Alexis of Russia
The tsar under whom Patriarch Nikon revised the Russian rites and the council of 1666–1667 imposed the revision. Avvakum, who was exiled in his reign, writes of him with affection.
The council’s decree of 1667 says that the service books were corrected and printed by command of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (Moscow Council of 1667, decree of May 1667 (Materialy 2, pp. 214–215)). Paul of Aleppo saw him stand bareheaded through a sermon of Nikon and ask the patriarch to bury, not burn, the icons he had condemned (Paul of Aleppo, Travels of Macarius vol. 2, p. 50).
Avvakum says that the tsar asked Nikon not to unfrock him (Avvakum, Life p. 58), sent courtiers to urge him to be reconciled with the patriarchs, and at the last asked to be remembered in his prayers (Avvakum, Life pp. 124–125). See Nikon’s Reforms and the Old Believer Schism.
In the timeline
- 1652 to 1667, firm dateNikon’s Reforms and the Old Believer Schism
Patriarch Nikon of Moscow brings Russian service books and rites into line with Greek usage. The archpriest Avvakum and others refuse the changes as a break with the faith of their fathers, a council of 1667 anathematises those who resist, and the Russian church divides.