An Old Believer before the Schism: A New 17th-Century Document on Elder Kapiton

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2023.2.809

Keywords:

religious radicalism, Old Believers, asceticism, monasticism, Kapiton

Abstract

In the 1960s–1970s, researchers focused on the figure of elder Kapiton when V. S. Shulgin and S. A. Zenkovsky simultaneously became interested in him. As a result, the image of an ascetic and charismatic leader formed, uniting small communities of followers around him. Of particular interest was the fact that Kapiton seemed to show some skepticism about some church practices before Patriarch Nikon’s liturgical reform. Thus, he appeared to be an “Old Believer” before the Raskol. While most of the documents about Kapiton’s activities rely on the testimonies of his opponents, the petition found in the State Archive of Vologda Region provides an exceptional opportunity to understand how his supporters perceived the elder. The petition shows that the monastery founded by Kapiton was divided into two opposing camps, the reconciliation between which was impossible. The sources created in these conditions deserve a particularly critical approach, so it is difficult to restore the ideas and practices characteristic of Kapiton on their basis.

Author Biographies

Aleksander Lavrov

Dr. Hab. (History), Professor, Université Paris-Sorbonne.

1, rue Victor Cousin, 75005, Paris, France.

ORCID 0000-0002-1189-3532

allavrov@yahoo.com

Alexey Morokhin

PhD (History), Associate Professor, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod; Research Fellow, Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

23, Gagarin Ave., 603950, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

19, Dmitry Ulyanov Str., 117292, Moscow, Russia.

ORCID 0000-0003-2000-3383

alexmorohin@yandex.ru

References

Akty istoricheskie v 5 t. [Historical Acts. 5 Vols.]. (1842). St Petersburg, Tipogrfiya Ekspeditsii zagotovleniya gosudarstvennykh bumag. Vol. 4. 604 p.

Barskov, Ya. L. (1912). Pamyatniki pervykh let russkogo staroobryadchestva [Monuments of the First Years of the Russian Old Believers]. In Letopis’ zanyatii Arkheograficheskoi komissii. Vol. 24. 426 p.

Borodkin, A. V. (2009). Obshchiny staroobryadtsev-kapitonov v Tsentral’noi Rossii i pravitel’stvennye syski raskol’nikov v XVII v. [Communities of Old Believers-Kapitons in Central Russia and Government Investigations of Schismatics in the 17th Century]. In Vestnik Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo gumanitarnogo universiteta. Seriya: Istoriya. Filologiya. Kul’turologiya. Vostokovedenie. No. 17, pp. 11–19.

Borodkin, A. V. (2010). “Predivnyi” inok Kapiton [The ‘Amazing’ Monk Kapiton]. In Novyi istoricheskii vestnik. No. 1 (23), pp. 75–80.

Borodkin, A. V. (2011). Sibirskaya ssylka startsa Kapitona [Siberian Exile of Elder Kapiton]. In Istoricheskie, filosofskie, politicheskie i yuridicheskie nauki, kul’turologiya i iskusstvovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki. No. 4-1 (10), pp. 25–27.

Breshchinskii, D. N. (1985). Zhitie Korniliya Vygovskogo Pakhomievskoi redaktsii (Teksty) [The Life of Kornily Vygovsky of the Pakhomievsky Edition (Texts)]. In Drevnerusskaya knizhnost’. Po materialam Pushkinskogo doma. Leningrad, Nauka, pp. 62–107.

Crummey, R. O. (1992). Religious Radicalism in Seventeenth-Century Russia: Reexamining the Kapiton Movement. In Forschungen zur osteuropäischen Geschcihte. Bd. 46, pp. 171–185.

Dahl, V. I. (1862). Poslovitsy russkogo naroda [Proverbs of the Russian People]. Moscow, Universitetskaya tipogrfiya. 1159 p.

Denisov, S. (1906). Vinograd rossiiskii, ili Opisanie postradavshikh v Rossii za drevletserkovnoe blagochestie [Vinograd Rossiiskii, or a Description of Those Who Suffered in Russia for Ancient Church Piety]. Moscow, Tipogrfiya G. Lissnera i D. Sovko. 272 p.

Evfrosin. (1895). Otrazitel’noe pisanie o novoizobretennom puti samoubiistvennykh smertei. Vnov’ naidennyi staroobryadcheskii traktat protiv samosozhzheniya 1691 goda [Opposite Scripture on the Newly Invented Path of Suicidal Death: A Newly Found Old Believer Treatise against Self-Immolation (1691)] / ed. by Kh. Loparev. St Petersburg, Tipogrfiya I. N. Skorokhodova. [4], 72, 160 p.

GAVO [State Archive of the Vologda Region]. Stock 1260. List 1. No. 523.

