f Jesus, the inscription to be placed over the crucifix, the
single or double repetition of the Hallelujah, the number of eucharistic
wafers to be consecrated,--such are the leading points in the
controversy which ever since has rent the Russian Church. The orthodox
make the sign of the cross with three fingers, while the dissenters
follow the Armenian practice of only two. The former permit the cross
with four arms, like our own: the latter cannot away with any but that
with eight arms, with a crosspiece for the Saviour's head and another
for his feet. Since the reform the Church chants the Hallelujah thrice,
the Raskolniks only twice. The dissenters defend their persistence by
symbolical interpretations, and delight to make a profession of faith
out of the simplest rite. For instance, they insist that after their
fashion of making the sign of the cross the three closed fingers render
homage to the Trinity, while the two others testify to the double nature
of Christ, so that, without uttering a word, the sign of the cross is an
act of adherence to the three fundamental dogmas of Christianity--the
Trinity, the incarnation and the atonement. In like manner they
interpret the double Hallelujah following the three Glorias, and cast it
in the teeth of their opponents that they ignore in their ritual one or
another of the great Christian doctrines. Such interpretations, based on
corrupted texts or feigned visions, show the grotesque blending of
coarseness and subtlety which makes up the Raskol.

If we may judge from the origin of the schism, its essence lies in the
worship of the letter, the servile respect for forms. To the
anti-reforming Russian, ceremonies form the whole of Christianity, and
liturgy is one with orthodoxy. The same confusion between faith and the
outward forms of worship is revealed by the chosen name in which the
dissenters delight. Not content with the title of _Starovbriadtsy_
(old ritualists), they adopt that of _Starovery_ (maintainers of
the old faith), which amounts to styling themselves _true_
believers, the genuine orthodox, since in religious matters, unlike
those of human science, authority is on the side of antiquity, and even
innovations must come forward invoking the past. Here, as often happens,
there is little ground for the Starovery's boast, for if they preserve
the ancient Russian books, their opponents have gone back to the old
Byzantine liturgy; and the party which most loudly vaunts it