knife. One evening, two men, one of them young and blooming, the other
old, with sallow and unnaturally smooth face, were conversing, while
sipping their tea, in a house in Moscow. 'Virgins will alone stand
before the throne of the Most High,' said the elder man. 'He who looks
on a woman with desire commits adultery in his heart, and adulterers
shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.' 'What then should we sinners
doe' asked the young man. 'Knowest thou not,' replied the elder, 'the
word of the Lord? If thy right eye leadeth thee into temptation, pluck
it out and cast it from thee; if thy right hand leadeth thee into
temptation, cut it off and cast it from thee. What ye must do is to kill
the flesh. Ye must become like unto the disembodied angels, and that may
be attained only, through being made white as snow.' 'And how can we be
made thus white?' further inquired the young man. 'Come and see,' said
the old man. 'He took his companion down many stairs, into a cellar
resplendent with lights. Some fifteen white robed men and women were
gathered there. In a corner was a stove, in which blazed a fire. After
some prayers and dances, very like those in use among the Flagellants,
the old man announced to his companion: 'now shalt thou learn how sinners
are made white as snow.' And the young man, before he had time to ask a
single question, was seized and gagged, his eyes were bandaged, he was
stretched out on the ground, and the apostle, with a red-hot knife,
stamped him with the 'seal of purity.' This happened to a peasant,
Saltykov by name, and certainly not to him alone. He fainted away under
the operation, and when he came to himself, he heard the voices of his
chaste sponsors give him the choice between secrecy and death."

Catherine II signed the first edict against this sect in 1772, but
agitation was more or less constant until the Imperial government began
vigorous prosecutions in 1871, and many were sentenced to hard labor in
Siberia. When prosecutions were instituted, large numbers emigrated to