The Russian Church and Russian Dissent/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X.
The Raskol Socially and Politically.—Praobrajenski and Rogojski.— Organization of Popovtsism and Bezpopovtsism.—Attempts at Reconciliation with the Church.—The Edinovertsi.— Modification of Raskol; its Extreme Sects.
The Raskol has, during its existence of more than two centuries, exerted a wide, varied, and deeply-felt influence upon the Russian nation, and has, in its turn, undergone great changes and modifications from the pressure of surrounding circumstances.
Having considered it in its spiritual and religious bearing upon the mental and moral condition of the people, and upon the progress of civilization in Russia, and having traced the results flowing from it in this direction, it is necessary, for a full comprehension of the influence it has had, and still exercises, to view it in its social and political aspect; this is not less important, and it presents for investigation phenomena of an equally complex and peculiar nature; it will also be interesting to examine the counter effect produced upon it in the gradual development of the nation during a long series of years, and its present position, as an essential element of the Russian social fabric.
Any attempt to estimate the power and the influence of the Raskol, by ascertaining the extent of its sway and the number of its adherents, can give but vague and indefinite results, from the want of sufficient data whereupon to base an opinion. Official reports profess to exhibit the statistics of all the sects within the empire; the Raskolniks are included, and, by the census of 1871, they number about eleven hundred thousand. This figure is, by all competent authority, rejected as much below the actual truth, and the estimates made by those most capable of judging vary from two to fifteen millions. The Raskolniks do not themselves pretend to know with any degree of accuracy, and only affirm that "they are very numerous."
The government lists embrace only those who have, generation after generation, refused to be enrolled upon the parish registers, and who openly profess to be schismatics. Besides these there are the many who either timidly shun the avowal of their affiliation or who belong secretly to prohibited sects, and they comprise a very numerous class. A Russian writer, about twelve years ago, basing his calculation upon a careful examination of the reports of the Holy Synod regarding the religious condition of the people, arrived at a total of from nine to ten millions. Competent specialists of recent date[1] reckon them at fifteen millions. These latter figures may be excessive, but an estimate of ten or eleven millions is probably not an exaggerated one to-day (1886), and it agrees substantially with such information as can be derived from the Raskolniks themselves. It is certain that their number is rapidly increasing. Figures, however, give but a partial and inadequate idea of the extent and influence of the movement. Apart from those who may be said to be enrolled in its ranks, whether as public professors or as secret adherents, there is a very much larger number who, without actively joining, are in sympathy, more or less earnest, with it. As a general rule, the peasant or laborer who remains true to the Orthodox Church does not look down upon the Raskolniks as heretics to be hated or despised. On the contrary, he feels, rather, respect for them as holy men, more pious and devout than himself, ready, like the early Christians, to brave obloquy and reproach for the ancient faith. Until recent ameliorations in the morals and condition of the official clergy removed from it the well-merited charge of greed, ignorance, and indolence, it compared unfavorably with the often disinterested, always active and energetic, propagators of Dissent; the Church suffered in popular estimation from the comparison, even among its own children, while the Raskol gained. This feeling of sympathy for it is general; it is evinced in constant willingness to befriend, or screen, its adherents; it is deep-rooted and persistent. By many, even of the more liberal members of the Orthodox communion, it is believed and feared that a very large portion of the nation would lapse into Dissent if all restraint were removed, and grave apprehensions of the consequences to the Church of any radical measures of relief are a serious obstacle to the recognition of perfect freedom of conscience.
The strength of the schism is not to be measured by the number of its adherents or by the extent of popular sympathy with it; there is an additional element to be considered, which is the character of that portion of the nation in which it arose, and where it still exists in its fullest development.
Ridiculed and despised by the educated and the noble, it flourished especially among the people, and was recruited almost wholly among the laboring classes, peasants and mechanics, shop-keepers and petty merchants. In its origin a religious movement, it became a social and political one when the violent reforms of Peter the Great divided the nation, and created two hostile camps, with no feeling of reciprocal obligations or any common bond of union. Partisans of the ancient faith were upholders of ancient customs, and rallied to their side the opponents of social innovations and of civil changes, Religious enthusiasts sympathized with Old Muscovites, and the national party with Old Believers. This union was, however, a union among the lower classes; the noble, the wealthy, the ambitious, with few exceptions, followed the emperor's lead, and looked, with all the haughty superciliousness of that age, upon the people and upon popular opinion. The contempt of the great world was an effectual protection to the Raskol, and exercised its adherents in habits of meekness and patience. When, as it frequently happened, attention was drawn to them, and persecution followed, their common sufferings cemented their union and strengthened their endurance; but their lowly estate was their best safeguard in the early days; the movement prospered in obscurity, and attained formidable proportions before it was deemed of consequence or inspired apprehension. Although, at times, assailed at the instance of the Church, or, ignorantly serving as a tool in the hands of ambitious and nnsuccessful schemers, it shared their fate and punishment, the crisis past, it fell back again into the shadow of its insignificance, and, with occasional vicissitudes, was, for a century and a half, alike ignored and neglected. Burrowing in the lower strata of social life, protected by its seclusion, it steadily increased and ramified. Strong devotional feeling and earnest convictions developed the moral sense among its adherents to a high degree. Every member of a community, the character of which may be affected by the behavior of the persons who compose it, is interested to watch carefully over his own demeanor and over that of his brethren, and the mutual support which results therefrom contributed, in the case of the Raskolniks, to raise the standard of morality among them. Their religious belief and practices encouraged sobriety and frugality; habit of free inquiry, and attempt at independence of thought upon spiritual matters, were followed by general increase of intelligence, and, under these influences, the Raskolniks, gradually and justly, won the reputation of being the most honest, the most capable, and the most reliable portion of the population. They were also banded together by a species of free-masonry, a common feeling of necessary co-operation and resistance to their powerful adversaries, while constant fear of persecution kept their zeal alive. To the vigor imparted by these causes, of a moral nature, are to be added the energy and independence resulting from the accumulation of wealth. Besides the special influence of the teachings of their creed, which preserved them from the besetting sins of the Russian people, self-indulgence and intemperance, they felt the impulse of other agencies, more general and more practical in their character.
Sects and races oppressed by persecution, excluded from all part or interest in public or national affairs, find vent for their activity, and for the exercise of their intelligence, in industrial, financial, or commercial enterprises. This has been the case with the Jews throughout the world, with the Armenians in the East and the Parsees in India; and the pursuit of wealth or of material prosperity, as the principal object in life for generations, has usually developed an hereditary and peculiar aptitude for its acquisition. This result is also true of the Raskolniks, although, doubtless, from the circumstances of their situation, to a less extent and degree. At the same time, instinctively, and in view of the universal corruption of the administration, they realized that wealth was for them a tower of strength against their oppressors. At Moscow, many of the finest houses and the largest factories belong to Old Believers; at Perm, and in the mining districts of the Ural, they are the most substantial capitalists. Their success has been sufficiently marked to excite the envy of their competitors, and to arouse clamorous complaints of a threatened monopoly by them of industrial and financial undertakings. Their system of mutual assistance and support is another secret of their prosperity, and many, indifferent to their principles, have joined their ranks to profit by their tacitly recognized co-operative organization.
Among them, as in every community, there are intriguing and ambitious men, ready to make use of the enthusiasm of their more simple brethren, and to advance their own ends at the expense of their neighbors; but the Raskolniks cannot, as a body, be accused of being actuated entirely by selfish motives; they are liberal and charitable, and many of them dispense their wealth freely and generously in the endowment of schools and benevolent institutions; some, even, in the encouragement of art and literature, although, in this respect, their munificence is generally, and in conformity with their prejudices, confined to what is national and Russian.
With increasing riches, and the accompanying tendency to luxury of living, there has been considerable relaxation in the severity of their habits and practices, more inclination to mingle with the outer world and share in its duties and pleasures. Deficient education has limited the influence of this temptation, but, in the nature of things, it is destined to continue and to extend with the progress of enlightenment and of modern civilization, and will introduce greater changes and modifications in the character and principles of the Raskol.
The healthy development which might have been expected from its habit of free inquiry, and from the freedom accorded to individual opinion, has been effectually hampered, not only by actual want of education, but also by the cramping and restricted nature of the few studies permitted.
The Raskolniks were, and are, strongly opposed to all modern, and especially to all foreign, ideas; their ears are closed to what they deem new-fangled notions, whether of domestic or foreign origin, as being tainted with impiety and heresy; they rest content with their ancient Slavonic literature, with the Scriptures, with old devotional books; they deliberately shut themselves up in a world of their own, fenced about by inveterate prejudices; they turn round and round within a narrow circle, the bounds of which their thoughts, however unrestrained therein, may never pass. Here lies the essential difference between Russian Raskol and German Protestantism: the one is sectional, narrow-minded, bigoted, jealous, and pharasaical; the other is universal, whole-souled, liberal, generous, and tolerant.
A geographical and ethnological chart of the Raskol would show it to be very unevenly distributed over the land. It flourishes best among the most energetic and vigorous of the population, in and around the ancient cities, among the peasants of the North, the miners of the Ural, the pioneers of Siberia, and the Cossacks of the Southeast. It is indigenous to Great Russia, and while its adherents are found in other provinces throughout the whole empire, amid Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant communities, they are generally colonists from Great Russia, who live apart from their neighbors, and, making few proselytes, are recruited from their original homes.
It is a natural and distinctive product of the old Muscovite race, which, although obstinate, full of prejudices, and not inclined to change, is realistic and superstitious, better satisfied with the form and outward symbol than curious to investigate the essence, or foundation, of its belief, and, above all, is intensely national.
Outward surroundings have had great influence, and the predominance of Old Believers in the most distant and less populous districts is not accidental, but is a natural result of the condition of the people who are thus isolated; they have little intercourse with one another, and still less with the outer world; they remain more primitive in their habits, and cling more persistently and more reverently to ancient customs.
The distribution of the two great branches of the Raskol is in harmony with historic precedent. The lay element of religious communities is ever apt to assert itself more boldly in the cold and rude regions of the North than in milder and more genial climes, and accordingly the Popovtsi, who retain a priesthood, are found chiefly towards the South, among the Cossacks of the Don, along the banks of the lower Volga, and of the river Ural; while the Bezpopovtsi, who reject priests and all Church government, occupy the shores of the White Sea, the neighborhood of the great lakes, the slopes of the Ural Mountains, and the solitudes of Siberia; the convent of Vygoretsk, in the wild and desolate region through which flows the river Vyg, was their most important centre. These northern governments are of prodigious extent: Archangel equals France and Italy together; Vologda and Perm are each as large as England. But few churches, and these distant many days' journey one from the other, are scattered over these vast territories; the number of priests is small, as it is fixed according to the population, which is scanty. The inhabitants do not congregate in villages of any size, but are sparsely distributed over the whole region; roads, where any exist, are bad, often impassable, and the climate is inclement and stormy. Attendance at church is, perforce, limited to rare occasions, and pastoral visits are almost unknown. From want of intercourse with their parishioners the clergy lost authority and influence over them; the peasant, isolated in his isba,[2] learned to suffice for his own needs, and became independent of priestly aid, even on the most solemn occasions, left to himself, he looked to the Scriptures for his guide, and interpreted them according to his feeble and limited light; he had not the resources of the Protestant Puritan in education, nor in the accumulated wisdom of the Christian fathers and ancient philosophers. Were he capable of, and did he care for investigation, he could, at best, rely only on the bewildering scholastic treatises of Byzantine theologians; a little learning is dangerous, and his mind was starved with indigestible food, filled with crude or false ideas, erroneously comprehended, and his imagination was fired by mystical sophisms.
Some Russian writers have attributed the preponderance of the Bezpopovtsi, in the north of Russia, to the influence of the neighboring Protestant nations of the north of Europe, but this hypothesis is unnecessary for the explanation of the fact, and it is not in accordance with the peculiarly indigenous, national character of the movement, whether it be considered at its inception or in its most radical development.
Geographically speaking, the ancient metropolis, Moscow, is the religious centre of the Raskol, from whence its missions, or colonies, went forth, either voluntarily or driven out by persecution.
The Old Believers could cross no ocean, like the English Puritans, to bar pursuit, but they could find refuge against oppression in the vast solitudes of their native land, or over the borders among the neighboring people. As exiles, or as emigrants, they carried their doctrines and their nationality beyond the great lakes, over the Ural Mountains, and into the Caucasus; they sought safety and peace among the Protestants of the Baltic provinces, the Catholics of Poland, and the Mussulmans of the East. Vetka, a village of ancient Poland, in the province of Mogilev, became, at an early day, the headquarters of the Popovtsi; there, rapid increase in their numbers and in their wealth, activity in the propagation of their doctrines, aroused the suspicions and the jealousy of the Russian government. Twice, in 1735, under Anna Ivanovna, and in 1764, under Catherine II., Russian troops violated Polish territory to attack and suppress them. On the first occasion Vetka was destroyed, and its 40,000 inhabitants, forced back into Russia, were distributed through the southern provinces. They obtained permission to settle among their co-religionists of Russian Ukraine, near Staradoub,[3] and gathered there, within a few years, over fifty thousand adherents around the new sanctuary. Vetka also soon regained nearly its former importance, and was, a second time, destroyed by Catherine II.
Many colonies of Raskolniks were established just beyond what were then the boundaries of the empire; some were induced to return to their native land by the liberal promises of Catherine II.; others have again come under Russian sway by the conquest of the countries in which they were settled. A number still remain on foreign soil; one at Gumbinnen, in Prussia; several in Bukovina, an Austrian province; others in European Turkey and Asia Minor. They have always held aloof from the people about them, and retained strong traces of their Muscovite nationality and origin. The safety they thus secured, and their liberation from Russian control, have proved of signal advantage to the Raskol, and enabled it to arrive subsequently at a regular and independent organization, such as, if kept totally within the empire, it never could have realized.
A complete and comprehensive system of organization for the Raskol, as a whole, in a religious sense, was rendered impossible by insuperable difficulties.
The absence of any well-defined theological creed or standard, the free exercise allowed to individual opinion, have given rise to innumerable sects. Upwards of two hundred were reckoned in the eighteenth century; many have disappeared, and are disappearing; more have arisen, and are constantly arising, harmonizing, like the denominations of Protestantism, to a certain extent, but without having a similarly stable, definite, and universally accepted basis of belief, and expressing every conceivable variety of doctrine.
As a social or political institution, in which the religious element enters to a large degree, the consolidation of the Raskol, accomplished with very considerable, if not entire, success, was facilitated by the peculiar spirit of association, and by the aptitude for self-government which are characteristics of the Russian people.
The leaders, succeeding to the inflammatory enthusiasts who originated the movement—the Denissoffs and Koveline, with many others—have generally been men of action and practical sense, evincing great administrative ability. They have, by their energy and skilful management, given a material unity and solidity to the Raskol which it could never have attained if it had continued to be, as at the first, simply a religious manifestation.
For one of the two great branches of the Raskol, for Popovtsism, the difficulties in the way of a religious organization arose chiefly from circumstance, and not from principle, and they were consequently far less formidable than the obstacles encountered by the other branch, Bezpopovtsism. The former has recently arrived at a solution of the problem which proves apparently satisfactory, and is accepted by the great majority of its adherents, though not by all; before treating of this event, however, it will be interesting to review the vicissitudes through which it passed.
The recognition of the necessity of a priesthood for the existence of a Church maintained, among the Popovtsi, the ancient dogmas of Orthodoxy, and preserved the unity of the faith. Indulgence in freedom of interpretation was more circumscribed, and division into sects, by differences of individual opinion, was less frequent than among the Bezpopovtsi. Almost the only element of controversy was the conditions requisite for the admission of popes. As their clergy was recruited among refugees from the established Church, they were contemptuously styled "Beglopopovtsi,"[4] or "Community of runaway priests." These popes, before reception, were subjected to humiliating ordeals of abjuration, purification, and penitence; they were rebaptized; sometimes immersed in full canonicals, lest, by a prior removal of their insignia, their sacred attributes should be washed away.
Not much respect could be felt for men thrust forth from their own Church for misconduct, or tempted from it by cupidity. Generally they were well remunerated, but held in light esteem as mere hirelings, in accidental possession of certain exclusive powers. They were treated with increasing indifference in process of time, and deacons, or even unordained persons, were accepted and allowed to officiate; they were kept in strict dependence, and had but little influence over the congregations who paid their stipend, chose or rejected them at pleasure, and retained all power and authority in their own hands. This predominance of the lay element in the administration of Church affairs was a common feature of both branches of the Raskol.
From their early days the Raskolniks of both divisions favored the establishment of "skeets," or hermitages, convents, and similar institutions, in remote districts, or over the border in an adjacent country, to serve as places of refuge and religious centres. Dissensions, rivalries, differences of opinion, creating numerous sects, constantly arose, and no one establishment among them all rose to any pre-eminence, or was able to impose its authority as supreme over either the one or the other branch. A terrible public calamity afforded them both an opportunity, of which they cleverly availed, to remedy this grievous want of a central head.
The plague broke out at Moscow during the reign of Catherine II., and raged with unparalleled fury; all efforts of the government to stay its ravages or to afford adequate relief were insufficient. In this appalling crisis the empress made appeal to the charity and generosity of all her subjects for the general good. Great public misfortunes level minor distinctions and draw together communities suffering from a common evil; the people responded heartily to their sovereign's call, regardless of class or creed, and among the first to offer their services were the Feodocians.
This sect, named from its founder, Feodoceï, was an offshoot from the Pomortsi, or Dwellers by the seashore, a very numerous branch of the Bezpopovtsi, inhabiting the region between the great lakes and the White Sea. It seceded from the main body, whose centre was at Vygoretsk, on the river Vyg, early in the eighteenth century, on account of the extreme violence and ultra nature of the opinions of its adherents and their fanatical enthusiasm.
About 1737 it first appeared at Moscow, where it labored secretly, but most earnestly, to propagate its doctrines, which were eminently hostile to the government, and maintained the principle of resistance to the tsar as Antichrist. Its efforts were crowned with such measure of success as to render it one of the most influential of the many sects of the Bezpopovtsi.
Its leaders, shrewd and astute men, saw their opportunity in the public distress, and, masking an ulterior purpose under the guise of solicitude for the general welfare, begged permission to contribute to the measures of relief, and offered to create, at their own expense, hospitals for their sick, and to give burial to their dead. Other sects of the Bezpopovtsi joined with them, and the Popovtsi followed the example. Charitable impulses, always strong and easily aroused among the Russian people, were stimulated by the evident contingent advantages likely to accrue, and which the Raskolniks, from their greater spirit of initiative and intelligence, were quick to realize. Their request was granted in 1771, and immediately the Bezpopovtsi at Praobrajenski, and the Popovtsi at Rogojski, outlying and desert suburbs of Moscow, founded the establishments which became, each respectively for its own branch, the headquarters of the Raskol. They were under the direction of men animated by fervent religious enthusiasm, but possessed also of sound practical sense, knowledge of business, and great sagacity; they could, moreover, depend implicitly upon the obedience and devotion of their followers, and were amply supplied by them with the necessary funds.
At first they were content with what the emergencies of the times demanded, having, however, wise forethought for the future. Very extensive grounds were surrounded by high walls, within which cemeteries were set apart and hospitals erected, secluded from public curiosity. Acting with consummate prudence and circumspection, they sedulously seized upon every favorable opportunity to extend their privileges, insisting upon the charitable nature and purpose of their work, but always humble and avoiding attention, quietly profiting by the general disdain which they inspired, and skilfully availing themselves of their wealth to influence the venal and corrupt officials of the government.
Under Alexander I., Koveline, a leader of the Feodocians, a very adroit and able manager, succeeded in obtaining a very much larger measure of independence, with permission to create homes for the destitute and similar benevolent institutions. Concessions accorded to one branch were extended to the other, and, within comparatively few years, these modest establishments had grown to be great and powerful communities, had acquired official recognition under regular charters, secured the right of self-organization and government, with authority to manage their property and affairs free from clerical or official supervision; they had each a corporate seal, a treasury, their own laws and regulations, administered by a council or governing body almost totally without control.
Around these centres the Raskolniks gathered in great numbers, building houses, establishing shops and factories, until these once deserted suburbs were transformed into flourishing and populous districts. Thus within the ancient capital, the stronghold of Orthodoxy, despised and persecuted followers of a proscribed creed finally secured foothold, and found safe refuge under the ægis of government protection.
From these headquarters their influence radiated forth over the whole land; they created subsidiary branches, subject to the central authority, and gathered in abundant wealth from gifts and bequests; at the height of their prosperity they were said to have had in their treasuries the enormous sum of ten millions of roubles (about £1,300,000).[5] Their leaders, combining to a remarkable degree worldly shrewdness with religious enthusiasm, made these establishments, not merely centres for the propagation of their doctrines, but also centres of trade, of manufactures, and of commerce. They offered, not only a home for their destitute and suffering brethren, but a refuge for all fugitives, outlaws, deserters, and wanderers, who, under pretence of religious sympathy, claimed protection and succor, and in this motley army of followers they found cheap and willing tools, ignorant but zealous emissaries. During the tolerant reigns of Catherine II. and Alexander I. these institutions had grown to such proportions as to excite popular jealousy and government suspicions; their leaders were accused of illicit and underhand machinations, of secret plotting, dangerous to public welfare and to the authority of the State; they became involved in lawsuits and disputes regarding property alleged to have been obtained under false pretences, or by bequests under pressure of improper influences. An inquiry was ordered by Nicholas, which resulted in the confiscation of their riches, the sequestration of their buildings and estates, and, gravest calamity of all, in the loss of their independence. The hospitals and cemeteries were left to their charge, but an imperial commissioner was added to their board of administration. Their religious services were prohibited, and their churches were closed or handed over to priests appointed by the Holy Synod.
By this last measure the Popovtsi suffered equally with their radical brethren of the other branch, inasmuch as their clergy, although of Orthodox ordination, were, as renegades from the established Church, forbidden to officiate.
Rogojski, the headquarters of Popovtsism, had provided means for its social organization, but it never had possessed any sacred authority, and had not, nor could it have, satisfied the eager aspirations of its disciples for an ecclesiastical government of divine origin.
For many long and weary years they had endeavored to find an escape from their only, but humiliating, method of recruiting the priesthood, and to establish a hierarchy of their own of regular apostolic descent. Some among them had advocated as efficacious the imposition of hands by a deceased prelate, present at least in the flesh, but the ceremony was incomplete; a corpse could not, and no one present could for it, pronounce the sacramental words. Every effort, for well-nigh two hundred years, had proved futile, but a solution of this grave problem was reached at last during the troubled revolutionary period towards the middle of the present century, and it came from a quarter as strange as it was unexpected.
These old Muscovites, the most conservative and reactionary of the population, "Russians, sons of Russians," were, by a singular contradiction, indebted for it to men with whom they had nothing in common, who were bitterly opposed to what they held in deepest reverence. Their new auxiliaries were, primarily, political exiles from Russia, who were in open revolt against their sovereign. They were aided by the emissaries of radicalism and revolution throughout Europe, who saw in the Russian emperor the chief opponent of their schemes.
The Raskol seemed to offer a fertile field for their operations; its multitudinous ramifications and hidden affliations all over the land afforded every opportunity for secret plotting and intrigue. Its millions of adepts, although intelligent and prosperous, were ignorant and credulous, enthusiastic and easily excited; they were, for the most part, from precept and education, at heart hostile to the government, and would, if their sympathies could be aroused, prove a terrible foe to the authoritative and autocratic principle personified by the tsar. Actuated by these ideas, the revolutionary leaders endeavored to unite the liberal progressive party of young Russia with the old Muscovite conservatives, but these antagonistic elements could not harmonize; they were too widely at variance; the modern scepticism, or atheism, of the radicals shocked the profoundly religious sentiments of the Old Believers; while, from a political point of view, they could never agree, and the attempt failed. The effort was, however, suggestive, and shortly afterwards, partisans of Polish nationality seized upon the idea which prompted it as a means of arousing powerful opposition to the oppressor of their country's liberties. With wider views and a better comprehension of the situation, they not only saw a possible nucleus of resistance among the Old Believers, but they also devised a way of rendering it available for their purposes. They conceived the bold plan of creating, for these schismatics, a religious centre beyond the boundaries of the empire; of consolidating the various elements of opposition existing in the numerous discontented and disaffected sects scattered throughout the land, by providing for them a supreme pontiff whom they would all recognize and obey. They expected, by thus satisfying their ardent and long-deferred aspirations for a spiritual head, to insure their sympathy and connivance. In order to render their cooperation effectual, and to make it subservient to the aims of the Polish party, it was essential that this pontiff should have his seat where he would be safe from all attempts of the imperial government; and that, while apparently free to exercise independent action, he should be under the influence and control of the insurrectionary leaders.
They commenced operations among a colony of Cossack Old Believers, situated in the Dobrutscha, near the Russian frontier, who had emigrated in the eighteenth century, and who still maintained close and frequent relations with their co-religionists within the empire. By exciting hopes of a re-establishment of their ancient faith, by vague and illusory promises of Cossack independence, as naturally following the restoration of Polish nationality, their confidence was gained, and, through them, the expectations of their brethren in Russia were aroused.
After many long and fruitless researches a personage, endowed with the necessary qualifications and willing to accept the position, was discovered among the Eastern prelates. Ambrosius, formerly Primate of Bosnia, recently deposed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, consented to adopt the creed of the Old Believers, and to become their head. In 1846 he was formally installed as metropolitan, and established his official residence in an important convent of their community at Belo-Krinitsa (Fontana-alba), in Bukovina, a province of Gallicia. The situation, at a point where the three great Slavonic empires meet, was well chosen. It lies within Austrian territory, and Austria was not sorry to have within its grasp this thorn in the Russian side, wherewith to counteract or retaliate for Russian intrigues among her Slavonic population. After many vicissitudes, depending on the shifting political relations of the two empires, Ambrosius finally secured tranquil possession of his ecclesiastical throne. His authority was speedily acknowledged by the Old Believers in Austria and Turkey; in Russia there was more hesitation, but, notwithstanding the repugnance of some of the more conservative to accept a foreigner, or, as they styled him, "a priest from beyond the sea," as their spiritual chief, he was formally so recognized by the leaders of the Raskol at Rogojski, and by the great body of their followers.
His first step was the creation of a regular episcopate. He divided the empire into dioceses, and appointed bishops subject to his authority, as in England the pope of Rome established a Catholic hierarchy, independent of the English government.
These schismatic prelates and their priests, known to the initiated only, are active and zealous emissaries; they officiate in secret and in disguise, wander freely over the land, protected by the devotion of their adherents, or, if detected, easily purchasing immunity from venal officials with the abundant resources at their command.
Danger to Russia was apprehended from the existence, beyond the control of its government, of an irresponsible power, wielding such extensive authority over a large portion of the population, and it formed the subject of frequent remonstrance and of much diplomatic correspondence with Austria. It was a constant annoyance to the Emperor Nicholas, whose haughty spirit could ill brook the slight to his authority. He was angered that his determination to stamp out Dissent should be thwarted by this insignificant chief of a despised sect, whose adherents were an ignorant mob of peasants and serfs. Opposition on their part to his attempts to Russianize Poland was feared by him, and expected by the Poles, but both were disappointed; the loyalty of the Old Believers to the tsar proved stronger than their gratitude to the Polish patriots, and, as apprehensions from this source disappeared, the existence of a schismatic pontiff was disregarded. Ambrosius, alternately suppressed, ignored, and tolerated by Austria, as circumstances dictated, died in possession of his ecclesiastical dignity. Cyril, a Russian, succeeded, and, during the Crimean war, disaffection, possibly overt resistance to imperial authority, was feared, but again patriotism and national sentiment rose superior to ceremonial differences, and the Old Believers recognized in the Turks the traditional enemy of Orthodoxy and holy Russia.
The accession of Alexander II. aroused hopes of a brighter future. The elders of Rogojski induced their metropolitan to visit his flock; he came to Russia in 1863, disguised and secretly, but probably with the connivance of the government.
A council, under his direction, established regulations for the Popovtsi, and this branch of the Raskol, thus provided with a regular hierarchy and a complete organization, seemed definitively constituted as an independent and united Church. Dissensions, however, soon arose; the new clergy, less docile than their renegade predecessors, resented the domination of the lay element in the community, and arrogated to themselves an authority which the congregations were reluctant to acknowledge. The council, from prudential motives, maintained Belo-Krinitsa as the seat of the pontiff, but appointed a vicar to reside in Russia as his representative; the metropolitan, suspicious, and apprehensive of diminution of his dignity, refused to delegate his powers to a vicegerent. By this conflict of authority Popovtsism was, ere its organization had attained full maturity, threatened with internal divisions.
In the midst of these dissensions the Polish insurrection of 1863 broke out, and the Old Believers again fell under suspicion, and were threatened with the harsh treatment which doubtful allegiance would merit. They indignantly repudiated the charges of treachery and treason, and eagerly offered pledges of their loyalty "to God and the Tsar." They sent Cyril back to his foreign home, and the council proposed to cease, for a time, all relations with him. Their leaders at Rogojski addressed the emperor with assurances of their fidelity, and issued an encyclical letter to all members of the "Holy Catholic Apostolic Church of the Old Believers," with an exposition of their doctrines calculated to conciliate the authorities of the established Church and of the State, declaring that "the Old Believers who recognize the necessity of a priesthood agree in all questions of dogma with the Greco-Russian Church; they worship the same God, believe in the same Jesus Christ, and are truly more in accord with the national Church than are all sects who reject the priesthood." They anathematized revolutionists as "enemies of religion and of country," as "children of the impious Voltaire;" and affirmed that the official Church and that of the Old Believers, being in harmony on all fundamental points, may exist, side by side, in mutual toleration and Christian brotherhood.
These declarations at this critical period were gladly welcomed by the emperor and the Holy Synod, and aroused hopes of eventual agreement and reunion.
Language of this tenor, held by the descendants of the stem enthusiasts who, two centuries previously, had held both Church and State to be accursed, indicates the great change that had taken place among the members of this branch of the Raskol.
There were still among them some who fanatically adhered to their ancient prejudices, and, on the subject of the circular published by their leaders, the Popovtsi were divided; by far the greater number, and the more intelligent, known as the "Okroujniki," or "Circularists," approved of it; the minority, comprising the more ignorant and obstinate, called the "Razdorniki," or "those who quarrel," maintained the primitive doctrines of the schism, and renewed the controversy upon the spelling of the name Jesus, stoutly averring that the "Christ Iissous " of the State Church could not be the same divine person as the "Christ Issous" of the Old Believers, and must be Antichrist.
A second council, convened at Belo-Krinitsa, served only to further embitter the discussion, to weaken the authority of their primate, and to detach from their body many of its influential partisans.
Under these circumstances, with an evident desire on either side for reconciliation, a speedy end to Popovtsism, by its absorption into the Mother Church, might seem probable, but many obstacles still intervene, and chief among them is the difficulty of satisfying their rival pretensions.
Old Believers insist upon the ancient rites; they further demand that, having been condemned by a council, they shall, with equal solemnity, be absolved by a council, and acknowledged to have ever been steadfast in the Orthodox faith; the Holy Synod might yield, as regards ceremonies and verbal differences, but, as to the graver question of doctrine, it exacts submission, recognition of error in the past, and repentance, before it can allow the Church to receive them back into full communion.
A similar desire on the part of the State and of the Synod to end and heal the schism in the Church was evinced during the tolerant reign of Catherine II., towards the close of the eighteenth century. In order to restore unity and bring Dissenters back to their allegiance, they were ready with every concession possible. The ritual in use before the days of Nikon was acknowledged to be canonical, and priests were specially ordained to officiate in accordance with it. Some of the Old Believers, less imbued with prejudice, or more tolemat in matters of conscience, yielded to the earnest appeals and exhortations of the clergy, supported by the influence and authority of the government, and were enrolled alongside, as it were, of the Orthodox in regular standing, as belonging to a branch of the established Church, under the appellation of "Edinovertsi," or "Uniate Believers."[6]
Had a similar step been taken when Alexis was on the throne it might have stifled the Raskol at its birth; nearly all that had been demanded originally was accorded, but it could no longer suffice. A century and more had passed—long years of struggling, persecution, and suffering; Dissent had crystallized and hardened into schism, with habits of independence and of free inquiry; it had become impatient of control, with an individuality of its own, social and political, as well as religious, and a deeper principle than one of mere ceremony was at stake. The sincerity of those in power was doubted; Old Ritualists, now Old Believers and schismatics, feared the Church and the gifts it proffered.
Catherine's plan was in many respects akin to that of the pope when he created the Greek Uniate Church as a middle ground between the creeds of Moscow and Rome, with the Jesuitical hope, in either case, that, having traversed half the distance separating Catholicism, or the Raskol, from Orthodoxy, the semi-convert might be easily induced to complete the journey.
The restrictions imposed upon the Edinovertsi were the most obvious hinderances to the prosperity of the sect. It could not be recruited from among the members of the established Church, of whom many were in secret sympathy with Dissent, but might have been satisfied with this intermediate creed, inasmuch as secession from the Orthodox communion was absolutely prohibited; it was not acceptable to the great body of those who openly professed to be Old Believers, on account of its halting, temporizing character, and of the incompleteness of its organization. The Greek Uniate Church, to which it has been compared above, had owed its success in a large degree not merely to a special liturgy and ritual, but also to the possession of a regular and independent hierarchy; to Edinovertsism no episcopate was allowed, and its priests were ordained by, and subordinate to, the bishops of the established Church; they consequently inspired neither confidence nor respect, but rather suspicion and dislike, as the paid functionaries of an alien, if not a hostile, authority, and the denomination itself occupied an inferior, uncertain, and humiliating position, being neither one thing nor the other.
The real and most serious obstacle to its success was the radical change wrought by time in the principle and spirit of this branch of the Raskol, and which also affords an explanation of its persistent vitality. It was no longer a mere sticking for ancient form and ceremony; it had become, what it now actually is, the expression of popular resistance to the enforced union of civil and religious government, to the absolute dependence of the Church upon the State.
Old Believers, accustomed by long habit to freedom from clerical authority, favor the separation of the spiritual from the temporal. While they demand the ancient rites and former ecclesiastical constitution, with a national patriarch as supreme head of the Church, they do so with a keen sense of the importance of restricting clerical power within due bounds, and of giving the lay portion of the community its just and proportionate share in the administration of the Church.
Their ideal would seem to be a national, popular, and democratic establishment, united and strong, but independent and free from government interference; its affairs under the charge of, and its clergy chosen by, all its members acting in concert.
With these aspirations, and from this point of view, Popovtsism, or the Raskol of the priestly branch, can no longer be deemed a petty, sectarian, or unreasonable movement; it becomes an object of universal interest, and is entitled to respectful consideration and earnest study from all who, without as well as within the empire, sympathize with the progress of liberal ideas.
It has been and is vastly more difficult, if it be not impossible, for the Bezpopovtsi than for the Popovtsi to arrive at any definite ecclesiastical organization. The fundamental principle of their doctrine, by destroying all faith in the sacerdotal character of the clergy and in the existence of a priesthood, or of a Church upon earth, seems to preclude all hope of any such result.
