the prayers of their service. On this score it has been content with partial acquiescence. The supplication of the national Church for the emperor is long, minutely designating each member of the imperial family, with repeated invocations for the "very pious, very faithful" emperor, "Defender of Orthodoxy," "Head of the Church;" laying stress on his titles as spiritual chief as well as temporal lord. The recognition of his qualities, in this respect, has always been, and is, especially obnoxious to the Bezpopovtsi.
When Anna proposed to send a high commissioner to visit their colonies on the River Vyg, and bestow upon them marks of her imperial favor, they were desirous of evincing their sense of her gracious condescension, and agreed to comply with the custom of her other subjects, and introduce the name of the sovereign in their religious services. They could not, however, accept the established formula, or recognize the sacred appellations of "Orthodox" and "Head of the Church;" nor could they sanction the use of the foreign and impious designation of "Emperor;" but they consented to offer up prayers for their ruler under the national and venerated title of "Tsar." A minority of their number refused to make even this concession, and, headed by Feodoceï, seceded from the main body and maintained their opposition to imperial authority. Time has, however, for the great majority, triumphed over the severity of their principles, as well as over their prejudices; and the elders of Praobrajenski, the headquarters of the obstinate Feodocians, have, like the Old Believers of Rogojski, sent loyal addresses and presents to the emperor and his children.
The loyalty of these sectarians has been severely tried in more recent days, during the Nihilist movement, but it has never wavered. Nihilist writers acknowledge
