He was charged with tyranny and oppression, with arbitrary and illegal exercise of power, with interference in matters beyond his province, with malversation of ecclesiastical revenues, with capricious abandonment of his office, with frivolously preventing the election of a patriarch after his own abdication, with offending the majesty of the sovereign and calumniating the clergy, thus bringing disorder upon the State and scandal upon the Church.
For the first time in eight years the two friends stood again face to face, and Alexis's heart was moved with pity and compassion. As he read the long list of accusations, tears flowed from his eyes, at the recollection of their former friendship and loving intercourse; yielding to his emotion, he descended from the throne, and, to the consternation of the hostile assemblage, took Nikon by the hand, and earnestly abjured him: "Oh, most holy father, why hast thou put upon me such a reproach, preparing thyself for the council as if for death? Thinkest thou that I have forgotten all thy services to me, and to my family, during the plague, and our former friendship?" The danger of reconciliation at the last hour seemed imminent, and the affecting scene was interrupted by violent denunciations on the part of the patriarch's enemies, anxious to destroy the effect of tender memories of the past. Nikon was speedily aroused to anger, and, in the bitterness of his heart, gave full course to his indignation, loudly denying the charges brought against him, and vehemently asserting the duties and prerogatives of his office; he fiercely inveighed against his accusers, and defied them to prove aught against him. "Why not bid them take up stones? so they might soon put an end to me, but not with words, though they should spend nine years more in collecting them." The critical moment had passed, and the threatening danger
