Домостро́й
Domostroy is a 16th-century Russian Christian guide to faith, prayer, family, work, and daily life.
This English translation follows the Sylvester recension, including its 64 chapters, with additional chapters and material preserved in related historical editions of the Domostroy tradition.
Sources: 1994 scholarly edition · Azbyka · 1891 edition
English translation: Piece of Humanity
Read it in its historical context. Listen to what it says. Then go to Church.
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Table of Contents
The chapters below link directly to the translation. The first 64 chapters follow the Sylvester recension; additional material from related historical editions follows afterward.
Chapters of the Sylvester Recension
- A Father’s Admonition to His Son
- Belief in the Holy Trinity, the Theotokos, the Cross, the Angels, and the Saints
- The Holy Mysteries, the Resurrection, the Last Judgment, and Reverence for Holy Things
- Loving God and One’s Neighbor, the Fear of God, and Remembrance of Death
- Honoring Bishops, Priests, and Monastics
- Visiting Monasteries, Hospitals, Prisons, and Those in Affliction
- Honoring the Tsar, Princes, and Authorities
- Keeping the Home Clean and Adorned with Holy Icons
- Coming to Churches and Monasteries with Offerings
- Inviting Priests and Monastics into the Home to Pray
- Feeding Those Who Come to the Home with Thanksgiving
- How a Husband, Wife, and Household Should Pray at Home
- How Husband and Wife Should Pray in Church and Keep Purity
- How Children Should Honor Their Spiritual Fathers
- Raising Children in Instruction and the Fear of God
- Preparing Children for Marriage
- Teaching Children and Saving Them Through Discipline
- How Children Should Love, Honor, and Obey Their Father and Mother
- Working and Beginning Every Task with a Blessing
- Praise of Wives
- Instruction for Husbands, Wives, Servants, and Children
- Choosing Household Servants and Instructing Them
- How Christians Should Care for the Sick
- On Unrighteous Living
- On Righteous Living
- How a Person Should Order His Household and Possessions
- When a Person Lives Without Proper Order
- When Servants Are Kept Without Proper Discipline
- A Husband’s Instruction to His Wife on How to Please God and Order the Household
- The Work and Prudence of Good Wives
- How to Cut Clothing and Preserve Scraps
- Maintaining Good Order Throughout the Household
- The Mistress’s Daily Oversight of Servants and Household Work
- How a Wife Should Consult Her Husband About the Household
- Instructing Servants When Sending Them on Errands
- Instruction Concerning Drunkenness, Servants, Guests, and Household Conduct
- How a Wife Should Dress and Arrange Her Clothing
- How to Keep the House in Good and Clean Order
- The Duty of a Husband to Teach His Wife and Household
- Buying the Year’s Supplies and Goods
- Buying Imported Goods and Goods from Distant Lands
- Household Supplies, Food, Drink, and Livestock
- Storing a Year’s Supply of Food for the Household
- Planning Ahead for Household Profit and Provision
- How to Keep a Garden and Orchard
- Keeping Drink for the Household and Guests
- How to Brew Beer, Make Honey Drink, and Distill Wine
- Supervising Cooks, Bakers, and Household Workers
- How Husband and Wife Should Direct the Household Steward
- Instructions to the Steward When Preparing a Feast
- Instructions for Preparing Meat and Lenten Food
- Care of Granaries and Storehouses
- Care of the Drying House
- Care of the Cellar and Icehouse
- Care of Storerooms, Cellars, and Barns
- Care of Hay, Horses, Firewood, and Livestock
- Care of Kitchens, Bakeries, and Workrooms
- The Master’s Regular Inspection of Household Stores and Buildings
- How the Master Should Deal with Servants
- How to Deal with Merchants and Shopkeepers
- How to Build a Household, Shop, Village House, or Barn
- Paying Taxes, Rents, and Debts
- Instructions for Preserving Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Other Provisions
- A Father’s Letter and Admonition to His Son
Additional Material from Related Historical Editions
This section contains additional Domostroy material preserved outside the 64-chapter Sylvester recension.
1. A Father’s Admonition to His Son
I, a sinful father, bless, instruct, admonish, and bring to understanding my son [name], his wife, their children, and their household: that they live according to every Christian law, with a pure conscience and in truth; that they do the will of God in faith and keep His commandments; that they establish themselves in the fear of God and in lawful living; that the wife be instructed likewise, and that the members of the household be admonished—not by compulsion, blows, or heavy labor, but as children, with peace, well fed and clothed, in a warm dwelling and in every proper order.
I give you this writing as a remembrance and for your instruction and that of your children. If you do not heed this writing of mine, do not listen to this admonition, and do not begin to live and act as it is written, you yourselves will answer for it on the day of the Terrible Judgment. I will not share in your faults and sins, for as far as my own soul is concerned, I have blessed you concerning every good order, wept, prayed, instructed you, and placed this writing before you.
And if you receive this poor teaching of mine and this humble admonition, and with all purity of soul ask God for help and understanding, as much as God grants understanding, and begin to put all these things into practice, then the mercy of God, of the Most Pure Mother of God, and of the great wonderworkers will be upon you, together with our blessing, from now and forever.
May your house, your children, your possessions, and the abundance that God has granted you through your labors be blessed and filled with every good thing forever.
Amen.
2. How Christians Are to Believe in the Holy Trinity, the Most Pure Mother of God, the Cross of Christ, the Holy Heavenly Powers, All the Saints, and the Holy Relics, and to Worship Them
It is fitting for every Christian to know how to live according to God in the Orthodox Christian faith.
First of all, believe with all your soul in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the undivided Trinity; believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and call His Mother, who gave birth to Him, the Mother of God.
Bow down in faith before the Cross of Christ, for upon it the Lord accomplished salvation for all mankind.
Give honor to the icons of Christ, His Most Pure Mother, the holy bodiless heavenly powers, and all the saints, giving them the honor due to those whom they represent. Pray and make prostrations before them, and call upon them for help before God. Kiss the relics of the saints with faith and bow down before them.
3. How to Partake of the Mysteries of God, Believe in the Resurrection of the Dead, Await the Terrible Judgment, and Approach Every Holy Thing
Believe in the Mysteries of God. Believe in His Body and Blood and partake with fear, for the purification and sanctification of soul and body, for the remission of sins, and for eternal life.
Believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the life of the age to come. Remember the Terrible Judgment, when each of us will receive according to our deeds.
Whenever, having spiritually purified yourself in a clean conscience, you approach with prayer and supplication to kiss the Life-giving Cross, the holy and honorable wonder-working and greatly healing relics, after praying make the sign of the Cross and kiss them, holding your breath and not opening your lips.
If God grants you to partake of the Divine Mysteries of Christ, receive them from the priest with the spoon into your mouth carefully. Do not strike the spoon with your lips; keep your hands crossed upon your breast.
Take the antidoron, prosphora, and every holy thing carefully. Do not let crumbs fall upon the ground. Do not bite the prosphora as ordinary bread is bitten; break off small pieces and place them in your mouth. Eat carefully, without smacking your lips or mouth.
Do not eat prosphora with liquid food. Sip only water, or warm water with wine or without wine, and mix nothing else with it.
Before any other food, consume the prosphora, whether in church or at home. Never eat prosphora with kutia or with memorial food, and do not place prosphora upon the kutia.
If you exchange the kiss of Christ with someone, likewise hold your breath and kiss without smacking your lips. Consider human weakness: an insensible person recoils from the smell of garlic, strong drink, illness, and every foul odor. How hateful such a stench and odor is to the Lord; therefore act with care.
4. How to Love God with All One’s Soul, and Likewise One’s Brother, and to Have the Fear of God and Remembrance of Death
After this, love the Lord your God with all your soul, and strive to make all your deeds, customs, and ways pleasing to Him according to His commandments.
Likewise, love every person who is created in the image of God—that is, every Christian.
Always keep the fear of God in your heart and remembrance of death. Always do the will of God and walk according to His commandments.
The Lord says: “In whatever state I find you, in that I will judge you.”
Therefore every Christian should always be ready in good works, in purity, in repentance, and in confession, always awaiting the hour of death.
5. How to Honor the Episcopal, Priestly, and Monastic Orders
Always have recourse to the episcopal order. Give them their proper honor and seek from them blessing and spiritual instruction. Bow before them and obey them in everything according to God.
Toward the priestly and monastic orders have great faith, love, obedience, and submission, and receive spiritual benefit from them.
For they are servants and intercessors before the Heavenly King. They have boldness before the Lord to ask for what is good and useful for our souls, for the remission of sins, and for eternal life.
6. How to Visit Monasteries, Hospitals, Prisons, and All Those Who Are Afflicted
Visit monasteries, hospitals, wildernesses, and those confined in prisons. Give alms and whatever necessities they require, as much as they need and as much as you are able.
See their poverty, affliction, and every need, and help them as far as you are able.
Do not despise anyone who is afflicted, poor, needy, or a beggar. Bring such a person into your home; give him drink, feed him, warm him, and clothe him, with love and a clean conscience. By this you will show mercy before God and receive freedom from sin.
Make remembrance of your departed parents by bringing offerings to the churches of God and, in your home, giving food to the poor in their memory.
Then you yourself will be remembered by God.
7. How to Honor the Tsar and Prince, Obey Every Authority, and Serve Them in Truth; How to Treat Great and Small, the Afflicted and the Weak, and Every Person
Fear the tsar and serve him faithfully. Always pray to God for him, and never speak falsely before him. Answer him with humility and truth, as before God Himself, and obey him in everything.
If you serve and fear an earthly tsar in truth, you will learn also to fear the Heavenly King. The earthly king is temporary; the Heavenly King is eternal. He is an impartial Judge and will repay each person according to his deeds.
Likewise submit to princes and give them the honor due to those whom God has sent for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do good.
Receive your prince with all your heart, and do not think evil of your authorities. As the Apostle Paul says, all authority is established by God; whoever resists authority resists the ordinance of God.
The Lord will destroy those who speak lies, slander, and deceit against the tsar, prince, or any nobleman. Whisperers and slanderers are cursed among the people.
Honor those older than yourself and bow before them. Regard those of middle age as brothers. Welcome the weak and afflicted with love. Love the younger as children.
Do not be evil toward any creature of God. Desire no earthly glory. Ask God for eternal blessings.
Endure every sorrow and hardship with thanksgiving. Do not take revenge when wronged. Pray when you are cursed. Do not return evil for evil. Do not judge those who have sinned; remember your own sins and attend carefully to them.
Turn away from the counsel of evil men. Be zealous for those who live righteously, write their deeds upon your heart, and do likewise yourself.
8. How to Adorn One’s House with Holy Images and Keep the House Clean
Every Christian should place holy and honorable images, painted upon icons, properly upon the walls of every room in his house, arranging them beautifully and with every fitting adornment.
Let lamps be kept before the holy images, with candles lit during the glorification of God. After the singing, extinguish them and cover the icons, both for cleanliness and to protect them from dust.
Keep them clean, dusting them with a clean soft cloth and wiping them with a soft sponge, and always keep the place of the holy images clean.
Approach the holy images with a pure conscience. Light candles before them during the glorification of God, during sacred singing, and during prayer. Burn fragrant incense and frankincense.
The holy images are to be placed according to the order already described and are to be honored in prayer, vigils, prostrations, and every glorification of God.
Always honor them with tears and contrition of heart, confessing your sins and asking for forgiveness.
9. How to Come to the Churches of God and Monasteries with Offerings
Always come to the churches of God with faith and with offerings: with a candle, prosphora, incense, memorial bread, kutia, and alms, whether for health, for the departed, or for feast days.
Likewise come to monasteries with alms and offerings.
When you bring your gift to the altar, remember the word of the Gospel: if your brother has something against you, leave your gift before the altar, go first and make peace with your brother, and then bring your gift to God.
Bring your offering from your righteous possessions. Alms obtained through injustice are not pleasing.
It is said that it is better not to rob than to give alms from what was stolen. Give back what was taken from the person who was wronged; this is more pleasing than almsgiving from unjust possessions.
But almsgiving from honest earnings and good works is pleasing to God.
10. How to Invite Priests and Monastics into Your Home to Pray
On whatever feast days, according to your promise and as you are able, invite priests into your home. Let them celebrate a prayer service for whatever you ask, praying for the tsar and grand prince, the sovereign of all Russia, for his tsarina and grand princess, their noble children, his brothers and boyars, and all Christ-loving soldiers, for victory over enemies and freedom for captives, and for the whole priestly and monastic order.
Do not secretly remove or send away food or drink from the table or feast without the permission of the one responsible and without a blessing; such actions are sacrilege and self-will.
When you are invited to a wedding, do not sit in the place of honor. If someone more distinguished than you has been invited, the one who invited you may come and say, “Give this man your place.” Then, with shame, you will have to take the lowest place.
Instead, when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place. Then the one who invited you may come and say, “Friend, move up higher.” Then you will have honor before those seated with you, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
When many kinds of food and drink are placed before you at a feast, do not begin eating before someone more honored than you. If you are the one presiding, begin thoughtfully, judging what food should be served first.
Among some who love God there is an abundance of food and drink, and what remains is kept so that it may later be useful to others.
But if someone is careless, inexperienced, unlearned, or ignorant, and without discernment begins eating every kind of food to excess, behaving carelessly, he will bring shame and ridicule upon himself before God and men.
Chapter 11 — How to Feed Those Who Come to Your Home with Thanksgiving
When you set the table, the priests first glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and then the Virgin Mother of God. When they eat with thanksgiving and in silence, or with spiritual conversation, then the angels stand invisibly present and record the good deeds, and the food and drink become sweet.
