Church reform of Patriarch Nikon and the baptism of Russia into a new religion

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Patriarch Nikon (in the world Nikita Minin 1605-1681) ascended the Moscow patriarchal throne in 1652. Even before his elevation to the patriarch, he became close to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Together they decided to remake the Russian Church in a new way: to introduce new rites, rituals, books in it, so that in everything it resembles the Greek Church, which has long ceased to be completely pious.

Proud and proud, Patriarch Nikon did not have much education. Nikon came from a peasant family from the Nizhny Novgorod region. As hegumen, he met with Alexei Mikhailovich, made a strong impression on the pious tsar, he insisted that Nikon go to Moscow.

Nikon, he surrounded himself with learned Ukrainians and Greeks, of whom Arseniy the Greek, a man of very dubious faith, began to play the greatest role. Upbringing and education Arseny received from the Jesuits; on arrival in the East, he accepted Mohammedanism, then again joined Orthodoxy, and then deviated to Catholicism. When he appeared in Moscow, he was sent to the Solovetsky monastery as a dangerous heretic. Hence, Nikon took him to himself and immediately made him the main assistant in church affairs. This caused great temptation and murmur among the believing Russian people.

But Nikon could not object. The king gave him unlimited rights in the affairs of the church. Nikon, encouraged by the king, did what he wanted, without consulting anyone. Relying on the friendship and power of the tsar, he embarked on church reform decisively and boldly.

Reforms of Patriarch Nikon

Patriarch Nikon began to introduce new rituals, new liturgical books and other innovations into the Russian Church without the approval of the council, without permission. This was the reason for the church schism. Those who followed Nikon, the people began to call them "Nikonians", or new believers.

The followers of Nikon themselves, using state power and force, proclaimed their church Orthodox, or dominant, and began to call their opponents an insulting and fundamentally incorrect nickname “schismatics”. On them, they blamed all the blame for the church schism. In fact, the opponents of Nikon's innovations did not commit any schism: they remained faithful to the ancient church traditions and rituals, without changing their native Orthodox Church in any way. Therefore, they rightly call themselves Orthodox Old Believers, Old Believers or Old Orthodox Christians.

The most important changes and innovations were the following:

1. Instead of the two-finger sign of the cross, which was adopted in Russia from the Greek Orthodox Church along with Christianity and which is part of the Holy Apostolic tradition, the three-finger sign was introduced.

2. In old books, in accordance with the spirit of the Slavic language, the name of the Savior "Jesus" was always written and pronounced, in new books this name was changed to the Greekized "Jesus".

3. In the old books, it is established at the time of baptism, wedding and consecration of the temple to walk in the sun as a sign that we are following the Sun-Christ. In new books, a circumambulation against the sun has been introduced.
4. In old books, in the Symbol of Faith (VIII member), it reads: "And in the Holy Spirit of the Lord, true and life-giving," but after corrections the word "true" was excluded.
5. Instead of the "double", that is, the double hallelujah, which the Russian church has been doing since ancient times, the "triple" (triple) hallelujah was introduced.
6. The Divine Liturgy in Ancient Rus was performed on seven prosphora, new "directors" introduced the five prosphora, that is, two prosphora were excluded.

The examples cited show that Nikon and his assistants boldly encroached on a change in church institutions, customs and even apostolic traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church, adopted from the Greek Church during the baptism of Rus.

What did Nikon really do?

When joining his patriarchy duties, Nikon enlisted the support of the tsar not to interfere in the affairs of the Church. The king and people pledged to fulfill this testament, and it was fulfilled. Only the people were not really asked, the opinion of the people was expressed by the tsar (Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov) and the court boyars. And what the notorious church reform of the 1650s - 1660s resulted in, almost everyone knows, but the version of the reforms that is presented to the masses does not reflect its entire essence.

The true goals of Nikon's reform are hidden from the unenlightened minds of the Russian people. The people who have stolen the true memory of its great past, have trampled all of its heritage, has no choice but to believe in what is presented to them on a silver platter. Only it's time to remove the rotten apples from this platter, and open people's eyes to what really happened.

The official version of Nikon's church reforms not only does not reflect its true goals, but also portrays Patriarch Nikon as an instigator and executor, although Nikon was just a "pawn" in the skillful hands of puppeteers who stood not only behind him, but also behind Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself …

And what is more interesting, despite the fact that some churchmen blaspheme Nikon as a reformer, the changes that he made continue to operate to this day in the same church! Here they are double standards!

