116. 1490 г. после 17 октября. Поучение митрополита Зосимы по случаю соборного осуждения еретиков жидовствующих

This precious and hitherto completely unknown monument is published according to the list (unfortunately, without end) found in the Chudovsky collection of the 16th century, No. 264, fol. 754 rev.–755. The manuscript is a Belarusian letter, with a sharp imprint of the local dialect. The humble Zosya, Metropolitan of All Rus', and the entire sacred council, a lesson to all Orthodox Christianity, denunciation of heretics and defrocking and excommunication from the holy Church of God May you know that all Orthodox Christians know this present 2961 mediastinum, as it is now, for the sake of our sins, in recent times the evil serpent, the ancient destroyer of human souls, the enemy the devil, all the tares of bitter fruit in the hearts of evil-minded people, and those who were heretics and enemies of the Church of Christ, deceivers and apostates, destroyers of the souls of Orthodox people, called priests, and still hiding from people and writing secretly, and teaching to keep marked books 2962, and praising the renounced old law within themselves, and praising the Jewish faith, blaspheming 2963 speeches and verbs 2964 blasphemy against our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and against His Most Pure Mother of God, and against holy icons they do not worship and call icons idols; and the great Russian saints Peter and Alexei, Leontius and Sergius the wonderworkers, and many other holy reverend fathers are reproached, blasphemous speeches are laid on them, and even more so they are not honored. But let the Lord our God allow 2965 them; We are now the reprovers of their iniquity, and so we were convicted before. And let this be known, O Christian Orthodox race, about those Novgorod heretics who have now been convicted and submitted to us and condemned by us saborna, according to the holy rules, expelled from the holy great cathedral church and excommunicated from all Orthodox people. And this let you know how their heresy was exposed and denounced before them. In the years of the sovereign autocrat, the sovereign Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus', when the archbishops and bishops descended into the holy great cathedral church in Moscow, in the church of the great Archangel Michael, and wanted to serve the holy service, for the sake of the souls of the remembrance of the noble great princes and grand duchesses, and all for the sake of the pious Christians, priest Deonis of Novgorod will be found in the church, standing in vestments, wanting to serve with them. But from all the bishops the words of 2966 were detestable to him, [and] he decided: “Get out, O man, from the holy altar; You are not worthy to serve together with the holy bishops. Speeches that were not similar came to you even under Gerontius, the Metropolitan of All Rus', and not only to you, but also lists of your deeds and letters from Gennady, Archbishop of Novgorod, came to you.” He, having justified himself, immediately threw many blasphemous verbs at Archbishop Gennady, and thus expelled him from the holy church... 2967 Wed. the next issue is “The Tale of Metropolitan Zosima about the renounced books.” Instead of “word” (according to the local dialect). The lost part of the monument, which, in all likelihood, contained a detailed account of the formal conciliar trial of heretics, is to some extent compensated for by the brief “Tale of the Novgorod heresy, how to understand it,” which was delivered in the Chudov collection immediately before the “Instruction.” We present this legend in full: “In the years of the pious and Christ-loving Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus', Archbishop Gennady ruled the throne of the great cathedral church of St. Sophia the Wisdom [of God and] the holy life-giving Trinity of Veliky Novgorod and Pskov, in the hedgehog acquisition of heretics, mesal[an] wise and those who hold the Jewish heresy; They fled to Moscow, and about this the ambassador to the Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus', Archbishop Gennady, the originals of their heresy, and also to Gerontius, Metropolitan of All Rus'. Oh seven, Metropolitan Gerontius did not have time to conduct a search about those heretics, the end of life was accepted. I will accept Zosima the throne of the great metropolitanate of the Russian land, and then Metropolitan Zosima of All Rus', with the command of the sovereign of all the Russian land, Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus', assembled a council of archbishops and bishops, so that it is known that they searched for their heresy, and deposed them to their rank and condemned them to curse: Archpriest Gabriel, Yes Maxim the priest, and Gridya the clerk, and other priests and clerks and deacons with them, with their comrades, sent to Gennady Archbishop in Novgorod, and [and] the mother’s power to execute them and send them to prison. And from Zakhar the Chernets he tore off his black dress and the poorer I (sic) into the imprisonment of Vladyka Nifont of Suzdal, and the priest took Denis to Galich, and there the demons (vm. demons) were quickly possessed, the evil one spewed out his foul soul. But others were once imprisoned, while others were running away.” From this and other modern legends it is clear that the council did not sentence the heretics to the extreme “city executions” that Archbishop Gennady demanded (see previous issue). The Tatishchev Chronicle contains extremely remarkable news about the cathedral debates on this issue: “when all (members of the cathedral) decided that everything was worthy of being burned, when they reached Metropolitan Zosima, that speech: I am worthy of being cursed and sent to Novgorod for repentance in custody, for we are not from God, not condemned to death, but turn sinners to repentance" (Readings in Moscow. General History and Ancient Russia. 1847, No. 4, p. 110). This is probably where contemporaries became convinced of the heresy of Zosima himself. See the letter of Joseph of Volotsk to Nifont, Bishop of Suzdal (No. 120). You might be interested in: