Doctrinal and Disciplinary Education of the Clergy in the Publishing Practice of the Moscow Print Yard in the 17th Century

This article analyses the process underlying the formation of the Moscow tradition of doctrinal and disciplinary education of the clergy, which is associated with the publishing policy of the Print Yard in the mid- to late seventeenth century. Behind this process were the people who managed Moscow book publishing and directly participated in the preparation of new books, from Patriarch Joseph, Stefan Vnifantiev and the editors who worked with them, to Patriarch Joachim and Evfimy Chudovsky. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the common search for ways of religious education of the clergy through the publication of teaching and service books in the mid- to late seventeenth century. The study refers to books published and prepared for publication at the Print Yard. In terms of content, these are either creations of catechetical education and moral and ethical edification of the clergy, or service regulations emphasising the role of priests in determining and accurately forming church rules and, ultimately, in establishing the saving path of each parishioner: Alpha and Omega (1647–1652), Pouchenie svyatitel’skoe novopostavlennomu iereyu (Precepts of the Prelate to a Newly Ordained Priest) (1649), Izvestie uchitel’noe (Teaching Notice) (1699), and service and prayer books (1646–1699). Regardless of the time and specific circumstances of their introduction into Moscow books, all new texts were characterised by the unity of the concept and the creators’ appeal to the mediation of the southwestern Russian book tradition in the formation of a new Moscow theology based on the possession of free knowledge and its embodiment in service practice. The author highlights the special significance of the Trebnik (prayer book) of the Kyiv Metropolitan Peter Mogila published in 1646. The book served as a source for Moscow publications. An analysis of new texts in not only didactic and canonical collections but also liturgical books makes it possible to establish extracts from this compendium in Moscow publications of the midseventeenth century, issued under the patronage of Stefan Vnifantiev, which has never been done previously. Additionally, the author reveals direct parallels in content and composition, as well as verbatim coincidences in quotations of this source between disciplinary and didactic texts and the instruction to the clergy created by Evfimy Chudovsky. The study of the presented materials helps draw a general conclusion about the unity and continuity of the line of disciplinary and doctrinal education of the clergy through an appeal to a neighbouring, spiritually and confessionally close tradition, despite all the peculiarities of its formation. At each stage of this movement, questions of the legitimacy of religious practices and the service texts supporting these practices, published in Ukrainian and Belarusian printing houses, inevitably arose. However, these questions were skilfully removed both by the bearers of this tradition and by the Moscow conductors of the southwestern Russian religious culture, who sought to find convincing and sometimes compromising ways of bringing new material to their readers.