Let's now see what kind of reform it was

The main reformatory innovations according to the official version of historians: The so-called "book on the right", which consisted in the rewriting of liturgical books. Many textual changes were made to the liturgical books, for example, the word "Jesus" was changed to "Jesus". The two-finger sign of the cross has been replaced with a three-finger sign. Bows to the ground were canceled. Religious processions began to be carried out in the opposite direction (not salting, but anti-salting, i.e. against the sun). He tried to introduce a 4-pointed cross and for a short period of time he succeeded.

Researchers cite a lot of reform changes, but the above is highlighted by everyone who studies the topic of reforms and transformations during the reign of Patriarch Nikon.

As for the "book information". During the baptism of Russia at the end of the 10th century. the Greeks had two statutes: the Studite and the Jerusalem. In Constantinople, the Studite charter first spread, which passed to Russia. But the Jerusalem charter, which became by the beginning of the XIV century, began to gain more and more distribution in Byzantium. there is ubiquitous. In this regard, over the course of three centuries, the liturgical books were also imperceptibly changed there. This was one of the reasons for the difference in the liturgical practice of Russians and Greeks. In the XIV century, the difference between the Russian and Greek church rites was already quite noticeable, although the Russian liturgical books fully corresponded to the Greek books of the X-XI centuries. Those. there was no need to rewrite books at all! In addition, Nikon decided to rewrite the books from the Greek and ancient harate Russians. How did it actually happen?

What was Nikon looking for among the people?

But in fact, Arseny Sukhanov, the cellarer of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, is sent by Nikon to the East specially for sources for the "reference", and instead of these sources he brings mainly manuscripts "not related to the correction of liturgical books" (books for home reading, for example, the words and conversations of John Chrysostom, the conversations of Macarius of Egypt, the ascetic words of Basil the Great, the creations of John Climacus, the patericon, etc.). Among these 498 manuscripts there were also about 50 manuscripts of even non-church writing, for example, the works of the Hellenic philosophers - Troy, Afilistratus, Fockley "on sea animals", Stavron the philosopher "on earthquakes, etc.).

Does this not mean that Arseny Sukhanov was sent by Nikon for "sources" to divert his eyes? Sukhanov traveled from October 1653 to February 22, 1655, that is, almost a year and a half, and brought only seven manuscripts for editing specifically church books - a serious expedition with frivolous results.

The "Systematic Description of the Greek Manuscripts of the Moscow Synodal Library" fully confirms the information about only seven manuscripts brought by Arseny Sukhanov. Finally, Sukhanov, of course, could not, at his own risk and peril, obtain the works of pagan philosophers, manuscripts about earthquakes and sea animals, at his own peril and risk, instead of the necessary sources for correcting liturgical books. Consequently, he had the appropriate instructions from Nikon to do this …

And learn about rewriting books again

But, in the end, it turned out even more "interesting" - the books were copied according to new Greek books, which were printed in the Jesuit Parisian, Venetian printing houses. The question is, why did Nikon need books " pagans ”(Although it would be more correct to say the Slavic Vedic books, and not the pagan ones) and the ancient Russian harate books, remains open.

But it was precisely with the church reform of Patriarch Nikon that the Great Book Burning began in Russia, when whole carts of books were dumped into huge bonfires, poured with tar and set on fire. And those who resisted the "book law" and the reform in general were sent there too! The Inquisition, conducted in Russia by Nikon, did not spare anyone: boyars, peasants, and church dignitaries went to the fires

Well, during the time of Peter I, the Great Book Gar gained such power that at the moment the Russian people have almost no original document, chronicle, manuscript, or book left. Peter I on a large scale continued the work of Nikon in erasing the memory of the Russian people. Among the Siberian Old Believers, there is a legend that under Peter I, so many old printed books were simultaneously burned that after that 40 pounds (which is equal to 655 kg!) Of molten copper fasteners were removed from the fireplaces.

During Nikon's reforms, not only books burned, but also people. The Inquisition marched not only across the vastness of Europe, and Russia, unfortunately, affected no less. Russian people were subjected to cruel persecution and executions, whose conscience could not agree with church innovations and distortions. Many preferred to die than betray the faith of their fathers and grandfathers. Orthodox faith, not Christian. The word Orthodox has nothing to do with the church! Orthodoxy means Glory to Rule. Rule - the world of the Gods, or the worldview that the Gods taught (Gods used to call people who achieved certain abilities and reached the level of creation. In other words, they were just highly developed people).

Nikon created the Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church received its name after the reforms of Nikon, who realized that it was not possible to defeat the native faith of the Rus, and it remained to try to assimilate it with Christianity. The correct name of the ROC MP in the outside world is "Orthodox Autocephalous Church of the Byzantine persuasion."

Until the 16th century, even in Russian Christian chronicles, you will not find the term "Orthodoxy" in relation to the Christian religion. In relation to the concept of "faith", such epithets as "God", "true", "Christian", "right" and "blameless" are used. And in foreign texts you will never come across this name even now, since the Byzantine Christian church is called orthodox, and the correct teaching is translated into Russian (in spite of all the other “wrong” ones).

Orthodoxy - (from the Greek orthos - direct, correct and doxa - opinion), "correct" system of views, fixed by the authoritative authorities of the religious community and obligatory for all members of this community; orthodoxy, agreement with the teachings preached by the church. Orthodox is mainly called the church of the Middle Eastern countries (for example, the Greek Orthodox Church, Orthodox Islam, or Orthodox Judaism). Unconditional adherence to any teaching, firm consistency in views. The opposite of orthodoxy is disbelief and heresy.

Never and nowhere in other languages will you be able to find the term "Orthodoxy" in relation to the Greek (Byzantine) religious form. The substitution of the terms of figurativeness by the external aggressive form was necessary because THEIR images did not work on our Russian land, so we had to mimic the already existing familiar images.

The term "paganism" means "other languages." This term was previously used by the Russians simply to define people who speak other languages.

Changing a two-finger sign of the cross to a three-finger sign

Why did Nikon decide on such an "important" change in the ritual? For even the Greek priests admitted that nowhere, in any source, is it written about the baptism with three fingers!

The historian N. Kapterev cites indisputable historical evidence in his book "Patriarch Nikon and His Opponents in the Correction of Church Books" regarding the fact that the Greeks had previously had two fingers. For this book and other materials on the topic of the reform, they even tried to expel Nikon Kapterev from the academy and tried in every possible way to impose a ban on the printing of his materials. Now modern historians say that Kapterev was right about the fact that the Slavs have always had two-fingered fingers. But despite this, the rite of baptism with three fingers has not been canceled in the church.

The fact that in Russia there has long been a two-finger can be seen at least from the message of the Moscow Patriarch Job to the Georgian Metropolitan Nicholas: "Those who are praying, be baptized with two fingers …".

But after all baptism with two fingers is an ancient Slavic rite, which was originally borrowed by the Christian church from the Slavs, slightly modifying it.

Here is what Svetlana Levashova writes in her book "Revelation" about this:

“… Going to the battle, each warrior went through a kind of ritual and pronounced the usual spell:“For HONOR! For CONSCIENCE! For FAITH! " At the same time, the warriors made a magical movement - they touched the left and right shoulder with two fingers and the last - the middle of the forehead … And the ritual of movement (or christening) was "borrowed" by the same Christian church, adding to it the fourth, lower part … the part of the devil. " As a result, all Christians have a well-known ritual of baptism with fingers, albeit with a changed sequence - according to the Christian rite, fingers are first placed on the forehead, then on the stomach (in the navel area), then on the right shoulder and finally on the left.

Church before Nikon's reform

In general, if we analyze the pre-Nikonian church, we will see that a lot of it was still Vedic at that time. Elements of the solar cult of the Slavs were in everything - in clothes, in rituals, in singing, and in painting. All temples were strictly built on the sites of ancient Vedic temples. Inside the temples, walls and ceilings were decorated with swastika symbols. Judge for yourself, even the procession of the cross was performed in the saline, i.e. according to the sun, and the baptism procedure took place without a font with water, people crossed themselves with two fingers, and much more. It was only Nikon who brought elements of the lunar cult to the Russian church, and before him there were relatively few of them.

Patriarch Nikon, understanding the special attitude of the Russian people to the ancient rituals, which could not be eradicated not only among the ordinary population, but also among the aristocracy, boyars, decided to completely erase them from memory by simply replacing some rituals with others

And he succeeded, like no one before. Over time, after only a few centuries from the baptism of Rus, very few people remained who would remember and could pass on true knowledge about the past to their descendants. The memory of the past lived only in rituals, traditions and holidays. Real Slavic holidays! But they also had a hard time taking into account.

Despite the baptism of Russia into a new religion, the people both celebrated and continues to celebrate their ancient Slavic holidays. Still! Probably everyone loves to eat pancakes on Shrovetideand ride down the ice slides. Only few people know that this holiday was formerly called Komoeditsa. And it was celebrated at a completely different time. Only when Nikon tied the holidays of the Slavs to the lunar cult, there were small shifts in some of the holidays. And Maslenitsa (Komoeditsa) is a real Slavic holiday in its essence. This holiday is so loved by the Russian people that the churchmen are still struggling with it, but to no avail. The Slavs had many holidays for which the beloved and dear Gods were worshiped.

