The change in the calendar, by which New Year's Day was transferred from September to January, was the destruction of "the years of our Lord," and the introduction of the years of Satan in their place.

Of the ingenious arguments by which these theses were supported, I may quote one by way of illustration.

The world, it was explained, could not have been created in January as the new calendar seemed to indicate, because apples are not ripe at that season, and consequently Eve could not have been tempted in the way described!* * I found this ingenious argument in one of the polemical treatises of the Old Believers.
These ideas regarding Peter and his reforms were strongly confirmed by the vigorous persecutions which took place during the earlier years of his reign.

The Nonconformists were constantly convicted of political disaffection--especially of "insulting the Imperial Majesty"-- and were accordingly flogged, tortured, and beheaded without mercy.

But when Peter had succeeded in putting down all armed opposition, and found that the movement was no longer dangerous for the throne, he adopted a policy more in accordance with his personal character.