get into a spiritual state, i.e. in that ecstatic state <394> which, is attained by that diligent whirling and racing round at their meetings. These exaggerated movements, amounting even to frenzy, accomplished by people of both sexes clad in long white shirts, and accompanied by songs or various exclamations to the HOLY GHOST, are designated among the Chlisti by the peculiar term of radenie, which means religious zeal, efforts to be united to GOD. And when one of those zealots, after being thus employed for some hours, at length with foaming mouth, beside himself, begins to utter anything (mostly in verses,) then he himself and all who surround him, are convinced that the HOLY GHOST is come down upon him and speaks by his lips. Those improvisations are considered as revelations, as prophecies, and the improviser is honoured as a prophet. Many of those improvisations, written down by the Chlisti, have been lately published and contain mostly a very incongruous assemblage of sentences, expressing either gross glorifications or the Master, the HOLY GHOST, or commendations of the sect, or some vague predictions about the future Judgment. All these improvisations have not the least literary worth.
The power of those Christs and virgins (who in some “ships" are simply styled pilots), over their “ships” is boundless, and they are constantly finding out some new variety of the theme of their mystic doctrine. Notwithstanding that celibacy, continence, purity of manners, and abstinence are considered of absolute necessity to salvation, there are “ships” where the public dances, whirlings and turnings round, are ended by the most repulsive orgies, during which the participators in them consider themselves freed from sin, being at that time inspired by the HOLY GHOST, and consequently they find themselves no longer under the common law, but under that of grace. There are finally “ships" in which from time to time is accomplished the communion of the blood and body of an infant eight days old (whom they call Christ), born of some false virgin, and killed for this very end in presence of the whole community and with great solemnity! It will be understood that the Chlisti stoutly deny the existence of such monstrous and bestial customs when they are interrogated by Justice, but unhappily they are undeniable facts, and have been thoroughly proved.
It is difficult to determine the number of the adherents of the Chlisti with all their secret branches, for the least manifestation of their doctrine is severely prosecuted by law; but we suppose their total number does not reach more than a hundred thousand, and is perhaps much lower. They mostly live in the Governments of Oriel and Tambow. These <395> sectarians belong mostly to the agricultural class, but there are also among them merchants, and even wealthy ones. Yet it is not long since, during the reign of Alexander I., under the influence of free-masonry and other mystical doctrines, not in Russia alone, but throughout Europe, above all after the fall of Napoleon,-that the Russian secret sects numbered in their ranks members of the nobility, even among those who stood high in the hierarchy of the state. Of course, the worship of the Spirit was never accompanied among those intellectually cultivated sectarians either with those bloody rites or impure orgies which we have mentioned, but was limited to the turnings round, racing, leaping, and similar movements, like the frantic gestures of those Mahometan mystics-the dervishes. However, with the sudden change in the religious dispositions of Alexander I. from mysticism to a severe observance of the Church’s institutions, the indulgence of the Government towards those sects ended, and with it the adherence to it of persons of the higher classes except in some solitary instances.
We have sought to point out, in these short outlines, but the chief characteristics of Russian raskol and heresies, omitting a great many of the less important among them which rise and fall with their founder. We have but to add that all these raskols and heresies, however afflicting in themselves, still prove the lively interest felt by the Russian people for their religion. On this deeply religious soil, without culture and neglected during whole centuries, in consequence of various historical circumstances, there grew up tares and thistles in abundance. But the sun of freedom and light is already rising, a spirit of life is breathing, that shall disperse the mist of prejudice and misunderstanding, which is equally needed by the pastors and their flocks, by those who rule and by those who are ruled. That quickening breath will send forth workers, no longer isolated and separated, but strong by their number and their unity. The tares and the thistles shall be torn up, but the fertile soil will remain and. bring forth, if it please GOD, a good harvest for the welfare of the Church and the glory of the Truth confessed by it!
J. MASTERS AND SON, ALBION BUILDINGS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE, E.C.
