BOOK III. Tfie only circumftance which feemed wanting to com-
—v— - plete his difgrace was the lofs of Alexey’s protection ; and
this was at length effected by the gradual, but fecret, inii-
nuations of the tzarina 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, to
excite the tzar’s difpleafure againft him. Nicon, finding
himfelf excluded from the prefence of a fovereign accuf-
tomed to confult him upon every emergency, and difdaining
to hold the higheft office in the kingdom, when he had loft
the confidence of his matter, aftoniihed the publick by a voluntary
abdication of his patriarchal dignity. This meafure,
cenfured by many as hafty and imprudent, and as highly
expreffive of that pride which firongly marked his character,
mutt yet be efteemed manly and reiolute 5 which even thoie
who condemn cannot but admire. It may alfo admit of great
palliation, i f we confider, what is moft probable, that the
popular odium was rifing againft him, that a powerful
party had abfolutely, though fecretly, effedluated his difgrace
; and that, as he forefaw his fall, he preferred a voluntary
abdication of his dignity to a forcible depofition,
chufing to refign with fpirit what he thought he could not
retain without meannefs
This abdication took place on the a i f t t of July, 1658,
only fix years after he had been created patriarch; when
he quitted that exalted ftation with the fame greatnefs of
$ Th is is the opinion o f Mayerberg,
who came to Mofcow fix years after his abdication:
“ A fter enumerating the caufes
“ o f his fall, he adds, Propter quse omnia
“ omnibus exofus, et ad exilium communibus
“ votis expetitus patrocinium nullum inve-
“ nerit in favore Alexii, eujus animum fen-
“ lim abalienaverant ja&is in longum odiis
“ uxor et focer illi ob privatas caufas in*
“ fenfi,” p. 87.
f The loth, O. S.
of foul with which he had afcended it. He was permitted c h a p .
to retain the title of patriarch, while the functions of his. 1V‘
office were performed by the archbiihop of Novogorod.
He chofe for the place of his refidence the con vent of Jeru-
falem,. built and endowed by himfelf, which is fituated about
the diftance of thirty miles from the city of Mofcow. Upon
his arrival at the convent he immediately re-affumed his
former reclufe way o f life, and pradtifed the moft rigid
mortifications. His hermitage, which he inhabited, lay about
a mile from the monaftery, and is thus defcribed by an
author *, who vifited the fpot in the beginning of this century
: “ A winding ftair-cafe, fo narrow that one man could
“ hardly pafs, leads to the little chapel of about a fathom in
“ the fquare, in which the patriarch ufed to perform his
“ folitary worihip. The room in which he lived was not
“ much larger; in it hung a broad iron-plate, with a crois
of brafs fixed to a heavy chain, weighing above twenty’
“ pounds, all which the faid patriarch wore about his neck,
“ for twenty years together.. His bed. was a fquare. flone
“ two ells in length,, and.fcarcely one in breadth, over which
“ was fpread nothing, but a. cover, of rufhes. Below
in the houfe was a fmall chimney, in which the patriarch
“ ufed to drefs his own victuals.”
While we admire the firmnefe with which he fupported
this reverfe of fortune, we cannot without regret obferve.
a perfon of his- enlightened, underftanding fubmitting to.
thefe mortifying penances, which the moft ignorant and
fuperftitious cenobite..was no lefs capable of performing : he
did not, however, wafte his whole time in the. performance
* Perry*S State o f Ruifia, v . I. p. 140?.