nce on its internal development.

When formally anathematised and excluded from the dominant Church the
Nonconformists had neither a definite organisation nor a positive creed.
The only tie that bound them together was hostility to the "Nikonian
novelties," and all they desired was to preserve intact the beliefs and
customs of their forefathers. At first they never thought of creating
any permanent organisation. The more moderate believed that the Tsar
would soon re-establish Orthodoxy, and the more fanatical imagined that
the end of all things was at hand.* In either case they had only to
suffer for a little season, keeping themselves free from the taint of
heresy and from all contact with the kingdom of Antichrist.

* Some had coffins made, and lay down in them at night, in
the expectation that the Second Advent might take place
before the morning.

But years passed, and neither of these expectations was fulfilled. The
fanatics awaited in vain the sound of the last trump and the appearance
of Christ, coming with His angels to judge the world. The sun continued
to rise, and the seasons followed each other in their accustomed course,
but the end was not yet. Nor did the civil power return to the old
faith. Nikon fell a victim to Court intrigues and his own overweening
pride, and was formally deposed. Tsar Alexis in the fulness of time was
gathered unto his fathers. But there was no sign of a re-establishment
of the old Orthodoxy. Gradually the leading Raskolniki perceived that
they must make preparations, not for the Day of Judgment, but for
a terrestrial future--that they must create some permanent form of
ecclesiastical organisation. In this work they encountered at the very
outset not only practical, but also theoretical difficulties.

So long as they confined themselves simply to resisting the official
innovations, they seemed to be unanimous; but when they were forced to
abandon this negative policy and to determine theoretically their new
position, radical differences of opinion became apparent. All were
convinced that the official Russian Church had become heretical, and
that it had now Antichrist instead of Christ as its head; but it was not
easy to determine what should be done by those who refused to bow the
knee to the Son of Destruction. According to Protestant conceptions
there was a very simple solution of the difficulty: the Nonconformists
had simply to create a new Church for themselves