On Line Library of the Church of Greece

Georges Florovsky

Ways of Russian Theology

1. E. Golubinskii (1834-1912), a historian of the Russian Church, wrote a History of the Russian Church [Istoriia Russkoi tserkvi] (Moscow, 1880-1916), 4 vols.

2. Peter the Great, or Peter I (1672-1725) "revolutionized" Russia by introducing Western technology, transferring the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg (Leningrad), by reforming the military system and by greatly reducing the power and authority of the Russian Orthodox Church. He abolished the patriarchate in 1721 and transformed the Church administration into a wing of the State. The former patriarchate became the "Holy Governing Synod." Many of Peter's Church "reforms" were patterned after the Swedish Protestant Church.

3. V.O. Kliuchevskii (1841-1911), a professor of history at the University of Moscow, wrote a five volume History of Russia [Kurs Russkoi istorii]. His doctoral dissertation was on the Muscovite boyar duma.

4. The Questions of Kirik, a historically revealing composition from the mid 12th century, is replete with a legalistic, primitive and ritualistic approach to Christianity by the Russian clergy. The document consists of  101 questions asked by a group of Novgorodian priests (Kirik's name headed the list) and answered by Bishop Nifont. The primitive spirit of this work differs radically from the liberal, more universal spirit of Vladimir Monomakh's Instruction [Rouchenie] to his sons. Two other similar compositions of "questions and answers" on ritual come from this period: The Precept of the Holy Fathers to the Confessing Sons and Daughters and The Canonical Answers of Metr. Ioann II of Kiev.

5. The Pouchenie [Instruction] was one of the most interesting pieces of literature in Old Russia. For an analysis of the Pouchenie see volume III in Nordland's The Collected Works of George P. Fedotov, entitled The Russian Religious Mind (I): Kievan Christianity, pages 244-264.

6. Vladimir Monomakh or Vladimir II (1053-1125), the son of  Prince Iaroslav and Irina, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, was an energetic statesman, a gifted writer and a skillful military leader. Vladimir's international connections are noteworthy: his mother was a Byzantine princess; an uncle married a Polish princess; one aunt married Henry I of France, another the King of Norway, a third the King of Hungary. Vladimir himself married the daughter of King Harold of England. His oldest son married the daughter of the King of Sweden; his daughter married the King of Hungary; and a grand-daughter married into the Byzantine Comneni imperial family. It is noteworthy that Vladimir's son had three names: a Greek Christian name (George); a Slavic name (Mstislav); and an Old Norse name (Harold).

7. The reference is to E.N. Trubetskoi's Umozrenie v kraskokh (Moscow, 1916), published in English by Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press as Icons: Theology in Color.

8. Petr I. Chaadaev (1794-1856), an intellectual whose thoughts on Russian history and culture ignited the controversy between the Westernizers and the Slavophiles, wrote a venomous criticism of Russia in French in 8 letters, entitled Lettres Philosophiques (1827-1831). The first letter, in which the term "la miserable Byzance" occurred, was published in Russian translation in Teleskop in 1836. Emperor Nikolai I (1796-1855) declared Chaadaev insane and placed him under house arrest. See Sochineniia i pis'ma. P. Ia. Chaadaeva, ed. M. Gershenzon (Moscow, 1913), 2 vols.

9. See Part II of Deno J. Geanakopolos' Byzantine East and Latin West: Two Worlds of Christendom in Middle Ages and Renaissance (New York: Harper & Row, 1966).

10. St. Vladimir or Vladimir I (c. 956-1015), son of the Viking-Russian prince Sviatoslav and one of his courtesans, consolidated the Russian realm from the Ukraine to the Baltic. Although Christianity already existed to some extent in Kiev, it was Vladimir's Byzantine baptism, which established the date of the "conversion" of Russia, bringing Russia into the orbit of Greek Orthodox Christianity.

11. Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich (1629-1676), son of the first Romanov Tsar (Mikhail), reigned from 1645-1676. Tsar Aleksei approved Patriarch Nikon's "reforms," the result of which led to a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church.

12. On the baptism of Russia, see N. de Baumgarten, Saint Vladimir et la conversion de la Russie (Rome: Orientalia Christiana, vol. XXVII, 1932). For possible Scandinavian influence see R. Haugh, "St. Vladimir and Olaf  Tryggvason: The Russian Primary Chronicle and Gunnlaug Leifson's Saga of Olaf Tryggvason" in vol. VIII of Transactions of the Association of  Russian-American Scholars (New York, 1974), 83-96.

13. Vladimir S. Solov'ev (1853-1900), a mystic, poet, theologian and ecumenist, was perhaps Russia's most gifted and most original philosopher.

14. Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria (893-927) waged constant war on Byzantium; his goal was the imperial crown and the creation of a new empire centered in Bulgaria, an empire which would replace Byzantium. In 913 Simeon :vas crowned Emperor by Patriarch Nicholas Mysticos. The validity of Simeon's coronation was later disallowed, although Simeon, according to Romanos I  (Lecapenos), called himself "Emperor of the Bulgarians and Romans."

15. SS. Cyril (Constantine) (c. 827-869) and Methodius (c. 825-884) were brothers born in Thessalonica whose father Leo was a Byzantine drungarios. Thessalonica was populated by many Slavs whose language the two brothers learned. The brothers became missionaries to the Slavs and because of  their role in Christianizing the Danubian Slavs and their enormous influence on all Slavic peoples, the brothers received the titles "apostles of the Slavs" and "doctors." They translated Scripture into the Old Bulgarian "Slavonic" and for this they devised an alphabet which, in its final form, came to be known as Cyrillic.

16. This was the view of N.K. Nikol'skii and, in part, of  Priselkov. [Author's Note]. Bogomilism was a medieval heresy, the roots of which can be traced to Paulicianism and Manichaeism. In the 8th century the Byzantines resettled groups of Paulicians in Thrace. Bogomilism, the meaning of which came from the leader Bogomil ("pleasing God") purportedly arose from this. The central teaching of the Bogomils was that the visible, physical world was created by the devil. Hence, they essentially denied the Christian doctrine of  Incarnation and the Christian belief that matter was a vehicle of grace. They therefore rejected baptism, the eucharist, marriage, the eating of meat and drinking of wine, and the entire hierarchical structure and organization of the established Church (although they had their own hierarchy).

17. Cosmas, a Bulgarian priest, wrote a treatise on the Bogomils entitled Slovo sviatago Kozmi prezvitera na heretiki prepenie i pouchenie ot bozhestvennikh knig. It was edited by M.G. Popruchenko and published in Kozma Presbyter bolgarski pisatel' X veka (Sofia, 1936). A French translation exists: Puech and Vaillant, Le traite contre les Bogomiles de Cosmas le pretre (Paris, 1945).

18. The Monastery of the Caves (or Pecherskaia Lavra), founded by St. Feodosii and St. Antonii, is still a noted sight in Kiev. For a description of life in this monastery see The Russian Primary Chronicle, trans. 2nd ed. by Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor (Cambridge, Ma.: The Medieval Academy of America, 1953), p. 139 ff. See also the Paterikon (i.e. a collection of the  lives of inhabitants of the monastery) edited by D.I. Abramovich, Paterik, Kievo-Pecherskogo monastyria (St. Petersburg, 1911).

19. St. Feodosii (Theodosius), the father of coenobitic or communal monasticism in Russia, was the first "monk-saint" canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. See Vol. II in Nordland's The Collected Works of George P. Fedotov entitled A Treasury of Russian Spirituality, pp. 11-49.

20. The Studion or Studios Monastery in Constantinople, established in 463 by the Roman consul Studios, became famous mainly through the efforts of St. Theodore the Studite (d. 826) who merged the coenbitic rule of St. Basil with the spirituality of Palestine. The Studite rule (see Patrologia Graeca 99, 1703-1720) reached Russia via Mt. Athos. Destroyed by Crusaders in 1204, rebuilt in 1290, destroyed again in 1453, only parts of the monastery remain and they form the Mosque of Imrahar.

