Synodic condemnation of Andrei Savvinovich Postnikov, protopope of the Annunciation Cathedral, the 14th of March 1676: source-based aspects

Abstract

The article examines the synodic condemnation of Andrei Savvinovich Postnikov, protopope of the Annunciation Cathedral, according to which the last confessor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was anathematized and exiled to the far away northern Kozheozersky Monastery in March 1676. The external features of this document (its format, paleographic characteristics, the markings of various years) are brought into focus. The structure of the ecclesiastical court’s decision is examined in comparison with synodic condemnations of other high-ranking clergy of that time, and its content is estimated in general. This provides an opportunity to find new data about creation of this source and its history within the convolute from State Historical Museum collection (the convolute GIM. Sin. I) and, in a broader context, in the Synodal Library. As well as the reconstruction of the investigative case initiated against the protopope of the Annunciation Cathedral in late 1674 becomes possible. At the same time, the article touches on issues related to the keeping of judicial documents from the patriarch’s chancery and investigative documents of the Patriarchal Razryadny Prikaz in the Synodal Library during the second half of the 19th and first quarter of the 20th centuries. A comparison of the church court’s decision regarding the former royal confessor with other, chronologically closest, decisions (notifications) on hierarchical cases demonstrated the specifics of the preparation of official documents of this type in the 1660s and 1670s