Page:Chertkov - Christian Martyrdom.djvu/30

Rh abusive names, such as "milk-men," because they did not fast, but took milk during Lent.

As to themselves, they always called, and call, themselves merely "Christians," whilst others they call "men of the world."

Their origin is unknown, even to themselves; for, being common people and illiterate, they have no written history; neither has tradition preserved amongst them any information upon the subject.

The Society of the Spirit-Wrestlers was originally a dispersed one. Nowhere did they at first form communities, but they lived, a few families in various villages. They were dispersed not only through certain provinces where they were specially strong, but also through almost the whole of Russia. They even affirm that many of their brethren are to be found in Germany and Turkey, but that in Germany they are more severely persecuted than by the Mohammedans.