NIKON, Patriarch of the Russian church, 1605-81; b. near Nijni-Novgorod, Rus sia, of liumble parentage; received his education from a monk in the monastery of St. Macarius. He afterward became a priest, but was so pinch attached to the monastic life that he entered the hermitage of Anserche, on the island of Solowetz, in the White sea. He separated from his wife, with whom he had lived ten years, and persuaded her to enter the convent of St. Alexis at Moscow. His fellow-monks desiring to exchange their wooden church for one of stone, Nikon and Elizar (the founder and head of the hermitage), were sent to Moscow to procure contributions for the purpose. Elizar appro priated the money obtained to his own use. Nikon remonstrated; his associate became his enemy. Nikon, unable to endure his persecution, left the island in a small boat, and: after exposure to great peril be reached the island of Kj, at the mouth of the Onega. Here he erected a wooden cross, and vowed to build a monastery on the spot, which vow he fulfilled. In 1666, having occasion to go to Moscow on business for the monastery of which he was abbot, the czar Alexis Micailovid appointed him archimandrite of the Novaspasky convent at Moscow. He used his influence with the czar in behalf of poor: widows, orphans, the persecuted, and oppressed. In 1648 he was made metropolitan of Novgorod, and became much endeared to the people. In 1650 he quelled a violent pop ular insurrection at the peril of his own life, and then obtained permission to go to tire prisons and release those who had been unjustly incarcerated, as well as real who were sincere penitents. He showed great kindness to the poor. He preached crowds, revised the liturgy of tire Russian church, and caused the clergy to perform divine with more devotion. On the death of the patriarch Joseph, clergy in 1652 was appointed patriarch. In 1654-55 he called a council of the church to take measures. for making the church books conform to the Greek originals. .The council compared' with the Septuagint the Slavonic versions, some of which were five centuries old, and found them correct, and that the errors in the books in common use were owing to the carelessness of transcribers. A new edition, made at Moscow and..set forth by Nikon, created a divisionl•ii church. Nikon endeavored.to root out all abuSes of the bier- archy, to promote temperance, setting the people an example of abstemious Sacred pictures to which he believed the people paid idolatrous veneration be removed.. The baptisms of the western church, then and now considered by the Greek church invalid, he sanctioned. Education, begun by Ivan the terrible but interrupted by war; he encouraged. The printing press was again set up. Greek and Latin were now for
the first time taught in the schools. He made also many useful changes in the church. service. The greatest reform was the revival of preaching. From Nikon was first heard,. after many centuries, a living, practical sermon. These changes greatly agitated. the church, but the czar's favor did not fail, until in 1658 his enemies succeeded in the czar from him, and Nikon retired to the monastery of the Resurrection of Christ that he had himself built. The misunderstanding between him and the czar increasing, and Nikon refusing to return to Moscow, a council was called in 1667 to con sider his ease, under the presidency of the eastern patriarch; and on Dec. 12 of that.year he was deposed, and banished as a common monk to the Bielvozersky Therapontic mon astery. The czar Feodor Alexievich allowed him to remove to the monastery of the Resurrection of Christ, but on the journey thither he died. He was buried in that mon astery in the presence of the czar; his absolution was obtained from the eastern patriarch and lie was again enrolled in the list of Russian patriarchs. " Nikon," says Stanley,. "rests all but canonized in spite of his many faults, and in spite of his solemn condem nation and degradation by the nearest approach to a general council which the eastern church has witnessed since the second council of Nictea. He rests far enough removed from the ideal of a saintly character, but yet left behind him to his own church the example of a resolute, active, onward leader; to the world at large, the example, never without a touching lesson, of a sincere reformer recognized and honored when honor and recognition are too late." Many historians think that with more prudence he might have saved the Russian church from a schism Which still exists, and that he lacked the wisdom and policy which are essential to men in high places of trust. In 1664 Nikon sent to 'the east and purchased 500 MSS. of Greek books dating from the to the 17th century. He also made a collection of the Russian chronicles, the Stufert books, and the Greek chronologists, which reaches to the year 1630, and is known by the name of the Chronicle of Nikon. The academy of sciences of St. Petersburg pub lishel a fine edition of this in 8 vols. in 1767-92. He wrote also several theological treatises, of which the following are the most important: A Table of Dogmatic Sermons,. The Intellectual Paradise, containing a description of the monasteries of mount Athos and of ValdaY; A Canon, or book of prayers. Stanley in his History of the Eastern Church, Palmer in the Patriarch and the _Thar, Eckardt in Modern Russia, and the Lon don Review, have given a particular account of the patriarch Nikon.