nately and universally hostile to the Israelitish race. Its distinguishing characteristic is their substitution of Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, for Sunday, and its adherents are accordingly designated as "Soubbotniki," or "Sabbatarians."
They do not pretend to know from whence they derive their belief, to which they are ardently attached, and, when questioned by the authorities, attempt no explanation, but, like the Raskolniks of old, take refuge in passive and obstinate resistance. "It is the creed of our fathers; leave us that, and we will submit to all else," is their reply.
Jews and Jewish sects have existed in Russia from time immemorial, and these Sabbatarians may be the successors of the Judaizing heretics of the fifteenth century, whose doctrines, at that period, penetrated among the upper clergy of Novgorod, and, for a moment, threatened the stability of the Orthodox Church; or possibly they may be descendants of Jewish families, converted long ago by force, or from selfish motives of interest, and who preserve among themselves the traditions of their ancestors. They are found chiefly in the southwest, near the Polish provinces, where Jews are numerous and Jewish influence is strong.
The denial of the Trinity, common to the reforming sects, has inclined some of them towards the Mosaic dispensation, and, in the study of the Bible, they have given preference to the Old Testament over the New. Notwithstanding the hatred and contempt felt by the common people for the Jews, this point of contact in their religious belief has inspired efforts for a reconciliation of the Jewish and the Christian creeds. Recently Nicholas Ilyne, a learned, eloquent, but visionary man, was confined in the Solovetsk monastery, on the White Sea, for
