38. 1415 г. ноября 15. Соборная грамота литовских епископов об избрании и поставлении на киевскую митрополию Григория Цамблака

Wed. note above the text of the previous no. Older editions are in the Nikon Chronicle, vol. V, pp. 59–64, and in Ancient. Ross. Library, vol. XIV, pp. 122–128. We consider it unnecessary to cite discrepancies in these editions, as was done in the “Acts”, on the grounds that the proposed text has all the signs of authenticity, which include, among other things, the evidence found in the charter of Metropolitan Photius (No. 39); on the contrary, the lists published in the Chronicle and the Library are distorted by later insertions (see Act. Zad. Ross., vol. I, p. 34, note 14). This is exactly the list in Tolstoy’s collection of the 16th century. Imperial Pub. Librarian, dept. ХVII, No. 50, l. 95. Every gift is perfect 1578, coming from above from the Father with light, reaching to us humble ones, whom we hold on to, now with that gift of our much grief from afar, hedgehog about the church of our mother, we have found consolation in the things that have followed in this way. We are humble bishops of Russian countries and brothers to each other in the Holy Spirit, Theodosius, Bishop of Polotsk, Isaac of Chernigov, Dionysius of Lutsk, Gerasim of Volodymyr, Gelasey of Przemysl, Savastian of Smolensk, Khariton of Kholm, Evfimie of Turov, since we have seen the church despised by Metropolitan Photius Kyiv, who is the head of all Rus', and the flock of Christ is careless and ready for destruction, we are in sorrow and in sorrow, having a shepherd in name, but not in deed: lower, because he wants to sit at the church given to him by God, and rule the people of God, as is worthy of a metropolitan, but just gathering church parishes and living elsewhere, and the old dispensations and The honor of the Kyiv church has been transferred to another place. And so to us who grieve for the church and for the people of God, merciful God move the heart of Grand Duke Alexander, called Vytautas, ruler of the Lithuanian and many Russian lands; and that Metropolitan Photius was expelled, but he sent an ambassador to Constantinople, to the Tsar and the Patriarchy, asking him to give him a Metropolitan who wants to be the people of God for salvation, and he is worthy of that church for approval. And King Manoil did not want to listen to the petitions of his righteous man, dividing his profits with the unrighteous. He consulted with us, truly and righteously, like a righteous, true great prince; and the gathering of all the princes of the Lithuanian and Russian lands and other countries, as far as they are subjugated to him by God, our church, and the boyars and nobles, the archimandrites, abbots and reverent monks, and priests. And all of these, by council and will, and by our election and desire, having gathered in Novograd, Lithuania, in the holy church of the Most Pure Mother of God, by the grace given to us from the Holy Spirit, were appointed metropolitan of our holy church of Kyiv and all Rus', in the name of Gregory, according to the tradition of the holy Apostles, as they write in their rules: “two or three bishops ordain metropolitan,” just as he created bishops before us, under the Grand Duke Izyaslav of Kiev, he installed a metropolitan according to the rules; Just like the baptized Bulgarians who were before us, they created kin to us, and made themselves high priest as their bishops. In the same way, the bishops of the Serbian language judged that according to the rules and the apostolic charter, they made themselves their bishops as the high priest, and even to this day there is, in the service of God, the high priest in the Serbian land, having many bishops under him. 1579 The same is not only Serbian land, but also Russian land, just like there is in the region of the lord Grand Duke Alexander, the former Vitovt, but there is also a great deal of both land and people. And what do we say about the Bulgarians or the Serbs? This was ordained quickly from the holy Apostles. The grace of the Holy Spirit acts equally on all Orthodox bishops: for the Apostles were appointed by the Lord, but they appointed others, and again about no others, and so the grace of the Holy Spirit even reached us humble ones; and the imams of power, like the apostolic disciples, [with] many trials and questions, are worthy of converging and providing their fatherland with a shepherd, whom God wants. Likewise, the power of the imams is from the Lord: if we bind him on earth, he will be bound in heaven, and if we loose him on earth, he will be loosed in heaven. Let some people not say: “We deny the faith before we ourselves appoint a metropolitan”; then let it not be: let us not go away. This is the word that whoever speaks is foolish. But we, faithful from the holy Apostles, the Church and the Holy Fathers, hold and piously confess, and we curse all heresy that is alien to the apostolic and paternal tradition; To this we also anathematize the Simonite heresy, which sells the gift of the Holy Spirit in gold and silver. And the patriarch, His Holiness of Constantinograd, the imam of the patriarch and father, and the other patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and those metropolitans, and those bishops, fathers and brothers in the Holy Spirit; and in accordance with them we hold the confession of faith, and like them we teach, and we think in the same way: but we turn away; it is impossible for the Tsar to endure the rape of the Church of God: for the holy Ecumenical Patriarch and the Divine Holy Council of Constantinograd cannot, according to the rules, install a Metropolitan, but whomever the Tsar commands; and hence the gift of the Holy Spirit is bought and sold, just as his father created for the Kyiv church, in our days, about Metropolitan Cyprian, and about Pimen, and about Dionysius and about many others, and not looking at the honor of the church, but looking at a lot of gold and silver. From here there were great debts, and a lot of rumors, and confusion, and riots, murders, and, most cruel of all, dishonor of the church of Kyiv and all Rus'. For this reason, we look and judge, as if it is unjust for us to accept such metropolitans, who were appointed by purchase from the Tsar, laymen of the future of a person, and not according to the will of the patriarch and according to the tradition of the present Apostolic Council. We are also blessed, and, by the grace given to us by the Holy Spirit, we have been appointed worthy of a metropolitan of the Russian Church. In the summer of 6924, indic[ta]9, the month of November at 15. In the Nikon Chronicle and in the Novikov Library, the letter begins with the words: “Every gift is good and every gift is perfect.” But Metropolitan Photius read the beginning of the letter as it is read in the present text (See below, pp. 325 and 328). This refers to the well-known legend about the establishment of the Serbian patriarchate, published at the beginning of Kormcha. You might be interested in: