In memory of Professor Vasily Vasilievich Bolotov

Sad news about the death of the “best decoration” of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy - prof. Vasily Vasilyevich Bolotov († April 5, 1900) - swept with the speed of lightning throughout the entire scientific world and, having reached the royal throne, filled the hearts of those who knew Vasily Vasilyevich with sincere sorrow. Respect and love for him on the part of people involved in science were felt in full force immediately after his death. The very burial of Vasily Vasilyevich was, as it were, a solemn departure to the afterlife; and the speeches spoken then serve as an expression of, although mournful, but enthusiastic feelings about him. A visible sign of these and feelings that fully appreciated the significance of the deceased is now a monument at the grave of his ashes, created with the help of those who knew him as a scientist, and unveiled on April 19 of this year 1 . “People love to erect monuments to their great people,” says the historian Solovyov, but the deeds of a great man are the monument he erected to his people.” Vasily Vasilyevich was such a chosen one of God, whose scientific works are a monument erected by him to Russian science before the entire scientific world. How grave and irreplaceable the loss in the person of Vasily Vasilyevich is for the scientific world, this has already been noted in the literature about him that appeared after his death 2 . The Imperial Academy of Sciences in its report for 1900 noted the death of Vasily Vasilyevich as “a major figure not only in Russian, but in general in modern science of the Christian East” 3. The St. Petersburg Theological Academy in its report for the same year says that Vasily Vasilyevich, “as an Orientalist, acquired well-deserved authority and honorable fame abroad” 4. Now the scientific works of Vasily Vasilyevich have become the property of history. “His printed works, relatively few in number and volume, have always given a lot and will continue to be valuable for a long time, especially from the methodological side, even in addition to their content. They will be studied, as they are already being studied, as classic examples of the critical-historical method, which the deceased mastered perfectly” 5 . The second monument erected by Vasily Vasilyevich to his descendants is his library, which came from his heir to the academy. This precious treasure contains over 3,000 books, the margins of which in some cases are decorated with Vasily Vasilyevich’s handwritten notes, which deserve serious attention. But as valuable as the works of Vasily Vasilyevich are for church history, it is just as important to study his personality itself - as a rare combination of brilliant abilities - behind which “the glory of almost brilliant learning has been established” 6. His extraordinary devotion to science and selfless love for the academy encourage us to treasure the smallest details of Vasily Vasilyevich’s activities, which were not limited to his scientific works alone. He had to work simultaneously with scientific research and on issues of internal academic and church-social life. Therefore, for a complete overview of his life and activities, those of his works that were devoted to them, in addition to church history, and issues of internal academic and church-social life are of no small importance. Intending, on the occasion of the opening of the monument to Vasily Vasilyevich, to give him a fair tribute of respect and gratitude, we aim to show, on the basis of archival academic evidence, the activities of Vasily Vasilyevich on these issues. At the same time, we will consider our task completed if we only briefly highlight what a future historian can tell in more detail when studying the academic archive about the activities of Vasily Vasilyevich not only as a scientist, but also as a most devoted son of the academy, who worked on issues of its internal life. Before, however, talking about Vasily Vasilyevich’s activities from this side, let’s take a quick look at academic life, which imposes many responsibilities on its leaders due to the high task of our academies in relation to the church and the fatherland. The Orthodox clergy in Russia, in the matter of their education, is placed in a position isolated from other classes. He has to receive both theological and general education in his own educational institutions; and for this purpose, to combine gymnasium and university courses of all general education sciences with theological sciences in secondary educational institutions, and in higher educational institutions, and to train teachers in all these subjects for their schools 7 . “For the good of the church, the clergy cannot but strive to ensure that the level of their higher scientific education is not lower than the level of education not only of other classes of their fatherland, but also of the enlightened states of the West. Satisfy this legitimate desire through the development and development of the science necessary for the clergy; through the reproduction and dissemination of theological and inextricably linked non-theological knowledge; through the preparation of teachers for secondary and other theological educational institutions, our Orthodox theological academies are intended, which are thus the only nurseries of science and higher scientific, both theological and general education” 8. The academies serve the highest interests of the church and are a powerful stronghold and unflagging defense of it. From here the spiritual light of true knowledge pours out in the clergy and in society; here everyone receives spiritual capital, which they use throughout their entire subsequent lives. Just as lighthouses save the sea with their light during storms of natural nature, so the Orthodox spiritual academician, shining with his ever stronger and stronger light, illuminates and protects the path to St. Orthodox Church. Due to this historical situation of theological academies, the works of academic figures are not easy and important in all respects. Enlightened service to the church and fatherland imposes on them many responsibilities, and in addition to the main one - to provide higher theological and general education to spiritual youth. The St. Petersburg Theological Academy was established as a higher theological educational institution on February 17, 1809. From that time on, for sixty years (until the charter of 1869), she was entirely responsible for: educating spiritual youth for the highest spiritual positions, managing theological seminaries and schools in her district, disseminating and encouraging learning among the clergy and managing the censorship of books of spiritual content. All these responsibilities were distributed among the members of the then academic conference; one part of the full members of which, not belonging to the number of academic mentors, was occupied with various duties of the diocesan service and service at various educational institutions. Therefore, she could not devote herself entirely to the service of the academy. But the other part of the conference, consisting of academy mentors, completely shared these responsibilities among themselves. In addition to the main responsibility of teaching their science, some of the mentors occupied more or less important and difficult positions at the academy, such as members of the internal and external board, inspector, secretary, librarian and housekeeper of the academy; others replenished the composition of the spiritual censorship committee, which then constantly consisted of four members. By the very title of mentors, the professors of the academy had responsibilities: reviewing coursework essays and those submitted for academic degrees, as well as books for classical use in theological educational institutions, drawing up programs for these institutions, reviewing theological seminaries, especially at the end of training courses, distributing those who completed the academy course to appropriate positions in seminaries and schools, etc., requiring long and intensive studies. Moreover, academic leaders received a lot of private assignments from the highest authorities, for the execution of which the academy had to form special committees of professors that worked for several years. Translations and scientific examination of all kinds of manuscripts, letters and books in different languages ​​and dialects in the interests of the highest authorities constituted an integral duty of many of the mentors, in addition to their special studies in their science. Finally, even preaching the word of God in the churches of the capital, and especially in St. Isaac's, Kazan and Alexander Nevsky Cathedrals, drawing up exemplary programs of catechetical teachings and works of other types of church eloquence were also the responsibility of the academy's mentors. Since 1869, although the academies were somewhat freed from this broad activity and began to live, so to speak, their own internal life; nevertheless, their importance as educational centers for their districts was not lost, but on the contrary, thanks to the dedicated work of academics, it increased. And the more this importance of academies increased, the more the responsibilities of its leaders increased. In every family, with the increase in its members, life becomes more complicated and presents many demands; So it is in academic life: the increasing number of students every year complicated academic life in all parts of its administration and imposed on academic figures a lot of worries about organizing the internal life of academies. With the help of preliminary commissions composed of academies' mentors, the entire structure of academic life was developed, dormitory rules were drawn up, and measures were sought to strengthen the academic activities of the academy. But, being occupied with the work of their internal organization and development, the academies did not isolate themselves exclusively in themselves, but responded to the questions and needs of the society around them, and academic scientists served and are serving the church and society not only through the conscientious performance of their direct duties and specially scientific and literary works, but also through direct, close participation in the most important movements of church and public life 9 . Hence, scientists and their literary works in various periodical publications have a connection not only with their specialties, but also have a guiding character in solving various issues of church life. As for the instructions to academic figures from the top authorities, they did not decrease even with the introduction of the 1884 charter in the academies. In this regard, their activities are very diverse: they have to carry out all possible assignments, starting with the assignment of the St. Petersburg Spiritual Consistory to translate from German into Russian the investigative case about a girl accidentally shot with a gun by the clerk V. Andreev 10 and ending with the assignment - to be a representative from the department of Orthodox confession in the commissions of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Russian Astronomical Society for the introduction of a new style in Russia 11. Witnesses to these works are the archives of academic institutions and those institutions in which they were active. These are witnesses that are not currently known to everyone and will only be available to future historians in the future. Therefore, in the life of academic figures, some aspects of their activities remain not fully illuminated for their contemporaries. Vasily Vasilyevich’s activities on issues of the internal life of the academy began under the previous charter of 1869, when he, while still an associate professor, was a member of the church history department and worked under the guidance of professors: I. E. Troitsky, M. O. Koyalovich, I. O. Nilsky, Archpriest. I. O. Nikolaevsky, O. G. Eleonsky and N. A. Skabalanovich. During this time, almost all the reports of this department to the Academy Council and reviews of scientific works were carefully even rewritten by Vasily Vasilyevich’s own hand. The thoroughness and beauty of the external form of all Vasily Vasilyevich’s works were one of his distinctive features. But soon Vasily Vasilyevich himself became an exemplary and, one might say, irreplaceable leader for a long time. With the introduction of a new charter in the academies in 1881, he took an active part in various commissions when developing issues on the internal structure of academic life. For him there was no distinction between what was important and what was unimportant; he attached importance to everything related to the academy and science and willingly carried out all the assignments assigned to him. Here is a brief overview of his work in this regard. In 1881, he worked hard to develop a curriculum for students of the second and third years of the academy in relation to the new academic charter and compiled a program for theological seminaries on general church history; in 1885 he participated in drawing up rules for students to submit semester essays; in 1887 he drew up a draft schedule of semester essays from 1887/8 to 1893/4 academic year. year. with application and detailed explanation of the principle of equal distribution of professorial labor when reading these works; was a member of the commission for the audit of the academic library and for the revision of the rules on admission to students of the academy and on the conduct of tests; in 1888 he drew up a project on lithography and lectures at the academy and was a member of the commission for developing rules for the distribution of monetary awards for course essays; in 1889 he was a member of the commission to clarify the purposes of capital donated to the academy and, in particular, the anniversary capital; in 1893 he took over the work, on behalf of St. Synod, the clerk of the commission for preliminary clarification of the conditions and requirements that could form the basis of negotiations on the union of the Old Catholics with the Russian Orthodox Church 12; in 1894, he was a member of the commissions: a) to revise the rules drawn up in 1887-88 on the procedure and testing at the academy when admitting students, when moving from a course in a course and at the end of a course, b) to develop measures against late submission of semester essays to students and c) to clarify the grounds on which it would be possible to distribute scholarships between students in each course; in 1895 he was a member of the commission on the issue of changing § 106 of the statute of spirits. academies; in 1896 - on the issue of those changes in the structure of academic life that, according to experience, seemed desirable; in 1898, on behalf of St. The Synod found out under what conditions and in what church order the Syro-Chaldean Nesterins should join the Orthodox Church and translated our confessional formulas for them into the Syro-Chaldean language: on behalf of the same Holy Synod, to review the brochure published in Oxford, entitled: “The Holy Scriptures in the Languages of the Universe” and wrote a review about it, and in the same year translated it into Russian Abyssinian letters for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; finally, in 1899, he was a member of the commission for auditing the academic library, drawing up rules for checking out books in the library, and was appointed as a representative of the Orthodox confession to a special commission formed with the permission of the Sovereign Emperor at the Academy of Sciences on the issue of harmonizing our old style with the new Western one, regardless of his participation in the commission formed at the Russian Astronomical Society to consider the same issue 13. If we add to all of the above that Vasily Vasilyevich read semester essays of students for eight years (in 1884/5 - 5/6, 1887/8, 1889/90, 1891/2, 1893/4, 1895/6 and 1897/8), for ten years he carried out the admission exam on the general church history of new entrants to the academy (in 1881. 1885, 1887, 1890, 1893 - 7 and 1899) and for five years he served on the commission for verifying the calculation of examination points 14, then in this case, a far from complete picture of the varied and highly useful activities of Vasily Vasilyevich is obtained. He highly valued both the good of the church and the success of the academy, and devoted his entire life and all his strength to the service of academic science and, consequently, to the highest interests of the Orthodox Church. He did not refuse any work when it concerned academic life or was entrusted by a higher authority, and was unusually conscientious in his duties as an academic mentor. Unfortunately, Vasily Vasilyevich did not spare his strength on this side, especially in the last years of his life. He was appointed a member of various commissions and entrusted with the development of issues in various sectors of academic, church and public life. These works of his were distinguished by their remarkable speed in execution and talent in character. Whether the matter concerned the administrative side, legal, church-social, or astronomical, everywhere Vasily Vasilyevich was an experienced master. Many of his works now form the basis of the academic structure of student and scholarly life and are so characteristic that they are called “Bolotov’s”. The rules of academic life he developed are distinguished by legal brevity and remarkable precision of expression, and the foundations laid down in them are imbued with a clear knowledge of the need to preserve the true interests of science and sincere concern for the students of the academy. Moreover, all his works, whether they concerned the verification of scoring or scientific research, are decorated with “forget-me-nots”, which will preserve the name of Vasily Vasilyevich for a long time, as the head of the academy even after his departure to the afterlife. For five years, as we said above, Vasily Vasilyevich was on the commission that verified student report cards. This work is painstaking and difficult: here you have to deal with numbers in thousandths and only with numbers. But it was especially difficult for Vasily Vasilyevich at the end of the school year, when workers of science were in a hurry to take a break from their studies, and Vasily Vasilyevich, as if he knew no rest, was dealing with tedious calculations on exam numbers. The beginning of the school year was no less difficult for him, when the entrance exams at the academy, at which he served as an examiner in his subject for ten years, and in other years he was an assistant in other exams, also ended with the calculation of points. In this work, Vasily Vasilyevich was not content with observing only the accuracy of secretarial conclusions and their compliance with established rules; but he himself was wondering about the conclusions, regarding which, although he expressed that they were “average values,” this expression reflected Vasily Vasilyevich’s modesty and severity towards his own works. In fact, his conclusions and observations on student scores are of great importance and formed the basis of some of the rules of current academic life. Vasily Vasilyevich outlined these conclusions in one of his reports when he was clarifying the grounds on which scholarships in academies should be distributed among students in each year. The fact is that until 1895, at the academy, state scholarships were distributed among students once during the entire academic course and were distributed on the basis of the success of those entering the academy in the entrance exams. A student who received a government scholarship in the first year retained it in subsequent years, even if, based on his success, he ended up last on the list. Meanwhile, studying at the academy on a government scholarship is a privilege that, of course, the best students deserve. Carrying out admission tests for new entrants to the academy and participating in the calculation of exam scores, Vasily Vasilyevich was the first to draw attention to the shortcomings of the admission exams and the poor thoroughness of the criterion that guided the academy in the distribution of government scholarships. Indeed, the acquaintance of professors with examinees at entrance exams is short-lived, sometimes inevitably bears all the disadvantages of the first impression, and the data from seminary certificates is inevitably one-sided, because the certifying authorities have no opportunity to compare their students with their competitors from other seminaries. The academy acquires more complete data about students only subsequently, during each course, and is therefore able to distribute vacancies among them with greater fairness based on the results of annual tests rather than verification and seminar certificates. Vasily Vasilyevich himself gave a brilliant explanation of this in his note addressed to the Academy Council. "According to the current Charter of theological academies, says Vasily Vasilyevich, the best students