STEFAN YAVORSKY, Metropolitan (1658-1722) Znamenia... Lot n° 886

– 1 leaf frontispiece, 15, 152 leaves; 16.5x11 cm. Woodcut Illustration, headpiece, and endpapers. Title page and each page of text in a linear frame. Printed in two colors. In a full-leather binding of the period. Minor losses of leather fragments, cracks, traces of insects, renewed endpapers, frontispiece backed with paper. Metropolitan Stefan (secular name - Simeon Ivanovich Yavorsky; 1658-1722) – Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church; Metropolitan of Ryazan and Murom; guardian of the patriarchal throne in the years preceding the abolition of the patriarchy under Peter I. After the reforms of Peter I, the previously emerging issue of schism in Russian church life intensified. Thus, there arose the case of the scribe Grigory Talitsky, who was distributing notebooks among the people calling Moscow Babylon and Peter I the Antichrist. The Metropolitan had to take action. In 1703, he published a book against the heresies of Talitsky, titled Znamenia prishestviya antikhristova i konchiny veka. The work proved to be in high demand and was reprinted eight times in the 18th century.