87. 1460 г. Его же послание к литовским епископам о незаконном киевском митрополите Григории

From the collection of the Novgorod-Sofia Library (now St. Petersburg Theological Academy) No. 1464, l. 394–407; verified with the list located in another collection of the same library No. 1465 (formerly No. 677), l. 184–189. It was published, according to this last list, in volume VI. East. Russian Cer. Macarius (Appendix No. I). For considerations about the time of writing the letter, see ibid., p. 43, note. 66. Blessing from the Most Reverend Archbishop Jonah, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus', in the Holy Spirit to the beloved sons and fellow servants of our humility, the bishops of the great lands of Lithuania, the good former builders of the Holy Church, the rulers of the Divine Law: grace and peace to you, for the well-being of the Holy Church in Christ. Remember, sons, what was before about me, the humble one, how by the grace of the Lord God our Savior Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother, the Holy Mother of God, I was a humble bishop, formerly the Bishop of Murom and the Ryazan land, and for how many years I remained in obedience to my spiritual father and master, the Most Reverend Archbishop Photius, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus', about him God willing to accept his soul into the heavenly kingdom. And this knows how God and the Most Pure Mother of God willed for me to receive the flock of the great Church of God and the great flock of verbal sheep gathered by God. About these, children, God knows that I did not create such things boldly or autocratically; below, it is desirable to have a soul, but this was done by the action of the Holy Spirit. And to this day, with the feat of election and the will of the piety of the zealot, the blessed Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich, he reached the Reigning City, blooming in the former piety of Greek Orthodoxy, and received a blessing from the blessed Tsar and from the most holy Patriarch Joseph, and from the entire holy Ecumenical Council. And so, by the will of God, the Tsar and the Patriarch, with their blessing and with the blessing of all the saints and the Ecumenical Council, commanded me to be a metropolitan on Russian soil according to Sidor; Even then Sidor, Metropolitan, was appointed by them, and to this day he has remained in Rus' for quite some time, and then he reached Rome, and from then on he brought the evil heresy to the holy Russian Church, and he himself fled to Rome. And when, at the time of the evil Sidorov, the heresy came from Rome to the Russian metropolis, and again, after his departure from another path to Rome, he walked the distance for the sake of the Holy Church and corruption for the sake of Orthodoxy with his evil heresies, following the former apostates Apius and Nestorius. Then our son, the great prince, saw such Sidor of wickedness, and left him, as he was mad and an apostate of the faith, and so by the will of God 2810 and the Most Pure Mother of God, having spiritual care for the holy church, the new Vladimir, a zealot of piety and a wise seeker of the holy rules of the divine law of the holy Apostles and holy Fathers of tradition, etc. in piety, the flowering noble prince the great Vasily Vasilyevich, soon announced about these to us, who were deed by Sidor, even about the installation of a metropolitan in his land, according to the search for holy rules, bishops of the whole land, and sent about these to his brother, the king and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and thus accepted the petition for the installation and his charter, and convened the archbishops and all Russian metropolises of the bishops of their great lands, whose names are now written in heaven in the books of animals. And he created a great council in the church of the Archangel Michael, in the God-saved city of Moscow, and by the grace of God and his most pure Mother, the Holy Theotokos, and by the notification of the Holy Spirit and by the search for the holy rules of the divine law and by the previous blessing of the king and the most holy patriarch and all their ecumenical holy council of the great Greek Orthodoxy, and by the beginning of For the blessing of the current faithful Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich, the saint of his great church, the good deed was accomplished for me, and even more so for God, who hastened: and it was accomplished in the Russian land, the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'. I did not make another procession of the length of the great path to the Reigning City of the Divine Law, but I did not come to the king and the patriarch, for the sake of necessity, the path dictates cramped conditions, the rape of the multitude from the filthy; For many of the then Russian lands of people, great guests, and those who walked along their path, and having beaten, put the filthy people to death, and plundered countless goods, and then did not allow anyone to pass through this and ovamo. In addition, the news was also known about this, already because of their sins then the schism and rebellion of the holy great cathedral church of Greece and Rome had come, the delusion for the sake of the godless Sidor, hedgehog in the eighth council, deceived the king and patriarch of the Greeks and created for them, as the Jews created for Christ, repaying gall for manna, and for water Otset, and crucified and nailed to the cross. Sidor, having deceived the king and the patriarch, separated them from their holy law and brought them to ruin. The God-created great Constantinople, you yourself know, how, for the sake of embarrassment for small times, God-allowed executions, many disturbances of filthy tongues, people of Orthodoxy were shaken off, charms for the sake of the faith of Greek Orthodoxy and Sidorov sharing corruption. The Apostle writes about this: “If anyone scatters the church of God, God will scatter him.” Remember again, sons, and this: how humble I am, having come to this holy church in Kyiv, to the great power of the king and great prince of Lithuania, according to the charter of the divine law, humble and honorable, and