www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Old-Ritualists Forum Bespopovtsy Communities (#2 of 5)

The topic on priestly Old Ritualists was wonderful, could a similar brief description be made of priestless communities please?

Many Thanks

oldorthodox

Old Orthodox,

I have a piece that I did on these a year or so ago - if I can dig it out tonight, I'll copy it to here. It may be more historically oriented than what you're hoping for - we'll have to see.

Many years,

Neil

Initially, I'm going to focus on the Bespopovtsy, as Old Orthodox requested, but subsequently I'm either going to expand into the myriad sects that arose from or existed contemporaneously with the Old Believer movement or I'll address it in a separate thread. (The separate thread appeals because it would have the advantage of more clearly demarcating the sects from the Bespopovtsy).

The reason for doing that is because such sects are often thought of and classed by folks as being Bespopovotsy. Yet, it's unrealistic to do so in some cases amd unfair to do so in many cases. These were bodies which frequently engaged in or ascribed to extremes of behavior, belief, and/or praxis.

Such should neither unreservedly be ascribed to Old Believers as a body nor be perceived as suggesting anything negative about the Russian people, Russian Orthodox Church, or the Old Believers themselves. Rather, those aberrations represented an ecclesio-sociological phenomena that happened to occur in a time-frame contemporaneous to the Old Believer movement.

What I'm posting is the result of many years spent informally studying these bodies, because of a personal interest in small, sometimes obscure, religious groups. Many of the conclusions stated here rest solely on my opinions, perceptions, and interpretations. This is not a learned dissertation and I do not claim to have consulted primary source documents (my command of Russian is far too rudimentary to permit that , even if such were readily available to me).

For those unfamiliar with Old Believers, what follows is a brief and very simplistic explanation of the complex circumstances under which the movement arose and developed in mid-17th century Russia. It really is necessary as a prelude to the subject. (For anyone who wants more information, there are several summary histories available on-line which offer reasonably accurate detail and I would be happy to recommend other sources for further reading, as would some others here, as well.)

Nikon, Patriarch of Moscow (1652-1658), was convinced that the Russian Church had strayed from the ancient and venerable rituals of Orthodoxy, as those had been received from the Greeks. He attributed this to errors introduced during transcription of ecclesiastical manuscripts from the Greek to the Slavonic languages. To restore what he perceived as appropriate form and function, Nikon ordered the revision and reprinting of Service Books and other liturgical texts. These introduced changes in some prayers, hymns, pious devotions, and praxis.

Some of the more notable reversions, or innovations, depending on one's point of view, were:

• the configuration of fingers used in signing oneself, changing the number upraised from two to three

• processing around the Holy Table counter to the revolution of the Sun, rather than sun-wise

• the number of times the Alleluia was to be chanted at various points in Liturgy, reduced from three to two

• re-translation of the Nicene Creed, effectively deleting some words

• reduction in the number of prosphora loaves used in the Divine Liturgy, from seven to five

• changes in the orthography of the Name of Jesus, by the addition of a vowel

• exchanges of the terms 'the Son' and 'the Christ' in some texts

• revision of the style of chant, from single-voicedness to polyphonic

• changes in the manner and number of prostrations performed during liturgical worship

Resistance arose to these proposals, which were perceived as an effort to undermine the Orthodox faith, from several minor prelates and many presbyters and monastics. Negative reaction to what came to be termed "the Nikonian reforms" was also strong among laity, from aristocrats to the lowliest peasants.

Opposition grew from verbal protests lodged in ecclesiastical venues to outright defiance, evidenced in refusal to implement changes in liturgical praxis. The government soon became involved, on the side of the Patriarch and what was, for all intents and purposes, the 'established' Church. Governmental interest came about since those opposed to the reforms were seen as contributing to unrest in a society that had begun to struggle with feudalism. In time, the forces of the Tsar came to be both enforcer of change and suppressor of those who would ultimately be termed Raskolniks (Schismatics) and Sekstanstvo (Sectarians).

As happened in the West during the Inquisition, the consequences were horrific for those targeted by a partnership of church and state intent on maintaining the established order. Brief periods of tolerance were interspersed over centuries of repression and prosecution marked by doubled taxation, property seizure, beating, maiming, arrest, flogging, knouting, imprisonment, torture, exile, and execution by beheading, crucifixion, firing squad, flames, hanging, or starvation.

That the Old Believers were, for the most part, pacifists was no protection against the measures directed at them and, at times, further fueled the wrath of civil authority when their pacifistic principles resulted in resistance by them to military conscription.

The reaction of the Old Believers varied. Passive resistance, coupled with stoic acceptance of their fate, was the most prevalent response, but others adopted self-destructive measures and instances of group self-martyrdom were not uncommon for a period. Others withdrew from what they perceived to be a worse than Godless society; there were all degrees of such separation. Refusal to participate in ordinary commerce included rejecting processed foodstuffs or other commercial goods.

Societal interaction was avoided and segregation self-imposed. Meals - which sometimes took on a quasi-sacramental nature in the absence of liturgical worship - could not be shared with unbelievers. Plates were defiled by the touch of outsiders. Unique styles of clothing were worn. Old Believers often chose to live in ghetto-like urban enclaves or to cluster in villages and around sympathetic monasteries. At the extreme of this, some escaped into the vast and inhospitable Russian and Siberian wildernesses, preferring to chance their physical beings rather than the salvation of their souls.

Phrases such as "Those are things of people, not of God" or "That is not allowed to us" became recurrent mantras. They tended to vest in traditional clothing and refused to shave or even, in some instances, trim their beards or hair. Some among them refused to grow moustaches, reasoning like some Anabaptists (e.g., the Amish), that such evinced a militaristic mindset, at odds with their pacifism.

In modern times, vaccinations and insurance, among other things, have been sometimes perceived by them as attempts to thwart God's will or the fate that He has ordained for one. Although this is now uncommon, technological advances, such as electricity, are still anathema to some among the most conservative among Old Believer ranks.

In a nation with as many economic and social strata ,and as ethnically diverse as Russia of the time, it was inevitable that this dissident movement would have difficulty maintaining a unified structure within itself, despite the common premises from which it evolved. The explanation which follows is a very superficial presentation of why and how the ecclesial fabric of the Old Believers was rent. It is intended to introduce the unacquainted to some of the background underlying the sectarianism typically associated with or attributed to the movement.

As alluded to above, the Tsar's decision to support the Nikonian changes was driven by the practical consideration that anything which threatened the established order was a potential source of civil unrest. That was an undesirable and potentially dangerous situation in a society struggling with economic extremes and populated by millions of serfs, chafing at their circumstances. As religion and society were inextricably linked in Russia of that time, the Church was very much a component of the established order and a threat to ecclesiastical stability merited, even demanded, governmental attention.

On the opposite side, the proposed reforms were seen as antithetical to Orthodoxy. Liturgical praxis and the doctrine on which it was based were immutable in the minds of the faithful. Those who would tamper with them were considered to be theologically corrupt, at the very least.

In retrospect, it seems as though such machination by Church officials was not wholly unexpected, but royal support of it was shocking to the populace. It perhaps reflected an attitude or expectation, prevalent in the time, that a ruler who shared one's religious beliefs would ultimately be the Defender of that Faith. If the Tsar was willing to accept change so inimical to the basic precepts and tenets of Orthodoxy, it was a short leap to conclude that he was either the Anti-Christ or representative of him and that the Patriarch and clergy were his minions.

Most of those unable and unwilling to accept the reforms reacted initially by ceasing to name the Royal House in the liturgical diptychs (commemorative prayers). From this derived a distinction, made in some early literature about the Old Believer movement - those prepared to overlook the Tsar's role in support of the reforms came to be known as Commemorators, the others as Non-Commemorators, the latter were the majority among Old Believers.

(These stylings should not to be confused with later usage of the same terminology, early in the Bolshevik era, by which clergy were distinguished on the basis of whether or not they commemorated the revolutionary civil authority and those hierarchs who cooperated with it.)

Not surprisingly, the lower classes were not only poverty-stricken but often poorly educated and superstition was common. Personification of the Anti-Christ, until then only an intangible scriptural concept, could not help but evoke images of all that was foretold in Revelations, including the Apocalypse and Second-Coming. Reaction took diverse forms: rejoicing in anticipation of a promised after-life; resigned acceptance of the inevitable end of corporeal life; presumption that these dire events could be forestalled or mitigated through appeasement of the supernatural powers; and, outright despair regarding what was to come.

Literalism, eccentricity, fatalism, fear, folklore, superstition - all became contributing factors to the outlook of the adherents and helped to drive their theology and praxis. Somewhere in such a continuum there existed powerful forces ripe to feed zealotry and fanaticism, as people were driven to seek that which would assure (or at least increase the odds of) their salvation. It was such thinking that spawned many of the divisions which arose within the Old Believer movement or alongside it, particularly the more radical and extreme manifestations.

In what follows, when a formal name for a particular religious group exists and is known to me, I've used it. In many instances, the term applied to a body of adherents was a descriptor rather than an organizational 'name' as we typically think of the latter and many bodies were not sufficiently organized to have acquired a formal name.

The words Agreement, Circle, Compact, Concord, Confession, Consent, Movement, and Persuasion frequently appear in titling. These appear to be essentially synonymous terms that equate to a gathering of like-thinking persons and distinctions in applying them appear to represent translators' preferences, rather than reflecting true nuances of meaning.

Nomenclature observed among the genre can generally be etymologically categorized to one of five forms:

• Patronymic - names derived from a body's spiritual ancestor or leader

• Toponymic - names derived from a place in which a body originated or was headquartered

• Ideonymic - names derived from doctrinal precepts, or dogma embraced by a body's adherents

• Praxonymic - names descriptive of peculiar (as in "particular" or "unique") religious praxis in which the body's adherents engaged

• Exonymic - names, usually in the style of forms 3 or 4 above, but applied to a body by someone other than its own adherents

Each of these contributes its own difficulty to establishing, with certainty, how many distinct sects existed within the genre. As centralized sectarian organization was hampered by communication, geography, and governmental attitudes, it isn't always clear that patronymics applied to sects with identical or similar beliefs didn't represent the same body identified by the names of their respective local leaders (Group A in Moscow is called Vladimir's Confession - because Vladimir is their acknowledged leader; Group A in St Petersburg is called Yuri's Compact, for the same reason).

The same issue arises in instances involving toponymics - were they distinct entities or merely local congregations of the same body?

In the case of sects styled ideonymically or praxonymically, it is not uncommon to find two or more that are similarly or identically named. Some represent alternative nomenclature - locally-adopted variations, while others are actually separate and distinct entities, the common or shared name (and belief or praxis) notwithstanding.

Other groups in these categories have names that, on their face, suggest gradations of a belief or praxis (e.g., Whisperers and Mutes); sometimes, but not always, such is the case. By way of example, those two are actually unrelated, other than having reasoned - separately - to similar conclusions.

Further complicating the same situation are the exonymically styled sects. Informal names were not infrequently applied to the adherents of various bodies, rather than adopted by them. Some were coined by antagonists or other 'outsiders'. A number of these originated with Western authors writing 'travelogues', popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, and created to satisfy a public thirst for information regarding exotic locales. Often presented as ethnographic and cultural studies, sometimes published under the aegis of various learned societies, many focused on the most esoteric aspects of the lands and peoples they examined, a sure means to catch the attention of the reading public and increase sales.

Throughout, I have tried to provide both the transliterated Russian 'name' for each community and either its English translation or the understanding intended to be conveyed; in a few instances, only one or the other was available to me. In many cases, I have appended alternative names that are sometimes encountered as identifiers for a particular body. Consistency across sources is frequently lacking in spelling transliterated terms and in the form of word-endings. This can be readily observed, as I have generally not altered the usages that I've collected through the years.

Some transliterations represent my own best rendering and are open to correction by any more skilled at the art than me - which is most anyone .

When I first drafted this, after a lot of false starts, I devised this structure to illustrate the various bodies and their relationships. Once you get past the Popovotsy and Bespopovotsy, some of the terminology is of my own creation and you wouldn't likely find the same classification used elsewhere:

• Raskolniki (Schismatics)
  • Staroviertsi (Old Believers) or Stariobriodtsi (Old Ritualists)
    • Popovtsy (Priested)
    • Begolopopovtsy (Sometimes Priested)
    • Bespopovtsy (Unpriested)

• Sekstanstvo (Sectarians)
  • Dukhovnye Khristiane (Spiritual Christians)
    • Doukhobors
    • Molokans
  • Eretiki (Heretics)
    • Extremist Sects
    • Irrational (or Eccentric) Sects
    • Judaizing Sects
    • Radical Sects

[*]Unrelated Contemporaneous Movements

• Catholic
• Cults
• Gnostic Sects
• Judaizing Sects
• Orthodox
• Philosophical Sects
• Protestant Sects

Within each heading, groups are listed alphabetically by transliterated Russian names (except when I was unable to accomplish transliteration). When it is clear that a group derived from another, that's noted; otherwise, each is listed separately. Indenting is used to denote derivative relationships.

For each entry, I've endeavored to summarize the belief or praxis that made a group unique or, if the name is self-explanatory, the thinking that drove its praxis. A few bodies are listed in two categories; generally, that reflects a change in belief or praxis that took its adherents either from or to the mainstream.

Raskolniki (Schismatics), also Non-Conformists, was collectively applied by the Orthodox to 'true' Staroviertsi (Old Believers) to distinguish from Sekstanstvo (Sectarians), often deemed too theologically afield from Orthodoxy to be deemed merely schismatic.

Staroviertsi (Old Believers) and Stariobriodtsi (Old Ritualists) are interchangeable terms for most folk. Some have suggested that the latter refers to persons focused solely on ritual or praxis, versus something deeper and more spiritual in the make-up of the former. In my opinion, the distinction is artificial and lacks foundation, especially given that, in the East, ritual is so inherently expressive of belief.

I've used the more common English "Old Believers" throughout this piece, but the Beilokrinitskaya Ierarkhiya (Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy), largest body among the Popovtsy, actually prefer the usages Old Rite or Old Ritualist.

The most basic and commonly-recognized division among those who adhered to the Old Rites was with respect to whether they were served by a hierarchy and clergy (Popovtsy or Priested) or not (Bespopovtsy or Priestless). In modern times, Popovtsy are more numerous, but that was not always the case. Certain beliefs and practices prevalent among Bespopovtsy, particularly those regarding marriage, likely played into this, effectively failing in some cases to assure that the body of faithful would or could be self-regenerating in the long-term (similar to what transpired with such Western communal sects as the Shakers and Seventh-Day Baptists (the Ephrata Community), who also eschewed marriage).

Bespopovtsy (Priestless Old Believers), also Besierarktsy Raskolniki (Non-Hierarchical Schismatics), held out no hope for a sacramentally-based religious life under the guidance of a presbyterate.

Which came first, discontent with the societal status quo that extended to encompass a Church perceived as an agent of the State or rejection of the hierarchy and priesthood for its support of the Nikonian reforms?

Most likely, a combination of the two, with the latter being seen as affording validation to the former.

The Bespopovtsy aspect of the movement took varied forms, from quasi-liturgical environments in which elders or designated persons of trust and respect fulfilled what would have previously been strictly clerical functions, to those which rejected even the pretence of maintaining a liturgical facade, holding it all to be of no spiritual merit, given that both Church and World were perceived to have been spiritually surrendered to the forces of the Anti-Christ.

• Akusherki (Mid-wives' Confession) reasoned that mid-wives, already charged with the safe physical well-being of babies, should logically also be entrusted with the infants' spiritual deliverance and, accordingly, charged them with responsibility for administering Baptism, the sole Mystery which the body preserved. See also Babushki, whose praxis was similar.

• Aristovtsy (Aristov's Confession) was named for its leader, a merchant, and existed from the beginning of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century, after which it appears to have faded into oblivion. I'm unaware of what beliefs or praxis distinguished it.

