Translated material
Father of triplets
In the spring of 1653, a special circular began to arrive in all corners of the Moscow state, issued by the new patriarch, appointed less than a year earlier, and which led most of the clergy into considerable confusion. This was the so-called “Memory” of Patriarch Nikon, which later became notorious. A document in the form of an ultimatum that prescribes to believers, under threat of severe punishment, several tangible changes in rituals. The most striking of which was the famous three-fingered sign - the requirement to make the sign of the cross using three fingers, and not two, as was always done before.
Neither the author nor the readers of “Memory” knew then that this event would lead to the largest tragedy of the Russian 17th century after the Time of Troubles: to what we call the Church Schism, to the emergence of the Old Believers, to persecutions that affected hundreds of thousands of Russian people, to streams of blood shed by thousands, or even tens of thousands.
The horror of this conflict, in addition to its scale as such, which has been carefully hushed up for centuries for obvious reasons and, as a result, has not really been calculated, also lies in the almost complete absence of serious grounds for it. Unlike the Western European Reformation, prepared by the entire logic of the ideological, political and economic development of Western Europe, our tragedy is based on immeasurably more personal motives, associated with some random coincidences, private misunderstanding of something, ignorance, strengthened by irrational fears, as well as behavioral patterns intended for completely different situations. In fact, it is not so easy to find the ideological axis around which the Russian intellectual elite, and after it, other layers of society, were then divided. A hundred years ago, the disputes between the Josephites and the non-covetous people were already deep in the past and, as if, had been firmly forgotten by everyone. (But that conflict was just really meaningful, a brother, one might say, of the European Protestant-Catholic confrontation.) The Josephites then won an almost complete victory, and no one around Tsar Alexei seemed to dare to revise the results of past discussions.
One can even say that the original circle, a group of spiritual figures, which generated a spark within itself, from which everything started - and so this group was previously a very close-knit company of like-minded people, close, among other things, to the court of Alexei Mikhailovich. All of them: both Nikon and his main opponents - Neronov and Avvakum, as they say, wanted “the best” and understood this “better” in approximately the same way. Russia, in their opinion, was about to become an Orthodox paradise: a theocratic monarchy, spiritually nourishing the rest of the Orthodox world - regardless of its political status. However, in order to achieve this goal, it was necessary to put in a lot of work: it was obvious to everyone that the current Russian Orthodox life needed significant improvement, if not reform. Moreover, reforms at all levels - from everyday parish life to fundamental doctrinal texts.
There were two difficulties here. Firstly, in the Russian state there was also a secular government, which, due to objective reasons, had slightly different dreams, interests, aspirations and pleasures. And this power could not be ignored. Secondly, the proud Moscow churchmen, who looked at the Orthodox Greeks, Serbs and other Wallachians with arrogant contempt, at the same time clearly felt their own inferiority in comparison with them. For the Muscovites, unlike them, did not have a school: both general and theological education was acquired in Russia very chaotically and in a clearly insufficient volume. Few people knew languages and were able to read primary sources in the original language. Hardly anyone had any idea about the culture of discussion, or, in general, about the systematic nature of theological disciplines. Such unstructured education is called narration - and it was precisely this that was characteristic of Moscow scribes. While their fellow Orthodox Christians, who they despised, as a rule, had behind them the right courses in universities and academies - in Italy, Poland, and even in Kiev, where, in 1632, in response to the challenge of the multi-confessionalism of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the first Russian higher education institution arose The institution is the Orthodox Kiev-Mohyla Academy.
It was this complex, coupled with an eye on the omnipotent secular power, faced with an uncontrollable thirst for activity, that gave birth to a monster: the wildest confusion, the bitterness of everyone against everyone and an inevitable crisis on a national scale. However, the reign of Alexei the Quiet was marked by a number of such bloody crises that arose almost out of the blue - he was a very inept leader of the state.
Someday we will talk about the history of the Schism in more detail, but now we will talk about the fate and personality of Patriarch Nikon, whose very name became a symbol of this drama. Even though this man played an active role in it only at the very beginning - in the six short years of his patriarchate, which ended on July 20 (New Art), 1658. Everything at that moment was still ahead - including the Local Council of 1667, which passed cruel verdicts separately on the former Patriarch Nikon and his former opponents - Avvakum and his comrades.
Nikon was born on June 3 (NS) 1605 in the village of Veldeminovo not far from Nizhny Novgorod. Thus, he became a fellow countryman to his main opponent - Archpriest Avvakum. In fact, there are many similarities in their destinies, although there are also many differences: unlike the hereditary priest Avvakum, Nikon - in the world Nikita the son of Minin - came from a very peasant family. He was a man of gigantic size and heroic build - then, having become a patriarch, he is said to have worn liturgical vestments weighing several pounds during long services and religious processions. Their physical strength was also matched by their character: in Rus' such people were called ardent - strong-willed, warlike, not inclined to compromise, subjugating those around them, they often become leaders in critical periods... Nikon managed to be born too late - the Time of Troubles, in which he inevitably became would have been the second ataman Zarutsky or another False Dmitry, was now behind us, and in conditions of relative stability, the powerful will of the Nizhny Novgorod citizen, capable of cutting the knots of crises, became, on the contrary, a generator of new crises.
As a child, the future patriarch was a permanent victim of a cruel stepmother, who beat him almost to death. Having escaped from her to the Makaryevsky Zheltovodsky Monastery, Nikita began his teaching - reading books, praying. He returned home at the age of nineteen - he buried his father, got married and soon accepted the priesthood. He served in the village of Lyskovo on the banks of the Volga - right opposite the place where the famous Makaryev fairs were held. Nikon became so popular as a priest that Moscow merchants who heard about him invited him to the capital. Having moved, he served in the parish for another 10 years, until a turning point in his life happened: one after another, his three sons died and Nikon, who took this as a sign, decides to take monasticism (having persuaded his wife to do the same). After which he leaves for Solovki to the Anzersky monastery under the leadership of Elder Eleazar, where he takes monastic vows. Nikon at that time had already turned 30. In fact, this was the real beginning of his career: Elder Eliazar was a figure in some way connected with the royal person - it was believed that Tsar Michael owed the very birth of the heir to the throne to the prayers of this elder.
In the super-strict monastery of Eliazar, Nikon, apparently, earned special trust, since after some time Eliazar takes him with him to Moscow - to collect donations from serious people. During that trip, Nikon was introduced to Tsar Michael. Soon, however, upon returning from this trip, a serious conflict occurs between Nikon and Eleazar (a reflection of the extremely complicated situations within the Solovetsky brethren), as a result of which Nikon leaves the monastery. And he doesn’t just leave - he flees for his life, almost drowning on the way during a storm in Onega Bay. (On the island closest to this place he would later build a personal monastery - the Cross).
Having saved himself and walked 120 versts, Nikon reached the Kozheezerskaya monastery not far from Kargopol, where a few years later he became abbot. In 1648, forty-three-year-old Nikon again visited Moscow on some monastic business, and during this trip he was received by the new king, eighteen-year-old Alexei Mikhailovich.
And then something very similar to love at first sight happened. Fascinated by the stern northern abbot, the tsar does not let him leave Moscow - Nikon becomes the archimandrite of the court Novo-Spassky Monastery - the family tomb of the Romanovs. In a short time, Nikon becomes an extremely popular and influential person in the royal circle, having an unprecedented amount of direct access to the first person of the state. In 1649, Alexei Mikhailovich promoted his new friend to the second most important post in the Russian church hierarchy: Nikon became the Metropolitan of Novgorod.
A year later, during the revolt of the Novgorod poor, Nikon showed an example of personal courage, composure, and (after the suppression of the uprising by the troops of Prince Khovansky) - mercy. Thus, the metropolitan was not afraid to hide in his chambers the hated governor Khilkov, personally went out to the butchers who came for Khilkov, even suffered a beating from them, but did not stop admonishing them and threatening with anathema to those who persisted. In the Novgorod diocese, Nikon carried out a number of reforms in church life, without even trying to coordinate them with the then patriarch, Joseph.
An important initiative of Nikon was the transfer of the relics of Metropolitan Philip (Kolychev) destroyed by Ivan the Terrible to the Kremlin Assumption Cathedral - it was Nikon who went to Solovki for these relics in 1652. It is difficult to say what symbolic meaning Tsar Alexei invested in this undertaking; as for Nikon, there cannot be two opinions: for him, the tragedy of Philip is the clearest example of the moral superiority of church power over secular power. In the same vein, the transfer of the remains of two other deceased hierarchs should be interpreted: Patriarch Job, who suffered from the False Dmitry, and Patriarch Hermogenes, a victim of the Seven Boyars.
While Nikon was traveling to Solovki, Patriarch Joseph, unpopular and unloved by the tsar, died suddenly, and on August 1, 1652, the former Metropolitan of Novgorod became the full-fledged head of the Russian church. He, however, did not immediately agree to the investiture - forcing the tsar, together with the highest clergy and boyars, to take a special oath of obedience - which Nikon himself regarded as recognition of the supremacy of church power over secular power. It is unlikely, however, that Alexei Mikhailovich, who took the oath, attributed exactly the same meaning to it.
And then Nikon turned around, as they say, to his full gigantic height. Taking advantage of his influence on the tsar, which seemed almost limitless, Nikon pushed through a number of decisions that increased the status of the church to the detriment of secular power and the current legislation - the cathedral Code of 1649, which Nikon signed ex officio, but treated the relevant articles with undisguised antipathy. Thus, contrary to the letter and spirit of the Code, the judicial immunity of church properties and the people belonging to them was noticeably expanded. The Patriarch, as in the time of Filaret, began to be officially called the Great Sovereign - just like the Tsar. (Filaret, however, was also the blood father of the reigning monarch - but Nikon was not blinded by such trifles.) The activity of verifying liturgical books, which became one of the sources of the coming schism, contrary to popular belief, began long before Nikon - almost a century earlier. However, under this patriarch, it actually intensified noticeably - without becoming more correct: the reconciliation of books according to rather chaotically selected Greek sources even then became a target for criticism from all parties without exception. Even church councils with the participation of leading authorities from the point of view of Russian people - the primates of the Eastern Orthodox churches - were unable to unravel this tangle of textual confusion and were only able to fix at some point the status quo. But it was Nikon who began the fight against the icons of the new letter: the rapidly spreading fashion in Muscovy for a new type of sacred images, inspired by illustrated bibles of the Dutch and German press. Alas, Nikon was not able to achieve victory in this, and the mid-17th century for art historians today is the boundary separating truly valuable Russian icons from colorful but insignificant (and low-value) works. At the same time, however, it is difficult to label Nikon as an inveterate conservative. Suffice it to say that among his political supporters were such “Westerners” of the reign of Alexei the Quiet as Fyodor Rtishchev and Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin. But among the patriarch’s opponents there were also very influential people - such as boyar Streshnev, according to legend, who taught his poodle to depict the patriarch’s blessing with its paws. That is, the divide did not lie on the planes of reformers/conservatives or Westerners/traditionalists. It should also be noted that within the framework of the same concept of the superiority of church power over secular power, Nikon not only allowed himself to appoint bishops without regard to the sovereign (which was previously unthinkable), but also actively intervened in purely secular issues. Such, for example, as foreign policy: it was he who played the leading role in making the decision to start a war with Sweden. Or an anti-alcohol campaign that yielded no results other than severe disruption of public finances at the most inopportune moment.
The Russian-Swedish war, however, ended in failure. Which, along with other conflicts in which Nikon became increasingly entangled, added trump cards to the party of his opponents. In addition, the tsar himself was becoming more and more mature and was beginning to feel burdened by Nikon’s tutelage. The patriarch's shares began to fall and, in the end, what had to happen happened.
On July 16, 1658, during preparations for the ceremonial meeting of the Georgian prince Teimuraz, a protocol dispute arose, during which the okolnichy Khitrovo hit the metropolitan boyar Prince on the forehead with a stick. Meshchersky. Despite the patriarch's complaint, the king did not investigate the incident. Moreover, on July 20, the tsar did not honor with his presence the morning service of the Feast of the Placing of the Robe of the Lord - the boyar Romodanovsky sent from him informed the patriarch that “the royal majesty is angry with you. That’s why you didn’t come to matins, and didn’t order him to wait for the liturgy. You neglected royal majesty and you are called the Great Sovereign, and we have one Great Sovereign - the king. The royal majesty honored you as a father and shepherd, but you did not understand. And now the royal majesty ordered to tell you that in the future you should not be written and called the Great Sovereign, and will no longer honor you."
The patriarch's reaction was extremely sharp. After serving the liturgy, he took off his magnificent patriarchal robes, changed into an ordinary monastic cassock and said from the pulpit: “ I was lazy to teach you... From laziness I grew cold and you, seeing my lack of teaching towards you, grew cold from me. From this time will not be your patriarch... ” Then he moved away. In fact, Nikon, who retired to one of the monasteries near Moscow, gave the tsar an ultimatum, sincerely hoping that he, as with the 1652 appointment, would agree to all the conditions of the patriarch in order to return him to his duties. However, he miscalculated: Alexey suddenly showed unexpected firmness and did not particularly persuade his former “son’s friend.”
