the Old Ritualists who had in times of
persecution fled to Prussia, Austria, and Turkey. There were, however,
immense difficulties in the way. In the first place it was necessary
to obtain the formal permission of some foreign Government; and in the
second place an Orthodox bishop must be found, willing to consecrate an
Old Ritualist or to become an Old Ritualist himself. Again and again
the attempt was made, and failed; but at last, after years of effort and
intrigue, the design was realised. In 1844 the Austrian Government gave
permission to found a bishopric at Belaya Krinitsa, in Galicia, a
few miles from the Russian frontier; and two years later the deposed
Metropolitan of Bosnia consented, after much hesitation, to pass over to
the Old Ritualist confession and accept the diocese.* From that time the
Old Ritualists have had their own bishops, and have not been obliged to
accept the runaway priests of the official Church.

* An interesting account of these negotiations, and a most
curious picture of the Orthodox ecciestiastical world in
Constantinople, is given by Subbotiny, "Istoria
Belokrinitskoi Ierarkhii," Moscow, 1874.

The Old Ritualists were naturally much grieved by the schism, and
were often sorely tried by persecution, but they have always enjoyed a
certain spiritual tranquillity, proceeding from the conviction that they
have preserved for themselves the means of salvation. The position of
the more extreme section of the Schismatics was much more tragical. They
believed that the sacraments had irretrievably lost their efficacy, that
the ordinary means of salvation were forever withdrawn, that the powers
of darkness had been let loose for a little season, that the authorities
were the agents of Satan, and that the personage who filled the place
of the old God-fearing Tsars was no other than Antichrist. Under the
influence of these horrible ideas they fled to the woods and the caves
to escape from the rage of the Beast, and to await the second coming of
Our Lord.

This state of things could not continue permanently. Extreme religious
fanaticism, like all other abnormal states, cannot long exist in a
mass of human beings without some constant exciting cause. The vulgar
necessities of everyday life, especially among people who have to live
by the labour of their hands, have a wonderfully sobering influence
on the excited brain, and must always, sooner or later, prove fatal to
inordinate