Then arose the dissent in the Russian Church. The Patriarch, Nikon, undertook the correction of all the printed and manuscript copies of the liturgy; and by a decree of an Ecclesiastical Council, the corrected books were ordered to be the only ones used, and the command was given that all others should be destroyed. This measure excited the greatest hostility. It seems strange that passions should be roused, and people be found willing to suffer martyrdom, for such seemingly unimportant questions,—as to whether the name of Jesus should be pronounced, “Isus,” or “Yisus”; whether, in a certain portion of the morning service, the word “Hallelujah” should be repeated twice or thrice; and whether the sign of the cross should be made with the two fore-fingers extended, or with the fore-fingers and the thumb, as denoting the Trinity. But such was the case; and so great was the commotion, that arms were resorted to by the Court, at Moscow, to enforce these innovations; and some of the most obstinate opposers were even executed. In the east of Russia, the inhabitants of whole villages shut themselves up in their houses, and setting fire to them, perished in the flames, rather than accept a new, and what they called a diabolical, religion. The government was at length successful, however, and revised service-books were introduced into the churches. At the present day, nearly one-half of the Russians belong in spirit, if not openly, to the Dissenters; and the reconciliation between them and the official church has only been accomplished by relaxing the rigor of the laws of persecution. During the reign of Alexis, the father of Peter the Great, much importance was attached to the length and fulness of the Czar’s title. An accidental omission of a single word or letter from this long and cumbrous official title was considered an act of personal disrespect to the prince, almost equal to high treason, and was punished far more severely than many terrible crimes. The shortest title of the Czar that could possibly be used, and which it was necessary to repeat every time that the Czar’s name was mentioned in document, petition, or discourse, was “The Great Lord Czar and Grand Duke Alexis Micháilovitch, of all Great and Little and White Russia Autocrat.” The complete title contained one hundred and twenty-three words, which we have not space to give. Alexis, having lost his first wife, in 1669, married for his second wife Natalia Narýshkin, who was a ward of Matvéief, the chief minister of the Czar. Their meeting was in this manner: One evening, when the Czar was at Matvéief’s house, the wife and pretty ward of the prime minister came into the room, bringing the usual refreshments of cups of _vodka_, the caviare, and smoked fish, which are eaten by the Russians before dinner or supper. The widowed Czar was struck by the pretty face of the tall, shapely, black-eyed girl, and, on going away, said to Matvéief that he would find a bridegroom for his pretty ward.