Word: heresiarch
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...first acts of the Bolshevik Government in 1918 was to whittle down the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Church was soon split into feuding factions. Biggest chip off the old flock was the schismatic, Bolshevik-supported Living Church whose heresiarch was Alexander Vedensky, formerly an Archpriest (a Russian clerical rank one step higher than a priest). Later Vedensky split with the Living Church, finally participated in an ecclesiastical fusion called the New Church. But as the Soviet Government's flirtation with the Orthodox Church got under way, Vedensky dropped out of sight, in the Russian fashion...
...pope (Stalin), saints (Marx, Engels, Lenin), martyrs (Liebknecht, Luxemburg), doctrine (communist "line"). As in other religions, heresies and schisms occasionally crop up. Heretics are sometimes exiled, often handed over to the secular arm (shot), always excommunicated. Most serious heresy in the eyes of Stalinist true believers is Trotskyism, whose heresiarch is Leon Trotsky, now an exile in Mexico. Trotsky's heretical sect styles itself the Fourth International (5,000 communicants). Until last week its U. S. congregation was the Socialist Workers Party (membership: 2,000), of which hardbitten James Patrick Cannon and full-lipped Max Schachtman were co-pastors...
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