But if someone begins to criticize the food and drink that have been set before him, then the meal is spoiled. If there are filthy words, shameful and lustful speech, foolish laughter, mockery, music, clapping, dancing, games, and songs of demons, then, just as smoke drives away the bees, so the angels of God depart from that table and that foul conversation. The demons rejoice and come, having found an opportunity to do their will.
Likewise, through disorderly gambling, chess, and other demonic games, they amuse themselves and turn God’s gift of food and drink and every kind of fruit into mockery. They spill it, throw it at one another, pour it over one another, and in every way insult God’s gift. The demons record their deeds and bring them before Satan, and together they rejoice in the destruction of Christians. All these deeds will stand before them on the day of the Terrible Judgment.
Woe to those who do such things. When the Jews sat in the wilderness to eat and drink, and had eaten and drunk their fill, they rose up to play and to commit fornication, and then the earth swallowed twenty-three thousand of them.
Therefore, be afraid, O people, and do the will of God, as it is written in the Law. May the Lord preserve every Christian from such evil disorder. Eat and drink for the glory of God, and do not overeat, become drunk, or engage in vain things.
If you set food or drink before someone, or if food is set before you, it is not proper to criticize it by saying that it is rotten, sour, bland, salty, bitter, stale, raw, overcooked, or by making any other complaint. Rather, every food is to be praised as a gift of God and eaten with thanksgiving. Then God receives it as a sweet fragrance and turns it to sweetness.
But if some food or drink is truly unsuitable, instruct the members of the household who prepared it, so that such a thing will not happen again.
Chapter 12 — How a Husband and Wife, with Their Household, Are to Pray in Their Home
Every evening, the husband and wife, together with those members of the household who know how to read, are to chant Vespers, Compline, and Midnight Office, with silence and attention, standing reverently and praying with bows. They should chant clearly and with one accord.
After the rule, they should neither eat nor drink. This instruction is for all. When going to sleep, every Christian should make three prostrations to the ground.
At midnight, always rise secretly and pray earnestly to God with tears, as much as one is able, concerning one’s own sins. In the morning, likewise rise and pray, each according to his strength and desire.
Every Christian should pray, making bows to the waist, for his own sins and forgiveness of sins, and for the tsar and tsaritsa, their children, his brothers, the boyars, the Christ-loving army, help against enemies, freedom for captives, and for the episcopal and priestly orders, for the sick and those imprisoned, and for all Christians.
The wife should pray for her own sins, for her husband and children, for the members of the household and relatives, and for her spiritual fathers. The husband should do likewise.
In the morning, after rising, pray to God and chant Matins and the Hours. On Sundays and feast days, also serve a prayer service, with prayer, silence, reverent standing, and chanting together, listening attentively and receiving the blessing of the holy incense.
Where there is no one able to chant, it is sufficient to pray in the evening and in the morning. But husbands should by no means neglect the Church’s daily chanting of Vespers, Matins, and the Divine Liturgy.
Chapter 13 — How a Husband and Wife Are to Pray in Church, Keep Purity, and Do No Evil
In church, stand at every service with fear and pray in silence. At home, always chant Compline, Midnight Office, and the Hours.
If someone adds additional prayers for the sake of salvation, that is according to his own will, and he receives greater reward from God.
Women should go to the church of God as circumstances permit, according to their own desire and in consultation with their husbands. In church, speak with no one. Stand in silence and listen, looking neither here nor there. Do not lean against a wall or pillar. Do not stand with a staff, and do not shift from one foot to the other.
Keep your hands folded across your breast in the form of a cross, and pray firmly and without wavering, with fear and trembling, with sighs and tears. Do not leave the church until the service has ended, but arrive from the beginning.
On Sundays, on the feasts of the Lord, on Wednesdays and Fridays, and during the Holy Fast and the fasts of the Mother of God, remain in purity.
Always guard yourself from overeating and drunkenness, from vain conversations and improper laughter, from theft, fornication, lies, slander, envy, and every unrighteous acquisition. Do not love taverns, unlawful gains, or dishonest dealings.
Do not become angry with anyone. Do not eat or drink too early or too late after the services. Eat and drink for the glory of God, and at the proper time feed the small children and the working people according to the judgment of the husband and wife.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? As the Apostle Paul says, if someone is called a brother but is a fornicator, greedy, an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or extortioner, do not eat or drink with such a person.
Again he says that idolaters, adulterers, the impure, the sexually immoral, the greedy, thieves, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Therefore every Christian must guard himself from every evil.
Chapter 14 — How Children Are to Honor Their Spiritual Fathers and Obey Them
Know this: children ought to honor their spiritual fathers. Seek out a spiritual father who is good, God-loving, prudent, and discerning—not one who is indulgent, drunk, greedy for money, or easily angered.
Such a spiritual father should be honored and obeyed in everything. Confess before him with tears, openly and without shame, and keep his commandments.
Frequently invite him into your home and always open your conscience before him. Receive his instruction with love, and obey him in everything. Honor him and bow deeply before him, for he is your teacher and guide.
Approach him with fear and love, and give him an offering from your labors according to your means. Frequently seek his counsel concerning a life that is profitable for the soul, and examine your sins with him.
Ask how a husband should teach and love his wife and children, and how a wife should obey her husband and consult him each day. Always confess your sins before your spiritual father and reveal all your sins, submitting yourself to him in everything.
For they keep watch over our souls and will give an account for us on the day of the Terrible Judgment.
Do not insult them, judge them, or reproach them. When they take concern for someone, listen to them and show mercy to the guilty according to the matter, judging together with your spiritual father.
Chapter 15 — How to Raise Children in Every Instruction and in the Fear of God
If God gives someone children, sons or daughters, the father and mother must care for their children, provide for them, raise them with good discipline, and teach them the fear of God, good manners, and every proper conduct.
At the proper time, according to the child’s age, teach the daughters crafts through their mother and the sons through their father, each according to what God has given him ability to learn.
Love them, guard them, and save them through instruction and discipline. Correct them and, when necessary, discipline them. Teach children in their youth, and they will bring you peace in your old age.
Guard and preserve their bodily purity and protect them from every sin. A father must guard his children as the apple of his eye and as his own soul.
If children sin because of the negligence of their father and mother, the parents will answer for those sins on the day of the Terrible Judgment.
If children are neglected and remain without discipline, and they sin or do anything wrong, there is sin before God for the fathers and mothers together with their children, as well as reproach and ridicule from people, loss to the household, sorrow and financial loss to themselves, and punishment and shame before judges.
But if children are raised by God-fearing, wise, and prudent parents in the fear of God, good discipline, sound teaching, understanding, useful skills, and crafts, then those children, together with their parents, receive mercy from God, blessing from the sacred order, and praise from good people.
When they reach maturity, good people joyfully and thankfully marry their sons according to their station and, according to God’s judgment, give their daughters in marriage.
And if God takes one of such children from this life in repentance and after receiving Holy Communion, it is an undefiled offering from the parents to God. Such children enter the eternal dwelling places and have boldness before God to ask for mercy, forgiveness of sins, and remembrance for their parents.
Chapter 16 — How to Raise Children and Provide a Dowry for a Daughter
When a daughter is born, prudent people set aside a portion of every increase for her, or raise livestock and its offspring in her name.
They also place in her dowry chest, year by year, linen, cloth, shirts, garments, embroidery, jewelry, sacred objects, and vessels of tin, copper, and wood, continually adding to them little by little rather than buying everything at once, so that it does not become a burden.
In this way the daughter grows up while learning the fear of God and useful skills, and her dowry grows with her. When the time comes for her to marry, everything is ready.
But those who make no provision for their children beforehand must purchase everything when the marriage is already being arranged. Such a hurried marriage is a difficult undertaking.
If, according to God’s judgment, the daughter should die before marriage, her dowry is used in remembrance of her soul: a forty-day commemoration is served and alms are given from it.
If there are other daughters, care should likewise be taken for them.
Chapter 17 — How to Teach Children and Save Them through Discipline
Discipline your son from his youth, and he will bring you rest in your old age and beauty to your soul.
Do not spare the young child from discipline. For if you strike him with a rod, he will not die, but will be strengthened; for by disciplining his body you deliver his soul from death.
If you have a daughter, place your authority over her and preserve her from bodily harm, so that she does not bring shame upon you. Let her walk in obedience and not follow her own will, lest through foolishness she ruin her virginity and become a source of ridicule and shame to you before many people.
If you give your daughter in marriage without reproach, you have accomplished a great thing and may rejoice among the assembly, and in the end you will not groan over her.
If you love your son, discipline him diligently so that afterward you may rejoice over him. Discipline your son from childhood, and you will rejoice in his manhood and praise him even among the wicked, and your enemies will be envious.
Raise the child with correction, and you will find peace and blessing in him.
Do not merely indulge him with games and laughter. If you become too lenient with him when he is small, you will suffer greater sorrow when he is grown, and afterward he will become a bitterness to your soul.
Do not give him authority in his youth, but discipline him while he is growing, lest when he becomes hardened he refuse to obey you. Then he will become a reproach and sorrow to your soul, a burden to your household, a ruin to your property, a reproach among your neighbors, and a source of shame before your enemies and the authorities.
Chapter 18 — How Children Are to Love and Honor Their Father and Mother, Obey Them, and Care for Them in Everything
Children, listen to the commandments of the Lord. Love your father and mother, listen to them, and obey them according to God in everything.
Honor their old age. Bear their weakness and every sorrow upon your own shoulders with all your soul, and it will be well with you. You will have long life and be honored by people, and your house will be blessed forever.
Your children and grandchildren will inherit blessing, and you will reach a venerable old age, spending your days in every good thing.
But if anyone speaks evil of his parents, insults them, curses them, or reviles them, he is a sinner before God and accursed among the people.
If anyone strikes his father or mother, let him be cut off from the Church and from every holy thing, and let him die a grievous death, according to the punishment prescribed.
For it is written that a father’s curse withers and a mother’s curse uproots a son or daughter. Those who do not obey father or mother will come to ruin and will not live out their days—those who anger their father and insult their mother.
It is worse than sin against God and is counted among the ungodly. The prophet Isaiah speaks concerning such people: the ungodly will be removed so that they will not see the glory of the Lord.
Such are those who dishonor their parents. Again, concerning one who mocks his father and despises his mother’s old age, it is said that ravens will peck out his eyes and eagles will devour them.
But the one who honors father and mother and obeys them according to God in everything will bring joy to them. In the day of sorrow, the Lord God will deliver them, hear their prayer, and grant them whatever good they ask.
The one who gives rest to his mother and does the will of God, honoring his father in good things, will live well.
Therefore, children, please your parents in word and deed and in every good counsel, that you may be blessed by them.
A father’s blessing establishes a house, and a mother’s prayer delivers from affliction.
If your father or mother becomes weak in understanding in old age, do not dishonor or reproach them, so that you also may be honored by your own children.
Do not forget the labor of your mother and father, how they suffered and grieved for you. Give rest to their old age and suffer with them, just as they suffered for you.
Do not say, “I have done much good for them, providing clothing, food, and every necessity.” You cannot thereby free yourself from your duty, for you cannot give birth to them and suffer as your mother suffered for you.
Therefore serve them with fear and reverence, that you also may receive your reward from God and inherit eternal life as those who fulfill His commandments.
Chapter 19 — How Every Person Is to Work with His Hands and Begin Every Task with a Blessing
In the household and everywhere, every person—master or mistress, son or daughter, male or female servant, old or young—should begin every task or craft, whether eating or drinking, cooking or baking, preparing food, practicing a craft, or doing any kind of work, by first cleansing himself from every impurity and washing his hands clean.
First bow before the holy images, making a full prostration or, when appropriate, a bow to the waist. Then ask for a blessing from the one who has authority to give it, say the Jesus Prayer, make the sign of the cross, and say:
“Lord, bless, Father.”
Then begin every task.
The mercy of God will assist such work, the angels will invisibly help, and the demons will flee. The work will be to the honor of God and for the benefit of the soul.
Eat and drink with thanksgiving, and it will be sweet. Whatever is made for future use will be pleasing.
Work with prayer and with good conversation, or in silence.
But if, while working, someone begins idle or blasphemous speech, complaining, laughter, mockery, obscene or lustful words, then God’s mercy withdraws from that work and that conversation. The angels depart in sorrow, while the wicked demons rejoice, seeing foolish Christians doing their will.
They approach and place every kind of evil in the mind: hostility, enmity, hatred, thoughts of fornication and anger, mockery, foul speech, and every evil.
Then the work, the food, or the drink does not prosper. Every craft and every handiwork is no longer accomplished in God, but to God’s anger. It becomes unblessed, useless, displeasing, and unstable.
Food and drink become tasteless and unpleasant, pleasing and sweet only to the enemy and his servants.
And whoever prepares food, drink, or any handiwork dishonestly, stealing, lying, or swearing falsely concerning what was made or whether it was properly done—none of these things is pleasing to God.
The demons record all these deeds, and a person will be examined concerning them on the day of the Terrible Judgment.
Chapter 20 — A Praise of Wives
If God grants a good wife, she is more precious than many costly stones. Such a woman will not lack good gain.
She does everything that is good for her husband. Having obtained wool and flax, she makes useful things with her own hands.
She is like a merchant ship, gathering wealth from afar. She rises during the night and gives food to her household and work to her maidservants.
From the fruit of her hands she plants and cultivates. She has much work, girds her loins firmly, and strengthens her arms for labor.
She teaches her children and her servants. Her lamp does not go out throughout the night. Her hands reach out to useful work, and her elbows rest upon the spindle.
She extends mercy to the poor and gives from her fruit to the needy.
Her husband does not worry about his household. She makes many beautiful garments for her husband, herself, her children, and the members of her household.
Her husband is known in the assembly of nobles and sits among distinguished men. He is greatly honored and speaks wisely.
For she understands that no one is crowned without labor.
Because of a good wife, her husband is blessed, and the number of his days is doubled.
A good wife brings joy to her husband and fills his years with peace.
A good wife is a blessed portion among those who fear the Lord. By honoring her husband, she first keeps God’s commandment and is blessed; secondly, she is praised by people.
A good, hardworking, and quiet wife is a crown to her husband.
A man who finds a good wife brings good things out of his household.
Blessed is such a woman’s husband. They will complete their years in goodness and peace.
The praise of a good wife is the honor of her husband.
Chapter 21 — Instruction for Husband, Wife, Household, and Children on How They Should Live Properly
The master of the household should teach himself, his wife, his children, and his household not to steal, commit fornication, lie, slander, envy, offend, falsely accuse, covet what belongs to another, judge others, drink excessively, mock people, remember wrongs, or become angry with anyone.
They should be obedient to those above them; loving toward those of equal standing; and kind and merciful toward those below them and toward the poor.
They should deal with everyone without delay or unnecessary dispute, especially never offending those who serve them for hire.
Every offense should be endured with thanksgiving for God’s sake, including insults and reproaches. If the reproach is deserved, receive it with love and turn away from such foolishness rather than taking revenge. If you are reproached for something of which you are innocent, you will receive your reward from God.
Teach your household the fear of God and every virtue, and practice these things yourself. Then together you will find mercy from God.
But if through negligence and carelessness the master sins, or the wife sins because her husband has failed to instruct her, or any member of the household—men, women, or children—commits theft, fornication, quarrels, or other evil because of the master’s failure to discipline them, then all will answer according to their deeds.
Those who do evil will receive eternal punishment; those who do good and live in a manner pleasing to God will inherit eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Chapter 22 — What Kind of Household Servants to Keep and How to Care for Them in Every Instruction, in the Commandments of God, and in Household Order
Keep good household servants who are capable of work and skilled in whatever craft they have learned.
They should not be thieves, drunkards, gamblers, robbers, fornicators, sorcerers, tavern keepers, deceivers, or dishonest people.
Every servant of a good master should be taught the fear of God, good manners, humility, and every virtue. He should learn a useful trade, not lie, rob, or injure anyone.
He should be provided with food and clothing, either through his master’s wages or through his own craft. If the master gives him clothing, a horse, equipment, farmland, or an opportunity for trade, the servant should care for these things faithfully.
His better clothing—both outer and undergarments, shirts, and boots—should be preserved for feast days and for appearing before good people in fair weather. It should always be kept clean, not stained, soiled, spilled upon, soaked, or crushed.
If someone is foolish, rough, ignorant, careless, and unable to preserve clothing given by his master or made through his own labor, the master or whoever has authority should keep his best clothing in safekeeping. Give it to him when he needs to wear it, and afterward take it back and preserve it.
All household servants should be instructed to wear worn clothing while working, but clean everyday clothing before the master and in the presence of other people. On feast days, and when appearing before good people or before the master or mistress, they should wear their better clothing.
They should protect it from mud, rain, and snow. When they return, they should remove it, dry it, clean it, shake it out, fold it carefully, and put it away where they live. This is good for themselves, brings them honor before others, is useful to the master, and preserves the clothing for future use.
The servants should live honorably, under discipline and supervision, and should not steal from one another. They should never desire what belongs to another, but should guard everything belonging to the master as one household.
The master and mistress should not lie or slander anyone. They should not tolerate such behavior among the servants, but should investigate matters honestly, bringing the parties face to face.
They should not permit wrongdoing, but should reward those who do good. Then everyone will strive toward what is good and seek to earn the master’s favor through honest and faithful service.
Teach the servants, whenever possible, to attend the church of God, and on feast days either to hear the singing at home or to pray separately.
They should preserve bodily purity, abstain from fornication and drunkenness, avoid greed, and not eat or drink at improper times or to excess.
They should have spiritual fathers and come to confession. Married servants should live lawfully with their spouses according to the instruction of their spiritual father. Husbands should not commit fornication with other women, nor wives with other men.
Whatever the master has learned, he should teach his wife also: the fear of God, good manners, and obedience.
The mistress should likewise obey her master and serve faithfully through her labor and craft. She should neither steal nor lie, fornicate, drink excessively, speak foolishly, or approach her mistress with improper words.
She should have nothing to do with sorcerers, fortune-tellers, or those who work with roots, herbs, or magical substances. She should not associate with such people or conceal them from her masters, for these are servants of demons.
Let servants serve their masters faithfully and honestly through good deeds and righteous labor.
The masters, for their part, should provide their servants with food and drink, clothing, warmth, peace, and a good life.
They should also properly care for the poor, strangers, the needy, widows, and orphans from the fruits of their righteous labor. They should give alms to the churches of God and to churchmen and monasteries, and invite the needy into their homes.
Such things are pleasing to God and profitable to the soul.
But nothing obtained through violence, robbery, extortion, bribes, false accusation, usury, malicious litigation, or corrupt judgment should ever enter the household.
If God preserves a house from these evils, that house will be blessed from now and forever.
Chapter 23 — How Christians Are to Treat Illness and Every Kind of Affliction
If God sends someone illness or any kind of affliction, he should seek healing through the mercy of God: through tears, prayer, fasting, almsgiving to the poor, true repentance, thanksgiving, forgiveness, mercy, and sincere love toward everyone.
He should urge his spiritual fathers to pray to God, have prayer services served, bless water with the honorable Cross, holy relics, and wonderworking icons, and be anointed with holy oil.
He should make vows to visit holy places and wonderworking shrines, and go there to pray with a pure conscience.
Through these things, healing from God may be received for various illnesses.
He should turn away from every sin and resolve not to do evil again. He should keep the commandments of his spiritual fathers and fulfill the penances they prescribe. In this way he may be cleansed from sin, healed in soul and body, and make God merciful toward him.
Every Christian should seek healing from various illnesses of soul and body, and from soul-destroying and painful passions, by living according to the commandments of the Lord, the tradition of the fathers, and the Christian law.
As has been written at the beginning of this book, and especially in the first fifteen chapters and the other chapters that follow, one should heed these instructions and put them into practice. In this way one may please God, save the soul, escape sin, receive health of soul and body, and become an heir of eternal blessings.
But whoever is without fear, disorderly, without the fear of God, and does not do God’s will; whoever does not keep the Christian law or the tradition of the fathers; whoever neglects the church of God, church singing, the cell rule, prayer, and every form of glorifying God; whoever eats and drinks without restraint, to excess, drunkenness, or at improper times; whoever does not keep the appointed way of life on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, feast days, the Great Fast, and the fast of the Mother of God; whoever commits fornication without restraint or at improper times; whoever commits every kind of impurity and does abominable deeds; whoever practices fornication, uncleanness, foul speech, shameful speech, demonic songs, drums, trumpets, pipes, or any other service pleasing to demons; whoever practices sorcery, witchcraft, charms, astrology, divination, books of magic, or other demonic tricks; whoever uses magic, herbs, roots, or potions for death or enchantment; whoever invokes demons or uses magic to cause evil or adultery; whoever swears falsely by God’s name or slanders his neighbor—let him also read Chapter 24.
In all these deeds and habits, pride, hatred, remembrance of wrongs, anger, hostility, offense, lying, theft, false oaths, shameful and foul speech, sorcery, witchcraft, mockery, gluttony, drunkenness at improper times, fornication, and every impurity arise among people.
God, the lover of mankind, does not tolerate such evil habits and improper deeds among people. Like a loving father, He saves and leads people toward salvation through affliction, showing them their sins and correcting them.
He does not immediately give the sinner over to death, for He does not desire the death of the sinner but waits for repentance, that he may turn and live.
But if people do not turn and repent of their evil deeds, then because of their sins God may permit famine, pestilence, fire, flood, captivity by enemies, destruction of cities, devastation of churches and holy things, and the plundering of possessions.
There may be the wrath of rulers, confiscation of property, punishment without mercy, shameful death, robbery by thieves, and suffering at the hands of judges.
There may be drought, untimely rains, disorderly seasons, harsh winters, barren earth, scarcity among animals, cattle, beasts, birds, fish, and every kind of abundance.
Parents, wives, and children may be taken through sudden and grievous deaths, while people suffer many kinds of difficult and severe illnesses.
If, through all these present afflictions, we do not come to our senses, are not corrected, and do not enter into repentance, understanding, and fear, seeing such righteous correction for our many sins, then the Lord again corrects us and turns us toward repentance, as He tested the long-suffering Job, sending various sorrows and illnesses.
He may permit grievous illnesses and suffering, the torment of evil spirits, corruption of the body, pain in the bones, swelling, obstruction, stones in the body, deafness, blindness, weakness, severe vomiting, bleeding and pus, consumption, cough, headache, trembling, and many other difficult illnesses.
If we despise all these sins and do not repent, and are neither brought to our senses nor made afraid, and then, seeing God’s correction upon ourselves and our severe illnesses, we abandon God our Creator and do not ask Him for mercy and forgiveness of sins, we instead approach the unclean demons from whom we renounced ourselves and all their works at Holy Baptism.
We call upon sorcerers, magicians, witches, diviners, herbalists, and those who work with roots, hoping to receive from them soul-destroying and temporary help.
Thus we prepare ourselves for the devil, to suffer forever in the depths of hell.
O foolish people! O, your lack of understanding! We do not consider our sins or ask why God corrects us, and we do not repent. We do not cease from evil or from every improper deed. We do not think about what is eternal, but desire what is corruptible and temporary.
Cease from evil and from every soul-destroying deed. Cleanse yourselves through true repentance.
For the Lord is merciful. He will have mercy upon the sinner, grant health to the body, salvation to the soul, and will not deprive us of eternal blessings.
Whoever labors in this world for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven will receive his reward. For it is written by the holy Apostle that through many afflictions we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Holy Gospel says that the narrow and difficult path leads to life, while the broad and spacious path leads to destruction. Again the Lord says that the Kingdom of Heaven is entered through struggle, and those who strive seize it.
Chapter 24 — Concerning an Unrighteous Life
Whoever does not live according to God and does not live according to the Christian way, but commits every kind of injustice, violence, and offense; whoever forcibly takes what belongs to another, takes it without paying, delays payment until another is ruined, or wrongs a young person in any matter;
whoever among his neighbors, in a village, among his fellow Christians, in government service, or in authority imposes heavy taxes and unlawful obligations;
whoever plows another’s field, cuts another’s forest, overturns another’s land, mows another’s meadow, overfishes, takes another’s beehives, fishing grounds, or hunting rights, or seizes any other benefit through injustice and violence;
whoever robs, steals, assaults, falsely accuses someone, plants evidence, falsely incriminates another, sells an innocent person into bondage through deceit or violence;
whoever judges unjustly, conducts dishonest investigations, gives false testimony, or shows no mercy to those who repent;
whoever forcibly takes horses, livestock, possessions, villages, vineyards, estates, or any other property;
whoever buys people cheaply into bondage, obtains property through malicious litigation, tavern dealings, usury, or every other deceitful scheme;
whoever practices fornication, impurity, foul speech, shameful speech, perjury, rage, anger, and remembrance of wrongs;
whether the master or mistress does these things, or their children, servants, or peasants—and the masters do not restrain them, protect others from them, or administer justice rightly—all of them together will be in hell and accursed here.
All the fruits of such deeds are without blessing. They are not shown mercy by God and are accursed by the people.
Those who have been wronged cry out to God. Such wealth brings destruction to the soul, emptiness to the household, and a curse rather than a blessing.
To carry, eat, and drink such possessions and fruits is to live upon what is not God’s but belongs to the demons.
Almsgiving from such wealth is not pleasing to God, either during life or after death.
If you wish to escape eternal torment, return what was taken unjustly to the person who was wronged and repent, resolving never again to do such things with your household.
For the Lord is swift to show mercy and truly receives those who repent, granting freedom even from great sins.
Chapter 25 — Concerning a Righteous Life
If a person lives according to God, according to the commandments of the Lord, the tradition of the fathers, and the Christian law; if a ruler judges righteously and without partiality, treating rich and poor, near and far, alike, and receives only lawful obligations—then he should act accordingly.
In the villages, in the cities, among neighbors, among fellow Christians, in government service, and in every place of authority, let lawful obligations be taken at the proper time, without force, robbery, or torment.
If something has failed and a person cannot pay, do not oppress him.
If a neighbor or fellow Christian lacks seed, a horse, a cow, or the means to pay the ruler’s taxes, lend to him and help him.
Even if you yourself have little, borrow for their sake and care for them with all your soul.
Protect them from anyone who would wrong them.
Neither you nor your servants should ever wrong anyone in the fields, in the land, in household possessions, in stores, or in livestock.
Do not desire any unrighteous acquisition.
Every Christian should live by blessed fruits and righteous possessions.
When God sees your good works, such mercy, sincere love toward everyone, and righteousness in all things, He will grant abundant mercy, increase your harvest and every kind of abundance, and multiply your possessions.
Such almsgiving from righteous labor is pleasing to God. God will hear the prayers of those who give it, free them from their sins, and grant them eternal life.
Chapter 26 — How a Person Should Live by Keeping an Account of His Possessions
In all one’s household affairs—in one’s shop and merchandise, treasury and chambers, courtyard and every supply, village property, crafts, income and expenses, loans and debts—one should always keep an account.
Live according to that account, and manage the household according to what comes in and what goes out.
Chapter 27 — If Someone Lives Without Properly Considering His Means
Every person, rich or poor, great or small, should examine himself and reckon according to his occupation, earnings, and possessions.
A person in government service should likewise reckon according to his master’s wages, income, and estate, and maintain a household accordingly.
His possessions, supplies, and servants should correspond to his occupation and income.
His food, drink, clothing, and the clothing of his servants should likewise correspond to his means.
He should associate with good people.
But if someone does not examine himself or reckon his way of life, occupation, and earnings, and begins to live beyond his means merely by looking at other people; if he borrows excessively or lives by unrighteous possessions, then whatever honor he has will come with great dishonor, reproach, and shame.
When difficult times come, no one will help him.
Before God it is sin; before people it is ridicule.
Therefore everyone should flee vanity, praise-seeking, and unrighteous acquisition.
Live according to your strength, occupation, account, and earnings, through your own honest labor.
Such a life is pleasing and acceptable to God, praised by people, and secure for yourself and your children.
Chapter 28 — If Someone Keeps Servants Without Proper Provision
If someone keeps servants beyond what his means and income can support, and cannot provide them with sufficient food, drink, or clothing; or if he keeps a servant who has no useful craft and cannot provide for himself, then that servant—whether man, woman, or girl—may be driven by need to weep, lie, steal, and commit fornication.
Men may become robbers and thieves, drink in taverns, and commit every kind of evil.
For such foolishness, the master and mistress incur sin before God and ridicule before people.
They will have no good standing among their neighbors. Their neighbors may bring them before the authorities, their household will be ruined, and the master himself will become impoverished through his lack of understanding.
Chapter 29 — How a Husband Should Teach His Wife to Please God and Her Husband, to Order the Household Well, to Know Every Household Task and Craft, to Teach the Servants, and to Work Herself
A husband should teach his wife with love and prudent instruction.
Wives should ask their husbands about every matter of good order: how to save the soul, please God, please the husband, order the household properly, and obey him in everything.
Whatever the husband commands, she should receive with love and carry out according to his instruction.
First, she should have the fear of God and bodily purity, as has already been instructed.
When she rises from bed, she should first cleanse herself and complete her prayers.
Then she should assign the day’s work to the women and girls: what work each should do, what food should be cooked, and what bread should be baked.
She herself should know how to sift flour, prepare and knead dough, shape loaves, and bake them—both leavened bread and different kinds of loaves.
She should know how much flour is taken, how much bread is baked, how much is produced from a quarter, an osmina, or a sieve, how much bran remains, and how much bread is produced.
She should know how to prepare meat and fish dishes, pies, pancakes, porridges, kissels, and every kind of accompanying dish, both baked and boiled.
She should know how to make these things herself and teach her servants.
She should also know household brewing and preparation: beer, honey drink, wine, beer drinks, kvass, vinegar, sour drinks, cooking, baking, and every kind of household provision—what is made, what it is made from, and how much is produced from each measure.
When she knows all these things, then, with her husband’s instruction and discipline and through her own good judgment, everything will proceed properly and there will be abundance.
If a woman or girl is skilled in crafts, she should be assigned appropriate work: making shirts, towels, weaving, goldwork, silkwork, embroidery, or whatever craft she has learned.
The mistress should supervise and inspect all such work.
She should know what is spun by hand, and should weigh and measure taffeta, silk, gold, and silver, calculate how much is needed, how much is supplied, and how much is used.
She should know her own crafts and work, and teach the younger girls whatever is appropriate for them to learn.
The married women and girls who do heavier household work—heating the house, baking bread, washing clothes—should be given flax to spin for themselves, their husbands, and their children.
One woman or girl may spin flax for the master, while the tow and waste may be used for herself as appropriate.
The mistress herself should know all of this: what task is assigned, how much material is given, how much is returned, how much each person accomplishes during the day, and how much is produced from the material.
Everything should be accounted for.
The mistress herself should never be idle without reason, except through illness.
If the husband comes home or a guest arrives, she should still be found working at her craft.
This is her honor and praise, and praise for her husband.
The servants should never have to wake the mistress; rather, the mistress should wake the servants.
When she goes to sleep, she should always complete her prayers after finishing her work.
Chapter 30 — The Fruits of a Good Wife’s Handiwork, and How to Preserve Everything, Including Cuttings and Scraps
A good and orderly wife, through prudent thought, her husband’s instruction, and the good labor of her own hands, produces linen, cloth, and other materials with her servants.
She has these materials dyed and made into summer garments, coats, and sarafans.
She cuts and remakes them for household use.
If she has made more than the household needs—linen, cloth, canvas, tablecloths, towels, or other things—she may sell the excess and use the proceeds to purchase what is needed, without having to ask her husband for money.
She should herself cut the men’s and women’s red shirts and trousers.
All scraps and cuttings—whether expensive or inexpensive, patterned silk, taffeta, goldwork, silk, white or red cloth, down, edging, old or new—should be gathered and stored.
Small pieces should be kept in little bags. Larger remnants should be rolled and tied, sorted by type, and put away.
Then, when something old needs to be repaired or something new lacks a piece, the material is already available at home.
There is no need to search for it in the marketplace or pay several times the price.
With good management and complete understanding, everything needed can be found within the household.
Chapter 31 — How to Cut All Clothing and Preserve the Scraps and Cuttings
In the household, whenever clothing is to be cut for oneself, one’s wife, children, or servants—whether of patterned silk, taffeta, brocade, sash cloth, zendin, woolen cloth, coarse homespun cloth, or leather—or whenever leather is cut for a quiver, saddle, saddlecloth, bags, boots, a fur coat, a caftan, a terlik, an odnorad cloth garment, a kartel, a summer garment, a hood, a hat, or trousers, or any other kind of clothing or household item—the master or mistress should carefully consider and account for all the remaining pieces and cuttings.
These remnants are useful for household work: they can be used to patch an old garment, added to a new piece, or used for some kind of repair.
If you throw away a remnant, then when you need such a piece later you may have to buy it in the marketplace at several times the price, and sometimes you may not find it at all.
Whenever clothing is cut for a young man, son, daughter, or young daughter-in-law—whether a summer garment, a caftan, a fur coat with a lining, a brocade outer garment, patterned silk, obi ar, atlas, velvet, terlik, caftan, or anything else of good quality—it should be cut with room for growth.
Leave two or three vershoks at the hem, along the edges, seams, and sleeves, folding the extra material inward.
Then, when the person grows after two, three, or four years, the garment can be opened and the folded material released, and it will again serve as a good garment.
Clothing that is not worn constantly should likewise be cut with this in mind.
Chapter 32 — How to Keep Every Kind of Household Equipment
For every craft and every task, both the husband and wife should have the necessary equipment in the household: carpentry tools, tailoring tools, ironworking tools, shoemaking tools, and whatever else their work requires.
The wife should likewise have all the tools necessary for her own crafts and household work.
Everything should be kept carefully in its proper place. Whatever belongs to the household should be kept at home, so that there is no need to go to someone else’s courtyard to borrow what is needed.
Cooking and baking equipment should likewise be complete: copper, tin, iron, wooden vessels, and whatever else is appropriate.
If someone lends or borrows something—whether embroidery, a necklace, a woman’s garment, a silver, copper, or tin vessel, clothing, or any other possession—everything should be examined, both new and old.
If anything is crushed, broken, worn out, stained, torn, or otherwise damaged, the condition should be counted, measured, and written down.
It should be known by both parties who gives the item and who receives it. Anything sold or lent by weight should be weighed.
A value should be assigned to every borrowed item according to the possible damage it might suffer, so that neither party will later have trouble or dispute.
Every borrowed item should be received and returned honorably. It should be guarded even more carefully than one’s own property and returned at the appointed time, before the owners have to ask for it or send for it.
Then they will lend again in the future, and friendship will remain.
But if someone fails to care for another’s property, fails to return it on time, or returns it damaged, there will be lasting resentment and loss, and eventually no one will trust him with anything.
Chapter 33 — How the Mistress Is to Inspect the Servants Every Day, the Household Order and Crafts, and All Matters of Care and Management
Every day the mistress should inspect the servants who bake, cook, prepare various foods, and perform every kind of craft.
If a servant performs her assigned work well—whether cooking food, baking bread, making rolls or pies, preparing other dishes, or doing some kind of craft—the mistress should praise her for it and reward her with food or another suitable gift, according to what has already been prescribed concerning the master’s care for household servants and according to the quality of their service.
But if someone does poor work, does not follow instructions, is lazy, ruins something, prepares food carelessly or uncleanly, or steals, then she should be instructed and disciplined according to the previous rules concerning how servants are to be rewarded, corrected, and taught.
The upper room, chambers, entry halls, porch, and stairs should always be clean, both morning and evening.
The table and all vessels should always be washed clean.
The tablecloth should be clean.
The mistress herself should always be properly arranged in every aspect of household order, and her servants should be courteous according to what has already been instructed.
The mistress should not engage in empty or mocking talk with her servants.
Neither market women, idle women, nor sorceresses should be allowed to come into the house.
The bedding and clothing should be arranged properly in chests and boxes. Towels, shirts, and cloths should all be kept well, clean, white, rolled, and properly stored, not crushed or worn through.
Jewelry, necklaces, and the finest clothing should always be kept locked in chests and boxes, with the keys kept in a small casket.
The mistress herself should know where everything is.
Chapter 34 — How a Wife Is to Consult Her Husband Every Day About Everything, How to Go Among People and Invite Them Home, and What to Discuss with Guests
Every day the wife should ask her husband about the household and consult him about everything that needs to be done.
When going to visit people or inviting guests into the home, she should consult with those whom her husband permits.
When guests arrive, or when she herself goes somewhere, she should dress appropriately and, when sitting at table, change into better clothing.
She should carefully avoid drunken drinking. A drunken husband is disgraceful, and a drunken wife is unbecoming before people.
With guests, she should speak about crafts and household management: how things are arranged, how various household tasks are performed, and what kinds of crafts she does not know.
She should politely and kindly ask good wives about such things, and bow deeply in gratitude to anyone who teaches her.
If, while visiting another household, she hears a good saying about how good wives live, how they manage their household, how they raise their children and servants, or how they obey their husbands in everything, she should take note of it and learn from it.
If she does not know something good, she should ask about it politely.
But she should not listen to or participate in foolish, mocking, or immoral speech.
If she sees good household order while visiting others—whether in food, drink, household equipment, or some unusual craft; if she sees a good, intelligent, capable wife who speaks and conducts herself wisely; or servants who are intelligent, courteous, orderly, skilled, and inclined toward every good thing—she should observe all of this carefully.
Whatever she does not know or cannot do, she should politely and kindly ask about.
When she returns home, she should tell her husband about what she has learned, for her own peace and benefit.
It is good to associate with such good women—not merely for the sake of food or drink, but for good conversation and instruction, so that what is learned may be useful.
She should not mock others or gossip about anyone.
If people ask her questions about someone, she should answer:
“I do not know. I have heard nothing about that and know nothing of it.”
She herself should not ask unnecessary questions, nor discuss princes, boyars, or neighbors.
Chapter 35 — How to Instruct Servants When Sending Them Among People
Command your servants not to gossip about people.
Wherever they have been, whatever they have seen that was improper, they should not report it at home.
Likewise, whatever happens at home, they should not report it among other people.
They should remember exactly what they were sent to do. If they are asked about anything else, they should answer that they do not know and have not heard of it, finish their business quickly, return home, and report what they were sent to do.
They should bring back no other news that was not commanded.
Then there will be no quarrels between masters and no improper or immoral speech.
This is praise for a good man and a good woman: that their servants are courteous and well instructed.
When sending a servant or son somewhere, tell him exactly what to say, what to do, or what to buy.
When he returns, ask him what he was told to say, what he was told to do, or what he was told to buy.
If he can repeat your instructions exactly, that is good.
If you send a servant to someone with food, drink, or anything else, ask him when he returns where he took it.
If he reports exactly what he was instructed to do, that is good.
Send drink in a complete vessel and food intact, so that the servant cannot lie about what was sent.
Goods should be counted or measured before they are sent. Money should be counted, and anything sold by weight should be weighed.
It is best to seal everything that is sent.
Instruct the servant whether the item is to be delivered to the master himself or brought into the house.
When the servant or son returns, the master or mistress should ask where he went, with what, and what he was told to do.
A wise and courteous servant should remove his cap politely when returning and, after asking the master or mistress, report everything that was commanded.
If sent to good people, he should knock lightly at the gate.
When entering the courtyard, if asked whom he seeks and why he has come, he should not say more than necessary:
“I have been sent to this person. I have come to speak with him.”
Before entering the hall, room, or cell, he should wipe the dirt from his feet, blow his nose, clear his throat, and pray properly.
If no one answers “Amen,” he should pray again, and a third time, making the prayer longer than the first.
If there is still no answer, he may knock lightly.
When admitted, he should not pick his nose, cough, spit, or blow his nose improperly. He should stand courteously, not look around, and complete only the business for which he was sent.
He should not discuss anything else.
Then he should return home quickly and report to his master what answer he received.
Wherever he may be—whether in someone’s courtyard or cell, in the presence of the master or mistress or in their absence—he should never handle or inspect anything, whether good or bad, expensive or cheap, without permission.
He should not move anything from its place.
He should not take anything away with him without blessing.
He should not taste food or drink that he was not permitted to taste.
To do so is theft and greed, and whoever dares to do this without blessing or permission should not be trusted with anything or sent anywhere.
As the Gospel says: “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.”
If something has been sent covered, tied, sealed, or wrapped, he must not move it or look inside.
He must not taste any food or drink that has been sent.
Whatever was sent is to be delivered exactly as it was sent.
He should only inspect it at the point of delivery to ensure that it has been given whole and complete and that nothing has been lost along the way.
Chapter 36 — Instruction for Wives Concerning Drunkenness and Intoxicating Drink, and Likewise for Servants; Concerning Secrecy, Lies, and Slander; How to Discipline Them, and How to Conduct Oneself Among Guests and at Home
A wife should have no intoxicating drink in her possession under any circumstances—not wine, honey drink, or beer.
Such drink should be kept in the cellar or icehouse.
She may drink non-intoxicating drinks, such as weak drink, braga, or kvass, both at home and among people.
If women come from elsewhere to visit and ask about health, they should not be given intoxicating drink.
Her own female servants and girls should likewise not become drunk, either among people or at home.
A wife should not secretly eat or drink without her husband’s knowledge.
She should not secretly keep food or drink from her husband, nor secretly make provisions for herself.
She should not ask her friends or relatives secretly for food, drink, prepared things, gifts, or memorial offerings, nor should she secretly give such things away.
She should not keep another person’s property in her possession without her husband’s knowledge.
She should consult her husband about everything, and never take counsel from a male servant or female servant.
She must carefully avoid every kind of evil.
She should not slander her male or female servants to her husband with false accusations or harbor resentment against them.
If one of them does something wrong, she should tell her husband plainly and without exaggeration.
Neither husband nor wife should listen to accusations or believe them without investigating the matter properly and hearing the parties directly.
The wife should not bring every trivial household matter to her husband if she can resolve it herself.
But if something serious happens, she should tell her husband truthfully.
If a woman or girl refuses to obey, does not accept instruction, or causes some trouble, the husband and wife should discuss together what discipline is appropriate.
When female guests arrive, they should be honored with suitable drink.
But the wife herself should not drink intoxicating drink.
Food, drink, and all household provisions should be brought by one responsible person who has been assigned to do so.
No unrelated man should be present there, either early or late.
Only the particular man who has been assigned to bring something, ask a question, or receive an instruction may enter for that purpose.
He should be questioned about everything he has done so that there will be no disorder or impropriety.
The husband and wife should not eat breakfast except in cases of illness.
Food and drink should be taken at the proper time.
Chapter 37 — How a Wife Should Wear and Care for All Her Clothing
Clothing, shirts, and cloths should be worn carefully every day.
They should not be stained, soiled, crushed, or spilled upon.
They should not be placed on mud or wet ground.
Whenever clothing is removed, it should be placed carefully and guarded diligently.
Servants should be taught to do the same.
The master, mistress, children, and servants should wear worn clothing while working.
After the work is finished, they should change into clean everyday clothing and proper shoes.
On feast days, in good weather, when among people, when going to church, or when visiting guests, better clothing should be worn.
From the morning onward, it should be worn carefully and protected from dirt, rain, and snow.
It should not be spilled upon with drink or stained with food or grease.
It should not be dried on muddy or wet ground, nor should anyone sit on mud or wet ground while wearing it.
After returning from a feast, church, or a guest’s house, the better clothing should be removed, examined, dried, shaken out, cleaned, and carefully stored away.
Every kind of worn and everyday clothing, both outer and undergarments, and all white clothing and boots should always be washed clean.
Worn clothing should be mended and repaired.
Then it is useful for the household, pleasant for the people who see it, beneficial to the owner, and suitable for giving to orphans and the poor.
Every garment, shirt, towel, cloth, and other article should be folded or rolled properly and stored in a chest or box.
Chapter 38 — How to Keep the Household Room in Good and Clean Order
In the morning, wash and wipe clean the table, dishes, serving vessels, spoons, all vessels, ladles, and drinking bowls after heating water.
Do the same after dinner and in the evening.
Buckets, wash tubs, kneading troughs, wooden troughs, sieves, screens, pots, jars, and all such things should likewise always be washed, scrubbed, wiped dry, and stored in a clean place.
All vessels and household equipment should always be clean and washed.
They should not be dragged about the benches, courtyard, or rooms.
Serving vessels, dishes, bowls, ladles, and spoons should not be scattered on the benches.
They should lie upside down in their proper clean place.
Any vessel containing food or drink should be covered.
All vessels containing food, drink, or water should likewise be covered.
Dough left to rise should always be covered.
The house and walls, benches and seats, floor, windows and doors, entryway and porch should always be washed, wiped, swept, and scrubbed.
The upper and lower porches should likewise be washed, scrubbed, wiped, and swept.
Before the lower porch, hay should be placed so that dirty feet can be wiped and the stairs will not become soiled.
Before the doors, an old mat or felt should be placed for wiping muddy feet.
In muddy weather, the hay before the lower porch should be replaced, and the mat or felt at the doors should likewise be changed.
The dirty mat should be rinsed and dried and can then be used again for wiping feet.
Thus, in the house of good people and an orderly wife, the home is always clean and properly arranged.
Everything is kept in its proper place.
The wife should oversee all such household order and teach the servants and children both through kindness and, when necessary, through correction.
If the husband sees that the wife or servants are not keeping things in proper order or are not following what is written in this book, he should know how to instruct his wife with wisdom and good judgment.
If she listens and follows the instruction, he should love and reward her.
If the wife does not live according to the instruction, does not do these things herself, and does not teach the servants, the husband should instruct her privately and correct her with fear, then comfort and reward her, speaking to her with love and good judgment.
The husband should not become angry with his wife, and the wife should always live with her husband in love and sincerity.
Servants and children should likewise be disciplined according to their fault and deed, and after correction should be shown mercy.
The mistress should care for her servants according to good judgment, so that the servants may have confidence and trust.
If a wife, son, or daughter refuses instruction, does not listen, does not heed it, and does not fear or do what the husband, father, or mother teaches, then they may be disciplined according to the fault.
Such discipline should be given privately, not before other people, followed by instruction, comfort, and appropriate reward.
There should never be anger between husband and wife.
For any offense, no one should strike another in the face, nor strike with a fist under the heart, nor kick, nor strike with a staff, nor stab with any iron or wooden object.
Anyone who strikes in anger or bitterness may cause blindness, deafness, dislocation of an arm or leg, injury to fingers, headaches, or toothache.
For pregnant women, such blows may also injure the child in the womb.
If physical discipline is required, it should be administered carefully, reasonably, and with fear, so that the person understands the seriousness of the offense.
Only in the case of a grave offense, serious disobedience, or great negligence does the text permit more severe correction, and even then it is to be done privately and without anger.
A person should be held accountable for actual wrongdoing, not accusation.
If someone is falsely accused, the accuser should not be permitted to create enmity without investigation.
The matter should be examined carefully and directly.
If the guilty person does not repent of his sin and offense, then more severe discipline may be necessary, so that the guilty person is recognized as guilty and the innocent person remains innocent.
A bowed head is not cut by the sword, and a humble word breaks no bones.
Chapter 39 — If a Husband Does Not Teach His Wife, He Will Receive Judgment from God; If He Does So Himself and Teaches His Wife and Household, He Will Receive Mercy from God
If a husband himself does not do what is written in this book, does not teach his wife, does not order his household according to God, and does not care for the salvation of his own soul, and does not teach his servants according to this instruction, then he himself will be lost in this life and the next, and he will destroy his household.
But if a good husband cares for his salvation, instructs his wife, and likewise teaches his household the fear of God and a lawful Christian life according to what is written, then together with them he will pass his life in God’s blessing and will receive mercy from God.
Chapter 40 — How the Master, or Someone Appointed by Him, Should Purchase the Year’s Supplies and Every Kind of Goods
The steward, household manager, key-keeper, trusted merchant, or the master himself should always inspect the marketplace for every kind of household supply.
This includes grain and every kind of food, hops, oil, meat, fish, fresh provisions, salted provisions, imported goods, timber supplies, and every other kind of merchandise.
When goods arrive from different lands, or when visiting merchants and Christians have brought a large quantity of something to market, purchase what is needed for the whole year.
When buying in quantity, the price should be negotiated carefully so that the household does not overpay.
A trusted buyer should likewise purchase according to the actual need and the current price.
Do not wait until something becomes scarce and expensive if it is something the household will certainly need.
If a supply will keep for a long time and is cheap, it is wise to buy extra beyond the immediate need.
Then, when prices rise, the excess can be sold.
At times this can even bring profit to the household.
This is how good, prudent, well-managed households conduct themselves: through careful oversight and good instruction.
Whether buying much or little, from a visiting merchant, a peasant, or someone from the local community, conduct the trade peacefully and pay the money properly.
Treat the person according to the nature of the purchase and show appropriate courtesy with bread, salt, and drink.
This is no loss.
Rather, friendship is gained, and in the future the merchant will not sell good goods elsewhere before coming to you, nor will he take advantage of you or give you poor goods.
For good service or honest trade, it is proper to honor the merchant, visiting guest, or traveler: give him drink, feed him, speak kindly to him, and greet him warmly.
Great benefit comes from such good friendship.
According to the trade and the person, give an appropriate gift when fitting; what you give will often return to you many times over.
Whoever lives in this way first has no sin before God, no offense before people, and praise from guests in every land.
The household will have blessed goods—not goods acquired through curses or injustice.
To wear, eat, drink, and give alms from such righteous provision is pleasing to God and beneficial to the soul.
Chapter 41 — How to Purchase Every Kind of Imported Goods and Goods from Distant Lands for Household Use
If you buy beaver fur from a merchant, buy an entire pelt, or two or three, or as many as you need, and have it made up at home. In this way, it can be used for many things and may cost less than buying finished goods.
Likewise, buy a piece of taffeta, a bolt of cloth, various bolts of fabric, colored silk by the pound or more, gold and silver thread, squirrel fur, or whatever other supply is needed, according to the household’s needs, occupation, crafts, family, craftsmen, workers, and ordinary expenses.
When something is plentiful and inexpensive, it is useful and profitable to purchase and store it.
If you have your own tailor, shoemaker, or carpenter, then every supply, remnant, and cutting can bring a benefit: scraps may be used in a new garment, or to repair an old one, so that you do not have to purchase the same material again.
Likewise, buy timber, firewood, barrels, measuring vessels, troughs, oak wood, bark, linden wood, boards, shingles, gutters, and similar supplies when they are available and inexpensive.
In winter these can be brought by cart, in summer by raft or boat, and enough can be stored for the year.
When salted fish is needed, it may not always be available, and when it is found, the price may be high. Therefore, keep a supply of goods that can be stored.
If something is cheap—even if you do not immediately need it—buy it at the proper time.
In this way, your needs will be supplied, and whatever has been stored in excess can later be sold at a profit.
Chapter 42 — Likewise, When Purchasing from Someone Who Has No Estate; Household Provision for Summer and Winter, How to Store a Year’s Supply, Keep Livestock at Home, and Always Have Food and Drink
A year’s household provision for a prudent man and woman, especially those who have no estate, cultivated fields, villages, or other property, should include grain and every kind of grain product.
In winter, purchase grain by the cartload.
Store meat in sides and fish of every kind: fresh fish, long-lasting sturgeon, dried fish, fish preserved in barrels for the year, salmon, and caviar—both red and black.
In summer, preserve fish and store cabbage. During winter, place such provisions in ice so that they remain fresh.
Store reserve drink deeply in the cellar, covered with bark, and when it is needed in summer it will still be fresh and ready.
In summer, a prudent household should purchase meat for its needs. Buy a sheep, butcher it at home, and make use of everything.
The entrails of the sheep can be used at the table. A good and orderly wife or cook can make many dishes from one sheep: broth from the intestines, stuffed kidneys, fried shoulders, stuffed feet, liver chopped with onions, wrapped in the membrane and fried in a pan, and lung cooked with milk, flour, and beaten eggs.
The intestines may be filled with eggs. The sheep’s head may be prepared with its entrails for soup. The stomach may be filled with porridge. The kidneys may be boiled or stuffed and fried.
Thus, one sheep can provide many dishes.
Jellied meat should be kept on ice.
Whatever meat remains in summer may be purchased as needed for the household, enough for the week—on Friday, Monday, or Wednesday. It can be salted and kept on ice for two or three days or even a week without spoiling.
From the Feast of Saint Semyon onward, purchase a cow or whatever amount is needed, buying more when the price is low.
Salt meat for the year and dry some for storage. The entrails can feed the household throughout the autumn.
The hide and fat can provide money for part of the purchase.
Melt the fat for your own use and preserve it for the year.
The entrails, head, lips, brains, intestines, heart, feet, liver, kidneys, and other parts can all be prepared by the women of the household. They may be filled with various porridges—oat, buckwheat, barley, or whatever is desired.
Do not allow the entrails to go unused in autumn; they will be useful during the Christmas meat-eating season.
Beef tripe, lips, ears, and feet can be used throughout the year for jellied dishes.
Domestic pigs may likewise be slaughtered in autumn, salted for the year, and their heads, fat, feet, intestines, entrails, and back used throughout autumn and winter.
A hardworking man and an industrious woman can make good use of everything, so that there is always food for themselves, their household, and their guests without unnecessary expense or constant trips to the marketplace.
Whoever keeps geese, ducks, and chickens at home can feed them cheaply in summer and have supplies for the year.
Whoever keeps milk cows can feed them from pasture in summer and from the many household provisions available in winter.
Beer mash, braga mash, kissel mash, kvass mash, sour cabbage soup remnants, oat bran, rye and wheat screenings, barley, and other scraps can all be used as animal feed.
In autumn, salt cabbage, preserve beets, store turnips and carrots, and save all the leaves, roots, stalks, scraps, crumbs, and leftovers.
A good and orderly mistress, or a good key-keeper, gathers all these things and stores them in vessels.
Such food can be given to working horses, cows, geese, ducks, pigs, chickens, and dogs.
This costs the household little, yet provides much increase and always adds something useful to the table, for both the household and guests.
When the household itself produces chickens, eggs, cream, cheese, and milk, there is always something fresh and pleasant for feast days and ordinary meals without having to buy everything at the marketplace.
A wife should know how to prepare these things herself and teach her servants.
Such households prosper.
If God grants an industrious household an abundance of pigs, geese, chickens, ducks, cows’ milk, cream, butter, cheese, or eggs, they should use these things themselves, feed their household, and give alms from the fruits of their righteous labor.
Any excess may be sold and the blessed money used for another need or given as alms, which is pleasing to God.
If a young man or widow does not have such provisions, but has a milk cow, even one cow in the village, feed it hay generously, sprinkle it with oat flour or whatever bran is available, pour boiling water over it, and feed it before milking.
The woman herself should wash her hands clean, put on clean but worn clothing, bring warm water and a towel over her shoulder, wash the cow’s udder and teats, wipe them with a clean towel, and milk the cow in a clean place with every kind of care.
Feed the cow whatever soft feed is available.
Horses and mares should likewise be fed every day in the house, before the household, with such food as is available. This will make them strong and useful.
Calves, lambs, chickens, geese, pigs, and ducks should likewise be fed personally and given whatever feed is suitable for each animal.
Chapter 43 — When the Husband Has Stored a Year’s Supply of Every Kind, Including Food for the Fast
If the husband has stored for the year rye, wheat, oats, buckwheat, oatmeal, barley, malt, peas, hemp, and every other supply, then during the fast the wife and servants can prepare a variety of foods every day, and the household will be well fed and comfortable, and guests can be honored without loss.
If a fasting dish is desired, hemp oil can be prepared, along with various porridges, flour dishes, pies, pancakes, flat cakes, noodles made from peas, pea dishes, various dumplings, boiled dishes, and foods made with oil.
Pies can be made with pancakes, mushrooms, saffron milk caps, milk mushrooms, poppy seeds, porridge, turnips, cabbage, or whatever God provides.
Nuts may be prepared in sauce.
A good and orderly household will have many fasting foods available.
If fresh fish is purchased, some may be salted, some dried, some boiled, some dried small and ground into flour, and some added to cabbage soup during the fast.
On fasting days, when fresh fish is unavailable, the table can begin with radish, horseradish, cabbage, pickled brine, and other vegetables that God has provided.
There may also be caviar, dried fish, dried and boiled fish, fish soups, various entrails, dried fish, German herring, vendace, fish in brine, fish pies, fish porridge, small fish, and every kind of fasting food.
A good and orderly household has much of this at home and does not need to purchase everything at the marketplace.
There may also be lingonberry water, cherries preserved in syrup, raspberry drink, various sweets, apples and pears in kvass or syrup, fruit pastes, and flat fruit cakes, both for the household and for guests.
There should always be something prepared for the sick and the weak, for parents, and for a traveler or guest who arrives unexpectedly.
To give such food to someone in need is a great reward from God.
If a particular fish is not in the household supply, or the household supply has been held back, purchase a barrel or two of sturgeon, beluga, herring, or whatever fish is needed.
Buy fish or caviar in quantity when possible.
If something is not in the household supply and must be purchased for guests or for the household, it may not be found at the marketplace at the proper time, or it may cost several times as much.
Chapter 44 — Concerning the Profit of Keeping a Reserve Supply
A good man, a good wife, an orderly, intelligent, prudent, and God-fearing household should maintain a year’s supply of everything that can properly be stored.
This includes household goods, drink, food, grain, flour, meat, fish, smoked meat, salted meat, dried meat, cured provisions, rusks, flour, oatmeal, poppy seeds, millet, peas, oil, hemp, salt, malt, hops, soap, ashes, and every other supply that can be stored without spoiling.
Then, in a year when something does not grow or becomes expensive, the household can live from its stored supply as though it had been given freely.
The household can lend to those in need, to the sick, and to those lacking necessities, helping each person according to what is appropriate.
If something has been stored in abundance while it was inexpensive, it can later be sold when prices are high.
In this way, the household itself has eaten and drunk from its reserve without expense, while the money returns to the household.
A good man and good wife should never lack something through careful management.
Old supplies that do not spoil should be kept for many years.
Chapter 45 — How to Keep a Vegetable Garden and Orchard
If a person has a vegetable garden, whoever tends it—whether the master, mistress, or someone appointed—should first strengthen the fencing.
Dogs, pigs, chickens, geese, ducks, and other animals should not be able to enter the garden, whether from another courtyard or from one’s own.
Then the apple trees and every other kind of fruit will not be damaged.
There will also be no quarrel with neighbors if your animals cannot enter their property or theirs yours.
The entire courtyard should likewise be strongly fenced or enclosed with a palisade.
The gates should always be fastened and locked at night.
The dogs should be good watchdogs, and servants should keep watch as well.
The master or mistress should also listen and keep watch at night.
The garden itself should always be locked, and whoever has been assigned to it should guard it day and night and inspect it continually.
In spring, dig the beds and apply manure. Store manure during winter.
Prepare special beds for melons and other plants.
Keep seeds of every kind for yourself.
After planting or sowing, water all crops at the proper time, cover them when necessary, and always protect them from frost.
Prune the apple trees, remove dead wood, transplant shoots, and graft buds and cuttings.
Weed every bed.
Protect cabbage from worms and fleas by gathering and shaking them off.
Around the entire garden fence, sow sorrel or other useful greens wherever nettles grow, and cook them from spring onward for household use.
Such greens cannot always be purchased at the marketplace and can also be given to those in need for God’s sake.
If there is an abundance, a young person may sell the excess and use the money for another need.
When cabbage and beets are planted and the cabbage leaves become ready to cook, harvest them as needed.
When the cabbage begins to form heads, cut some leaves periodically for cooking and feed the discarded leaves to the animals.
From then until autumn, continue cutting sorrel and dry it so that it will remain useful throughout the year and longer.
Cook cabbage and beets throughout the summer.
In autumn, salt the cabbage, preserve beet brine, and salt cucumbers.
In summer, enjoy melons, beans, carrots, cucumbers, and every kind of vegetable.
If God provides more than the household needs, sell the excess.
Establish an orchard for your own use.
Leave three or more sazhens between grafted trees so that the apple trees can grow large and abundant without obstructing one another.
If the trees become too dense and their branches shade the ground, nothing will grow beneath them.
In that case, sow sorrel or another useful crop beneath them so that the ground will still produce something.
Gather fallen apples, ripe fruit, cucumbers, melons, and every kind of vegetable at the proper time.
Eat some fresh, preserve some, store some for the year, salt some, and put apples and pears into kvass or syrup.
Prepare fruit drinks and preserves.
When mushrooms are inexpensive, dry them; salt milk mushrooms and saffron milk caps.
Preserve vegetables throughout the year or sell whatever is excessive.
Guard everything carefully.
Keep every kind of seed for yourself.
This brings great profit, because you will not need to purchase it at the marketplace.
If there is too much, sell the excess.
Chapter 46 — How a Person Should Keep Reserve Drink for Himself and His Guests, and How to Prepare It for Company
Even a modest person who is not wealthy but is orderly and provident should keep some drink in reserve for guests.
Prepare a supply of beer by March, brewing it from barley and sweetening it.
There should also be ordinary beer.
Prepare honey drink for feast days and keep it in reserve in the icehouse.
Reserve March beer and honey drink should be stored there.
When there is a feast, name day, wedding, birth, baptism, memorial for parents, or an unexpected guest—whether a traveler, invited guest, distinguished person, or honored abbot—prepare suitable drink.
From one barrel, five tin cups of honey drink may be drawn at a time, or smaller barrels may be used according to the number of guests.
Keep nutmeg in one little bag, cloves in another, and various fragrant herbs in a third.
Boil the herbs in the oven and place them in tin cups or small barrels with hot wine.
Prepare two tin cups of cherry drink and two of raspberry drink.
Have prepared syrup as well.
In this way, in one sitting there may be six kinds of honey drink for guests, two wines, cherry drink, and beer prepared with additional ingredients.
There should be two kinds of beer available.
Whoever lives with a good reserve, and whose orderly wife also keeps a reserve of food, will never be ashamed before guests.
Even if something must be purchased for a feast, the household will already have much at home because God has provided it.
Chapter 47 — Brewing Instructions: How to Brew Beer, Prepare Honey Drink, and Distill Wine
For the brewing room and kitchen, give out the malt, flour, and hops needed for beer, braga, and sour cabbage soup.
Everything should be written down, measured, and counted.
When beer is mashed—whether barley, oat, or rye beer—or when hops are boiled, everything should be supervised personally, including fermentation and draining.
Everything should be carefully handled, clean, and protected from theft or damage.
No one should drink from the supply merely for amusement.
When beer is brewed, after the first beer has been drawn, the remaining malt may be used to prepare another beer.
After every brewing, pour heated water over the spent grain.
Heat thirty or forty buckets of water for barley mash, or fifty or sixty, according to the strength of the brew.
This liquid may be fermented properly and makes a good drink for the household.
The second liquid may likewise be fermented and used for sour cabbage soup.
Prepare vinegar from good wort and keep it carefully in a warm place.
Keep it clean and visit it regularly.
Collect the spent hops from brewing for later distillation.
Keep them carefully.
Old vessels may be used for this purpose, provided they are kept in reserve and strengthened properly.
Prepare the honey drink yourself.
When the room where it is prepared begins to ferment, seal it and supervise it personally.
Do not permit anyone else to come and go freely.
Drain it yourself, and no one should drink during the draining.
Distill wine yourself or entrust the work only to someone who is completely trustworthy.
During the distillation, keep an account of how much comes from the kettle as the first, second, and final portions.
Likewise, during subsequent distillation, record how much is obtained as the first, middle, and final portions.
Do not permit anyone to enter the cellar, icehouse, drying room, or granary without your knowledge.
Everything should be issued personally.
Measure or weigh everything that is given out and record how much each person receives.
Chapter 48 — How the Key-Keeper Is to Supervise the Cooks, Bakers, and Every Kind of Household Equipment
The cooks, bakers, and all those who prepare food should have every necessary piece of equipment: cauldrons, frying pans, pots, both copper and iron, tripods, grates, ladles, and scoops.
Everything should be clean, whole, and in good repair.
Everything should be counted and entered in the records.
Copper and tin vessels should be weighed.
The key-keeper should inspect everything every day to ensure that every item is present, properly secured, washed, dried, and stored in its proper place under lock.
Barrels and every other vessel should likewise be washed and repaired, dried, and kept locked.
Chapter 49 — How Husband and Wife Should Consult Together and Instruct the Key-Keeper Concerning the Table, Kitchen, and Bakery
Every day and every evening, after fulfilling their spiritual rule, and in the morning after rising at the bell and completing the service, the husband and wife should consult about the household.
They should determine what duties have been assigned to whom, who is responsible for each task, and what must be prepared.
They should instruct the key-keeper about what food and drink should be prepared for guests and for the household.
If the key-keeper is instructed to purchase something for household use, the goods he brings back should be counted and examined to ensure that everything is correct.
The food should then be given to the cook, the bread to the baker, and other preparations to those responsible for them.
Everything should always be remembered so that the master can give an account of it.
Meat and fish dishes for the kitchen should be issued in the amount the master has ordered.
The master should specify how many dishes are to be prepared and how much is to be baked or boiled.
The cook should receive everything by count as well.
At the table, all food should be served according to the master’s instruction and according to the number and status of the guests.
Bread and baked goods should likewise be issued and received by count.
Everything remaining from the table—both whole and partially eaten food, soups, and every kind of prepared dish—should be accounted for.
Whole dishes should be separated from opened ones.
Meat and fish should be placed in clean, sturdy vessels, covered, and stored on ice.
Opened food and leftovers should be used for household needs as appropriate.
Whole dishes should be preserved for the master, mistress, and guests.
Drink should be served according to the master’s instructions and according to the guests present.
For the mistress, braga or kvass may be served.
After every meal, all table and kitchen vessels should be washed in hot water, rinsed, wiped, and dried.
Everything should then be gathered, counted, and secured under lock, with each item assigned to the person responsible for it.
Table vessels—tin cups, bowls, ladles, serving vessels—should always be carefully guarded.
Vinegar vessels, pepper vessels, brine vessels, salt cellars, spoons, dishes, bowls, tablecloths, and napkins should always be clean and ready for the table.
The table itself should be clean, as should the benches, seats, room, and holy images on the walls.
The room should be swept and kept in good order.
Vinegar, cucumber brine, lemon juice, and plum preparations should be strained through a sieve.
Cucumbers, lemons, and plums should likewise be cleaned and sorted.
Everything on the table should be clean and appetizing.
Dried fish, every kind of cured fish, jellied dishes, fasting or meat dishes, caviar, and cabbage should all be cleaned, arranged on dishes, and prepared before the table is set.
Every kind of drink should be strained through a clean sieve.
The key-keeper, cooks, bakers, and all those preparing food should themselves come to the table properly arranged and clean.
Their hands should be washed thoroughly before every kind of food preparation.
All vessels and equipment under the care of the key-keeper and every cook should likewise be washed, clean, and carefully maintained.
The mistress and her servants should observe the same standard.
When food or drink is carried to the table, first inspect the vessel in which it is being carried.
The food or drink must be clean, without dust or burnt residue.
After setting the food or drink down, the person carrying it should not cough or blow his nose beside the table.
He should step aside, clean his nose or throat, and then return, so that everything is done cleanly and courteously.
Chapter 50 — Instructions for the Key-Keeper When a Feast Takes Place
When there is a large feast, the master himself should supervise everything: both the kitchen and the bakery.
At the table, a good and trustworthy person should be assigned to serve the food.
Another trustworthy and careful person should be responsible for the vessels, serving equipment, and drink.
Drink should be served according to the master’s instructions, with each person receiving what has been ordered.
Nothing should be taken aside or given away without permission.
When the feast is over, inspect and count all the silver and tin vessels and every other piece of equipment.
Examine the kitchen and bakery supplies.
Sort through the food and inspect the drink.
Refill anything that has been opened where appropriate.
A careful person should be assigned to watch the courtyard during the feast.
He should guard everything and ensure that none of the household equipment is stolen.
Guests who have become drunk should likewise be watched, so that they do not lose anything and so that quarrels do not arise.
When the table is cleared, all vessels should be counted and washed.
Every kind of meat and fish, jellied dish, soup, and other food should be sorted and stored according to the instructions given above.
On the evening of the feast, or early the following morning, the master himself should inspect everything.
He should determine whether everything is sound and accounted for.
He should ask the key-keeper precisely how much was eaten and drunk, what was given to whom, what was sent away, and where every part of the household supply went.
Every expense and distribution should be known.
All vessels should be accounted for.
The key-keeper should be able to give the master a truthful account of everything: where it went, to whom it was given, and how much was used.
If, by God’s grace, everything is sound, nothing has been lost or damaged, and everything has been properly accounted for, then the master should honor the key-keeper and the other servants accordingly.
The cooks and bakers who worked carefully and did not drink should likewise be rewarded.
The master should refresh, feed, and give drink to all of them.
Chapter 51 — The Master’s Instructions to the Key-Keeper: How to Prepare Meat and Fasting Food and Feed the Household
The master should give the key-keeper instructions concerning what food is to be sent to the kitchen on meat-eating days, for the master, the household, and guests, and likewise on fasting days.
The same applies to drink: the master should instruct the key-keeper what drink is to be brought for the master and mistress, the household, and guests.
Everything should be prepared and distributed according to the master’s instructions.
Each morning, the key-keeper should ask the master about food, drink, and every matter of household provision, and should do whatever the master commands.
The master and his wife should consult together about all household matters and instruct the key-keeper how to feed the servants each day.
The household servants should receive sifted bread, cabbage soup, and thin porridge with ham; at times thick porridge with fat. Meat should be given frequently, whenever it is available.
On Sundays and feast days, there may sometimes be pies, sometimes kissel, sometimes pancakes, or some other food.
At supper there should be cabbage soup with milk or porridge.
On fasting days there should be cabbage soup and thin porridge, sometimes with sauce, sometimes with dried ingredients, sometimes with turnips.
At supper there may be cabbage soup, sauerkraut brine, oatmeal, or beet greens.
On Sundays and feast days, pies or thick porridge, barley porridge, or herring porridge may be served at dinner, according to what God provides.
At supper there may be cabbage soup, brine, beet greens, or oatmeal.
The same food should be given to the women servants, girls, and boys.
For the more favored servants, additional food may be given from the leftovers of the master’s and guests’ tables.
Those better servants who are engaged in trade may be seated at the master’s table when guests are present. When the guests have eaten, these servants may eat the food with an additional portion from the table leftovers.
The mistress should likewise feed her female craftsmen and seamstresses at her table and serve them herself.
The servants’ drink should be the beer dregs; on Sundays and feast days, braga. Those engaged in trade should always receive braga.
The master should provide whatever other drink he orders and, when appropriate, give the brewer some drink as well.
The cook and key-keeper, or the mistress, should prepare meat and fasting food for the household servants and for the poor.
Cabbage, greens, or finely chopped vegetables should be washed well, thoroughly boiled, and reduced.
On meat-eating days, meat, ham, or ham fat should be added, together with a little cream or other dressing, and cooked down.
During the fast, pour over it a sauce or another broth and cook it down well. It may also be thickened with flour, seasoned with salt, and cooked with sour cabbage soup.
Every kind of porridge should likewise be thoroughly boiled and reduced, with fat, oil, herring, sauce, or whatever is appropriate.
All household food should be prepared well.
Household bread should likewise be properly kneaded, fermented, shaped, and baked. Household pies should be prepared in the same way.
Every kind of food should be prepared carefully and cleanly, as one would wish for one’s own soul.
The mistress or steward should taste every kind of household food. If it has not been properly cooked or baked, the cook, baker, or women who prepared it should be corrected. If the steward fails to supervise this, he should be corrected; if the mistress fails to supervise it, the husband should correct her.
To feed servants and the poor in this manner is to honor God and bring salvation to oneself.
The master or mistress should always look after the servants, the weak, and the poor, asking about every need: food, drink, clothing, every necessity, poverty, want, and every matter of daily life.
For all these needs, they should care for them for God’s sake, as far as they are able and as much as God provides, with all their soul, as for their own children and family.
Whoever does not care for them and does not grieve over their needs—let him be anathema.
But whoever lovingly and wholeheartedly cares for and preserves these things will receive great mercy from God, freedom from sins, and inherit eternal life.
Chapter 52 — In the Granaries and Storage Bins, Concerning Care and Preservation
In the granaries, the key-keeper should have every kind of provision: every kind of grain, malt, rye, oats, and wheat.
Nothing should be allowed to rot, become wet, be spoiled by mice, settle into hard masses, or become musty.
Flour and every kind of provision kept in barrels or boxes—peas, hemp, buckwheat, oatmeal, rye rusks, and wheat rusks—should all be covered and kept securely, protected from moisture, rot, and mustiness.
Everything should be measured and counted.
How much has been brought from the estate or purchased at the market should be recorded.
Anything measured by weight should be weighed.
Whenever anything is issued for household use, lent out, or given to someone at the master’s command, it should likewise be recorded.
The amount of everything produced should also be known and recorded: breads and rolls, beer, wine, braga, kvass, sour cabbage soup, vinegar, siftings, bran, mash, yeast, and hops.
Hops, honey, oil, and salt should be weighed.
Chapter 53 — Likewise, Keep Watch over the Drying Room
In the drying room there should be sides of meat, air-dried salted meat, strips and tongues, dried fish on rods, sheets of fish, and every kind of dried or air-dried fish.
Fish kept in woven mats and baskets, as well as other preserved fish, should all be accounted for.
The records should show how much was purchased, weighed, dried, and stored.
Everything should be carefully kept so that it does not rot, become wet, or be crushed.
It should be protected from every kind of damage and kept locked.
Chapter 54 — In the Cellar and Icehouse, Guard Everything Carefully
In the cellar, icehouse, and smaller cellar rooms there should be breads and rolls, cheeses, eggs, cream, onions and garlic, every kind of meat—fresh and salted—and fresh and salted fish.
There should also be fresh honey, prepared meat and fish dishes, jellied dishes, and every kind of stored food.
There should be cucumbers, salted and fresh cabbage, turnips, every kind of vegetable, saffron milk caps, caviar, prepared brines, fruit drinks, apple kvass, lingonberry waters, French wines, strong drinks, every kind of honey drink, seasoned and ordinary beers, and braga.
The key-keeper should know all these provisions and know how much has been placed in the cellar rooms, icehouse, and cellar.
Everything should be counted, marked, and recorded—what is full, what is partly full, and what has been opened.
Everything issued by the master’s command should be recorded, as should everything that has been used.
The key-keeper should be able to give the master a complete account of everything.
Everything should be clean and covered and should not become musty, moldy, or spoiled.
French wines, seasoned drinks, and every other fine drink should be kept under lock in a special cellar, and the key-keeper himself should attend to it.
Chapter 55 — In the Storerooms, Lower Rooms, and Barns, the Key-Keeper Should Arrange Everything According to the Master’s Instructions
In the storerooms, lower rooms, and barns, the key-keeper should arrange everything according to the master’s instructions.
This includes old clothing, traveling clothing, work clothing, felt coverings, cloaks, hats, gloves, bear skins, carpets, horse blankets, felt saddle coverings, saddles, quivers with bows and arrows, swords, hatchets, spears, firearms, bridles, reins, horsehair ropes, saddlebags, scabbards, spurs, whips, marine and leather reins, harnesses, collars, shafts, harness bows, sleeping mats, smoked furs, bags, canvas sacks, aprons, tents, curtains, flax, tow, ropes, strong cords, soap, ashes, old supplies, scraps of old and new material, cloth, leather, iron fragments, nails, chains, locks, axes, shovels, and every kind of iron supply and old equipment.
Everything should be sorted.
Whatever is useful should be placed in boxes, barrels, shelves, or other proper storage according to its kind.
Everything should be kept dry and covered, protected from mice, moths, snow, and every other kind of damage.
Everything should be counted and recorded—how much is new and how much is old.
Anything damaged should be repaired, so that every supply is always ready when needed.
In other lower rooms, covered areas, or barns, arrange sledges, working sledges, carts, wheels, wagons, field equipment, harness bows, collars, shafts, mats, tow ropes, bast cords, ropes, reins, traces, harnesses, horse blankets, and other household and horse equipment wherever each item belongs.
The best sledges, covered wagons, and traveling carriages should be kept under cover and raised from the ground.
Everything should be kept carefully, dry, and locked.
In another barn should be kept barrels, measuring vessels, chains, troughs, channels, tubs, scoops, sieves, screens, flasks, and every kind of kitchen and cellar equipment.
Any damaged barrel or vessel, including one with broken or rotten hoops, should be strengthened.
The grooves should be repaired, bottoms replaced, and new hoops fitted.
Everything should be ready, steamed, washed, and dried so that it smells neither of rot nor mold.
Yeast and hops should not be allowed to dry out or spoil.
Whenever a vessel is needed, it should be ready for use.
Keep oak wood in reserve for repairs and construction.
Old barrels, tubs, barrel bottoms, boards, lids, and every other vessel should all be stored.
All these things may be useful in time of need; therefore, do not destroy what is still serviceable.
Chapter 56 — In the Haylofts, Horses in the Stables, Firewood in the Yard, and the Care of Every Animal
The hay in the haylofts should be properly arranged and should not be torn apart or scattered down the stairs, across the porch, or around the yard.
It should always be gathered and swept up.
It should not be trampled underfoot or in the mud, become wet from dripping water, be covered with snow, or rot.
It should be kept locked.
Straw should likewise be properly stored under cover, gathered, cleaned, and not scattered.
In the stable, inspect the horses every day.
Put as much hay in the manger as the horses will eat so that they do not dig through it and scatter it under their feet.
Lay straw beneath the horses and rake it up and turn it over every day.
Lead the horses carefully to water.
Do not let the boys drive them recklessly.
Rub them down, comb them, feed them oats from a trough in the yard, rub them with blankets, and cover them.
In summer, provide shade and cool them.
Give food to the cows, geese, ducks, chickens, pigs, and dogs.
Put straw in their stalls, rake it up, and provide water.
Keep separate vessels for the animals, dogs, and chickens; do not soil clean household vessels with animal feed.
Go through all the work areas in the evening, at night, and in the morning.
A lantern should have a candle burning in it.
But never carry an open flame from a lantern into the stable, hay, or straw, lest fire result.
Logs, firewood, boards, shingles, cut pieces of wood, and all other timber should be arranged to the side where they belong, not left in the roadway.
Keep logs, boards, and shingles raised on supports and, preferably, under a roof.
Then they will remain dry and will not become wet.
Dry firewood burns well, and when a servant needs it, it can be taken and carried without becoming dirty.
Chapter 57 — In the Kitchens, Bakeries, and Workrooms, Make Proper Use of What Is Produced
In the kitchens and bakeries there will be mash, grain remnants, bran, cabbage roots and trimmings, beet and turnip leaves, braga mash, distilling residue from the kettles, squeezed remnants from kissel, and scraps removed from meat and fish in the kitchen.
There will also be remnants from sour cabbage soup and dough.
None of these things should simply be thrown away.
Gather them all and put them into old vessels that are no longer suitable for use in the kitchen or cellar.
Set them aside in a separate room.
Use them to feed the working horses, mixing them with chaff, oat flour, chopped hay, or whatever else is suitable.
Some may be given to cows, pigs, geese, ducks, chickens, and dogs according to what is appropriate for each.
Sprinkle suitable feed with flour.
Save the wash water from dishes, pots, and kettles, as well as food scraps and burnt remnants, for the animals.
The animals will be well fed by this.
The same kind of feed should also be sent to the animals at the estate.
Chapter 58 — The Master Should Frequently Inspect the Cellars, Icehouses, Granaries, Drying Rooms, Barns, and Stables
In the cellars, icehouses, granaries, drying rooms, storerooms, barns, and stables, the master himself should inspect everything regularly.
Every evening, on whatever day is appropriate, he should inspect the drink, food, household supplies, equipment, stable, bakery, kitchen, and every department under the key-keeper, cook, baker, or stableman.
Everything should be arranged according to the order prescribed in this book.
He should ask how much of everything there is, whether everything has been measured and counted, and whether everything has been recorded.
He should personally review the accounts and remember how much has been produced, how much has been used, and to whom anything has been given.
The servants responsible should be able to state everything precisely.
On one evening he may inspect the key-keeper; on another, the baker; on another, the brewer or stableman.
The key-keeper should be present during such inspections.
If everything has been properly arranged according to the instructions, all provisions preserved, and the account agrees and is honestly given, the servant should be rewarded for his service.
