The attitude of the Ecumenical Patriarchs to the deposition of Patriarch Nikon

Abstract

As a result of Russia's foreign policy in the second half of the XVII century, which was reduced to recognizing her mission as the liberator of Christian peoples and the idea of creating an ecumenical Orthodox Church, Patriarch Nikon of the Russian Orthodox Church found himself in the position of one of the leaders of the Eastern Christian world. The object of this study is one of the issues of Russia's relations with the Orthodox East – the attitude of the Greek hierarchs to the conflict between Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon. The subject of this article is the position of the Greek clergy on the issue of the accusations made by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich against Patriarch Nikon, the participation of the Greeks both during the attempt to reconcile the parties, and then in the deposition of Nikon, and in his subsequent rehabilitation. The purpose of this article is to study the question of the role of the Greek clergy in the fate of the patriarch, about the reasons for the repeated change of their position on the fate of Nikon. The author of the article uses the historical and systematic method of scientific research - the study and critical analysis of the totality of the complex of published and unpublished documents of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA). The main attention is paid to the analysis of a complex of archival materials related specifically to the "Nikon case". The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the use of these methods allowed the author to clarify a number of issues related to the "case" of Nikon and concerning the activities of representatives of the Orthodox East, their role in the political and spiritual life of Russia. The research make it possible to draw a conclusion about the regularity of the contradictory position of the Greek clergy in the "case" of Patriarch Nikon, which is explained, first of all, by their political and economic dependence on Russia.