Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2019 number

The study is devoted to forming the collection of authoritative fragments of the XVII century texts, which were selected by the Old Belief advocates as arguments to defend their right of being the official Church opposition. R.O. Krammey very precisely designated this collection as the “sacred texts’ canon”. It is composed of quotations of the Holy Scriptures and the patristic tradition, the works of church writers found in manuscripts and old printed books. The article shows the first period of research carried out by the church reform opponents in order to find authoritative texts indicating that Patriarch Nikon had violated the Russian Church tradition. This search started after the first steps of introducing innovations in liturgics and rite. The Solovets monastery monks largely determined the used texts’ range and provided the highest level of book culture in arranging and ordering extracts from them. This fact determined the selected quotes credibility both for the common readers, and the opponents. Appealing to Gerasim Firsov’s treatise “On a sign of the cross with two fingers...” and the collection compiled by Geronty allowed the author to illustrate how the Solovets monks were able not only to find the necessary quotes indicating the illegality of innovations, but to declare the original texts as “sacred” as well. This stage initiated the formation of “sacred texts’ canon”, which was inherited by the Old Believers’ next generations. The article shows how and why the “sacred texts’ canon” included publications of the Moscow Printing House in the XVII century, whose contents should be characterized as the creative heritage of Kiev Metropolia adapted for the Russian reader. Based on selected fragments of manuscripts and old-printed books, Old Believers offered solutions to the discussed questions of the rite and liturgical practice.