As soon as Meshchersky, supported by the arms of some people, reached the patriarchal palace and told how the matter had been, Nikon wrote a harsh letter to Alexei Mikhailovich, demanding that he immediately give satisfaction for the offense of his solicitor. The influence of the patriarch and the general fear of him were so great that his message was handed to the tsar right at the banquet table. The Tsar immediately dictated a reply message that he would investigate this matter himself and personally see Nikon.

The tsar's stolnik Matyushin brought this answer to the Patriarch, but Nikon was too furious to wait. He sent the stolnik back, wanting an immediate investigation. Alexei Mikhailovich was still sitting at the table with the Tsarevich and the boyars, but he found time to send Nikon another soothing letter. Having read it, the patriarch said to the tsar's stolnik with a threat: "The great sovereign is free not to give me defense, but I will manage the Church with him!"

However, in vain did Nikon prepare a harsh sermon to the autocrat who had lost his grip. The Tsar did not want to listen to lectures any longer, and the boyars were quite tired of Nikon's six-year rule: they unanimously dissuaded Alexei Mikhailovich from meeting with the Patriarch. Nikon did not go to the palace – Alexei Mikhailovich and his court did not appear at the solemn patriarchal service on July 8, the feast of the Kazan Mother of God, which was usually attended.

Nikon still hoped to humble the tsar and on July 10, on the feast of the Lord's Robe (sent to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich by the Persian shah), he ordered the annunciation to be ringed at the large bells until Alexei Mikhailovich appeared at the Assumption Cathedral. He forgot how the Tsar had neglected the services of Patriarch Joseph, praying with him, Nikon, in the palace churches, and was sure that piety would force the autocrat to overcome his pride.

For a long time, large bells rang in the Kremlin, calling first to vespers, and then to all-night vigil. Nikon was confused. His power as a great bishop, placed by God Himself above that of the tsar, dissolved like smoke. The crowds that had been gathering at the entrance to the patriarchal palace since early morning disappeared. Boyars and clerks did not appear with reports. Foreign bishops did not come in to talk. Metropolitans and archbishops, archimandrites and abbots, who were always afraid of his wrath, hid somewhere. Even the poor priests, who dragged their pitiful bribes to the patriarchal clerks for putting them in their place or changing the parish, fled around Moscow, waiting to see how the quarrel "at the top" would end.

The Patriarch suddenly discovered that his consecrated power was almost entirely the power of the tsar's favorite. True, the enormous wealth of the Church ensured his influence, but not so obvious and tangible as he was accustomed to. The somny of the clergy would not have helped him in the conflict with the autocrat, on whom the overwhelming majority, if not all, of them pinned their hopes in the matter of defending the Church and piety. Nikon could not even change the bishops without the permission of the tsar, let alone punish them: the patriarchal clerks instantly remembered that the lawful trial of the clergy belonged to the Monastic Prikaz.

Seeing that he was left alone and had nothing to do with – the royal power took over the court and all ecclesiastical administration – Nikon gave room to anger. And then, after matins, Prince Grigory Romodanovsky came to the Dormition Cathedral and said: "The Tsar's Majesty is angry with you, and for this reason he did not come to matins, and did not command himself to be expected at the Holy Liturgy." And Romodanovsky also said: "You have neglected the Tsar's Majesty and are called a great sovereign, but we have only one great sovereign – the Tsar."

"I am not called a great sovereign by an impostor," answered Nikon, "so His Imperial Majesty wished and commanded me to be called and written. We have evidence of this: letters written by the Tsar's Majesty in hand.

"The Tsar's Majesty," retorted Prince Grigory, "revered you as a father and pastor, but you did not understand, and now the Tsar's Majesty has commanded me to tell you: henceforth let you not be written or called a great sovereign, and the Tsar will no longer revere you!"

It was then that Nikon ordered the cathedral to bring a simple monastic cassock, a klobuk and a stick, deciding to punish the autocrat and all the secular authorities in a rough way, according to the Gospel: "If they drive you out of the city, flee to another city." Having served the Liturgy, after the ambo prayer the Patriarch read a sermon to the people and began to speak of his patriarchal unworthiness, that he had not wanted to be a patriarch for more than three years, and only the Emperor persuaded him, and henceforth he did not wish to be patriarch in Moscow and went to a monastery after his death.

From such an unprecedented deed, the parishioners were greatly dismayed, the cathedral doors were locked, not letting Nikon out, and they themselves sent Metropolitan Pitirim of Krutitsa to the palace to inform the tsar about what had happened. Sitting in his poor clothes on the step of the patriarchal throne, Nikon imagined a commotion in the palace. Even now, he waited for the Tsar and his advisers to come to their senses and rush to beg the supreme bishop for forgiveness, that everything would still be restored.

And indeed, soon the most prominent boyar in the Duma, Alexei Nikitich Trubetskoy, entered the cathedral with the sovereign's conciliatory words: "Why does he leave the patriarchate without consulting the great sovereign, and from whose persecution, and who is persecuting him? And he, His Holiness, would not have left the patriarchate and would have remained as before."

But Nikon did not need reconciliation, but a decisive victory over the pride of the autocrat, and he replied with ostentatious meekness: "I have left the patriarchate to myself, and from no one's persecution, from any persecution, from the sovereign's wrath against me. And I had beaten my forehead to the Emperor about this before and informed him that I would not be on the patriarchate for more than three years." With these words, Nikon gave Trubetskoy a letter to the tsar and ordered him to ask Alexei Mikhailovich to give him a cell. Trubetskoy began to lose his temper, but restrained himself and, before leaving, asked the patriarch for his blessing.

"What blessing do you have from me?" Nikon answered. "I am not worthy to be a patriarch, if you want, I will confess my sins to you myself."