beasts than to be joined to a wife; to frequent many women in secret, rather than live with one openly."[1]
Such are some of the results at which the most scrupulous defenders of ancient rites have arrived from their modest starting-point. In order to preserve intact a few venerable ceremonies, they entered upon their blind and perilous undertaking, and have been led, step by step, to abandon, not merely the doctrines of the Orthodox Church, but all principles of religion and morality. It was not without evident trepidation that even the most fanatic were brought to accept conclusions so abhorrent, however logical in appearance. They have felt the necessity of justifying their course, and as their apology have argued that Christ had abandoned His Church and His people; that the triumph of sin and iniquity was the fulfilment of the prophecies; that the evil days had come when the saints should be troubled and given over to the adversary; that the Church, deprived of its priesthood, was the desolate sanctuary described by Daniel; that Antichrist had come, and the end of all things was drawing nigh. "Why, then," said they, "should the faithful be disquieted within themselves, or sorrow over a ruined Church; why mourn the social wreck, or be concerned for the mortal destinies of the race, when the last trump is about to sound?"
The reign of Antichrist and the coming of the judgment-day is the ever-recurring cry of the Raskolniks generally, but especially of the Bezpopovtsi. Like all religious fanatics, they differ widely among themselves as to the explication and as to the application of their belief in these events. Many of them hold that this period of tribulation may endure for centuries; that it is a third
- ↑ Kavyline, quoted by N. Popof, v. Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 1er, 1874; article by A. Leroy-Beaulieu.
