114. 1488 г. февраля 13. Грамоты великого князя Ивана Васильевича и митрополита Геронтия новгородскому архиепископу Геннадию о предании тамошних еретиков духовной или градской казни, смотря по тому, что окажется по розыску

From the collection Publ. Library Q. dept. XVII, No. 50 (Tolstoy collection, department II, No. 341), l. 167–170. They were published, according to the same list, in the first volume of Historical Acts under No. 285. The time of sending the letters is indicated in the postscript at the end of the first of them; “The Grand Duke and Metropolitan sent with Krivoborsky, about heretics, in the summer of 96, February 13.” From Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus', to our fatherland in Veliky Novgorod, to our pilgrim, Archbishop of Veliky Novgorod and Pskov, Vladyka Gennady. You wrote to me, and also to the Metropolitan, a letter about heresies and about blasphemy against Christ the Son of God and against His Most Pure Mother of God, and about the desecration of holy icons, that in Novgorod priests and deacons and clerks, and ordinary people exalt the Jewish faith, and blaspheme our Orthodox faith of Christ, and you sent us a list of those heresies against those heretics: and I, with my father, with the metropolitan and with the bishops and with the entire council, according to your list, decided that priest Gregory of Semyonovskaya, and priest Eresim of Nikolskaya, and priest Grigoryev's son Samsonko, deacon, according to the royal rules of 2938, the city executions came, because there is evidence for them in your list; but there is no evidence on Gridya on the clerk on Borisoglebsky in your list, blame priest Naum. And I ordered priest Gregory, and priest Eresim, and Samsonko the deacon, to be executed here by city execution, and having executed him, he sent them to you, with your prince, Krivoborsky, and Ivan: and you would gather a council at your place and expose their heresy, and punish them; and they just won’t repent to you about that heresy, and you sent them to my governors, to Yakov and Yuri Zakharich, and [they] ordered them to be executed by city execution. And you sent Gridya the devil to you, and you search him there. And on whom you wrote, in the same list, about the same heresies, about priests and deacons and deacons, and about ordinary people who live in Novgorod: search them too with my governors. And whom you search, [and] according to the rules of the holy Apostles and Holy Fathers, they will be worthy of your ecclesiastical execution, otherwise you yourself know; but according to the rules, they will be worthy of city execution, and you sent them to my governors, and [they] ordered them to be executed by city execution according to their judgment. And if all the remaining priests, the Grigorievs, and the priests, the Eresimovs, and the Samsonkovs, and the Diakovs, sent their man, and my governors will send their man with your man, order them to rewrite, and having rewritten, send the list to me. And which other priests and deacons and clerks, and ordinary people, in that case you will search and city executions will come, and my governors will order them to be executed, and having copied their remains according to the same thing, and send those lists to me. Blessing of Gerontius, Metropolitan of All Rus', about the Holy Spirit to the son and colleague of our humility Gennady, Archbishop of Veliky Novgorod and Pskov. You wrote your letters to us, to my lord and son, to the Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus', and to me, about the fact that heresies vegetate in Novgorod, blasphemies and insults from priests and from deacons and from clerks, and from ordinary people, and you sent lists of those heresies to us, why you searched them, how they they blasphemed the Son of God and his most pure Mother of God and swore at the holy icons, and exalted the Jewish faith, and blasphemed our Orthodox Christian faith: and we decided this matter with our lord and son, with the Grand Duke, and with the entire Orthodox council: what is written on your list, priest Grigory Semenovskaya, and priest Eresim Nikolskaya, and the priest’s son Grigoriev Samsonko is a deacon, and those, according to the hierarchical rules of the holy Apostles and Holy Fathers, are worthy of being deposed and excommunicated from the holy church and subject to damnation, because in your lists there is evidence of their heresies and blasphemies and reproach; and according to the royal rules, from the divine scripture, city executions are worthy. And the great prince ordered those three to be executed, priest Gregory, and priest Eresim, and Samsonko the clerk, by city execution, and having executed them, he sent them to you: and you, son, in your own cathedral, denounced them and showed them spiritually, according to the rules of the holy Apostles and holy Fathers, as it is worthy according to divine scripture, so that they would repent and come to the mind of truth; and only if they repent, they will be worthy of mercy; but they don’t repent, and you sent them to the governors of the Grand Duke, and they there ordered them to be executed by city execution, according to the Grand Duke’s order, as written in the royal rules. And Gridya the deacon has not yet received, according to the rules, city executions, because there is only one witness against him, priest Naum: and you search him there, and what you will search for him, according to the rules, is spiritual or city execution, otherwise you yourself know. And whom you wrote in your lists, priests and deacons and deacons and ordinary people, that they are doing those dashing things, and you would search him, with great diligence and with much notice, as we are commanded, according to the divine scripture, constantly taking care of spiritual things. And the great prince ordered the governors Yakov and Yuri Zakharich to search that case with you: and you would search that case together with them. And those who, according to the rules, will receive your saintly spiritual execution, and you will receive their spiritual execution: and those who will reach the city execution, and the governors of the Grand Duke will execute them with the city execution. Yes, son, if you searched the matter diligently, so that Christianity would not be in disturbance, and the Church of God would be serene. May the mercy of God and the blessing of our humility be upon you. By “royal rules” here and in the following charter we mean the Greco-Roman laws contained in the Helmsman, namely: the Law of Judgment ch. 2, City Law side 27, ch. 36, Leon and Constantine (Eclogues) conceived. 14, ch. 3. You might be interested in: