On the literary activity of Nil Sorsky

Prof.'s work Arkhangelsky’s “Nil of Sorsky and Vassian Patrikeev” not only introduces us to the mental and religious life of Russia in the 15th–16th centuries. , not only makes a study of the historical personality of the “chief in great Russia and the silent life of the monastery” Nil Sorsky, including here the literary sources of his ideas, but also provides a lot of raw material, first found and published by the researcher. The difficulty of accurately defining this material and its large volume on this issue forces the author to admit some inaccuracies, and in our essay we would like to supplement them to the extent that our newly found sources allow. Among the works classified as Sorsky’s “writings” is the note “On monks circling for the sake of acquisitions.” Prof. also points to this same note as belonging to the same author. Pavlov (Historical essay on the secularization of church lands in Russia, I. p. 64, note 3), from whom it was not completely printed. It is printed by a completely professional person. Arkhangelsky on page 72 of his work. We present the text of this note based on the manuscript of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery (now St. Petersburg. Spiritual Academician) No. 129–254, 17th century, fol. 182; Next to it we take Migne. Patrol. Ser. gr., 79. Epistol. L; III, 119, p. 437. From a comparison of these two texts one can see that the note “about those who circle around” and the message “Νικωνι Αρχιμανδριτῃ” are one and the same 1 . On page 62 he mentions and on page 121 he publishes in his book Prof. The Arkhangelsk text of another small passage “brings the goodness of every man who wants to be,” attributing it, at least presumably, “which could belong,” says the author, to the works of Sorsky. Regarding this note, the following data can be given: 1) in the manuscript of Kir.-Beloz. monastery (now St. Petersburg. Dukh. Ak.), for No. 129 – 254, 17th century, on l. On the 182nd we find this note, placed in this way: “Reverend Neil”. There is the note itself, and immediately after it: “about those who circle around for the sake of acquisitions, also Nilovo”; 2) in a manuscript from the collection of Titov Imp. Publ. Bibl., No. 745, 17th century, on fol. 104th vol. we find the same note, located in the same way as in the first mentioned manuscript, namely: “Reverend Neil”. There is a note and then immediately “about all the circling acquisitions for the sake of the same Nile.” And so, in two manuscripts with the words: “the same Nilovo” and “the same Nile”, the notes “there is nothing good” 2 and “about the monks circling” are combined into an essay by the same author. Knowing already that one of them belongs to Sinait, we can in any case raise the question of the author - Sinait or Sorsky, having some data in favor of the first. From materials not indicated by Sorsky’s researchers in the manuscript of gr. Uvarov, for No. 1846 (754) (718) half-word. XVII century, on f. 602, among the messages of Sorsky we find something completely unknown to us, which, however, from the first lines attracts attention with the manner of writing and expressing one’s thoughts, characteristic of Nile. We print in full. “Message from a spiritual elder to a certain brother. My beloved and spiritual brother, for the sake of my many words about this and for a long time, you demand from me to hear bad words for the benefit of your soul, and for the sake of memory, for my repentance, as even after death you remembered my unworthiness. Weigh my weakness and my thinness is convenient for you, as if you do not ask me for the rest of the flesh, but for the salvation of the spiritual order. For this reason, I forgot my badness and foolishness, remembering your faith and zeal and diligence, and what you commanded me to do, I dared to write and send to your love of God. Read this prudently and pray to the Lord Christ about my badness, as summer is already approaching old age, and the cup of death is being dissolved by the past; Drink it sweetly with warning, but eat wormwood without warning. For this reason, the holy prophet David prays, saying: weaken me, so that I may rest with notice, but notice does not happen without spiritual cleansing, cleansing does not happen without tears, and tears do not happen in rebellion, since rebellion darkens the mind and does not leave one’s sins to be seen; from this a person comes into the habit of negligence and inattention; negligence and inattention all passions will follow. This is the path in the iciness of the living. This treasure is hidden in me; For this reason I fear and tremble to drink the cups of death. He’ll come at me, he’ll come, and he won’t delay a single hour, and I can’t even run away; Even if the airy and worldly prince, dark and darkened, will reveal my iniquities and will truly expose me, crying “It is not useful for the Imam; the servant, having seen the will of his master and neither prepared nor done according to his will, will receive many beatings from him. And those who, for Christ’s sake, drink the mortal cup all day long with tears and suffering, this mortal cup is a heavenly physician, and they drink it sweeter than honey and honeycomb, since the former mortal spiritual health is prepared in an incorruptible world, as if he were a reverent monk, who wanted to heal his sins in this incorruptible world, having come to a certain to the great elder and spiritual physician and a speech to him: “Do you have the former ones who can heal sins?” And the doctor said to him: “Hey, honest!” And the monk answered: “And what is the essence of the past?” And the doctor said to him: “Go up to the mountain, that is, into the desert, and take a spiritual root, which is for Christ’s sake poverty and thinness, and gather leaves for yourself, which is hunger and thirst, and accept the myrrh of Laban, which is humility and fear of God, and the other myrrh of Laban, which is the food of the stomach, which is chastity and purity; and mirohalvan, which is a service to the sick, and warm prayers from them; grind everything together in the mortar of obedience, sift them with your fine sieve, that is, with vigil and unceasing prayers, a good and right pure life, and put them into the pure mountain within you, that is, into your soul, and pour into it the water of spiritual love, and kindle the flame of divine desire under the forge of your heart, and when you have cooked them well, scoop them out with a spoon with your quietness and silence, and taste their spiritual customs, and we will not return back all the days of our lives. This is the essence of the past, which heals sins.” Let us also, brother, pray for your souls to receive this 3 healing through the prayers of the Most Pure God 4 and all the saints. Amen". This message was printed on Thursday. Moscow. General East. Ancient Ross. - Moscow. 1847, No. 1, section IV - mixture, on page 3, under the letters N.K, as a letter from Joseph Volotsky to the monk icon painter. It differs from the one given here by the insertion made between the words: “your love of God” and “read this wisely” and containing a mention of the Novgorod heresy and heretics, the need to venerate icons, worship kings and princes, etc. It was printed from the Moskovsk manuscript. Spirit. Akad, for No. 171. We have a similar list of this message with an insertion in Soph. district of St. Petersburg. Spirit. Academician XVI century, No. 1474, on fol. 284, and in the Imp district. Publ. Bible collection Tolstoy of the 16th century, No. 299, chapter 10. The same message, but without insertion, with some variants compared to what is printed here, is available in the Sofia Manuscripts, No. 1471, fol. 200 vol., and No. 1489, l. 211, about – XVI century. The author's name is not on any of these lists. Sometimes this message is found among Volotsky’s works, for example. in Tolstoy's works, sometimes among the works of Sorsky, as in the above. It should be noted that in general the works of both authors are very often found interspersed. As an example, we can point out the Volokolamsk manuscript of the Joseph Monastery, now Eparch. Moscow Bibl., No. 351–485, where we read “this book spoken by Nil of Trans-Volga”, there are also the works of Joseph; Sofia, now St. Petersburg. Spiritual Academy, No. 1460. 16th century, where sheets 127 – 315 are occupied by the works of Volotsky, and with f. 315 the messages of the Nile begin; the same library No. 1489, 16th century, where the messages of Joseph and Sorsky, as well as the Charter of the latter, appear successively. The same can be said about the Uvarov manuscript, from which the messages and many others are printed here. N.K., who published this message on Thursday. General East. and Ancient Rossiiskikh, points out that it “does not have that strict unity of subject matter that is noticeable in Volotsky’s words directed against heretics.” We would like to note that this entire message consists of thoughts and expressions characteristic of Sorsky; but, afraid to rely on a general comment, we give entire extracts from it and, in parallel, extracts from other messages, the affiliation of which to Neil has already been established: This comparison shows the identity of the texts, with the largest text taken by us from the message placed in the manuscript of Imp. Publ. Bible Q. XVII. No. 50. XVI century, l. 58 8, in the table of contents of which, in the handwriting of the 16th century, we read: “two messages of a certain Elder Nile about the spiritual benefits of the divine scriptures.” 9 This comparison, which is so unusually coincidental, gives some opportunity to assume that the author of both the work we are examining and the passages of other works indicated here in parallel is the same person. Let us now turn to the second part of the message, which speaks of “the past” or “spiritual pharmacy” 10. The spiritual “being” is mentioned in one of the words of Basil the Great. “Prologue (1877 Synod, ed.), month of June, 26th day,” where we read: “no one, walking in the wickedness of a sinner, himself despairs, knowing the mental illness of the soul - repentance: therefore, it is powerful to heal any “illness,” etc. Borrowings of the Nile from Basil the Great are common and noted by the researcher Sorskago (see Arkhangelsky, p. 163) In addition, prof. Sobolevsky points out that “spiritual medicine” or “a wonderful story about doctors” has been found in the Patericons since the 12th century, and Sorsky’s activities “who were in the rank of book” in Moscow 11 and his stay in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, rich in library, during Neil’s literary work made it necessary for him to become familiar with the Patericons. If we take the article about “bygone times” according to one of the manuscripts 12, we will see the imagery with which it is decorated in the message of Nile, and which is also found in his Charter (“The prayer for this is the name of the seed taken with the handle, where the living one marvels with ineffable vision, as if from thin and bare grains, even sowing, the kernels of the class from them suddenly became cold." Charter, p. 47), etc., and in Neil's prayer 13, where Neil, mentioning death, writes: “the end of death is drawing near, the ax lies at the root of the tree, and the cutting of my barren soul is ready to eat, the harvest is not worth it, and the sickle is sharpened, and the harvesters are careful to fill my soul with the tares of sins.” kidnap and commit to eternal burning.” Of course, Volotsky was also familiar with the Patericon, but his writings not only do not have any figurativeness or abstraction, but are generally characterized by the necessary presence of formal dogmatism, while the second half of the epistle represents the usual manner of Nile’s writings - borrowing a theme from the Greek fathers of the church and individually presenting it. We were unable to find a manuscript that would help explain the insertion about the Novgorod heretics in this message, or, conversely, any indication of how the first half of the message, taken from the message of the Nile, ended up in Volotsky’s work. Observing in the manuscripts, as we indicated above, the works of both writers placed side by side, we can only assume that the copyist, as was the custom of ancient Russian copyists, having begun the letter of Sorsky, then rewrote a few lines about the Novgorod heresy and then continued the letter. A simpler assumption is also possible: when stitching the sheets together, the latter were mixed up, and an insert was found among the message. The first thought is brought to us by Tolstov’s manuscript No. 299, indicated above, where before the epistle (with an insert) the title is given: “A word on the heresy of the Novgorod heretics who blaspheme the writings of St. Ephraim and say that the essence of his writings is false. Where can we find legends from the Divine Scriptures, for Saint Ephraim’s writings are true and similar to the prophetic and evangelical and apostolic writings.” In Epistle 14 we do not find anything corresponding to the title, except for an insertion that generally mentions heresy. Obviously, it does not belong to the next word, which has its own independent name. It also seems interesting to us that it is possible to establish a free reading of the message, skipping the insertion, based on the same published manuscript. The insertion begins after the words: “I dare to write and send it to your love for God,” and ends with the words: “Besides, let your love for God betray, for these thoughts are not mine, but I have chosen from many Divine Scriptures and have sent you many messages together.” 15 As we can see, firstly, acceptable reading is established without insertion; therefore, secondly, an insertion taken by itself can have an independent character, which is what distinguishes it; thirdly, “for these thoughts are not my own, but from many Divine Scriptures I have chosen and collected many things into little ones” - these words end the preface of the Rule of Sorsky 16. Thus, we have before us two lists of the message, one of which without insertion, printed here, representing a completely whole and grimy work, gives reason to think that it belonged to the Nile. Given the material we have analyzed, this assumption does not seem impossible to us; in any case, we would only like to raise the question of the author of the message here, citing those considerations that, perhaps, can lead to a more precise definition. In the same Uvarovskaya district, on l. 791, and Novgor. Soph. (now Spirit. Ak.), for No. 1489, half oral. XVI century, l. 385, in both equally, following the Great Charter of the Nile, which ends, as usual: “that I may find mercy before the Lord,” goes now to the same line 17: “The creation of the Elder Nile, listen carefully, is known to the verb. Remember, Lord, the souls of your departed servants and slaves, who were created by the hand of God, our great-grandfather Adam from the earth and his great-grandmother Eve, who were born and knew You as the Creator and Creator of the true God, and according to Your will in the law and before the law they believed in your life, and who glorified Your magnificent name, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, The Trinity is consubstantial and indivisible, all of whom have died in piety from eternity. Remember, Lord, the faithful kings and queens and their pious children. Remember, Lord, the souls of the most luminous ecumenical Orthodox patriarchs. Remember, (l. 792) Lord, the souls of the faithful and pious great princes and princesses and their children and all their Orthodox generations. Remember, Lord, your Eminence Metropolitans and all God-loving archbishops and bishops. Remember, Lord, the church ministers, the archimandrites, and the abbots, and the holy monks, and the schema-monks, and all the monks. Remember, Lord, the schema-nuns and nuns, and all the monks. Remember, Lord, the souls of bishops and priests and deacons who lived in piety, and all the clergy of the saints of the church. Remember, Lord, the souls of those who labored for the holy churches and who shed their blood for the Orthodox Christian faith and laid down their lives for the whole world. Remember, Lord, the souls of all the Orthodox people, who were beaten in battle and died in half with ulcers, and in towns and villages burned by fire, and killed with weapons and swords and destroyed in every possible way at the hands of the godless, and from internecine warfare, who accepted the necessary death in piety. Remember, Lord, the souls of the Orthodox for the truth of their lords who died faithfully. (P) remember 18, Lord, the souls who died on the way and at the crossroads from the Tatars, and from the foreigners, and from robbery, and from all violence. Remember, Lord, the souls of those who died in prison and in prison. Remember, O Lord, those who were lost in the forests and in the forests and in the wilds and in the treasures and in the ravines of the dead who fell. Remember, O Lord, the souls that came from beasts and from reptiles and were torn apart in every possible way and whose horns were gored (l. 793) and from birds that were eaten and died. Remember, Lord, the souls of the dead Orthodox who are submerged in the depths of the sea and crushed by fish. Remember, Lord, the souls of those condemned to death for deed and not for deed. Remember, Lord, the souls of those who died with hunger and thirst and nakedness. Remember, Lord, those who are poor, our father and brothers. Remember, Lord, the souls of the Orthodox, who died from this world, willingly and unwillingly, and in every possible way accepted death in vain. Remember, Lord, the souls of all the Orthodox, who in heaven and in all seven thousand years lived piously on the earth, and in the circumambulation of the sun, and in all the ends of the universe, possessed by all sorts of sorrows and troubles and necessary illnesses, the deceased Orthodox, all the elders and youth, the rich and the poor, free and working, male and female, all who lived in piety, generations and generations Having reposed before You, rest, O Lord, for those who lie here, Orthodox everywhere and in every place of Your dominion, for blessed are You forever, Amen.” By printing this “commemoration” and attributing it to the works of Sorsky only conditionally, we leave the full possibility of the assumption that Sorsky borrowed his sample and indicate the data that allows us to some extent determine this commemoration as the work of Nile: 1) The title “Creation of the Elder Nile” and the placement of “memory” in 2 manuscripts immediately after the Charter of the Nile. 2) The author remembers: “and before the law they believed in their lives,” meaning here, obviously, those who lived in the pre-Christian period - a trait completely inherent in Nile, as a person who was distinguished by religious tolerance and definitely showed himself in the issue of the 15th century. about the heresy of the Judaizers. 3) The author of the “memory” prays: a) “in cities and villages burned by fire” - 1429 - the earth and forests were burning; b) “those who received the necessary death from internecine warfare” - 1454 - escape of the princes to Lithuania, 1456 - battle of Rusa (Novgorod was besieged by the Grand Duke for disobedience), 1462 - executions, 1471 - campaign of the Grand Duke against Novgorod, 1486 - annexation of the Tver principality; c) “those who died of hunger and thirst and nakedness” - 1442 - pestilence in Pskov; e) “from the Tatars and from foreigners beaten... into captivity by the filthy establishments of the bysh” - 1455 - attack of the Tatars and Vogulichs, 1446 - Tatar raid on Ustyug, 1468 - war with the Tatars, 1496 - war with the Swedes. We take only some dates and, as we see, the time is the 15th century. (in which Sorsky lived or close to him) is replete with disasters, listing which he can commemorate those who died from them. 4) The certainty of the Russian origin of the author can be seen in the indication “from the beaten Tatars.” 5) The time of writing is determined by: a) the commemoration of the “most reverend metropolitans” and “ecumenical patriarchs” - obviously, the time before the establishment of the Russian patriarchate, therefore, before 1589, otherwise, of course, the author would first of all commemorate the Russian patriarch; b) there is a certain date (if this date does not indicate here a number taken by the author from the Apocalypse and indicating the end of the world) - “Lord, remember the souls of all the Orthodox who in heaven and in all seven thousand flew piously to the lands of those who lived”: 7000 l. – 1492, the time in which the author lived. Sorsky died in 1508, so the date 1492 is possible. The totality of these given data leads us to think about the possibility of attributing “memory” to the writings of Neil. Moreover, this commemoration (if we take 1492 as the date of writing) is of interest as the earliest in comparison with those (the end of the 16th century) that we know according to the instructions of E.V. Petukhov (see Essays from the literary history of the Synodik, St. Petersburg, 1895) and recently found and published in separate prints by Prof. Shlyapkin, which dates back to 1552–1560. So, by destroying with this work Sorsky’s copyright on the notes attributed to him: “about monks circling for the sake of acquisitions” and “to bring good” - we note those data that allow us to attribute the last two mentioned to Sorsky’s works. The assumption that this passage is a genuine translation of Sinaiticus by Sorsky is very possible, since Sorsky used Greek writers in general, and in particular Nile of Sinai; thus, Sorsky’s authorship rights are destroyed and he appears as a translator. This note is located in Sofiysk. district of St. Petersburg. Spirit. Ak. for No. 1452, 16th century, on l. 37 vol., under the name: “Saint Nile” between passages from Ephraim the Syrian, John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and other Greek writers. “Rev. Nil Sorsky and his Charter on living in the monastery. St. Petersburg 1864", page 169. On this, see Arkhangelsky “Nil Sorsky and Vassian Patrikeev”, p. 79. There are three messages in p-and, but the last one cannot belong to Nile, since it is addressed to the Novgorod ruler Macarius, and therefore dates back no earlier than 1526, and the year of Sorsky’s death is 1508. About the “spiritual pharmacy” we find: 1) Rovinsky-Folk Pictures, vol. III, p. 53, No. 708 – Spiritual pharmacy healing sins. 2) The same author, vol. III, p. 52, no. 707 – Past cures for sins (both articles are similar in content). 3) The same is repeated by the same author with minor changes, vol. V, p. 214. 4) The same author’s addition to the spiritual pharmacy, vol. IV, p. 528, No. 708. 5) Sobolevsky. Translated literature of Moscow Rus' of the XIV–XVII centuries. in., ch. IV, p. 379. From the news we found in the area of the Shchukin Museum in Moscow, which will be published along with the publication of the Sorsky Charter. We are printing the text of this article based on the manuscript of the Society of Loves. Dr. Letters. No. VII (390) 18th century. L. 77 rev. “From my old age, someone came to a doctor and said: Do you have any past sins that heal? The doctor answered and said: eat, come, take the root of obedience and the leaves of patience and the flowers of the purity of good deeds, wipe out reasoning in the cauldron of silence and everything in the sieve and pour humility into the pot and add water from the tears of prayer, stir up the fire of Divine love, cover with mercy; When it evaporates, cool it down with brotherly love and taste it with the spoon of repentance and you will be healthy. Amen". The article is available in numerous lists. Found and published by N.K. Nikolsky in his “Materials for the history of ancient Russian spiritual writing”, p. 167. See the message printed on Thu. Imp. General East. and Ancient Ross. 1847, since the list from which it was printed (M. Dukh. Ak. No. 171) is identical with the list found in Tolstov’s manuscript. This is the version according to the Russian edition published in Readings in 1847 and in Tolstov’s Russian edition No. 299. See Charter. East. Rus. Iepapx. 1813, vol. V. We print from Uvarov’s manuscript, variants of the St. Petersburg manuscript. Spirit. Ak. unimportant.