The 'wanderers' have ingenious contrivances in their houses for concealing the ' runaways '; they bring up their own artisans, such as carvers and painters of images, bookbinders, and writers or copiers of books of prayer. They have no priests, their teachers performing all the rites of religion, such as receiving confession, holding services, baptizing, burying, expounding the Scriptures, &c. These teachers are chosen by election from among the most zealous and best versed in the Word; they are the real ' wanderers,' for it is their duty to visit their scattered brethren, and, having broken every family and social tie, are obliged to live in hidingplaces; it is also their duty to settle differences, their decision being influenced by the majority of voices. The teacher faces the congregation, standing at a desk covered with a white cloth, on which are laid the Bible, images in copper, and lights; he is distinguished from the rest by wearing a longer garment. Sometimes women become teachers, and hold services.
The ' wanderers ' believe themselves to be the only true Christians, such as Christians were before the time of the patriarch Nikon,' and in the days of Vladimir; and they took upon the Russian Church as having fallen away from the true faith. They believe that power and authority belong to Antichrist alone, whose I The reviser of ihe Holy Scriptures.
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servants they are that serve him. They say that after the birth of the Saviour, Satan was bound for a thousand years and then let loose, and that in the year 666, the number of the Beast, he asiiumed the shape of a mock Trinity in the persons of the Tzar Aleksey MihaTlovitch,' the patriarch Nikon, and Arseny, To suit their purpose they skip over reigns, alter the succession of sovereigns, and add or remove letters from their names, in order to find the number of the Beast; thus they make Peter I. the successor of Aleksey, the son Theodore III. being passed over. The Antichrist appears also in the person of Alexander I., for in his name, and in that of his favourite minister Araktch^yefT, they again find the number ^^. The 'wanderers' have pictures of Peter I. as the Antichrist wearing the crown and the imperial mantle; Satan hands to him a taper, saying, ' Do my will; one Judas does not suffice for my purpose; this day, and through thee, shall I draw unto myself many people.' By the side of Peter is the Russian Church, personified in the adulterous
The ' wanderers ' must hide in the mountains and in the wilderness, that they may avoid the Church; for it is said, ' Let them which be in Judxa flee into the mountains';* and this is why the receivers hide away all them that are written in the ' Book of Life.'* The 'wanderers,' say that, as the Evil One tempted David to number the people, for which he was punished by the Almighty with a pestilence,* so it was ^ain the incarnation of Satan himself ■ — viz., Peter I. — who took to numbering the people.* They seek to avoid being included in the census, because every document, be it a passport or other paper of the State, is the seal of the devil; for
' Father of Peter the Great. • St. Malthew xxiv, i6, • Rev, xx. 12,
' 3 Sam. xxiv. 1-15. * The iirst census in ku.<^ was taken in 1719.
by Google it is said, ' And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the number of the beast, or the number of his name.'' The ' wanderers ' seldom marry; they take a woman from another sect, even if she be of the Orthodox Church, hoping that they may convert her. They become greater 'wanderers' as they advance in years, it being their object not to die at their own homes; and when ill, they are frequently removed that they may not expire in a house in which they have lived. The crimes of theft, drunkenness, and adultery are of frequent occurrence, one of their precepts being, ' Thou shalt leave one home, and God will give thee ninety-nine; one woman, and God will give thee forty.'
The 'wanderers' believe the first resurrection, and the time when the Saviour will appear on the white horse, to be at hand"^ they all expect to be in his army, as 'priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.' * That reign of one thousand years is to be on this earth, which will be renovated, the New Jerusalem being brought from heaven and placed where the Caspian Sea is; this is why they wander about the shores of that sea, and congregate at Astrahan.