Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/482

456 Persecuted by the Tsar Paul on political grounds, many were exiled to Siberia.

In the year 1797 the Doukhobors were savagely persecuted with the knout, the slitting of their noses, imprisonment in small cells, and hard labour. The ground of this persecution was a charge of attempting to convert the orthodox to their heresy. Senator Laputkin wrote in 1806, "No sect has up to this time been so cruelly persecuted as the Doukhobortsi; and this is certainly not because they are the most harmful." Alexander, being more tolerant of dissent than his predecessors, granted these people land near the Sea of Azoff. Unhappily a division took place among them in the year 1886, followed by a lawsuit, which resulted in the banishment of the defeated party to Siberia. A more unhappy episode in the history of a persecuted church has rarely been recorded in history. They had not profited spiritually by Alexander's clemency. But to their credit it should be added that the appeal to the law was made by quite a minority of the sect; the majority suffered for no fault of their own. Soon after this they experienced a religious revival. In recent days they have been persecuted—if that word may still be used—by the government for refusing military service. But in justice to the tsars it should be admitted that where conscription exists it must be enforced. The fault is in the odious system. This has led to the emigration of Doukhobors and the establishment of a colony of them in Canada.

The one Russian sect that is certainly an offshoot of Western Protestantism is the sect of the. It originated in the direct influence of a colony of German settlers near Odessa. Among these colonists wore some who called themselves "Friends of God," and met for the reading of the Bible during their leisure hours under a leader named Michael Ratuzny. Their principles were those of a simple evangelical faith together with the special