ng their departure from the
accursed world. With some fanatics, called "child-slayers"
(_dietoubuetsy_), it was held a duty to expedite the entrance to
heaven of newborn children, and thus to save them infernal anguish.
Others, called "stranglers" or "butchers" (_duchelstchiki,
tiukalstchiki_), think they render a valuable service to their
relatives and friends by anticipating a natural death, in hastening the
end of those who are seriously ill. Taking with a savage literalness the
text, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it
by force" (Matt. xi. 12), they hold that none can enter into the kingdom
of heaven but those who die a violent death. One of the most numerous
and powerful bodies in the first century of the Raskol, the
_Philipovtsy_, or "burners," like the Indian fakeers, preached
redemption by suicide, and salvation by the baptism of fire, holding
that the flames alone could purify men from the defilements of a world
which had fallen under the rule of Satan. In Siberia and the
neighborhood of the Ural these sectaries have been known to burn
themselves in hundreds on enormous piles built for the purpose, or by
families in their hovels, to the sound of hymns and chants. Such acts
have been known even during the present century.

One insanity begets another, and belief in the presence of Antichrist
leads to belief in the approaching restoration of the earth, the second
advent of Christ and the millennium, which has infected the more extreme
sects of the Bezpopovstchin, thus connecting it with Gnostic sects of
various origins. Russian literalism, like many early Christian heresies,
interprets the prophets and the Apocalypse in a purely material sense.
The mujik or artisan looks for the establishment of Christ's temporal
kingdom, and anticipates the dominion promised to the saints. Such a
belief opens the door to a trust in prophets, and to all the
extravagances and rascalities that come in its train. In vain does the
Russian statute-book condemn false prophets and lying miracles: from
time to time the country is overrun by _illuminati_ proclaiming the
Second Advent, and occasionally giving themselves out as the expected
Messiah. They are frequently accompanied by a woman, who plays the part
of mystical mother or spouse, and to whom they give the title of the
Mother of God or the Blessed Virgin. Sometimes it is only the simple
folk who are themselves hunting for the Redeemer; and not long s