125. Окружная грамота неизвестного ростовского архиепископа епархиальному духовенству, о съезде на Белоозеро на собор, для исправления разных погрешностей против церковной дисциплины

The following acts up to and including No. 130 undoubtedly belong to the Russian hierarchs of the 15th century, but to whom exactly it is now impossible to decide, since they were preserved only in the form of nameless business forms or samples, the oldest collection of which is in the synodal manuscript No. 562 (the first half of the 16th century). This charter (No. 125), written by some Rostov archbishop, was published according to the same synodal form (fol. 237 vol.–239) in the 1st volume of Historical Acts under No. 64; the publishers took it to Archbishop Theodosius (later Metropolitan) and attributed it to 1458 for the reason that Theodosius was dedicated in 1454, and from the charter it is clear that it was written by the Rostov saint “after the four years of his installation.” (See note to decree no.). This consideration, of course, would have full force if it had been proven that the letter really belonged to Theodosius. Instruction of the Archbishop, named after the God-saved city [Rostov] to all abbots and priests and deacons Blessing of the Archbishop... of the God-saved city [Rostov] to all abbots and priests and deacons. By the grace of the Lord Almighty and by the election of my lord, the Most Reverend... Metropolitan 3269 of All Rus', I am appointed in Rus' 3270 by him as Archbishop of the God-saved city [Rostov] and other other cities and places of our Rostov archdiocese: and by that grace given to us from the Lord, I entrust to you priests to hold and build the churches of God, with all by guarding against any inappropriate thing, which the holy rules of the church do not accept, so that it may be pure and immaculate from all defilement; and I entrust you with shepherding the flock of Christ’s verbal sheep, which Christ redeemed with his blood from the work of the devil, and then may he remain unharmed from the mental beasts that destroy him. To this end, I have given you consecration 3271, for the sake of church correction and your purity for the sake of the priesthood, and for worldly salvation: and by looking at these, you will find the right path leading to an eternal life, and allowing the flock of your flock to pass. But you are careless about all of these things, and when you yourself deviate from the right path, how can you lead your flock to the living of animals, and give water to the animals that remain in eternal life? And oh seven I wonder why the darkness of the veil and the darkness of the veil is quicker, so as not to seek useful ones, and after four years of my installation as archbishop, I did not come to the end of the cathedral church (name), to be punished by true wisdom, and from our humility you do not demand blessings, and you do not want to hear teachings from the divine scriptures and from the holy rules of the God-bearing Fathers, and you do not seek spiritual punishment, and you do not care about church correction and about your salvation and about your flock, and in every way you have gone astray from the right path; before the one who leads, there is no voice, no voice of the shepherd's voice. 3272 But the humble archbishop heard the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, saying in his holy Gospel: “Let the shepherd seek his sheep with all strength and zeal, and let the lost be found, the lost bring back, the sick give medicine, the sins of the dead be brought to repentance by the punishment of divine words.” I heard this commandment from my Lord, and I was afraid, like a lazy slave, of the condemnation that hid my talent, and my souls and hearts were very cold about your inattention and disobedience, and with all diligence and zeal I moved to come to your love, for your sake of salvation, so that the malice of the devil, the destroyer of our souls, may not forever increase Church deanery will flourish and from there your soul will enjoy the divine fragrance. And I hear in you the malice of the old charm that has arisen, spreading out over many, you forgive your spiritual children to take a third wife and up to a fourth, and for wives to marry a third husband and a fourth; and this is what you do outside of church tradition and outside your priesthood, and so doing something alien to 3274 Christian life. And you, priests, do not attribute that great malice to anything, but you do not quarrel with your spiritual children because of it, nor do you deign to teach them from the Divine Scripture, lest they perish; and for his own sake; keep the priesthood evil. And for this sake, for God who helps us, I call upon the Most Pure Mother of God, the great wonderworker Leontius, for help, so that the body of the Church and all Orthodox Christianity may be corrected: and for this reason I am creating and gathering a cathedral in the city of Beleozero, in the church of St. Basil, with archimandrites and with abbots and with priests and with deacons, so that we may serve for that cathedral and for that great church work They went to me for this reason, to Beloozero, without any disobedience or contradiction; and if only you would come to me at Beloozero, to the great Vasily, for the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ; and I bless you and my children. And if a priest, hegumen, or priest or deacon does not come to that council and for that great work, let him receive ecclesiastical execution, according to the rules of the holy Apostles and holy Ecumenical Fathers, let him be deposed of his priestly degree and be alien to the priesthood, and in no way have the sacred power to act and will not be a priest. And whoever does not come from you to me, do not receive my blessing; and through my blessing, without having been with me at that council, to serve the liturgy or to act sacredly, may he be cursed both in this age and in the future, he will absolutely turn to me for repentance and mercy and will receive forgiveness from God and from our humility. And this letter of mine came to you from the city of Belaozero, from Saint Basil. It appears here in the manuscript, probably because in the original the Metropolitan was called the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia. So the author of the letter was a stranger to Rus'? Doesn't it belong to the Rostov Archbishop Dionysius, a Greek by birth, installed in 1418 (from the abbot of the Spaso-Kamenny Monastery) by Metropolitan Photius? Of course, the well-known “scroll of ordination” or holy teaching to a newly ordained priest, published above under No. 7. That is to Beloozero, where letters were written; See her conclusion. In the original it is written in a scraped manner. You might be interested in: