# The Russian Church and Russian Dissent

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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH
AND
RUSSIAN DISSENT
COMPRISING
ORTHODOXY, DISSENT, AND ERRATIC SECTS
BY
ALBERT F. HEARD FORMERLY CONSUL-GENERAL FOR RUSSIA AT SHANGHAI
NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1887
PREFACE.
In the following pages I have given a consecutive account of the Orthodox Church of Russia, commencing with its origin and history, then investigating its present condition and that of its clergy, tracing the causes and consequences of the schism which arose in the seventeenth century, and still continues, and finally examining the innumerable sects springing from the schismatic movement, or from the inherent devotional character of the people. A work of this nature, without any pretence of theological erudition, and intended for the general reader, does not, so far as I have been able to ascertain, exist, and I have endeavored to supply the deficiency. I have been compelled to seek information from many sources, and a list of the authorities I have consulted is appended; but for a view of the Church and the clergy, and of the various sects, as they are at present known, I have followed and borrowed freely from the interesting and able articles of M. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, in the Revue des Deux Mondes. This distinguished writer has treated, in a thoroughly philosophic spirit, the complex institutions of Russia; and, if I may judge by my own experience, derived from a long residence among Russians, and by the testimony of Russians ​of eminence, he is entitled to rank highest among foreign authorities on the subject.
I speak advisedly above of the present state of information upon the religious question, especially as regards the masses of the people, among whom, chiefly, devotional feeling and sectarianism flourish. They are frequently unable to give intelligible explanations of their religious beliefs, even when willing to do so; and generally, with Asiatic dislike of strangers, or with suspicious distrust of their own superiors, generated by centuries of serfdom, they evade every attempt at inquiry. Moreover, it is only in recent years that the internal condition of the Russian Empire has received from Russians themselves the investigation and study which its importance demands, and it may yet be lone before it can be safely averred that the religious question, any more than other of a political nature, is fully understood and appreciated.
Loyalty to the Tsar, and aptitude for organization, are universal among the people, but religious devotion is their strongest and most general characteristic; in no country is it so universally and so intimately interwoven in the daily life of every individual. Wars against the infidel Turk excite the same enthusiasm as the crusades of the Middle Ages; and the intensity of this feeling, together with the pious credulity of the people, are a prodigious power in the hands of the government, that may be easily directed in furtherance of political ends.
"It is for Christ that we are to fight," a peasant was heard to say to a fellow-conscript in 1877. "He suffered on the cross for us, and it is but right that we should suffer, in our turn, for Him."
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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