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Schism of the Russian Church

The Schism of the Russian Church, also known as Raskol (Russian: раскол, pronounced [rɐˈskoɫ], meaning "split" or "schism"), was the splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in the mid-17th century. It was triggered by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1653, which aimed to establish uniformity between Greek and Russian church practices.

Old Believer Priest Nikita Pustosvyat Disputing with Patriarch Joachim on Matters of Faith. Painting by Vasily Perov (1880)

Church reforms and reaction to them

The members of an influential circle called the Zealots of Piety (Russian: Кружок ревнителей благочестия, Kruzhok revnitelei blagochestiya) stood for purification of Russian Orthodox faith. They strove to reform Muscovite society, bringing it into closer accordance with Christian values and to improve church practices. As a consequence, they also were engaged in the removal of alternative versions and correction of divine service books. The most influential members of this circle were Archpriests Avvakum, Ivan Neronov, Stephan Vonifatiyev, Fyodor Rtishchev and, when still Archbishop of Novgorod, Nikon himself, the future Patriarch.

With the support from the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Patriarch Nikon began the process of correction of the Russian divine service books in accordance with their modern Greek counterparts and changed some of the rituals (the two-finger sign of the cross was replaced by the one with three fingers, "hallelujah" was to be pronounced three times instead of two etc.). These innovations met with resistance from both the clergy and the people, who disputed the legitimacy and correctness of these reforms, referring to theological traditions and Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastic rules. Ignoring these protests, the reforms were approved by the church sobors in 1654–1655. In 1653–1656, the Print Yard under Epifany Slavinetsky began to produce corrected versions of newly translated divine service books.

A traditional, widespread view of these reforms is that they only affected the external ritualistic side of the Russian Orthodox faith and that these changes were deemed a major event by the religious Russian people. However, these reforms, apart from their arbitrariness, established radically different relations between the church and the faithful. It soon became obvious that Nikon had used this reform for the purpose of centralization of the church and strengthening of his own authority. Nikon's forcible introduction of the new divine service books and rituals caused a major estrangement between the Zealots of Piety and Nikon. Some of its members stood up for the old faith (staroobryadsty : Old Ritualists) and opposed the reforms and patriarch's actions.

Avvakum and Daniel first petitioned to the tsar to officialize the two-finger sign of the cross and bows during divine services and sermons. Then, they tried to prove to the clergy that the correction of the books in accordance with the Greek standards profaned the pure faith because the Greek Church had deviated from the "ancient piety" and had been printing its divine service books in Catholic print houses and that they had been exposed to Roman Catholic influences. Ivan Neronov spoke against the strengthening of patriarch's authority and demanded democratization of ecclesiastic management. This conflict between Nikon and defenders of the old faith took a turn for the worse and soon Avvakum, Ivan Neronov and others would be persecuted and eventually executed in 1682.

 
Detail of the painting Boyarynya Morozova by Vasily Surikov depicting the arrest of Feodosia Morozova by the Nikonians in 1671. She holds two fingers raised, thus showing the old way of making the Sign of the Cross: with two fingers, rather than with three.

The case brought by the defenders of the old faith found many supporters among different strata of the Russian society, which would give birth to the Raskol movement. A part of the old faith low-ranking clergy protested against the increase of feudal oppression, coming from the church leaders. Some members of the high-ranking clergy joined the Raskol movement due to their discontent over Nikon's aspirations and the arbitrariness of his church reforms.

Some of them, such as Bishop Paul of Kolomna, Archbishop Alexander of Vyatka (as well as a number of monasteries, such as the famous Solovetsky Monastery), stood up for the old faith; bishop Paul was eventually executed for his loyalty to the old rites. Boyarynya Feodosiya Morozova, her sister Princess Urusova, and some other courtiers openly supported or secretly sympathized with the defenders of the old faith.

The unification of such heterogeneous forces against what had become "the official church" could probably be explained by the somewhat contradictory ideology of the Raskol movement. A certain idealization and conservation of traditional values and old traditions, a critical attitude towards innovations, conservation of national originality and acceptance (by radical elements) of martyrdom in the name of the old faith as the only way towards salvation were intertwined with criticism of feudalism and serfdom. Different social strata were attracted to different sides of this ideology.

The most radical apologists of the Raskol preached about approaching Armageddon and coming of the Antichrist, Tsar's and patriarch's worshiping of Satan, which ideas would find a broad response among the Russian people, sympathizing with the ideology of these most radical apologetes. The Raskol movement thus became a vanguard of the conservative and at the same time democratic opposition.

Uprisings and persecution

The Raskol movement gained in strength after the church sobor in 1666–67, which had anathemized the defenders of the old faith (staroobryadsty : Old Ritualists) as heretics and made decisions with regards to their punishment. Especially members of the low-ranking clergy, who had severed their relations with the church, became the leaders of the opposition. Propagation of the split with the church in the name of preservation of the Orthodox faith as it had existed until the reforms was the main postulate of their ideology. The most dramatic manifestations of the Raskol included the practice of the so-called ognenniye kreshcheniya (огненные крещения, or baptism by fire), or self-immolation, practiced by the most radical elements in the Old Believers' movement, who thought that the end of the world was near.

 
A Muscovite Voivode Putting Down the Solovetsky Monastery uprising. An early 19th-century hand-drawn lubok, attributed to Mikhail Grigoriev.

The Old Believers would soon split into different denominations, the Popovtsy and the Bespopovtsy. Attracted to the preachings of the Raskol ideologists, many posad people, mainly peasants, craftsmen and cossacks fled to the dense forests of Northern Russia and Volga region, southern borders of Russia, Siberia, and even abroad, where they would organize their own obshchinas. This was a mass exodus of common Russian people, who had refused to follow the new ecclesiastic rituals. In 1681, the government noted an increase among the "enemies of the church", especially in Siberia. With active support from the Russian Orthodox Church, it began to persecute the so-called raskolniki (раскольники), i.e., "schism-makers".

In the 1670s–1680s, the exposure of certain social vices in the Russian society gained special importance in the Raskol ideology. Some of the Raskol apologetes, such as Avvakum and his brothers-in-exile at the Pustozyorsk prison, tended to justify some of the uprisings, interpreting them as God's punishment of the ecclesiastic and tsarist authorities for their actions. Some of the supporters of the Old Believers took part in Stepan Razin's rebellion in 1670–1671, although this uprising is not regarded as an Old Believers' rebellion and Stenka Razin himself had strongly antiecclesiastic views. The supporters of the old faith played an important role in the Moscow uprising of 1682. Many of the members of the old faith migrated west, seeking refuge in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which allowed them to practice their faith freely.

In the late 17th – early 18th century, the most radical elements of the Raskol movement went into recession after it had become obvious that the reforms could not be reversed. The internal policy of Peter the Great eased the persecution of the Old Believers. The Tsar, however, did impose higher taxes on them. During the reign of Catherine the Great, Old Believers who had fled abroad were even encouraged to return to their motherland. However, the position of Old Believers in Russia remained illegal until 1905.

 
A scene from the times of the Raskol, by Sergey Ivanov

The Raskol (schism) still exists, and with it a certain antagonism between the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Old Believers, although on an official level both sides have agreed on a peaceful coexistence. From an ecclesiastic and theological point of view the Raskol remains a highly controversial question and one of the most tragic episodes of Russian history.

Literary reference

The term is etymologically related to the family name of Rodion Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Dostoevsky's well-known novel Crime and Punishment.

See also

References

In English

  • Cherniavsky, M (1955), "The Reception of the Council of Florence in Moscow", Church History (article), XXIV: 147–57.
  • Crummey, Robert O (1970), The Old Believers & The World of Antichrist; The Vyg Community & The Russian State, Wisconsin UP.
  • Gill, T (1959), The Council of Florence, Cambridge.
  • Shevchenko, I (1955), "Ideological Repercussions of the Council of Florence", Church History (article), XXIV: 291–323, doi:10.2307/3162002, JSTOR 3162002, S2CID 159708744.
  • Zenkovsky, Serge A (1957), "The ideology of the Denisov brothers", Harvard Slavic Studies, III: 49–66.
  • ——— (1956), "The Old Believer Avvakum", Indiana Slavic Studies, I: 1–51.
  • ——— (1967) [1960], Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia, Harvard UP
  • ——— (1957), "The Russian Schism", Russian Review, XVI (4): 37–58, doi:10.2307/125748, JSTOR 125748.

In Russian

  • Голубинский (Golubinskij), ЕЕ (1900), История русской церкви [History of the Russian Church], Москва (Moscow).
  • ——— (1905), К нашей полимике со старообрядцами [Contribution to our polemic with the Old believers], ЧОИДР (ČOIDR).
  • Дмитрев (Dmitrev, AD) (1937), Инквизиция в России [Inquisition in Russia], Москва (Moscow) : ГАИЗ (State anti-religious publishing)
  • Зеньковский, СА (Zenkovskij, SA) (2006), Русское старообрядчество [Russia's Old Believers], vol. I, II, Москва (Moscow).
  • Каптерев, НФ (Kapterev, NF) (1913), Патриарх Никон и его противники в деле исправления церковныx обрядов [Patriarch Nikon and his opponents in the correction of church rituals], Москва (Moscow).
  • ——— (1914), Характер отношений России к православному востоку в XVI и XVII вв [Character of the relationships between Russia and the orthodox East in the 16th and 17th centuries], Москва (Moscow).
  • Карташов, АВ (Kartašov, AV) (1959), Очерки по иситории русской церкви [Outlines of the history of the Russian church], Париж (Paris).
  • Ключевский, ИП (Ključevskij, IP) (1956–59), Сочинения [Works], vol. I–VIII, Москва (Moscow).
  • Кутузов, БП (Kutuzov, BP) (2003), Церковная "реформа" XVII века [The church "reform" of the 17th century], Москва (Moscow).

schism, russian, church, gangs, from, port, moresby, papua, guinea, raskol, gangs, this, article, includes, list, references, related, reading, external, links, sources, remain, unclear, because, lacks, inline, citations, please, help, improve, this, article, . For the gangs from Port Moresby Papua New Guinea see Raskol gangs This article includes a list of references related reading or external links but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations September 2016 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Schism of the Russian Church also known as Raskol Russian raskol pronounced rɐˈskoɫ meaning split or schism was the splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in the mid 17th century It was triggered by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1653 which aimed to establish uniformity between Greek and Russian church practices Old Believer Priest Nikita Pustosvyat Disputing with Patriarch Joachim on Matters of Faith Painting by Vasily Perov 1880 Contents 1 Church reforms and reaction to them 2 Uprisings and persecution 3 Literary reference 4 See also 5 References 5 1 In English 5 2 In RussianChurch reforms and reaction to them EditThe members of an influential circle called the Zealots of Piety Russian Kruzhok revnitelej blagochestiya Kruzhok revnitelei blagochestiya stood for purification of Russian Orthodox faith They strove to reform Muscovite society bringing it into closer accordance with Christian values and to improve church practices As a consequence they also were engaged in the removal of alternative versions and correction of divine service books The most influential members of this circle were Archpriests Avvakum Ivan Neronov Stephan Vonifatiyev Fyodor Rtishchev and when still Archbishop of Novgorod Nikon himself the future Patriarch With the support from the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Patriarch Nikon began the process of correction of the Russian divine service books in accordance with their modern Greek counterparts and changed some of the rituals the two finger sign of the cross was replaced by the one with three fingers hallelujah was to be pronounced three times instead of two etc These innovations met with resistance from both the clergy and the people who disputed the legitimacy and correctness of these reforms referring to theological traditions and Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastic rules Ignoring these protests the reforms were approved by the church sobors in 1654 1655 In 1653 1656 the Print Yard under Epifany Slavinetsky began to produce corrected versions of newly translated divine service books A traditional widespread view of these reforms is that they only affected the external ritualistic side of the Russian Orthodox faith and that these changes were deemed a major event by the religious Russian people However these reforms apart from their arbitrariness established radically different relations between the church and the faithful It soon became obvious that Nikon had used this reform for the purpose of centralization of the church and strengthening of his own authority Nikon s forcible introduction of the new divine service books and rituals caused a major estrangement between the Zealots of Piety and Nikon Some of its members stood up for the old faith staroobryadsty Old Ritualists and opposed the reforms and patriarch s actions Avvakum and Daniel first petitioned to the tsar to officialize the two finger sign of the cross and bows during divine services and sermons Then they tried to prove to the clergy that the correction of the books in accordance with the Greek standards profaned the pure faith because the Greek Church had deviated from the ancient piety and had been printing its divine service books in Catholic print houses and that they had been exposed to Roman Catholic influences Ivan Neronov spoke against the strengthening of patriarch s authority and demanded democratization of ecclesiastic management This conflict between Nikon and defenders of the old faith took a turn for the worse and soon Avvakum Ivan Neronov and others would be persecuted and eventually executed in 1682 Detail of the painting Boyarynya Morozova by Vasily Surikov depicting the arrest of Feodosia Morozova by the Nikonians in 1671 She holds two fingers raised thus showing the old way of making the Sign of the Cross with two fingers rather than with three The case brought by the defenders of the old faith found many supporters among different strata of the Russian society which would give birth to the Raskol movement A part of the old faith low ranking clergy protested against the increase of feudal oppression coming from the church leaders Some members of the high ranking clergy joined the Raskol movement due to their discontent over Nikon s aspirations and the arbitrariness of his church reforms Some of them such as Bishop Paul of Kolomna Archbishop Alexander of Vyatka as well as a number of monasteries such as the famous Solovetsky Monastery stood up for the old faith bishop Paul was eventually executed for his loyalty to the old rites Boyarynya Feodosiya Morozova her sister Princess Urusova and some other courtiers openly supported or secretly sympathized with the defenders of the old faith The unification of such heterogeneous forces against what had become the official church could probably be explained by the somewhat contradictory ideology of the Raskol movement A certain idealization and conservation of traditional values and old traditions a critical attitude towards innovations conservation of national originality and acceptance by radical elements of martyrdom in the name of the old faith as the only way towards salvation were intertwined with criticism of feudalism and serfdom Different social strata were attracted to different sides of this ideology The most radical apologists of the Raskol preached about approaching Armageddon and coming of the Antichrist Tsar s and patriarch s worshiping of Satan which ideas would find a broad response among the Russian people sympathizing with the ideology of these most radical apologetes The Raskol movement thus became a vanguard of the conservative and at the same time democratic opposition Uprisings and persecution EditThe Raskol movement gained in strength after the church sobor in 1666 67 which had anathemized the defenders of the old faith staroobryadsty Old Ritualists as heretics and made decisions with regards to their punishment Especially members of the low ranking clergy who had severed their relations with the church became the leaders of the opposition Propagation of the split with the church in the name of preservation of the Orthodox faith as it had existed until the reforms was the main postulate of their ideology The most dramatic manifestations of the Raskol included the practice of the so called ognenniye kreshcheniya ognennye kresheniya or baptism by fire or self immolation practiced by the most radical elements in the Old Believers movement who thought that the end of the world was near A Muscovite Voivode Putting Down the Solovetsky Monastery uprising An early 19th century hand drawn lubok attributed to Mikhail Grigoriev The Old Believers would soon split into different denominations the Popovtsy and the Bespopovtsy Attracted to the preachings of the Raskol ideologists many posad people mainly peasants craftsmen and cossacks fled to the dense forests of Northern Russia and Volga region southern borders of Russia Siberia and even abroad where they would organize their own obshchinas This was a mass exodus of common Russian people who had refused to follow the new ecclesiastic rituals In 1681 the government noted an increase among the enemies of the church especially in Siberia With active support from the Russian Orthodox Church it began to persecute the so called raskolniki raskolniki i e schism makers In the 1670s 1680s the exposure of certain social vices in the Russian society gained special importance in the Raskol ideology Some of the Raskol apologetes such as Avvakum and his brothers in exile at the Pustozyorsk prison tended to justify some of the uprisings interpreting them as God s punishment of the ecclesiastic and tsarist authorities for their actions Some of the supporters of the Old Believers took part in Stepan Razin s rebellion in 1670 1671 although this uprising is not regarded as an Old Believers rebellion and Stenka Razin himself had strongly antiecclesiastic views The supporters of the old faith played an important role in the Moscow uprising of 1682 Many of the members of the old faith migrated west seeking refuge in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth which allowed them to practice their faith freely In the late 17th early 18th century the most radical elements of the Raskol movement went into recession after it had become obvious that the reforms could not be reversed The internal policy of Peter the Great eased the persecution of the Old Believers The Tsar however did impose higher taxes on them During the reign of Catherine the Great Old Believers who had fled abroad were even encouraged to return to their motherland However the position of Old Believers in Russia remained illegal until 1905 A scene from the times of the Raskol by Sergey Ivanov The Raskol schism still exists and with it a certain antagonism between the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Old Believers although on an official level both sides have agreed on a peaceful coexistence From an ecclesiastic and theological point of view the Raskol remains a highly controversial question and one of the most tragic episodes of Russian history Literary reference EditThe term is etymologically related to the family name of Rodion Raskolnikov the protagonist of Dostoevsky s well known novel Crime and Punishment See also EditPatriarch Nikon of Moscow Old Believers Edinoverie AvvakumReferences EditIn English Edit Cherniavsky M 1955 The Reception of the Council of Florence in Moscow Church History article XXIV 147 57 Crummey Robert O 1970 The Old Believers amp The World of Antichrist The Vyg Community amp The Russian State Wisconsin UP Gill T 1959 The Council of Florence Cambridge Shevchenko I 1955 Ideological Repercussions of the Council of Florence Church History article XXIV 291 323 doi 10 2307 3162002 JSTOR 3162002 S2CID 159708744 Zenkovsky Serge A 1957 The ideology of the Denisov brothers Harvard Slavic Studies III 49 66 1956 The Old Believer Avvakum Indiana Slavic Studies I 1 51 1967 1960 Pan Turkism and Islam in Russia Harvard UP 1957 The Russian Schism Russian Review XVI 4 37 58 doi 10 2307 125748 JSTOR 125748 In Russian Edit Golubinskij Golubinskij EE 1900 Istoriya russkoj cerkvi History of the Russian Church Moskva Moscow 1905 K nashej polimike so staroobryadcami Contribution to our polemic with the Old believers ChOIDR COIDR Dmitrev Dmitrev AD 1937 Inkviziciya v Rossii Inquisition in Russia Moskva Moscow GAIZ State anti religious publishing Zenkovskij SA Zenkovskij SA 2006 Russkoe staroobryadchestvo Russia s Old Believers vol I II Moskva Moscow Kapterev NF Kapterev NF 1913 Patriarh Nikon i ego protivniki v dele ispravleniya cerkovnyx obryadov Patriarch Nikon and his opponents in the correction of church rituals Moskva Moscow 1914 Harakter otnoshenij Rossii k pravoslavnomu vostoku v XVI i XVII vv Character of the relationships between Russia and the orthodox East in the 16th and 17th centuries Moskva Moscow Kartashov AV Kartasov AV 1959 Ocherki po isitorii russkoj cerkvi Outlines of the history of the Russian church Parizh Paris Klyuchevskij IP Kljucevskij IP 1956 59 Sochineniya Works vol I VIII Moskva Moscow Kutuzov BP Kutuzov BP 2003 Cerkovnaya reforma XVII veka The church reform of the 17th century Moskva Moscow Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Schism of the Russian Church amp oldid 1105341977, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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