The Spiritual Regulation

The manifesto, signed by the tsar at St Petersburg on 25 January 1721 by the Julian calendar, establishes the college and orders all subjects to obey it. The oath that follows binds each member to the tsar and his heirs and has him confess that the monarch is the college’s supreme judge. The first part of the regulation gives nine reasons why a standing council governs the church better than one man; the second lists the matters it is to deal with; the third sets out its duties and powers. A closing note says that the tsar had the text read to him and amended it on 11 February 1720 and that the bishops, archimandrites and senators examined and signed it on 23 February. The printed book also contains the questions that the college put to the tsar and his written answers, in which he gives it the title of Most Holy Synod; Consett renders the Russian word for “governing” in that title as “Legislative”.

The document states the government’s reasons in its own words and is cited for those. Its English translator, Thomas Consett, published it in London eight years later with a long preface of his own. He says there that the tsar prevented a successor to the last patriarch from being chosen because he feared the patriarchs’ power, and he adds notes on the signatories. These remarks are a contemporary foreigner’s judgement, not part of the statute, and are cited as his.