[63] L. Sichler, Hist. de la litt. Russe, 1887, pp. 88–89, 139. Cp. Rambaud, Hist. de Russie, 2e édit. pp. 249, 259, etc. (Eng. tr. i, 309, 321, 328). [↑]
[64] R. N. Bain, The First Romanovs, 1905, pp. 136–51; Rambaud, p. 333 (tr. i, 414–17). The struggle (1654) elicited old forms of heresy, going back to Manicheism and Gnosticism. In this furious schism Nikon destroyed irregular ikons or sacred images; and savage persecutions resulted from his insistence that the faithful should use three fingers instead of two in crossing themselves. Many resisted to the death. [↑]
[65] Prince Serge Wolkonsky, Russian History and Literature, 1897, pp. 98–101. [↑]
[66] Morfill, History of Russia, 1902, p. 14; Bain, p. 201. [↑]
[67] Cp. Wolkonsky, p. 101. [↑]
[68] C. E. Turner, Studies in Russian Literature, 1882, p. 2. [↑]
[69] Id. pp. 16, 17, 25, 26, 40; Sichler, p. 148. [↑]
[70] Sichler, p. 139. Peter’s dislike of monks won him the repute of a freethinker. Morfill, p. 97. He was actually attacked as “Antichrist” in a printed pamphlet on the score of his innovations. Personally, he detested religious persecution, and was willing to tolerate anybody but Jews; but he had to let persecution take place; and even to consent to removing statues of pagan deities from his palace. Bain, pp. 304–309. [↑]
[72] Turner, p. 22. Kantemir was the friend of Bolingbroke and Montesquieu in Paris. [↑]