15th–16th century Moscow–Constantinople schism

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15th–16th century Moscow–Constantinople schism
Dateapprox. 1467–1560
Also known as"Schism of the Church of Moscow of 1467–1560" (by
Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia
refused to recognize Gregory the Bulgarian as head of Moscow's Church, which led to a rupture of communion between the Churches of Moscow and Constantinople in 1460. This break was mended by around 1560.
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The schism between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and part of its Metropolis of Kiev and all Rus (which later became the

Moscow Patriarchate) occurred between approximately 1467 and 1560.[a] This schism de facto
ended supposedly around 1560.

On 15 December 1448,

Ivan III of Moscow
declared a complete rupture of relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Relations were gradually restored and in 1560 the Patriarch of Constantinople considered the

fifth Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church
.

Background

Metropolis of Kiev and all Rus'

The

Kiev
.

Ecumenical Council

Grand Prince Vasily II
Isidore of Kiev

An

Grand Prince of Moscow—Vasily II of Moscow—eventually permitted the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus'—Isidore of Kiev—to attend the council on condition that Isidore should return with "the rights of Divine law and the constitution of the holy Church" uninjured.[4] The council healed the Great Schism by uniting the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The union was proclaimed on 6 July 1439 in the document Laetentur Caeli [5][b] which was composed by Pope Eugene IV and signed by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund and all but one of the bishops present.[3] Some Greek bishops, perhaps feeling political pressure from the Byzantine Emperor, reluctantly accepted the decrees of the council. Other Eastern bishops, such as Isidore, did so with sincere conviction.[6] Sylvester Syropoulos[7] and other Greek writers charge Isidore with perjury because he accepted the union, despite his promise to Vasili II.[8]

Following the signing of the

Catholicism, he was deposed by a local synod.[9]

Premises of the schism

The Council of Bishops of Moscow condemned Isidor and imprisoned him. They later sent a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople in which they listed Isidore's faults and requested that his case be considered. They also asked to be allowed to ordain a Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus' by themselves; apparently, they had no doubt that Isidore would be deprived of his dignity. This letter has been interpreted in two ways. According to the historian Golubinsky, Moscow offered Constantinople a kind of compromise: Moscow gets the opportunity to ordain a Metropolitan and in return it does not raise the issue of the Union, while remaining in formal dependence on the uniate Patriarch of Constantinople. According to the historian Florya, the Eastern Orthodox of Moscow were sure of the imminent failure of the Union supporters, and were hoping for this failure.[10]

However, the situation was different, and the new Patriarch of Constantinople was the uniate

Council of Basel. In March 1443, Isidore had moved in Buda, possession of the new king of Poland and Hungary Vladislav III, and contributed to the publication of the privilege, which formally equated the rights of Catholic and Eastern Orthodox clergy in kings' lands. Then he went to Rome.[11][10] It is known that at least one of the Eastern Orthodox bishops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania accepted the ordination from Isidor, and repented of it, but other information on the situation in Lithuania is extremely rare.[10]

Question of the subordination of the Metropolis of Kiev and all Rus' and the union

After the exile of Isidore from Moscow in 1441, the question of the subordination of the

Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus' to the Church of Constantinople remained unclear for a long time. In Constantinople itself, there was a fierce struggle between pro- and anti-unionists. In fact, the Union was supported by a narrow group of elite from the capital of the dying Empire. Russian Grand Prince Vasiliy II supported the anti-unionists (those information are preserved his correspondence with the monks of Mount Athos).[10] After the death of the pro-unionist Metrophanes II in 1443, in Constantinople for a long time they did not manage to elect a new Patriarch. In 1444–1445 there were 15 public disputes between supporters and opponents of the Union.[12]

Gradually, the ranks of the pro-unionists were reduced and ten years after the Council of Florence, only four of the members of the Greek delegation remained faithful to the Union. Despite this, the firm supporter of the Union Gregory Mammas became the new Patriarch (in 1444 or 1445). His position remained fragile and he fled Constantinople in 1451 after the death of Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaiologos (one of the initiators of the Union).[12] Information about relations between Moscow and Constantinople during this period is extremely scarce and unreliable.[13]

Election of Metropolitan Jonah of Kiev and all Rus'

See also:
Muscovite Civil War

After Vasily II regained his throne in 1447, Jonah was still officially only the bishop of Ryazan and his name was only in third place.[c] It is only in 1448 that the Council of bishops of North-Eastern Rus' proclaimed Jonas Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'. This decision was not unanimous—the bishops of Tver and Novgorod (both cities were semi-independent from Moscow) did not sign the Charter of his election.[13]

In support of Jonah's claims, Moscow claimed that the previous Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus',

Photios, had proclaimed Jonah as his successor, and that a Patriarch of Constantinople which they did not name had once promised Jonah that he would become Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus' after Isidore. Some modern researchers doubt the validity of these claims.[13]

The election of Jonah was not accompanied by a clear break with Constantinople. For example, Vasily II composed a letter to the new Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos (whom he wrongly considered an opponent of the Union). Vasily justified the unauthorized election of Jonah by extreme circumstances and asked for communion and blessings, but only if there would be an Eastern Orthodox Patriarch in Constantinople:[10]

We have done this from necessity, not from pride or insolence. Till the end of time we shall abide in the Orthodoxy that was given to us; our Church will always seek the blessing of the Church of Tsarigrad[d] and will be obedient in all things to the ancient piety.

However Constantine XI, in a desperate search for allies against the Turks, agreed to the Union. Soon, in 1453, Constantinople fell and the question of recognizing Jonah remained uncertain until his death.[10]

The

Ecumenical Patriarchate wrote in an official letter in 2018: "the Holy Metropolitanate of Kiev has always belonged to the jurisdiction of the Mother Church of Constantinople, founded by it as a separate Metropolitanate, occupying the 60th position in the list of the eparchies of the Ecumenical Throne. Later on, the local Synod in the state of Great Russia—upon an unfounded pretext—unilaterally cut itself off from its canonical authority, i.e. the Holy Great Church of Christ (1448), but in the city of Kiev other Metropolitans, authentic and canonical, were continually and unceasingly ordained by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, since the Kievan clergy and laity did not accept their subjection to the center of Moscovy."[14][15]

Schism

Gregory the Bulgarian, division of the Metropolis of Kiev, and beginning of the schism

After his election, Metropolitan Jonah tried to assert his jurisdiction over the Eastern Orthodox of Lithuania. He succeeded because the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir, who was recently (in 1447) elected king of Poland, and Vasily II (his brother-in-law) were able to agree on this. In 1451, Casimir IV sent a charter to the Eastern Orthodox of Lithuania in which he called them to obey Jonah as Metropolitan.[16][17]

In 1454, after they

conquered Constantinople, the Ottomans removed Ecumenical Patriarch Athanasius II and imposed a new Ecumenical Patriarch, Gennadios, "who promptly renounced the Filioque."[18]

However, in 1458 the Patriarch-

Pope Calixtus III had divided the Metropolis of Kiev into two parts: "Superior Russia" centered about Moscow and "Inner Russia" centered about Kiev.[19]

Casimir IV was forced to cede to the demands of

Moscow Principality, but only one Bishop, Evfimy of Bryansk and Chernigov, took advantage of this offer (he became Bishop of Suzdal). In 1461, Jonah died.[16][17] Despite the victory of Gregory the Bulgarian over the Eastern Orthodox bishops, he faced resistance to the Union at the grassroots level (at this time the first Orthodox "brotherhoods" were formed).[17]

At the same time, in Constantinople, which was ruled by the Turks, the Union was finally rejected. As a result, Gregory decided to leave the Catholic Church, and returned to the jurisdiction of Patriarch Dionysius I of Constantinople. In February 1467 Dionysius sent a letter to Moscow, in which he called all the Russian lands, and especially Great Novgorod, to accept Gregory as the only legitimate Metropolitan recognized by Constantinople. In addition, in the same letter Dionysius claimed that his Holy Catholic Church "did not accept, does not hold, and does not name as metropolitans" Jonah and other metropolitans, ordained in Moscow after him.[1][10][17] At this time, Philip I was the metropolitan in Moscow, since 1464; he replaced Theodosius, whom Jonah had appointed as his successor.[16]

Complete rupture with the Ecumenical Patriarch by Ivan III

Grand Prince

Archbishop of Novgorod that he did not recognize Gregory as a Metropolitan; Ivan added concerning the Patriarch of Constantinople: "we do not demand him, nor his blessing, nor his disregard, we consider him, the very patriarch, alien and renounced". These words were a clear confirmation of the formal break with Constantinople, which arose because of the autocephaly of the church of Moscow.[20] Soon the Novgorod Republic tried to get out from the influence of Moscow, recognizing Casimir of Poland and Lithuania as their liege, and Gregory as their Metropolitan. But Ivan III suppressed this attempt by military force, executing leaders of the opposition (1471).[21]

Consequences of the fall of Constantinople

Role of the Byzantine emperor in the Eastern Orthodox Church

See also:
State church of the Roman Empire § State church of the Roman Empire#End of the Western Roman Empire, and Church reform of Peter the Great
  • The Byzantine Empire was a theocracy, the Emperor was the supreme authority in both church and state.[22][23][24][25] "The king is not God among men but the Viceroy of God. He is not the logos incarnate but is in a special relation with the logos. He has been specially appointed and is continually inspired by God, the friend of God, the interpreter of the Word of God. His eyes look upward, to receive the messages of God. He must be surrounded with the reverence and glory that befits God's earthly copy; and he will 'frame his earthly government according to the pattern of the divine original, finding strength in its conformity with the monarchy of God'.[26]"[27]
  • In the East, endorsement of Caesaropapism, subordination of the church to the religious claims of the dominant political order, was most fully evident in the Byzantine Empire at the end of the first millennium,[28] while in the West the decline of imperial authority left the Church relatively independent.[29][30][31][32]

In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the role of the Roman emperor as the sole secular head of all Eastern Orthodox was very prominent. Thus, in 1393 Patriarch Anthony IV of Constantinople wrote to Grand Prince Vasily I of Moscow:[33]

The holy emperor has a great place in the church, for he is not like other rulers or governors of other regions. This s [sic] so because from the beginning the emperors established and confirmed the [true] faith in all the inhabited world. They convoked the ecumenical councils and confirmed and decreed the acceptance of the pronouncements of the divine and holy canons regarding the correct doctrines and the government of Christians. [...] The basileus [note: the Greek term for emperor] is anointed with the great myrrh and is appointed basileus and autokrator of the Romans, and indeed of all Christians. Everywhere the name of the emperor is commemorated by all patriarchs and metropolitans and bishops wherever men are called Christians, [a thing] which no other ruler or governor ever received. Indeed he enjoys such great authority over all that even the Latins themselves, who are not in communion with our church, render him the same honor and submission which they did in the old days when they were united with us. So much more do Orthodox Christians owe such recognition to him....
Therefore, my son, you are wrong to affirm that we have the church without an Emperors for it is impossible for Christians to have a church and no empire. The Baslleia [empire] and the church have a great unity and community—indeed they cannot be separated. Christians can repudiate only emperors who are heretics who attack the church, or who introduce doctrines irreconcilable with the teachings of the Apostles and the Fathers. [...] Of whom, then, do the Fathers, councils, and canons speak? Always and everywhere they speak loudly of' the one rightful basileus, whose laws, decrees, and charters are in force throughout the world and who alone, only he, is mentioned in all places by Christians in the liturgy.[34]

— Letter of Patriarch Anthony to Vasily I

The

Muscovy also shared this feeling of rivalry with the Byzantine empire over the secular primacy in the Eastern Orthodox Church.[1][35]

Moscow, third Rome

Main article: Moscow, third Rome
See also:
Third Rome

The expulsion of Metropolitan Isidore and the independent ordination of Jonah were the response of Moscow to the Union. However, even after the Patriarchate of Constantinople officially rejected the Union in 1484, its jurisdiction over Moscow was not restored because there was no Eastern Roman emperor anymore.

In

city of Constantine—Moscow."[35] This idea is best known in the presentation of the monk Philotheus of the early 16th century:[36][37][38]

So know, pious king, that all the Christian kingdoms came to an end and came together in a single kingdom of yours, two Romes have fallen, the third stands, and there will be no fourth [emphasis added]. No one shall replace your Christian Tsardom according to

the great Theologian [cf. Revelation 17:10
] [...].

The Moscow scholars explained the fall of Constantinople as the divine punishment for the sin of the Union with the Catholic Church, but they did not want to obey the Patriarch of Constantinople, although there were no unionist patriarchs since the Turkish conquest in 1453 and the first Patriarch since then, Gennadius Scholarius, was the leader of the anti-unionists. At the next synod, held in Constantinople in 1484, the Union was finally declared invalid. Having lost its Christian basileus after the Turkish conquest, Constantinople as a center of power lost a significant part of its authority. On the contrary, the Moscow rulers soon began to consider themselves real Tsars (this title was already used by Ivan III), and therefore according to them the center of the Eastern Orthodox Church should have been located in Moscow, and thus the bishop of Moscow should become the head of the Orthodoxy.[35] The text of the bishop's oath in Muscovy, edited in 1505–1511, condemned the ordination of metropolitans in Constantinople, calling it "the ordination in the area of godless Turks, by the pagan[f] tsar."[39]

"The

Ivan IV was crowned tsar, not only was he anointed as the Byzantine emperor had been after the late twelfth century, but he was also allowed to communicate in the sanctuary with the clergy."[40]

