81. 1458–1459 г. Его же окружное послание литовским епископам, о соблюдении православной веры и несообщении с Исидоровым учеником Григорием, поставленным в Риме на киевскую митрополию

From the collection of the Synodal Library No. 562, l. 130–133 vol. It was published, according to the same list, in the first volume of Historical Acts under No. 63. Message from Metropolitan 2774 to Lithuania to all rulers, about the Orthodox faith, and about strengthening, and about Gregory Metropolitan, Sidorov’s disciple Blessing of Jonah, Metropolitan of [Kyiv and] All Rus', to the fatherland and great reign of my lord and son of the great king, to Lithuania, about the Holy Spirit, son of our humility and co-servant, to all the God-loving bishops of that great power. Peace and mercy to you from Almighty God and that most immaculate [Mother] Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, who is a refuge for all Christians and a quiet haven for those overwhelmed by sins, and a saving rest for all. And about this, sons, we remember you, and you yourself are well aware of the divine and sacred rules of the holy Apostles and holy God-bearing Fathers, who command and forbid our humility, the great spiritual superiors of the great cathedral Apostolic Church, who Christ redeemed with his blood, which is unflattering care for his flock entrusted to us to have, and about the true Orthodox faith Greek, so that no tares are sown among the true wheat of piety, but it would be so, as having first received the holy ecumenical seven councils from the holy supreme Apostles, the same was handed over to us, having firmly established it, and there is nothing new to accept, nor to put aside, according to what was said: “Whoever adds or puts aside, let him be damned"; and as it is written in the chapter of the third cathedral, it says: “Who then will not be worthy of condemnation and curse: does not he also take away and add to faith? for the fulfillment of the right faith, which was handed down to us from the holy Apostles, dares to take away the lower, and dare to accept the right; Great is the torment of those who apply or put off.” Likewise, according to the words of the holy great Supreme Apostle Paul: ["more] than one betrayed from us 2775, if an angel preaches the good news to you, let him also be anathema"; and again according to the word of Christ, who says: "For many false prophets and many false teachers will come among you." From them we ourselves saw with our own eyes the accursed apostate from Christian piety faith, the evil Sidor, who was formerly a metropolitan, now an apostate: how he came into our Orthodox Christianity, formerly like a kind of meek sheep, but then he exchanged himself and became the most evil and vicious of any wolf for the holy Christian Church of God. But this God did not allow this to be in the world, but put it into the mind of the pious and to the Christ-loving ruler, Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich, and by his command and council judgment, as a certain ud has rotted away from a healthy body, 2776, so that other healthy uds will not fall away, and after that, sons, you yourself know that I will run away from that Sidor, who previously concealed the heresy in himself, with my deeds, also with my writings. Convince yourself that you truly speak Latin. Now we hear that that evil teacher Sidor’s worst disciple Gregory came to Lithuania from Rome and calls himself the Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus', having been appointed by the wicked apostate of the Orthodox faith Gregory, who was formerly a patriarch in Constantinograd, the same one who began to remember first the Pope of Rome, and who to this day has exposed all his heresy, as and 2777 his very current writings testify, he writes to Sitsa: “Gregory 2778, by the grace of God, Artsibiscup of Constantinograd.” Otherwise, sons, firmly judge for yourself: did this, such a scripture, ever exist from the holy ecumenical patriarchs who formerly accepted the holy and immaculate Orthodox Greek Christian faith, and before that, in Florence, that accursed and godless eighth assembly. Who did our lord, the former Patriarch of Constantinograd, call himself “Arzibiscup of Constantinograd”? Is he not a cursed apostate and debaucher to our great Orthodoxy? Moreover, he writes about us, calling us “apostates.” And you know, my children, that I am from God and by his grace placed at that great degree of sanctity collectively, and according to the first exposition of the holy Apostles and Holy Fathers of the divine sacred rules and according to many other correct chapters, they write here: “Three bishops must, without any knowledge, appoint a great saint.” And you yourself, sons, know well, as I wrote to you even above that, the divine scriptures; and you will look for the fourth rule of the first council at Nicaea. Az again, by God’s [mercy], was placed on that great level not by three or five bishops, but by all the apxbishops and bishops of the local Orthodox great autocracy, lord and son of my great prince; and what that apostate names and writes by the same name, and that 2779 scripture be to his destruction, and to the present debauchee who has come. But we also know about this, our sons, when the reigning city had previously suffered misfortune from the Bulgarians, also from the Persians, as if it had been kept in the monastery for seven years; but I held on to the utmost, my sons, piety 2780, the city did not suffer anything; [when] you retreat from your piety, you know that you suffered, what various captivities and deaths happened (God knows only one thing about their souls). Likewise, as before the scribe, [do not accept] that prophesied evil apostate Gregory 2781, who came from Rome and is called the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus'; We hear how certain people in you join him and serve with him, forgetting their confession before God in their appointment; for these sakes? [excommunicates] the Orthodox Church, neither has them for peasants, but for apostates of their faith and accomplices of their epochs. What good could there be if Dad’s name is mentioned in churches? Isn’t it [served as] unleavened bread, according to the Eunomius heresy, that the flesh of the Lord is deified, and not animate? And again: the Orthodox faith in confession is not servile 2782 Do they confess the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son, according to Macedonia? What is there to say a lot? And the divine scriptures themselves, sons, are good news: even though they sinned in their Orthodoxy and estranged themselves from the Orthodox faith, in those five hundred and twenty years there were so many great and God-bearing men who shone in our Orthodoxy, and God glorified them with signs and miracles! But no one from those sacred great men should approach or join in their service: for all those who partake of them are similar to them in every way. Moreover, sons, remember the word of the Apostle, which says: “Take heed to yourselves and to your flock, in which the Holy Spirit may place you,” lest we be reviled by the Lord, according to the word that says: “Woe, to them the temptation comes!” And again: “You eat the salt of the earth, and if the salt becomes stinky, what will it be salted with? nothing, but let it erupt.” And again: “Even if something suffers by faith, like the holy martyrs, even this is not great compared to the reward there: those here pass by, but those there remain, having received it, having kept the faith.” We wanted to write something else to you: otherwise, just as I wrote above to you, to my sons about the Holy Spirit, so I write now: you yourself know well the divine scriptures, which can make you wise. And God Almighty, grace and mercy, and blessing and prayer on our humility, may it be with your love for God. In the original on the field in a later hand and other (black) ink by Jonah the Wonderworker. The original testifies. In the manuscript this place is spoiled; it reads like this: but in keeping with the utmost, filial piety. You might be interested in: