The Stoglav Synod (russian: Стоглавый Собор; also translated as ''Hundred Chapter Synod'' or ''Council of a Hundred Chapters'') was a
church council (''sobor'') held in
Moscow in 1551, with the participation of
Tsar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...
Ivan IV
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584.
Ivan ...
,
Metropolitan Macarius, and representatives of the
Boyar Duma. It convened in January and February 1551, with some final sessions as late as May of that year. Its decrees are known as the ''
Stoglav
The ''Book of One Hundred Chapters'', also called ''Stoglav'' (''Стоглав'') in Russian ("Hundred chapters"), is a collection of decisions of the Russian church council of 1551 that regulated the canon law and ecclesiastical life in the Tsar ...
''.
In 1551, the Tsar summoned a synod of the Russian Church to discuss the ritual practices that had grown up in Russia which did not conform with those of the Greek Church. The decrees issued by the Synod, known as the Stoglav, rule that they were all correct. This unilaterial decision shocked many of the Orthodox. The monks of Athos protested and the Russian monks there regarded the decisions of the synods as invalid.
Decisions
The Stoglav Synod was called under the government’s initiative which aspired to support the
church in struggle against anti-
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
heretical movements and simultaneously to subordinate its secular authority.
The Stoglav Synod proclaimed the inviolability of
church properties and the exclusive jurisdiction of
church courts over