Stoglavy Sobor
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The Stoglavy Sobor Stoglavi Sobor (Russian: Стоглавый Собор) (translated variously as Hundred Chapter Synod, Council of a Hundred Chapters, etc.) was a church council (sobor) held in Moscow in 1551, with the participation of tsar Ivan IV, 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.
The Stoglavy Sobor was called under the government’s initiative which aspired to support the church in struggle against anti-feudal heretical movements and simultaneously to subordinate its secular authority.
The name “Stoglavy Sobor” comes from the collection of cathedral decisions divided into 100 chapters (or "Sto glav"), commonly referred to as the Stoglav. The full name was "Соборное Уложение Собора Русской Православной Церкви" (Synodal Code of the Russian Orthodox Church Synod"). It was formatted as a record of questions of Tsar to clergy with answers.
The Stoglavy Sobor proclaimed the inviolability of church properties and the exclusive jurisdiction of church courts over ecclesiastics. At the demand of the church hierarchy the government cancelled the tsar's jurisdiction over ecclesiastics. In exchange, members of the Stoglavy Sobor made concessions to the government in a number of other areas (prohibition for monasteries to found new large villages in cities, etc.).
By decisions of the Stoglavy Sobor, church ceremonies and duties in the whole territory of Russia were unified, and norms of church life were regulated with the purpose of increasing the educational and moral level of the clergy to ensure they would correctly fulfill their duties, such as creation of schools for preparation of priests. Control of church authorities was established over activity book writers and icon painters, etc.
During the second half of the 16th centuries "Stoglav" was the basic code of law for the internal life of religious estate and its mutual relations with society and the state (there are many hand-written editions of "Stoglav").
