The will of the Metropolitan Gelasy of Krutitsa 1601

Document publication

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-2-436–451

For citation

Usachev, Andrej S. (2025). The will of the Metropolitan Gelasy of Krutitsa 1601, Herald of an Archivist, № 2, pp. 436–451, doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-2-436–451

Usachev, Andrej S., Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia

The will of the Metropolitan Gelasy of Krutitsa 1601

Abstract

Unlike the representatives of the secular elite examined in the works of S. B. Veselovskii, A. A. Zimin, V. B. Kobrin, V. D. Nazarov the heads of the Russian Church in the Early Modern time have been much less studied. This is determined by the scarcity of the historical sources which inform about the period when they were bishops. As a rule, there is no information about the origins of bishops and the circumstances connected with their elevation. The author of this article publishes the will (duhovnaya gramota) of the closest assistant of the patriarch Iov, the Krutickii metropolitan Gelasius (1586-1601). This historical source has information about the private life of the Russian bishops of the 16th – the beginning of the 17th century. Until recently the historians have known nothing about Gelasius’s life before his appointment. The published historical source fills the gap in the study of his biography. Gelasius played a very significant role in the events of the church and political history (for example, in 1591 Gelasius and the prince Shuiskii headed the commission of inquiry in Uglich, investigated the circumstances of tsarevich Dmitry’s death). The publication of the will has been prepared on the base of the original from the collection of I. K. Zinchenko (the National Library of Russia, Manuscripts department, F.299). This historical source hasn’t been applied earlier for studying the biography of Gelasius and the history of the Russian Church. The text of the publication is accompanied by a preface with the historical source’s characteristic. It was established that the will was composed in the last weeks or even days of his life (probably, in the September of 1601). This source allows to establish the origin (at least spiritual) of this prominent head of the Russian Church and to reconstruct his inner circle on the base of the recipients of donations and the personal structure of executors. Gelasius’s inner circle was exclusively connected with the Suzdal region. It means that his relations with “small motherland” were stronger than his relations with the capital where he had lived for almost 15 years. The published source also contains the important data about some monasteries of the Suzdal diocese: the Spaso-Evfim’ev monastery, the Nicolo-Shartromskii monastery, the Pokrov monastery, St. Basil’s the Great monastery etc. The will containing the list of donations and Gelasius’s property (books, silver dishes, ecclesiastical vestments, icons etc.) is the important historical source of the church and socio-economic history, the history of book culture and old Russian art.

Keywords

Russian History, Church history, 16th century, Church Hierarchy, Episcopate, Church Council, Metropolitan Gelasy of Krutitsy (1586-1601), Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, Nikolsky Chartrom Monastery.

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About authors

Usachev Andrei S., Doctor of Historical Sciences, associate professor, professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian State University for the Humanities, department of history and theory of historical science, professor, Moscow, Russia, +7 917-540-4379, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The article was received in the editorial office on 30.10.2024, recommended for publication on 20.03.2025