1613-02-21 Confirmation Charter of the Great All-Russian Church Council and Assembly of the Land of 1613, Concerning the Ascension to the Throne of the House of Romanoff

The Lord sent His Holy Spirit to fill the hearts of all Orthodox Christians, so that with one voice they may proclaim there to be on the thrones of Vladimir and Moscow and on all the thrones of the Russian realm, you, Great Sovereign Mikhail Fedorovich, as Tsar, Grand Prince, and Autocrat of all Russia.

[The people have] kissed the Life-Creating Cross and have given their vow, and pledge their souls and bodies to the Great Sovereign, the God-honored, God-chosen, beloved-by-God Tsar, Grand Prince and Autocrat Mikhail Fedorovich of All Russia, and to the Pious Tsaritsa and Grand Princess, and to all their royal children that God may in the future grant them, and pledge to serve them, our Sovereigns, with faith and truth with all our souls and bodies.

And it has been commanded that the Chosen of God, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanoff, should be the ancestor of the rulers of Russia from generation to generation, responsible for his rule to Heaven alone.

And whoever should rise up against the decision of this Assembly—whether it be a king or a patriarch or any person at all—shall be cursed both in this age and in the next, and be expelled from the grace of the Holy Trinity.

And [the people] shall seek or desire no other Sovereign besides the Sovereign Tsar, Grand Prince, and Autocrat Mikhail Fedorovich of All Russia, along withthe royal children that God may in the future grant him, nor shall they conspire to do any evil against him; and all the boyars, okol’nichie, courtiers, and chancellery clerks, and merchants, and boyars’ sons [deti boiarskie], and all the people in the entire realm are to stand as one against any such traitor.

This Confirmation Charter was read at the Great All-Russian Assembly of the Land, and having heard it, all those present made their eternal pledge to affirm what is written in the Confirmation Charter. And he who does not obey the pronouncement of the Assembly, which God has blessed, and instead begins to speak against it and to persuade people against it, whether that person be in Holy Orders, or a boyar, or a member of the Tsar’s retinue or armies, or someone else from among the common people—whatever his rank may be, that person will, in accordance with the laws of the Holy Apostles, of the Holy Seven Ecumenical Councils, of the Holy Fathers and of the Fathers of the Local Church, be entirely ejected, will be expelled from the Holy Church, and be deprived of the Holy Mysteries, for such a person will be a schismatic from the Church of God and from the entire community of Orthodox faithful, a rebel and a destroyer of the Laws of God, who calls upon himself the punishments of the Tsar’s Law; and our mercy and that of the entire clergy will not issue out to him forever more. And may this Charter be firm and inviolate now and from generation to generation, and may nothing in it pass out of existence.

And there were authorities from all the towns of Russiaat the Assembly of the Land: metropolitans, bishops and archimandrites, abbots, archpriests and the entire assembly of clergy; boyars and okol’nichie, cupbearers and tablemen and adjutants [striapchie], Duma courtiers [dumnyedvoriane] and clerks and servitors [zhil’tsy]; Moscow courtiers and provincial servitors; chancellery clerks; captains of the musketeer regiments, and atamans of the Cossacks, and musketeers and Cossacks with rights of commerce and residence in the commercial districts of towns; and all the higher ranks of servitors; and elected representatives from all the towns of Russia.

Original signatures follow.