Crittenden press. [volume] (Marion, Ky.) 1879-1907, 1899-12-21
DREADFUL RELIGIOUS RITES.
Dnrbarous Ceremonies of some
European Sccts.

European sccts.
The results of an analysis of n series
Of legal actions involving prosecution
for crime supposedly committed un-
der the spell of fanatical religious be-
| liefs serve to illustrate this point.
| Thus the Convulsionists, a sect exist
| ing in Paris about 1850, were won't
10 cruelty members of their ORDER ia
| emulation of the cTuciiiNion Of Jesus,
| In the belief that the sous Of the sur
| yiying mcmbe"s would he saved Ey che
sacrifice of their fellows. In 1917 the
| Paschclians, an Austrian sect. muir
dered a man, His wife and their daugh-
ter under the delusion that the trio,
who refused TO go with the fanatics,
We're possessed of the devil. On the
following day they cruciicd one of
their own number, girl of Is years,
who had suffered for the death, In inn
itation of the death Of Jesus, in order
TO save the souls OF their fellow be-
levers. In 1923 the leader of a Pictis-
tic circle in Switzerland. after having
dispatched her sister, who gave her
life rs means of saving the souls
| of her relatives, was cricificd by her
followers at her own command. in or
der tia; she might die, rise again after
three days and restore life 20 the Sis
ter whom she had slain.
In 1865 two mothers. adhereats Of
the Holy Men, slew their sick children
believing them TO be the victims OF
demoniacal possession. In 1915 a Hun
garian miller, belonging to the Naza-
renes, killed his son as an Offering
for his own sins, after the fashion
of Abraham. In 1870 in Irkutsch. Rus
sia, one of the Schismatics convinced
himself by prayer and fasting and
much Scripture reading tina! TO save
his soul he must be Crucfied. Accord
ingly he attempted self-crucifxion,
ard succeeded so far as tine circum-
stances of the case would permit. In
1890, in the government of Perm, Rus
STA, peasant killed his child as an
Offering for sin and buried the body
in an ant hill. Likewise in the gov
eminent of Vladimir another peasant
killed both his children in due Abra.
hamic style, and while the babies bled
under the fathers knife the devout
mother celebrated the service by read
ing aloud selected portions of the
twenty-second chapter of Genesis. In
lS5. in the government of Ta!nboff,
Russia, a peasant, convinced that to
save his soul man must have Il sin
to repent of, killed n neighbor with
an aX in order to satisfy this highly
imperative condition.
1t is II part of the creed of the Wan
derers, Russian sect, that anti-Christ
rules in high places there, and that,
accordingly, good men must have
naught to do with governmental af-
fairs Of any sort. In conformity with
this belief, man murdered, in various
ingenious ways, % men, women and
children, including his own wife and
babies, in order to free them from
the danger of losing their souls by
suffering the contaminating contact
Of the government census taker. This
occurred in 1897.
The Dcniers, another quite interest
ing iNlSNldH SOU, DClltNt lltL tNll
saints all earthly good, and that the
only escape is death. In 1925, 60 OF
these men, strong in the faith after
having murdered their wives and chill
dren, permitted themselves to be put
to death, one by one, by their leader.
The Scourgers, who also form wide
spread and influential sect in Russia,
in obedience to the behests of their
"saviors" are in the habit of INDUCING
In human sacrifice, cannibalistic feasts,
crotic dances, and other lewd proce-
dures, as an extremely eflicacious
method of keeping the hand of evil
from Off their immortal souls. So the
Muckers, of Konlgsberg, and the cele-
brants of the Black Mass in Paris
afford further examples of the use
of most abandoned and obscene be.
havlor, to promote the eternal welfare
of the soul.-American Journal of So
ciOlOoV