Metropolitan Paul I of Tobolsk and Siberian chronicle writing of the late 17th century

This paper is concerned with the role of Metropolitan Paul I of Tobolsk (previously discussed on assumptions only) in the development of the Siberian chronicle writing, which was conducted under the predecessor of this bishop, Cornelius, and most likely before. The objectives of the paper include the definition of the editions of the Siberian Chronicle, probably formed during the stay of Paul I as a head of the Tobolsk Bishop’s House (1678-1692), and of the range of the year-by-year records revealing an interest in the fate of the metropolitan department of that time - records that may have appeared with the participation of this prelate. The methods of study employed in this paper are the identification of chronicle reports, in which the interest in Metropolitan Paul’s activities is revealed, and which are attributed to the scribes of the Sophia Bishop’s House, who served under Metropolitan Paul. The research is also aimed at the establishment of Siberian Chronicle editions that contain the most significant layers of such reports. In the course of the study it was determined that the interest in Paul’s activities is felt in Kniga Zapisnaya (the Book of Records) and in two subsequent editions of this collection - Golovinskaya and Naryshkinskaya. The chroniclers, in particular, reported on the trips of this lord to Moscow; the punishments of voivodes M. V and I. V Priklonsky; the transfer of the remains of the archbishops Makary and Gerasimus, Metropolitan Kornilius to the Assumption Cathedral of St. Sophia; Paul’s “consecration”(with the granting of the white cap) of Archimandrite of the Yenisei Spassky Monastery of St. Matthew; the bishop’s consecration of temples, his illness and further death. Dozens of entries in the Golovinskaya and Naryshkinskaya editions of Siberian Chronicles are devoted to the church construction and the process of church bells’ delivery from Moscow; multiple cases of Old Believers “fires” were also registered. Relevant reports that appeared in the hot pursuit of events provide grounds to connect them with two annalistic works. One of them became the source for Kniga Zapisnaya, and the second, sometimes less detailed, for Golovinskaya and Naryshkinskaya editions of Siberian Chronicles. Both of these works differ significantly in the composition of entries. Messages from Kniga Zapisnaya on the prolonged illness of the metropolitan (after the transfer of the remains of former Siberian lords conducted by him before his death), on his return from Moscow to Tobolsk on January 2, 1683 and March 20, 1687 can be attributed to eyewitnesses, most likely to persons close to Paul I. The same conclusions can be made about the records from the Golovinskaya edition of the Siberian Chronicles about the ups and downs of the construction of the stone Assumption Cathedral. At the end of the 17th century, the Tobolsk Bishop’s House remained the center of chronicle writings with the latter being simultaneously conducted in the voivode administration of the “reigning city” of Siberian land.