Boundaries of Ryazan Diocese on Eve of Voronezh and Tambov Dioceses Establishment in 17th Century: Problem Statement

The process of centralisation of the Moscow state affected the territorial structure of the Russian Orthodox Church. The mobility of administrative- territorial boundaries and the canonical territories of dioceses quite often had differences. These differences entailed disputes both among the bishops and among the inhabitants of the populations. The question of whether a particular territory belonged to a particular diocese was, among other things, important for the financial question. The question of the boundaries of dioceses became especially acute as a result of the church reform of the XVII century, as a result of which the territories of other dioceses were transferred to the newly formed dioceses. As the dispute between the Ryazan and Sarsk vladykas about the belonging of Chervlenny Yar shows, the problematic issues of including territorial boundaries to the jurisdiction of the diocese arose precisely in relation to the new territories. In preparation for the Council of 1682, the results of the census of 1678 were used to determine, among other things, the diocesan boundaries. Research into the census books of the Voronezh and Yeletsky districts of 1678 showed that the census enumerators were mostly interested in describing the number of households and their inhabitants, while the church structure, especially the boundaries of dioceses, was of less interest to them. Nevertheless, it was the decisions taken at the Council of 1682 that later fixed the boundaries of dioceses, although there were occasional disagreements. Therefore, the question of studying the boundaries of dioceses on the eve of the Council of 1682 is relevant, because it will allow us to understand the subsequent claims of bishops who disagreed with the results of the territorial distribution of dioceses.