N I < 
vogorod, and patriarch of Ruffia ; promotions which he 
delerved by his extraordinary qualities, allowed even by 
liis enemies ; undaunted courage, irreproachable morals, 
exalted charity, comprehenfive learning, and command¬ 
ing eloquence. While archbifhop ofNovogorod, to which 
dignity he was railed in 1649, he gave a memorable 
inftance of firmnefs and difcretion. During a popular 
tumult, the imperial governor, prince Feodor Kilkof, took 
refuge in the archiepifcopal palace againft the fury of the 
infurgents, who, burfting open the gates, demanded with 
threats of fpeedy vengeance, that the governor fhould be 
inftantly delivered up to them. Nicon, inflead of com¬ 
plying with their demand, advanced boldly into the midft 
of them, and exhorted them to peace. The populace, 
inflamed tomadnefsby his appearance, attacked him with 
Rones, dragged him try the hair, and infulted him with 
every fpecies of violence and indignity. Being conveyed 
to the palace in a Rate of infenfibility, he was recovered 
by immediate affiftance ; but, regardlefs of the danger 
from which he had juft efcaped, lie perlifted in his refo- 
lution either to appeafe the tumult, or perifh in the at¬ 
tempt. With this view he repaired to the town-houfe, 
where the infurgents were afl'embled ; and, by a firm but 
pathetic addrefs, having perluaded them to difperfe, tran¬ 
quillity was inftantly reftored. This calm, however, was 
of no long duration : the tumult, thus allayed by the fpirit 
and eloquence of Nicon, being again fomented by the 
ringleaders, broke out into open rebellion ; many of the 
inhabitants threw off their allegiance to the czar, and 
propofed to deliver up the town to the king of Poland. 
But Nicon continued his efforts ; and, his exhortations 
proving at length fuccefsful, many of the deluded mul¬ 
titude flocked around him, intreating him to intercede 
for them with their enraged fovereign; and, though the 
remainder of the infurgents blocked up the avenues to 
the town, he contrived, at the hazard of his life, to fend 
information to the czar. Being in veiled with a commiffion 
from Mofcow with full powers, he finally quelled the re¬ 
bellion, and without much feverity; for, though to him 
was committed the trial of the rebels, the leader of the 
fedition was the only perfon w r ho fuft’ered death : ten of 
his moll mutinous adherents were knooted and banifhed, 
and a few we're condemned to a fliort imprifonment. On 
this occafion, Nicon nobly forgave the outrages commit¬ 
ted againft himfelf, and executed the important office en- 
trufted to him with as much judgment as lenity. Ani¬ 
mated by this fpirit, he gained the refpecl of the inhabi¬ 
tants, and conciliated their affedtion by adlsof unbounded 
charity. He built and endowed alms-houfes for widows, 
old men, and orphans; exerted himfelf to relieve the 
indigent; was the zealous protedlor of the lower clafles 
againft the oppreflion of the great; and, during a fevere 
famine, appropriated the revenues of his fee to alleviate 
the diftrelfes of the poor. 
Nicon was no lefs confpicuous in the viligant difcharge 
of his patriarchal office, to which he was appointed in 1652, 
when in the thirty-ninth year of his age. He ellablifhed 
fchools for the inftrudtion of priefts in the Greek and 
Latin languages, and enriched the patriarchal library 
with rare ecclefiaftical and claflical manufcripts, brought 
from a convent at Mount Athos. Ha’ving found, by a 
careful revifal of the holy fcriptures, and a collation of 
the various editions of the Old and New Teftament, that 
there were many errors in the printed copies of the Bible 
and Liturgy ufed for divine lervice, he prevailed upon 
the czar to fummon a general council of the Greek church 
at Mofcow, in which it was determined that the moft an¬ 
cient Sclavonian verfion of the Bible was exadl, and that 
the numerous errors which had crept into the later copies 
fhould be corrected. He fuperintended the printing of a 
new edition of the Sclavonian Bible, which was become 
exceedingly rare. He removed from the churches the 
pictures of deceafed perfons, to which many of the Ruf¬ 
fians offered blind adoration; he abolifned fome ceremo¬ 
nies which had been carried to fuperftitious excefs, and 
: O N. 71 
did more towards a reformation of the church than the 
united efforts of all his predecefl'ors. 
