Reality: Questions Regarding the Authenticity of the Sigillion of 1583

Following upon the previous article's discussion of the ritual anathemas called to be pronounced annually on all non-Eastern Orthodox Christians, the question of the Sigillion of 1583's authenticity, especially with its anathemas, involves a few key details which, if glossed over, will lead to an erroneous conclusion regarding the canonicity of its contents. A helpful study of this was done in 2011, entitled, "The 'Sigillion' of 1583 Against 'the Calendar Innovation of the Latins': Myth or Reality?" This 2011 study contains many valuable details that help to establish the question of the authenticity of the anathemas. 

Regarding the occasion of the study, the bishop (Cyprian of Oreoi) who wrote this oft-cited study that purportedly showed the Sigillion was a "forgery," was part of a "non-canonical" Orthodox group called "the Holy Synod in Resistance." This group dissolved in 2014 when it joined another independent Orthodox group called "the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece" (which also has an American branch), none of which are part of what is sometimes referred to as "world Orthodoxy," i.e. your typical Greek Orthodox, Antiochian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox (including ROCOR), OCA, etc. parishes. The context of his study regards the disputed use of a certain calendar for the purposes of properly establishing days of worship. There are basically three calendars in question: (1) the original Julian Calendar (the canonical one), (2) the Gregorian Calendar (the condemned one), and (3) the Revised Julian Calendar (which was an open question to him at the time of his writing). 

His study amounted to show that a certain monk, Iakovos, in 1858, essentially synthesized the material from several existing canonical texts from synods dating from 1583, 1587, 1593, and 1616 (a span of 33 years), which he confirms are in themselves all authentic, but which were synthesized by Iakovos together into a form that came to be known as "the Sigillion of 1583." This text has been widely accepted throughout the Orthodox world, not only in Greece and in the Rudder (Pedalion), but also was (according to the bishop's study) published in the official periodical of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA) in 1924 (after the fateful events of the Bolshevik Revolution). The original Tomos (official Church decision and declaration) of 1583 is apparently lost, but apparently that date served for Iakovos as the canonical starting point for the conciliar decisions and anathemas which are stated in the follow-up synodal, canonical documents, although a joint Epistle from Patriarchs Jeremiah II of Constantinople (who famously corresponded with the Lutherans) and Sylvester of Alexandria apparently survived from the original 1583 Synod. 

The main body of the text of "the Sigillion of 1583" comes from 1616, where the anathemas are all explicitly given (and nowhere called into question). It appears the seventh, more general, anathema of 1616 is amplified by earlier material from 1593 in order to give the sense of the general anathema in the total context given by the prior official documents going all the way back to 1583. This 1616 text confirms the instruction to "read this Tomos frequently in Church," which serves as the ground for including the anathemas in the present-day Synodikon, making their inclusion authentic even if the date of 1583 is ultimately symbolic. The 1593 anathema against the Gregorian calendar was later confirmed, together with the other anathemas of 1616, by Dositheus, who was the great figure of the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672. 

The purpose of the bishop's study of all of this was to show that there needs to be a Pan-Orthodox Council to settle the matter of the Revised Julian Calendar, not the Gregorian Calendar, the Gregorian Calendar being clearly and unambiguously condemned and anathematized. Again, it must be stressed that the contents of the study did not call into question the anathema against the users of the Gregorian Calendar, which he affirms is an authentic anathema. And given the fact that his "Holy Synod in Resistance" dissolved and entered into the Julian Calendar group, it seems he sided against the position of his own study and so closed the question of the Revised Julian Calendar. I might add that a Pan-Orthodox Council is a practical impossibility, which is an enormous problem in and of itself for the Eastern Orthodox. 

In conclusion, the so-called "Sigillion of 1583" has a convoluted provenance, but is certainly authentic according to Eastern Orthodox canonical realities, even if the contents (including the signatures) are a collation and synthesis of multiple authentic documents and declarations spanning from 1583 to 1616. In short, the anathemas are not mythical. All of the anathemas are present at some place in these documents (largely from the 1616 document). None of them were truly called into any question by Bishop Cyprian's study (the contents of the Seventh Anathema against the Gregorian calendar being a synthesis of the final general anathema of 1616 together with the substance of the anathema from 1593 confirmed by Dositheus in chapter 11 of his Dodecabiblos), even though the 1583 date ends up being symbolic in nature. Thus, rather than accusing Iakovos of "forgery," it is apparent from the bishop's own study that Iakovos acted with integrity to carefully collate and re-present the authentic canonical position of the Eastern Orthodox Church, incorporating and summing up into the 1616 document what was spread across several synods spanning a 33 year period and multiple documents dating from 1583. He thus took the official tomoi and authentic anathemas of this period and gave them together as a single, unified document in 1858. In short, despite the convoluted provenance of the final version, the Sigillion of 1583 as found in the Synodikon is no myth, but stands as the authentic communication of the Eastern Orthodox position and of the anathemas that are incorporated into the Synodikon read on the First Sunday of Lent, the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

-The Reformed Ninja

Appendix 1: The Anathemas of 1583

Hence, cutting off these persons as rotten members, we decree:

(1) Whoever does not confess with heart and mouth that he is a child of the Eastern Church baptized in the Orthodox manner, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, essentially and hypostatically, as Christ says in the Gospel, but temporally from the Father and the Son, let such a person be outside our Church and let him be anathematized.

(2) Whoever does not confess that at the Mystery of Holy Communion the laity, too, must partake of both kinds, of the Precious Body and Blood, but instead says that it is sufficient to partake only of the Body, only of the Flesh, because therein is also the Blood, when as a matter of fact Christ said and administered each separately, and they who fail to observe these matters, let such persons be anathematized.

(3) Whoever says that our Lord Jesus Christ at the Mystical Supper had unleavened bread (made without yeast), as did the Hebrews, and not leavened bread, that is, bread raised with yeast, let him depart far away from us and let him be anathema, as one holding Jewish views and as bringing the doctrines of Apollinarios and of the Armenians into our Church, on which account let him be doubly anathema.

(4) Whoever says that our Christ and God, when He comes to judge, will not come to judge souls together with bodies, but instead will come to sentence only bodies, let him be anathema.

(5) Whoever says that the souls of Christians who have repented while in the world but have failed to perform their penitential rule of prayer [ϰανόνα], go to the purgatorial fire when they die, where there is flame and punishment, and are purified, which is a pagan Greek myth, and those who, like Origen, think that Hell is not everlasting, and thereby afford an occasion of license to commit sin, let him and all such persons be anathema. 

(6) Whoever says that the Pope is the head of the Church, and not Christ, and that he has authority to admit persons to Paradise by his letters [of indulgence] and can forgive as many sins as a person may commit who pays money to receive indulgences (certificates of forgiveness) from him, let such a person be anathema. 

(7) Whoever does not follow the customs of the Church, as the Seven Holy Œcumenical Synods have decreed, and Holy Pascha, and the Menologion, which they rightly made it a law that we should follow, and wishes to follow the newly invented Paschalion and the New Menologion of the atheist astronomers of the Pope, and opposes all of these things and wishes to overthrow and destroy the dogmas and customs of the Church that have been handed down by our Fathers, let him be anathema and let him be put out of the Church of Christ and out of the assembly of the faithful. 

(8) As for you pious and Orthodox Christians, remain faithful in what you have been taught and have been born and brought up in, and when the time calls for it and the need arises, let your very blood be shed in order to safe-guard the Faith handed down by our Fathers and your confession; and beware of such persons as the aforementioned, in order that our Lord Jesus Christ may help you, and at the same time may the prayer of us, your humble servants, be with all of you. Amen.

Appendix 2: The Anathemas as Given in the Tomos of 1616

From: The Tomos of Cyril Loukaris, Patriarch of Alexandria, in Târgoviste, Moldavia, 1616*

First, whoever does not confess with heart and mouth, and indeed, whoever calls himself a Roman [Pωµαῖος, i.e., a Greek] and a child of the Eastern Church, and is baptized in the Greek Christian manner, as we are, and then does not confess that the All-Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, essentially and hypostatically, and that He proceeds from the Father and the Son temporally: whoever does not confess thus, but says that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, let him be outside our Church, let him not have any communion with us, and let him be anathema.

Secondly, whoever does not confess that at the Mystery of Communion the laity, too, must partake of the precious and immaculate Body and Blood, but instead says that they should commune only of the immaculate Body and not of the Blood as well, let him be outside the Church and let him be anathema. And in addition to this, whoever says that it is sufficient to partake only of the Flesh, because therein is also the Blood, whereas Christ said and administered each separately, and fails to observe these matters, let such persons be anathema.

Thirdly, whoever says that our Lord Jesus Christ at the Mystical Supper had unleavened bread, like the Jews, and not leavened bread, that is, bread raised by yeast, let him depart far away from us and let him be anathema, as one holding Jewish views and as bringing the doctrines of Apollinarios and of the Armenians into our Church, on which account let him be doubly anathema.

Fourthly, whoever says that our Lord Jesus Christ, when He comes to

judge, will not come for the sake of souls, but will come to sentence bodies, let him be anathema.

Fifthly, whoever says that the souls of Christians who have repented while in this world but have failed to perform their penitential rule of prayer [ϰανόνα], when they are parted from their bodies, go to the purgatorial fire, where there is flame, torment, and punishment, which is a pagan Greek myth, let him be anathema, since they give Christians license to sin.

Sixthly, whoever says that the Pope of Rome is the head of the Church, and not Christ, let him be anathema.

Whoever opposes these precepts in order to overthrow and destroy them, let him be anathema.

As for you, my Christians, I beseech you, for the Lord’s sake and for the sake of what is profitable for your souls, to beware of these wolves, whoever they may be, and to read this Tomos frequently in Church, so that you may be familiar with the points on which such men are going to war against you. Throughout their lives they have not learned anything other than to oppose us Orthodox Christians, in order that destruction and ill-treatment might be inflicted on our nation by Latins. Let us not listen to them, but let us stand firm as far away as possible. Beseech God that you not enter into temptation on account of the Faith. However, when there is great need, it is a sweet thing for a man to shed his blood for the sake of piety. But in so great a matter, God will not allow it, so that your enemies may prove wholly insignificant and, by the Grace of Christ, ignorant and blind. Yet, guard yourselves and beware of such men. May our Lord Jesus Christ help you, bless you, and grant you a peaceful state, and at the same time may the prayer of your humble servant be with all of you. Amen.

* Dositheos, Tόµος Ἀγάπης, pp. 552-554.