The ''Book of One Hundred Chapters'', also called ''Stoglav'' (''Стоглав'') in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

("Hundred chapters"), is a collection of decisions of the Russian church council of 1551 that regulated the

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

and ecclesiastical life in the

Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia, also known as the Tsardom of Moscow, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of tsar by Ivan the Terrible, Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721. ...

, especially the everyday life of the Russian clergy. The book is shaped in the form of answers to some 100 questions posed by

Ivan IV of Russia Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. ...

. A constant theme running through the chapters is the Byzantine ''

symphonia Symphonia ( Greek ) is a much-discussed word, applied at different times to the bagpipe, the drum, the hurdy-gurdy, and finally a kind of clavichord. The sixth of the musical instruments enumerated in Book of Daniel, (verses 5, 10 and 15), ...

'' (harmony) between the ' priesthood' and the ' kingdom'. The ''Book of Hundred Chapters'' canonized the native Muscovite rituals and practices at the expense of those accepted in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and other Eastern Orthodox countries. As a result this church code was never accepted by the Russian monks residing on

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; ) is a mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece directly on the Aegean Sea. It is an important center of Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox monasticism. The mountain and most of the Athos peninsula are governed ...

. In the mid-17th century, the

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

championed the ''Stoglav'' in order to undermine

Patriarch Nikon Nikon (, ), born Nikita Minin (; 7 May 1605 – 17 August 1681) was the seventh Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' of the Russian Orthodox Church, serving officially from 1652 to 1666. He was renowned for his eloquence, energy, piety and close t ...

's authority and his ecclesiastical reforms. The

Great Moscow Synod The Great Moscow Synod () was a Pan-Orthodox synod convened by Tsar Alexis of Russia in Moscow in April 1666 in order to depose Patriarch Nikon of Moscow. The council condemned the famous Stoglav of 1551 as heretical, because it had dogmatized ...

of 1667 condemned the ''Stoglav'' and its practices as

heretical Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...

and banned the book from usage for 200 years. This contributed to a great

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

of the Russian church known as the

Raskol The Schism of the Russian Church, also known as (, , meaning 'split' or 'schism'), was the splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in the 1600s. It was triggered by the reforms of Patria ...

. There are at least 100 manuscripts of the ''Stoglav'', all of them produced by the Old Believers. The official church historians of the 18th and 19th centuries (such as

Platon Levshin Plato II or Platon II (29 June 1737 – 11 November 1812) was the Metropolitan bishop, Metropolitan of Moscow from 1775 to 1812. He personifies the Russian Enlightenment, Age of Enlightenment in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was born at Chash ...

) discarded these texts as spurious. Their authenticity was reasserted by historian Ivan Belyayev in 1863.

References

{{reflist Russian Orthodox Church in Russia 1551 in Russia 1551 books Canon law of the Eastern Orthodox Church History of the Russian Orthodox Church it:Stoglav