№ 4. Резолюция Митрополита Филарета на представлении о. Ректора Московской Духовной Академии о сочинении двух студентов оной

In June 1830, the Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy 2 presented to Metropolitan Philaret the works of two students, corrected by him, prepared for reading during the test: one of which contains an explanation and defense of the correctness of the application of the prophecy of Isaiah (7:14) by St. Evangelist Matthew to Jesus Christ, and the second about the spirit and properties of Christian martyrdom. After reading these works, His Eminence Philaret wrote the following resolution at the presentation: Well, I can recognize neither one nor the other reasoning as sufficiently prepared, either for printing or for reading in a public meeting. The discussion of martyrdom is still infinitely extensive and, both in relation to logic and in relation to literature, weak. This is a forced accumulation of words, expressions, historical circumstances, extracts, and not a systematic work of the mind, all parts of which would be directed towards a specific goal. I have read about half of it (I have neither the time nor the patience to finish reading), but I have not yet come across anything that would be directly and forcefully directed towards the goal indicated in the introduction, that is, to defend martyrdom from criticism. After a vague and tedious story about the persecutions of the Jews, Romans, Persians, Mohammedans, and Russians, an exclamation was made: this is the beginning and origin of martyrdom! The Maccabees prepared (this word was written by Father Rector) the Old Testament church for the same exploits in the New Testament church. Why was it necessary to prepare the Old Testament Church for such feats that should not be accomplished in it, but in the New Testament Church that followed it? It seems to me that this does not mean clearing the essay of errors. An essay on prophecy: behold the Virgin, with such imperfection, is inconvenient for reading in a meeting because it contains a lot of dry philological examination of words, from which a listener who knows the Hebrew language will get bored, and one who does not will fall asleep. I convince Fr. The rector between two-year exercises of students to find for an open test, although a small reasoning, but worthy of the attention of listeners. However, it is not at all forbidden to present both arguments discussed here to the Commission of Theological Schools at its discretion. Case of K.D.U. 1830 April 22 You might be interested in: