1901 Decree of Excommunication of Leo Tolstoy
The full text of the 1901 Decree of Excommunication of Count Lev Tolstoy from the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Translation by Dr. Gerald Ginther.
The Holy Synod, in its care for the members of the Orthodox Church, for their protection from the harmful seduction of the deluded ones and for their salvation and having made a judgment about Count Lev Tolstoy and his anti-Christian and anti-church false doctrine, has recognized it as timely, to publish the following message in the ‘Church Gazette,’ in order to prevent the violation of the peace of the Church:
The Most Holy All-Russian Synod to the faithful members of the Orthodox Catholic Greek-Russian Churches rejoice in the Lord.
’We pray, brethren, watch out for those who create strife and contention, except for teaching, but you will learn it, and turn your back on them’ (Rom 16:17).
From the beginning, the Church of Christ endured blasphemy and attacks from numerous heretics and false teachers who sought to overthrow it and shake its essential foundations, which were confirmed by faith in Christ, the Son of the Living God. But all the powers of hell, according to the promise of the Lord, could not prevail against the Holy Church, which will remain unconquered for ever. And today, by God’s permission, a new false teacher, Count Lev Tolstoy, Russian by birth, Orthodox by baptism and upbringing, seducing his proud mind, repudiated and rebelled against the Lord and His Christ and His holy property, clearly before everyone he renounced the Mother, the Church, who nurtured and raised him Orthodox, and dedicated his literary activity and the talent given to him from God to spread among the people teachings that are contrary to Christ and the Church, and to destroy the minds in the minds and hearts of people of the fatherly faith, the Orthodox faith, which established the universe, by which our betrayers lived and feared and by which hitherto, holy Russia held on to and was strong. In his writings and letters, in a multitude scattered by him and his disciples all over the world, especially within our dear Fatherland, he preaches, with the zeal of a fanatic, the overthrow of all the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and the very essence of Christian faith: he rejects the personal living God, glorified in the Holy Trinity, the Creator and Provider of the universe, denies the Lord Jesus Christ―God-Man, Redeemer and Saviour of the world, who suffered for the sake of mankind and rose from the dead, denies the immaculate conception of Christ the Lord and the virginity of the Most Pure Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary before and after the birth, does not recognize the afterlife and rewards of heaven, rejects all the [mysteries] of the Church and the grace-filled action of the Holy Spirit in them, and, cursing the most sacred objects of faith of the Orthodox people, is not afraid to mock the greatest of the [Mysteries], the Holy Eucharist. Count Lev Tolstoy preaches all of this continuously, in word and in writing, to the temptation and horror of the entire Orthodox world, and thus not in disguise, but brazenly, consciously and deliberately, has cut himself off from any communion with the Orthodox Church. The attempts that were made to his sense of reason were unsuccessful. Therefore, the Church does not consider him a member and cannot include him until he repents and restores his communion with it. Now we testify this before the whole Church to the confirmation of the righteous and to the admonition of the straying ones, especially to the new admonition of Count Tolstoy himself. Many of his neighbours, who keep the faith, with sorrow think that, at the end of his days, he remains without faith in God and our Lord Saviour, having turned away from the blessings and prayers of the Church and from all communion with it.
Therefore, testifying about his falling away from the Church, together we pray that the Lord grant him repentance and the understanding of truth (2 Tim 2:25). We pray thee, merciful Lord, not even though the death of sinners, hear and have mercy, and turn him back to your holy Church.
Amen.
Genuine signed:
The Humble Anthony,
Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga.
The Humble Theognost,
Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia.
The Humble Vladimir,
Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna.
The Humble Jerome,
Archbishop of Kholmsk and Warsaw.
The Humble Jacob,
Bishop of Chisinau and Khotyn.
The Humble Markela, Bishop.
The Humble Boris, Bishop.1
The text above is taken from the book: Heretic or Scapegoat?: On the Excommunication of Count Leo Tolstoy by Dr. Martin George Holmes. One may order a copy from the Eastern Christian Publications website.
Church Gazette, no. 8, 24 February 1901, 45-47. The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library has generously made a digitized version of the original Russian document available for free on the internet. See ‘Church Records Published Under the Holy Synod. G.14, 1901, no. 8 (February 24), ‘Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, accessed 1 February 2021, https://www.prlib.ru/en/node/461216.