The career of the Moscow Patriarch Nikon has taken shapevery rapidly. For quite a short time the son of a peasant, who took monastic vows in the Solovetsky Islands, became hegumen of a local monastery. Then, making friends with Alexei Mikhailovich, the ruling king, he becomes hegumen of the Moscow Novospassky monastery. After a two-year stay, the Metropolitan of Novgorod is elected Patriarch of Moscow.
His aspirations were aimed at turningRussian Church in the center of Orthodoxy for the whole world. The reforms of Patriarch Nikon primarily concerned the unification of rituals and the establishment of the same church service in all the churches. For the sample, Nikon took the rites and rules of the Greek church. Innovations were accompanied by mass discontent of the people. As a result, a church schism took place in the 17th century.
Opponents Nikon - the Old Believers - did not wantto adopt new rules, they called for a return to the rules adopted before the reform. Among the adherents of the former abode, Protopop Avvakum was particularly distinguished. Disagreements, the result of which was the 17th-century church schism, consisted in a dispute over whether, according to the Greek or Russian pattern, to unify official church books. Also could not come to a common opinion about whether to cross three or two fingers, on the solar path or against it to make a procession. But these are only the external causes of the church schism. The main obstacle for Nikon was the intrigues of Orthodox hierarchs and boyars who were worried that the changes would lead to a decline among the population of the authority of the church, and hence their authority and authority. Passionate sermons teacher-schismatics carried a large number of peasants. They fled to Siberia, to the Urals, to the North, and there they formed settlements of the Old Believers. A simple people attributed the deterioration of their lives to the transformations of Nikon. Thus, the church schism of the 17th century became a peculiar form of popular protest.
The most powerful wave of it swept in 1668-1676when the Solovetsky uprising took place. This monastery had thick walls and a large supply of food, which attracted opponents of reforms. They flocked here from all parts of Russia. Here, the Razin people also hid. For eight years, 600 people stayed in the fortress. And yet there was a traitor, who let the king's troops into the monastery through the secret laz. As a result, only 50 defenders of the monastery remained alive.
Protopop Avvakum and his associates exiledin Pustozersk. There they spent 14 years in an earth prison, and then were burned alive. Since then, the Old Believers began to subject themselves to self-immolation as a sign of disagreement with the reforms of Antichrist, the new patriarch.
Nikon himself, through whose fault the churchsplit the 17th century, had no less tragic fate. And all because he took too much on himself, he allowed himself too much. Nikon finally received the coveted title of "great sovereign" and, declaring that he wished to be the patriarch of all Rus, and not of Moscow, defiantly left the capital in 1658. Eight years later, in 1666, at the church cathedral with the participation of the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria, who also had all the powers of the patriarchs of Jerusalem and Constantinople, they removed Patriarch Nikon from his post. He was sent to the Ferapontov Monastery, which is near Vologda, in exile. From there Nikon returned after the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The former patriarch died in 1681 near Yaroslavl, and was buried in the city of Istra in the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery, according to his plan, once built.
Religious crisis in the country, as well as discontentpeople on other issues demanded immediate changes, corresponding to the challenge of the time. And the response to these demands was the transformation of Peter I in the early 18th century.
