the truth will make us free

What you are referring to are the actions of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow. Soon after he was ordained to the Patriarchal throne, a traveling russian clergyman returned from Mount Athos. There he had seen the services and practices of the Greek church, and was horrified to realize that the Russian church had departed in many ways from the traditions of the Church. Theologicaly and particularly liturgicaly, the Russian churches were not doing well. Nikon panicked. With the permission of the Tsar, he requested that a delegation of Athonite monks come and help them repair the damage of isolation. As work began on retranslating various works into slavonic, a faction of russians refused to \"change\" back to the way things should have been. These were the ancestors of the Old Believers. Nikon at first tried persuasion, but influenced by the west, soon fell into more heavyhanded tactics. These involved the closest thing that Orthodoxy has ever had to an inquistion. Eventually, people started pointing out that he was acting like a pope. His response supposedly was: \"And can we not imitate that which is useful in Rome?\" Things came to a head when calls for his removal resulted in a Synod. There, he was tried for his actions. It was decided that while his reforms in the Church were neccesary, his means were wrong. He was condemned for torture, coercion, and for abuse of authority. He was deposed and anethematized. As I recall the actions of this Synod were given a \'thumbs up\' so to speak, from the other Patriarchates. Unfortunately, because of bitterness and stubborness on both sides, the rift between the Old Believers and the Church was never healed. In Christ, John