Table Of ContentPATRIARCH NIKON ON CHURCH AND STATE
NIKON'S "REFUTATION"
SLAVISTIC PRINTINGS
AND REPRINTINGS
edited by
C. H. VAN SCHOONEVELD
Indiana University
300
MOUTON PUBLISHERS
BERLIN • NEW YORK • AMSTERDAM
PATRIARCH NIKON
ON CHURCH AND STATE
Nikon's „Refutation"
Edited, with Introduction and Notes
by
Valerie A. Tumins
and George Vernadsky
MOUTON PUBLISHERS
BERLIN • NEW YORK • AMSTERDAM
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Nikon, Patriarch of Moscow and of Russia, 1605-1681
Patriarch Nikon on church and state.
(Slavistic printings and reprintings ; 300)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Nikon, Patriarch of Moscow and of Russia,
1605-1681. 2. Soviet Union-Church history.
3. Church and state-Soviet Union-History-17th
century. I. Tumins, Valerie A. II. Vernadsky,
George, 1887-1973. III. Title. IV. Series.
BX597.N5A36 1982 261.7'0947 82-14407
ISBN 90-279-7676-7
© Copyright 1982 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin. All rights reservered, including those of trans-
lation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form — by photoprint,
microfilm, or any other means — nor transmitted nor translated into a machine language without written
permission from the publisher.
Typesetting: Ines ROmischer, Berlin. — Printing: Druckerei Hildebrand, Berlin. — Binding: Dieter
Mikolai, Berlin. Printed in Germany.
FOREWORD
Patriarch Nikon's "Refutation" or "Destruction" of the
"Questions" addressed by the Boyar Semen Lukjanovic Stresnev
to the titled Metropolitan of Gaza, Paisij Ligarides, and the
latter's answers to Stresnev, is one of the most important
documents of Russian religious and political literature of
the seventeenth century.
The break between Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexej Michaj-
lovic (at whose request Stresnev and Ligarides had written)
was not caused by personal reasons alone. It occurred at a
turning point in the relationship between the Russian Church
and State, between "tsardom" (imperium) and "priesthood"
(sacerdotium).
The great importance of the "Refutation" lies not only in
the clarification of Patriarch Nikon's personal views in
church politics, but also in the clarification of the ideolo-
gical trend to which he belonged, namely, of the reflection
in Russia of the Byzantine teaching about the "harmony of
church and state."
The complete text of Patriarch Nikon's "Refutation" was
published in 1871 in the English translation of William Pal-
mer. It has never been published in Russian except for an ex-
tended excerpt (without any critical apparatus) in Zapiski
Otdelenija Russkoj i Slavjanskoj Archeologii Russkogo Archeo-
logiceskogo Obscestva, II (1861). In addition resumes of the
"Refutation" with quotations from it can be found in V. K-v's
article "Vzgljad Nikona na znacenie patriarsej vlasti" (1881),
in Istorija russkoj cerkvi, XII (1883) by Metropolitan Makarij;
in the second part of Istorióeskoe issledovanie dela Patriar-
cha Nikona by N. Gibbenet (1884), and in vol. II of N.F. Kap-
terev's Patriarch Nikon i Car' Aleksej Michajlovic (1912).
The publication of the complete text has been an urgent need
for the Russian historian for a long time. The time has come
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to fill this gap, and this is the goal of the present edition.
George Vernadsky has given a brief prefatory note about
the work preparatory to this edition and has appended a de-
scription of the manuscript of the "Refutation" published in
this book (the description was sent to him by V.I. Malysev)
as well as information on other known copies, for which he is
grateful to V.I. Malysev. Moreover, Vernadsky has written an
introduction to Nikon's "Refutation" on the historic back-
ground of the event. V.A. Tumins has taken upon herself the
most difficult and exacting task of transcribing the text in
present characters, of editing it, and of writing the philo-
logical introduction and comments.
Valerie A. Tumins
George Vernadsky
6
PREFATORY NOTE
In 1962 I contacted the senior scholar at the Puskin House of
the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Vladimir Ivanovic Maly-
sev, asking him for information about Nikon's "Refutation",
whether the original was extant and what copies had been made
from it. Vladimir Ivanovic responded enthusiastically to my
request, for which I am deeply grateful to him.
V.I. Malysev informed me that the original manuscript has
not been preserved; in any case it has not been discovered
yet. Among the extant copies of the "Refutation" Malysev poin-
ted out one that has never been published, either in full or
in excerpts, and is contained in a codex from the end of the
seventeenth century. In the nineteenth century this codex
belonged to the Monastery of the Cross in Onega. At present
it is in the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism in
Leningrad, in the collection of Old-Russian books, No. 7 6
(see V.I. Malysev's description of this codex in the Appendix).
Malysev specifically suggested the publication of this parti-
cular copy of the "Refutation". Thanks to his efforts I have
received a microfilm of this copy.
