Career Moscow Patriarch Nikon has developed very rapidly.In a relatively short period of time the son of a peasant, who took vows as a monk on the Solovetsky Islands, became abbot of a local monastery.Then, friends with Alexis, the ruling king, he became abbot of the Novospassky monastery in Moscow already.After two years he was elected Metropolitan of Novgorod the Patriarch of Moscow.
His aspirations were aimed at making the Russian Orthodox Church in the center of the world.The reforms of Patriarch Nikon in the first place affected the unification of rites and establish the same church service in all the churches.Nikon took a sample of the rites and rules of the Greek Church.The innovations were accompanied by mass popular discontent.As a result, there was a schism of the 17th century.
Opponents of Nikon - the Old Believers - do not want to accept the new rules, they called for a return to order, before the reform.Among the supporters of the former abutment emphasizes priest Habakkuk.Disagreements, which resulted in a schism of the 17th century, were to dispute that, in the Greek or Russian pattern unify the official church books.Also, we could not come to a consensus about what, three or two fingers to be baptized, in the course of the sun or against it to make the procession.But this is only the external causes schism.The main obstacle for the Nikon began intrigues Orthodox bishops and boyars, who were concerned that the changes will entail the decline of the public authority of the church, and hence their authority and power.Passionate sermons teachers dissenters carried along a considerable number of peasants.They fled to Siberia, the Urals, the North and there form a settlement of the Old Believers.Ordinary people linked to the deterioration of his life transforms Nikon.Thus, the schism of the 17th century and became a peculiar form of popular protest.
most powerful wave swept him in the years 1668-1676, when there was Solovetsky Monastery Uprising.This monastery had thick walls and a large supply of food that attracted the opponents of reform.They flocked here from all over Russia.Here and hid razintsy.Eight years 600 people were kept in the fortress.And yet he found a traitor who let the troops of the king to the convent through a secret trapdoor.As a result, only 50 survived the defense of the monastery.
Avvakum and his followers were exiled to Pustozersk.There they spent 14 years in an earthen prison and then were burned alive.Since then, the Old Believers began to expose themselves to self-immolation as a sign of disagreement with the reforms of the Antichrist - a new patriarch.
Nikon himself at fault and that there was a schism of the 17th century, it was no less tragic fate.And all because he was too much taken over too much to afford.Nikon finally got the coveted title of "great ruler" and saying that he wants to be the patriarch of all Russia, not in Moscow, pointedly left the capital in 1658.Eight years later, in 1666, at the Council, with the participation of the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria, which also had all the powers of the Patriarchs, and even Jerusalem, and Constantinople, was dismissed from the post of Patriarch Nikon.He was sent to the Ferapontov Monastery, Vologda at that, into exile.Nikon is back there after the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.He died a former patriarch in 1681 near Yaroslavl, and was buried in the town of Istra in the Voskresensky New Jerusalem Monastery, according to his plan, and once built.
religious crisis in the country, as well as the dissatisfaction of the people on other issues required immediate change, call the relevant time.And the answer to these requirements was the transformation of Peter I in the early 18th century.
