A report was brought to Basil, the Metropolitan of Moscow, in the
year 1340, by merchants of Novgorod, who asserted that they had
beheld a glimpse of Paradise from the shores of the White Sea.
Whether their vision were merely the dazzling reflection of some
sunlit iceberg, or only the glow of poetic imagination, it so fired
the ardour of the mediaeval prelate that he longed to set sail for
this golden gleam. Be the old legend true or false, it is certain that
to this day the northern Mujik shows an even more marked religious
enthusiasm than his brother of the central governments. Fanaticism,
mysticism, and fatalism go ever hand in hand in Northern Russia.
The Empire of the Tsars being so vast in area and so embracive of
races affords space for all forms of belief, or want of belief,
within her boundaries. All creeds are represented, from the pagan
Samoyede of the _tundras_ to the Mohammedan Tartar of the Steppes.
Our concern is with but one of these--the Old Believers. But to
understand their doctrine, we must glance at the clergy of the
State Church from which they dissent.

[Illustration: A RELIGIOUS PROCESSION, LOKA.]

The clergy of the Orthodox Russian Church are divided into Black
or monks of St. Basil, and the White or parish priests. The latter
must be married before they are ordained, and may not marry again
(which has led to the saying, "A priest takes good care of his
wife, for he cannot get another"), while the monasteries, of course,
require celibacy. From the latter the bishops are elected, so that
they--in contradistinction to the priests--must be single. This
system is much condemned by the lower clergy, who ask pertinently,
"How can the bishop know the hardships of our lives? for he is
single and well paid, we poor and married." The rule, observed
elsewhere, holds good in Russia, the poorer the priest, the larger
the family. Few village priests receive any regular stipend, but
are allowed a plot of land in the commune wherein they minister.
This allowance is generally from thirty to forty dessiatines (eighty
to one hundred and eight acres), and can only be converted into
money, or food products, by the labour of the parson and his family
upon it--very literally must they put their hand to the plough.
Priests are paid for special services, such as christenings or
weddings, at no fixed tariff, but at a sliding rate, according
to the means of the payer, the price being arrived at by means of
prolonged b