Apocryphal literature in Ancient Russia was very widespread. But the apocrypha were different. Some of the apocryphal books were fully recognized by the church, used by priests for sermons, and even recommended to parishioners for reading.
These books included, first of all, the Chetya of the Menaion, extremely popular in Russia, replacing the modern church calendar, in which some corresponding moralizing story was given for every day. Of great importance, especially until the end of the 15th century, that is, before the appearance of the first complete Russian text of the Bible (Gennady's Bible), was the Paleya Explanatory, which replaced the Old Testament (more precisely, its first five Books are the Pentateuch of Moses).
Particularly interesting for the researcher is the initial part of "Paleia", often called the "Six-Day", which tells about the Creation of the world with detailed comments. So, for example, thanks to "Paleya", we know that literate people in Ancient Russia already in the 15th century, and probably even earlier, knew about the sphericity of the Earth. In the study of the mental structures of the Russian Middle Ages, this is simply an invaluable historical source. For example, the main source for my work "The category of fear in the worldview of the Russian medieval man of the XIII-XIV centuries" was the "Explanatory Paleya".
These apocryphal books, unlike the canonical Gospels and the Psalter, were not used in worship, but they were not prohibited by the church either.
A different matter, those apocryphal books that referred to the renounced. These are all sorts of "magic, sorcerous, fortune-telling and all sorts of forbidden books and scriptures from the church" brought to Russia from Byzantium, Bulgaria, less often from Western Europe. They also included those sheets and notebooks in which popular conspiracies, omens and superstitious instructions were recorded. According to the decisions of the Stoglava Cathedral of 1551 and the urgent recommendations of the Domostroy, these "godless writings were subject to immediate destruction by fire." It is about these renounced books that I would like to tell you in this article.
"OSTROLOGUE" (other names: "Martila", "Ostronomiya", "Stargazer" and "Zodius"). In the legalization of false books it is said as follows: "Stargazer" - 12 stars; another "Stargazer", his name is "The Sixth Day": in them, the mad people of the faithful grab, have their birthdays, dignities of receiving and lessons in life. "This is a collection of astrological notes on the entry of the sun into various signs of the Zodiac, on the influence of planets on the happiness of newborns babies, as well as the fate of entire nations: whether there will be pestilence or war, harvest or famine, etc.
"RAFLI" is another astrological book, divided into 12 charts, in which the influence of the stars on the course of human life is interpreted. Often, when it came to a judicial duel, the litigants called for the help of the Magi, "Waughters and sorcerers from demonic teachings do them, they beat kudes and look at the Aristotelian gates and at Rafli, and guess on the planets …"
"ARISTOTLE'S GATE" is a translation of the medieval creation, the compilation of which was attributed to Aristotle. This book, in addition to moral instruction, contains information on astrology, medicine and physiognomy; it consists of several sections called gates.
Promotional video:
"GROMNIK" (or "Gromovnik") is one of the most popular renounced books in Russia, containing various foreshadowings arranged by month (about the state of the weather, about future crops, diseases, etc.), combined with thunder.
Here is a short excerpt from Gromnik:
“And this for months the environment
(that is, what to expect if severe thunderstorms occur at the beginning and end of the month. - S. V.):
The month of March (skhiy, zimobor, rookery) is surrounded - there will be a lot of water;
The month of April (berezozol, snowman) is surrounded - the army will be;
The month of May (herbal, herbalist) is surrounded - great rati will be;
The month of June (izok, multicolored, grain-growing) is surrounded - death will be to the animals;
The month of July (cherven, sufferer, thunderstorm) is surrounded - there will be a lot of fish;
The month of August (glow, dense beetle, stubble) is surrounded - there will be great rains;
The month of September (howler, dawn, heather) is surrounded - it will be dry;
The month of October (leaf fall, leaf breaker) is surrounded - there will be a lot of life;
The month of November (breast, semi-winter, leafy) is surrounded - there will be smoothness;
The month of December (cold, jelly, wind winter) is surrounded - there will be great snows;
The month of January (prosinets, fierce) is surrounded - there will be a lot of frosts;
The month of February (cut, blizzard, lute) is surrounded - powerful kings and princes are fighting from east to west."
(Old Russian and folk names of months are given in brackets. - S. V.).
Close in content to "Gromnik" is another swollen book - "Molnik", which contains information on what days of the month what a lightning strike portends.
"KOLEDNIK" ("Kolyadnik") contained signs determined by the days on which the holiday of Kolyada falls, for example: "If it will be on Wednesday - winter is great and warm, the spring of rain, the harvest of good, little wheat, there is a lot of wine, the wives are pestilent, the destruction of the old."
"VOLKHOVNIK" is a collection of folk superstitions, "there is a hedgehog: the temple is bursting, ear-ringing, a crow, a kuroklik, a dog howls" and so on. Some articles of "Volkhovnik" were rewritten separately, under their own titles: "Voronograi" - signs and fortune-telling by the cry of ravens; "Kurogoshennik" - by the cry of roosters; "Bird sorcery" - on the cry and flight of birds in general; "Tremor" - the interpreter will accept, based on the trembling of various parts of the human body: "If the top of the head trembles, the face or ears are burning, the gum will make noise in the ear, the hand will be twisted, the soles will be pulled out …"
"TRAVELER" - "a book, in it there is written about srech (that is, about meetings. - S. V.) good or bad."
"ZELEINIK" - a description of magical and medicinal herbs with an indication of conspiracies and other superstitious means that were used in folk medicine. Such notebooks were very common among the people in the lists and were called "Herbalists", "Flower gardens" and "Healers".
"CHAROVNIK" is a renounced book, consisting of 12 chapters, "in which they are the essence of twelve heady faces of animals or birds," that is, legends about wandering werewolves.
"THROWING" ("Metanyimets", or "Rozgomechets") is a book of fortune-telling by lot. Those who wanted to interrogate fate cast lots, that is, twigs (rods) with features cut into them. Instead of these rods, dice could also be used. According to the number of cuts or dots on the bones, the number of that saying of the fortune-telling book, which was supposed to serve as an answer to the question, was determined.
Most of the books renounced were mercilessly destroyed in the 16th-17th centuries. A particularly fierce struggle with them unfolded during the church reforms of Patriarch Nikon. Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the renounced books were burned with whole carts. Therefore, their content can often be judged only by their name. Fortunately, thanks to the work of archaeographic expeditions to the places of settlement of the Old Believers (mainly the northern provinces of Russia: Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Northern Urals, Western Siberia), who carefully kept and rewrote pre-Nikonian books, we know at least something about them.
Sources and literature used in the work on this article:
1. Paleya Tolkovaya according to the list made in Kolomna in 1406 / Work of students of N. S. Tikhonravov. M., 1892 - 1896;
2. Chetya Menaia (any edition);
3. Vorobiev S. Yu. Category of fear in the worldview of the Russian medieval man of the XIII - XIV centuries. M., Moscow State Pedagogical University, 1995;
4. Grushko EA, Medvedev Yu. A. Russian legends and traditions. M., 2006;
5. Kobrin VB On the huts for books / To whom are you a dangerous historian? M., 1990;
6. Illustrations from various Internet resources.
Author: Sergey Vorobyov