The Debate on Faith with the Greeks by Arseny Sukhanov in a historical context

This article is a translation of: A.P. Bogdanov. «The Debate on Faith with the Greeks» by Arseny Sukhanov in a historical context. Rossiiskaia Istoria. 2021. № 1. P. 16–25. DOI: 10.31857/S086956870013439-3.

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GOST	Bogdanov A. The Debate on Faith with the Greeks by Arseny Sukhanov in a historical context // Rossiiskaia istoriia – 2021. – Issue 1 C. 233-243 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://russian-history.ru/S086956870014170-8-1 (circulation date: 24.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S086956870014170-8
MLA	Bogdanov, Andrey "The Debate on Faith with the Greeks by Arseny Sukhanov in a historical context." Rossiiskaia istoriia 1 (2021):233-243. DOI: 10.31857/S086956870014170-8
APA	Bogdanov A. (2021). The Debate on Faith with the Greeks by Arseny Sukhanov in a historical context. Rossiiskaia istoriia (1), pp.233-243 DOI: 10.31857/S086956870014170-8

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1	One of the brightest Russian publicistic works of the 17^th century, relevant to this day, was not conceived as a pamphlet regarding the primacy of the Russian Church in world Orthodoxy. The Debate on Faith with the Greeks was part of the ambassadorial report of the Russian diplomat Arseny Sukhanov, written and edited by him in Wallachia in the summer of 1650¹. Sukhanov's duty was to give grave responses to every insult made by foreigners against Russia. This work is shown in the references. The reason was serious: the Greek monks burned the books of the Moscow press, published on behalf of the tsar with the blessing of the patriarch, as containing heresy. Russian Orthodoxy regarded this as an insult, which was punishable by Article 1 of the Council Code of 1649; the perpetrators should have been "strictly found by all sorts of investigations" and burnt². Sukhanov conducted an investigation into the burning of the books. During the discussions, he persuaded the Greek clergy to abandon the accusation of heresy on Russian books and rituals and liberated his opponents from this article. At the same time, he clearly formulated the official view of Moscow on the opinion of the Greeks that Eastern patriarchs can be "teachers of faith" for Russians.	1. The Debate was edited from June 6 (the last date of the final, then repeatedly corrected text) to September 23, 1650 (the author's departure on another, very difficult diplomatic task). 2. Sobornoe ulozhenie 1649 goda [Council Code of 1649]. Moskva, 1961. P. 70. (In Russ.)
2	The draft autograph of the church part of Sukhanov's report to the Ambassadorial prikaz was preserved³. It was written on a paper taken by a diplomat on a trip in 1649–1650⁴ and intended for the most important documents. Subsequently, the manuscript was attached to one of the hand-written books, which Arseny enthusiastically collected, rewrote, edited, and supplemented. This is one of the two Russian Chronographs of the author's edition: a list with abundant notes and comments, but without an extensive text based on the Trinity edition of the Nikon Chronicle, which made famous his second Chronograph, edited in the early 1660s⁵.	3. Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, Fonds 181, File 659, Items 348–360. The Chronograph of Sukhanov preceding the draft Debate dates back on paper to the 1650s. (Bogdanov A.P. Avtograf "Prenii s grekami o vere" Arseniia Sukhanova [Autograph "Debate on Faith with the Greeks" by Arseny Sukhanov] // Istochnikovedenie otechestvennoi istorii [Source study of Russian history]. Moskva, 1989. P. 175–205. (In Russ.)). 4. On paper identical in the design of the watermark and in the intervals between the pontusos, he wrote a petition, satisfied by the tsar on May 9, 1649; a reply to the Ambassadorial prikaz from a trip not earlier than February 11, 1650; a translation from the Greek language of Prophecies over the Coffin of Constantine the Great, filed in the order "in the evening" on December 9, 1650 and glued into the column after the political part of the article list, before Debate (Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, f. 52, inv. 1, d. 22 (1649), l. 1, 76; d. 8, l. 35–36). 5. Russian National Library, F. XVII.17. Code as amended by Sukhanov 1661–1663. About it see: Nasonov A.N. Istoriia russkogo letopisaniia XI – nachala XVIII v.: Ocherki i issledovaniia [History of Russian chronicle writing of 11th – early 18th century: Essays and research]. Moskva, 1969. P. 486–487. (In Russ.); Kagan-Tarkovskaya M.D. Mladshie redaktsii "Povesti o dvukh posol'stvakh" [Junior editions of "A Tale of Two Embassies"] // Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoi literatury Instituta russkoi literatury AN SSSR (Pushkinskii Dom). T. XXX [Proceedings of the Department of Old Russian Literature of the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House). V. 30]. Leningrad, 1976. P. 304–306. (In Russ.); Kloss B.M. Nikonovskii svod i russkie letopisi XVI–XVII vekov [Nikon's chronicle and Russian chronicles of the 16th – 17th centuries]. Moskva, 1980. P. 274–280. (In Russ.)
