Alexander Schmemann

6. Russian Orthodoxy (41 pages)

From Schmemann's A History of the Orthodox Church

Page 29

Schism of the Old Believers.

The tragic history of the Old Believers bears witness to this crisis in tradition. The main reason for it was the question of correcting the Church books, but behind that in the thinking of the Church stood profounder questions and doubts. The isolation of the Moscow kingdom ended with the time of troubles, and it stood at the crossroads or even at a parting of the ways. Meetings with foreigners and the ties with Kiev, the East, and the West, which were increasingly frequent and growing stronger, made direct and persistent demands on it to put its own ecclesiastical affairs in order, and aroused thought in Church circles, showing up the one-sidedness, inadequacy, and indefensibility of Muscovite traditions.

Particularly acute, in connection with book printing, was the question of the service books. There were too many variants in the manuscripts. Which copies should be used for printing? The books of the Lithuanian press raised doubts about Orthodoxy, while the Russian ones were defective and contradictory. Under Michael, the first Romanov to be elected (1613), the disputes concerning the liturgical books several times reached the point of sharp rupture and condemnations. One of these was the condemnation by the hierarchy in 1618 of the Abbot Dionisi, of Trinity Monastery outside Moscow, for correcting the Book of Needs. The passion of these disputes indicates the uneasiness and disturbance in the thinking of the Church. With the accession to power of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich reform tendencies at court increased. This was the period when Kievan influence was growing stronger in Moscow and Westerners were pouring into Russia. We must particularly note the restoration of close bonds with the Orthodox East, however; under Alexey Mikhailovich we see Eastern patriarchs several times in Moscow. An active correspondence was conducted with them, and Russians in turn were sent to Greece. However strange it may seem, these new bonds with the Greeks were one of the causes of new troubles.

 

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