"The Russian Orthodox Church declared itself autocephalous in 1448, on the basis of explicit rejection of the Filioque, and the doctrine of "Moscow as the Third and Final Rome" was born. This rejection of the Idea of Progress embodied in the Council of Florence is the cultural root of subsequent Russian imperial designs on the West."[18]

Attempts to restore relations

When breaking off relations with Constantinople in 1467–1470, ambassadors of the Ecumenical Patriarch were forbidden to enter the possession of the Moscow Grand Prince Ivan III. As a result, direct contacts were completely interrupted for almost half a century. However, Moscow continued to intensively communicate with the monks of

Zichnai) and the patriarchal deacon, to the Grand Prince Vasily III.[41]

The question of who initiated this contact remains unresolved. It is known that Vasily III was childless for a long time in his first marriage, and many attempts were made to beg for an heir from the Higher powers. The monks of Athos who accompanied the ambassadors reported that they fulfilled the request to pray for the childbearing of Princess

Metropolitan Varlaam did not accept the blessing from the Patriarch's envoy.[41]

In the ensuing controversy about the right to autocephaly, Moscow had no serious canonical arguments. However, Muscovites believed that if God was dissatisfied with the ordination of Jonas in 1448, He would somehow have showed it. In particular, afterlife miracles of former Metropolitans of Moscow,

Grand Duke, Metropolitans, bishops and other members of the clergy, who had to show the "Greeks" the legitimacy of the Moscow autocephaly. The possession of ancient Byzantine icons as a symbol of continuity and preservation of "pure" Orthodox traditions was also demonstrated to the "Greeks". In 1518, Metropolitan of Moscow Varlaam made a public prayer for the ending of prolonged rains. When the rains came to an end, it was also regarded as an approval of the legitimacy of Varlaam's ordination.[41]

The Greeks could not do anything against such arguments. Even if they were not directly expressed, the very atmosphere of the continuous triumph of "Russian Orthodoxy" made useless any attempt to officially raise the question of the subordination of the Moscow autocephalous church to the Patriarch of Constantinople. So the envoys of the Ecumenical Patriarch returned with nothing. The next envoy of the Patriarch of Constantinople appeared in Moscow only 37 years later, in 1556. Maximus the Greek stayed in Moscow and tried to debate, explaining the uncanonical character of the Moscow autocephaly and the fact that the Metropolitan of Moscow was ordinated "not according to divine scripture, nor according to the rules of the Saints Fathers". This ended for him with a trial and a very long imprisonment, despite the sympathetic attitude of a part of the clergy who, to the best of their strength, facilitated his fate and made it possible for him to continue his writings.[41]

In 1539,

See of Moscow.[1][42]

End of the schism and recognition of Moscow's autocephaly

The exact time of the end of the schism is not known for sure. The Church historian

hierarch.[1]

The Russian Orthodox Church considers that it became de facto autocephalous in 1448,

Patriarchs of the East."[44][45]

Notes

  1. ^ V. M. Lurie [ru] in his work called this period the "schism of the Church of Moscow of 1467–1560"[1]
  2. ^ Sometimes also spelled as Laetentur Coeli, Laetantur Caeli, Lætentur Cæli, Lætentur Cœli, or Lætantur Cæli, and occasionally referred to as the Act of Union or "Decree of Union".
  3. ^ "In the accusing charter of the Russian clergy against Shemyaka, sent in December 6956 (1447) Jonah is still referred to as "the bishop of Ryazan" and is named on the third place – after Efrem of Rostov and Abraham of Suzdal"[13]
  4. ^ Constantinople, literally "The City of Tsars" which mean "The City of Emperors"
  5. tsar of Bulgaria or the emperor of the Serbs
    .
  6. pagan" has been used to refer to any adherent of a different faith and had a very negative connotation. In this case, it is used to designate pejoratively the muslims
    .

See also

Eastern Orthodoxy

Politics

References

  1. ^ a b c d e V. M. Lurie [ru], Прекращение московского церковного раскола 1467—1560 годов: финал истории в документах (also on Academia.edu) (in Russian)
  2. ^
    ISBN 9780198854302
    .
  3. ^ a b Valois, 1911, p. 463
  4. ^ Joseph Gill, Personalities of the Council of Florence, pg68
  5. ^ "Bulla Laetentur caeli (6 Iul. 1439), de unione Graecorum". www.vatican.va. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  6. ^ Dezhnyuk, Sergey. "COUNCIL OF FLORENCE: THE UNREALIZED UNION". Retrieved 27 December 2022 – via www.academia.edu.
  7. ^ Matthew R. Lootens, "Silvestros Syropoulos", in Graeme Dunphy and Cristian Bratu (eds.), Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle (published online 2016), accessed 21 September 2017.
  8. ^ a b "The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church – Consistory of December 18, 1439". cardinals.fiu.edu. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  9. ^ ИОНА // Orthodox Encyclopedia
  10. ^ a b c d e f g "Флорентийская уния и Восточная Европа (конец 30-х — конец 60-х гг. XV в.)". Церковно-Научный Центр "Православная Энциклопедия" (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  11. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Isidore of Thessalonica". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  12. ^ a b Dezhnyuk 2015, chpt. 3 "The Bitter End".
  13. ^ a b c d Лурье, Яков (1991). "Как установилась афтокефалия русской церкви в XV в.?" [How was the autocephaly of the Russian church established in the 15th century?]. Вспомогательные исторические дисциплины (in Russian). XXIII.
  14. ^ "Patriarch Bartholomew explains Metropolitan Onufriy reasons for Ukraine church's autocephaly (Letter)". www.unian.info. 7 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  15. ^ "ΑΠΟΚΛΕΙΣΤΙΚΟ | Βαρθολομαίος σε Ονούφριο: Δεν μπορείτε να έχετε πλέον τον τίτλο Κιέβου". ROMFEA (in Greek). 7 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  16. ^ a b c Shubin 2004, pp. 132–133.
  17. ^ a b c d Карташев, Антон (1959). "Митрополит Григорий Болгарин (1458–1473 гг.)" [Metropolitan Gregory the Bulgarian (1458–1473)]. Очерки по истории Русской Церкви (in Russian). Vol. 1. Archived from the original on 2009-05-20. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  18. ^ a b Hamermann, Nora (Spring 1992). "The Council of Florence: The Religious Event that Shaped the Era of Discovery" (PDF). Fidelio. 1 (2): 23–36 – via Schiller Institute.
  19. ISBN 978-1-351-21488-9
    .
  20. ^ Карташев, Антон (1959). "Филипп (I) (1464–1473 гг.)". Очерки по истории Русской Церкви (in Russian). Vol. 1. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  21. ^ Shubin 2004, pp. 136.
  22. ISBN 978-0-69115301-8
    .
  23. ISBN 978-0-75654565-9
    .
  24. ISBN 978-0-76142630-1
    .
  25. ISBN 978-1-58617239-8
    .
  26. ^ "CHURCH FATHERS: Oration in Praise of Constantine (Eusebius)". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  27. ^ Steven Runciman. The Byzantine Theocracy. Cambridge University Press, 1977.
  28. ^ Church and State in the Byzantine Empire. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009.
  29. ^ Church and State in Western Europe. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009.
  30. ISBN 978-0-8091-3830-2
    ), p. 118.
  31. ISBN 978-0-8160-4562-4
    ), pp. 115–116.
  32. ISBN 978-0-299-11884-6
    ), p. 226.
  33. ^ Runciman 1985, Book I, chpt. 3 "Church and State".
  34. ^ "Medieval Sourcebook:
    Patriarch Anthony:
    Defending the Emperor, 1395"    . sourcebooks.fordham.edu. Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  35. ^
    S2CID 161446879
    .
  36. S2CID 161446879
    . That is why we consider the theory definitively formulated by Philotheus to occupy a central place in Muscovite ideology: it forms the core of the opinions developed by the Muscovites about their fatherland and erects them into a doctrine.
  37. ^ Подосокорский, Николай (2017-07-10). "Послание старца Филофея великому князю Василию III о содомском блуде". philologist.livejournal.com. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  38. ^ "ПОСЛАНИЯ СТАРЦА ФИЛОФЕЯ". pushkinskijdom.ru. 31 October 2019.
  39. ^ Kryvtsov 2001, p. 51.
  40. ISBN 9780521894104
    .
  41. ^ a b c d Kryvtsov 2001.
  42. ^ Дмитриева, Руфина (1988). "Иоасаф (Скрипицын), митрополит Московский". In Лихачёв, Дмитрий (ed.). Словарь книжников и книжности Древней Руси. Вып. 2 (вторая половина XIV-XVI в.), часть 1. Ленинград: Наука.
  43. ISBN 5-85255-103-1
    .
  44. ^ a b "Primacy and Synodality from an Orthodox Perspective". mospat.ru. The Russian Orthodox Church. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  45. ^ "Russian Orthodox Church | History & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-10-18.

Sources

Further reading

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