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266 (Matt. xix., 12). They believe in the millenniuin, and rely upon the prophecies and upon the Apocalypse for their authority.

For the consummation of their self-consecrating sacrifice, the "baptism of fire," they prefer that men should wait until they have passed the age of puberty; they are then capable of judging for themselves, and the operation, being then more dangerous to health, implies greater devotion; it is rarely inflicted on children. The mutilation may be complete or partial, and is designated, accordingly, either as the "Royal Seal," "Tsarskaïa Petchat," or as the "Second pureness," "Vtoraïa Tchistota." It is not obligatory upon women, although many voluntarily submit to it; for them the usual ceremony consists in deforming, or destroying the breasts.

While they repudiate marriage in principle, they do not, in the interest of their sect, ignore it altogether. Some among them, believing that they only are the elect of God and depositaries of the true faith, deem themselves authorized by a higher law to transgress this precept, in order to provide for the transmission of their doctrines; they delay the final sacrificial rite until they have begotten children, whom they train up in their belief and in expectation of its penalty. A son of theirs, who, arriving at manhood, should rebel, and endeavor to escape his fate, becomes a renegade and a traitor against whom every hand is raised, and whose life is in jeopardy.

They are zealous propagators of their creed, in order to attain, as speedily as possible, the full number of one hundred and forty-four thousand "of them which are sealed" (Rev. viii., 4), when they expect the Messiah will come to establish his kingdom, and give the empire of the world to his saints.

This heresy, which is the most modern of all, probably