A unique artefact, of course, and the most astonishing thing is that for its own time this mask of an eminent preacher of the Covenanter movement was a far more ordinary phenomenon than it is for us

A unique artefact, of course, and the most astonishing thing is that for its own time this mask of an eminent preacher of the Covenanter movement was a far more ordinary phenomenon than it is for us. Alexander Peden wore this mask not as some manifesto but, as historians write, as a disguise. Mark you, to hide from the king's bloodhounds a man would put on a frightening mask with protruding teeth and tufts of what may well be his own hair in the beard! And now try to picture Navalny in this mask!