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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Patriarch Nikon is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in Russian church history. A zealous, although needlessly harsh and domineering, reformer of the church, forceful to the point of being dictatorial in the exercise of his patriarchal office, his endeavor to make the church independent of the state precipitated a struggle which in the days of Peter the Great culminated in the abolition of the patriarchate and the subjugation of the church.
1 Znamensky, P., Rukovodstvo k russkoi tserkovnoi istorii (Kazan, 1888), 196.Google Scholar
2 Pascal, Pierre, Avvakum et les débuts du Raskol (Paris, 1938), 123.Google Scholar The chronology of Nikon's life at this point is in some doubt.
3 The date is not definitely known, but the last document at Kozheyezero bearing Nikon's signature is dated on February 3, 1646. Ibid., 123.
4 Ibid., 132.
5 Znamensky, , Rukovodstvo, 198.Google Scholar
6 that is, Byzantine Emperors.
7 Quoted from Palmer, W., The Patriarch and the Tsar, III, 383Google Scholar, in Reyburn, Hugh Y., The Story of the Russian Church (London, 1924), 143.Google Scholar Also in VI. Sokolsky, , “O kharaktere i znachenii Epanagogi,” in Vizantiisky Vremennik, I (St. Petersburg, 1894), 45.Google Scholar Archdeacon Paul remarks that Nikon was granted “supreme power in the appointment and disposal of ecclesiastical offices.” Laura Riddings, ed., The Travels of Macarius (London, 1936), 36.Google Scholar
8 Sokolsky, “O kharaktere i znachenii Epanagogi,” 45.
9 von Lingenthal, Zachariä, Collectio librorum juris graeco-romani ineditorum (Lipsiae, 1852).Google Scholar
10 Sokolsky, “O kharaktere … Epanagogi,” 17–28.
11 Ibid., 34ff.
12 Ibid., 29.
13 Lingenthal, Collectio, Ch. II, art. 5.
14 Ibid., Chapter III, art. 8.
15 Sokolsky, “O kharaktere …. Epanagogi,” 31.
16 Ibid., 32.
17 Ibid., 33.
18 For the interesting and rather amusing story of the haggling over this affair see Shpakov, A. Ya., Uchrezhdenie patriarshevstva v Rossii (Odessa, 1912)Google Scholar, passim.
19 Paul, archdeacon of Aleppo, who accompanied his father, Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, on a trip to Russia, describes the return of Alexis from this expedition as follows: “Ninety-four towns and castles had been taken by his army, which showed its zeal for the Orthodox Church by slaughtering Jews, Armenians, and Poles, and throwing their children, packed in barrels, into the Dnieper, ‘for nothing could exceed the hatred borne by the Muscovites to all classes of heretics and infidels.’ They led away into captivity a hundred thousand enemies, seven or eight boys and girls being sold in Moscow for a dinar (about ten shillings value) or less.” Ridding, , The Travels of Macarius, 28.Google Scholar
20 Ibid., 34.
21 Such a book as Pierre Pascal's Avvakum et les débuts du Raskol, portrays the whole struggle of Nikon as caused almost exclusively by the latter's “hellenization” of the Russian church. This is the thesis of many older Russian works as well. The thesis of Zyzykin, M. V., in his Patriarkh Nikon (Warsaw, 1931–1939)Google Scholar, that the chief cause of Nikon's deposition was his attempt to force upon the government the Epanagoge theory of the church-state relationship, is not given serious consideration. In fact, Pascal lists in his Bibliography only one of the three volumes of the work. Thus he does not appear to know this important work in its entirety—certainly does not show himself influenced by it.
22 Travels of Macarius, 37.
23 Autobiography, Avvakum's, in three versions, along with his other writings, is found in Pamyatniki istorii staroobryadchestva XVII v. (Leningrad, 1927)Google Scholar; there is an English translation of The Life of the Archpriest Avvacum, tr. by Jane Harrison (London, 1924).Google Scholar
24 Pascal, , Avvakum, 246.Google Scholar
25 The Travels of Macarius, 36.
26 Ibid., 36–37.
27 Zyzykin, M. V., Patriarkh Nikon (Warsaw, 1934), II, 3.Google Scholar
28 Ibid., 17.
29 Ibid., 17.
30 Pascal, , Avvakum, 298.Google Scholar
31 Delo o Patriarkhe Nikone (St. Petersburg, 1879), 1.Google Scholar
32 Znamensky, , Rukovodstvo, 202.Google Scholar
33 Spinka, Matthew, “Acquisition of the Codex Alexandrinus by England,” in The Journal of Religion, XVI (1936), 10–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34 Zyzykin, , Nikon, III, 128.Google Scholar
35 Ibid., II, 19.
36 Ibid., III, 133–134.
37 Ibid., 134.
38 Ibid., 140–41.
39 Ibid., 145.
40 Ibid., 154.
41 Kapterev, N. Th., Patriarkh Nikon i tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich (Sergiev Posad, 1912), II, 490.Google Scholar
