In Reply to: Old Believers. posted by samtellig on May 2, 2012 at 06:23:52:
"Old Believers" (Starovery) were, in Russian history, a group opposed to Peter the Great's Westernizing reforms, including but not limited to how many fingers to use while making the Sign of the Cross (two for OBs, three for Westernizers, if you were curious) and large beards on priests.
The Old Believers were suppressed mercilessly, often by locking them in their churches and burning the churches to the ground. Which they would, as most of them were wooden.
At some point (I am not an expert on this, just an educated layperson) Peter the Great relented to the point where he allowed priests who went along with the rest of the reforms to pay a tax for the privilege of having a large beard. The priests were given a token or medallion to show they had paid the tax, and some still exist today.
These things I learned from Boris Goldovsky, who was a huge influence on me.
JM
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Follow Ups
- "Old Believers" were characters in Mussorgsky's opera "Khovanshchina." - John Marks 09:48:26 05/02/12 (1)
- Well, then, Sam's "Burn them at the stake" and "vaporize them...in vinyl" comments are historically imprecise. - Enophile 09:55:52 05/02/12 (0)