Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2016 number

The paper deals with analysis of texts reflecting the contemporaries’ attitudes towards the correction of the books during the church reform initiated by Patriarch Nikon. It is established that the contemporaries focused their attention on the book editing, i.e. the problem of the original texts that were used to provide a rationale for any changes made by the reformers in the prayer-books and other works. In the prefaces to these editions they presented these changes as the necessary corrections of the accumulated discrepancies between the Old Greek and Slavonic books. Reformers argued that all novelties were introduced to the Rite and liturgical practice of the Church based on the “Old Greek and Slavonic books”. Their opponents, naturally, began to prove that it was precisely this postulate - following the tradition - that was violated by the reformers. The same allegations were brought forth both by the Latin party and the defenders of the Old Rite. The former did it in order to catch the Church in a deception of the flock, without focusing on the betrayal of tradition, while the opponents of the reform, just like the reformers themselves, believed that following the tradition was a prerequisite for the existence and development of the Russian church. Therefore, both the supporters and opponents of the reform argued thay their defended the tradition of the Russian church. Analysis of the works written by the first generation of defenders of the Old Rite led to conclusion that they charted the course for the next generations defending their right to remain in opposition to the novelties. This implied comparison of the new liturgical texts with the new ones, and, above all, gaining a better knowledge of the authoritative manuscripts and old-printed books where the tradition of the Russian Church was fixated. As a result, the highest level of book culture, inherited from the Old Russia and developed during the Modern Age has become a characteristic feature of the defenders of the Old Rite.