Tamara Vasilyevna Panich,
Doctor of Philology, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Sermon “About Those Who Create Discord” – an Essay in Defense of the Church from the Book of the End of the 17th Century “The Shield of Faith”
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-2-4
The essay “About those who create discord” is part of the polemical book of the late 17th century “The Shield of Faith”. It is written in the form of a sermon, including accusatory and edifying principles. The sermon, like the book “The Shield of Faith”, reflects the history of the dispute between the Grecophiles and the Latins about the time of transubstantiation of the holy gifts, which flared up in the 80s–90s of the 17th century. The essay formulates the position of the Church in relation to those who disobey the episcopal authority, show “disobedience” to the representatives of the spiritual authorities, violate established canons, depart from dogmatic teaching, thereby introducing strife and division into the Church. The article presents the opponents of the Orthodox teaching on the controversial issue, who share the point of view of the Catholic Church. Their names are established based on the analysis of the text of the preface of the book “The Shield of Faith” and the “Conversation Fourth” included in it. They are Sylvester Medvedev and his associates: Savva Dolgy and Deacon Afanasy, who at the time of writing the essay “About those who create Discord” already been defrocked. Involving “The Tale of the Defrocked Sylvester Medvedev” in the analysis allowed us to assume that the essay “About those who create Discord” belonged to the pen of Euphemy Chudovsky. This is indicated by textual coincidences of the content and stylistic plan in both works: the essay and the Tale. The article concludes that the essay “About those who create discord” appeared before “The Tale of the Defrocked Sylvester Medvedev”, that is, before the execution of Medvedev (February 11, 1691), which is described in the Tale, but is not mentioned in the essay. Subsequently, Euphemy Chudovsky could use some images and verbal formulas from this work when writing “The Tale of the Defrocked Sylvester Medvedev”. The sermon “About those who create discord” is an interesting monument of publicism of the second half of the 17th century. In addition to the topic of Eucharistic disputes, it reflects other issues and topics relevant to the 80s–90s of the 17th century: the topic of Western confessional influence, the authority of the Church and the episcopal authority. It is noteworthy that the essay appeared in the structure of the “The Shield of Faith” already at the beginning of the book’s formation. This is evidenced by the collection of preparatory materials of the “The Shield of Faith” (GIM, Synodal Assembly, No. 452). This manuscript already contained the essay “About those who create discord”. The article is accompanied by the publication of the text of the essay based on the manuscript of the end of the 16th century from the cell library of Afanasy Kholmogorsky: RSL, collections of E.E. Egorov (f. 98), No. 1570.
Publishing: 28/04/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 16.02.2022
How to cite: Panich T.V. The Sermon “About Those Who Create Discord” – an Essay in Defense of the Church from the Book of the End of the 17th Century “The Shield of Faith” // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 2 (22), pp. 63–73. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-2-04.pdf]
Links: Issue 2 2022
Keywords: the book “The Shield of Faith”, the dispute about the time of the transubstantiation of the holy gifts, episcopal authority, the position of the Church