Nicolaus Bergius a Historico-Theological Exercise on the Status Eds
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BIRGEGÅRD ulla birgegård and monica hedlund (Eds) – HEDLUND ( HEDLUND Nicolaus Bergius A Historico-Theological Exercise on the Status Eds ) of the Muscovite Church and Religion Nicolaus Bergius Nicolaus slavica suecana series a – publications vol. 3 kungl. vitterhets historie och antikvitets akademien | slavica suecana KVHAA series a – publications vol. 3 KUNGL. VITTERHETS HISTORIE OCH ANTIKVITETS AKADEMIEN Slavica Suecana SERIES A – PUBLICATIONS, VOL. 3 Nicolaus Bergius A Historico-Theological Exercise on the Status of the Muscovite Church and Religion Edited by Ulla Birgegård and Monica Hedlund KUNGL. VITTERHETS HISTORIE OCH ANTIKVITETS AKADEMIEN Slavica Suecana SERIES A – PUBLICATIONS, VOL. 3 Nicolaus Bergius. A Historico-Theological Exercise on the Status of the Muscovite Church and Religion. Eds. Ulla Birgegård (including introduction and commentary) and Moni- ca Hedlund (including translation from Latin and commentary). Kungl. Vitterhets His- torie och Antikvitets Akademien (KVHAA), Slavica Suecana, Series A – Publications, vol. 3. Stockholm 2019. 327 pp. This work is an edition of the first part of Nicolaus Bergius’s dissertationExercitatio Historico-Theologica de statu ecclesiae et religionis Moscoviticae, printed at Stockholm in 1704. The book secured Bergius a licenciate’s degree at Uppsala University. The first part of his work consists of two sections: the first historical, comprising 20 chapters, the sec- ond dogmatic, comprising 33 chapters, in essence a comparison between the Lutheran catechism and the first part of Peter Mogila’sOrthodox Confession. The historical section of Bergius’s dissertation contains most of what was known about Russia in the West in terms of the people, language, alphabets, faith, Bible translations, printed books, print- ing houses, churches and monasteries, clergy, liturgy, feast days, schools, sects etc. Bergi- us shows a particular interest in the Old Believers, providing a broad survey of them. He has read almost everything, and constantly refers to what his different sources tell him about the matter under discussion, often choosing the version he finds most trustworthy. A separate listing of Bergius’s ‘reference library’, comprising the books he cites, is given in the edition. © 2019 The authors and KVHAA, Stockholm ISBN 978-91-88763-13-6 ISSN 1102-2418 Publisher: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, (KVHAA, The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities), Box 5622, SE-114 86 Stockholm, Sweden, http://www.vitterhetsakademien.se Distribution: eddy.se ab, Box 1310, SE-621 24 Visby, Sweden, http://vitterhetsakad.bokorder.se Graphic Design: Bitte Granlund, Happy Book Print: DanagårdLitho, Ödeshög 2019 Contents acknowledgements . 9 IntroductIon . 11 the edItIon . 21 bergIus’s text . 25 To the Highest and Mightiest King and Lord . 26 To the Benevolent Reader . 29 Testimonial of the Faculty of Theology at Giessen . 40 Sparwenfeld’s Poem in Russian and English . 41 Section I: History. 45 Chapter I: The Character of the Russian Church and Religion (10 paragraphs) . 45 Chapter II: Books on Doctrine (20 paragraphs) . 54 Chapter III: The Origins of the People (7 paragraphs). 71 Chapter IV: The Religion of the People (13 paragraphs). 78 Chapter V: Should the Muscovites be Called Christians? (7 paragraphs) . 86 Chapter VI: Are there Sects in Muscovy? (5 paragraphs) . 88 Chapter VII: Raskol’niki, the Old Believers (15 paragraphs) . 91 Chapter VIII: Other Religions (4 paragraphs) . 98 Chapter IX: The Propagation of their Religion (14 paragraphs) . 100 Chapter X: The Books they Use in their Churches (16 paragraphs) . 106 Chapter XI: The Distribution of the Texts of the Fathers (10 paragraphs) . 114 Chapter XII: Their Liturgies (13 paragraphs). 122 Chapter XIII: The Times of Service (1 paragraphs) . 128 Chapter XIV: Feast Days (14 paragraphs) . 130 Chapter XV: Processions (8 paragraphs) . 132 Chapter XVI: Schools (12 paragraphs). 136 Chapter XVII: The Monasteries (8 paragraphs). 142 Chapter XVIII: The Government of the Russian Church (15 paragraphs). 144 5 Chapter XIX: Their Councils (3 paragraphs). 149 Chapter XX: The Saints (9 paragraphs) . 150 Section II: Dogmatics . 153 Chapter I: On Justification (10 paragraphs) . 153 Chapter II: On Faith (11 paragraphs) . 156 Chapter III: On the Number of Articles of Faith (5 paragraphs) . 158 Chapter IV: On God (5 paragraphs). 159 Chapter V: On the Holy Trinity (4 paragraphs). 160 Chapter VI: On the Properties of God (11 paragraphs) . 161 Chapter VII: On Creation (5 paragraphs) . 162 Chapter VIII: On Angels (8 paragraphs) . 163 Chapter IX: On Man (9 paragraphs). 164 Chapter X: On Sin (6 paragraphs). 166 Chapter XI: On Free Will (2 paragraphs) . 168 Chapter XII: On Predestination (4 paragraphs). 168 Chapter XIII: On Providence (6 paragraphs). 169 Chapter XIV: On the Second Article of Faith (6 paragraphs) . 170 Chapter XV: On the Third Article of Faith (8 paragraphs). 171 Chapter XVI: On the Fourth Article of Faith (10 paragraphs) . 173 Chapter XVII: On the Fifth Article of Faith (4 paragraphs) . 177 Chapter XVIII: On the Sixth Article of Faith (1 paragraphs) . 177 Chapter XIX: On the Seventh Article of Faith (11 paragraphs) . 178 Chapter XX: On the Eighth Article of Faith (8 paragraphs) . 181 Chapter XXI: On the Ninth Article of Faith (4 paragraphs) . 183 Chapter XXII: On the Precepts of the Church (12 paragraphs) . 184 Chapter XXIII: On the Tenth Article of Faith (3 paragraphs) . 187 Chapter XXIV: On Baptism (9 paragraphs) . 188 Chapter XXV: On Anointing with Chrism (5 paragraphs) . 190 Chapter XXVI: On the Third Mystery, the Eucharist (12 paragraphs) . 191 Chapter XXVII: On the Fourth Mystery, the Priesthood (6 paragraphs) . 194 Chapter XXVIII: On the Fifth Mystery, Penance (7 paragraphs) . 195 Chapter XXIX: On the Sixth Mystery, Honourable Matrimony (5 paragraphs) . 197 Chapter XXX: On the Seventh Mystery, Holy Oil (5 paragraphs) . 198 Chapter XXXI: On the Eleventh Article of Faith, the Resurrection (3 paragraphs) . 199 Chapter XXXII: On Purgatory (3 paragraphs) . 200 Chapter XXXIII: On the Twelfth Article of Faith, on the Life of the World to Come (3 paragraphs) . 200 COMMENTARY . 203 REFERENCE lIbrarY . 281 bIblIograPhY . 303 lIst oF ILLUSTRATIons . 317 Index oF Personal names . 319 Acknowledgements We were meant to write this together, my dear friend and co-editor Monica Hed- lund and I. We had also decided to go together to Narva to celebrate the happy completion of this major undertaking. But fate decided otherwise: Monica passed away on 26 September 2016, after a short and aggressive illness. So now I am in the situation where I must express my sincere gratitude, first of all, to her. We had worked side by side since the 1960s, she with her Latin themes, I with my Slavic ones. Then, when we had both retired from our duties at the university, I proposed that we combine our accumulated knowledge and experience to edit Nicolaus Ber- gius’s impressive work on the Russian church and religion and present it to new readers. The basis, and necessary condition, for the project was Monica’s translation into English of Bergius’s Latin text, a real trial of strength with a magnificent result. As we worked on our joint commentary, theological and Latin questions fell to her lot, and Slavic history and philology to mine. We sometimes stepped into each oth- er’s domains and, in any case, discussed everything together. A key individual for Monica when it came to problems with Latin was Hans Helander, a close friend and colleague at the Department of Linguistics and Philol- ogy, Uppsala University with whom, for decades and to the end, she shared a room at Uppsala University. When she had difficulty interpreting unclear places in Ber- gius’s text, Hans was there with his immense knowledge of the Latin of the period and – in general – as a man of extensive reading. He has been there for me as well, earlier in life and also in the present situation, with remaining question marks that Monica did not have time to resolve. For that I am sincerely grateful. As Bergius, an extremely learned man, treats themes that we felt we did not al- ways have a sufficient knowledge of, we decided – with the support of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities – to organise a symposium and invite specialists from different fields who, after reading Bergius’s text in English translation, had the opportunity to comment on aspects of particular interest to them. The symposium took place on 20–21 November 2014 with presentations of papers and lively discussions. It turned out extremely well and gave us new insights of great value. The planned publication of the papers – alas – was never realised, owing to a lack of time and energy on our part, which is most regrettable. The par- ticipants however, mentioned below, deserve our sincere thanks for their time and commitment (most of them are to be found in the Bibliography, including one or two with papers published after the symposium): Per-Arne Bodin (Stockholm), Hans Helander (Uppsala), Torkel Jansson (Uppsala), Torsten Kälvemark (Söder- tälje), Elisabeth Löfstrand (Stockholm), Ingrid Maier (Uppsala), Larisa Mokro- 9 borodova (Åbo [Turku]), Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath (Stockholm), Christine Watson (Uppsala). A fortunate circumstance was that, for her broad scholarship in the field of Swed- ish medieval theology, Monica received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Theology at Lund University. There she later held a working seminar on our Bergius edition, and it provided her with an opportunity to consult the participants about specific theological questions on which we ourselves lacked expert knowledge. She was very happy about this seminar and all the factual help, support and inspiration she received there. The names of those who were of particular assistance should be mentioned here, but I am – alas ‒ not in a position to do so. Uppsala University Library has been absolutely central to our work, not only because so many of the books Bergius writes about are found there, but also because of the generosity and expertise of the library staff.