56. 1427 г. сентября 23. Его же послание в Псков, о мерах против стригольников и о небытии в церковных старостах ротникам, двоеженцам и троеженцам

From the Rumyants manuscript. Museum No. 204, l. 416–420; verified with the list found in the collection of the Synodal Library, No. 562, l. 327 rev.–331. It was published in the first volume of Historical Acts under No. 34. And this is a letter about strigolniks, and about rotniks, and about libertines, and [in] the authorities, and among church elders 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, to the abbots and priests and to the entire priestly and monastic rank, and to the mayor Fedosya Fefilovich, and to the old mayors, and to all of Pskov, to the people named after Christ, living under everyone the law of God, and holding and having, according to the tradition of the divine Apostles and God-bearing Fathers, the rank of the great priesthood of God, and living by all and holding that from the divine and sacred rules and from God's church, sold true Orthodoxy, and purely and immutably by that divine and sacred tradition, repentant and believing. That I am, sons, I heard before 2385 from your ambassadors, that some deeds in you are from the adversary of the enemy of the devil, from many of those snares that have been pierced from time immemorial by the people of man, and even more so by the Christian people, and by the same comma and malice, I have heard that some of you are darkened, called strigolniks 2386, and those who are falling away from Christianity and in the ditch of destruction of those who fall: and about those falls and darkening of spiritual eyes, I told God, with great sobbing, I wrote about your love, for the sake of those Strigolniks 2387 assurance and knowledge and conversion to God, to true Orthodoxy. And you write, sons, with your ambassador with the mayor Theodore, that naturally, according to my letter, those Strigolniks were searched and shown: and about your strong prosperity, hedgehog about the piety of God's law, I thank your great Orthodoxy, and I bless you immutably and firmly to stand for this, and those darkened to the light and to the truth of God's understanding raising up, like the divine martyrs, shedding their blood for faith and truth, and bringing unfaithful kings and tormentors to Christ. Why do you write that some of these strigolniks ran away; and those who remained, and about those you write that those deeds are the devil’s comma, as if the devil has nested in them, and those deeds to their true Christianity and to the Orthodox faith still do not dare to see purely, and to look, and to believe, nor to come to their spiritual fathers for repentance, and also 2388 blasphemy against the order of the great priesthood of God: and before then more extensively about these writings of your love, the hedgehog of that common enemy of the devil, the instigation of 2389 happened, the hedgehog of how our forefather Adam was expelled from paradise, and the same comma brought Judas the traitor disciple to the Son of God, and the same again with the comma of Israel, they created the people of that enemy the devil against his Creator. And as we write about those darkened 2390 that like those strigolniki, falling away from God and looking up to heaven, they call themselves the Father 2391: and before that 2392 for the very 2393 true Gospel gospels and traditions of the apostles and fathers, they do not believe, but as they dare, from earth to seeing the air, calling God the Father for themselves, and how can they call themselves the Father? And therefore blind them to their darkness. And you know that God did not bring angels 2394 to the human race for correction, but established trustworthy people, saints and apostles, and priests, and granted their authority to them from the Apostles; and behold, according to the Divine Scripture, we know from the Apostles that our God is in heaven and on earth. And those Strigolniks, due to their delusion, do not have 2395 the pure faith of true Orthodoxy, neither have they to resort to God’s churches, to heaven 2396 on earth, and do not have to come to repentance to their spiritual fathers: and just as I wrote to you before, and now I write, remove yourself from those in food and drink, and with executions (not only by death, but by external executions and imprisonments) bringing those into knowledge and conversion to God, and in no way let them be allowed into you, like tares among the wheat. And why do you write that you have such people, rotniki, and kiss the cross on the crooked side: otherwise the cross was given from Christ to Christians, to worship it by faith, and to kiss the truth and purity of that honorable cross; and when you kiss the cross, you sanctify yourself and heal from illness and all sorts of ailments; but not by faith and not truly kiss the cross, and that false communicant incurably cuts himself, and according to the scripture, as a deicide, such a desecrator is imputed to the honest cross. And you write that in your churches, such people are elders, and sit on the authorities and judge: otherwise such company officers and false associates, according to the scriptures, can in no way manage church affairs or judge courts; and you keep away from such people 2397 and give them no authority in church affairs, no judgment. But you, priests, teach such people to turn to God with repentance and cry for themselves, since an Orthodox Christian was not given an honest cross in his mouth, seeking your name, kissing him; and in truth 2398 someone kisses the cross three times on estates, on gold and silver - and for this reason he will not receive the kiss of the cross, nor communion with the faithful. And what else do you write that such deeds are elders in the churches, having separated from their legitimate wives, and having understood the second wife or the third, as adulterers: and from this point such elders are in no way allowed to become elders in the churches of God; Previously, from the divine scripture, I wrote to you, as the divine Fathers write: “the first marriage, he writes, is a law, the second is forgiveness, the third is a crime, and that need for the sake of the last time was introduced by man, with many considerations and considerations about himself; how to cleanse the only-begotten, immortal soul from that voluptuousness”; and when it is written that “a third marriage is a crime,” for this reason, such Tremendians cannot in any way become elders in the churches of God, but they must have care and supervision for themselves. May the Lord God protect and preserve your Orthodoxy in all things in all good faith and purity, with victory in all things against all visible and invisible enemies; and with this 2399 to all, God's grace and mercy 2400 and my prayer and blessing be with you. And the letter was given in Moscow, in the month of September on the 23rd day, in the summer of 6936, indictment 6. In the original Strigolnikoh; With: strigolnik. In both lists there are strigolnikohs. and from C, where it is inscribed above. In the original; corrected according to S. In the original angel: corrected by S. In authentic and do not mot; in the text according to S. You might be interested in: