Tamara Vasilievna Panich,
Doctor of Philological Sciences, 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 Handwritten Heritage of Ancient Russia in the Works of Church Writers of the Second Half of the 17th Сentury: The Continuity and Development of Traditions
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2026-2-3
Among the works of publicism of the second half of the 17th century, reflecting the problems of religious and ideological clashes of this period, a special place is occupied by texts created by church authors from the community of writers of the patriarchal circle, whose creative strategy was determined, on the one hand, by the struggle against the confessional influence of the West, on the other − by the struggle against schism. These authors have created a number of major works of polemical orientation. These include: the book “Shield of Faith”, dedicated to the history of the dispute about the time of the transubstantiation of the Holy Gifts at the liturgy; the book “The Spiritual Covenant”, directed against adherents of the old rite; the “Siberian Epistles” of Metropolitan Ignatius of Tobolsk; a handwritten collection of documentary and narrative materials related to the consideration of the anti-church activities of Peter Artemyev and Gregory Skibinsky and a number of other texts. The authors of these works used texts from the handwritten heritage of Ancient Russia as sources: works of patristics, didactic literature, historical and hagiographic writings, chronicles, etc. Thus, the author of the Siberian Epistles used the Book of Royal Degrees in his polemic with the ideologists of the Ural-Siberian Old Believers (he borrowed from it an episode of the debate between Metropolitan Peter and the heretic Seit from the Life of the saint), as well as the Enlightener by Joseph Volotsky. Athanasius of Kholmogorsky, in the “Spiritual Testament”, turned, for example, to the apocryphal tale of the journey of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called to the Slavic lands, as well as to the bookish experience of Metropolitan Macarius. Extracts from the writings of Maxim the Greek played a significant role in the structure of the polemical discourse of church writers of the second half of the 17th century. His anti-Catholic texts were often used (“The Word against Nicholas” and two epistles to F.I. Karpov against the Latins). The works used were often given a new interpretation, edited in accordance with the author’s objectives and the requirements of the historical context. Old Russian Manuscripts played an important role in the writings of church writers of the second half of the 17th century. They contained ready-made answers to topical issues of the era, and were used as arguments in disputes with ideological opponents. By updating time-tested texts of the past in their writings, interpreting them in relation to events and socio-cultural issues of their time, the writers expressed a desire to maintain a continuity with the traditions of Ancient Rus’ book culture, with the system of spiritual values and norms that it conveyed.
Publishing: 28/04/2026
The article has been received by the editor on 25/02/2026
How to cite: Panich T.V. The Handwritten Heritage of Ancient Russia in the Works of Church Writers of the Second Half of the 17th Сentury: The Continuity and Development of Traditions // Historical Courier, 2026, No. 2 (46), pp. 49−59. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2026/ISTKURIER-2026-2-03.pdf]
The article was made on the topic of the state assignment “The Past in the Manuscript Sources of the 16th−20th Centuries: Preservation and Development of Traditions” (FWZM-2024-0006).
Links: Issue 2 2026
Keywords: ancient Russian literature; church publicism of the 17th century; church writers; traditions