according to the holy rules, having a God-entrusted structure and care, about the holy church and about the instructions for the offering of the holy service and about prayerful approaches to God, about health and the many years of the autocratic king and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and about his noble princes, and boyars, and about all the Orthodox Christianity of your flock, Russians, metropolises of Kyiv and Lithuanian lands. And I was back again there, managing for the sake of the holy church, and not the wealth of dividing gold, below silver, nor retribution for the sake of honor, like he was the former Sidor, a robber and enemy of the church, having plundered them, the holy church of the Most Pure Mother of God here in Moscow, and caught countless amounts of church gold, and, turning towards the path of untruth, to the drawing up of the eighth council, renounced by the holy rules of the divine law of the former Greek Orthodoxy, and by the commandment of the holy Apostles and the tradition of the holy Fathers of the divinely constituted seven holy councils of the entire sunflower, and affirming these good things, and commanding us to believe in the holy and life-giving and consubstantial Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. About the eighth whole universe council, having firmly written the commandment, it has been firmly laid down in the holy rules, strictly forbidding, which no one dares to do, nor does anyone make an attempt to do and create about the ceremonies, except for special affairs, local and church administrations, in their land let the metropolitan with his bishops, or the bishop in his own church with his priests, do it; and the eighth great council of the universe is not commanded to have any holy rules and is denied with a curse. A sower of bitter seed, such a one, created Sidor with his charms, like the devil, and with him Gregory the Chernets, his disciple. And remember this again, sons, how humble I am, according to the divine law, did not abandon your request and desire for the divine flock of the Holy Church, and so, according to the holy rules, I gave you sanctification and blessing on your heads and established you as church rulers, true teachers, and as good shepherds of Christ’s flock of verbal sheep. And now about these things, sons, I bless you: May the Lord God rule in all things pious and lawful, according to holy rules, the path of purification of your flock, the rule of the holy church and the spiritual observance of Christ’s flock of verbal sheep. And strive well for such piety, as we do, by the grace of God and the Most Pure Mother of God. And you know this, sons and fellow servants of our humility, for many years I have had a humble flock, ruling according to the divine law and organizing the holy great church of Russian Orthodoxy, according to the holy rules, serenely, and to this day praying to God and the Most Pure Mother of God for the health and longevity of the blessed Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich, and his son Blessed Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich, and Blessed Prince Georgy Vasilyevich, and about all the faithful princes and boyars, and about all the great dominion of their great piety, as may the Lord God establish in peace and in great silence all times 2811 years of their lives. Now, sons and fellow servants of our humility, we hear the church enemy who has come to you, Sidorov’s disciple Gregory, the godless monk, and for this reason I am writing to you: watch out more dangerously than these, so that the God-honored Gregory does not seize the holy churches from you, let him spread the nets of the serpent with flattery, Satan’s evil heresies, and sow the false tares of sin. teachings, nor covers with darkness the charms of corruption of the faith of the divine law of the holy Apostles. You yourself, having received the blessing from our humility, and according to the holy rules, were quickly chosen by God as the ruler of the holy church and the true teachers of the world and preachers of the faith of piety, but in no way will you accept it; You yourself already know their former evil wickedness. Now I am writing about these, remembering to you how Sidor and that monk Gregory, his disciple, were fed up with the poison of the serpent, satanic charms, the evil heresies of the former godless heresies, and constituted a God-hating, sweeping ecumenical council that met in Florence, the city of Rome, which they called the eighth, and so stuck in the net of love of gold; just as he, the evil slave and flatterer, the accursed Judas, is overcome by the madness of the love of money and will sell the Priceless One, to whom the whole world is not worthy: in the same way, Sidor gives the true faith of piety in gold to the Pope of Rome, and for this sake he illegally takes the honor of the pride of demons, and he takes away the divine law of Orthodoxy of faith, and with the darkness of his unbelief covered. When he came from Rome to us, and so the legato was called from the side of the apostolic seat, the Latish and the German; when in the prayerful utterances of the holy service and instead of the holy ecumenical patriarchs Sidor commemorates and beatifies Eugene, the Pope of Rome, about whom he never invites the holy church of our Orthodoxy, with Sidor and his monk Deacon Gregory, his disciple, they agree on this in one syllable and follow with the help of their godless council renounced, which the saint does not accept The Church of Orthodoxy vehemently denies it. When it was at the end of the holy service, Sidor commanded, place in the middle of the church the honor of the loudly godless eighth ecumenical council, renounced by the holy rules, and made a charter, in which it is written that there is a division about the Holy Trinity, agreeing, as from the Son the Spirit proceeds, and the unleavened bread will unite the offerings for us in the holy service of the holy church. Sidor and Gregory, together with whoredom, praise these good things, and other godless, God-destroying many things, which are corrupted by the holy church, verb. Our great holy church of God of Russian piety holds the holy rules and divine law of the holy Apostles and the charter of the holy Fathers, having received the former holy great cathedral church of the God-given Reigning City of the great Greek Orthodoxy, the former divinely regulated piety, from which former Russian metropolitans established and governed the holy church of Russian piety. serenely, and for this reason from God the saints were crowned with crowns and great miracles were vouchsafed: St. Peter the Metropolitan, Alexey the Metropolitan, the former church rulers, true teachers of piety, and went to God, who after death and to this day work miracles by God’s will, and through their prayers we too were vouchsafed by God to accept the rule of the Holy Church in the Russian land who has risen piety and the flock of the great God-chosen flock of Christ's verbal sheep, and in it we remain in the same piety as long as God commands. When the prudent Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich saw in God's church the great and pious inconvenience that Sidor was doing to the corruption of the holy church with their piety, the great Orthodoxy of the Russian land, and so he commanded him to stay in the common monastery of the great Archangel Michael, and he would send him to the Tsar and the Patriarch and to the entire council of Orthodoxy about Sidore, let him know from them that for the sake of this, the corruption of the holy church by evil heresies has come from him. Sidor was then enraged, and could not bear to wait for such a long time, the shame for the sake of denouncing his evil heresies, which he had done, and was enveloped in the darkness of his unbelief, at night he left the doorless, he fled in tatters and with his disciple Gregory and the monk. The noble Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich did not send for him to return him, nor did he want to keep him, as it is senseless and abominable, so that he would not approach his heresy 2812, for the holy rules of the divine law of the holy Apostles command the church to burn such a libertine with fire, or to bury him alive in the ground. Sidor, regarding his heresies, accepts nothing of evil, flees to Rome, and now, from afar, Sidor also acts like the evil destructive serpent the devil, cruelly persecuting the Holy Church, corrupting Russian piety, and now introduces from the Pope of Rome as metropolitan to Rus' the monk Gregory, his god-honoured disciple, who is also godless and abominable with him. filled with dark-blooded heresies, the king and grand duke of Lithuania send to his brother, grand duke Vasily Vasilyevich, ambassador Yakub, his clerk, and with him Ivashenets, so that Gregory accepts himself as metropolitan. The noble Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich and his son, the noble Grand Prince Ivan Vasilyevich, did not want to accept such an enemy of the former holy church, Gregory the Chernets; Rushing - a wolf, not a metropolitan, and they did not accept him. But I, humble metropolitan, and with all the sons and colleagues of our humility, with the archbishops of the Russian land and with all the bishops, your God-inspired brethren, with church rulers, and with all the councils of the Holy Church, who in the great piety of Russian Orthodoxy, we all hold the god-honored monk Gregory excommunicated from the holy church, and the godless enemy, and alien to the Orthodox faith, just as Sidor is heretical, having been a charmer of the great piety of the Holy Church and all Orthodoxy of the Russian land, to whom may the Lord God reward them on the day of the Last Judgment for their deeds. For we, sons, have to strive and take care of these things, lest the verbal sheep of the flock of Christ be caught up with such false teachers. And I bless you, sons and fellow servants of our humility, that you may not accept from the godless Gregory and obedience to his false words. If he begins to teach or write to you, let you listen; If he starts to do something with a prohibition, don’t listen to them; If something inadvertently wants corruption, do not doubt, according to the word of the Lord spoken in the Holy Gospel: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot touch the soul in any way.” And you, sons, like us, have that godless monk Gregory excommunicated from the holy church: for you, sons, are like the fruitful trees of the divine paradise. You have God-entrusted, according to the holy rules and with our blessing, church authority; For you, sons, are by nature God’s chosen shepherds and teachers; It is fitting for you, just like us, to take care of the government of this holy church. And so the days of the sons have been and have been clothed, as if in armor, in the true truth of Christ and have become strong in piety, having Christ’s fiery spiritual mouth and having received the spiritual sword, which is the word of God, and you will stand against the Doukhobor, like the firmaments of adamantium, driving away the godless monk Gregory, the holy enemy of the church, and cutting off his evil tares of hostility, his false teachings, and his lawless wisdom, doorless charms of his mouth, with the power of God, you block words, extinguishing the flame of fierce atheism and placing hostile networks of his evil heresies; and the power of God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, helps you: the Lord God is with you, no one is against you. And so, sons, you will remain in God, ruling the holy church, and according to the removed rules, affirming the faith of Orthodoxy, likewise in the Russian land, the piety that has shone forth, and the teachings of spiritual words, nourishing the God-gathered flock of Christ's verbal sheep of your flock, keeping adamantly from the mental wolf of Gregory and from all enemies of slander. And may God’s grace and mercy and His Most Pure Mother, and in Christ, the blessing and prayer of our humility remain with you spiritually always and today, by God’s will, inseparably. And it was written in Moscow, August. 2813 So it was corrected on the margin instead of what was written in the text. In the original, the essence is further - superfluous. The words: in Moscow, the month of August are taken from another list. You might be interested in: