The seventh
recognises neither the sacraments nor the gospel. It glorifies God in
person, and the faith which has been handed down from father to son.
It has been given to the Tcheremis _exclusively_, because they are a
poor, unlettered people, and cannot afford to keep up priests and
churches. They call it the religion of the Great Candle, because in
their ceremonies a candle about two yards in length is used; and they
consider Friday a holiday because on it are ended the prayers which
they begin to say on Wednesday."

When questioned by the judge, the accused complained that the orthodox
clergy expected too many sacrifices from them, and charged them heavily
for marriages and burials, this being their reason for returning to
"the more merciful religion of their forefathers."

According to the _Journal of the Religious Consistory of the Province
of Viatka_, the Tcheremis were guilty of many other crimes. They did
not make the sign of the cross, and refused to allow their children to
be baptised or their dead to be buried with the rites of the orthodox
church. Truly there is no limit to the heresies of men, even as there
is none to the mercies of heaven! Further, the missionaries complained
with horror that, in addition to seven principal religions, the
Tcheremis acknowledged seventy-seven others, in accordance with the
division of humanity into seventy-seven races.

"It is God," they said, "who has thus divided humanity, even as He has
divided the trees. As there are oaks, pines and firs, so are there
different religions, all of heavenly origin. But that of the Tcheremis
is the best. . . . The written Bible, known to all men, has been
falsified by the priests, but the Tcheremis have an oral Bible, which
has been handed down intact, even as it was taught to their forbears by
God. . . . The Tsar is the god of earth, but he has nothing to do with
religion, which is not of this world."

The prayers of these dangerous heretics, who were punished like common
criminals, mirror the innocence of their souls. They implored God to
pardon all their sins, great and small; to grant good health to their
cattle and their children. They thanked Him for all His mercies,
prayed for the Tsar and all the Imperial family, for the soldiers, for
the civil authorities, and for all honest men; and finally for the dead
"who now labour in their celestial kingdom."

The tribunal, however, implacably brought the law to bear upon th