Springers

the jumping sect among the Ingrians (a tribe belonging to the Tchudic branch of the Finns), which traces its origin to 1813. Proceeding from a religious excitement independent of the Church, they came to the conviction that every individual required the direct illumination of the Holy Spirit in order to his salvation. They also soon believed that they enjoyed this illumination, and ecstatic praying, singing, and crying, connected with clapping of hands and jumping at their meetings, gave evidence of being possessed by the Holy Spirit. This special illumination required as correlative also a special holiness, and this was sought not only in despising marriage, but also in abstaining from meat, beer, brandy, and tobacco. He who applied for admission into the sect was required to prove, nudus super nudam, before the eyes of the meeting that the old Adam with his sexual susceptibility was dead in him. The "holy love" which they placed in the stead of marriage also led here, as ever, to fleshly errors, and this was the reason why many of them, after the example of the SKOPZI (q.v.), with whom they were probably connected, chose the much more certain means of castration. Authors and chiefs of the sect were named, and were said. to have been present at meetings, but the civil authorities were not able to get hold of them. The sect is now near its end. See Kurtz, Church History, 2, 406.