They are deprived of all spiritual bond of union among themselves, acknowledge no authority as guide, nor any restraint upon individual opinion. They claim for each the right of free interpretation of the Scriptures, and the exercise of this liberty, together with the habit of inquiry which it engenders, has led them to wander from the dogmas of Orthodox belief, or, if retaining them in theory, to accept such explanations of them as suit the wildest fancies and vagaries of the imagination.
Their sects have become innumerable, ever shifting and varying, undergoing constant change and transformation, with incessant divisions and subdivisions; new ones spring into existence as the old die out, affording evidence of the vitality and energy animating the movement. They recognize no ministers save their elders or "readers," who, chosen by themselves, are generally virtuous and worthy men, well, and sometimes deeply, versed in Scriptural knowledge; but frequently most extraordinary, even monstrous, caprice governs their selection. Vulgar, loudly self-asserting fanatics impose themselves upon a congregation, or, under the influence of sensual and erotic excitement, which, among ignorant communities where self-indulgence is unrestrained, often accompanies excessive religious exaltation, females of vile and profligate character are accepted as inspired prophetesses.
Their leaders have considerable influence over their followers, but exercise no priestly functions save baptism. Their form of worship is simple and elementary; the Bible is read and expounded, or, in the absence of a teacher, the congregation awaits in silence and obscurity for a manifestation of the spirit. To this Quakerlike simplicity and absence of ceremony the Bezpopovtsi join scrupulous regard for the devotional practices of the primitive Church; they strictly observe the fasts, and hold the holy images and relics in superstitious veneration; they retain the sign of the cross, repeating it in their prayers very many times, according to the ancient Russian method, and they perform assiduously the "pokloni," or saluations before the Icons.
Inasmuch as their service is stripped of most of the ceremonies of the Church, they attach the more importance to such as they have retained, investing them with peculiar significance. Certain sects ordain the performance of a hundred "pokloni," for the purification of food, two hundred at a funeral; they impose upon a neophyte two thousand a day for six weeks, with the addition of twenty full prostrations each week. They have a holy horror of tobacco, sugar, and coffee, and avoid certain dishes, the flesh of unclean animals, such as the hare and the pigeon. They seem thus to find compensation for the rejection of the spiritual rites of the Church in slavish and exaggerated compliance with the more gross and materialistic.
Although they have no priests, they have monks and nuns, who dwell in "skeets," or hermitages, under strict and rigorous rules, holding their property in common, and axe subject to the authority of a superior, charged with the administration of the interests of the community. Their first important establishment of this nature, and from which most of the others issued, was the convent of Vygoretsk, founded in 1694, near Lake Onega. From the earliest days of the Raskol the Bezpopovtsi have been very numerous in the region of the great lakes and along the shores of the White Sea. When, in the reign of Alexis, they were dislodged from their stronghold at Solovetsk, they spread throughout the country to the north and east under the general designation of "Pomortsi," or "Dwellers by the seashore;" at the end of the seventeenth century several of their detached colonies settled along the banks of the river Vyg, and within a few years they were united in one community by the efforts of two brothers named Denisoff, men of great administrative ability and earnestness, under whose wise government and direction they rapidly increased in numbers and wealth until their establishment at Vygoretsk became the most important centre of this branch of the Raskol. Divisions soon arose among them, as the inevitable result of the freedom they accord to personal opinion, and about 1732 a small number seceded from the main body under Feodoceï, formerly a deacon of the Church, and who died soon afterwards in prison. The immediate cause of the secession was a partial reconciliation of the majority with the State government during the reign of the empress Anna; they consented to acknowledge her imperial authority, and to make mention of her as tsarina in their prayers. This concession shocked the principles of the more fanatic, who withdrew, anathematized their weaker brethren, and maintained their opposition to the sovereign as Antichrist.
The stem enthusiasm of these Feodocians, so called after their leader, gave them pre-eminence among the Bezpopovtsi; about 1772 they founded the establishment of Praobrajenski at Moscow, which, under their skilful and energetic administration, became even more powerful than the neighboring institution of the Popovtsi at Rogojski. The more dangerous doctrines of these violent sectarians, and the greater prosperity attending their efforts, rendered them more liable to the jealous hostility of the public and to the suspicions of the government. Praobrajenski fell, as did Rogojski immediately afterwards; its funds were confiscated; its council was placed under official supervision; its religious edifices were purified and handed over to the clergy of the national Church; only the hospitals and cemeteries were left to the schismatics.
Reconciliation between the Bezpopovtsi on the one side, and the established Church and imperial government on the other, is still, as in the past, rendered more difficult than for the Popovtsi, by the double antagonism which exists, by apparently insurmountable obstacles of both a religious and political character.
Rejection of the priesthood and of the sacraments means utter condemnation of the whole Church, and leads to consequences totally at variance with Christianity, and subversive of all moral principle. Belief in the advent of Antichrist, and in his personal reign, inevitably results in hostility to existing institutions, in revolution, and in anarchy.
How to rightly comprehend the two-sided nature of their own doctrines, and to adjust them to the duties and exigencies of daily life, is the great problem which agitates and divides the numerous sects of the Bezpopovtsi, and the question for the government is not less grave or embarrassing. How can heretics and rebels, of whom some, like the Philippovtsi, have preferred self-immolation in flames to submission, or, like the Stranniki, have abjured all civil restraints rather than risk contamination with an accursed world, and who, all, have for centuries denounced the Church, and preached resistance to the emperor, reviling him as the impersonation of Satan, ever be rendered peaceful, law-abiding subjects, or be even tolerated in a civilized community?
Time, however, softens asperities, and diminishes moral distances and differences; common interests suggest compromises; necessity imposes restraints; the bitter passions, aroused by persecution, are soothed by the milder spirit of modern civilization; and the fierce logic of fanaticism yields to the persuasive influences of toleration and forbearance. There are but very few of the Bezpopovtsi of to-day who still cling to the strict letter of their creed, and regard their sovereign as the vicar of Satan, and the incarnation of evil. Some explain the reign of Antichrist in a spiritual sense, others wait for fuller manifestations of his presence, and all obey existing laws without troubling their consciences as to the source from which they emanate. The very men who profess to believe that the earth is under the dominion of the devil are, in point of fact, generally as orderly, sober, and discreet members of society as their neighbors, who acknowledge the ever-present power of the Lord, and an overruling divine Providence.
The government, desirous of reconciliation, satisfied with obedience to the laws and tacit recognition of its authority, became tolerant, and ceased to harass or vex peaceful subjects on abstract matters of belief; it required, however, as evidence of loyalty, and as acknowledgment of its supremacy, that schismatics should, like the Orthodox, make public mention of the sovereign in the prayers of their service. On this score it has been content with partial acquiescence. The supplication of the national Church for the emperor is long, minutely designating each member of the imperial family, with repeated invocations for the "very pious, very faithful" emperor, "Defender of Orthodoxy," "Head of the Church;" laying stress on his titles as spiritual chief as well as temporal lord. The recognition of his qualities, in this respect, has always been, and is, especially obnoxious to the Bezpopovtsi.
