Russia under the Old regime

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In spiritual things which belong to the glory of God, the bishop is higher than the Tsar: for so only can he hold or maintain the spiritual jurisdiction. But in those things which belong in the province of this world the Tsar is higher. And so they will be in no opposition the one against the other. However, the bishop has a certain interest... in the secular jurisdiction, for its better direction, and in suitable matters; but the Tsar has none whatever in ecclesiastical and spiritual administration... For this cause, manifestly, the Tsar must be less than the bishop, and must owe him obedience.10

Nikon failed to persuade the synod, which reasserted the traditional idea of 'harmony': the tsar had the right to rule all his subjects, the clergy included, and the church establishment, from the patriarch down, had to obey him in all matters save those touching on doctrine. At the same time, the synod sustained Nikon's reforms which had brought Russian religious observances more in line with the Greek.

The synod's religious resolutions were not accepted by a sizeable part of the laity. (The clergy promptly fell in line.) Almost immediately defections from the official church began of parishes which refused to make the required revisions and adhered to the old ways. In the 1670s rumours spread that the end of the world was approaching, and entire communities of believers fled into the forests, shut themselves in coffins or set themselves on fire. At least 20,000 persons are believed to have burned themselves to death during this outburst of religious mania. Some fanatical Old Believers even talked of burning down all Russia.

It is only with the Schism that intense religious life in Russia begins on a mass scale. Dissent, which had great appeal to the peasantry because of its anarchist undertones, compelled every believer to choose between the official church and the schismatic, and by this very choice to make a religious commitment. Those who decided on a break then faced many further decisions concerning not only ritual but also conduct, and thus step by step they were drawn into religion of a more personal and spiritual kind. Foreigners found dissenters to be the only Orthodox people in Russia familiar with the Holy Scriptures and able to discuss religious questions. Adherence to dissent cost dearly both in money and exposure to government harassment which sometimes turned into outright persecution.

Russian dissenters are customarily divided in two basic groups: the Old Believers, known to themselves as 'Old Ritualists' (Staroobriadtsy) and to the official church as 'Splitters' (Raskol'niki), and the Sectarians. The former, who are stronger in the taiga, repudiate the Nikonian reforms and adhere to the old rituals, but in every other way remain faithful to Orthodoxy; the latter depart more or less consciously from the doctrines and practices of the Orthodox church, developing new forms of religion, some of which come closer to early Protestantism