HISTORY OF THE PRIESTLESS 57
anticipation of the second advent produced an epidemic of religious
ecstasy, when the most zealous, not content with passively awaiting
the Archangel's trumpet call, lost patience and strove to expedite
the end. As the Kingdom of God was not coming to them they
would hasten to meet it, and having settled all accounts with the
world they decided to be free of it through suicide, should they not
succeed in attaining the same end by martyrdom. "To die an un-
natural death for the true creed is all one can desire," Avvakum
stated. "What could there be nobler? To be with the martyrs, in
the ranks of Apostles, with the saints, and as for the fire on earth
the suffering is short. . . . Art thou afraid of the furnace? Be bold,
defy it, have no fear! While confronting the furnace there is terror,
but when thou enterest all is forgotten." Avvakum's advice found
proselytes who, not satisfied with their own salvation, propagated
the salvation of the entire world. "I wish," said one of these maxi-
malists of the seventeenth century, "that all Romanov [his native
town], every man, wife, and child, would come to the banks of
the Volga, throw themselves into the waters, and sink to the bottom
so that the temptations of the world should not attract them. And
what is even better: that I might set fire to and burn down the
entire city; what joy if it were to burn from end to end destroying
all the aged and infants, so that none could receive the stamp of
Antichrist." Romanov and Belev would be followed by "all Rus-
sia**; and, perhaps, after Russia the "entire world" would be
destroyed by fire. Full of these hopes, the propagandists of self-
immolation journeyed into the world and spared no words in
convincing the simple-minded listeners:
O brothers and sisters, cease your wanderings and the paying of tributes
to priests. As ye are righteous, ye must long for salvation and with
your wives and children seek the Kingdom of God. Be zealous and do
not weaken; the great martyr Awakurn blesses ye and chants the
"eternal memory.** Flow, flow, like a stream into the fire. Draw nearer,
old man, with thy white locks; stoop down, O maiden, in thy virginal
beauty. Look into this sacred book; are we disquieting or deceiving ye?
Note the style of the words and remember the handwriting. The great
Awakum, the glorious martyr, in every respect like the Apostle Paul,
has written these lines. I reverence these words, for a holy hand has
traced them.