100. 1465–1470. Послание великого князя Ивана Васильевича к новгородскому архиепископу Ионе о том, чтоб он не имел общения с киевским лжемитрополитом Григорием

From the collection Imper. Publ. Libraries, Q, XVII, no. 64 (formerly Tolstoy, Dept. II, no. 68), l. 344–346. Verified with another list of the same Libraries. Q, XVII. No. 50 (Tolstoy, Dept. II, No. 341), l. 343–347. It was submitted in the first volume of the Archaeographer's Acts. Expedition at number 80. Message from Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus' to Archbishop Jonah the Great of Novograd and Pskov, his homeland The Great Prince Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus', to you his pilgrim, the most reverend Archbishop 2879 of Veliky Novgorod and Pskov, his fatherland, Vladyka Jonah tells: take ours, Casimir, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, back to our father, to the Grand Duke to Vasily, and now you have not sent your ambassadors to me Odikov sent, so that we would receive his Metropolitan Gregory: otherwise, father, you know that Gregory, the Metropolitan, came away from whom he was appointed: he came from Rome, from the Pope, he was installed in Rome by Gregory, the former Patriarch of Constantinople, which Patriarch obeyed the Pope, from the Eighth Council. And you know, over the course of many years, the Greek faith was divided with the Latin faith, and the Holy Fathers swore and confirmed that they should not copulate with the Latin faith. That same Gregory the Patriarch, through the Holy Fathers, ruled and cursed, and did not hold the table of Constantinople behind him, in his place was another patriarch in those days [in] Constantinople, and he, being in a foreign country, in a foreign region, in Rome, installed that Gregory, Sidorov’s disciple, as metropolitan for all Rus'. And my father, Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich, was still early before the queen’s deportation, having only heard about that Gregory who was coming from Rome not according to our antiquity, and had not yet come to the Lithuanian land, and he sent to his brother with that to the king: “So that you, brother, do not receive that Gregory from Rome to yourself against our father for the common, for the metropolitan Jonah, but for the new if you had not repaired, and if you had not destroyed our antiquities, our antiquities are from our ancestor, Grand Duke Volodimer, who baptized the Russian land; the choice of Jonah, the metropolitan’s requisition, our ancestors, the great Russian princes and ours to this day, and not the great princes of Lithuania: whoever we love will be with us throughout Rus', but we don’t need a metropolitan from Rome.” Yes, setting forth many of your truths and citing antiquities, but you answered your brother, refusing with his ambassadors, and punishing with your own: “Of course, brother, do not accept him, but he will not be with us; but you accept, otherwise you are dividing the church of God, not us.” The king again took him to himself, through the sending of our father, and gave him the Russian churches that were in his fatherland, and took him away from our Metropolitan Jonah, through his leaf and through our antiquity. The great prince narrates: if again you, our pilgrim, came to our father the Grand Duke, and to me the Grand Duke, and to our father Jonah, Metropolitan of All Rus', for your appointment: otherwise you know much about that and you yourself know everyone about that situation: and how again our father took care of it, the great prince, and we, and Father Jonah Metropolitan, he was strengthened with you, and what kind of vow did you make to Metropolitan Jonah, that you will not approach that Gregory 2880, but that you will not depart from our father Jonah, Metropolitan of All Rus', or whoever will be after him, whoever it may be, Metropolitan in the house of the Most Pure Mother of God in Moscow, at the tomb of the wonderworker Peter, Russian Metropolitan; and after our father Jonah the Metropolitan belly, and you made your vow to our father Fedosius the Metropolitan in your writing, and also to our current father Philip the Metropolitan. The Great Prince narrates: today we again show you, our pilgrim: Metropolitan Joseph of Caesarea Philip sent his letter to me from Tsargorod, which was placed here in Moscow, and you had it in my fatherland in Veliky Novgorod, and he also wrote to our father to Metropolitan Philip, and he also sent his letters to you, and Gregory shows us about this, about Sidorov's disciple, as if he were wondering how he could 2881 penetrate into our Orthodox Christianity; and he sent his ambassador Manuel to Tsar-Gorod, seeking blessings and confirmation from the Patriarch of Tsargrad, and wishing that he could be with us in the house of the Most Pure Mother of God and with the Wonderworker Peter in Moscow, so that the Patriarch would send his ambassador about him to me, to the Grand Duke, and from that he gave a lot of gold and port to the Patriarch, and gave a great commemoration; and at that time the patriarch was, called Simon, over some poor monastery, and the Turkish king repaired the large cathedral churches of God in Mizgiti; and those churches left to the patriarch, there are no crosses on them, they don’t have a bell, they sing without a bell. And that dei Patriarch Simon, a man of dei prudent, but from that Manuel, from Grigoriev’s ambassador, the funeral and the promised gold, did not accept the port, and did not give a blessing, but denied the dei to him like this: “I myself live in squalor, in the hands of the Basurman, in someone else’s captivity, and our Orthodoxy has already been destroyed.” And we have also now decided for ourselves, with our father and the metropolitan, and with our mother with the Grand Duchess, and with our brethren, and with our pilgrims, with the archbishop and with the bishops and with the rulers, and with the archimandrites and with the honorable abbots, and with all the priesthood, and not to let that patriarchal ambassador, nor Grigoriev, into our land: I do not demand him, neither his blessing, nor his unblessing, we have it from ourselves, that very patriarch, alien and renounced, and his ambassador and that accursed Gregory: you, our pilgrim, should have known. The Great Prince narrates: with which deeds, father, that patriarchal ambassador will go to you, to my pilgrim, and to my fatherland 2882, to Veliky Novgorod, and to your children, with that message, or that Gregory will learn to send with which speeches or writings: and you, my pilgrim, would also protect him much and punish your children so that they did not believe the patriarch’s message, nor Grigoriev, nor demanded his teachings, nor demanded false blessings, nor listened to speeches from him, nor received commemorations from him, nor sent them to him; but would you, father, remember your vow, as you promised to our former father Jonah, Metropolitan of All Russia, at your installation, or whoever according to him will be the metropolitan in the house of the Most Pure Mother of God, at the tomb of the wonderworker Peter the Metropolitan in Moscow: you also had him renounced in everything. Here in both lists is the name of Jonah, repeated further. do not proceed to another list. In both lists: and from my fatherland; in the Act. Expedition corrected: from my fatherland, which contradicts the previous words of the letter: “and we intended ... that patriarchal ambassador, nor Grigoriev, should not be allowed into our land.” You might be interested in: