Changes

This appointment brought a pro-Greek party into the court and they thus gained their end and Nikon was ready to carry out their plans. But, was his appointment valid? The third canon of the Seventh Ecumenical Council reads: "Let every election of a bishop, priest, of deacon, made by princes be null, according to the canon which reads: 'If any bishop making use of the secular powers shall obtain jurisdiction over a church, he shall be deposed and excommunicated, together with all who remain in communion with him!..." The point was not clear and Nikon was in power and began to establish his principles on a document called The Donation of Constantine, which alleged privileges of supreme jurisdiction over the whole church as being given by Constantine the Great to Pope St. Syvester I. But, this document had alread been proven false. Nikon exploited the theory of Moscow being the "Third Rime," that is that the Patriarch of Moscow had been proclaimed the Supreme Head of christendom; and if the tsar should become the recognized head of a world empire what would be the position of the Patriarch, the sacred office from which Nikon now regarded derived the authority of the state?