55. 1427 г. июня 22. Послание митрополита Фотия в Псков, о стригольниках

From the manuscript of the Rumyantsev Museum No. 204, l. 412–416, indicating discrepancies in the synodal list in collection No. 562, l. 324–327. It was published in the first volume of Historical Acts under No. 33. Blessing of Photius, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus', in Pskov, the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and the Cathedral of St. Sophia and the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, and the mayor, and the old mayors, and the archimandrites and abbots and the priestly rank, and all the Christ-named fulfillment of the holy people. My hearing, son, in the original lives of your Orthodox Christians, among you, God’s chosen flock of Christ, who are now some newly indignant from being kicked through the devil’s snares, and from that poison regurgitated, I hear those some, as if they have apostatized from God, carelessly about their peasantry, but also the rank of God’s great priesthood and monasticism, as if they believed in nothing, but and belittling; and those, by hearing 2369 I hear, who imitate the cursed Saducee, who do not even hope to be in the resurrection. And it was not because of them that such foolishness came, but the darkening of spiritual eyes that came quickly, the darkened fall, which came from the ancient authorities to the human race, from the common enemy of the devil. And the people of Israel know that from all tongues they are most beloved to God, and by the same occupation of the enemy the devil they have become greatly darkened and have forgotten all those who were blessed by our Creator and their Creator, and have devoured the idols 2370, and have killed them. 2371 And the same enemy fell upon the human race, a flood and fire from God came down to the earth. And you know the same enemy’s cunning, as well as the lawless kings and tormentors, the godless vacillation occurred both against the traditions of God’s law and against the divine Apostles; The same news, about that pious tradition of our 2372 true Orthodox all-fulfillment 2373 of the Christian faith, how much the victorious martyrs shed their blood about it. And you know, from the same above-mentioned 2374 enemy of the devil that the networks of the kings are kicked through the law into transgression; and erected holy icons against iconoclasm, and created the same evil deception of so many of them to fall away from God. And you know that those who are sterile and evil-minded, cursed by God and disgusting to the end, the evil Apius, and Macedonius, and Hestorius, and Sevgir of the rest of those alienated from God, because they blasphemed the only begotten Son of God, like poison, vomited, and they blasphemed against the life-giving Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, and also 2375 spoke maliciously against the Most Pure Mother of God. And first of all, the equal of the Apostles, the first king Constantine and other pious kings, understood this; and those pious great kings, with the divine and holy Fathers, with all the seven ecumenical councils, other evil kings and the royal ones, such evil fighting and evil fury and vacillation, overthrew the holy icons and Orthodoxy, and established the law and the priesthood and the tradition of the Christian faith, with divine and sacred rules, and handed them over to the Church of God: and from those saints all the ecumenical councils that do not correct true Orthodoxy, according to faith with works, but otherwise 2376 wise, and those divine holy Fathers cut them off from God’s church with spiritual swords, and excommunicated them from Christianity and condemned them with eternal damnation. And those, if such are found in you, in words they say they are Christians, but in deeds as if they do not exist, about the faithful great Orthodox and Christian tradition as if they are careless, according to what has been said above, as if they belittle the rank of the great priesthood of God, and according to the great Apostle Paul, and “confuse others, wanting to pervert the gospel of Christ,” according to that great preacher Paul to the word: “If, in a speech, we or an angel from heaven brings you good news, let him be anathema; and as I foretold, and again about this I say: if anyone preaches the gospel to you more than he eats, let him be anathema.” And from there, since the Christian faith will be well established by the divine Apostles from Christ, given the foundations and authority; and the same 2377 great power, according to Christ’s commandment, will be given to both the hierarchical and priestly ranks: if it was the work of one God, then the great priesthood of God was entrusted with the task of forgiving human sins. And the great Deonysius Areopagitsius writes about the rank of hierarchs and about the great priesthood of God and about monasticism, as if they were likened to the heavenly rank of angels, arranging for them to be. And if, through this, such heresies are found in you, stolen from the enemy of the devil, and those divine Apostles and God-bearing Fathers, the strengthening and foundation is destroyed, and the order of the great priesthood of God and their Christianity is as if humiliating, according to what was said above, of course, as there is no hope of resurrection: and about these same falls to God leading, when there is sobbing. And I bless you, my children, your great understanding of God, to teach such and raise them to the understanding of God. But what if such people, through the devil’s indignation and comma, ultimately fall into the pit of destruction, and will be in such a fall, and in no way willing to arise: and such as not working for Christ, but 2379 their destruction; and you, priests, do not accept any of those offerings to the churches of God, and excommunicate them 2380 and sweep them away, like rotten ouds, from the healthy body of the Church of Christ; but the worldly, in no way associate yourself with those in food and drink, and in no way defile yourself with such, until such people turn with repentance and tears into the prudence of true Christianity. Look diligently about these all, the Orthodox are all about the Lord and the Lord's priests, so that your communication with those fallen will not be in any way until they turn and repent to God about this and submit to their spiritual fathers: otherwise, according to the word of the great Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians: “deliver, he said, such a one for the destruction of 2382 flesh, so that the spirit may be saved,” resolving everything. excommunicate them from you, unless they repent, and let them come to the knowledge of their Orthodoxy. And even if the devil’s 2383 darkness remains in that, and even here and 2384 temporarily, by the long-suffering of God, this judgment and revenge will not be rewarded quickly, but on that great terrible day they will accept the condemnation of the great word of Christ in the Gospel: “Do not accept, as I said, the verb of my testaments, and I do not judge him, but the word of the hedgehog verbs, and then judges him on the last day." And about all this, Orthodoxy is all about the Lord, I pray you have attention; diligent about those who have fallen away, to the emergence and correction to the understanding of God about the inappropriate acts committed by them, as if they would turn to God with repentance and warm tears. And about this and before, I wrote at length about those erring ones and about those who fell away from God, called Strigolniki, and now I am writing this, for the sake of their knowledge and conversion. If they do not convert to the wisdom of God and the rite of Orthodox Christianity throughout, and I bless you my children, from the greatest to the smallest, do not associate yourself with them in any way, and write to me: and according to the divine and sacred rules I will bring judgment and condemnation on such. And the mercy of God, and my prayer and blessing, be with your great Orthodoxy, with those who live with you according to the divine and sacred rules, and with those who hold the true Orthodox Christian faith. And the letter was given in Moscow, the month of June on the 22nd day, in the summer of 6935, indictment 5. In the original obedience; corrected by C; obedience M (Usp.sp.). and the statue devoured in the original is written on the top margin. sorry S; maybe in the original ou = ꙋ. In authentic all the fulfilled; corrected according to S. In authentic bysha spoken; corrected according to S. In the original of the devil, corrected according to S. You might be interested in: