In 1971, a significant event, which was hardly noticed by anyone and was practically not covered in the Soviet press, took place in Moscow. By the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, the old Russian (schismatic) ceremonies were officially recognized as "equal" to the new one. Thus, the last page of the centuries-old confrontation between Orthodox Christians and Old Believers was finally closed. A confrontation that did not bring glory to either side and which cost the people of Russia dearly. What are the reasons for the split in the church in our country and could it have been avoided?
Temple-bell tower of the Old Believer Church at Rogozhskaya Zastava
It is usually said that unscrupulous scribes distorted the data of church books, and Nikon's reform restored "true" Orthodoxy. This is partly true, since from the pen of some ancient Russian scribes, in fact, a lot of "apocryphal" not known to the world came out. In one of these "Gospels", in the story of the birth of Christ, in addition to traditional biblical characters, a certain midwife Solomonia is the protagonist. At the same time, it has been proven that under Vladimir Svyatoslavich, Russians were baptized with two fingers, used eight-pointed crosses, an especially hallelujah, when performing rituals they walked "salting" (in the sun), etc. The fact is that in the era of the Christianization of Rus in Byzantium they used two statutes: Jerusalem and Studio. The Russians adopted the Studite charter, and in all other Orthodox countries, over time, the Jerusalem rule prevailed: in the 12th century it was adopted on Athos, by the beginning of the 14th century - in Byzantium, then - in the South Slavic churches. Thus, in the 17th century, Russia remained the only Orthodox state whose church used the Studian charter. The discrepancies between the Greek and Russian liturgical books, thanks to the pilgrims, were known long before Nikon. Already at the end of the 1640s, the need to correct "mistakes" was widely discussed in the court circle of "zealots of ancient piety", which, in addition to Nikon, included the archpriest of the Annunciation Cathedral, Stephan Vonifatiev, the archpriest of the Kazan Cathedral, Ivan Neronov, and even the famous archpriest Avvakum from Yuryevets -Povolzhsky. Disputes were mainly about what should be considered a model of "ancient piety": the decisions of the Stoglav Council of 1551 or exclusively Greek texts. Nikon, who came to power in 1652, is known to have made a choice in favor of the Greek models.
Patriarch Nikon
One of the reasons for the hasty correction of church books was the news of the pilgrim Arseny Sukhanov that the monks of all Greek monasteries who had gathered on Mount Athos allegedly conciliarly recognized two-fingered as heresy and not only burned the Moscow books in which it was published, but even wanted to burn the elder. from whom these books were found. No confirmation of the truth of this incident has been found either in other Russian sources or abroad. Nevertheless, this message terribly worried Nikon. The letter of the Eastern Patriarchs about the approval of the patriarchate in Russia from 1593, which he found in the book depository, contained the requirement to follow the statutes "without any attachment or withdrawal."And Nikon knew very well that there were discrepancies between the Symbol of Faith, the Holy Liturgy and the Service Book, and the Moscow books of his day, written in Greek and brought to Moscow by Metropolitan Photius. Why, then, did the deviations from the Orthodox Greek canon so alarmed Nikon? The fact is that since the time of the famous Elder Elizarov Monastery (in the Pskov region) Philotheus, who heralded the moral fall of the world and the transformation of Moscow into the Third Rome, in the subconscious of the Russian tsars and the highest hierarchs of the church, the dream of a time when Russia and the Russian Orthodox The Church will gather under their hand Orthodox Christians from all over the world.
Prayer of the monk Philotheus for the Third Rome
And now, when, with the return of Smolensk, the Left-Bank Ukraine and part of the Belarusian lands, this dream, it seemed, began to take on concrete outlines, there was a danger of not being Orthodox enough ourselves. Nikon shared his concerns with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who fully approved his plans, to correct the "mistakes" made by his predecessors, showing the world the full consent of Russia with the Greek Church and the Eastern Patriarchs, and endowed the Patriarch with unprecedented powers.
Since Jerusalem in Palestine had long been lost, New Jerusalem was created near the Third Rome, the center of which was the Resurrection Monastery near the city of Istra. The hill on which the construction began was named Mount Zion, the Istra River - Jordan, and one of its tributaries - Kidron. Mount Tabor, the Garden of Gethsemane, Bethany appeared in the vicinity. The main cathedral was built on the model of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but not according to drawings, but according to the stories of pilgrims. The result was quite curious: not a copy was built, but a kind of fantasy on a given theme, and now we can see this Jerusalem temple through the eyes of Russian masters of the 17th century.
Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulcher), Jerusalem
Resurrection Cathedral, New Jerusalem
Tomb of Christ, Temple of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulcher), Jerusalem
Tomb of Christ, Resurrection Monastery, New Jerusalem
But let us return to 1653, in which, before the onset of Great Lent, Nikon sent out to all Moscow churches "Memory", in which it was ordered from now on to put not numerous earthly obeisances during the divine service, but "to do bows in the belt, even three fingers would were baptized. " The first spark of the great fire ran through the Moscow churches: many said that, seduced into heresy by Arseny the Greek, the patriarch of the true Orthodox was bringing under the curse of the Stoglava Cathedral, which, under Metropolitan Cyprian, forced the Pskovites to return to two-fingered fists. Realizing the danger of a new turmoil, Nikon and Alexei Mikhailovich tried to suppress discontent in the bud through repression. Many of those who disagreed were whipped and sent to remote monasteries, among them were the archpriest of the Kazan Cathedral Avvakum and Ivan Neronov, the archpriest Danila of Kostroma.
“With fire and a whip, and with the gallows, they want to establish the faith! Which apostles taught this way? Do not know. My Christ did not order our apostles to teach this way,”said Archpriest Avvakum later, and it is difficult to disagree with him.
HELL. Kivshenko. Patriarch Nikon Offers New Liturgical Books
In the spring of 1654 Nikon tried to eliminate the disagreement at the Church Council. It was attended by 5 metropolitans, 4 archbishops, 1 bishop, 11 archimandrites and abbots, and 13 protopoles. The questions presented to them were, in general, secondary and unprincipled and did not allow the possibility of negative answers. The highest hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church could not, and did not want to, openly declare their disagreement with the statutes approved by the Ecumenical Patriarchs and the great Teachers of the Church on such insignificant reasons as: is it necessary to leave the Royal Gates open from the beginning of the Liturgy until the great march? Or can bigamists be allowed to sing on the pulpit? And only two main and fundamental questions were not brought up for discussion by the hierarchs Nikon: about replacing three-fingered with two-fingered and replacing earthly bows with belt bows. The idea of the patriarch was wise and in his own way brilliant: to announce to the whole country that ALL the innovations recommended by him were approved by the council of the country's highest hierarchs and therefore are obligatory for execution in all churches of Russia. This cunning combination was upset by Bishop Pavel of Kolomna and Kashira, who, having signed the Cathedral Code, made a reservation that he remained unconvinced about bowing to the ground. Nikon's anger was terrible: Paul was deprived of the rank of not only bishop, but also priestly, he was taken to the Novgorod lands and burned in an empty house. This zeal of Nikon surprised even some foreign patriarchs.
“I see from the letters of your prevalence that you strongly complain about disagreement in some rituals … and you think whether different rites do harm to our faith,” Patriarch Paisius of Constantinople wrote to Nikon, “But we correct the fear, for we have the apostle's command to run only heretics and discord, which, although they seem to agree with the Orthodox in the main dogmas, have their own special teachings, alien to the general belief of the Church. But if it happens that any Church differs from others in some statutes that are not necessary and essential in the faith, what are: the time of the liturgy or with what fingers the priest should bless, then this does not make any division between the believers, if only one and the same faith."
But Nikon did not want to hear Paisius, and at the Council of 1656, with the blessing of the Patriarch of Antioch and the Metropolitan of Serbia present there, he excommunicated everyone who performed double-fingered baptism. However, in 1658 the situation suddenly changed. A number of historians believe that the documents of those years contain data that indirectly indicate that Nikon at that time tried to roll back his reforms and restore the unity of the Russian Church. He not only made peace with the exiled Ivan Neronov, but even allowed him to conduct divine services according to old books. And it was at this time that there was a cooling between Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who ceased to invite the patriarch, did not appear at the services he held, and forbade him to continue to be called a great sovereign. Some historians are inclined to believe that such a cooling off of the tsar in relation to the yesterday's irreplaceable patriarch was precisely because of his attempts to flirt with the schismatics, and not at all because of Nikon's proud and independent behavior.
Alexey Mikhailovich Romanov, Kolomenskoye Museum
Carrying out his reforms, Nikon, in essence, embodied the ideas of the tsar, who continued to claim primacy in the Orthodox world and believed that the use of the Studio charter could alienate co-religionists in other countries from Russia. The curtailment of church reforms was not part of the tsar's plans, and therefore the laudatory verses of Simeon of Polotsk seemed to Alexei Mikhailovich more important than the attempts of Nikon, who realized his mistakes, to establish religious peace in the country.
Simeon Polotsky
The denouement came on July 10, 1658, when, after a divine service in the Assumption Cathedral, Nikon announced his desire to leave the post of patriarch. He took off his miter, omophorion, sakkos and, donning a black cloak "with springs" (that is, a bishop's) and a black hood, went to the Cross Monastery on the White Sea. In February 1660, by the decision of Alexei Mikhailovich, a new Council was assembled, which for 6 months decided what to do with the rebellious patriarch. In the end, the steward Pushkin was sent to Beloye mine, who in March 1661 brought Nikon's answer:
“The Ecumenical Patriarchs gave me the miter, and it is impossible for the metropolitan to place the miter on the patriarch. I left the throne, but did not leave the bishopric … How can a newly elected patriarch be installed without me? If the sovereign will deign to me to be in Moscow, then by the decree of his newly elected patriarch, I will appoint and, having accepted the gracious forgiveness from the sovereign, bidding farewell to the bishops and giving everyone a blessing, I will go to the monastery."
It should be admitted that Nikon's arguments were quite logical, and his position was quite reasonable and peaceful. But for some reason a compromise with the rebellious patriarch was not part of Alexei Mikhailovich's plans. He instructed the man who arrived in Moscow in February 1662 to prepare the official removal of Nikon. Paisius Ligaridus, a man who was defrocked as Metropolitan of the Baptist Monastery of Gaze for his ties with Catholic Rome, accused by Patriarch Dositheus of having relations “with such heretics that are neither alive nor dead in Jerusalem,” cursed in Jerusalem and Constantinople, anathematized by the ecumenical patriarchs Parthenius II, Methodius, Paisius and Nectarius. For the trial of Nikon, this international adventurer invited the deposed Patriarchs of Antioch Macarius and Alexandria Paisius to Moscow. To give the court a semblance of legality, Alexei Mikhailovich had to send rich gifts to the Turkish sultan, who went to meet Moscow and sold the firmans at a reasonable price to return the chairs to the retired patriarchs. Subsequently, this trinity of impostors turned the matter so that they should not judge Nikon, but the Russian Church, which had deviated from Orthodoxy. Not content with the overthrow of Nikon, they condemned and cursed the decisions of the Hundred-Glavian Council, accusing not just anyone of "ignorance and folly", but the saint and miracle-worker Macarius himself, who created the "Chetya of the Menaion." And the Council of 1667, held under the leadership of the same Macarius and Paisius, openly called all (!) The saints of the Russian Church non-Orthodox. Alexei Mikhailovich, claiming the role of Caesar of the Third Rome, had to endure this humiliation. With great difficulty, the impostors were expelled from Russia. According to eyewitnesses, the damage caused by their stay in Moscow was comparable to that of an enemy invasion. Their carts filled with furs, expensive fabrics, precious cups, church utensils and many other gifts stretched out almost a mile. Paisiy Ligarid, who did not want to leave voluntarily, in 1672 was forcibly put on a cart and under guard was taken all the way to Kiev. They left behind an agitated, restless, and divided country into two irreconcilable camps.
Miloradovich S. D. "Trial of Patriarch Nikon"
The beginning of the persecution of the Old Believers gave the country two martyrs recognized (even by their opponents): Archpriest Avvakum and Boyarina Morozov. The charm of the personality of these implacable fighters for "ancient piety" is so great that they became the heroes of numerous paintings by Russian artists. Avvakum in 1653 was exiled to Siberia for 10 years.
S. D. Miloradovich. "Avvakum's journey across Siberia"
Then he was sent to Pustozersk, where he spent 15 years in an earthen prison.