Then strange years of uncertainty followed: Nikon lived as the de facto ruler of three rich monasteries, and the church was headed by a locum tenens - and there was no talk yet of installing a new patriarch.
Moreover, Nikon, convinced of the futility of his ultimatum communication with the monarch, quickly began to try to take everything back: in correspondence with Alexei and the latter’s authorized persons, Nikon began to claim that he had not renounced the patriarchal rank, but had only left the performance of the relevant functions. The discussion about whether this was true or not went on for a long time and viscously - finally, Nikon, seeing that the chances of returning to power were getting smaller and smaller, took a desperate move. On December 29, 1664, he unexpectedly arrived in the Kremlin in patriarchal vestments at the doors of the Assumption Cathedral. There was confusion. The locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Jonah of Rostov, approached Nikon for a blessing, after which he was sent by him to the king with a letter. However, Alexey Mikhailovich was no longer inclined to change his intentions. Nikon was verbally informed that no one was waiting for him here as the acting patriarch. He tried to persist, demanding the king’s own written answer - but in vain. Nikon was told: “ From the cathedral church, go to the Resurrection Monastery as before, but hurry before sunrise, so that nothing unpleasant happens later.” ."
It was a disaster. However, the last point in the conflict was put by the Council of 1667, in which the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, who came to Moscow for material support, took part. Nikon's trial began on December 11. The defendant, who arrived from Voskresensk, was at first demonstratively not allowed into the Kremlin cathedrals. Directly in the meeting room, he was shown a bench to the right of the Tsar, but Nikon refused to sit down and remained on his feet for the entire 8 hours of the meeting.
The king himself accused him. There were many faults: unauthorized resignation from the patriarchate, dishonor to the sovereign in letters to the eastern patriarchs, reproaches to the Code of 1649 and the tsar’s activities in church affairs, reproaches to the Russian church for excommunicating itself from the Catholic Church and accepting the firstfruits from the Roman churches , and much more. The outcome was predetermined and everyone understood this - and therefore the accused behaved selflessly and defiantly, sometimes, armed with evil sarcasm, he even went on a verbal attack on his opponents: “I know even without your teaching how to live, and that the hood in the panagia was removed from me , and you would divide the pearls and panagia from the hood among yourselves, and the pearls would get 5 and 6 spools or more, and 10 gold pieces ."
As a result, the former patriarch was exiled to the Ferapontov Monastery, where at first he was kept in extremely harsh conditions. However, gradually the royal disgrace began to soften - in 1672 he was allowed to leave his cell, read any books, and receive pardons. But two years later, the regime was tightened again thanks to the new patriarch, Joachim, Nikon’s old enemy. It is known that before his death (02/09/1676) Alexei Mikhailovich asked Nikon for forgiveness, but with the change of monarch the prisoner’s maintenance did not improve. He was even transferred to the Kirillov Monastery, locked in a cramped cell with no right to go out except to church. Changes happened only at the very end of Fyodor Alekseevich’s reign, when the tsar’s new associates decided to use the former patriarch as part of their large-scale intentions. The new is the well-forgotten old: the young tsar’s entourage conceived something that seemed close to the aspirations of Kirill’s prisoner: the idea was born to create an Orthodox analogy of the institution of the Pope. This Orthodox pope would become the supreme head of the Orthodox world - above all the patriarchs of local churches. Of course, he had to be in Moscow - because, as you know, it is the Third Rome. The difference from Nikon’s previous ideal was this: in the new system, it was not the tsar who served the triumph of global Orthodox unity, but, on the contrary, the Orthodox papacy became an instrument of foreign policy expansion of secular power. Having searched for a candidate for the post of potential head of all Orthodox Christians in the world, these people settled on Nikon’s candidacy - fortunately, Tsar Fedor had a certain sympathy for him, and of his serious enemies, only Patriarch Joachim was now in power. Despite his resistance, Nikon was summoned by royal decree to the Resurrection Monastery near Moscow, and they addressed him using the formulas for addressing the patriarch, and not a defrocked monk. It is difficult to say what would have happened next, but on August 27, 1681, Nikon died on the road - opposite the Tolgsky Monastery near Yaroslavl.