• Babushki (Grandmothers' Confession) deemed the venerable community matriarchs to be the only appropriate ministers of Baptism, the sole Mystery which they retained. See also Akusherki

• Beguni-Stranniki (Runaway-Wanderers), can collectively be described as The Itinerant Sects; I've included with these groups that I collectively label as The Isolationist Sects. These groups (or their individual adherents) adopted nomadic or secluded lifestyles either in fear of persecution, or as a theologically meaningful sign of rejecting worldly attachments, or to search for their Savior - purposes that ultimately became intertwined for most of them. I elected to class Itinerants and Isolationists together since extremes of separation from society, well beyond the self-imposed estrangement common to many Old Believers, characterized both types.
  
  I've also at least referenced a few sects which were not itinerant per se but whose beliefs and/or praxis included elements that, not infrequently, led them to adopt a wandering lifestyle - albeit some of these are Sekstanstvo (Sectarians) rather than Bespopovtsy. At the height of the movement, some estimates put the Itinerant and Isolationist Sects, in aggregate, as representing 40 to 50 percent of all Old Believers.
  
  Beguni-Stranniki are often described as the most radical and anarchistic of all Old Believers. The characterization has some applicability in the sense that the terms were commonly understood in that era, given that they essentially rejected society's trappings, including commercial and social interaction and acknowledgement of government. However, they never extended this antipathy to subversive activity or took up arms against civil authority, hallmarks usually associated with 'radicals' and 'anarchists'; to the contrary, the Itinerants and Isolationists were models of passive resistance in their extreme avoidance of confrontation.
  
  Origin of the particular genre is sometimes ascribed to a soldier, Evfimii or Ephrem, who sought sanctuary in a monastery of the Fedoseevtsy (a Bespopovotsy body described later), after deserting. He subsequently entered monasticism but is said to have formulated a theology based on rejection of all societal intercourse and responsibilities after a dispute with the monastery's superiors. Evfimii may well have led a body of itinerants into the wilderness but both the sheer number of those who adopted this mode of religious expression, as well as the very nature of the movement, argues persuasively against a discernable beginning and identifiable 'founder'.
  
  A recurring phenomenon observed among many Beguni-Stranniki were Domo Khristiane (House Christians), as differentiated from Doroga Khristiane (Road Christians). The Domo Khristiane were not committed to the wandering lifestyle; rather, their task was to facilitate the existence of those who were, by affording them food and occasional shelter, acting as intermediaries to secular society as needed, providing for the children, etc.. (The 'conductors' who facilitated the Underground Railroad during the time of slavery in America might be an apt comparison.)
  
  It was planned that, at some point in life, Domo Khristiane would forsake their 'worldly' existence, such as it was (they generally did not own the homes in which they lived and did not lock them, so as to assure that no passing traveler would be denied entry) and take to the road. Beguni-Stranniki did all in their power to avoid dying indoors and Domo Khristiane were no exception; anticipating death, they sought the outdoors, such was the salvific importance of reposing under the heavens.
  
  Among Isolationist sects, similar considerations sometimes caused there to be functionaries who served the same role as 'lay brethren' do in cloistered religious communities (interacting with the public), although the settled nature of the Isolationist existence often permitted self-sufficient survival as communities, families, or hermits.

• Beguni (Fugitives) [1 of 2 by this name] held that all official documents bore the mark of the Anti-Christ in the form of the royal seal. Their refusal to utilize passports, combined with their nomadic habits, earned them the 'Fugitive' label. See also Adamantovy and Antipovo Soglasie, which espoused similar beliefs about currency and/or documents. See also Beguni (Runaways) below.

• Beguni (Runaways) [2 of 2 by this name], also Runners, believed that they should not cease traveling until they reached what they knew they would recognize or would be revealed to them as the place of the Second Coming. See also Beguni (Fugitives).

• Dyrniki (Hole-Worshipers) held beliefs that not uncommonly drove their faithful to an eventual itinerant existence. Detailed entry is at Irrational (or Eccentric) Sects.

• Gorizontski (Horizonists) were another sect with beliefs that frequently caused its faithful to become itinerant. Detailed entry is at Irrational (or Eccentric) Sects.

• Hlystohotniky (Christ-Hunters) were itinerant, but cannot not be deemed mainstream Bespopovtsy. Detailed entry is at Irrational (or Eccentric) Sects.