Gorbatov, E. N. (2011). Materialy k biografii arkhiepiskopa Iosifa (Kurtsevicha) [Materials for the Biography of Archbishop Joseph (Kurtsevich)]. In Vestnik tserkovnoi istorii. No. 3–4, pp. 233–242.

Gorbatov, E. N. (2017). Novye materialy po delu arkhiepiskopa Iosifa (Kurtsevicha) 1634 g. [New Materials on the Case of Archbishop Joseph (Kurtsevich) in 1634]. In Vestnik tserkovnoi istorii. No. 1–2, pp. 5–44.

Ioasaf. (1859). O svyatykh ikonakh, osobenno chtimykh, nakhodyashchikhsya vo Vladimirskoi eparkhii [About Holy Icons, Especially Revered Ones, Located in the Vladimir Diocese]. Vladimir, Gubernskaya tipogrfiya. 31 p.

Kapiton, raskolouchitel’ XVII veka v Yaroslavskoi i Kostromskoi guberniyakh. (Stat’ya protoiereya M. Ya. Dieva, sokhranivshayasya v ego bumagakh, nakhodyashchikhsya nyne v sobranii A. A. Titova v Rostove) [Kapiton, Schismatic Teacher of the 17th Century in Yaroslavl and Kostroma Provinces. (Article by Archpriest M. Ya. Diev, Preserved in His Papers, now Kept in the Collection of A. A. Titov in Rostov)] / ed. by A. A. Titov. (1890). In Yaroslavskie gubernskie vedomosti. Unofficial part. 9 February. No. 12, p. 4.

Kolyasnikova pustynya. Tsarskaya gramota [Kolyasniki Poustyn. Royal Charter]. (1852). In Yaroslavskie gubernskie vedomosti. Unofficial part. 6 December. No. 49, pp. 408–410.

Opisanie dokumentov i del, khranyashchikhsya v arkhive Svyateishego Pravitel’stvuyushchego Sinoda v 41 t. [Description of Documents and Cases Stored in the Archives of the Holy Governing Synod. 41 Vols.]. (1891). St Petersburg, Sinodal’naya tipografiya. Vol. 8. (1728 g.). 704 p.

Preobrazhenskii, A. A. (1983). Neizvestnyi avtograf sibirskogo letopistsa Savvy Esipova [Unknown Autograph of the Siberian Chronicler Savva Esipov]. In Sovetskie arkhivy. No. 5, pp. 63–65.

Rumyantseva, V. S. (1986). Narodnoe antitserkovnoe dvizhenie v XVII v. [Popular Anti-Church Movement in Russia in the 17th Century]. Moscow, Nauka. 262 p.

Rumyantseva, V. S. (Ed.). (1986). Narodnoe antitserkovnoe dvizhenie v Rossii XVII veka. Dokumenty Prikaza Tainykh del o raskol’nikakh. 1665–1667 gg. [Popular Anti-Church Movement in Russia in the 17th Century. Documents of the Order of Secret Affairs about Schismatics. 1665–1667]. Moscow, Institut istorii SSSR. 244 p.

Shul’gin, V. S. (1969). “Kapitonovshchina” i ee mesto v raskole XVII v. [“Kapitonovshchina” and Its Place in the Schism of the 17th Century]. In Istoriya SSSR. No. 4, pp. 130–139.

Shul’gin, V. S. (1979). Religiya i tserkov’ [Religion and the Church]. In Ocherki istorii russkoi kul’tury XVII v. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, pp. 288–312.

Stroev, P. (1877). Spiski ierarkhov i nastoyatelei monastyrei Rossiiskoi tserkvi [Lists of Hierarchs and Abbots of the Monasteries of the Russian Church]. St Petersburg, Tipogrfiya V. S. Balasheva. 1068 columns.

Tri poslaniya blazhennogo Ignatiya, mitropolita Sibirskogo i Tobol’skogo [Three Epistles of Blessed Ignatius, Metropolitan of Siberia and Tobolsk]. (1855). In Pravoslavnyi Sobesednik. Book 2, pp. 47–115.

Zen’kovskii, S. A. (1995). Russkoe staroobryadchestvo. Dukhovnye dvizheniya XVII v. [Russian Old Believers. Spiritual Movements of the 17th Century]. Moscow, Tserkov’. 528 p.

Zverinskii, V. (1892). Materialy dlya istoriko-topograficheskogo issledovaniya o pravoslavnykh monastyryakh v Rossiiskoi imperii v 3 t. [Materials for Historical and Topographic Research on Orthodox Monasteries in the Russian Empire. 3 Vols.]. St Petersburg, Tipografiya V. Bezobrazova. Vol. 2. 1044 p.

Published

2023-06-28

How to Cite

Lavrov, A., & Morokhin, A. (2023). An Old Believer before the Schism: A New 17th-Century Document on Elder Kapiton. Quaestio Rossica, 11(2), 619–630. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2023.2.809

Issue

Section

Origines