s! Woe to us!" cried the monks of Solovetsk when they received
the new Liturgies. "What have you done with the Son of God? Give him
back to us! You have changed Isus [the old Russian form of Jesus] into
Iisus! It is fearful not only to commit such a sin, but even to think
of it!" And the sturdy monks shut their gates, and defied Patriarch,
Council, and Tsar for seven long years, till the monastery was taken by
an armed force.

The decree of excommunication pronounced by the Ecclesiastical Council
placed the Nonconformists beyond the pale of the Church, and the civil
power undertook the task of persecuting them. Persecution had of course
merely the effect of confirming the victims in their belief that the
Church and the Tsar had become heretical. Thousands fled across the
frontier and settled in the neighbouring countries--Poland, Russia,
Sweden, Austria, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Siberia. Others concealed
themselves in the northern forests and the densely wooded region near
the Polish frontier, where they lived by agriculture or fishing, and
prayed, crossed themselves and buried their dead according to the
customs of their forefathers. The northern forests were their favourite
place of refuge. Hither flocked many of those who wished to keep
themselves pure and undefiled. Here the more learned men among the
Nonconformists--well acquainted with Holy Writ, with fragmentary
translations from the Greek Fathers, and with the more important
decisions of the early Ecumenical Councils--wrote polemical and edifying
works for the confounding of heretics and the confirming of true
believers. Hence were sent out in all directions zealous missionaries,
in the guise of traders, peddlers, and labourers, to sow what they
called the living seed, and what the official Church termed "Satan's
tares." When the Government agents discovered these retreats, the
inmates generally fled from the "ravenous wolves"; but on more than one
occasion a large number of fanatical men and women, shutting themselves
up, set fire to their houses, and voluntarily perished in the flames.
In Paleostrofski Monastery, for instance, in the year 1687, no less
than 2,700 fanatics gained the crown of martyrdom in this way; and many
similar instances are on record.* As in all periods of religious panic,
the Apocalypse was carefully studied, and the Millennial ideas rapidly
spread. The signs of the time were plain: Satan was being let loose
for a little season. Men anxi