Substitution of concepts and symbols

Scientist and academician Nikolai Levashov, at one of his meetings with readers, told what meanness Patriarch Nikon had committed:

It turns out that all of this was necessary to impose Christian holidays on the Slavic holidays, on the Gods - the saints, and "it's in the bag," as they say.

Patriarch Nikon found a very correct solution to destroy the memory of our past. This is a substitution of one for the other!

This is how meanly, with the hands of Nikon, the transformation of a Russian person, free by nature and worldview, into a real slave, into "Ivan, who does not remember his kinship", continued.

Now let's see what kind of holidays and saints N. Levashov spoke about in his speech.

date

Russian holiday

Christian holiday

06.01

Feast of the god Veles

Christmas eve

07.01

Kolyada

Nativity

24.02

Day of the god Veles (patron saint of cattle)

St. Blasia (patron saint of animals)

02.03

Marena Day

St. Marianne

07.04

Shrovetide (celebrated 50 days before Easter)

Annunciation

06.05

Dazhbog Day (first pasture of cattle, contract of shepherds with the devil)

St. George the Victorious (patron saint of cattle and patron saint of warriors)

15.05

Boris the baker's day (holiday of the first sprouts)

Transfer of the relics of the faithful Boris and Gleb

22.05

Day of the god Yarila (god of spring)

Transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas of Spring, Bringing Warm Weather

07.06

Triglav (pagan trinity - Perun, Svarog, Sventovit)

Holy Trinity (Christian Trinity)

06.07

Russian week

Day of Agrafena swimsuit (with obligatory bathing)

07.07

Ivan Kupala Day (during the holiday they poured water over each other, swam)

The Nativity of John the Baptist

02.08

Day of the god Perun (god of thunder)

St. Elijah the Prophet (Thunderer)

19.08

Feast of the first fruits

Festival of consecration of fruits

21.08

Day of the god Stribog (god of the winds)

Day of Myron Vetrogon (bringing the wind)

14.09

Volkh Zmeevich Day

Day of the Monk Simon the Stylite

21.09

Feast of women in labor

Nativity of the Virgin

10.11

Day of the goddess Makosha (the spinning goddess who spins the thread of fate)

Day of Paraskeva Friday (patroness of sewing)

14.11

On this day, Svarog opened iron to people

Day of Kozma and Damian (patrons of blacksmiths)

21.11

Day of the gods Svarog and Simargl (Svarog is the god of heaven and fire)

Archangel Michael Day

This table is taken from the book by D. Baida and E. Lyubimova "Biblical pictures, or what is" God's grace?"

It is quite graphic and indicative: every Slavic holiday is Christian, every Slavic God is holy. It is impossible for Nikon to forgive such a forgery, as well as churches in general, which can be safely called criminals. This is a real crime against the Russian people and their culture. Monuments are erected to such traitors and continue to be honored. In 2006. in the city of Saransk, a monument to Nikon, the patriarch, who trampled on the memory of the Russian people, was erected and consecrated.

Nikon's reform was directed against the people

The "church" reform of Patriarch Nikon, as we already see, did not affect the church, it was clearly carried out against the traditions and foundations of the Russian people, against the Slavic rituals, and not church ones.

In general, the "reform" marks the milestone from which begins a sharp depletion of faith, spirituality and morality in Russian society. Everything new in rituals, architecture, icon painting, and singing is of Western origin, which is also noted by civilian researchers.

Changes in architecture

The "church" reforms of the mid-17th century were directly related to religious construction. The prescription to follow the Byzantine canons precisely put forward the requirement to build churches "with five heights, and not with a tent."

Tent buildings (with a pyramidal top) are known in Russia even before the adoption of Christianity. This type of buildings is considered native Russian. That is why Nikon, with his reforms, took care of such a "trifle", because it was a real "pagan" trace among the people. Under the threat of the death penalty, craftsmen, architects, as soon as they did not manage to preserve the shape of the tent at the temple buildings and worldly ones. Despite the fact that it was necessary to build domes with onion domes, the general shape of the structure was made pyramidal. But it was not always possible to deceive the reformers. These were mainly the northern and remote regions of the country.

Since then, temples have been built with domes, now the tent-roofed form of buildings through the efforts of Nikon is completely forgotten. But our distant ancestors perfectly understood the laws of physics and the influence of the shape of objects on space, and for a reason they built it with a tent top.

This is how Nikon cut off the memory of the people.

Also, in wooden churches, the role of the refectory is changing, turning from a secular room into a purely religious one. She finally loses her independence and becomes part of the church premises.

The primary purpose of the refectory is reflected in its very name: public meals, feasts, "brothers" were held here, timed to coincide with certain solemn events. This is an echo of the traditions of our ancestors. In the refectory there was a waiting area for those arriving from neighboring villages. Thus, in terms of its functionality, the refectory carried in itself precisely the mundane essence. Patriarch Nikon made a church brainchild out of the refectory. This transformation was intended primarily for that part of the aristocracy that still remembered the ancient traditions and roots, the purpose of the refectory and the holidays that were celebrated in it.

But not only the refectory was taken over by the church, but also the bell towers with bells, which have nothing to do with Christian churches at all.

Christian clergymen called the worshipers with blows into a metal plate or wooden board - a beat that existed in Russia at least until the 19th century. The bells for the monasteries were too expensive and were used only in wealthy monasteries. Sergius of Radonezh, when he called the brethren for a prayer service, beat exactly at the beat.

Now the freestanding wooden bell towers have survived only in the north of Russia, and even then in very small numbers. In its central regions, they have long been replaced by stone ones.

“Nowhere, however, in pre-Petrine Russia, bell towers were not built in connection with churches, as it was in the West, but were constantly erected as separate buildings, only sometimes adjoining one side of the temple … its general plan, started in Russia only in the 17th century!”, writes A. V. Opolovnikov, a Russian scientist and restorer of monuments of Russian wooden architecture.

It turns out that the bell towers at monasteries and churches are widely received thanks to Nikon only in the 17th century!

Initially, the bell towers were built of wood and were used for urban purposes. They were built in the central parts of the settlement and served as a way to notify the population about a particular event. Each event had its own chime, by which residents could determine what happened in the city. For example, a fire or a public meeting. And for the holidays, the bells shimmered with a multitude of joyful and cheerful motives. Bell towers were always built of wood with a hipped roof, which provided certain acoustic features to the ringing.

The church privatized its belfries, bells and bell ringers. And with them our past. And Nikon played a major role in this.

About buffoons

Replacing Slavic traditions with alien Greek ones, Nikon did not ignore such an element of Russian culture as buffoonery. The emergence of a puppet theater in Russia is associated with the buffoonery. The first chronicle information about buffoons coincides in time with the appearance on the walls of the Kiev-Sophia Cathedral of frescoes depicting buffoons. The monk chronicler calls the buffoons servants of the devils, and the artist who painted the walls of the cathedral considered it possible to include their image in church decorations along with icons.

The buffoons were associated with the masses, and one of the forms of their art was "mockery", that is, satire. Skomorokhs are called "mockers", that is, mockers. Glum, mockery, satire will continue to be strongly associated with buffoons. First of all, the Christian clergy made fun of the buffoons, and when the Romanov dynasty came to power and supported the church persecution of buffoons, they began to mock the statesmen. The worldly art of buffoons was hostile to the church and clerical ideology. Episodes of the fight against buffoonery are described in detail by Avvakum in his "Life".

Records of chroniclers ("The Tale of Bygone Years") testify to the hatred that the clergy had for the art of buffoons. When at the Moscow court they arranged the Amusing closet (1571) and the Amusing chamber (1613), the buffoons found themselves there in the position of court jesters. But it was at the time of Nikon that the persecution of buffoons reached its climax.

They tried to impose on the Russian people that buffoons were servants of the devil. But for the people, the buffoon always remained a "good fellow", a daredevil. Attempts to portray the buffoons as jesters and servants of the devil failed, and the buffoons were imprisoned en masse, and later were tortured and executed. In 1648 and 1657 Nikon seeks from the tsar the adoption of decrees banning buffoons. The persecutions of buffoons were so widespread that by the end of the 17th century they disappeared from the central regions. And already by the time of the reign of Peter I they finally disappear as a phenomenon of the Russian people.

Nikon did everything possible and impossible to make the true Slavic heritage disappear from the expanses of Russia, and with it the Great Russian People.

Conclusion

Now it becomes obvious that there were no grounds at all for carrying out a church reform. The grounds were completely different and had nothing to do with the church. This is, first of all, the destruction of the spirit of the Russian people! Culture, heritage, great past of our people. And this was done by Nikon with great cunning and meanness. Nikon simply “put a pig” on the people, and such that to this day we, the Russians, have to remember in parts, literally bit by bit, who we are and our Great Past.