Due Process : The Moscow Council of 1660 and the Debate on Ecclesiastical Governance in Early Modern Russia

Tsapina, Olga (2025) Due Process : The Moscow Council of 1660 and the Debate on Ecclesiastical Governance in Early Modern Russia. RUSSIANSTUDIES.HU, 7 (1). pp. 77-96. ISSN 2677-0660

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Abstract

This essay deals with a seemingly minor episode in what is known as the a¬air of Patriarch Nikon (1605–1681). The a¬air began on July 10, 1658, when the patriarch le t Moscow vowing never to return, and ended in December 1666 with Nikon, stripped of his holy orders and patriarchal dignity, banished to a remote monastery. Since the 1860s, the a¬air has been covered as a political crisis occasioned by a conflict between the tsar and the patriarch and deepened by the fallout from the liturgical reforms championed by Nikon. Yet it also unfolded as a church trial necessitated by the unprecedented situation that followed Nikon’s dramatic departure from the capital. The church council that met in 1660 has long appeared as a mere kangaroo court that failed to attain the putative goal of ridding the tsar of his own version of a “meddlesome priest.” It merits closer attention, however, as it raised fundamental questions of church governance and due process.

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