On the back: To the Great Master St. Theophan, Archbishop of Velikonovgorod and Velivolutsk, my gracious father and benefactor.
3 Holy Trinity Monastery of Tyumen. December 25, 1727
II.
The case of granting the Kyiv department the former title of metropolis.
In 1589, the patriarchate was established in Russia, and along with the promotion of the Moscow high priest to the rank of patriarch, the bishops subordinate to him naturally had to rise on the hierarchical ladder. At the same Moscow council at which the patriarchate was legitimized, it was established that four metropolitans should be under the authority of the patriarch, and at that time the bishops of Novgorod, Kazan, Rostov and Vrutitsa were honored with the metropolitan rank. In 1686 we find
') We are talking about St. Innocent of Irkutsk, about whom M. Fnlofey, apparently, formed an absent and incorrect idea.
*) Of course, Anthony Stakhovsky, successor and... Philotheus in the Siberian metropolis.
F THE Kyiv TH CENTURY. 183
there are already 12 metropolitans under the authority of the Moscow Patriarch; in addition to the four above, also: Kyiv, Suzdal, Smolensk, Ryazan, Astrakhan, Tver, Pskov and Siberian.
Under Peter I, the patriarchate was abolished and replaced by St. Synod, chaired first by Metropolitan of Ryazan Stefan Yavorsky, and then from the end of 1722 by Archbishop of Novgorod Theodosius Yanovsky. It is clear that in this case a reverse movement in the hierarchy should have taken place, i.e., a reduction of bishops in hierarchical degrees. When the leader in St. Since the synod, the bishop bore the title only of archbishop, it would have been inappropriate for other not so highly placed bishops to be adorned with the highest rank. “His Majesty,” writes Tatishchev (in his Russian history, part 1 M. 1768) about Peter’s projects regarding the spiritual staff, “seeing that, although the rank of bishops was divided into three degrees, such as metropolitans, archbishops and bishops, their difference consisted in nothing more than in the chairmanship and clothes, but in the rule and power of each had equal power,... for this reason, he left the rank of metropolitan, as unnecessary,... and... and intended to create five archbishops, such as Great Russian, Belorussian, Little Russian, Bulgarian and Siberian - under their supervision there are 38 bishops,” and so on. Tatishchev adds that he saw this painting with the sovereign’s own handwritten note from Archbishop Prokopovich. Of course, death prevented Peter I from fulfilling his plans regarding the hierarchical division of Russia into five archdioceses, but as for the abolition of metropolitan dignity, Peter managed to do something for this purpose. Back in 1711, giving M. Stefan Yavorsky permission to choose a bishop in Rostov in place of the deceased Demetrius of Rostov, the sovereign wrote: only to be a bishop, not a metropolitan 1). In the last years of the reign of Peter I there were two cases of metropolitans being demoted from their ranks. So Metropolitan of Sars and Pond Ignatius Smola 1721 Sept. 8 appointed Bishop of Irkutsk; Metropolitan of Tver and Kashin Sylvester Kholmsky in 1723 was transferred to the Ryazan diocese with the rank of bishop 2). Of course, for the bishops demoted in this way,
*) Soloviev, Ist. Ross. XVI, 353.
*) Lists of bishops of Yu. Tolstoy St. Petersburg. 1872 3, 4.
". A. TEGNOVSKY,
it wasn't particularly pleasant. Metropolitan Ignatius Smola did not accept the new appointment in October 1721. 1 went to the Nilova hermitage on a promise. Metropolitan Sylvester Holmes, although he moved to Ryazan with the rank of bishop, bitterly complained about his humiliation and those whom he considered to be the culprits. On a notebook written in the likeness of the story about the white hood, Sylvester wrote: “Fedos (i.e., Theodosius Yanovsky), who had just pronounced the new Franchyshvo, turned away from the right path and from this apostate the above-mentioned church splendor, dedicated and approved by the Holy Fathers, i.e., the white hood was abusively cast down (Theodosius with Ovsyannikov, Chief of the Holy Synod) and this ancient execution of the rite, given by God, was brazenly destroyed, and they fearlessly committed other dirty tricks and brought down the church in vain. rude* *). “What a pleasure it will be,” Sylvester also wrote, “how they will promote from generals to colonels, and from priests to deacons, and from officers to soldiers? And even more so, it is very bitter for anyone to endure unnecessary insults * 2).