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94 the reformation of the Church, and, as the chief means to this end, he determined upon the purification of its service and ritual, and the correction of the sacred books. This undertaking, in which the tsar evinced the strongest interest, commenced under Vassili IV. and continued at different periods, had never been satisfactorily accomplished. Former errors remained, and fresh ones had been ingrafted upon the old, which, by time and sufferance, had taken deeper root. The churches and monasteries throughout the empire were ransacked for ancient manuscripts; missions were sent to the Holy Places of Palestine, and to Constantinople for information and authoritative records. Paisius, the Byzantine patriarch, and his œcumenical brethren offered their co-operation, and supplied the writings of the Greek fathers, the early canons and creeds of the Church, and decisions of Councils. They proposed the adoption of the Confession of Peter Mogila as the accurate embodiment of Orthodox doctrine, and urged adherence to the rules of the primitive Church, as well in rites and ceremonies, as in dogma. The presence of Macarius, patriarch of Antioch, and of other Eastern prelates, gave additional solemnity to the proceedings of the synod, convened in 1654, over which Nikon and the tsar presided.

The points of divergence which had gradually arisen between the Russian and the other Greek churches related more to matters of ceremonial observance than to those of doctrine. Trivial as they may appear in the light of modern criticism, they were then held to be of vital importance, involving the very essence of the faith, and only by the practice of the primitive Eastern Church could the truth regarding them be authoritatively established. "I am a Russian, son of a Russian," declared Nikon, "but my faith and my religion are Grecian."