in terms of answers are accepted by the Academy Council as state-paid students. This decision of the Council remains in force for all four years of the students’ stay at the academy. Only as a punishment for special offenses can a student be deprived of state support, and only with little success, which has been shown so sharply that the student’s transition to the next year becomes is impossible - may entail deprivation of government support. Meanwhile, we have to observe that students who are not among the state-funded students answer better in exams, and occupy places higher in the rank lists than their comrades who passed the admission tests more successfully. And the Council of Academies, however, does not have the opportunity to change its previous decision and transfer part of the government-funded vacancies to these students who turned out to be the most worthy. This immutability of the Soviet preliminary decision attracts attention all the more so since the grounds on which the Council is guided in making its decision are inevitably not entirely solid. a) The Academy observes newly admitted students for only a few days during the admissions tests. These latter have inherent and therefore irremovable shortcomings. Tests are written and oral. I. The former have, from the examiner’s point of view, their advantages and disadvantages compared to oral tests. The first ones boil down mainly to the fact that aa) that in the essays the examinees give a more thoughtful answer than in oral exams and bb) the professor reading the essays (no matter how constrained he is by the brevity of the time assigned to him for reading them) can re-read again some essays, in the comparative assessment of which he does not dare to rely on the first impression. The comparative disadvantage of written tests over oral tests is that the essays are written by everyone on a given topic and, therefore, inevitably always specially. A knowledgeable and efficient student, but who has the misfortune of not paying attention to the corner of science from which the topic is taken, risks inevitably losing everything. His information, throughout other departments of this science, may turn out to be completely useless to him. The given theme reduces everything to one blow. This does not happen in oral tests, when the examiner probes the respondent in all directions and gives him the opportunity to cover up his unfamiliarity with one department with the presentation of thorough knowledge in other parts of the subject. From the point of view of examinees, the organic drawback of written tests is that they inevitably have to write an essay impromptu. Extemporalia fatally turns to the advantage of persons with one type of thinking and to the detriment of persons of another mental type. The person who struggles with literary form loses; the quick pen of the polygraphist wins. In such a competition, a truly classic writer risks being defeated by a newspaper reporter. The classic rule saepe stylum vertas turns out to be downright harmful here. And if we take into account only the content of such works, then extemporalia are beneficial for those who quickly grasp and plan everything, and are not beneficial for those who are not accustomed to putting pen to paper until they have subjected their thoughts to the most comprehensive critical test, who bear within themselves the makings of a serious thinker and worker. – If we add to this that the writer is often not sure which side of the question he is solving is recognized by the examiner as the main one, and therefore tries not to omit any of the possible points of view and is not able to resist the temptation to talk about the subject even multä, then the advantages of some mental types over others in such a competition become visible in their entirety. In a word, extemporalia, without giving examinees the opportunity to show their erudition, weakly protects them against the danger that dull talents will remain unnoticed, that rhinestones will be preferred to uncut diamonds. II. Oral tests also have their fatal drawbacks. a) The person being examined, a person who is already an adult, who no longer has the happy carelessness of childhood and old age, who clearly understands what he loses in case of failure, and therefore is naturally worried, with excited nerves, comes face to face with the examiner, whom he sees for the first time, who for him seems to be a pure unknown, whose views must, however, be unraveled. The severity of the first acquaintance under these conditions becomes especially unprofitable. For a number of years, the person being examined had become accustomed to being tested in front of his own people, whom he knew, and who also knew him. He felt that he had his past behind him, that even for the most strict examiners he was not some kind of x, that they knew his characteristics, and they would be taken into account. Now there is no such guarantee; he is a total stranger. He may be embarrassed by the tone, speech and very facial expression of the examiners. When he makes mistakes in his answers, he is embarrassed especially because he does not know how heavily these new people will blame him for these mistakes. He is also not sure that his competitors (also strangers) are capable of the same mistakes. In short, the first excitement of most examinees prevents them from making the best use of their knowledge. Almost every one of those undergoing the test stands with the heavy consciousness that here he risks answering as weakly as he never answered and would not answer in his native seminary. b) The examiner cannot fail to realize that he has a duty to carry out the test as quickly as possible, like a painful surgical operation. By delaying the exam, he risks presenting completely false data to the Council. There is no way to calculate the degree of fatigue of those who have the disadvantage of answering last, in order to indicate to them, rightly so, their place among their competitors who answered before noon. The writer of these lines REMEMBERS how his list surprised everyone with the rather weak note of one of those who took the verification test and attracted attention with excellent answers. This point, however, was given with a certain leniency, taking into account the fact that this student recommended by the seminary answered last. A year later, this student took first place in the first-year rank list. Full of physical strength, energetic, he probably listened from morning to evening to the answers of those undergoing the verification test, noticed their shortcomings and mistakes, gave a mental answer to every question heard in the examination hall, worried if his memory was somewhat unfaithful to him, or the question seemed incomprehensible to him, and finally, when it was his turn, he came out already nervously exhausted and began to get confused in the answers. If it is impossible to limit oneself to an answer to one question (it can be successful or unsuccessful by pure chance), the examiner has to demand answers in nuce, short and precise, and thus limit the freedom or only the comfort of the examinees, who are often accustomed to speak roundly, with the flowers of eloquence - and their demand for something seemingly unusual can involuntarily produce a depressing impression on all those hearing. c) These organic shortcomings of verification tests are apparently adequately counterbalanced by the given seminar certificates, delivered by persons who recognized the characteristics and merits of the students for six whole years. These data are taken into account and reflected tangibly on the rank list compiled after verification tests. But seminary certificates also have special shortcomings that weaken the significance of these documents as completely reliable sources. aa) The very form of the certificates does not allow the seminary authorities to present the full extent of observations of the students: 1. unlike certificates issued by secular educational institutions, seminary certificates do not display the average score; 2. it is not clear what place in the rank list the person who received this certificate occupied; 3. How many students did this class consist of (to be the first between ten competitors and thirty, the difference is significant); 4. what score did the last student of this class receive (in average); 5. what score is the first (for the third to complete the course, for example, the score is 4, 5 is a brilliant certification if the first and second graduated from the course with an average score of 4.625; but it gets a different flavor if the first and second have a score of 5); 6. and what is the average course grade; 7. the sum of places that the student occupied throughout the entire seminary course is not indicated (a seminary student who graduated first from the course and has a total of only 6 places obviously recommends himself as a completely stable value, at least as part of this competition; but the first graduating class with an indicator in the form of a sum of 16 allows us to see in him a person who has been promoted to the top, perhaps an accidental, uninvolved person “); 8. and then, crescendo, dominuendo, or with indefinite fluctuations, he took his place in the graduation list [the sum of 37 otherwise characterizes the person who completed the course third, if it was formed from the dates (in the sequential order of classes from junior to graduation) 16 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 3 and if the summand is 1 + 4 + 10 + 17 + 2 + 3]; 9 . Finally, there is no indication, often very important: does the seminary authorities see the strength of the student in written works or in erudition and oral answers? In a word, students’ scores have only absolute meaning and do not allow for differential recalculation. For the academy, their differential dependence is also important. bb) Bona voluntas of the seminary authorities, their strict impartiality in their assessment of the students, is not subject to the slightest doubt. The organic lack of seminar certificates has a completely different origin. There is undoubtedly no mathematically accurate measure for assessing human knowledge and there never will be. Each person has to be taken together with his environment. Every good person is very good, if there is no even better one. The composition of the competition inevitably affects the evaluation of competitors. The impeccably strict teacher writes NN’s name first with a firm hand, knowing that this student is always diligent; He has enough knowledge, his answers are always practical, although they are given slowly, with pauses for preliminary reflection. If there were MM with the same merits, but without this sluggishness of the concept, and NN’s pet would have to take second place. In view of all this, the seminary authorities evaluate the seminary student only as part of these courses, without being able to compare him with those competitors from other seminaries, next to whom he appears before the academic commissions of verification tests. And when in the examination list there is a point of 3 against the name of the student whose knowledge in this subject in the seminar certificate is rated a full 5; then is the irremovable and unsolvable question, which of the points is wrong? Is it the first, due to a mistaken impression from the first acquaintance? or the second, owing its origin to the fact that the seminary was deprived of the opportunity to compare its pupil with stronger competitors? – In practice, this difficulty is avoided, since both points are included in the calculation when compiling the report card and list. But the fact remains that neither the seminary certificate nor the verification tests provide the Academic Councils with such figures, the results of which could be viewed as an unshakable solid basis for a final judgment about whether a given student is worthy or not of a government vacancy. The Academic Council does not have the moral right to renounce the view that every year it has more and more data at its disposal to evaluate students, that with each course students become better known to their superiors. But the Academy Council now does not have the opportunity to use these new data for the benefit of good students on an issue that is often very serious for them. If an error occurs in the list compiled after verification tests, then weak students have the full opportunity to enjoy the consequences with impunity for four years. Intelligent, hardworking students must suffer from the same consequences for four years, forced every year to reckon with the question: where will they get the funds for their maintenance. In view of all this, it seems appropriate if the Council of St. Petersburg. Theological Academy shares the above views, to appeal to His Eminence with a request to petition the Holy Synod for permission to the Council of St. Petersburg. Theological Academy (at least in the form of temporary experience) to distribute every year government-funded vacancies among those students whom the Council, based on the results of annual tests, recognizes as more worthy of this distinction. True, state-paid students give an obligation to serve a certain number of years in educational institutions of the ecclesiastical department. But life has already developed in such a way that this obligation is now a privilege reserved for a select few. They seek the honor of serving in theological seminaries and schools, and those who have once received an appointment are not in a hurry to resign after the mandatory period has expired, but continue to serve as before. The proposed measure will only replace in the ranks of those seeking the honor of serving in the spiritual and educational department such persons, whose merits the academy doubts, with persons more worthy of this honor.” All these observations and provisions of Vasily Vasilyevich, the Council of the Academy were indisputably understood and based on them, compiled, and since 1895, rules were introduced into the life of the Academy on the distribution of government and private scholarships among students according to their success at the end of each academic year. In practice, these rules have already borne fruit. But in addition to finding the true criterion for the distribution of government vacancies, these observations of Vasily Vasilyevich also have the significance that they reveal to us the psychology of the examiner and the examinee and clarify the meaning of the seminary certificate of those entering the academy. Each student is admitted to the academy only after passing a verification test. But as a result of this test, it sometimes happens that a student who was sent to the state account and has high scores in the certificate turns out to be unworthy of admission to the academy, or, although he passes the test satisfactorily, he will not take a relatively high place on the list, which would give him the right to a state scholarship. It is hardly possible to eliminate such phenomena, given the competition of many who come to the academy for verification tests. It is impossible to cancel the most admission exams and admit students to the academy based on a seminar certificate due to the imperfections of this certificate, indicated by Vasily Vasilyevich. Weakening the requirements for entrance exams on the part of the academy would entail a decrease in academic education. Verification tests ensure that the academy selects comparatively the best students, whom they subsequently prepare for useful service to the church and fatherland. The only possible way out of this situation seems to be that the seminary authorities, when choosing students for academic courses, are guided not only by the general formal requirements for this, but have moral confidence in the ability of those chosen for higher education; On the part of the academies, this requires careful conduct of admission tests so that the examiners receive a solid basis for a decisive conclusion about the knowledge of the person entering the academy. In this regard, Vasily Vasilyevich can serve as a model examiner for academies. How carefully and conscientiously he tested the knowledge of those entering the academy, especially in the event of an unsuccessful answer from the examinee, this is clearly evidenced by his reports on these tests 15. Here we will give a description of only one exam of Vasily Vasilyevich, made by him himself in one of his unpublished reports. “Student N was asked to speak,” writes Vasily Vasilyevich, “about “reform councils.” He began his answer with a speech “on Luther’s reformation.” When it was pointed out to him that he was not answering the question, he could not recover enough to list the councils that asked the question about the transformation of the Roman Catholic Church in its leadership and members. Then he was left to talk about Luther's reformation. But from private questions it turned out that this department was also unknown to the examinee in detail. He, by the way, could not answer the question: where did Luther appear for trial before the state authorities and how did the emperor treat him? Then he was asked to speak about the VII Ecumenical Council. G. N. was unable to name the main figures at this council and outline the course of its actions. In view of the fact that the examinee earlier, answering questions about Luther, said that the case of this reformer was considered in Constance, now he was asked to say whatever about the Council of Constance, in the hope that he would remember this page of church history a little more clearly than the others. But Mr. N could even name the name of the person who was convicted and burned in Constance. Then he was asked a question: what non-Orthodox Eastern church societies does he know? As he found it difficult to name them, he was asked to look for them beyond the Caucasus and begin by listing the peoples living beyond the Caucasian ridge. Not without hesitation, he called the Georgians and recognized them as Orthodox: but, as it turned out, he had no ethnographic idea associated with the name of Georgia: he considered the Georgian language close to Russian. Mr. N could not say who lives further south of the Georgians. Even the name “Etchmiadzin” did not remind him of anything. To the directly posed question: what religion are the Armenians? Mr. N finally replied that they were inclined towards the heresy of Nestorius.“ Vasily Vasilyevich was unchanged in this regard towards students and during their academic course. The desire to evaluate each student on their merits and to be completely impartial in this matter was his distinctive feature. How impartial he was is evidenced by the fact that when assessing student semester essays, he, being a member of the commission for checking the calculation of points, did not consider it possible to have at his fingertips reports of student oral points and their rank lists. In the academic archive for 1897, a letter from Vasily Vasilyevich to the secretary of the Academy Council was preserved, which testifies to this from impartiality. In this letter, Vasily Vasilyevich, among other things, wrote: "At the end of August and the beginning of September, I had to fuss with papers related to the Old Catholics. This is an urgent matter. And most of the essays of the first year have not yet been read. That is why there is no talk of transferring them to the next course. As far as I remember, the resolution of the Council on them stipulates the end of September as the term for their transfer. In any case, the case is a fact: my scores are not ready yet. I am returning the report cards. The opportunity to look on your report card will interfere with the rigor of the work and the independence of my list.” The experienced hand of Vasily Vasilyevich firmly led students to true knowledge and light. He never allowed a student to waste valuable time on activities that were not suitable for him and, in necessary cases, always warned them about this. The topics he gives for semester and master's essays are full of necessary instructions and warnings for the student about what to avoid when researching a well-known issue. For example, in November 1897, when first-year students were given two topics for the second semester concerning 1) the comparative importance of periods of church history for members of the Russian Orthodox Church and 2) the missionary activities of local churches, Vasily Vasilyevich, having given the students an appropriate explanation of these topics, wrote to them when issuing the topics the following warning: “I ask students not to waste time reading any books or articles, supposedly “guides” for discussing the issues posed in the topics. Healthy people do not need crutches, and there is no need to give yourself testimonium paupertatis. A thoughtful and literary response is expected, based only on the material contained in the seminar textbook.” This concern of Vasily Vasilyevich for students was manifested towards them not only during their educational and scientific studies, but also after they completed the academic course, when everyone had to arrange their own destiny. To characterize the kind and caring soul of Vasily Vasilyevich, we have the opportunity, thanks to the kindness of one of the candidates who completed the academy course, to share with readers the contents of Vasily Vasilyevich’s letter to this candidate. This is what Vasily Vasilyevich wrote to him: One chance acquaintance with a colleague - a juror in the current session in the District Court - gives me a pleasant opportunity to make you an offer - of course, unexpected for you: would you like to qualify for the position of an official (if I'm not mistaken) in the office of the Minister of Finance? What is required is a person of known moral and scientific self-control, who has a good command of the pen, who can read English and French (familiarity with other languages, of course, is not an obstacle). By moral and scientific restraint, I mean, first of all, ἐν πρωτοις, that developed sense of duty that does not allow a person, having exhausted a known source by only one third, for example, to present its contents as if it had already been studied in its entirety. Etc. – Of course, it goes without saying that you will read both English and French with the help of a lexicon. They also have nothing against it if your pronunciation of French is capable of causing a Parisian to faint. It goes without saying that you will still be taught your duties, and my recommendation that you are not a doctus, but a docilis, and that your essay gives me the right to guarantee that you know how to extract the required facts from literary sources, is considered sufficient for your candidacy. Everything that has been said already tells you that this is a matter of an official’s post sui generis, that you will not have to deal only with formal replies and orders. If you take the proposed position, you will become a participant in the implementation of the grandiose idea of ​​S. Yu. Witte - to create a scientific reference bureau on issues that may be of interest to the Ministry of Finance. The matter is both lively (in the sense of its current interest) and fresh (in the sense of novelty). Your main duty will be to read newspapers and magazines, from where you will extract all reports on that corner of the East that will be entrusted to your attention. You yourself understand that economic issues should play a leading role in your essays. If your work earns you the trust of your superiors, you will probably be entrusted with several eastern countries in the manner of a commander of a separate unit, and the opportunity will open up for you - in a few years, become a specialist in this department, that is, a valued and valued person. Of course, for about three months you will have to be listed as seconded, that is, serve without pay. But since the lowest regular salary that exists for junior officials is 1,800 rubles. per year - this is one and a half associate professor of the academy - then it is obvious that these three-month delays are not losses. Since - even during service - you will be given ad libitum - whether to study the subject magazines and newspapers in the office or in your apartment (only efficient and conscientious work is required), your immediate superior in spe is so kind that he offers to send you a trial work even to the Ya province. But I’m afraid that in Dievoy Gorodishche you are poor in all sorts of lexical (or grammatical) aids, like Robinson on a desert island. Therefore, it would be better to carry out the habilitation in St. Petersburg. To my chagrin, your answer to my random question about your status in military service has disappeared from my memory. If this point does not prevent you from becoming an official, then perhaps nothing else will. From the new chairman of the educational committee, P. A. Smirnov, you can expect such philanthropy that they will not want to harm you with an appointment to any, be it the Buguruslan school for geography and arithmetic. Perhaps it would be a pity to part with the circle of interests that are only theological and scientific? But what to do? And, moreover, there you will find interests more similar to scientific ones than to clerical ones. – Or maybe the Ministry of Finance seems too big a leap into the unknown? To reassure you, I will say that it is our brother, the seminarian, who is being asked to go there, that is, a type of historically proven strength both in efficiency and in the ability to work conscientiously. And your closest boss is an associate professor at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the local university, himself a former seminarian and student of the (Kyiv) spirit. academy. Please do not hesitate to respond. If - which (I hope) does not happen - any circumstances prompt you to reject this offer, you can answer (if your location does not present undue difficulties) even with just a short telegram: “no.” With best wishes to you V. Bolotov.” Vasily Vasilyevich's letters provide rich material for characterizing his personality. In private letters, of which there were quite a few, he used to speak out in principle on issues of science and life. Some of his letters, especially on scientific issues, reached colossal sizes (up to 50 sheets). It is highly desirable to see this material collected and printed. The Academy, which set itself the goal, after erecting the monument to Vasily Vasilyevich, to perpetuate his name in some other worthy way, would be the best center where all these letters could be sent for publication in print. If not all of them could now be published, then they would not remain without a trace for the history of academic figures. Vasily Vasilyevich’s activities in organizing educational affairs at the academy were imbued with his sincere emotional affection for students and the desire to arouse in them a scientific interest in their studies. Fully mastering his science and constantly striving to raise it in the academy to the heights of the modern state, he did not lose sight of the actual side of student life and, according to the instructions of experience, sought measures to satisfy its immediate needs. Concerns about improving educational affairs, both academic and seminary, with the goal of giving students perfect ways to master science, did not leave him throughout his life). Vasily Vasilyevich arranged the actual lectures so that students could not only listen, but also write down what they heard. Hence, his lectures, which were the height of perfection in essence, were also exemplary in the external form of presentation and were easily acceptable both for hearing and for recording by students - not stenographers. In 1897, Vasily Vasilyevich pointed out this concern of his - to give students - not stenographers - the opportunity to jot down a rough note of at least the main ideas of the lectures - in his official report as one of the reasons why the academic program in general church history cannot be completed in one year 16. In this report, in response to the question: “why is the program unfulfilled,” he wrote: “The program could not be completed due to lack of time. To explain this reason, I have the honor to draw the attention of His Eminence the Rector and the Academy Council to the following two points: 1) I, like almost all teachers, have at my disposal (for each academic course) only 4 weekly lessons. Meanwhile, in 1876 - 78. In the history department, general church history within the boundaries of the program I compiled was taught (by two professors) in 7 weekly lessons, and even this amount was barely enough. 2) Four weekly lessons will amount to about 104 lectures per course, i.e. up to 95 1/3 hours of time. In a lecture reading designed to give students (not stenographers) an opportunity to rough out the main ideas, I produce about 43,280 letters per hour; i.e. my course represents about 4,125,000 letters. The seminar textbook by E. Smirnov (course of grades III and IV, fifth edition, St. Petersburg, 1889, 484 pages; course of grade V, fourth edition, St. Petersburg, 1886, 189 pages) contains up to 1,274,000 letters. Thus, my course is too 3 times larger in volume than E. Smirnov’s textbook. But I consider it scientifically impossible to present my entire program in a volume only 3 times greater than the presentation of E. Smirnov’s textbooks (one has only to remember that the textbook does its job without giving reasons; meanwhile, these reasons, i.e., the content of the primary sources, if they are not presented from the department, will practically remain inaccessible to students). That is why, given the available possibilities, i.e., with 95 1/3 hours, I consider it advisable to offer my listeners only capita selecta from my program. At the same time, as far as possible, I try to fill in the gaps that arise.” In making it easier for students to master lectures, I think it would be most natural for Vasily Vasilyevich to free students from the tedious work of taking notes and give them lectures in lithographed form 17 . And this was all the more possible because Vasily Vasilyevich’s lectures were perfect in all respects, in all parts they were at the height of the modern state of the science he taught at the Academy, and their full course gave a clear idea of ​​the entire science of “ancient general church history.” But Vasily Vasilyevich held different views on this subject. He looked at lithographed lectures as a comfort that pampered people and which Vasily Vasilyevich himself did not use in his life. He studied at the academy at a time when “with a few exceptions, it was not practiced for the professors themselves to issue ready-made lectures” 18 . According to the testimony of one of his comrades, “he regularly attended every professor’s lecture, listened carefully and, in addition, wrote down the lectures for himself, without relying on official note-takers” 19 . Being a professor, Vasily Vasilyevich attached very great importance to these student notes, as work that contributed to their independent study of the subject. He outlined this view of his in his project on lithographing lectures and notes. Here Vasily Vasilyevich examines in detail and weighs all the bases of the issue under consideration and, with his characteristic persuasiveness, proves the importance of student notes at lectures. This is what he wrote in this project: “Lithographing lectures, i.e., more or less accurate recordings of what was heard in the audience, is a relatively recent phenomenon in the life of St. Petersburg Theological Academy. But even in the past four years, some rather stable features have emerged in this new practice, which need to be regulated. 1. Lithographs - if you look at this phenomenon simply and directly, represent nothing more than a means to an end. And this goal is that while preparing for the exam, each student has at hand a copy of what is being studied and therefore can prepare when, where and how he pleases. Consequently, this is a comfort that facilitates the best memorization of what is being studied, but comfort is not provided for by any of the current Charter as something that should be. 2. Historically, a new practice replaced the one in which students listened to lectures and then had to answer exams, preparing for them on anything. The students settled this purely domestic concern by preparing one handwritten copy of the lecture for 12–15 people and reading them before the exam, forming special groups for this purpose. Instead of comfort there stood, therefore, the ability to be content with little. 3. This purely home preparation of lectures had one side so respectable that I think it would be a pity to lose this factor of academic education. It should be remembered that in the vast majority of cases these notes were not corrected by teachers - a circumstance that gives this homework no insignificant value. Academic readings are the highest educational means when they only stimulate the student to independently study a subject, guide him in this, and do not replace him in the eyes of science itself. To demand that each student contribute his pensum of independent study to each science as a whole would, of course, be impossible, but it is quite possible to want each student to try his hand at such a mastery of any department of each science. The need to “compile lectures” was the reason for such study: inaccurate rough notes of readings, unclearly understood, sometimes had to be supplemented by the “compiler” by reading relevant books. And the noble sense of camaraderie, the heavy moral responsibility that fell on the “compiler” who had served his turn poorly in the case when, “by his grace,” another “failed" in the exam - this was an incentive to treat the “compilation" of lectures seriously and conscientiously. True, the compilers only sometimes had to conduct business in this way, i.e., by reading to fill in the shortcomings of their outlines. But There is no basis to refrain from wishing that it will always be this way. 4. The meaning of exam results now and before was quite different. Previously, students went to the exam with what was - to a certain extent - their collective spiritual heritage, and excellent exam results had to be attributed quite fully to the activities of the course as a whole. Now the same results speak only about the abilities of those examined - each individually - but do not give anything to conclude about the mental life of the course in all academic months. 5. The worst side of the matter makes itself felt in the lowering of the quality level of some recordings. In this “compilation” of lectures, however, there is obvious confidence that what is missing will be supplemented by another more competent worker. 6. The current practice, whatever its shortcomings, could be justified by the fact that the Charter of 1884 increased the number of compulsory subjects and for current students it is much more difficult than for previous ones to keep the course of their studies at the proper level. However, one should not confuse two different facts: that it has now become more difficult for students to prepare for exams (there are more subjects, and, consequently, exams), this cannot yet be disputed; but it cannot be allowed - and this is all we are talking about - that now it has become much more difficult for students to study throughout the year. Plus is only a sermon. In relation to all other duties, everything remains the same, and the supposed difficulty is an illusion that does not stand up to the collision with the following figures: The academic school year consists of 160 days, or 640 lectures 20. Of the 24 lectures per week in the first year, 4 are in languages, 12 are taken together with the second year, and only 8 (maximum) must be “compiled” only in the first year. In a year, this gives 107 lectures on languages, 213 lectures for the first year separately and 320 together with the second year. Consequently, the previous practice would have imposed on the first year the labor of “compiling” 373 lectures, which - with a course composition of 40 people - gives 9.33 lectures for each student in 242 days, or the first lecture in 25.93 days. If we take into account that every student does not have the physical opportunity to study a semester essay every day (the books in the library are not enough for this); then the idea of ​​special difficulties for classes during the school months will appear in its true light 21. 7. The current practice is the transfer of natural duties into monetary ones and, in part, the transfer of the former to other persons. 8. I allow myself not to stop seriously a) that truly lithographed lectures can be abused, b) that a teacher who lithographed the full course would find himself in the delicate position of a reader - a literate person in front of the literate ones. This last delicacy is more of a psychological than a logical nature; and plagiarism is, in any case, rare. 9 . The summa summarum of the arguments against lithographs for me is that every scientist has both the right and the duty to take care of his free time and not spend it unproductively. And the lithographic edition of the course - with an average of 55 lectures - will require up to 200 hours from everyone to correct the manuscript and censorially read the lithographed sheet. 10. And this cost is periodic in nature. The lectures are considered the property of the students who lithographed and are taken away by them. Lithography (and, consequently, reading in censorship terms) has to be resumed every time one has to return to a given section of the course. 11. This last inconvenience would have been completely eliminated if the Council had wished to decide: lithographed copies must become the property of the Academic Library in full copies. 12. Such a measure would have the following consequence: firstly, that subsequent courses would be spared unnecessary expenses; secondly, that preparation for the exams could be done correctly: a copy of the lectures, which is now available to students only a few days before the exam, would then be at their service from the very beginning of the academic year; then they could begin preparations in as many months as they thought convenient; Then the question could be raised about the decisive elimination of any palliatives such as notes on the exam. 13. And the inconveniences accompanying the publication of a complete course, indicated above (8, b), could be eliminated by allowing for lithography, instead of full notes of lectures, only an abbreviated presentation of them, which could form the basis of any course, more or less expanded. 14. However, I cannot hide that the introduction of this last measure would require that the Council first decide how to look at these abbreviated entries: a) The Council either recognizes these compendia as examinatoria, that is, it will oblige the examiners to recognize as excellent any answer, within the limits of these abbreviated entries, impeccable, that is, any answer that assumes excellent knowledge of these compendia, although it does not reveal familiarity with the detailed course read in a given year; b) or an excellent grade will still require a thorough knowledge of everything that was read in class. In the case of this last decision, these compendia will not free students from anything and will not make their work easier. Whether each for themselves, or all together, they will have to keep an additional handwritten record. And since the course will naturally contain a disclosure of the entire content in an abbreviated extract, and not only supplement it with new sections; then these notes will take – as before – the form of courses and the best students will use these handwritten notes and will – as before – prepare for exams. In a word, a decision in this last sense would not really solve anything 22. At the end of the project, Vasily Vasilyevich raised the following questions for the Council to decide: 1) “Shouldn’t the lithography of lectures be stopped altogether and the previous order restored - handwritten notes compiled by students and not corrected by anyone - in its full meaning? 2) if not, then shouldn’t the resolution outlined in paragraph 11 be made? 3) if so, shouldn’t a resolution be made within the meaning of paragraphs 13 and 14, huh? “ And the Academy Council accepted this authoritative voice of Vasily Vasilyevich and decided not to allow the lithography of notes compiled by students 23. Vasily Vasilyevich himself willingly corrected student notes and until 1889 even allowed them to be lithographed. It is highly desirable at this time to see his lectures published; but it would probably be equally difficult to reconstruct them from student records. It seems to us that the publication of Vasily Vasilyevich’s lectures, if it were carried out, will now only be an indicator of the degree to which students have assimilated his lectures, which they achieved under his leadership, but will not appear in all the glory of the perfection with which these lectures were read by Vasily Vasilyevich in the classroom and with which they would have come out from under the editorship of Vasily Vasilyevich himself 24. One of the advantages of theological academies compared to other higher educational institutions in education is the written work of students. Each student of the Theological Academy is required to write nine semester essays during the academic course and one at the end of the course for the degree of candidate of theology. These works, carried out by students under the guidance of academic professors and being correctly delivered, are of no small importance in the overall development of each student and in the development of their scientific and literary abilities. If this cannot be said with all force in relation to semester essays, since they are written in a short time (no more than 2 months of time are given for each essay), do not give students the opportunity to study the issue academically and are in the nature of compulsory service, then candidate essays undoubtedly leave a memorable mark on every graduate of the academy course. And the very works of some candidates turn out to be so successful in their scientific conclusions and talented in their character that they are immediately worthy of publication. But theological academies, unfortunately, do not have the financial means for this, and these venerable works remain dead capital, useful only in the future, as handwritten material for the history of our spiritual enlightenment. Providing the correct formulation of this part of academic education was and is one of the constant concerns of the academy. And Vasily Vasilyevich worked quite a lot on this side of academic life, being, firstly, in 1894, a member of the commission on the issue of semester essays and, secondly, in 1896, on the issue of those changes in the structure of academic life, which, according to the indications of experience, seemed desirable. Not everyone enters higher educational institutions out of vocation and because of scientific interests: some have the sole goal of seeking external benefits that a higher educational institution provides. Hence, inattention to one’s academic duties and evasion of supervision become inevitable phenomena in the life of students. In addition, youth is characterized by impulses, although they are of a periodic nature and do not contain anything tendentious that could compromise the general direction of students. Nevertheless, these phenomena serve as a significant hindrance to academic teaching. Of course, our theological academies are not without these obstacles. To eliminate them, academies cannot compromise their goals and naturally seek pedagogical and disciplinary measures to prevent them. One of these obstacles in the 90s of the last century at the St. Petersburg Academy was the untimely submission of semester essays by students. 