But whoever has been careless, lost or damaged something, lied, or stolen should be punished and fined according to his offense.
The master, mistress, key-keeper, or female key-keeper should each morning, after rising, first inspect the locks throughout the entire yard and all the buildings.
Where seals have been placed, inspect the seals as well.
If everything is sound, that is good.
If something has been badly locked, if a lock is broken, if something has been left unlocked, or if a seal is damaged or badly fastened, enter that room and inspect everything.
If something has been stolen, determine whether thieves entered or whether someone within the household stole it, or whether negligence caused the poor security.
According to the offense, rebuke and punish the responsible person.
Investigate where everyone spent the night and what had happened, and correct matters accordingly.
In the evening, inspect everything again.
Be alert to the danger of fire in the cellar and icehouse.
In the evening and morning, inspect the nails and fittings to ensure that they are secure, that the seams and lids do not leak, and that the bottoms do not drip.
Make sure everything is clean, that the brine is sound, that nothing is moldy or rotten, and that everything is covered, cleaned, and sorted.
If everything is properly cared for, that is good.
Whatever is not in order should be corrected and punished according to the offense.
The same inspection should be made in the kitchens, bakeries, other rooms, stables, among the animals, in the haylofts, among craftsmen and craftswomen, apprentices, merchants, and every other person responsible for the household.
Everything should be inspected and questioned about.
If everything follows the instructions, that is good.
If not, there should be punishment according to the offense, as previously described.
For good order and careful stewardship, show love and reward.
Let the good person receive honor and the negligent person receive warning and discipline.
Chapter 59 — After Accounting with the Servants, the Master Should Reward Them Accordingly
Any servant who is careful in whatever department has been entrusted to him, who lives according to his instructions, performs his service honestly, does not make himself a laughingstock, and does not steal should be recognized.
He should keep all food, drink, and household supplies covered so that nothing rots, becomes moldy, sours, becomes wet, is spilled, dirtied, or scattered.
All vessels should be clean, washed, and properly arranged.
All leftover food should be sorted, with what remains whole preserved for the master and guests, while opened food is issued for use at the table according to the master’s instructions.
Whoever serves well, carefully, honestly, and according to his instructions should be rewarded.
Receive him with a good word, give him food and drink, and fulfill his needs.
If someone, through no deceit but through lack of skill, insufficient care, or ignorance, does something improperly or damages something, correct him with words before everyone so that all may learn from it, and impose the appropriate penalty.
If he commits the offense a second or third time, or becomes lazy, punish him according to his offense and the judgment appropriate to the matter.
Let the good person receive honor, the bad receive punishment, and everyone receive instruction from it.
The mistress should likewise supervise and correct the women and girls in her household according to these same instructions.
Chapter 60 — Concerning Merchants and Shopkeepers: Keep Frequent Accounts with Them as Well
Those who trade in shops and purchase all kinds of necessities for the household and for its provisions should likewise be kept under regular account.
Each week, the master himself should review with them what has been received and spent, what has been bought and sold.
With one person this may be done one evening, with another on another evening.
Whoever is careful, remembers his business, attends to his work, keeps everything accounted for, has no deceit in him, and produces some profit should be commended and rewarded with food and drink, and his needs should be provided for.
For especially good and profitable work, he may even be rewarded with clothing.
But whoever acts carelessly, is lazy, comes late to the shop, sleeps too long, fails to bring his goods to customers, or otherwise neglects his work should be corrected and rebuked.
According to his offense, an appropriate penalty should be imposed.
Those who serve well should be seated at the master’s table, served by him, rewarded, and cared for in every way.
But in any service, household work, or trade, whoever is lazy, sleepy, thieving, or prone to drunkenness should be disciplined.
If punishment and correction do not help, remove such a person from the work and have another work in his place.
If someone is foolish, rude, thieving, and lazy, and is of no use at all, do not even strike him as punishment; feed him and dismiss him from the household, so that others do not become corrupted by his example.
Chapter 61 — How to Build a Courtyard, Shop, Village, or Barn
For every good and prudent householder to whom God has granted a courtyard, a small village, a shop in the marketplace, a barn, stone buildings, a brewery, or a mill, all the provisions described above should be purchased at the proper time, when they are inexpensive.
Throughout the year, the master himself, or the key-keeper or other person appointed for this, should inspect everything in the courtyard.
If a fence or palisade has been damaged, whether around the courtyard, in the fields, or in the garden, it should be repaired.
The gates and locks should be inspected and repaired when necessary.
If the roof of any building has rotted or grown old, if gutters have become clogged, or if anything has become worn, it should be washed, swept, cleaned, repaired, strengthened, or replaced.
Whatever has become old, broken, or leaky should be repaired.
In the rooms of the house, if a table, bench, stove, or other household furnishing has been damaged, it should be repaired.
The same applies to the cellar, icehouse, bathhouse, bridge, and every other structure.
Every kind of household equipment should be maintained: courtyard equipment, kitchen equipment, stable equipment, cellar equipment, clothing, and footwear.
Whatever is worn out should be mended.
Whatever is damaged should be strengthened.
Everything should be kept firm and sound, so that nothing rots, leaks, becomes dirty, or becomes wet.
Roofs and drying rooms should likewise be inspected and repaired.
The entire courtyard should always be kept in good condition, so that it does not fall into disrepair.
The stoves should always be inspected, both inside and above and around them.
Cracks should be sealed with clay.
Where bricks have broken away, they should be replaced.
The top of the stove should always be swept clean.
Then there will be no danger of fire, and the stove will be safe for sleeping upon and for drying things.
Above every stove opening there should be a clay or iron fire screen.
Even if the ceiling is low, this will reduce the danger of fire.
All rooms should always be swept clean and kept dry, without dirt or rubbish.
After snow, the snow in the courtyard and before the gates should always be cleared and gathered.
After rain, the mud should be raked together.
Anything unnecessary should be put away rather than left lying about.
When the weather is dry, everything should be swept.
Then the courtyard will always be clean, dry, and free of mud.
Brooms, shovels, and every kind of household equipment should not be left lying around the courtyard.
Everything should be put away and stored in its proper place.
There should be a well in the courtyard and garden.
If there is no well, there should always be a supply of water.
In summer, water should be kept near the buildings as a precaution against fire.
Whenever the stove in the house or bathhouse is heated, water should first be brought in and kept ready, as a precaution against fire.
Chapter 62 — How to Pay Household Taxes and Duties, Rent from a Shop or Village, and Every Debt Owed
Every person should pay without delay whatever is owed from his courtyard, shop, village, or other property: rent, taxes, duties, levies, and every kind of payment owed to the sovereign.
Do not hold back such payments or accumulate them.
Pay them early, before the appointed time.
Then you will live without trouble and will not have to borrow for payment at the last moment.
You will not have to run about seeking money, make gifts to officials, or wear yourself out trying to satisfy your obligations.
But whoever does not pay his taxes, rents, and other obligations on time, and instead tries to buy himself out of them, will find that he must pay twice as much.
Thus foolish people live in endless labor, in disputes and enforcement proceedings, and finally in debt until they are impoverished.
But whoever lives in settlement and order, keeps no unpaid taxes behind him, and does not carry unnecessary debt will always live freely and without trouble.
Such a person has good things during his lifetime, and after his death he leaves his children a remembrance and an inheritance: a courtyard with all its provisions, a shop with its goods, or a village with all its possessions.
Nothing has been lost to bondage, written pledges, sureties, unpaid taxes, or other burdens.
If it happens that you need to borrow money, borrow without interest when possible; or, if a pledge or formal obligation is unavoidable, pay it by the appointed time.
Then good people will continue to trust you.
But whoever does not pay on time, or does not pay the required interest in advance when such an obligation exists, will pay with loss and shame, and afterward no one will trust him.
Chapter 63 — Instructions to the Key-Keeper for Preserving Every Kind of Salted Provision in the Cellar
All such provisions should be kept in their vessels, whether the vessels are full or already opened.
They should stand in brine and be pressed down with a small board and a heavy stone.
Cucumbers, plums, and lemons should likewise be kept in brine.
The cucumbers should be lightly pressed down with a lattice or board and a small stone.
Any mold should always be removed.
The brine should be replenished as necessary.
If a brine begins to smell stale, pour it out and replace it with fresh brine.
If salted provisions are left without sufficient brine, the upper layer will rot.
If they are not properly cared for, the provisions will spoil.
During the summer, inspect all such provisions carefully.
Meat should be hung out at the proper time.
When fish begins to develop an odor, wash it and hang it out to dry.
All kinds of salted fish and meat intended for drying should be hung out toward spring.
When they have been properly aired and are ready, take them down from the hooks.
Carry them to the drying room.
Hang up whatever should remain hanging, and stack whatever should be stacked.
Fish prepared on rods should be wrapped in mats.
Flat pieces of fish should be placed on shelves.
Fish that has been lightly steamed should be kept in baskets or other vessels where air can circulate.
Each kind should be preserved according to what is proper for it.
Everything concerning their care has already been described above.
In the granaries, storage bins, and drying rooms, continually inspect every kind of provision.
If something has been dripped upon, covered with snow, become damp, stale, moldy, or packed together, spread it out and dry it in the sun or, when appropriate, in the stove.
Whatever has begun to spoil should be eaten first.
It may also be given to those who borrow provisions, to the poor, or to those in need.
If there is a great deal of it, sell it.
Whatever is fresh and dry and properly preserved should be kept for later use.
As for drinks—honey drinks, beer, fruit drinks, cherries in syrup, apples and pears in syrup or kvass, and lingonberry water—barrels sealed in ice should be kept full.
Any vessel of drink that is not full should be topped up and sealed in ice.
If a drink has begun to sour or become moldy, transfer it into smaller vessels and use it up quickly.
Whatever remains fresh should be preserved for later use and kept full.
Apples, pears, cherries, and berries should likewise be kept properly preserved.
Remove any mold and replenish the liquid or syrup as needed.
On the icehouse, keep full vessels of drink and food sealed against the ice so that they do not spoil.
All clothing and goods kept in chambers, storerooms, barns, shops, chests, barrels, and boxes—both upper and lower garments, new and old, expensive and inexpensive, cloth, linen, and other fabrics—should be inspected during the summer.
They should be hung up, dried, shaken out, and aired.
Whatever has been damaged should be repaired.
New and old clothing should again be folded properly and stored as before.
Keep everything dry, covered, and under lock.
If hay has become wet from dripping water, snow, dampness, or compression, take it outside on a clear, sunny, windy day.
Dry it thoroughly and shake it out, then return it to the hayloft.
If hay in a stack has become packed or stale, spread it out, shake it, and dry it.
Then gather it carefully again.
Whatever has become damaged should either be sold or fed to the horses and thereby used up.
If there is a great deal of damaged hay, sell it.
Whatever remains good should be preserved for later use, kept dry, and stored under cover in the hayloft.
Chapter 64 — A Father’s Letter and Admonition to His Son
A blessing from the priest Sylvester of the Annunciation Church to my beloved only son, Anfim.
My dear child, listen to your father, who gave you life and raised you in good instruction, in the commandments of the Lord, in the fear of God, and in the study of Holy Scripture and every Christian law.
You were instructed in good judgment, in honest commerce, and in every kind of trade and merchandise.
You have received the blessing of the bishops and the favor of the sovereign tsar, and of the tsarina, his family, and all the boyars.
You have kept company with good people, and you have had extensive trade and friendship with many foreigners.
You have received all these good things and have learned, by God’s help, to carry them through as they were begun under our care.
May God preserve you in the same way after us.
I arranged for you a lawful marriage with the daughter of good and honorable parents.
I blessed you with every holy thing, with honorable crosses and holy images, and with possessions which, as I believe, have been acquired through righteous labor.
If there has been ignorance or error, God is the Judge.
And now, my son Anfim, I entrust you, commit you, and leave you to our Creator and good Guardian, Jesus Christ, and to His Mother, the Most Pure Theotokos, our Protectress and Helper, and to all the saints.
As Scripture says, strive to leave your children instructed in the commandments of the Lord.
It is better to have righteous poverty than unrighteous wealth.
Therefore, my child, guard yourself against unrighteous possessions.
Do good works.
Have your children place great faith in God.
Put all your hope in the Lord.
No one who hopes in Christ will perish.
Be diligent in every good work.
Fear God.
Keep His commandments.
Love God with all your soul and your neighbor as yourself.
Do not trust in wealth or possessions.
Whatever God gives you, receive with thanksgiving and use it in righteousness.
Teach your wife, your children, and your household the fear of God and the Christian life.
Keep your home in good order.
Do not be lazy.
Do not become proud because of wealth.
Remember that all earthly things pass away.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Therefore live in righteousness, charity, purity, and truth.
Give to the poor according to your ability.
Remember the departed.
Pray for them.
Care for churches and monasteries.
Honor priests, bishops, monks, and every Christian according to his proper place.
Do not oppress the weak.
Do not wrong anyone.
Do not repay evil with evil.
Endure insults with patience.
Forgive those who wrong you.
Keep your conscience clean before God.
If you have sinned, repent and confess your sin.
Do not hide your wrongdoing from God, for nothing is hidden from Him.
Always remember death and the coming Judgment.
Live so that, when the Lord calls you, you may be found ready.
If you receive this instruction and this writing, and if you put it into practice with a pure heart, asking God for help and understanding as far as He gives them, then God’s mercy will be upon you.
May the Most Pure Theotokos, the great wonderworkers, and all the saints intercede for you.
And may our blessing remain upon you from now and forever.
May your house, your children, your possessions, and the abundance that God has given you through your labor be blessed and filled with every good thing forever.
Amen.