Brewer's: Skopts, Skopti

or White Doves, A Russian religious sect who, taking Matt. xix. 12 and Luke xxiii. 29 as the bases of their creed, are all eunuchs, and the women are mutilated in a most barbarous manner, as they deem it a Christian grace not to be able to bear children. They are vegetarians and total abstainers. Origen was a Skopt in everything but name.

“Look at the Mormons, the Skopts, the Shakers, the Howling Dervishes, the Theosophists, and the Fakirs.” —With the immortals vol. ii. p. 50.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Related Content