the "Jedovstchina,"[1] or the sect of the Judaizers, was discovered at Novgorod. It was introduced from Lithuania by a learned Jew, Zachariah, a man profoundly versed in the cabalistic arts, generally believed, in those days, to be the peculiar inheritance of his race, and the source of Solomon's fabled wisdom. Taught in secret, it had already acquired formidable proportions before it was detected. It was supposed to have been grafted upon the former errors of the Strigolniki, which, not yet entirely forgotten, still remained latent in the mysterious undercurrents of popular belief; there was, however, no apparent affiliation or resemblance, save as regards a common hatred of the priesthood and opposition to clerical authority. This new sect rejected entirely the doctrines of the Christian religion; it denied the divinity, and even the existence of the Saviour, proclaiming that the Messiah was yet to come. Apart from circumcision, it inculcated the tenets of the Jewish faith; promulgated in mystery, it was readily received by a credulous, ignorant people, chafing under the onerous exactions of a grasping, covetous priesthood, which it despised more heartily than it feared. The adherents of this sect were scrupulously observant of all the rites and ceremonies of the Orthodox Church, and, by their crafty dissimulation, for a long period they escaped discovery. Among Zachariah's early proselytes were two priests of Novgorod, Alexis and Dionysius, who, while secretly spreading error, maintained unblemished reputations as faithful ministers of the Church; by their apparent zeal and devotion they gained the confidence of the great prince Ivan III., and were summoned by him to Moscow;
- ↑ Karamsin, voL vL, p. 242; Mouravief, p. 89, and note, p. 383. See above, p. 43. From Jedovstvo—Judaism.
