The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-18
.FANATIc|sM AND CR|M|NALITY
DREADFUL RELIGIOUS RITES OF
CERTAIN EUROPEAN sEcTs.
Strange Practices Which Are Advo-
Gated In Order to Insure Happy
Hereafter to Humanity.
american journal OF socioIoev.l

american Journal of Sociolosv.}
The result of an analysis of a series
of legal actions involving persecution
or crime supposedly committed under
the spell of fanatical religious beliefs
serve TO illustrate this point Thus the
Convulsionists, a sect existing in Paris
about 1850. were wont to cruelty men,
bers of their order, in emulation of the
crucifixion of Jesus. in the belief that
the souls of the surviving members
would be saved by the sacrifice OF their
/ fellows. In 1917 the "Paeschelians -
an Austrian sect, murdered a man. his
wife and their daughter. under the de-
fusion that the trio. who refused to go
with the fanatics. were possessed of the
devil. On the following day they cru
Gifted one of their own number, a girl
of Is years, who had suffered herself
for the death. in imitation of the
death of Jesus. in order to save the
souls of her fellow believers. In 1923
the leader of the Pietistic circle in
Switzerland, after having dispatched
her sister, who gave her life as a.
means of saving the souls of her rela-
tives, was crucifed by her followers
at her own command, in order that she
might die. rise again after three days.
and restore to life the sister whom she
had slain. In 1865 two mothers ad-
herents of the Holy Men," slew their
sick children, believing them to be vic
tins of demoniacal possession. In 1875
a Hungarian miller, belonging to the
.Nazarenes." killed his son as an Of
fering for his own sins. after the fash,
ion of Abraham. In 1870. in IrkutSch,
Russia, one of the "Schismatics'' conf
WINGED himself by prayer anu fasting
and much scripture reading that TO,
save his soul he must be crucified-,
Accordingly he attempted self-cruci-
fixion. and succeeded so far as the cir.
cumstances of the case would permit-i
In 1880 in the government of Perm,
Russia, q peasant killed his child as an
Offering for sin, and buried the body inf
an ant hill. Likewise. in the govern
ment OF Vladimir. another peasant
killed both his children in due Abra-,
hamic form, and while the babies blecfs
under the fathers knife. the devOut
mother celebrated the service by read
ing aloud selected portions of the twen-
ty-Second chapter of Genesis In 1884,.
in the government of Tamboff, Russia
a peasant, convinced that TO save hisl
soul a man must have a sin to repent
of. killed neigbbor with an axe in or.
der to satisfy this highly imperative'
condition.
It is part of the creed of the 'Swau--s-
derers.' a Russian sect, that. AntichriSt,
rules in high places there and that, ac-}
cordingly, good men must have naugh1
to do with governmental affairs of any+
sort. In conformity with this belief "a
man murdered. in various ingeniouss
ways, twenty-five men. women anB
children. including his own wife and
babies in order to. free them from the
danger of losing their souls by suffering
the communicating contact of the gov
eminent census taker- This occurred
in 1891 The "Deniers," another quite
interesting Russian sect. believe thai
evil taints all earthly good, and that
the only escape is death. In 1925 sixty
of these men, strong in the faith. after
having murdered their wives and chill
dren, permitted themselves to be pur
to death, one by one. by their leader.
The 'Scourgers. who also form a
widespread and influential sect in Rus
STA, in obedience to the behests of their
.saviors,' are in the habit of indulg-
ing in human sacrifice, cannibalistic
feasts. erotic dances. and other lewd
procedures, as an extremely efficacious
method of keeping the hand of evil
from off their immortal souls. So the
'Muckers" of Kcenigsberg and the Gel
ebrants Of the black mass in Paris af-
ford further examples of the use of a
ritual of erotism. coupled with a prac-
tice of the most abandoned and obscene =
behavior, TO promote the eternal WEI
fare of the soul.