Acts of the Moscow Council of 1666–1667
The decree of the council held in Moscow under the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Moscow. It imposes the service books and rites corrected under Nikon and anathematises those who refuse them. It states the case of the reforming church in its own words.
The decree is issued in the names of Paisius of Alexandria, Macarius of Antioch and Joasaph of Moscow and is dated in the year 7175 from the creation, 1667 from the incarnation, in the month of May. It orders clergy and people to use the books corrected and printed under Nikon, whom it calls the former patriarch, to recite the creed in the corrected wording, to sing the alleluia three times, and to make the sign of the cross with the first three fingers. Those who resist are to be deposed if clergy, and excommunicated and anathematised as heretics and disobedient until they repent.
A further paragraph cancels what the council held under Tsar Ivan and Metropolitan Macarius had written in the book called the Stoglav about the two-finger sign and the double alleluia. In 1971 a council of the Russian Orthodox Church declared these anathemas void. See Nikon’s Reforms and the Old Believer Schism.
Cited in
- 1652 to 1667, firm date