3	The autograph preserved the first two editions of the church part of the report, which Sukhanov clarified and supplemented during the summer of 1650, before he again plunged himself into political affairs in the autumn. The third, final version was submitted by him to the Ambassadorial prikaz on December 9, 1650 "in the evening", the day after his return to Moscow, as part of a complete report on the diplomatic mission of 1649–1650. This is a manuscript of the clerks' scribes, fluently corrected by Arseny. Similar to the draft autograph, the authorized list has no title, beginning (as was customary in the ambassadorial reports) with a description of the circumstances of this part of his diplomatic mission. The general purpose of the mission is indicated at the beginning of the 1649–1650 Article List. Placed after the political report at the end of the scroll written on the columns, the third edition needed to restore part of the text that had been lost due to dilapidation⁶. At the same time, it became the basis of a rich Old Believer manuscript tradition after Nikon's reforms, when it was officially believed that the Greeks, whom Sukhanov had discussions with, were right, and his position in the dispute reflected Russian ignorance⁷.	6. Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, Fonds 52, Inventory 1, File 8 (1649), Items 37–71. 7. The results of the study of the handwritten tradition of the Debate, numbering 54 lists, are summarized in the monograph: Bogdanov A.P. "Preniia s grekami o vere" 1650 g.: Otnosheniia Russkoi i Grecheskoi tserkvei v XI–XVII vv. ["Debate on Faith with the Greeks", 1650: Relations between the Russian and Greek churches in the 11th–13th centuries]. Moskva, 2020. (In Russ.)
4	Arseny did not participate in the disputes, during which the scribes called his text the Debate on Faith with the Greeks; in science, this name was fixed by Metropolitan Makarius (Bulgakov). However, it is noteworthy that the handwritten tradition is based not on the list submitted by Sukhanov to the Ambassadorial prikaz, but on the author's list, so far not discovered, which did not contain clerical errors of the ambassadorial manuscript. This suggests that, staying away from the disputes between the Nikonians and the Old Believers, Arseny himself put the manuscript into circulation. However, this did not happen in the course of Nikon's reforms, when the Debate sounded like an uncharacteristic call for rebellion for Sukhanov, and even before his departure for the new embassy in 1651, Arseny never challenged the will of the tsar, whom he presented in the Debate as the supreme guarantor of the right faith. It is the Russian tsar who "shines with his piety in the universe, like the sun shines in the middle of the earth, and in everything is jealous of the first pious tsar Constantine the Great, the Church of Christ supplies cleanly, and protects from all heresies"⁸. It is obvious that the state ideas that Sukhanov defended as the representative of Russia in the debate with the Greeks were also his ideas. This follows from the study of his work on the Debate and all the compositions written during the service, which the educated monk rarely left.	8. Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, Fonds 181, File 659, Item 358. This was said, among other things, at the wedding ceremony of Alexei Mikhailovich in 1645, where Arseny was obliged to be present. Two lists of the rite of the wedding: Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, Fonds 135, Section IV, Subject 1, File 12. The third list, following the ceremony: Drevniaia rossiiskaia vivliofika. Ch. VII [Ancient Russian vivliofica. Part 7]. Moskva, 1788. P. 234–303. (In Russ.)
5	The Debate on Faith with the Greeks was not conceived as publicism – it stated the position of the Moscow government, set forth by its official representative. Sukhanov was not engaged in publicism, his personal hobby was collecting books, service – monasticism, public activities – church administration and state diplomacy. His father's estate not far from Starodub suffered greatly during the Time of Troubles and was transferred to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth under the Truce of Deulino of 1618. Anton Putilovich Sukhanov and his brother were almost beggars. Anton, as the remark says on one of his manuscripts, managed to get a job as a clerk deacon in the Kolomna Golutvin monastery. With the support of Bishop Raphael of Kolomna, he took monastic vows under the name of Arseny and was ordained a deacon⁹.	9. All important facts of Arseny's biography have been established: Belokurov S.A. Arsenii Sukhanov. Issledovanie. Ch. I. Biografiia Arseniia Sukhanova [Arseny Sukhanov. Study. Part I. Biography of Arseny Sukhanov]. Moskva, 1891. (In Russ.); Kagan M.D. Arsenii (v miru Anton Sukhanov) [Arseny (secular name Anton Sukhanov)] // Slovar' knizhnikov i knizhnosti Drevnei Rusi [Dictionary of scribes and bookishness of Ancient Russia]. Issue 3 (17th century). Part 1. Sankt-Peterburg, 1992. P. 98–103. (In Russ.)

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