Handwritten charter of the Council of Constantinople on the founding of the Moscow Patriarchate, on parchment with the lead seal of Jeremias II, Patriarch of Constantinople, May 1590
The text is as follows:
"Jeremias, by the mercy of God Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch.
Whereas the pious and peaceable Autocrat, Tsar of all the land of Russia, … and lord of other Orthodox Christians, Feodor Ivanovich, … has sought a dignity from us by the election of the Council, and according to the commandment and the law, that we should ordain the Archbishop of Moscow and name him Patriarch, even as the other named patriarchs are called: the first, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, was honoured with this dignity by the first Holy Ecumenical Council, by the blessed and equal-to-the-apostles great Tsar Constantine, and afterwards the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, the Orthodox patriarchs: this grace we, in our humility, beheld with our own eyes, and rejoiced at the enlargement and grandeur granted by God to this realm, for he is now the one great Orthodox Tsar upon the earth, and it would have been unworthy not to do his will. And having received the understanding of him the Patriarch, they set him up in Moscow, the Lord Job by name, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and gave him a patriarchal charter with a golden seal, and by that charter it was decreed and ordained that he, Archbishop of Moscow, the Lord Job, should rule as the fifth Patriarch, and should have the patriarchal dignity and honour, and be named and esteemed together with the other patriarchs for ever and always; but this they accomplished there, on the spot. And when, by the grace of God, we came in our humility to our own throne in the city of Constantine, we declared this deed, as it was done in Moscow, the counsel and petition of the pious Tsar, plainly; and on hearing of this dignity and these praiseworthy deeds, the other most holy patriarchs, of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, were well pleased … We write and proclaim by this conciliar charter: first, we confess and ratify, in the reigning city of Moscow, the ordination and the patriarchal naming of the appointed Patriarch, the Lord Job. Thereafter we ratify it, and for that purpose send, as we write, the patriarchal charter, and write of all plainly; and it has pleased the Council that the aforesaid Moscow patriarch, the Lord Job, shall be named Patriarch and esteemed together with the other patriarchs, and his rank shall stand, and in prayers, after the Patriarch of Jerusalem, we must commemorate our own name and those of the others, while at the head and in the first place we must hold and honour the apostolic throne of Constantinople, as do the other patriarchs; and this bestowed gift, the patriarchal honour and name, shall not only be given to the Patriarch of Moscow, the Lord Job, but has been confirmed unshakeably by our decree, and after him also the Moscow Council shall appoint to the patriarchate the foremost of the authorities. And let it be named, having been sought out according to the canons, begun by this Patriarch of Moscow, the Lord Job, in the Holy Spirit, beloved brother and fellow-celebrant of our humility; and for that reason this established charter has been ratified for memory for ever and made fast. In the year 798, in the month of May.
And the charter is subscribed with the hands of the patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops and bishops, and of the members of the Council."
Collection of the Archive of Ancient Acts
