Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/207

192 In the new Russia which he created the bewildered Muscovite could no longer recognize his native land; Strange names were dinned in his ears, foreign habits and habiliments offended his gaze; the calendar and the alphabet were altered, saints' days and holy days were shifted; men's chins were shaven, women appeared unveiled in the streets; Moscow became Babylon; old Russia was shaken as by an earthquake, and chaos seemed come again. The memory of Nikon's innovations was revived; Peter walked in his footsteps, and was, by popular indignation, accused of being his adulterous offspring.

The civil revolution inaugurated by the tsar gave fresh vigor to the discontent aroused by the old patriarch's attempt to reform the Church; Old Russians, opposed to civic and social changes, sympathized with Old Ritualists, intolerant of clerical innovation. National prejudices were stimulated by religious fanaticism, and religious hostility was excited by respect for ancient customs and institutions.

The complicated machinery of a modern form of government was irksome to a primitive people, strongly attached to simple and long-inherited usages; it was vexatious and repugnant to their habits. They rebelled against heavy imposts, made necessary by the new requirements of the State; against novel duties and obligations imposed upon them; against recruitment and enforced military service. They were impatient of restrictions upon personal freedom, of passports, and rules for dress; they were conscientiously opposed to regulations offending their religious scruples, to the census, to the registration of births and deaths, to the capitation tax, or tax "on souls" ("podouchenoï oklad"); "making them pay," as they said, "for their immortal souls, which God