Untitled

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 209, 6 April 1877, Page 13

It is rumoured in England that the Russians are being inflamed to a new crusade by an enthusiast who is like a reincarnation of Peter the Hermit, so fiery are his utterances, and so insanely devout his purpose. This man is described as a very wealthy citizen of Moscow, formerly in the Russian army, who declares he has a mission from God to rouse the Russians to a holy war which shall sweep the Turks from Europe and release the Slavs from their oppressors Beginning at Moscow, where the council granted some millions of roubles towards the military preparations, this prophet went southward to the Czar's seat of Livadia, and there announced to him the will of the Most High, Prince Gortschakoff in introducing him to the presence. Since then the preacher tells the populace that he is permitted to say that the "father of his people "will not fad the cause of God at the coming crisis. When he returned to Moscow, it was the triumph of a conqueror. The magistrates municipal councils, and the corporations headed a procession of the inhabitants that flocked to lead him in. This is a wild story but we cannot say an impossible one. *'