When Anna proposed to send a high commissioner to visit their colonies on the River Vyg, and bestow upon them marks of her imperial favor, they were desirous of evincing their sense of her gracious condescension, and agreed to comply with the custom of her other subjects, and introduce the name of the sovereign in their religious services. They could not, however, accept the established formula, or recognize the sacred appellations of "Orthodox" and "Head of the Church;" nor could they sanction the use of the foreign and impious designation of "Emperor;" but they consented to offer up prayers for their ruler under the national and venerated title of "Tsar." A minority of their number refused to make even this concession, and, headed by Feodoceï, seceded from the main body and maintained their opposition to imperial authority. Time has, however, for the great majority, triumphed over the severity of their principles, as well as over their prejudices; and the elders of Praobrajenski, the headquarters of the obstinate Feodocians, have, like the Old Believers of Rogojski, sent loyal addresses and presents to the emperor and his children.
The loyalty of these sectarians has been severely tried in more recent days, during the Nihilist movement, but it has never wavered. Nihilist writers acknowledge that "there is no way to influence them to active revolutionary protest against their oppressors."
There yet remains between the civil authority, or rather between society at large and the Bezpopovtsi, the question of marriage and of family ties. With the rejection of the sacerdotal class the sacrament of marriage was abrogated; this doctrine is common to all the sects, and its conception and application is the chief source of differences among them.
Is marriage absolutely prohibited, and celibacy obligatory upon all, or may not some remedy be devised? Every conceivable variety of opinion has found advocates. The most reasonable and moderate recognize a conjugal tie, which may be created by the blessing of parents, and sanctified by kissing the cross and the Bible in presence of the family and of each other. This form of oath is, for the Russian, the most solemn that can be administered. Others hold that the mutual assent of the bridegroom and bride constitutes a marriage which is valid, but only while this mutual assent exists. Love being in its essence divine, union of hearts can alone authorize union of lives; and this estate is holy so long only as it is consecrated by mutual affection. Ties, thus easily formed, are often durable, for the reason that they are so fragile. A simple mode of life, earnest moral and religious convictions, the force of habit, and the existence of interests in common, tend greatly to mitigate the evils attendant upon a union which mere caprice may dissolve; but, notwithstanding this, and in spite of the glamour of fine phrases and of eloquent disquisitions upon the elevating and purifying influences of free love, such a condition of things is in itself vicious and the cause of vice. Human nature is weak, and carnal passions are strong among simple peasants, as well as in more civilized communities, and give rise to similar abuses.
While Raskolniks are justly considered as the most honest, frugal, sober, and industrious of the Russian people, in all the ordinary avocations of life, they are, in all that relates to the intercourse of the sexes, held, with equal justice, to be the most immoral. But this is not the worst feature of the case; free love and free divorce are among the lesser evils which flow from their opinions; more deplorable still are the consequences arising from doctrines which have been inculcated by the more rigid of their sects, especially by the Feodocians of Praobrajenski, who have held that all connection of the sexes is unlawful, inasmuch as nothing can replace the lost sacrament. Their creed is concisely enunciated, "Zshenaty, raz zshenis; ne zshenaty, ne zshenis"—"Being married, get unmarried; not married, never marry." Or, as a popular catechism states it, "The youth should never take wife, the husband should never possess the wife; the maiden should never marry, the wife should never bear children." Those who infringed this commandment, and were convicted of having had children, were ignominiously expelled from the community, or were subjected to severe and humiliating penance. Adherence to such maxims was, in the nature of things, impossible, and those who sinned had strong inducement to conceal or suppress the evidence of their guilt. Infanticide was a frequent reproach, substantiated by the discovery of bodies of newly-born children in draining ponds, and by the bribery of officials to prevent similar measures when they were contemplated.[7] Occurrences of this nature were recorded often in provinces where the Bezpopovtsi were numerous. Although these accusations were strenuously denied, they were natural consequences of the ferocious doctrine that "when a child is conceived, its soul comes not from God the Creator, but from the Devil."
No community, of steadily increasing numbers, could, while professing such abominable principles, remain united. Many sects seceded from the main body to adopt more rational views of the married state, hardly advancing, however, beyond an authorized concubinage; the weaker brethren, called "Novozsheny," or the "Remarrying," were driven forth from the fold with contumely and insult; the rigid apostles of celibacy, condoners of libertinism, severed all intercourse with them, and would neither sit at the same table nor sleep under the same roof.
Under the modifying influences of time and civilization these demoralizing and horrible doctrines, relics of a barbarous age, are no longer openly espoused. At Praobrajenski, the ancient stronghold of radical Dissent, they are rejected, and that they have ever been advocated, is indignantly denied. While there is ample evidence of the contrary in the past, their repudiation at the present day is indicative of the moral regeneration in progress.
Unhappily the purification of the empire is not complete, and the strange, unnatural heresies of the old Feodocians still retain their hold upon a few extreme sects, who find recruits among the most abject of the population. The most numerous of these deluded fanatics are thie "Stranniki," or "Wanderers," also called the "Begouni," or "Fugitives," who assume, themselves, the name of "Pilgrims." Belief in the actual personal reign of Antichrist, and in the bodily presence of Satan upon earth, is the base and corner-stone of their doctrine.
This sect sprang into existence during a spasmodic revival of Bezpopovtsism, kindled by the vigorous repressive measures of the government at the time of Pougatchev's rebellion, towards the end of the eighteenth century. Its founder was a soldier named Efim, who deserted from the army and found refuge in a convent of the Feodocians, situated in the wilds of Olonetz. He turned monk, became involved in disputes with his superiors, and appealed to Praobrajenski for redress; his complaint was rejected, whereupon he announced himself as the apostle of a new creed, and went forth preaching the absolute renunciation of all social ties and obligations, taking for his text the words of the Saviour, "to leave father and mother, son and daughter, to take up the cross and follow me" (Matthew x., 36–38). Practical application of this allegorical precept soon degenerated into vagrancy, and worse. His followers, absolved from all restraint, social and moral, in open warfare with all constituted authority, shunning all manner of work as sinful, lived by mendicancy, and, when that failed, by theft; their ranks were swelled by vagabonds and ruffians, ready to embrace a faith so much in accordance with their ideas. Pillage, robbery, even murder, to secure means of subsistence, were sanctioned, or inculcated as religious duties. They made friends and proselytes among the ignorant and superstitious population, chiefly in Kostroma and Yaroslav, where they terrified the peasantry by their threats, or imposed upon them by claims of peculiar sanctity and self-abnegation. Their mode of procedure was calculated to impress the excitable imaginations of the country people dwelling in the solitary depths of the forest; they would mysteriously, at night, gather round a lonely hut and, unseen in the darkness, chant devotional hymns in a solemn, melancholy strain, and appeal to ancient Slavonic hospitality, invoking curses upon the household that should deny them charity. Often the simple-minded boor, carried away by his fears and crazed fancies, would abandon home, family, and all, to join these self-appointed saints.[8]
They gave a literal interpretation to the words of the Gospel, and renounced the world; they would have no abode, own no property, acknowledge no law, no allegiance, no obligation, and justified their rupture with society on the plea that Satan ruled supreme. They would carry no passports nor papers to establish their identity, and defaced the imperial arms as the seal of the "Beast;" they prohibited marriage, held all things in common, and called each other "brother and sister."
