In these vast wildernesses, covered with impenetrable for-



TBB BASCOL. 255

eats, infested with wild animals, and cut up by deep seas,
rivers, and marshes, the Rascolniks were better protected
than anywhere else. Bat even here their persecutors did
not leave them in peace.
The Govermcnt started a regnlar chase after them, and in
1687 issaed a special ukase, commanding the aatborities of
all the northern regions '* to look to it carefully that the
Rascolniks did not dwell in the woods, and that whenever
they were, heard of, a body of armed men should be de-
spatched in pursuit, so that their refuges might be discov-
ered and destroyed and their property confiscated, and every
man, woman, and child apprehended, in order that their
abominable heresy might be exterminated without any
chance of revival."

In 1689 this order was repeated in terms more stringent
still, under the penalty of death for negligence.
Special officers were appointed for superintending the
hunt after Rascolniks.
In 1693 there was issued another ukase to the same effect,
with an amendment with respect to their buildings and
property ; everything was to be burned to the ground, '^ in
order that their companions should nowhere find any ref-
ngc."

This Draconian policy towards the Rascolniks was per-
sisted in for more than thirty years without relaxation.
Hunted down from one part of the country to another, the
Rascolniks were scattered far and wide through the land,
and spread the seeds of their creed.
