This article deals with the Russian mystical religious group of the Christ-Faith (Khristovery, or Khlysty). It draws upon documents of the eighteenth century referring to Christ-Faith believers in Moscow. According to these texts, in the middle of the eighteenth century, there was no special terminology to describe or classify Christ-Faith believers, and the Synodal officials would call them "superstitious believers," "schismatics," or "antichrists."

Keywords: Christ-Faith, Russian religious culture of the eighteenth century, interrogations records, Decalogue, blasphemy.

The article is based on documents of the XVIII century on the veneration of teachers of Christism in Moscow. Their analysis shows that in the middle of the 18th century, synodal officials had not yet developed a single language of description for their teaching and practice, and they used the evaluative terms "superstitionists", "schismatics", and "Antichrists"to refer to members of this group. Followers of the Christian faith were evaluated according to the current legislation (the Cathedral Code), which included chapters on blasphemy (paragraph 1 of Chapter 1).

A detailed analysis of the works devoted to the Christian faith is presented in the work of A. A. Panchenko 1, the largest of the modern works.

Sergazina K. Prokopiy Lupkin and Ivan Suslov: Saints, blasphemers, False Christs, Antichrists? // State, religion, and Church in Russia and abroad. 2017. N 2. pp. 105-122.

Sergazina, Karlygash (2017) "Procopius Lupkin and Ivan Suslov: Saints, Blasphemers, False Christs, Anti-Christs?", Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom 35(2): 105-122.

1. Panchenko A. A. Khristovschina i skopchestvo: fol'klor ' i traditsionnaya kul'tura russkikh mysticheskikh sekt [Christovschina and skopchestvo: folklore and traditional culture of Russian mystical sects]. Moscow, 2002, pp. 14-43.

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research on the culture of the Christian Believers. Of the entire corpus of these works, the most significant for the study of the religious practice and teaching of the Christian believers are the works of V. V. Nechaev, I. A. Chistovich, and G. V. Esipov2, which introduce archival materials about this religious group into scientific circulation. Among the works of modern researchers of Christovism and the historical context in which communities of Christ Believers arise and are formed, it is necessary to mention the works of A. S. Lavrov, E. B. Smilyanskaya, A. A. Panchenko, prot. Andrey Berman, Y. Clay 3.

The Teaching of Christhood

Christism as a religious teaching emerged at the very end of the 17th century in Russia and was probably one of the consequences of the Russian church schism. Like other eschatological movements of the time, Christism offered its own way of salvation, which combined personal ascetic practice with collective prayer and worship services.

The teaching of Christhood was based entirely on the Biblical text. It is based on the Decalogue, the ten commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai. "I am your God" - the reflection of this first commandment is already in the very name of the teaching-the Faith of Christ. Christoverians are consistent Christians who believe that Jesus Christ is God. The Jesus Prayer, which is based on the repetition of the name of Jesus, becomes for them an obligatory part of personal and collective prayer. "Thou shalt have no other Gods, neither any likeness nor likeness." In the missionary literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, it is possible to find references to the fact that the Christian believers rejected Orthodox icons, but in the archival materials of the Russian Orthodox Church, they rejected the Orthodox icons.-

2. Nechaev V. V. Dela sledstvennye o raskolnikov komissii v XVIII veke [Investigative cases about schismatics of commissions in the XVIII century] / / Opisanie dokumentov i paperov, khranyashchikhsya v Moskovskom arkhiv Ministerstva justiya [Description of documents and papers stored in the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of Justice], Moscow, 1889. Kn. 6. Otd. II. pp. 77-199; Chistovich I. A. Delo o bogoprotivnykh sborishchakh i deystviyey] 1887. Book 2. pp. 1-89; Esipov G. The Secret Chancellery: From the cases of the Preobrazhensky Order and the Secret Chancellery. St. Petersburg, 2010.

3. Lavrov A. S. Koldovstvo i religiya v Rossii [Witchcraft and Religion in Russia]. 1700-1740 Moscow, 2000; Smilyanskaya E. B. Magicians. Blasphemers. Heretics. Narodnaya religiosity and "spiritual crimes" in Russia of the XVIII century, Moscow, 2003 (second edition-Moscow, 2016); Panchenko A. A. Khristovshchina and Catholicism: folklore and traditional culture of Russian mystical sects, Moscow, 2002; Berman A. G. Mystical sects in the Middle Volga region in the XVIII-XX centuries. Чебоксары, 2004; Clay, J.E. (1985) "God's People in the Early Eighteenth Century. The Uglich Affair of 1717", Cahiers du monde Russe et Soviétique XXVI (I): 69-124.

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We do not find any confirmation of this in the territories of the XVIII and XIX centuries. Moreover, the Orthodox cross is used to perform some rites of Christhood, and icons become a symbol of the presence of the most revered saints at meetings of Christ.

"Don't take God in vain." Despite the accusations of superstition, the Christoverians were really good Christians who understood the meaning and significance of home worship and church prayer. "Remember the Sabbath Day." The Christians did not observe the Sabbath, but they did honor the Christian feasts - both the Lord's feasts (Introduction, Trinity, Annunciation) and the days of veneration of saints - St. Nicholas, Elijah's Day, Onuphry the Great Day, and others. This commandment was partly reflected in the requirement to pray at night: the time for God was night, especially the night before major church holidays.

"Honor your father and mother." The documents do not contain any references to the family values of Christism, moreover, the ideal for the preachers of Christism was obviously monasticism. Teachers offered to "not marry" and " live with their wives as if they were sisters." But in many ways it was a preaching of the abstemious way of life in the world - we know examples of monastic tonsure of the entire family of Christ believers, including children, we know situations when a revered teacher of Christism kept two cells (that is, two huts) with nuns and novices in the monastery for his own money, but this is rather an exception to the general rule. But one way or another, the eighteenth - century Christians in Moscow were very close to the monasteries-in each of the major Moscow monasteries there were monks and nuns who sympathized with this teaching. There are more than 20 sisters in the Ivanovo monastery, 20 in the Nikitsky Monastery, 11 in the Georgievsky Monastery, 4 in the Rozhdestvensky Monastery, abbesses and novices in the Varsonofyevsky Monastery, Prosviryak in the Chudov Monastery, and hieromonks Tikhon (Strukov) and Filaret (Muratin)in the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery and three other monks, several people from the Simonov and Donskoy monasteries.4 The New Jerusalem Monastery and the Kiev Lavra were among the most revered sites.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery." "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife...". The most important commandment for Christ's believers is the seventh, which prohibits adultery. Moreover, they interpret it broadly, prohibiting not only adultery, but also voob-

4. For more information about statistics, see Nechaev V. V. Investigative cases about schismatics of commissions in the XVIII century. Pp. 160-169.

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any sexual relations - both in marriage and out of marriage-are forbidden. "Unmarried - don't get married, married - get married" - this formula was fixed in Khlystovsky folklore for many years.

"Don't steal it." "Thou shalt not kill." One of the archive files is devoted to the discovery of a "corpse"in the house of a teacher of the Khristov region - in Moscow, on Sukharevka Street, 5 but we have no reason to assume that murders were committed in the Khlystov environment. Nor was there any mention of the blood sacrifices that the Khlystovs were accused of by missionaries, and especially by Metropolitan Dimitry of Rostov. A review of archival sources, known as "Descriptions of documents and Deeds of the Holy Synod" 6, true, preserved stories about the slaughter of infants at meetings, but these texts make it clear that these legends are based on cases of violation of the ban on sexual relations by Christians (and nuns). The nuns admit that they got rid of babies born illegally, out of wedlock, took them away from the monastery and gave them to their secular relatives or acquaintances of the townspeople for upbringing.

The Khristoverovs were also accused of theft - references to collecting donations for the maintenance of the community (with a pejorative connotation) were even included in the imperial decree of August 7, 1734. In the investigative documents, on the contrary, we see that the Christian believers pay great attention to the poor and wanderers, and with great respect to people who are generous - they receive beggars and orphans in their homes and give alms and donations to monasteries and churches. One of these people was the leader of the Moscow community, Prokopiy Danilovich Lupkin, a retired archer of Venedikt Baturin's regiment, who later became a merchant. He is remembered as a "merciful", generous person, in whose house (in the parish of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bolvanovka) people of different classes gathered for lunch. Prince Yefim Meshchersky, who lived in the village of Kosmodemyansky, not far from the New Jerusalem Monastery, also gathered pilgrims and worshippers in his house. He was not a Christover, but Christoverers, like the rest of us.

5. " [kapternamus] Zakharov, sent from the chancellery of the Life Guards of the Moscow battalion, testified that in 1745 he was on guard with soldiers in Andreyan's courtyard and in the autumn, looking for clay to repair a collapsed chimney, dug a dead body in a love hut at a depth of one yard, and it was impossible to recognize whether it was male or female because it all fell apart" (Nechaev V. V. Investigative cases about schismatics of commissions in the XVIII century. p. 146).

6. Nechaev V. V. Investigative cases on schismatics of commissions in the XVIII century. pp. 180-200.

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even the Old Believers visited his house and prayed before the image of the Smolensk Mother of God, revered as a miracle-working icon.7
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy brother." The requirement not to perjure yourself was explicitly stated in the sermon of Christ's believers, along with a complete ban on sexual relations, a complete ban on drinking alcohol and a ban on swearing. The teachers of the faith of Christ urged "to pray in secret at night with two fingers, not to drink intoxicated things, and to keep your soul and body pure" and "not to tell about their congregation and the faith that was called Christ's." Perjury was contrasted with an oath or oath that was given by members of the community and could not be divulged even in confession.

Meetings of the Christian believers are called councils or discourses, and their religious practice is called " radeniye "(from the verb to care - "take care"), meaning by this term mainly the ecstatic practice of the group members.

In the questioning speeches of Christians, most often we are talking about" consent", the members of the group are called" consonants " (like-minded people or those who sing voices together?). What happens at meetings is most often described as: "there was such an action in the meeting", "they turned around"," they walked around the hut to trouble the flesh"," they beat the chest with their fists","[the prophet] waved his hands [like] angels waving their wings".

From the records of interrogations, it can be concluded that the ritual practice of Christ believers in the first third of the XVIII century was expressed in bowing to the ground and waist, singing the Jesus Prayer "to the voices", singing spiritual verses and church hymns, preaching or prophecies, in a special practice of "walking around" (turning around the axis of the prophets and walking around the hut of each other one after another in a clockwise direction, often with self-flagellation, sometimes jumping up at each step), and also - in some cases-in the distribution of particles of cut bread, which were consumed and washed down with water or kvass. The water was consecrated by immersing the cross in it and praying (by analogy with the water-consecrated moleben), which gave the investigation and the missionaries reason to identify consumption.

7. On Prince Yefim Meshchersky, see: Lavrov A. S. Koldovstvo i religiya v Rossii [Witchcraft and Religion in Russia], Moscow, 2000; Sergazina K. T. Monastyrskaya kul'tura XVIII veka i klikushestvo (po dokumentum dela o knyaz E. V. Meshchersky). 2011. Issue 1 (21). pp. 111-117; Sergazina K. T. "Walking around": the liturgical practice of the first communities of Christ Believers. Ed. 2-E. M.-SPb., 2017. pp. 34-42.

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bread and kvass, or bread and water at radishes with church communion, although the Christian believers themselves reject such an analogy.

The spinning of the prophets was the most ecstatic and least controlled of the " roundabouts." The twisting and shaking of the prophets and the moments of uttering prophecies can be considered the main manifestations of trance states during meetings of Christ believers. The leading motif of "walking around" in the hut, as well as self-flagellation, is ascetic ("labor of the flesh") and penitent. Those who walked around the hut in a round dance or one after another, apparently, did not set out to achieve a trance state. They deliberately subjected their flesh to tortures and tired it out, walking around the hut for half an hour, an hour or several hours without stopping. In other words, such walks were self-sufficient and were not a way to achieve an altered state of consciousness. Although the cases of ecstasy cannot be denied, they were more a consequence than a goal.

It is not entirely clear when and how "circle walking" appeared, or who first came up with the idea to supplement the private prayer with a movement other than bowing. But we can assume that it is based on two phenomena: the spontaneous experience of klikush and holy fools (their "twisting" and "shaking") and some elements of church processions - around the throne, around the lectern, around the temple, around the village, from the monastery church to the cell. Often such religious processions were accompanied by the singing of prayers and spiritual verses and represented a "prayer in motion".

In addition to participating in religious services, the religious practice of the Christians consisted of preaching the teachings from church books or orally, reading the Holy Scriptures and hagiographic legends, and attending monasteries and church services. It can be said that home prayers-meetings-supplemented the church service, but did not replace it. In the documents of the eighteenth century, we do not see any condemnation of the church's sacraments, neglect of them, criticism of the clergy or the Church as a whole. The main emphasis is not on protesting against the existing church orders, but on personal piety, attention to one's life, ascetic practice and the spiritual path.

At the very beginning of the existence of the Christ church, it seems that it did not have a single leader. 8 But a great authority in the communities

8. A. A. Panchenko speaks about the polycentric nature of the early Christ Church. He believes that the first communities were formed around charismatic mentors.-

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Preachers who knew how to read and knew fragments of the Bible text by heart were the most popular preachers of Christ. In Moscow in the first half of the XVIII century, such mentors were: merchant Prokopiy Danilovich Lupkin, builder of the Theological Desert Daniil (Dmitry) Gusev, Alexey Trofimov and his sister Anastasia (Karpova), a nun of the Ivanovo monastery, a depositor of the Yegoryevsky monastery Tatyana Vasilyeva, Semyon Ivanovich Meloskin, monks of the Petrovsky monastery Tikhon (Strukov) and Filaret (Muratin), Andrian Petrov, the "pretended fool", and others. Investigative rhetoric adds to this list Ivan Suslov, who in the missionary works and Khlystovsky legends of the XIX century becomes the first "Khlystovsky Christ".

Prokopiy Lupkin was buried in the Ivanovo Monastery, because according to his vow, he covered the roof of the Ivanovo Cathedral with iron there. In the same monastery there was a revered grave of Ivan Suslov.

Here is how one of the priests of the Ivanovo monastery Father Alexey tells about the graves of Suslov and Lupkin:

In the Ivanovsky monastery, the Moscow merchant Prokofey Lubkin is buried near the porch on the right side, but in what year he was buried, he does not remember, which means the inscription is on the stone, and Suslov is buried on the same side as Lubkin, and the inscription about Suslov means in the refectory on the right side, with gold words, and the graves of both of them are laid out and when they were buried, they were commemorated by his son Hierodeacon Seraphim in Lubkina, and Alexandra Ivanova, an old woman who used to be a peddler, in Suslova, the Ivanovo Monastery, and he, Priest Alexy, and his comrades went to their coffins for commemoration for two years and served annual services for them, and then by order of the former ecclesiastical dicastery [future consistory-K. S.], commemorations for them are not ordered to be repaired and annual services corrected; and from that time to this day, commemorations and services for them are not corrected 9.

kov: "There could have been many such leaders in the early history of Christendom. Apparently, they initially led a wandering lifestyle, traveling with their students in cities and villages... Later, when Khlystov's teaching became sufficiently widespread, sectarian "Christs", "theotokos" and "prophets" became settled townspeople, peasants, or monks" (Panchenko A. S. Khristovshchina and Scopticism: folklore and Traditional Culture of Russian Mystical Sects, Moscow, 2002, p. 125).

9. RGADA. F. 1183. Op. 1. Ch. 11 (1756). D. 732.

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Synodal decrees indicated that "the very type of burial may suggest that Suslov and Lupkin have gained some kind of sanctity" 10, since "tents" or canopies, traditionally erected over the graves of saints, were installed over their graves. These brick structures were destroyed in order to implement Peter's decree of April 12, 1722 on the demolition of tombstones in cemeteries, but not immediately, but only after a letter from Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich to the adviser of the Moscow dicastery in 1736. The decrees of the Moscow Office of the Synod state:

Over the corpse of that Suslov, the stone was leveled to the ground, and apple trees and other trees were planted near it, and a grating was enclosed with doors for the ascent of the garden over the grave, and they say that there was a tomb with considerable decoration above it, but as in previous years, by decree, tombs were removed from graves in monasteries and parish churches. the stones were ordered to be demolished, then the building was demolished from that corpse, and the stone was compared to the ground, and the inscription was hewn from it, and not far from the grave it was set in the wall of the church meal 11.

A decree of 1739 ordered the" corpses of false teachers and heretics "Prokopiy Lupkin and Ivan Suslov, who were buried in the Ivanovo Maiden Monastery, to be dug up through the executioners, taken out into the field and" dealt with according to the decrees " 12. Until 1746, however, the bodies of Lupkin and Suslov were not exhumed and burned.

Ivan Timofeevich Suslov, revered by the later Khlystov tradition as a disciple of the founder of the Christovshchina, Danila Filippovich, is mentioned several times in questioning speeches:

Semyon Meloskin testified that Prokofey Lupkin had told him that Ivan Suslov, a merchant's man, had been in Moscow and lived near the Donskoy Monastery, and that he had a fair amount of teaching and had attended many gatherings...13

10. Lavrov A. S. Koldovstvo i religiya v Rossii [Witchcraft and Religion in Russia]. 1700-1740 p. 51.

11. RGADA. F. 1183. Op. 1. Ch. 11 (1756). D. 732.

12. Snegirev I. M. Founders of the sect of "people of God" false Christs Ivan Suslov and Prokopiy Lupkin / / Orthodox Review, 1862. July, pp. 324-326.

13. Chistovich I. A. Delo o bogoprotivnykh sborishchakh i deystviyakh [The case of God-defying gatherings and actions]. Chteniya v imperatorskom obshchestve istorii i drevnostei rossiiskikh, 1887, book 2, pp. 38-39.

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The peasant Danila, during an interrogation in 1733, testified:

For twenty years now he lived in Moscow near the Donskoy Monastery in the house of Alexander and Ivan L'vovitch Naryshkins, a tax-paying peasant named Ivan Ivanov's son Suslov (who was later shown to the commission on the following case as a false teacher of ungodly gatherings) , and since he was thirteen years old he died [i.e., around 1720-K. S.] and was buried in the That this Suslov was a false teacher contrary to his consent, he, Danilo, did not know and did not hear about it from anyone, and he, Danilo, that Suslov and no one taught schism or any evil deed.14
The Commission was not interested in Suslov, because the same Meloskin testified that he had heard that Suslov had died, so nothing definite can be said about him.

A. S. Lavrov, following the Khlystov tradition, considers Suslov to be the real founder of Christism and points out that he was buried at the Church of St. Nicholas in Grachi, and later reburied in the Ivanovsky monastery.15 In 1732, Lupkin was buried near his grave. Suslov was considered a "man of God", as the inscription over his grave attested, but, in my opinion, there is still no reason to believe that Suslov taught exactly the "faith of Christ", and was not a local venerated saint in Moscow. Probably, both graves in the Ivanovo monastery became a place of pilgrimage.

Christ Believers as "blasphemers and church rebels"

The documents of the Moscow Office of Synod No. 16 contain a document showing how Prokopy Lupkin and Ivan Suslov were perceived by synodal officials in the 1750s:

He was notified of the schismatic office by the secretary Stepan Alexeyev - it is said in the document that during the investigation of the Quaker heresy about this Suslov, it was shown from some schismatics that he was a false teacher of those God-defying heresies and nazy-

14. RGADA. F. 301. Op. 1. D. 3, 1733 g. l. 48 vol.

15. Lavrov A. S. Koldovstvo i religiya v Rossii [Witchcraft and Religion in Russia]. 1700-1740 p. 50.

16. RGADA. F. 1183. Op. 1. ch. 11. d. 732, 1756. l. 169 vol. -170 vol.

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He believed in God, and at the same time reasoning that the rulers of the holy churches seek to bury their corpses for no other reason, as if in testimony such as this: allegedly they are not only superstitious, but also some kind of sanctity (like the tombstone inscription about them) false communioners were also in the time of their God-defying superstition and subsequent heretics and schismatics which those churches of corpses receive and impute to them are supposedly repaired by some admission that their superstition is not superstition, but a true and ancient, and not a new (as it truly is) schismatic faith, from which their pleurisy and the Orthodox churches of the holy children of some conscience may be shaken, and in the Council Code of the first chapter in the first paragraph it is printed: who among the gentiles of any faith or Russian people has laid blasphemy against our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, or against our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and ever Virgin Mary, who gave birth to him, or against the holy cross, or against his holy saints - and let all sorts of sleuths find out about it firmly, and let them find out about it to the point of directly rebuking that blasphemer execute them and burn them, and these Lubkin and Suslov were not only schismatics and heresy teachers, but also Antichrists, for they were not horrified the cursed ones, namely Lubkin (as the investigative file sent to the provincial chancellery reveals), are Christ, the disciples who followed themselves are apostles, and the above-mentioned Suslov is God himself.

We see that the decision made by the Synod is based on the norms of the Conciliar Code of 1649, the first chapter of which is devoted to "blasphemers and church rebels." Nine articles (points, as we would say now) of this chapter are devoted to the rules of conduct in the church and punishments for violating these rules (hindering the celebration of the liturgy is punishable by death, as well as murder in the church, fighting in the church-with batogami, insulting - with a month's arrest, addressing the tsar or patriarch during the service - with imprisonment, "as far as the sovereign points out"), but the first of these points is the definition of blasphemy as blasphemy against Jesus Christ and the Mother of God, or against the cross, or against the saints, and the punishment for this act is burning.

The norms of the Cathedral Code are valid both in Peter's time, and later-in the middle of the XVIII century. The teacher of Christism Prokopiy Lupkin, who died in 1732 and was buried in the Ivanovo Monastery, is considered a blasphemer in 1739 (according to the Russian Orthodox Church).

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with the provisions of the Council Code), and therefore his body should be exhumed and burned 17.

In making this decision, the Synod refers to the documents of the Uglich case 18, which include a letter from the monk Andronikos to Archbishop Dosifei, in which Andronikos retells the story of Prokopy Lupkin.

As he prayed in the night, "the text says," the Holy Spirit came upon him, and from that time on he began to sing with his voice in the night and in the days of the Jesus prayer, and to teach others, and called himself a teacher, and those who were with him called them disciples. But he taught his disciples not to drink wine and beer, and not to swear profanely, and which of them were married, so that they should not sleep with their wives, and those who were unmarried, so that they should not marry, and made it a grave sin and fornication. And when they have a prayer, then in his presence the former disciples strip off their outer clothing and are in their shirts and bare feet, then they call those in miloti. And he would put them on their benches, but he himself would sit in the front corner undressed, and as he taught them, he, Prokofy, would explain: "Christ walked on the sea and on the rivers of Babylon with his disciples and sailed in ships, just as it behooves us to do these things. You are my disciples like the apostles, " and he, Prokofy, called himself Christ 19.

Prokopiy Lupkin did not subscribe to such statements, and in the second interrogation - no longer in the spiritual order, but in the Uglich chancellery - he directly said that "He did not call himself Christ." However, Lupkin's identification with Christ, understood as a claim to religious imposture, became commonplace in historiography and investigative discourse in both the 18th and 19th centuries.

17. For blasphemers and similar punishments for blasphemy, see Smilyanskaya E. B. Magicians, blasphemers, and heretics in the networks of the Russian detective service of the XVIII century. pp. 173-204.

18. The materials of the investigative case of the Uglich spiritual order "On heretics caught in Uglich in 1716" were partially published by I. G. Aivazov in the "Missionary Review" in 1916. In 1985, Y. Clay re-published the texts with minor corrections. The original case file is kept in the Fund of the Chancellery of the Synod of the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA. F. 796. Op. 14. D. 80. On the investigation of the sect of Quakers (khlystov) in Moscow, 1733).

19. Clay, J.E. "God's People in the Early Eighteenth Century. The Uglich Affair of 1717", p. 111.

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In the 1730s, 20 other teachers of the Christian faith were publicly burned in a log cabin-Anastasia (Agafya) Karpova, a nun of the Ivanovo Monastery, and Philaret (Fyodor) Muratin and Tikhon (Timofey)hieromonks of the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery Strukov, Savvati Strukov, monk of the Venevskaya Epiphany Desert, and Marfa Pavlova, depositor of the Varsonofiev Monastery 21. In the investigative documents, they were called "chaff-sowers" and "corrupters of Christian piety", "first breeders [founders-C. S.] and mentors", but they were punished as "blasphemers and church rebels" - by public burning.

But it is curious that the most significant figure for the subsequent history of Christovism becomes a peripheral character - Ivan Suslov. His grave was located next to that of Prokopiy Lupkin in the Ivanovo Monastery and was revered no less, if not more, than the grave of the latter, but it seems that not only and not so much by the people of Christ - it seems that he was something like the locally venerated holy Ivanovo Monastery. In the later Khlystov historiography, transmitted by N. Reutsky, it is he who becomes the Son of God, who descended from heaven and replaced Danila Filippovich, "Sabaoth".

"For thirty years," writes Reutsky, " Ivan Timofeyevich lived in Moscow in his House of God near Sukhareva Tower, at the corner of 3rd Meshchanskaya Street and Malaya Sukhareva Square. Here he established conversations and rejoicing among the People of God. Here he established prophecies as the sole source of doctrine. Here came to him in 1699, in the hundredth year of his life, the supreme guest Lord of Hosts Danila Filippovich. Here they conducted their conversations, sitting at the sacred table " 22 (was Danila Filippovich a historical person?).-

20. It is known that Protopop Avvakum was publicly burned in a log cabin in 1681, Kvirin Kulman in 1691, and the iconoclast Thomas Ivanov in 1714, as well as Captain-Lieutenant Voznitsyn, who converted to Judaism, in 1739. Arsonists were also executed. For more information about execution by burning, see Anisimov A. Dyba i knut: Politicheskiy sysk i russkoe obshchestvo v XVIII veka [Rack and Whip: Political Investigation and Russian Society in the 18th century]. Moscow, 1999, pp. 558-560.

21. 20 years later, already under Elizaveta Petrovna, other teachers of the Christian faith were also sentenced to public burning in a log cabin-Vasily Stepanov, the author of a collection of poems, Euphrosyne Soplina, Yakov Frolov, in whose house the Christian believers gathered, Dmitry Gusev, the builder of the Theological Desert, and Varlaam Fedotov, the hieromonk of the Chudov Monastery (another 26 people were sentenced to death). However, as can be seen from the decree of 1756, burning in a log cabin and the death penalty were replaced by a whip and exile to Rogerwick.

22. Reutsky N. V. People of God and Eunuchs. Historical research (from reliable sources and authentic papers), Moscow, 1872, pp. 75-83.

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However, it is not clear, nor is the origin of the legend of his identification with the Lord Safaoth clear).

"False Christs"

It is in the position of the investigators, I think, that we should look for the beginning of the subsequent tradition of talking about Christism as a teaching about the deification of mentors. We see that teachers of Christism were called "false Christs", "Antichrists", "false teachers", "heresy teachers"," tares-sowers " and "destroyers of Christian piety" and punished as "blasphemers" by burning, thereby giving them a much higher status than they seem to have possessed in the community. The investigation created a model of religious teaching similar to Christianity, and filled in the missing links at its discretion. Thus arose the decree of August 7, 1734, in which the teachers of Christhood become "priests"; the use of kvass, water, and bread at feasts is "communion"; and the collection of donations and night vigils are condemned as - now we would say - "financing a prohibited organization" and group sex (both of which are groundless, since they are not allowed to participate in religious activities). there was not a single religious organization of the Christian believers, and, accordingly, a single "cash register", or any kind of sex on radeniya). The decree stated:

1. The male and female sex gathered with diligent concealment in one certain place, sat down on benches on one side of the male, and on the other side of the female, and in the initial place sat the leader of this charm-a husband or wife - allegedly according to the pastoral rank;

2. then, having received the blessing of the chief personage, with low worship and kissing the hands of two or three pairs, or with a large number, some husband with husband, some husband with wife, some wife with wife danced around the hut as best they could, jumping up and down, and said that on the way to the hut they were going to go to the such dancing, or even staggering, was raised up by the Holy Spirit, bringing to this end the word of God, which the Prophet had written, with a very mad debauchery: "I will dwell in them and walk in them," as God said, promising his gracious and persistent presence to his faithful, leading them to the path of salvation, and not so to a stray movement;

3. Meanwhile, some of them beat themselves with sticks and tongs [chains - K. S.] ;

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4, and in such a frenzied run, some of them, sometimes male and sometimes female persons, as if moved by the Spirit of God, prophesied something, or even uttered more frivolous and ridiculous lies and stories;

5. they blasphemed a lawful marriage, established and blessed by God himself: imputing the marriage bed, which was not defiled by the apostle, or even more so named by the Holy Spirit, as an impurity and a great sin, and for this reason those who came to their assembly were ordered not to marry again, and those who were married to divorce their wives;

6. they also made up for themselves a very God-abominable sacrament and a certain cursed sacrament, namely, they received and ate pieces of bread from the hands of the leaders, a peasant or a woman, and drank kvass, and sometimes even water, imputing this, the cursed ones, for Holy Communion, with explicit abuse and rejection of the Holy Mysteries of Christ in the Eucharist;

7. But they kept repeating among themselves that such an assembly and action of theirs was a baptism performed by the Spirit, and that our Christian baptism with water in the name of the Holy Trinity was performed, which also contained the spirit, and tore the one sacrament in two; they called it simple water baptism, and for the salvation of the discontented, blasphemously blaspheming that no one who was baptized Our Saviour by baptism, if he does not accept the fictitious baptism again from these mad men, he will by no means receive salvation;