1892 - 3rd academic year, for example, with all the general strictness in monitoring the submission of semester essays by students, one third-year student managed not to submit his third semester at all and remained not transferred to the IY course until December 22 of the next academic year 25. There were sometimes mass late arrivals, by mutual agreement. Finally, when this phenomenon became so noticeable that it was necessary to think about eliminating it, the Academy Council in 1894 formed a commission on the issue of untimely submission of semester essays by students, in which Vasily Vasilyevich took an active part and was, so to speak, the creator of the “rules on penalties for late submission of semester essays” that now exist at the St. Petersburg Academy 26. Vasily Vasilyevich’s personal view on ways to eliminate all these phenomena of student life, as far as we know, was that “today’s students need not only a pedagogical rein, but also spurs,” as Vasily Vasilyevich himself sometimes said, and that the most radical measure for this would be strengthening the inspector’s leadership of students and, if possible, the establishment of a third assistant inspector at the academy. But Vasily Vasilyevich did not impose his views on anyone and, on behalf of his superiors, worked diligently in the aforementioned commission and drew up rules of a purely pedagogical nature. These rules establish the differential nature of the penalty and are based on the position: “Si duo idem faciunt, non est idem”, i.e. “Only in appearance do two identical offenses appear to be completely equal; according to internal motives, they can be different to the point of opposites.” In addition, they are “aimed at protecting the best students from pressure on their herd instinct from their fellows.” The main provisions of these rules are briefly outlined by Vasily Vasilyevich himself in one of the notes in the following form: 1. “One part of the students, the color among the ciues of the academy, must be freed from all reprisals. a) These are people, usually with fairly developed mental senses. They are clearly aware of the unsatisfactory nature of hasty work, and would like to dwell on it longer. To weaken or dull such feelings in them would mean doing something harmful from a scientific point of view. b) Before these students, the Academy Council is not morally irresponsible: it often doubles the course composition as compared to the norm and thereby halves the period of use of books for all students when processing essays. Meanwhile, in accordance with the instructions of the regulations, courses I and II are filled with “histories,” that is, subjects that cannot offer theoretical topics. It is at least excusable if the best student postpones submitting an essay until such a time when the books - as unnecessary for other comrades - will be at his complete disposal. 2. On the contrary, the Academy Council has the full moral right to demand that the majority of students, who largely owe their numbers to the mass who did not have the right to enter the academy and ended up here only by the grace of His Eminence and the condescension of the Council, declare themselves to the best of their ability with what is within their means. At its best, it usually doesn't promise much; let it prove that it is absolutely correct, consists of people of strict discipline, and strictly obeys the requirements of the law and therefore is always accurate. Liberties are for artists; Let the artisan firmly remember his square and the order deadline. 3. It is necessary to free the intellectual aristocracy from the ochlocratic tyranny that oppresses the former under the false flag of comradeship. 4. It is necessary to weaken the contagiousness of the mass example and discourage conscious collective action. Therefore the principle is: “Divide et impera”. Based on these provisions, the rules drawn up by Vasily Vasilyevich are aimed at finding out the real reasons for student delays when submitting semester essays, and in case these reasons turn out to be disrespectful, they contain penalties in a simple and complex form. “The penalty in a simple form, as stated in these rules (§ 4), CONSISTS in the fact that, when compiling rank lists at the end of the academic year, the sum of overdue weeks is subtracted from the column containing the double amount of points for all semester essays, or something like that - the score of an overdue essay, by order of the Board, is lowered by the secretary by 0.5 for each missed week. The penalty in a complex form is that, when compiling rank lists at the end of the academic year, a special figure entered in the penalty column is subtracted from the column containing the double amount of points for all semester essays. This figure is made up of the multiplication of two values: aa) the difference between the score with which the overdue essay is assessed and the highest score of 5, and bb) the coefficient by which this difference is multiplied. the coefficient is obtained by decomposing the number of overdue weeks into composite ordinal numbers, from which the last overdue week is made up" 27 Vasily Vasilyevich has compiled a detailed explanation of these rules, which is very characteristic, instructive and interesting. Vasily Vasilyevich explains how to apply penalties in practice in a simple form with the following approximate table: I. Type of part of the report card (penalty in a simple form) II. From the attached sample it can be seen that the sum of overdue days (14, 0, 16, 4, 14) is divided by 7 and entered in the penalty column; the figure in this column is subtracted from the figure in the previous column; the difference constitutes the final conclusion. III. Analysis of the first column shows that Tutte wrote all the essays at 5, but was late in submitting one of them by two weeks. The penalty: “minus 0.5 for each week” turned 5 on an overdue essay into 4, and thus Tutte was equal to Rouen, who has points of 5,5,4. – Tissot has scores of 5.5, 4.25; but he was only 4 days late, and this circumstance gave the serviceable Rouen an advantage over Tissot, although the latter’s work was weaker than 0.25. IV. A comparison of No. 37 with No. 41 shows that the basis of this system of penalties is the idea: “regardless of personality, for an equal offense there is an equal penalty.” The brilliant Tutte (5,5,5) is penalized in the same way as the mediocre Ramier (5, 3.5, 3). The rule on recovery in a complex form is accompanied not only by an indication of the method for finding the coefficient necessary in this case and an approximate table, but also by interesting considerations by Vasily Vasilyevich: “I. The coefficient,” wrote Vasily Vasilyevich, is obtained as follows: Week 1 consists of week I... . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 weeks consist of weeks I+II... . . . . .. . . . 3 3 „ „ „ I+II+III weeks... . . . . . . . 6 4 „ „ „I+IIIIIIV weeks . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5 weeks consist of I+II+III+IV+V weeks. . . .... . . 15 II. The coefficient for fractional parts of the week is obtained by simple interpolation. For example, 0.571 is overdue. Differences between 0 and 1 week 1. 0.571*1 coefficient 0.571. – Overdue 1.286. The difference between the odds of 1 and 2 weeks 2. 2*0 2860.572+1,000 (for 1 week) odds 1.572. – Overdue 3.286. 3 weeks. . . . . . . .6.000. Difference 10–64. 4*0.2861.144. Coefficient For 3.286. . . . . . . . 7.144. III. Those who received a score of 5 on an overdue essay in the penalty column receive the same negative number as those who received a score of 4.75 on an overdue essay. V. Analysis of the report card shows that this system is based on the opposite idea: depending on the differences in personalities, there are different punishments for the same (apparently) offense. Ramier, Tutte and Tene were equally overdue by 2 weeks; but Tutte wrote an essay for 5, and was punished only by -0.75, Ramier received a score of 3.5 on the essay, and was already punished by -4.5, and Ten, who received a score of only 3.0, was punished by 6.00. On the other hand, Ramier and Yurben received the same 3.5 each, Tutte and Tuile - 5 each. But Tutte and Ramier were faulty for 2 weeks, Tuile and Yurben persisted for up to 4 weeks. The first pair is penalized by –0.75 and –4.50, the last ones by 2.50 and –15.00, i.e. not in two, but in 3 1/3. -Tissot was only 4 days late, Saint-Evreux was 16 days late; the first received a score of 4.25, the second -4.75, and therefore the first was punished more severely (-0.428) than the second (-0.393). VI. the tendency of this system is clear from these examples. Si duo idem faciunt, non est idem. Only in appearance do two identical offenses appear to be completely equal; for internal reasons they can be different to the point of opposites. Ten does not submit his essay on time for reasons that in his own eyes do not deserve any leniency (“out of the 30 days assigned for this essay, I was too lazy for 27, and in the remaining 3 days I can’t make up for what I missed”), Tutte - for reasons he had read (“I worked with unflagging interest, I re-read quite a few, even from primary sources, there are thoughts in my head, it seems that they are not completely vulgar; unfortunately, I am not given the form presented, but I want to finish the essay properly”), at least in his own eyes (“the comrades are asking not to submit on time; the submission will arm them against themselves; perhaps they will also think that I am currying favor in the eyes of the authorities”). Even in this last case, the guilt of Tutte and his other comrades is far from the same. If one were late only for the reasons that Thuili and Thoutet are guided by, there would be no mass lateness. Unfortunately, in such cases one sometimes has to suspect a mutual agreement, when the worst part of the students suppresses the will of the best to force them to join the ranks of the faulty ones, hoping thereby to force the authorities to either leave a massive offense unpunished or, with a creaky heart, punish those students in whose good qualities they are quite confident. -The differential nature of punishment is aimed at protecting the best students from the herd instinct pressure on them from their “comrades”. VII. This system aims to show students that all sorts of actions in bulk are simply not profitable for them. For the Julie Urbens, there was little benefit from the fact that they forced the Tuiles to join them and bravely withstood the strike for up to 4 weeks: the Tuiles were fined only 2.5; The average score for their essays and a full 5 turned into 4.583, which allows them to remain at the head of the rank list as before. The fine is -15.00. Jurbanov's skinny, average score (3.833) turns 1. zzz, and they are forced to leave the establishment. In this, Thuili, in turn, sees the most serious motivation to use all his moral influence on his comrades in order to deviate them from such a course of action, which can be mistaken for an osprey, which can lead to the reconciliation of this form of punishment, the consequences of which will so heavily affect precisely the weakest of the faulty. They themselves understand that, in the event that it turns out that it is actually impossible to submit the entire essay on time in full, they, as the stronger ones, have a duty to be correct to the point of selflessness, in the interests of everyone else, so that the few others are subject to punishment according to the first system, and not according to the second. VIII. The coefficient in this system increases so quickly (from 1 in the first week it turns into 10 in the fourth) that those who had the inconvenience of submitting an essay late will understand that for themselves it may be - in certain cases - directly important that their essay be submitted not tomorrow, but today. After all, none of them can be sure that their essay, instead of the expected minimum 4 3 /4, will not bring them a round 3. Meanwhile, if there is a delay of 4 weeks, this will be the difference between -2.5 and 2000. The impossibility of calculation is probably the pure - and terrible - unknown of what the special work on the essay, on which the person worked con amore 20-30 days after the deadline, will culminate, eliminates the possibility of any speculation on being late in the hope of being able to get the highest score for a better-processed essay: speculators risk being fined according to the second system, which even gives a round 5 for an essay. For a delay of 4 weeks, it turns into 3.75. And since according to the first system this 5 turns into a round 3.00; Then speculators understand that the best and most reliable speculation is to always have a round 0 in the penalty column. No less interesting and instructive are the provisions developed by Vasily Vasilyevich in 1896 regarding the desirable organization of training sessions for academy students and, in particular, regarding candidate essays. In 1896, on behalf of the highest authorities 28, a commission of professors was formed at the academy in order to find out the desired changes in the structure of academic life. Each of the members of this commission worked diligently on such a vital issue for the academy and drew up their own projects. Vasily Vasilyevich, always sensitive to the urgent needs of the academy, took an active part in these works, as the notes left after his death show. At that time, the Holy Synod did not intend to make significant changes in the organization of the curriculum in theological academies. And therefore, the academic commission in its work limited itself to making assumptions only about minor changes in the educational part and, moreover, those that were in connection with the disciplinary side. So she drew attention to the following inconveniences in academic life. 1. "Transition tests are set up at the academy not entirely expediently. The students' answers are generally more than satisfactory. But students achieve this result by unnatural exertion, preparing for the exam in the two or three days preceding it and in this short time trying to memorize everything they have read on this subject during the year. It is quite natural that knowledge, hastily memorized, is retained in memory for a long time. Meanwhile, not only in purely scientific terms, but also To develop moral consistency in students, it is important that they prepare for tests in a modern way and master the taught subjects gradually throughout the entire academic course. 2. Advice for students to repeat the lectures they have heard during evening classes is usually met with the objection that students do not have free time for this, since they use the evening hours to compile semester essays. Undoubtedly, these essays occupy such a prominent place in the lives of students that they do not have the moral courage to seriously engage in the performance of their other duties until the assigned essay is written by them. The mere increase in the score for the essays compared to the scores obtained in the exams can excuse students from the fact that the essays exclusively command their attention. 3. Meanwhile, due to purely external conditions, semester-long essays cannot bring all the benefit to the mental development of students that could be expected in view of the students’ intensive study of essays. In the first and second courses at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, sciences are taught mainly in history. Topics for semester essays are also assigned in these same subjects. But there is no way to seriously discuss any historical issue without having historical sources at hand. For topics in history subjects, students require books. Meanwhile, an academic library is rarely able to provide even only 2 copies of the required books for an entire course - 50-60 people. For example, if the nature of the essay requires students to read some patristic work in the original, then the library is forced to issue them only Benedictine editions in folio. Minh patrolology is usually used only by academic teachers, and this is very advisable; for Patrologia was published on paper of such poor quality that the volume, hastily read by 20 or 30 students, would inevitably return to the library somewhat damaged. Using the donations of the cathedrals (Labbe, Harduin, Mansi) or the publication of the Balandists Acta Sanctorum presents the same difficulties. In view of these inconveniences, it is necessary to come up with more or less a priori topics for the historical sciences. Which you can write about without reading books. But the benefits for mental development from works of this kind are far from indisputable. 4. Students currently write essays for a candidate's degree in the fourth year. This circumstance deprives the Academy of the opportunity to fully demonstrate its scientific influence on its students, as future scientists or at least literary figures. The most detailed review can only point out the shortcomings in the dissertation, but cannot teach the novice scientist to avoid them in the future. When these reviews appear in print, the candidates for theology are already outside the academy. Academy professors do not have the opportunity to give them purely practical assignments regarding the weaknesses noted in dissertations, and the authors themselves are deprived of the opportunity to derive real benefit from such instructions, since they live far from academic libraries.” 29 To eliminate these inconveniences, Vasily Vasilyevich, as a member of the commission, developed changes that entirely formed the basis of the commission’s report and are now of historical interest. To regulate the course of studies at the academy, he found the following changes desirable: 1. “Assign semester essays to first- and second-year students for a period of no more than one month each (namely, the first essay for the month of September, the second for the month of October, and the third from January 10 to February 10), so that students use the time free from writing essays to master the subjects taught to them. 2. In the month of December, check the timeliness and success of students' studies in academic subjects. For this purpose, the teacher of each subject, in the presence of an assistant, must ask each student. 3. For students who answer this verification test satisfactorily, the Council credits the score they received as an oral answer in the exam. On transfer tests at the end of the academic year, these students give answers only from that half of the course that was read in the second half of the year (from January to April). 4. On the contrary, students who do not answer the verification test satisfactorily take an exam at the end of the academic year in both halves of the academic year. 5. Students write essays for the degree of candidate of theology during the third academic year. and 6. In the fourth year, students, in addition to listening to lectures on those subjects that are required to be read in this course, are assigned special classes under the guidance of the teacher in the subject in which they wrote an essay for the degree of candidate of theology in the third year, or with the permission of the Council - in some other subject.” In an explanatory note to these provisions, Vasily Vasilyevich wrote: “The fifth point is closely related to the sixth point. Only a few candidates for theology write essays for the Master of Theology degree. The same cannot be said about this type of literary activity, such as collaboration in magazines, etc. Articles of one volume or another, scientific to one degree or another, are written by many of the academy’s students. The quantitative predominance of articles over books contributes to the fact that it is magazines that are our indicator of theological productivity in a given era. The Academy cannot consider it indifferent to itself if its pupils, without presenting their dissertations to its judgment, through their collaboration in periodical publications contribute to the improvement or, on the contrary, the scientific taste of readers. Meanwhile, under the existing order, the academy is deprived of the opportunity to fully demonstrate its influence on its students precisely as future literary figures. In this regard, they are almost always left to their own devices. Semester essays do not lead – in this regard – to the goal. Given their large number, the teacher reading them does not have the opportunity to express his opinion about them other than by assigning a score and some laconic notes on them. Detailed reviews are written about candidate dissertations. But the authors of these works become acquainted with these reviews even when they themselves are deprived of the opportunity to use them for their self-improvement. At this time they are already far from the academy, and the academic library is often completely inaccessible to them. From the reviews they learn which aspects of their first experience of scientific research were not entirely satisfactory. But they do not receive practical instructions from anyone on how to eliminate (or mitigate) the shortcomings in their work. If the candidate's research is written during the third year, then each teacher will have the opportunity to: a) assist in eliminating random shortcomings of the dissertation by assigning appropriate exercises to its author; and b) to clarify what remained unclear to the author of the dissertation, despite the year-long study of the issue, by offering him either research directly related to this aspect or, in the absence of them, his own supervisory readings.” Coming from the idea of the inviolability of the present academic status quo, one must recognize that the measures designed by Vasily Vasilyevich could well satisfy the immediate needs of academic life, and the commission could not do anything more than that. If these measures were implemented, especially in relation to candidate essays, then the academies would be the best scientific school. Students writing candidate essays would necessarily enter into a closer relationship with the professor who gave the topic they chose. Vasily Vasilyevich in his project hoped that “this moral closeness between a student and a professor will be further strengthened during special knowledge in the fourth year and will lead to a beneficial moral influence of professors on students, for the manifestation of which the usual course of academic life provides quite a few reasons, because a relationship consisting only of the fact that one appears in the classroom to give lectures, and the others listen to and record these lectures, inevitably take on a formal, official character. And this cannot but be reflected in a certain way on the general tone of the students’ lives.” These special classes for students in the fourth year, focused on certain groups of subjects in relation to the candidate’s essay they wrote in the third year and consisting of under the guidance of their professor, would also have the practical significance that they would give students the opportunity to independently study and evaluate educational and scientific literature on those subjects that would be included in their group, and would prepare these students for supervising teachers for religious educational institutions. In every educational institution, the state of the library is of great importance for the success of educational and scientific activities. For theological academies, the library is one of the most important means for strengthening its scientific activities. This, so to speak, is the stomach of academies: its condition is good, the head works well; and vice versa: its poverty and emptiness paralyze the activity of even the most talented forces. Therefore, concern for the replenishment and improvement of academic libraries has been and continues to be throughout the life of our academies one of the most important functions of the activities of academic councils 30. In his works on issues of the internal life of the Academy, Vasily Vasilyevich repeatedly drew attention to the importance of library issues. Never missing an opportunity to speak out about this when carrying out assignments, he sometimes independently entered the Academic Council with memos on these issues. So in 1898, when among the academy’s students there were several natural Eastern Syrians from the banks of Urm, and the academic library, which was not at all rich in works in the Syriac language, turned out to be completely unprepared for the requests of these students, Vasily Vasilyevich not only raised a special question about finding a loan for the acquisition of ancient Syriac works printed in the Eastern (so-called Nestorian) script for the library, but also compiled a list scientific literature for them and indicated the most practical and economic ways of acquiring it. The impetus for this was the following consideration, as he himself writes in his note to the academy council: "Among the Syrians reunited with the Orthodox Church, there is a noticeable desire to conduct divine services according to the Orthodox Russian rite in the Novosirsk language. Obviously, in the person of our listeners, we are dealing with future translators of our liturgical rites into the Novosirsk language. The duty of the academy will make this upcoming feat as easy as possible for them. The task of future translators is far from easy. Both in terms of their age and in their Their previous training does not give them any hope of becoming any satisfactory connoisseurs of the Greek language. Consequently, it will remain inaccessible to them that they will master the Church Slavonic language perfectly. And on the contrary, there is little hope that Orthodox Russian missionaries will study the living Novosir language so well that they will be reliable leaders for translators from natural Syrians. This explains the significance that the Old Sirian language has in this matter. The Byzantine Greek termini technici and the characteristic expressions of the ecclesiastical language in the ancient Syriac writing are conveyed - as far as is generally possible - very satisfactorily by the corresponding Syriac understandings, and even the very inaccuracies of these replacements are important in the sense that they show the impotence of this language, which is obvious and now irremovable. And the transition from the Old Sirian vocabulary to the Novosirsk one is, of course, less difficult than from the Slavic to Novosirsk. Therefore, it is highly desirable that our students within the walls of the academy have the opportunity to both strengthen and improve their knowledge of the Old Sirian language 31 . Unfortunately, the activities of academic councils in relation to their libraries are often complicated by the insufficiency of staff library funds. It is not necessary to purchase all the books necessary for the needs of the academy with these amounts. Finding measures to make the most possible reductions while meeting these needs without compromising academic work is one of the annoying concerns. In 1879, when Vasily Vasilyevich was still a fourth-year student, experience revealed the insufficiency of the funds existing in the academy to purchase all the books desired by individual mentors, prompted the Academy Council to invite all departments to participate in the selection of the most necessary books for the library 32 . In 1898, the library issue became so complicated that the Academy Council even had to suspend the checkout of books into the academic library until 1899, 33 and Vasily Vasilyevich, who was at that time on the audit commission for the library, had to work, on behalf of the Council, on the issue of regulating the checkout of books into the academic library. The results of these joint works of Vasily Vasilyevich with another member of the commission have now already been published in the journals of the Academy Council 34. Therefore, here we present only a few of them, in which Vasily Vasilyevich’s fundamental view on academic library issues is expressed: "When monitoring teaching reports, the Council proceeds from the following position: the academy is obliged to equip teachers with the best reviews of sources on the relevant subjects, respectiue books ad instar fontium, but allowances, i.e., crutches for cripples, teachers must purchase at their own expense if they believe that they need this kind of odd product. Therefore, the Council willingly purchases capital books for the academic library, published the pen of the authorities of science and marking a certain progressive movement in it, especially works that are usually called “Epochenmachend”, “making the era,” books of this kind, even if they are expensive, are allowed to be purchased again, in editions corrected and supplemented, if only the teacher is convinced that these corrections and additions are significant or essential. But the Council spends academic funds extremely sparingly on the purchase of secondary and cheap publications, unless it is proven that new theses are expressed in the works of these minor figures, that these insignificant figures represent a special scientific direction, etc., then these books are purchased according to the scientific rule: ut et fltera pars audiatur “35. "The Council should not encourage the pursuit of completeness of literature on any particular issues. Such a selection of “everything written" is considered an adornment of private libraries because at home the owner of the library has every right to be an amateur. But in an academic library such completeness would have to be considered a disadvantage. It is absolutely inevitable that, under the banner of this completeness, a lot of printed rubbish, both ancient and especially new, ends up in libraries, a string of programs, brochures and thick books, but without any scientific significance and have long been worthy only of oblivion. You cannot spend academic money on such “repetition of what has already been covered”: you can even spare space on the shelves of an academic library for such annoying literary guests. Therefore, we can take it as a rule: from each recommended new essay on an old topic, we must demand, point blank, either a certain scientific physiognomy or mandatory advantages (in terms of material completeness and the scientific nature of the general habitus), in comparison with works already acquired in libraries. This veto should be distributed especially energetically in cases where such gathering is directed towards a question only related to the subjects taught at the academy” 36. "An academic library should never be tempted to play the role of a patron of the arts. This role is completely beyond our budget. Therefore, applications and purchases of this or that book in many copies must go through the eye of a needle before receiving the permission of the Council. It is clear that this provision cannot be applied where it comes directly to textbooks" 37. "No reduction in the expenditure of sums on the issue of journals is possible. At this point, we have not luxury at all, but perhaps pure poverty, barely compatible with the decency that is directly required from a higher educational institution. We are already denying ourselves many things. Suffice it to note that the publications of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, Vienna, Munich are not subscribed to our library; famous journals on classical There are also no philology Hermes and Philologus; there are also no such organs on oriental studies as the Leukocyte Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Geselschaft, as well as the Parisian Journal Asiatique. But the mentioned publications are devoted to oriental studies in general. And next to them there are periodical publications on Egyptology and Assyriology, and therefore tireless work is going on in these two specialties; Perhaps the time is already very close when academic departments involved in the study of the Old Testament will no longer recognize it as possible to do without an extract from the Zeitschrift for Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete? "We live in an era when the book is stalled by the pressure of timely publications. A deeply regrettable fact; but we have no power to eliminate it. It is hardly possible to argue against the fact that the most valuable in science now appears less often in books, more often in magazines - and this is because the Verleger magazine in its purely commercial endeavors is restrained by the double scientific “noblisse olige”: the sense of scientific duty of the scientific author of the article and a sense of scientific duty as a scientific journal editor. At such a time, saving on the budget for magazines is hardly permissible.” 38 "The normal number of all students at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy is 120 people, the actual number is 240. When we look from the point of view of the academic library, it will be impossible not to recognize the great historical imprudence of this beyond the normal growth of our ciues academici. Academies are not universities. Absolutely all students are required to write dissertations for a candidate's degree. This obliges teachers. to invent and almost invent topics for essays even beyond the real need for their scientific processing: and the library was supposed to supply books, and it was the library that did not receive any “compensation” for the fact that the number of students at the academy had already doubled. Several scholarships have been established for insufficient or simply deserving students: no one has yet established a single scholarship to cover the needs of the library to cover its increased expenses. The academy itself was either so not far-sighted, or so humane, that it did not have the courage to implement measures so that from every newly established scholarship, at least 10 rubles annually would go towards strengthening our library budget. Meanwhile, in principle, we can assume that each student writing a Ph.D. dissertation costs the library an average of at least 10 rubles. Thus, up to 600 rubles should be allocated annually for this special expense item. And we have to look at this item of expenditure precisely as a special item, because it can be foreseen that it can enrich our academic library with works of rather problematic value - books that a professor would not purchase for himself, because their scientific merit is rather mediocre: but that is why these books cannot be a good test for the critical insight of students. Sometimes, in such cases, it is necessary to purchase small brochures and cheap publications, because they are necessary for the completeness of the dissertation or save precious time for the student.” 39 Vasily Vasilyevich’s activities on issues of the internal life of the academy also concerned theological seminaries, which, according to the purpose of their existence, have the closest connection with theological academies. Only students from theological seminaries enter theological academies; and the academies themselves, through their former students, are called upon to provide a general education to their future students. Hence, in the education of the clergy, the success of academic studies undoubtedly depends on the degree of coordination of the seminar course programs with the academic regulations. The higher the general development of those entering the academy, the more successful scientific special theological education is in the academies. The higher the general development of those entering the academy, the more successful scientific special theological education is in the academies. Therefore, none of the educational reforms can do without calling on academics to participate in the revision of seminar programs and cannot ignore the issue of bringing them into line with the formulation of academic teaching. In 1884, when new statutes were introduced in religious educational institutions, academic figures were, indeed, called upon to revise the programs in the subjects of the seminary course, and for some to draw up new ones - and bring them into line with the changes introduced by the 1884 statute. One of the motivating reasons for this was the mutual connection between academies and seminaries, in monitoring the direction and progress of the educational part in theological seminaries (the charter of theological academies § 81, section 6, paragraph 8 and the explanatory note to the charter, pp. 42–45). But in practice, this connection did not manifest itself during the entire existence of the statutes of religious educational institutions in 1884 and was limited only to the revision of programs and is supported by academic observations about the success of seminary teaching, discovered by those entering the academy during the entrance exams. Recalling this connection, which manifested itself in 1884 in the revision of seminary programs by academic figures, we consider it not superfluous, especially in view of the already pressing issue of a new revision of these programs, to cite here the works of Vasily Vasilyevich on his revision of the program on general church history for theological seminaries. While still an assistant professor in 1884, Vasily Vasilyevich made the following comments on the program on general church history for theological seminaries 40: 1. "According to the statute of 1867, in theological seminaries, 6 weekly lessons were assigned for the teaching of general church history. The new statute of theological seminaries for the teaching of the sciences of church history assigns 12 weekly lessons. Their distribution between the individual branches of church history is not indicated either in the schedule of academic subjects, or in the explanatory note to the statute. But since neither the statute nor the launch is intended to reduce the number lessons on general church history, then we can assume that it remains the same, i.e., to 5 lessons (in grades III and IV), another of the three lessons assigned in grade V will be added to teach general church history. If the course of general church history remains the same with 6 weekly lessons, then the reason for reworking the existing program of this science is eliminated. 2. In fact, the presentation of this subject in seminaries is determined not only by its program, but also by its implementation. Admission tests at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy in 1881 showed that barely half of the seminaries carried out the program to the end, and then with significant arbitrary cuts. This apparently indicates that the program was written in E. Smirnov’s textbook in such a wide format 41 that abbreviations in it become desirable. 3. It can be foreseen that under the new charter the need for these reductions will become stronger. aa) Previously, church history was studied simultaneously with dogmatic theology, and the teacher of the former could, to a certain extent, rely on parallel explanations by the teacher of dogmatics. For example, students who have become familiar with the exact expression of Orthodox dogma in its details, who have studied textually exemplary expositions of the dogma of St. The Trinity and the Incarnation, without much difficulty, assimilated the details of church history that were already understandable to them, there was no need for intensive explanations of what meaning and significance the particular points of the Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite systems had. All these clarifications will now fall entirely on the responsibility of the teacher of church history. bb) Previously, general church history was studied by fifth-grade students who had already completed a course in philosophical sciences that was quite serious for a secondary school. Now students will begin to study the ancient period of church history at the same time as they begin to study logic, and will finish it before they begin to teach psychology and the initial foundations and a brief history of philosophy. One should not overestimate the importance of studying philosophy on the material side, although it also has its price. For example, page 10 (ed. 1880) of the textbook was written with the undoubted assumption that students are already familiar with a brief history of philosophy. Phenomena such as gnosis, as an ancient Alexandrian scientific theological direction, are easier to understand and more clearly assimilated when familiar with Neoplatonism. For understanding heretical systems like Arianism, for understanding the medieval dispute between nominalists and realists, philosophy can serve as a good propaedeutic. In any case, a teacher could use philosophical material to explain church-historical phenomena only to a modest extent. But the formal significance of the philosophical sciences in the sense of a developmental means remains in full force. A pupil of the fifth class cannot but be considered more mature mentally than a pupil of the third class: it would not be fair to present to the latter the same requirements as were rightfully presented to the former. A church history textbook for a fifth-grade student did not present the same difficulties for mastering as it might present for a third-grade student. The conclusion from this is that now the teacher will spend more time on the most ordinary explanations than before; that, therefore, abbreviations in the textbook are desirable, either in the form of simplification (when difficult details are omitted), or simply to save time. 4. The science of comparative theology, newly introduced into the seminary course, cannot but influence the formulation of general church history. With one lesson a week, this science may not take on the task of offering its historical argumentation in full and expressing the desire that in church history special attention be paid to those points that are of interest for the assessment of heterodox faiths. such a desideratum seems all the more just because in the interests of church history itself, it is important to fully understand such a phenomenon as the Roman pantry. Meanwhile, this question is raised rather poorly in the textbook. The precedents of pantry in the 2nd and 3rd centuries are not only summarized in one paragraph, but they are assessed and emphasized in their places. But in the second period, the chapter: “Panish claims to supremacy in the church” (32) turns out to be decidedly colorless if we compare it with those substantive paragraphs that are read on this issue in foreign courses on church history (Kurtz, Schaff). At this point, therefore, what is desirable is not abbreviations in the textbook, but significant additions to it. 5. The new charter introduces the science of biblical history. Its appearance in the seminary course promises significant savings in time for general church history. New Testament history in Smirnov's textbook takes up 84 pages (4–89, §§5–40). With the attribution of this section to biblical history, to which it belongs according to its source and is ranked in the authoritative “Outline of Church Biblical History,” these 80 pages can be shortened by 8 times and, in the form of a truly concise essay, 42 combined with the next section—the second half of the first period of church history. And this will be useful for the cause: in the history of the apostolic age, the compiler of the textbook is sometimes extensive only because he takes a handful of information from later times. 6. Points of contact between general church history and liturgy also deserve special attention. If in this latter science it is intended to give a wide place to the archaeological element, then it is desirable that details of this kind (§§ 68–71 of the first edition and §§ 33–36 of the second), since they are proposed to be repeated on the pages of the liturgy, should be brought to their minimum, in a textbook of church history. 7. Further abbreviations in the textbook are also desirable. But it is not possible to identify in the program itself the points that would need to be eliminated. The task is to provide a more concise text for the textbook without cutting down the program. In this regard, let us draw attention to the following places: a) Does the author speak in too much detail about the spread of Christianity among Western European peoples (second half of § 5 § 45 of the second issue)? b) Do the popes of the shameful period of 883-1046 deserve two pages in the textbook? c) Wouldn’t it be more expedient to subject § 21 of the third edition to a strong reduction? In general, it seems desirable that when making abbreviations, it is not factual details that are omitted - they can even facilitate memorization, but phrases, sometimes quite verbose. But, with respect for the facts, their strict verification is necessary: ​​everything erroneous, untenable, but presented as a fact, must be eliminated from the textbook. And this will give a certain saving in place and time. 8. We proceed from the proposal that the new charter provides only 6 lessons per week for teaching general church history. But another distribution is also possible: perhaps, when comparing the programs of other branches of church history, they will not require more than 5 lessons. The seventh lesson for general church history is desirable even with those abbreviations that are attached above. If significant time savings were achieved, this surplus could be used to replenish the patriotic section of the textbook. In its present form, it does not say anything, for example, about St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, although in other places (pp. 161, 342) references are made to it. The church historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Evagrius are not mentioned by name, not to mention the chronicler writers and Latin church historiography. 9 . The changes proposed above, as far as they affect the program, boil down to the following: A) Introduction to science: (§§ 1 – 4) without changes. First period: from the first spread of the church during the time of the apostles to its triumph over paganism under Constantine. (34 – 313); the nature of this period (§ 13). Chapter I. Spread of the Church. 1) The political and moral state of pagans and Jews, as a condition favorable to their conversion to Christ. 2) The spread of Christianity under the apostles (the method of spread - apostolic travels; the exploits of the Apostle Paul and other apostles; the volume of spread, the reasons for success) (§§ 14 - 19, 23). 3) The spread of Christianity after the apostles (method of spread) in Asia-Africa-Europe (§ 41). 4) Persecution of the church by the Jews. Their end: the dispersion of the Jews (§ 20). 5) Persecution of the church by pagans (reasons for persecution) under the emperors: Nero, Domitian, Trojan, etc. (§§ 21, 22, 42 - 47). 6) Attacks on Christians by pagan philosophy (§§ 48, 49). 7) Apologists (§ 50). Chapter III. Church teaching. 1) The source of the doctrine of the New Testament church is canon and tradition (§§ 24, 57). 2) Private dogmas revealed by the church. Symbol (§§ 25, 57 end, 58). Chapter IV. Heresies and false teachings. 1) Their origin (§ 38). 2) Judaizing heretics (§ 39). 3) Gnosticism. His origin and main character (§§ 40, 51). Gnostics of the Apostolic Age (§ 40), Alexandrian and Syrian (§ 52). 4) Manichaeism (§ 53). 5) Montanism (§ 55). 6) Monarchians (§ 54). 7) Chiliasm (§ 56). Chapter V. Theological writing and science. 1) Apostolic men, their creations (§ 26). 2) Theological science of post-apostolic times; its representatives (§ 59). Chapter VI. Structure and management of the church. 1) Laymen and clergy (§ 27). 2) Extraordinary gifts and ministries in the apostolic age (§ 28). 3) Degrees of permanent hierarchy: bishops, presbyters and deacons (§§ 29, 60). 4) Non-hierarchical church positions: deaconesses, subdeacons, readers, singers, acoluths, exorcists, sotiaries (§§ 29, 61). 5) Election and ordination of clergy; their marital status and methods of maintenance (§ 62). 6) division of the church into dioceses and parishes. Mutual fellowship between churches. Cathedrals; their prototype is the apostolic council (§§ 64, 65, 31, 30). 7) The power of metropolitans. Roman bishops; their claims to supremacy (§ 66). Chapter VII. Worship, deanery (discipline) and Christian life. 1) the nature of New Testament worship; its constituent parts (§§ 33, 69). 2) Sacred places (§§ 34, 68). 3) sacred times. Disputes about the time of Easter celebration. Lent begins on Saturday in the west (§§ 36, 71, 72). 4) Performing the sacraments. Dispute about the baptism of heretics (§§ 35, 70). 5) Church discipline regarding the acceptance of the fallen. Schisms against church discipline: Hippolyta in Rome, Novata felicissima in Carthage, Novatian in Rome, Melitia in Egypt (§§ 37, 73). 6) Life of Christians (§§ 34, 74, 75). § 32 of the textbook in the second period: “Attempts at papal claims to supremacy” should cover the following headings: 1) Bishop of Rome. Historical foundations of his high position (attitude to secular power). Cathedral of Orelata 314 Cathedral of Sardica 343 Views of Leo V. on the primacy of the apostle. Peter and the bishops of Rome. 2) attitude towards the Roman see of private churches in the West. Autocephalous churches. The struggle of the Gallic church against Roman claims (the case of Calidonius). The struggle of the African church against Roman claims (the case of Apiarius). 502 Question about the “three chapters”. 3) Relation to the Roman see of the churches of the east. Julius and the Council of Antioch 341 Damaz and Basil V. The Ecumenical Council of 381 in Constantinople and the attitude of Rome to its decrees. Celestine I and Leo V. with relations with the east. Case of Akakios of Constantinople; Gelasius's view of the authority of the Roman see. Vigilius. The title of “ecumenical” and Gregory V. Honorius and his successors. The era of iconoclasts. 4) The beginning of the temporal power of the popes. In Chapter 2 of the second era, B, of the second section of the last period (page 18 of the program), the following addition is necessary: ​​“4) Vatican Council. 5) Old Catholics; their relations with the Orthodox and Episcopal Church. 6) Information about the actions of Latin missionaries.” All theological education in our religious educational institutions is based on the study of classical languages. In addition to their pedagogical significance, these richest languages ​​in the world are the most sacred languages ​​of the entire Christian Church. “Both classical languages, especially Greek, were destined to become an instrument for the dissemination, establishment and comprehensive internal development of Christianity, so that without these languages ​​it is impossible to have direct access to the sources of Christian doctrine, teaching and worship” 43. Not to speak these languages ​​means to remove yourself from the rich treasures of the works of St. fathers, the church hymns and prayers they composed, and in general the sources of Byzantine history, familiarization with which in the originals is a necessity for both learned researchers and holy pastors. And in the matter of general education, without knowledge of languages, it is hardly possible to study even our native languages ​​- Russian and Slavic - which developed under the influence of the Greek language. Therefore, in the interests of spiritual initiation, the study of these languages ​​in theological seminaries and academies seems to be a matter of urgent necessity. In view of this importance of classical languages, academics since 1848 have had to work for over half a century to find measures to strengthen the study of these languages ​​and improve the methods of teaching them in academies and seminaries 44 . Academies cannot look at these languages ​​as an auxiliary means only for theological sciences, since academies have to have the goal not only of acquainting their students with primary sources on theological subjects, but also of preparing teachers in classical languages ​​for theological seminaries. To achieve the first goal, it is necessary to expand the pupils’ familiarity with languages, which they received in seminaries, and for the second, it is necessary to give a thorough special philological education - to train teachers - philologists. But for theological academies, as predominantly theological institutions, combine these two tasks and it is impossible to solve them in practice without proper reform in this matter. One can hope that comparative linguistics, which has now made itself felt with its fruitful results, will also change the outdated methods of teaching classical languages ​​in theological seminaries and will undoubtedly contribute to the advancement of general education in theological academies. At the present time, when in secondary educational institutions of the Ministry of Public Education a reform has been undertaken in the sense of eliminating the study of classical languages, and when in the ecclesiastical department there are voices about reducing the study and even abolition of these languages ​​in religious educational institutions, Vasily Vasilyevich’s view on this subject is interesting. This view of his is primarily visible from his reports on the entrance examinations at the academy in general church history, in which he sometimes had the goal of clarifying the necessary legal capacity of the subjects for scientific theological studies. To do this, he used to, after an oral answer to a question from a textbook, offer examinees small cards in Greek and Latin with extracts of characteristic theological expressions, by which they determined whether the teaching being presented was Orthodox or non-Orthodox and against whom it was directed. In one of these reports, Vasily Vasilyevich writes: "The written passages (i.e., the definitions of religion stated in Greek and Latin) were not equally easy, but in general the cards showed that the examinees were far from masters of their information and did not think through everything that they remembered. True, about 20 examinees (out of 69) gave quite correct answers." "It is likely that part of these unsuccessful answers must be attributed to an unsatisfactory knowledge of Greek and Latin. But if any conclusion can be drawn from a limited number of observations, seminarians are better prepared for reading Latin and Greek monuments of Christian literature than high school students." 45. In another report for 1894, Vasily Vasilyevich also states the poverty of the linguistic knowledge of the subjects: "There were long-range answers, writes Vasily Vasilyevich, but unsuccessful ones prevailed. Without difficulty, even after an oral answer, which was far from brilliant, they guessed quotes that were too frank (they understood, for example, that a passage was copied from a Vatican decree or from the teachings of the Palagians). But passages with a color of a more subtle shade were not within everyone’s power. Of the 5 respondents, only 2 were able to determine that the view being expressed (Christian - belongs to the Arians, and not to Apollianaris. Of the 4 respondents, not one of them did not understand that the words (about infant baptism) were not directed against the Pelagians, but belonged to the Pelagians themselves (the dogmatic connotation was expressed extremely - however - subtly and evasively). But there were mistakes, and very gross ones. A distorted teaching (iconolatry) was attributed to the fathers of the VII Ecumenical Council. Eutyches's true words were taken as an accusation against him. The main blame for these shortcomings lies equally not with the weakness of the dogmatic understanding of the subjects, but not with the meagerness of their linguistic knowledge. Obviously, a book in Greek or Latin can only be a subject of reading for very few of them. The majority face the hard, barely feasible work of translating a few lines from it—barely pages—in whole hours. And lexicons for such work would be required in such quantities that even the richest library would not be able to satisfy the demand. On this side, those who are used turn out to be poorly prepared for scientific studies of Theology. This can be illustrated clearly with one example. It seemed that in the quote beginning with the words: everyone would guess the familiar text of the Irmos: “Thou camest from the Virgin.” However, several examinees were unable to determine the polemical tendency of this irmos - because they did not know how to translate the words (the first was translated: “accepted”, the second “elder”), and even when the Slavic beginning of the irmos was suggested to them, they did not know how to continue it (all because of the tricky one). The Greek (“the whole name of man”) spoke so little to their minds that they saw in it nothing other than the truth that Jesus Christ wants all men to be saved.” But Vasily Vasilyevich outlined a more detailed look at the real significance of classical languages for religious educational institutions and at the reasons for the actual futility of teaching in a special note with the following content: 1. “A theological school may be subject to criticism, by the way, for such shortcomings for which its leaders cannot be held responsible,” and in the past there were and are now - to the detriment of the cause - such reasons that can be eliminated only by the authorities that are incomparably higher than both rectors and professors. 2. "The successes of theological academies stand in the closest connection with the successes that the seminaries actually achieve. The academies cannot but demand that individuals who are capable of taking real interest in the sciences in their highest form enter the academies with "student" certificates." 3. “In seminaries there was once a “reading of the church fathers in Greek.” I would formulate it somewhat more broadly: “reading the Greek Church Fathers in Greek and the Latin Fathers in Latin.” This subject - from an academic point of view - is a quint - the essence of the seminary course, the true testimonium maturitatis of the student of theology." The "not mature" will not read the Father of the Church in the original, either because the very content of the Fathers' writings will be incomprehensible to an ill-prepared "theologian", or because the very language of the Fathers will seem to us "not written in our hands." 4. “One of the important dogmatic monuments of Orthodoxy begins with the words: “Subsequent by the Divine Father.” This alone conveys to the “reading of the Church Fathers in Greek” the significance of an integral part of Orthodoxy itself. How many “copper coins” can be given for the moral strength of such a family where the children do not understand the language of their parents? And the Orthodox “theologian” must understand the language of the church fathers in order to have a real opportunity to follow their authentic teaching.” Russian church life has taught us cruel lessons. Just remember: “If anyone is not celebrated at home by the Persians, so is Christ: cursed be he, holy fathers, rekosha.” An ignoramus who imagines that he will follow the divine fathers can be downright terrible. 5. "From the point of view of academic interests, I would consider it advisable to place 'the reading of the Holy Fathers in the original a livre ouvert at the forefront of academic admission tests. This verification exam should be placed before all others - and persons who received an average score of less than 3 ¾ in the reading of both Greek and Latin Fathers on the academic exam should be directly excluded from other tests." 6. "It would be strange to ignore that with the advancement in the Greek and Latin languages, the situation in the seminaries is far from good. The seminaries are not to blame for this. In response to the efforts of the theological school, life carried the muddy waves of its depravity. Is it possible to keep seminarians, young men of 20, in such happy ignorance that it remains a complete secret for them that in their native district, if in the countryside, there are shepherds, who have forgotten the Greek language almost down to the alphabet, and yet this does not prevent them from being considered, even from being respectable figures in the field of the Lord? Life, therefore, does not allow spiritual leaders not to extinguish that spirit, that light that a modest seminary education has invested in them. Life also awaits seminarian students for the fact that they form the opinion that Greek is still on the school bench. and the Latin language is used for nothing?“ 7. "But this is not the bitter end. Let us assume that the seminarians have studied both classical languages completely satisfactorily. The question arises: what will they read in Greek and Latin when they leave school? The classical authors from the Biblioteca Teubneriana are comparatively cheap (although they are very expensive for the meager wallet of most rural priests). But can a priest be blamed if he is neither Domosenes and Cicerones, nor Omires and Virgilius is not interested, and he will want to read the Holy Fathers? But it is precisely the patristic works that are unattainable for him, like “heavenly heights.” The old Benedictine “Opera omnia” is terribly expensive. New editions of individual saints. There are no paternal creations abroad at all. And of course, it is not Russian priests, with their modest incomes, who will make up such a general contingent of buyers of patristic works that the Teibners and Tauchnits recognize it as commercially profitable enough to begin reprinting individual works of the holy fathers. Is it surprising if the theological school turns out to be powerless in the fight against such a “state of affairs”, the persistence of which has no end in sight. . . . . . . ... . . . . .. . . . .. . . Fill the conservatory with professors to select everyone with talent and - what is more important - with the fame of the Rubinsteins, but announce to the students that, upon leaving school, violinists will not see either a bow or a violin, pianists will never touch the keys with their fingers - and the conservatory will suffer a fiasco. Establish the most exemplary teaching of the art of viticulture throughout Spitsbergen - vineyards will still not grow in Solovki. 