In this co-fraternity there are two degrees of affiliation—that of "pilgrims," or "fugitives," under vows of vagrancy and poverty, and that of "entertainers," or "hospitallers," "strannopreeïmtsi."[9] The latter are novices, who, secretly adhering to their tenets, continue to pursue their ordinary avocations, and whose duty is, pending complete initiation, to afford refuge and help to their brethren. The Pilgrims only are received into full communion by a baptismal rite, which imposes utter renunciation of the world and a mendicant life. This ceremony is performed at night, in desert places, and, in preference, with freshly-fallen rain, or the water of some distant pool, as the rivers and lakes are contaminated by the use of the unrighteous.
They have no churches, but worship in secret retreats, in the depths of the forest, around trees, on which they hang the holy images. The hospitallers, in consideration for human frailty, are allowed a time of probation, but before death they must enter into full communion by holy baptism. Each pilgrim bears his wooden platter and spoon; they will neither pray nor eat in the presence of the worldly, or of their own novices; they surround themselves with mystery, and recognize each other by secret signs; their adepts are trained to strict obedience, and may, or, if so bid, must, without question, minister to the wants of a pilgrim without seeing his face or hearing his voice. By their extensive ramifications, by the blind devotion of their adherents, and by the secrecy that shrouds their movements, they are assured of immunity from detection, and of freedom in the propagation of their doctrines.
The reign of Nicholas was the period of their greatest prosperity. This monarch, the impersonation of absolute power, implacable enemy of liberalism and progress, was hostile to spiritual as well as to civil freedom. He believed that heretics who differed from his opinions were guilty of criminal obstinacy, and merited the harsh severity he conceived it to be his duty to exercise; unity of faith he deemed essential for the State; he would have but one Church, one creed, and one will in his dominions; his subjects should not only obey the laws he proclaimed, they should worship as he directed; the celebrated maxim of Count Ouvarov that "Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and Nationality are the three principles upon which the social fabric of the empire rests,"[10] was the basis of his policy; he grudgingly accorded a measure of toleration to the mongrel Church of the "Edinovertsi," but pursued all dissenting sects with relentless and persistent severity.
The people were miserable and discontented, their condition pitiable, their desire for relief intense, and they listened with willing ears to advocates of resistance to their oppressors; they welcomed those who offered a hope of escape from the tyranny which made their lives a burden. These missionaries of revolt taught secretly in barracks and in prisons, as well as among the suffering and wretched peasantry. Runaway serfs, outlaws, escaped convicts, fugitives from Siberia, deserters fleeing from the terrible life-long military service, were received among them; they encouraged mendicancy as a meritorious profession, and to all vagabonds without papers, "brodiagi," as they were called, they offered a refuge from police pursuit.
This extreme sect, recruited among the dregs of the people, is the illustration and logical result of the Raskol pushed to its farthest limit; it is the final and most energetic expression of popular opposition to the exactions of an all-pervading despotism, to the worries of an insatiable, vexatious bureaucracy, to the dreaded military conscription, to hopeless servitude of body and soul. Its adherents could offer only passive resistance, but their exalted fanaticism welcomed punishment, and even death, in evidence of their determination and sincerity; like the martyrs of old, in a nobler cause, their blood and their sufferings were the seed of their faith.
Where rigor and severity have failed, reform, liberal measures, relief from cruel and crushing abuses, the abolition of serfdom and its attendant evils, with the consequent amelioration in the social and moral condition of the people, are gradually eradicating these extravagant and monstrous ideas by forcing their last refuge among the lowest and most degraded of the population.
The anomalous position of children born among Raskolniks, how to determine their civil rights and settle questions of property and inheritance, has long been a puzzling problem for the government. The only marriage that had hitherto been recognized by the Russian code was the religious ceremony, celebrated by the clergy of the established Church, which alone has had authority to keep the official registers of births and deaths.
The Bezpopovtsi disavowed marriage altogether, and the clergy of the Popovtsi had no legal standing, so that the ceremony performed by them was of no effect. In the eye of the law all children born among the Raskolniks of either branch were illegitimate, incapable of inheriting.
Custom, and the patriarchal habits of the people, aided by the connivance of a venal administration, afforded in practice a partial relief; but a complete and satisfactory solution of the difficulty seemed beyond reach. The only possible remedies appeared to be recognition of the various sects and giving the force of law to the ceremonies adopted by them, or the institution of a civil marriage.
The first method suggested seriously affected the Church and the interests of the official clergy, and was, moreover, insufficient, inasmuch as many sects recognized no religious ceremony nor any form of marriage; the second was totally at variance with the precepts of the Orthodox creed, and equally repugnant to the Raskolniks, who, on that point, agreed with the Church, and who also strongly objected to the registration which it required.
Finally, in 1874, an expedient was devised which promises to satisfy present emergencies, and conciliates conflicting opinions. Special registers for Raskolniks are placed in charge of the police and district authorities, and they are empowered, after publication of the bans for a week, to receive and enter therein the declaration of the bridal couple, and of the witnesses, to the effect that a marriage has taken place; they may thereupon, without inquiry as to the performance of any ceremony, grant a certificate which is valid in law as evidence of marriage, confers upon the contracting parties the same rights as a regular marriage before a priest, and subjects them, in like manner, to the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals in all matters appertaining to marriage and divorce.
This measure is as yet limited in its application to the million or more schismatics enrolled upon the official lists; its benefit for them is very great; it regularizes their social position and that of their children, relieves them from grievous humiliation, and elevates them, both in their own estimation and before the law, to an equality with their fellow-subjects. Restricted as it yet is, it may well rank high among the many wise reforms of the late reign, and affords palpable evidence of the spirit animating both State and Church in dealing with the momentous problems which the religious question presents.
For a full comprehension of the many and great difficulties encountered in the attempt to arrive at a full solution of this complicated and perplexing subject, it is necessary to pursue the inquiry further, to descend to the lower strata of Russian Dissent, and to extend investigation alongside of and below the Raskol, properly so called, with its many branches and ramifications. In these depths of popular superstition, underneath the Old Believers, who are in partial harmony with the Church, and the No Priests, who reject Church and clergy, there are numerous obscure and mysterious sects; some indigenous, evolved from the excitable, prolific imagination of the Russian people, without direct affiliation with the Raskol; others of foreign origin, either disseminating rationalistic and communistic theories, which have analogy with Western ideas, or presenting strange and fantastic doctrines, which, in their extravagance, rival and seem to revive the wildest vagaries of ancient Eastern fanaticism.
- ↑ Schédo-Ferroti, "La tolérance et le Schisme religieux en Russie," p. 158, cited by Leroy-Beaulieu, in an article of La Revue des Deux Mondes, Mai 1er, 1875.
- ↑ Isba is the hut, or cabin, of the Russian peasant.
- ↑ Staradoub means the old oak.
- ↑ From beglii, runaway, and pope, priest.
- ↑ See note, page 174.
- ↑ From edin, one, and vera, faith.
- ↑ "Le Raskol," p. 66; Haxthausen, vol. i., p. 263.
- ↑ "Le Raskol," p. 59.
- ↑ From stranno, a stranger, and preeïmets, welcoming, receiving.
- ↑ "Le Raskol," p. 86.