The Icon and the Axe

The mystical teachings of higher order Masonry were indeed spilling out into mass sectarian religious movements. The most dramatic illustration was that of the new sect of "spirit bearers" (dukhonostsy) that suddenly sprang up among the traditionally rebellious Cossacks of the Don. The Cossack leader Evlampy Kotel'nikov had been profoundly influenced by Lopukhin's idea of a new "inner church" of "spiritual knights."76 Kotel'nikov recognized Lopukhin's Characteristics of the Inner Church as the inspired word of God; and his followers considered it to be co-equal in authority with the Bible itself. Following Lopukhin's teachings, the spirit bearers claimed to be the true spiritual church of Jung-Stilling's prophecies. They insisted that the reign of the Antichrist had already begun through the

official Church hierarchy, but that Alexander I was a reincarnation of Christ, who would destroy this many-headed serpent and establish spiritual rule on Russian soil.

The spirit bearers caused apprehension not only by their doctrine but even more because of the support felt for them in court circles. Their prophetic teachings bore many points of resemblance with occult Masonry and Mme Tatarinova's circle. A long series of interrogations of Kotel'nikov throughout 1823-4 revealed considerable indecision about how to deal with such a figure.

A second illustration of links between the mystical aristocracy and the sectarian masses may be found in the remarkable preacher Theodosius Levitsky, who arrived in St. Petersburg in 1823, and began prophesying the imminent end of the world.77 He had been an active evangelist among Old Believers in White Russia and had found Jung-Stilling's prophetic writings an invaluable asset. His works had made an impression on Golitsyn, for he proposed to bring the Jews into the new inner church. Levitsky had preached among Jews in White Russia and sought to remind Christians that the Jews were to re-enter the Church just prior to the millennium. Baader had attached importance to the fact that Martinez de Pasqually, the founder of higher order Masonry, claimed to be "at the same time a Jew and a Christian" and had revived for humanity "the ancient alliance not only in its forms, but in its magical powers."78 Martinez's "elected Cohens" and other higher orders of Masonry frequently invoked Jewish words and symbols and sometimes even the Jewish Kabbala as aids for their spiritual quest-particularly -in White Russia, where there was a large Jewish population and some Jewish participation in Masonic activities.79

The idea of a new church unifying Christians and Jews was gaining grass roots support in the Orel-Voronezh region with the sudden appearance of the Sabbatarian (subbotniki) sect. They added to the usual rejection of Orthodox forms of worship opposition to the doctrine of the trinity, celebration of Saturday as the sabbath, and the rite of circumcision. The sect made its first appearance in the second half of Alexander's reign. Though the added increase in strength from the Synod's estimate of fifteen hundred in 1819 to the Council of Ministers' estimate of twenty thousand the following year probably reflects less an increase in real strength than a desire of the latter body to undercut Golitsyn, the sect was gaining strength. A new secret census confirmed the importance of the sect, which apparently included Karaite as well as Talmudic Jews. It taught that all men could be rabbis and that the coming Messiah would be an occult philosopher who would unlock the secrets of the universe.80

As it became evident in the last years of Alexander's life that there

would be no universal church on Russian soil, those who continued to believe in it became darkly apocalyptical. In St. Petersburg Levitsky preached the need for repentance in a famous sermon, "The Catastrophic Flood"; Kotel'nikov began to practice daily communion with his followers in imitation of the early apostles and in expectation of the coming end of the world. He addressed two meditations on the apocalypse, The Cruel Sickle, to the Tsar and his wife, likening St. Petersburg to Sodom and beseeching him to join the fellowship of the spirit bearers who alone would be spared in the coming judgment.

By 1824 many of the Tsar's key advisers had concluded that a subversive plot against the established order lay behind all this ferment; and that Jung-Stilling's prophetic writings contained the "hidden plan of revolution."81 Beginning in 1824 Levitsky was incarcerated in a monastery on Lake Ladoga; Kotel'nikov sent first to Schliisselburg prison, then to distant Solovetsk; Gosner and Fesler expelled from the country; Golitsyn relieved of all his positions of ecclesiastical authority; and harsh measures enacted to suppress the Sabbatarians. The Bible Society was weakened and soon shut altogether "in order not to produce schism in the church."82