V. E. Nesterov, "Protopop Avvakum"
The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, written by him, made such an impression on the readers, and became such a significant work that some even call him the ancestor of Russian literature. After the burning of Avvakum in Pustozersk in 1682, the Old Believers began to venerate him as a holy martyr.
G. Myasoedov. "Burning of Archpriest Avvakum", 1897
In the homeland of Avvakum, in the village of Grigorovo (Nizhny Novgorod region), a monument was erected to him: the unbroken archpriest raises two fingers above his head - a symbol of ancient piety.
Protopop Avvakum, a monument in the village of Grigorovo
An ardent admirer of Avvakum was the supreme palace noblewoman Theodosia Prokofievna Morozova, who “was served at home by about three hundred people. There were 8000 peasants; there are many friends and relatives; she rode in an expensive carriage, made of mosaics and silver, of six or twelve horses with rattling chains; after her there were about a hundred servants, slaves and slaves, protecting her honor and health. She gave up all this in the name of her faith.
P. Ossovsky, triptych "Raskolniki", fragment
In 1671 she, together with her sister, Evdokia Urusova, was arrested and shackled, was first in the Chudov Monastery, then in Pskovo-Pechersky. Despite the intercession of relatives, and even the patriarch Pitirim and the Tsar's sister Irina Mikhailovna, the sisters of Morozov and Urusov were imprisoned in the earthen prison of the Borovsky prison, where they both died of exhaustion in 1675.
Borovsk, a chapel at the alleged place of death of Boyar Morozova
The famous Spaso-Preobrazhensky Solovetsky Monastery also rebelled against the new service books.
S. D. Miloradovich. "Black Cathedral. The uprising of the Solovetsky Monastery against newly printed books in 1666"
From 1668 to 1676 the siege of the ancient monastery continued, ending in betrayal, the death of 30 monks in an unequal battle with the archers and the execution of 26 monks. The survivors were imprisoned in the Kola and Pustoozersky forts. The massacre of the rebellious monks shocked even those who had seen foreign mercenaries who left their memories of this shameful campaign.
Massacre of participants in the Solovetsky uprising
Imperial ambitions cost dearly both the patriarch who initiated the reform and the monarch who actively supported their implementation. The great-power policy of Alexei Mikhailovich collapsed in the very near future: defeat in the war with Poland, the uprisings of Vasily Us, Stepan Razin, the monks of the Solovetsky Monastery, the copper riot and fires in Moscow, the death of his wife and three children, including the heir to the throne Alexei, crippled the health of the monarch. The birth of Peter I was marked by the first mass self-immolations of Old Believers, which peaked in 1679, when 1,700 schismatics burned down in Tobolsk alone.
G. Myasoedov, "Self-immolation of the schismatics"
It seems incredible, but, according to a number of historians, even during the life of Alexei Mikhailovich and Nestor, the fight against the Old Believers took more Russian lives than the war with Poland or the uprising of Stepan Razin. The efforts of the "quietest" tsar to "legally" remove the patriarch Nikon, who left Moscow, but refused to resign, led to unheard-of humiliation not only of the Russian Orthodox Church, but also of the Russian state. Alexey Mikhailovich was dying terribly:
"We were relaxed before death, and before that judgment we were condemned, and before endless torments we torment."
It seemed to him that the Solovetsky monks were rubbing his body with saws and it was scary, the dying tsar shouted at the whole palace, begging in moments of enlightenment:
“My Lord, Fathers of Solovetsky, elders! Give birth to me, but I repent of my theft, as if I did wrong, rejected the Christian faith, playing, crucified Christ … and bowed down to your Solovetsky monastery under the sword."
The warlords who besieged the Solovetsky Monastery were ordered to return home, but the messenger was late for a week.
Nikon nevertheless won a moral victory over his royal adversary. Having survived Alexei Mikhailovich for 5 years, he died in Yaroslavl, returning from exile, and was buried as a patriarch in the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery founded by him.
And the religious persecutions of dissidents, unprecedented until then in Russia, not only did not subside with the death of their ideologists and inspirers, but gained special strength. A few months after Nikon's death, a decree was passed on the surrender of the schismatics, not to the church, but to the civil court, and on the destruction of the Old Believer deserts, and a year later the furious Archpriest Avvakum was burnt in Pustozersk. In the future, the bitterness of the parties only grew.