In 1964 I spoke to Roman Jakobson about the steps I had
taken toward preparing the Russian text of the "Refutation"
for publication, and I asked him to help me in the realiza-
tion of this goal. Professor Jakobson saw immediately the
value of this work and took upon himself the negotiations
with MOUTON Publishers.
On May 11, 1965, Roman Jakobson informed me that he had
successfully completed the negotiations concerning the publi-
cation, and I gave him the photocopy of the microfilm. With
my consent Roman Jakobson offered the work of transcribing
and editing to one of his former students, Valerie Benediktov-
na Tumina (Miss Valerie A. Tumins), who readily accepted the
task.
George Vernadsky
7
APPENDIX TO THE PREFATORY NOTE
I
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CODEX, WHICH DATES FROM THE END OF
THE SEVENTEENTH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
(Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, Leningrad,
Collection of Old Russian Books, No. 76) by V.I. Malysev.
The codex is from the very end of the seventeenth and the be-
ginning of the eighteenth centuries, in folio, 356 folia,
written by one hand in semi-uncials passing into script. It
has a cardboard binding with a leather spine. The titles and
first letters of each chapter are written in red. As can be
seen from the notes of several readers, the manuscript belon-
ged to the Monastery of the Cross in Onega in the nineteenth
century. The watermark, the crest of the city of Amsterdam,
is the same throughout. Fols. 351-356 are written in the nine-
teenth-century script on paper dated 1790, with the crest of
the city of Jaroslavl' (a bear with a scythe on his shoulder).
At this time apparently the codex was bound.
CONTENTS
Fols. 1-52v. "Information" about the birth and education of
Patriarch Nikon, Ivan Suserin.
Fols. 53-306v. Patriarch Nikon's Refutation or Destruction
of the Boyar S. Stresnev's questions and of Paisij Ligarides's
answers.
Fols. 307-309 No text.
Fols. 309-317 "Most blessed and holy Archbishop of the New
Rome and Lord, Ecumenical Patriarch, Lord Dionisius, in the
8
Holy Spirit beloved and our most supreme brother and father
and our coservant." The beginning: "I kiss the Holiness pray-
ing to God," Nikon's letter, 1666.
Fols. 317-319 Paisius Ligarides's letter to the Tsar "about
the righteous examination."
Fols. 319v.-321 A letter of Callist, Bishop of Polock and
Vitebsk, to the Tsar.
Fols. 322-324 Nikon's epistle to Paisius Ligarides.
Fols. 324v.-326v. Copy of the note about the expulsion of
Nikon, the Patriarch.
Fols. 327-333 List of "healing miracles" by Nikon in the
Cyrill and Pherapont Monasteries.
Fols. 334-334v. Description of the miracle in the New Jeru-
salem Resurrection Monastery in 1660.
Fols. 335-336v. Verses by Herman about Nikon (epitaph).
Fols. 337-339 No text.
Fols. 340-350v. Translations of valedictory epistles to the
Tsar presented by the Greek spiritual authorities who were at
the council concerning the case of Nikon.
Fols. 351-355v. About "slander" and perfidy against Nikon
during his life in the Monastery of New Jerusalem in the rank
of Patriarch.
Fols. 356 No text.
9
IX
INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM V.I. MALYSEV ABOUT OTHER COPIES OF
THE REFUTATION
1. A seventeenth-century copy once belonging to the Resurrec-
tion Monastery and now in the State Historical Museum in
Moscow, No. 133, in the Collection of Manuscripts of the
Resurrection Monastery: The manuscript is in quarto, 955 folia,
written in Russian semi-uncials, bound in cardboard. This ma-
nuscript was used by Palmer for his translation and for a ré-
sumé by Metropolitan Makarij.
2. A copy that belonged to the Moscow Theological Academy,
No. 218, now in the Collection of manuscripts from the Aca'de-
my (stock No. 173), in the manuscript section of the Lenin
State Library in Moscow: The manuscript is from the first
half of the nineteenth century. It was used by N.F. Kapterev
for his résumé.
3. A copy from the Petrine time, in folio, of about 250 folia,
with the year mark 1719 on the pages. It used to be in the
collection of the Monastery of Anthony of Sijsk. Sec A.E.
Viktorov, Opisi rukopisnych sobranij v knigochraniliscach
Severnoj Rossii (S. Peterburg, 1890), No. 150, 94. The present
location of this manuscript is unknown. The collection of the
Sijsk Monastery is now in the Library of the Academy of Scien-
ces of the U.S.S.R. in Leningrad. This particular manuscript
is not there.
4. A nineteenth century copy in folio, 431 folia, from the
Collection of I.D. Beljaev (Lenin State Library), No. 37
(1551): See A.E. Viktorov, Sobranie rukopisej I.D. Beljaeva
(Moscow, 1881), 22. Viktorov mentions there also other manu-
script copies of the Refutation.
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