Nicon w r as no lefs dillinguifhed for his talents in a civil 
capacity; and, being confulted by the czar on all occafions, 
he foon became the foul of his councils, and gained a 
complete afcendancy in the cabinet. The influence which, 
from the fuperiority of his genius, he thus obtained in 
the czar’s councils, has induced Voltaire, in his erroneous 
account of this patriarch, to affert, that “ he wiflied to 
raife his own chair above the throne; and that he not 
only ufurped the right of fitting clofe to the czar in the 
fenate, but pretended that neither peace nor war could 
be made without his confent.” This idle affertion has 
been adopted by the compiler of the article Russia in 
the Univerfal Hiftory; but nothing can be more void of 
foundation. 
Having now attained to the higheft fummit of grandeur 
to which a l'ubjedt could arrive, he fell a vidtim to popu¬ 
lar difcontent, and to the cabals of a court. The remo¬ 
val of the painted images from the churches gave offence 
to a large party among the Ruffians, luperftitioufly ad- 
didted to the worfhip of their ancellors; the coYredlion of 
the errors in the Liturgy and Bible, the abolition of fome 
ceremonies, and the admiflion of a few others, introduced 
perhaps without due deference to the prejudices of his 
countrymen, occafioned a fchifm in the church; and many 
perfons, averfe to all innovation, formed a confiderable 
fedl, under the appellation of “ Old Believers,” who, ri¬ 
ling in feveral parts, occafioned much difturbance to the 
ftate. All thefe circumftances were afcribed to Nicon by 
his enemies, who were become at this time numerous; 
for he had excited the hatred of an ignorant and indolent 
clergy by the eftablifhment of Greek and Latin feminaries; 
he had railed the envy and jealoufy of the prime minifter 
and courtiers by his predominance in the cabinet; and 
by the liaughtinefs of his deportment he had offended the 
czarina and her father, who were implacable in their re- 
fentment. All thefe parties uniting into one great com¬ 
bination, Nicon haftened his fall by a fupercilious de¬ 
meanour, which occafionally bordered on arrogance ; by 
trufting folely for fupport to the redlitude of his conduct 
and the favour of his fovereign, and by difdaining to 
guard againft what he confidered as the petty intrigues of 
a court. The only thing which feemed wanting to com¬ 
plete his difgrace was thelofs of Alexey’s protection, and 
this was at length effected by the gradual but fecret infi- 
nuations of the czarina and her party, who finally availed 
themfelves of an unfuccefsful war with Poland, of which 
the patriarch is faid to have been the principal advifer. 
Nicon, finding himfelf excluded from the prefence of his 
fovereign, and difdaining to hold the higheft office in the 
kingdom when he had loft the confidence of his mailer, 
aftoniflied the public by a voluntary abdication of the 
patriarchal dignity, in the month of July, 1658. He was 
permitted, however, to retain the title of patriarch, while 
the duties of the office were performed by the bifhop of 
Novogorod: and he chofe for the place of his refidence, 
after this event, the convent of Jerufalem, which had 
been built and endowed by himfelf. On his arrival he re- 
afl’umed his reclufe way of life, and praCtifed the moft 
rigid mortifications. The hermitage he inhabited is thus 
defcribed by an author who vifited the fpot in the begin¬ 
ning of the laft century: “A winding flair-cafe, fo 
narrow that one man could hardly pafs, leads to the little 
chapel of about a fathom in the l'quare, in which the pa¬ 
triarch ufed to perform his folitary worfhip. The room 
in which he lived was not much larger; in it hung a broad 
iron plate, with a crofs of brafs fixed to a heavy chain, 
weighing above twenty pounds, all which the faid patri¬ 
arch wore about his neck for twenty years together. His 
bed was a fquare ftone, two ells in length, and fcarcely 
one in breadth, over which was fpread nothing but a cover 
of ruflies. Below, in the houfe, was a fmall chimney in 
which the patriarch ufed to drefs his own vidtuals.” Ni¬ 
con, however, did not wafte his whole time in the per¬ 
formance 