8. “Meanwhile, this persistent lack of “supply” of books in Russia, killing the very possibility of demand for it, isn’t it shameful for Russia? Will every priest be at the height of his calling if a parishioner asks him a series of such questions, for example: a) what does it mean: “will the cart send down divine grace to us?” We send glory to God, and God sends it down, and here it says: “he will send down a cart.” b) what does such a phenomenon mean: in Irmos 4 songs of the Sunday canon, 2 voices sing: “If you came from a virgin, no intercessor, not an angel,” and a few minutes later in Irmos 5 songs of the same canon we hear: “Thou art the intercessor of God and a man, O Christ God?” The case is very edifying for those who imagine that such conflicts can be eliminated by correcting the existing Slavic translation. Here we would have to begin by breaking down the most commonly used terms of theological language. c) What do the words mean: “let us dissolve the obstinate necessary changes” (in the stichera: “Fasting, brethren, bodily” etc. etc. etc. Let us assume that the parish pastor gives answers to these questions; but will this be worthy of the integrity of his presbytery? After all, if he answers, even correctly, but without reading the Greek text of the dark passages, he will answer only at random, i.e. eo ipso he will relegate himself to the category of adherents of that Jesuit morality, which, instead of the exact truth, knows how to be content with approximate verisimilitude.” 9 . The existing order of things, I think, is only disorder that must be eliminated. In every parish church, even a poor one, there should be liturgical books in Greek in the “diaconium” in the closet, so that a presbyter who takes his position seriously, whenever he encounters such perplexed expressions, can find out on the same day what the matter is. 10. In addition to liturgical books, these church libraries could also contain volumes of individual works of St. fathers in the original... The so-called beneficent publicity has raised more than once howls and cries over the recidivism of illiteracy observed in some former pupils of the elementary public school. There is talk of a church library for the people. Is recidivism of illiteracy easier, to which our way of life condemns the priest himself? And where are decent church libraries for the priests themselves? 11. I pose the question of reprinting the original patristic works in Russia deliberately broadly. Maybe this enterprise, if staged en grand, will cost “cheaper in bulk” and will be useful not for the narrow confines of academic life. Now I turn to him. 12. It is easy to assume that seminary students, having laid down at least the foundations to be prepared to master the higher theological sciences, enter theological academies, and the latter are obliged to answer his scientific needs and abundantly saturate him with the food of the patristic writings. Complaints that things seemed to be going wrong in the academies were heard almost in the columns of newspapers that were not at all guilty of theology. Obviously, writers of this type do not even suspect that the academy has not only the right, but also the duty to respond to their precious advice with the words: ultra-posse nemo obligatur. Academies are deprived of the opportunity to organize the task of reading patristic works by students in any systematic way. The reason has already been stated above. There is nowhere in the world a trace of individual editions of the patristic works in the original, in little books of 2-3 printed pages. That is, no one has yet taken care to satisfy one of the essential needs of higher spiritual enlightenment. It is undoubtedly easier to talk about lofty principles than to understand the practical side of the matter. St. Fathers were published in their days by the Benedictines, but they published both in the form of Opera omnia and in the form of inconvenient volumes. These Opera omnias are very expensive and therefore the richest library has one or two copies. Meanwhile, the normal layout of the academy is designed for 30 students. And various everyday circumstances have led to the fact that every year the academy receives 50 or more students instead of 30. If student A. took the first volume of the works of Athanasius the Great in order to read his words about the incarnation of God the Word, then he thereby deprives student B. of the opportunity to make inquiries in the Apologia ad Constantium, student B. to read the Apologia de fuga, student G. to become familiar with the Historia arianorum ad solitarios, since all these works of St. father are placed in the same Volume I. And then the tome, opened on the table, takes up more space than is allowed for one student. True, these volumes have already been reprinted in the rather convenient quartants of the Patrology of Min. But, unfortunately, the venerable abbe, struggling with all sorts of obstacles, used for his publication paper, worse than which, apparently, in all of Paris, it was impossible to find in 1857. Therefore, the academic library has the right to issue volumes of Patrology not to just anyone. And then, it is quite natural that Patrology is mostly in the hands of academic teachers. No matter how strictly one treats professors who do not have their own academic library, because of the Patrologie Cursus Completus no reproach can fall on them simply because in 1875, when Migne died, most of them were either on academic or school benches. And Patrologia, even during the publisher’s lifetime, became the greatest bibliographic rarity.” From a practical point of view, much can be done, and indeed is done, to object to the study of classical languages ​​in religious educational institutions. -For example, one priest A.S., in his article in “The Week” for 1901: “What does the study of classical languages cost Russia?”, among other things, wrote that “ancient languages, in all honesty, are not needed for anything in life. Only doctors might need Latin for writing prescriptions; but in order to be able to write the names of medicines in Latin, it would be enough to take a few lessons Latin language, having already begun to study medicine, and not torment all high school students without exception with it for 10 years” 46. Or the same author also objects to the study of languages: “Has anyone heard of diocesan bishops, school councils and their departments, diocesan and district observers, missionaries and other authorities asking whether the clergy under their jurisdiction knows Latin or Greek or not? This means that they all consider them unnecessary for the parish clergy. Why then study them? In many dioceses (for example, X. and N.), priests who are not burdened with classical (and other knowledge) for some reason receive even better places and are made deans. After all, the bishop can, at his discretion, present any place in the diocese and appoint a simple priest as dean, at least from the third class of a theological school, and subordinate to him city priests and archpriests - candidates and masters of theology. And this, they say, happened recently in a university town." 47 But if all this, as the priest testifies, happens in life, it does not mean that this is how it should be, and that classical languages ​​cannot be used. Everything depends on the correct formulation of this matter, and the importance of ancient languages ​​for theological schools is indisputable. As can be seen from the sketch of Vasily Vasilyevich’s activities presented by us, he made capital contributions to the internal life of the academy and indicated the direction that he should follow in his works and in his life. We cannot fail to note here one more of these contributions, which served to enhance the scientific interests of the Academy. The fruitfulness of an academy’s activities cannot be measured by the number of scientific dissertations it produces. In any business, the quality of the item is valued first of all. The same applies to scientific dissertations: to establish a principle - what scientific merits it should have - is one of the tasks of theological academies. This is all the more necessary because there are no guidelines or rules on this subject either in the academic regulations or in the explanatory note. According to § 142 of the statutes of theological academies, for example, to obtain a doctorate degree, only an essay is required, but it does not indicate what merits it should have. Academic usus in this regard was different and changeable depending on life conditions. To say that a well-known doctoral essay is “worthy” or “not worthy,” according to existing rules, depends on the personal views of the reviewers, on the basis of which the academic councils make their decision. What criterion of true scholarship should guide these reviewers in order to give their impartial opinion about a well-known work is not stated anywhere in the governing academic rules. On the other hand, is it possible to award this degree for the totality of the author’s works, and will this not be a contradiction with the requirement of § 142 of the statute and on what scientific grounds can this be justified? All these issues of academic life were explained by Vasily Vasilyevich in some of his reviews of those doctoral dissertations on which he had to give his opinion. The undoubted merit here is that he tried to establish the requirements that a doctoral dissertation must meet. “§ 142 of the statutes of theological academies requires the doctoral student to submit “a dissertation or essay, even if not written for the purpose of obtaining a single degree.” According to the usual understanding, an essay or dissertation must represent something unified, complete or whole. And the concept of a doctoral dissertation, as presented in competition for the highest scientific degree, naturally leads to the expectation that in such an essay scientific knowledge is presented at the highest level of development attainable for the author, that the teachings of the means are applied by him here in the broadest and most complete way” 48. “The most difficult thing in any doctoral dissertation is the choice of a topic that allows for the development of a truly doctoral dissertation” 49. “In an essay by a scientist in the strict sense of the word, it is assumed: a) deep erudition and b) scientific method. a) In the first respect, it goes without saying that the scientist stands at the height of special modern research on his question, and the more valuable works of ancient scientists (if not all the relevant literature in their entirety) are known to him and are actually used by him in his research. b) In the second respect I mean: aa) in content: scientific formulation of the question and consistency of research techniques. bb) in appearance: impeccable technique. From the substantive side (aa), in relation to, for example, homolytic research, the following provisions can be established: 1. If a scientist chooses a famous preacher as a subject of research, he thereby guarantees that the chosen subject allows scientific treatment. 2. A scientific type of homiletical biography must be developed: the scientist must touch only such details in the biography of the preacher that have a pragmatic connection with the latter’s sermons, or recognize the scientific impossibility of such a biography. 3. It is necessary to find out the volume of literary activity of this or that preacher, the number of his published and unpublished works. 4. The scholar must be sensitive to issues related to criticism of the text of the chosen writer. 5. Methodological research techniques, for example, the so-called reference method and certain points of view from which preaching activity is viewed, must be consistently applied to both one preacher and another. 6. A review of the sermons of a given writer should have as its task not inventory purposes, but the clarification of their homiletical type, the homiletical theory to which the preacher adhered, unless it is assumed that his sermons were random outpourings of his natural gift of speech and therefore were not regulated by any rules. 7. If it is assumed that a given preacher formed his talent under the influence of Soviet or spiritual speakers of his time, this influence must be proven. 8. The common ground between Christian preachers must be clarified scientifically. 9 . Since a sermon is a work of art, a certain subjectivity in assessing its merits is inevitable more than in other types of criticism; all the more, therefore, it is important to know the norms for evaluating sermons - those stable rules that to a certain extent limit critical arbitrariness. Finally, by impeccable technique (bb), I mean the scientific ability to give scientific content the best expression, careful finishing of even small details, that thoughtfulness that is reflected in the very appearance of a scientific work - this is called scientific acribia. If all these requirements cannot be met in full, then one cannot help but wish that their violations were few in number and sufficiently motivated” 50. "The rights to existence of those scientific books that establish some new theses, hitherto known in science, are completely indisputable. Such works are recognized by everyone as capital works, as work of the first rank. Along with them stand those books that rehabilitate theses, which are not new in the history of science, but in fact have long been forgotten, undeservedly abandoned, or even directly disputed by modern luminaries as false. Such works propose a new argumentation in favor of old truths. To be the author of an essay of the first rank, to introduce a new thesis into the scientific treasury, is the noblest goal that every true scientist can strive for.” [In fact, however] "the academic practice of recent times, as far as I know, has never demanded that doctoral students establish in their essays any provisions hitherto unknown to scientists. Not only is this not required by the academic usus, but the charter of theological academies does not contain a paragraph that would give reviewers of dissertations submitted for the degree of Doctor of Theological Sciences the right to demand scientific discoveries without fail. Consequently, the normal type of this kind of dissertation should be recognized as works of the second rank - those that, without establishing new scientific positions, without setting themselves higher tasks than cognitio cogniti, conduct research on the subject at the heights achieved by modern science, they simply want to be scientifically useful for readers, bringing to their attention the most valuable results that have been achieved by other scientists who have written about this issue" 51. The question of whether the book establishes any new scientific theses “is not raised because the persistent “quid novi?” would have turned out to be fatal, probably for 99% of the productivity books, and in the scientific world they have long been accustomed to not necessarily looking for new results in a new book, but to be content with a talented summary of what has already been achieved, in which the author’s individuality does not completely disappear” 52. On the other hand, it must be recognized in principle a) that individual articles, even scattered and unfinished, may be distinguished by such high scientific merits that it would be unfair not to prefer them to the unity of a legitimate dissertation, and b) that in the interests of science itself it is even desirable that articles and sketches prevail over essays; because this makes it possible for experienced and mature scientists to save their labor and time, devoting them to solving truly controversial and difficult issues and saving themselves from unproductive, but inevitable work in a complete essay (especially a course) - repeating the results obtained by others, presenting indisputable and fully established facts” 53. Life presents our clergy with a wide variety of demands, to satisfy which representatives of the church need to have not only a specifically theological, but also a general education. Theological academies, whose goal is to give their students exactly the kind of education that is necessary both for a representative of the church and for a learned theologian, need talented and trained figures for this work. The contingent of these figures is made up for the most part from graduates of their own academy. According to the rules of the spirits. acad. 1869, academies had the opportunity to retain the most talented students at well-known departments as private assistant professors, and to improve them in the relevant sciences, they were sent to foreign universities 54. Since 1884, for the same purpose, an institute of professorial fellows was established at the academies: every year two, and sometimes more, talented students remain at the academies for one year, and sometimes, upon special request, for a longer period, in preparation for taking up a teaching position at the academy. These persons are the first candidates for occupying professorial vacancies in academies in those departments in which they were fellows. An elective approach to filling these vacancies in academies is the best guarantee of success in this matter. The councils of academies themselves elect candidates for professorial vacancies and themselves seek candidates for professorial vacancies and themselves seek measures to strengthen the scientific activity of the academy. Unfortunately, the meaning of academic scholarship has noticeably begun to be lost: for the best possible preparation for professorship, they are not sent abroad and, at the end of the year of scholarship, are not always retained to give lectures at the academy, but are appointed teachers in theological seminaries and even theological schools. Being cut off from the academy and removed from academic libraries, they do not have the opportunity to continue the work for which they were preparing during the period of their scholarship and, under the most favorable conditions, they declare their scholarship only a few years later by submitting a master's thesis. When one of the biblical departments was vacant at the academy, Vasily Vasilyevich, as a member of the Council who took an active part in the selection of a candidate for this vacancy, apparently wanted to restore the already noticeably diminished importance of academic scholarship and designed the elected candidate for the academic department to be sent abroad for improvement in biblical sciences for two years. Unfortunately, in the academic archive we have not found Vasily Vasilyevich’s former project on the need for foreign business trips for people newly entering the academic department. In conclusion of our essay on Vasily Vasilyevich’s activities on issues of the internal life of the Academy, we include a list of topics given by Vasily Vasilyevich for candidate essays from 1884 to the year of his death 55. Some of these topics were developed into candidate and master's theses, and some were provided with guidance from Vasily Vasilyevich. In the 1884–85 academic year. year: Roman educated society according to the letters of Bl. Jerome. A course essay was written on this topic by Kh. Drobotov, awarded Art. candidate of theology according to the review of V. V-cha. See "Journal of the Soviet Academy" for the 1884–85 academic year. g., St. Petersburg 1886, p. 229. In the 1885–86 school year. year: 1) Eastern hagiology as a source for accurate and local church history (January and February). Candidate's dissertation E. P. Akvilonova. For review by V. V., see “Journal of the Soviet Academician.” for the 1885–86 school year. St. Petersburg. 1888, p. 345. 2) The same topic - with the months March and April. 3) The dogmatic language of St. Gregory the Theologian in the doctrine of the incarnation. 4) Mari Victorinus, as a polemicist against Arianism. 5) Bl. Augustine as a polemicist against Arianism. In 1886–87 academic year. year: 1) Seventy years of history of Arianism in the Latin West (360–430). Cand. op. V. N. Samuilov, revised into a master's thesis. For reviews by V. V., see “Journal of the Soviet Academician.” for the 1886–87 school year. St. Petersburg. 1892, p. 229, and for 18 89/90, p. 103. 2) Eastern hagiology (Acta Sanctorum), as a source for the accurate and local history of the church of the 1st-8th centuries. 4 volumes of Acta Sanctorum, starting from the month. Martha. Candide. op. P. Liventseva, O. Makarieva, G. Polyanskago, P. Polzinskago, M. Serebrenitsky and G. Sokalskago. For reviews by V. V., see “Journal of the Soviet Academician.” for the 1887–88 academic year, St. Petersburg. 1892, pp. 67, 97 and for the 1886–87 school year. g., p. 231. 3) The teaching of Didymus of Alexandria about St. Trinity in comparison with the teachings of St. Afanasia V. 4) Dogmatic language of St. Gregory the Theologian in the Christological sections of his works. 5) “Historical Dialogue” by Palladius about the life of St. Chrysostom and “Lavsaik” Palladium. Question about the author of these two historical works. 6) Time from Constantine IV Pogopat to Theodora (668 - 842). Experience in historical and literary research of Byzantine chronography with the publication of its consolidated text. In 1887 - 88. 89 school. year: 1) The century of the iconoclasts in Byzantine chronography. Candide. op. P. Preobrazhensky. For review by V. V., see “Journal of the Soviet Academician.” for 1888 – 89 academic year. St. Petersburg. 1894, p. 221. 2) Question about the works of Palladius of Elenopolis. 3) St. Nikephoros of Constantinople, as a polemicist against the iconoclasts (compared to St. John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite). 4) Liber Pontificalis in the studies of European scientists. Candide. op. M.I. Orlova, revised into a master's thesis. For review by V. V., see “Journal of the Soviet Academician.” for 1888–90 academic year g., p. 219. 5) Drazeke's research on the Apollinarians. In 1889 – 90 academic years. year: 1) Christology of St. Cyril of Alexandria according to his exegetical works. 2) Literan Council of 649 in its historical significance. 3) St. Nikephoros of Constantinople as a plemist against the iconoclasts. 4) Works of a philological nature: a) Do Historia arianorum ad nonachos belong to Athanasius V.? 5) b) Year of death of St. Ephraim the Syrian. In 1890 - 91 academic years. year: 1) St. John Chrysostom, as a polemicist against Arianism. 2) Jews in Antioch (according to the works of St. Chrysostom). 3) Creations of St. Epiphany of Cyprus, as a source for his biography. 4) Church history of Nicephorus Callistus (volume VIII-XVIII), as a historical source. 5) Church historical material in Svida’s vocabulary. 6) The question of the time of death of St. Ephraim the Syrian. In 1891 – 92 academic years. year: 1) Historical information about the countries of the East in which Christianity was preached in the first two centuries of Christianity. 2) The life of Vasily V. in French church historiography. 3) Are Aliard’s works on church history necessary after the works of Le Blanc and Aubey? 4) Inauthentic works attributed to Athanasius V. In 1892–93 academic year. year: 1) the fall of Greco-Roman paganism (according to modern scientific research). Conditio sine qua non: fluent reading in German and French, as literature: M. V. Schultze 2 volumes, Beugnot 2 volumes; Chastel and von Lasaulx. 2) Is it fair to think that the canons of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea were compiled under the predominant Alexandrian influence? 3) The life of Anthony V., as the creation of Athanasius V. Conditio sine qua non: good knowledge of Greek (some German) language; the study of the issue is assumed to be inevitably philological, requiring, firstly, patience and attention, and secondly, patience and attention, and thirdly, also patience and attention. The problem will be solved brilliantly if it is shown that. a) characteristic expressions of Vita s. Antonii are found in the majority in undoubtedly genuine works of Athanasius V. and c) are not found in forged ones. 4) Year of death of St. Ephraim the Syrian from the point of view of the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa. The conditions (as well as the nature of the work) are basically the same as for topic 3. 5) Panic power over Greek Illyricum. A topic without any new perspective: a hard-working compilation in the field of the long-known. The main manual is Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche, the orienting source is Jaffe, Regesta, Pontificum, Romanorum. In 1893 - 94 academic years. year: 1) Two books against the pagans in their relation to other creations of St. Athanasius the Great. 2) Life of St. Basil the Great as presented by European scientists. 3) The time of Justinian I according to the Monophysites (according to John of Ephesus). 4) Features of Antiochian-Byzantine life according to the works of St. Chrysostom. 5) “Spiritual Meadow”, as a source for the chronology of church history. In 1894 - 95 academic years. year: 1) the fall of paganism in the Greco-Roman Empire (according to research by modern European scientists). Candide. op. N.V. Malitsky. V. V.'s review has not yet been published. 2) Church and social life at the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century. according to the works of St. Chrysostom. Candide. op. H. Napadopoulo. V. V.'s review has not yet been published. 3) The history of the vicariate of Thessalonica before its annexation to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Cand. op. P. I. Leporskago, revised into a master's thesis. Feedback from V. V. about Ph.D. op. not published, and about the master’s thesis, see “Journal of the Soviet Academician.” for 1900 – 1 year p. 239. 4) The question of the reliability of the oldest narratives on the history of Christianity in Iveria (the history of Prince Vakhusht) in connection with newly published Georgian monuments. 5) The life and works of Gennady II Scholarius, Patriarch of Constantinople. Candide. op. H. Ioannova. V. V.'s review has not been published. 6) Analysis of the monuments of the Armenian polemic against Orthodoxy, preserved by the most ancient Armenian historians. (Translations by Patkanyan and Emin into Russian, Brosse into French; Die armenische Kirche in ihrer Bezichungen zur buzantinischen (von IV rum XIII Jahrhunder), von Dr. Arsak Ter-Mikelian. Leipzig 1892. S.121. The most important part of the task: try to determine which passages of the Greek holy fathers are referred to Armenians). 7) Essay on the history of the Patriarchate of Antioch in the second half of the 6th century. (Task: initially to get acquainted with the history of this time according to the Greek text of Evagrius; the limitation to the second half of the century is due to the fact that for the first half it would have required knowledge of the Syriac and Dutch languages and the work would have been too complex for one year. But in the future, the one writing according to the Complete Monthly Book of the East by St. Sergius must determine which saints in the east died from 525 to 625; get acquainted with their lives; extract from them data related to the Patriarchate of Antioch; get acquainted with the history of John of Ephesus (or ubersetzt von J. M. Schonfelder, Munchen 1862, or english by Smith, Offord. 1860) collect statistical material (churches, monasteries, villages in Syria and Phoenicia, mentioned at this time - in I. Mosch and in the Catalog of the Syriac M. ss. by IV. Wright (English translation from the Syrian) and in the Acta Sanctorum (as well as material for the topography of Antioch (in Afss, in Wright, in Evagrius, in Malala); get acquainted with the letters of the Roman bishops concerning the Antiochian patriarchs of the second half of the 6th century. Despite the long formulation of the problem, you have to read quite a lot and write very little). In 1895 – 96 academic years. year: 1) Life of the African Church (mainly according to the letters and sermons of St. Augustine). 2) “The Book of Treasures about the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity - St. Cyril of Alexandria. 3) Question about the meaning of the words: “The Holy Trinity alone suffered” in the 6th century. (A page from the history of relations between the Eastern and Western churches). 4) The situation of Christians in Persia under the last Sasanians. 5) St. Nikephoros of Constantinople, as the defender of the honor of the saints. icons In 1896 - 97 academic years. year: 1) And similar concepts in the works of St. Basil the Great. (The point is actually about how objective Basil V. recognized human knowledge. Theological science needs a broad formulation of this topic, since the side interested in a certain illumination of the purely dogmatic positions of the Holy Father is inclined to think that with the words of St. Basil he means the purely subjective nature of human ideas about God. Meanwhile, such a point of view on these philosophical and theological terms is very inconvenient for the Orthodox theologian, since The IV Ecumenical Council preaches Jesus Christ). 2) The teaching of Didymus of Alexandria about the Holy Spirit in comparison with the teaching of Sts. Athanasius and Basil centuries. 3) The earliest history of the church in Georgia (from the 4th century to the arrival of the Syrian saints). Cand. op. G. Gamekelova. For V. V.’s review, see “Journal of the Soviet Academician” for 1896 – 97 academic years. year, page 253. 4) Critical assessment of the accusatory words attributed to the Armenian Catholicos Isaac against the Armenians and similar Greek monuments of the same collection (“ex codice Regio”). 5) History of the Patriarchate of Antioch in the 6th century. Cand. op. A. P. Dyakonova. For V.V.’s review, see “Journal of the Soviet Academician” for 1896 – 97 academic years. year, page 246. 6) Patriarch Photius of Constantinople and students. 7) Research on the writings of Palladius of Illinople. In 1897–98 academic year. year: 1) Christianity in the oases. 2) The doctrine of the Holy Spirit of Sts. Vasily V. and Gregory the Theologian. 3) Life of St. Porfiry of Gaza as a source for the history of the church. 4) Responsales of the Roman bishops in Constantinople. In 1898 - 99 academic years. year: 1) Patristic polemic against the Macedonians. 2) Are all the creations of St. Can Gregory of Nyssa be considered authentic? 3) What did the blessed one think? Augustine about the practical consequences of his teachings, about predestination? 4) Church geography of the Patriarchate of Antioch. 5) The teaching of St. Maximus of the Confessor about God in Himself and about the Trinity God in Persons. 6) Are there scientific grounds to consider the Sunday services of the Octoechos to be the creation of St. John of Damascus? 7) Does the “Mystagoria” of Patriarch Photius represent a consistent conclusion from his theological system? In 1899 – 1900 academic year. year: 1) St. Hippolytus of Rome as a chronologist and Paschalist. 2) Successes of Orthodoxy from 361 to 373. 3) Ancient bishop (according to the letters of St. Ambrose of Milan). 4) Is the 23rd Epistle of St. Ambrose of Mediolaiscago “Non mediocris esse sapientas” to the Emilian bishops on Easter Day? (To answer this question, you will need an accurate acquaintance with the Alexandrian and Roman Paschalia in the 3rd - 5th centuries and with all the news about what was decreed on the issue of Easter at the 1st Ecumenical Council). 5) St. Gregory the Great of Rome in his correspondence with the East. 6) And in the “Exact Exposition” of St. John of Damascus. Vasily Vasilyevich was not only a wonderful scientist, but also a true artist of words. In this regard, he was original and inimitable. His nature was too peculiar and deep. The characteristic form of presentation in which Vasily Vasilyevich expressed his thoughts prompted us to place in this essay from the academic archive his entire memos, and in those cases where there was insufficient archive data, his private letters. His real personality was the embodiment of true learning and is fully depicted by his learned works, which, as he himself repeatedly said, are accessible only “to a few.” His detailed historical research even for some Russian scientists (not specialists, of course) seemed uninteresting and unnecessary. Descendants gradually reach an understanding of such details as Vasily Vasilyevich. Now that Vasily Vasilyevich has passed away, it is even more necessary for us to study his spiritual world and his fundamental views. He was the Academy's favorite asset. His spirit will for a long time inspire modern academics to move forward closer and closer to the Primary Source of true wisdom and true life. On the occasion of the opening of the tombstone monument to professors I. E. Troitsky and V. V. Bolotov on April 19 (Church West. No. 17 for 1903), an article dedicated to “In Memory of Prof. I. E. Troitsky” was published in the May book “Christian Readings,” and in the June and July books “In Memory of Prof. This article and the posthumous work of the most memorable professor “On the Question of Acta Martyrum Scilitanorum” are dedicated to V.V. Bolotov. Ed. Index of literature about V.V. Bolotov, which appeared after his death, was written by A.I. Brilliantovaya in his article: “On the characteristics of the scientific activity of V.V. Bolov as a church historian.” See "Christian Readings", 1901, April, page 467, note. 1. Imperator's report. Academy of Sciences for 1900, p. 14. Annual act in St. Petersburg. d.a. in 1900 St. Petersburg. 1901, page 5 Ibid., p. 5. Cf. “Wreath on the grave of V.V. Bolotov”, St. Petersburg. 1900, p. 14. A.I. Brilliantov. To characterize the scientific activity of V.V. Bolotov. "Christian Reading", 1901, April, p. 489. Probably, for financial reasons of the Holy Synod, this principle is currently not consistently implemented in practice. The Theological Academy, being the only breeding grounds for higher education for the clergy, now does not have departments, for example, in the physical and mathematical sciences and does not train teachers in these subjects for theological seminaries. And there was a time when academies taught anthropology, physics, mathematics and other general sciences. Archive, St. Petersburg. spirit. Academy, 1881, case No. 56: “Considerations of Archpriest I. L. Yanyshev on changes in the organization of theological academies, which, according to almost 12 years of experience in the current academic charter, seem necessary and useful.” Report on the state and activities of St. Petersburg. spirit. Academy for 1873, pp. 43–44. Archive St. Petersburg spirit. Academy, 1822, case No. 86. Ibid., 1899, case No. 18. The significance of V.V. Bolotov’s works on the issue of Old Catholics is briefly indicated by prof. I. I. Zhukovich in “Wreath on the grave of V. V. Bolotov”, p. 19. The result of V. V.’s work in this commission are his three abstracts, read at the meetings of the commission and published in its report; they were of enormous importance in resolving the issue considered by the commission. The rule of checking secretarial calculations of student points exists in the St. Petersburg Spirit. Academy since 18S5; see Journal. Meeting Council of the Academy for the 1884–85 academic year. year, page 147. See Journals of meetings of the St. Petersburg Council. d.a. for 1881, pp. 25 – 26; 1885, pp. 30 – 33; 1887, pp. 35 – 36; 1890, pp. 31 – 35; 1893, pp. 74 – 76; 1896, pp. 86 – 90; 1897, pp. 49 – 52; 1899, 26 – 29. By decree of the Holy Synod, dated April 10, 1895, No. 1570, the Academy's mentors were instructed to draw up programs for their subjects, and then, when these programs were approved by the Holy Synod, the Academic Councils were ordered to oversee that the Academy's mentors carry out these programs during the academic year; in other cases, note in your reports why the program was not completed. According to the regulations existing for theological academies, lithographing of academic lectures is permitted only by the mentors of the academies themselves, without making it obligatory for them to sell these lectures on a par with books. Decree of the Holy Synod, dated December 31, 1870 No. 2841. St. Petersburg Spiritual Bulletin, 1901 No. 15, Prot. N. Drozdov: “To the anniversary of the death of V.V. Bolotov.” School time, September 1 – April 30, 242 days. Subtract: a) 34 Sunday days; b) 12 holidays (out of 15 annual holidays, about 3 fall on ^Sundays) and c) 3 vacations: ^242 34 16 – 2 ^-82 12 11 – 2 ^160 days. 36 16 – 3 ^ 82. 43 days - 7 Sundays According to calculations: 1 copy for 12 students, the course would require another 2292 copies, which gives no more than 57.3 copies (minimum 46.5) per 1 student. Archive of the Academy Council 1888, file No. 52. Journal of meetings of the Council of St. Petersburg. Theological Academy for the 1888/9 academic year. St. Petersburg 1894 p. 99. Journal of the Council of St. Petersburg. Theological Academy for 1893 – 4 academic days. year St. Petersburg 1894, p. 129. These rules are printed in the appendix to the “Memorial Book” of the Siberian Spirits. Academy, St. Petersburg 1900 pp. 6 – 7. App. to the “Memorable Book” of St. Petersburg. spirit. Academy, St. Petersburg. 1900 p. 6. Probably echoes of these aspirations of higher spirits. superiors to the desired improvement of training sessions in spirits. The academies were in the “Wanderer” for 1896. Note: “Revision of the statutes of spiritual educational institutions” and for 1897. Article by N. Vafinsky: “On the issue of the needs of spiritual and academic education.” Academy Archives 1896 Case No. 60: “Memorandum of the commission on desirable changes in the structure of academic life.” pp. 1–3 and 5. The note itself was carefully copied by the hand of Vasily Vasilyevich himself. The reports of all academies for each year of their existence are full of indications about this activity. The result of these concerns of Vasily Vasilyevich was a special allocation from the Holy Synod of amounts for the extraction of ancient Syrian books. Archive St. Petersburg D.A. 1898 No. 30. Council journals for the 1899–1900 school year. year pp. 96–7. Journal of the Council for the 1899–1900 academic year. year pp. 141–157. Archive of the Council of St. Petersburg. spirit. acad. 1885 case No. 48. Here is an approximate calculation: a) E. Smirnov’s book consists of 588 pages (ed. 1880, issues 1 and 2, 456 pages; issue 3, edition 1873, 132 pages), of such density that, on average, separate reading aloud requires 3 minutes per page. Bearing in mind the complexity of church life in the West in the modern period, and precisely the fact that the last thirty years present facts of high importance (the relationship of the Bulgarian Church to the Constantinople Church in the East; the Vatican Council with its predecessor (syllabus) and its successor (Kulturkampf); the Old Catholics, with their appearance emphasizing the existence of the Utrecht Church with the remnants of Gallican freedom), we must assume that, brought to completion in the same volume, Smirnov’s textbook would be no less than 800 pages long, reading which would take 40 hours. b) The academic year in seminaries (with the exception of 2 weeks for exams) consists of 200–205 school days; therefore, with 6 lessons, the course of general church history is 200 - 205 hours. c) At this time the textbook can be read 5 times. d) But when listening to students, when the subject is studied again and then when it is repeated before exams, time is probably spent 1 1/2 times more than on reading from a book. Consequently, with a complete saving of time, this inevitable double repetition of the textbook will take up 3/5 of the entire academic year. e) There are 80 hours left for the teacher’s explanations and occasional needs for intensive study of some departments, which gives up to 30 minutes per lesson in the period preceding the general rehearsal. This time, apparently, is not enough in practice. f) Divided into 150 lessons, 800 pages give up to 5 1/2 pages for each class, which, with three other lessons and a tendency towards literal memorization, will provide quite a lot of work for the students. A. I. Georgievsky. Proposed reform of our high school. St. Petersburg. 1901, p. 9. Wed. M. N. Katkov. Our educational reform. Moscow. 1890, ed. S. N. Fischer. Journal of the St. Petersburg Council. spirit. Academy for 1875, pp. 178, 180 and 183, 184. Journals of the Council of St. Petersburg. spirit. academy for 1890 – 1 academic year. St. Petersburg. 1896, p. 33. “Week” for 1901 No. 10, p. 361. Vasily Vasilyevich's review of the works of prof. N.I. Barsova, submitted for the academic degree of doctor. Archive of the Council of St. Petersburg. spirit. academy. 1889, case No. 33. Journal of the Council of St. Petersburg. spirit. Academy for 1899 – 1900 St. Petersburg. 1902, p. 201. Review of the essay by Prof. N.I. Barsova, 1889, case No. 33. Journal Council of St. Petersburg Theological Academy for 1895 – 6 academic days. year. St. Petersburg 1900, pp. 197–9. Archive St. Petersburg spirit. Academy 1889, case No. 33. During the period from 1870 to 1884 in St. Petersburg. Theological Academy, in order to familiarize themselves with the methods of teaching theological subjects by the best professors of foreign universities, seven associate professors were sent abroad. See Journal. Sov. St. Petersburg Theological Academy for 1870, pp. 258–261; for 1878–77, pp. 101–3 and 144–5; for 1879–80, pp. 9, pp. 148–170; for 1880–81, pp. 13–23, 143–165, etc. The topics of V. V-cha for the period from 1879 to 1883 were not preserved in the academic archive.