8. in the name of such a malicious and harmless superstition, they lied, seduced by man from themselves, as if all the ancient Holy Fathers had saved themselves in no other way than that used by them, and their harmless news was delivered in the ancient way of salvation, blasphemously denouncing it;

9. and when such meetings were held, not only did their departure come on the same day and from that place, but always, consider, all the same men and women spent the night in the same hut, only, they say, men on one side and women on the other, that considerable suspicion gave the prodigal their mixing, especially when one of their elders was denounced, and she herself was accused in the aforementioned commission that she and a man of the same heresy from lawless copulation and gave birth to a baby, and the elder Nastasya, who called these vile gatherings, many beds were found while following her cell under the roof, and so they cursed, very wonderful debauchery in an unskilful mind came, legal marriage rejecting, and lawless mixing is not far behind;

10. But the wicked have not been afraid of this evil teaching and action, and have sworn an oath by calling on the name of God.-

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but to assert, since everyone who first came to them, having put up an icon, was brought to the oath, so that he swore that he accepted their tradition as very pious and well-pleasing, and would never deviate from it, so that he would not reveal their secret crimes to anyone at all, even to the spiritual father;

11. they did not forbid confessing to the spiritual fathers and those who existed outside their class, so long as no one expressed their secrets, as we have already mentioned, and they did not forbid the Holy Communion of the Church, as was the custom among the ancient Manichaeans, but they did not do this for anything, only as a cover-up for their heresy;

12. of all this so blasphemous invention of theirs, it was no other intention of the superiors and superintendents, only, as they themselves were accused, a cunning plan for stealing profits, which they received from the seduced rude people.... 23

Analyzing these texts, one can easily see that the teaching and practice of Christism is described here descriptively, inaccurately, but with the use of pejorative vocabulary: the teaching is called bad, "heresy"," charm "[i.e. temptation-K. S.], "God-abominable abomination", "blasphemous whore-making", " malicious and harmless superstitionecstatic practice - "staggering", "crazy movement", "mad running", prophecies - "vain and ridiculous lies", home worship - "vile fees" and "cunning theft of profits", and the members of the community themselves - " insane men", cursed and pious 24.

But the authors of the 1756 text go even further, calling the teachers of Christism not only "leaders of this charm", but "schismatics" (which is partly true, because it is precisely with the schism that the emergence of Christism as an ascetic teaching is connected)., "heresy teachers" and "Antichrists". The term "antichrists", however, did not take root at all, another one took root - "false Christs", known from earlier trends and preserved in the texts of missionaries and officials until the XX century.

23. RGIA. F. 1473. Op. 1. D. 70. L. 4-6.

24. According to E. B. Smilyanskaya ,the" mockingly derogatory tone", in particular, in the definitions of conspiracy texts was associated precisely with the church policy of Feofan Prokopovich and was characteristic of his" secular and spiritual followers " (Smilyanskaya E. B. Magicians, blasphemers, heretics in the networks of the Russian detective of the XVIII century. p.166).

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The documents reviewed showed that teachers of early Christism in the XVIII century were punished as "blasphemers" - by public burning in a log house, although in the traditional sense there is no blasphemy against God either in interrogative speeches or in spiritual verses of the Christists (but there are numerous texts of prayers and an appeal to the saints, the Trinity, and the Mother of God). Apparently, under blasphemy, the state (and spiritual) authorities understood religious imposture. Procopius Lupkin, a teacher of Christism who dared to compare himself with Christ, is understood as a false Christ, and his students as false Christians, heretics. Accordingly, pseudo-Christianity is also modeled - with alternative sacraments, priests, and texts. The main task of the investigation is the physical destruction (or removal) of teachers, mentors, and the return of their followers to the bosom of the Church.

Bibliography / References

Archival materials and sources

RGADA - Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts

F. 1183. Moscow Office of the Synod.

F. 301. The First Commission on schismatics.

RGIA - Russian State Historical Archive

F. 1473. Secret Committee on Schism Affairs.

F. 796. Office of the Holy Synod.

Esipov G. The Secret Chancellery: From the cases of the Preobrazhensky Order and the Secret Chancellery. St. Petersburg, 2010.

Nechaev V. V. Dela sledstvennye o raskolnikov komissii v XVIII veke [Investigative cases on schismatics of commissions in the 18th century]. Opisanie dokumentov i paper, khranyashchikhsya v Moskovskom arkhiv Moizdatel'nosti [Description of documents and papers stored in the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of Justice], Moscow, 1889. Kn. 6. Otd. II. pp. 77-199.

Chistovich I. A. Delo o bogoprotivnykh sborishchakh i deystviyakh [The case of God-defying gatherings and actions]. 1887. Book 2.

Literature

Anisimov A. Dyba i knut: Politicheskiy sysk i russkoe obshchestvo v XVIII veke [Dyba and Knut: Political Investigation and Russian Society in the 18th Century]. Moscow, 1999.

Berman A. G. Mystical sects in the Middle Volga region in the XVIII-XX centuries. Cheboksary, 2004.

Lavrov A. S. Koldovstvo i religiya v Rossii [Witchcraft and Religion in Russia]. 1700-1740 Moscow, 2000.

Panchenko A. A. Hristovska and SopCast: folklore and traditional culture of Russian mystical sects. M., 2002.

Reutsky N. V. People of God and Eunuchs. Historical research (from reliable sources and authentic papers), Moscow, 1872.

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Sergazina K. T. Monastyrskaya kul'tura XVIII veka i klikushestvo (po dokumentum dela o knyaz E. V. Meshchersky) [Monastic culture of the XVIII century and klikushestvo (according to the documents of the case of Prince E. V. Meshchersky)]. 2011. Issue 1 (21), pp. 111-117.

Sergazina K. T. "Walking around": the liturgical practice of the first communities of Christ's believers. Ed. 2-E. M.-SPb., 2017.

Smilyanskaya E. B. Magicians. Blasphemers. Heretics. Narodnaya religiosity and "Spiritual Crimes" in Russia of the XVIII century, Moscow, 2003 (second edition-Moscow, 2016).

Snegirev I. M. Founders of the sect of "people of God" false Christs Ivan Suslov and Prokopiy Lupkin / / Orthodox Review, 1862. July, pp. 324-326.

Archival materials and sources

RGADA - Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv drevnikh aktov [Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts].

F. 1183. Moskovskaia kontora Sinoda [Moscow office of Synod].

F. 301. Pervaia komissiia o raskol'nikakh [First Commission on Dissenters].

RGIA - Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian State Historical Archive].

F. 1473. Sekretnyi komitet po delam raskola [Secret Committee on the Affairs of the division].

F. 796. Kantseliariia Sviateishego Sinoda [The Office Of The Holy Synod].

Chistovich, I.A. (1887) "Delo o bogoprotivnykh sborishchakh i deistviiakh" ["A case of ungodly gatherings and actions"], Chteniia v imperatorskom obshchestve istorii i drevnostei rossiiskikh. Kn. 2.

Clay, J.E. (1985) "God's People in the Early Eighteenth Century. The Uglich Affair of 1717", Cahiers du monde Russe et Soviétique XXVI (I): 69-124.

Esipov, G. (2010) Tainaia kantseliariia: Iz del Preobrazhenskogo prikaza i Tainoi kantseliarii [The Secret Chancellery: From the files of the Preobrazhenskii prikaz and the Secret Chancellery]. SPb.

Nechaev, V.V. (1889) "Dela sledstvennye o raskol'nikakh komissii v XVIII veke" ["Investigations on dissenters from commissions in the eighteenth century"], Opisanie dokumentov i bumag, khraniashchikhsia v Moskovskom arkhive Ministerstva iustitsii, ss. 77-199. M., Kn. 6. Otd. II.

Literature

Anisimov, A. (1999) Dyba i knut: Politicheskii sysk i russkoe obshchestvo v XVIII veke [Rack and whip: The political police and Russian society in the eighteenth century]. Moscow.

Berman, A.G. (2004) Misticheskie sekty v Srednem Povolzh'e v XVIII-XX vv [Mystical sects in the middle Volga in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries]. Cheboksary.

Lavrov, A.S. (2000) Koldovstvo i religiia v Rossii. 1700-1740 gg. [Witchcraft and religion in Russia. 1700-1740]. Moscow.

Panchenko, A.A. (2002) Khristovshchina i skopchestvo: fol'klor i traditsionnaia kul'tura russkikh misticheskikh sekt [Christ-faith and the skoptsy: The folklore and traditional culture of Russian mystical sects]. Moscow.

Reutskii, N.V. (1872) Liudi Bozh'i i skoptsy. Istoricheskoe issledovanie (iz dostovernykh istochnikov i podlinnykh bumag) [People of God and skoptsy: Historical research (from authentic sources and original papers)]. Moscow.

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Sergazina, K.T. (2011) "Monastyrskaia kul'tura XVIII veka i klikushestvo (po dokumentam dela o kniaze E.V. Meshcherskom)" ["Monastic culture of the eighteenth century and hysteria (according to the documents of Prince E. V. Meshchersky)"], Pravoslavnyi sobesednik: 1 (21): 111-117.

Sergazina, K.T. (2017) "Khozhdenie vkrug": liturgicheskaia praktika pervykh obshchin khristoverov ["Walking around": The liturgical practice of the first communities of Khlysty]. Izd. 2-e. M.-SPb.

Smilianskaia, E.B. (2003, 2016) Volshebniki. Bogokhul'niki. Eretiki. Narodnaia religioznost' i "dukhovnye prestupleniia' v Rossii XVIII v [Wizards. Blasphemers. Heretics. Popular religiosity and "spiritual crimes" in Russia in the eighteenth century]. Moscow.

Snegirev, I.M. (1862) "Osnovateli sekty 'liudei Bozhiikh' lzhekhristy Ivan Suslov i Prokopii Lupkin" ["Founders of the sect 'God's people' false Christs Ivan Suslov and Procopius Lupkin"], Pravoslavnoe obozrenie: 324-326.

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