• Kamenshchiki (Stonemasons), sometimes erroneously translated as Freemasons, escaped into desolate mountainous regions, originally to escape persecution and, ultimately, because they deemed it more beneficial to salvation. Given the sparseness of timber as a commodity in these areas, it's possible that they crafted their habitats of stone, giving rise to the name ascribed to the body. Otherwise, it goes unexplained since there is no indication that masonry was an occupational choice available to them (in the main, they were farmers and herders) and while a few adopted mining to acquire means for barter, 'miner' and 'stonemason' are not alternative translations.

• Tikhonkoetsy (Tikhonkoetsians) were likely derived from Kamenshchiki. Detailed entry is at Radical Sects.

• Lesnye Zhiteli (Forest-Dwellers) were semi-nomadic isolationists who used the vast Russian forested areas as natural barriers between themselves and secular society, from whom they deemed separation necessary if they were to avoid sinfulness and achieve salvation.

• Pustinja Zhiteli (Desert-Dwellers) were isolationists, but would not be deemed mainstream Bespopovtsy. Detailed entry is at Irrational (or Eccentric) Sects.

• Skritniki (Hiders) were first documented in the mid-19th century. They shunned all contact with secular society, either living in huts deep within the forests or wandering wilderness areas with no fixed abode. When forced by authorities or circumstance into more conventional environments, they isolated themselves to the maximum extent possible. Some subsisted nocturnally and others even perceived isolation as essential to salvation.
  
  The sect was thought to be extinct by the early 20th century but, in 1978, geologists working in the taiga came into contact with the Lykov family, who had then been living in near total isolation for a half-century. Agafia, the youngest (and now sole surviving) member, is now about 65 and still living last I knew. She remains there by choice, despite various efforts to resettle her with relatives who were located or with other Old Believers; she has, however, made some compromises with total isolation.
  
  More recently, about six or seven years ago, census takers accidentally discovered a remnant community of three elderly women in a remote, otherwise-deserted village of the Komi Republic in the Urals. Despite being the sole inhabitants, they ventured out only at night and did not socialize, even among themselves.

• Stranniki (Wanderers) believed it incumbent to wander while awaiting salvation, since Earth was not intended as the abode of the righteous. Therefore, to settle permanently was to be at odds with God's design. They became known for itinerant preaching, prophecy, healing, and rejection of societal conventions, such as money and documents, which they perceived as instruments of the Anti-Christ. Their ascetic existence included denial of worldly attachments, such as would result from marriage or procreation.

As to which of these bodies are still extant, I believe that - other than the isolated (no pun intended) instances of what I termed "Isolationist" sects, it is pretty much limited to those which have their origins from the Pomortsy. These are principally Pomortsy, Fedoseevtsy, and Filipovtsy. The two Sepychie bodies referenced above are still extant. There are also some Chasovennoe (Chapelists).

In addition, there are myriad local communities that are ill-defined as far as their particular origins and don't self-identify as having defined "organizational" or "ecclesial" ties to any overreaching umbrella entity. On examination, however, most would be found to be Pomortsian in their praxis and theology.

Many years,

Neil

Tom, my good friend and our indefatigable researcher on the subject of the Old Ritualists and Old Believers, asked that I retrieve the links to this series of posts and sticky the threads for reference, which I was glad to do, as I frequently have problems finding them myself when needed. I figure that doing so also offers an opportunity to note again that there are still sects from among the Bespopovtsy which I've been unable to identify sufficiently to incorporate into this 'catalogue'.

For instance, who were the Kissers?, the Innocents?, the Bezdenezniki?, the Cerdachniki?

And, there will be others to add.

My brother and friend, Alexndr, recently researched something unrelated for me and, in doing so, came across reference to


The description is, in some respects, very much like that of the Skritniki or Hiders, whom I discussed above. On the other hand, it adds several aspects of praxis not previously identified as associated with that group. As well, it sounds as those this particular sect may be comprised solely of males - something that I've only previously observed to be the case in a few instances.

Many years,

Neil

Spasovtsy/Nietovtsy?

Bless, Father Mark,

You can find listings for both the Netovtsy (Nay-Sayers) a/k/a Netovshchina (Negativists) and the Spasovtsy (Saviour's People) in thread #4 of the set, in a post titled 'Radical Sects'.

Many years,

Neil