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In 1654, Patriarch Nicon of Moscow, after having visited the Ottoman Empire, understood that the practice of the Russian Church differed from that of the Greeks, Georgians, Romanians, Bulgarians and Serbs. He therefore called a Council, with the Czar’s approval, in which he requested revisions to be made to liturgical texts, as well as for the Russian Church to adopt the practice of using three fingers to make the sign of the cross. However, this immediately led to sharp opposition. The most prominent enemy of reform was the well-known Protopresbyter Abbacum.
In 1666-1667, the Russian Church called another Council, in which it invited representatives from the Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Constantinople and elsewhere. However, none of the guests were Patriarchs, and some of the bishops had already been deposed by their own Churches. Furthermore, it is believed that many of the bishops were paid by the Russian State, with money and products, to vote in favor of the reform. The following is an account by Protopresbyter Abbacum regarding his dialogue with the Greek and Russian bishops at the [[Moscow Sobor of 1666–1667|Council of 1666-1667]]:
"The last word they said to me was, "Why are you stubborn? All of Palestine – and the Serbs, the Albanians, the Wallachians, the Romans and the Poles – all of them cross themselves with the three fingers and only you remain obstinate and make the sign with two fingers. That is not fitting!" And I answered them for Christ as follows: "Ecumenical teachers! Rome has long since fallen and lies prostrate, and the Poles perished with them, and are the enemies of Christians to the end. Among you Orthodoxy has become mottled because of the violence of Mehmet the Turk – and one must not be amazed at you: you have become powerless. And so henceforth, come to us to study, for, by the grace of God, we have autocracy. Before Nikon the apostate, in Russia, under our pious princes and tsars, Orthodoxy was complete, pure and undefiled and the church without uproar. Nikon, that wolf, and the Devil ordered us to cross ourselves with three fingers: but our first pastors crossed themselves with two fingers and likewise gave their blessing with two fingers according to the tradition of the holy fathers, Meletius of Antioch, the blessed Theodoret Bishop of Cyrene, Peter of Damascus, and Maximus the Greek. Likewise the local council of Moscow under Tsar Ivan ordered us to cross ourselves and give the blessing, putting our fingers together in that way, to make the sign of the Cross and give the blessing, as of old the Holy Fathers Meletius and others taught. Then in the time of Ivan the Tsar, there were the standard-bearers, Gurias and Barsanuphius, wonder-workers of Kazan, and Philip the Abbot of Solovki among the Russian Saints." (‘Gudzy, Zhitie’ p. 101.)