21. St. Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022), a Byzantine  mystic, prepared the way for the later blossoming of hesychastic mysticism. By using certain methods of prayer, Saint Simeon believed one could achieve an inner illumination and directly experience a vision of Divine light. The focal point of a rivalry between the secular and monastic groups in Constantinople, Saint Simeon was exiled in 1009 by the patriarch. The ban was later lifted but he refused to leave Saint Marina Monastery. His mystical poems became classics of  Eastern Christian spirituality. See the recent English translation by G.A. Maloney, S.J. of Hymns of Divine Gove (Denville, N.J.: Dimension Books, no date).

22. G.G. Shpet and G.P. Fedotov subscribe to this view [Author's note] .

23. Ivan V. Kireevskii (1806-1856), a noted Slavophile critic and editor, helped establish the journals Evropeets [The European] andMoskovskii sbornik (1852). In the latter he published his famous ai&127;icle "On the Nature of  European Culture and it's Relation to the Culture of Russia."

24. V. Jagic (1838-1923) was a Serbian Slavist and philologist who taught at the Universities of Odessa, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Vienna. His chief work is Istoriia slavianskoi filologii (St. Petersburg, 1910), and he also did extensive work on early Slavonic manuscripts.

25. Iaroslav I or "the Wise" (980-1054), Grand Prince of Kiev from 1019, promoted Christian culture in Russia by having Greek religious works translated into Slavic and by establishing new churches and monasteries.

26. The "Holy Mountain" was inhabited by hermits as early as the ninth century. In 963 the monk Athanasius of Trebizond, with assistance from Emperor Nicephoras II Phocas, established the first regular monastery there, the Great Lavra. John Tzimsces granted it a charter in 971, and over the next few centuries Mount Athos grew to become the spiritual center of the Orthodox world with 19 monasteries founded by the year 1400, including the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon.

27. Ilarion, the first native, non-Greek metropolitan of Kiev (c.1051), was elected uncanonically by Iaroslav and Russian bishops, an indication of the growing autonomy of the Russtan church and a result of Iaroslav's quarrel with Byzantium. Ilarion has also left a Confession of Faith which Fedotov suspects of practical docetic monophysitism (see vol. III in Nordland's The Collected Works of George P. Fedotov, p. 85 ff.).

28. N. M. Karamzin (1766-1826), a Russian historian, poet and journalist, was appointed court historian by Alexander I. His 12 volume Istoriia gosudarstva Rossiiskogo [History of the Russian State], which ended with the accession of Mikhail Romanov in 1613, was both a literary landmark and a defense of autocratic absolutism. His memoir was translated and edited by Richard Pipes as Karamzin's Memoir on Ancient and Modern Russia: A Translation and an Analysis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959).

29. Kirill of Turov (1130-1189), who f(ourished in the mid l2th century, absorbed well both Byzantine literary style and theological emphases. Of his extant letters, prayers and sermons, the latter have been historically the most significant, finding their way into the Torzhestvennik [Panegyrikon ] , a collection of "worthy" sermons to correspond with the Church calendar. Of his original views, those on the atonement and ascension are perhaps most noteworthy.

30. Klimentii Smoliatich, metropolitan of Kiev from 1147-1155, has left us only a fragment (a letter to a priest named Foma). Klimentii's main concern is to defend the allegorical method of Biblical exegesis. He, however, shows no originality and, in fact, quotes from no secular sources. He was totally dependent. on his Greek sources.

31. St. Avraamii, an enigmatic personality, is best known for his severe eschatological thought. He painted two icons (one on "The Second Coming"; the other on "The Judgement") and probably authored the Sermon of the Celestial Powers. See vol. III of Nordland's The Collected Works of George P. Fedotov, pp. 158-175.

32. In 1215 the Tatars overthrew the Chinese empire and in 1219-1220 they overcame the Moslems of Khorezm, the result of which was to unite all Turkic-Tatar peoples of Central Asia. They then subjugated the Georgians, Ossetians and other peoples of the Caucasus. Terrified, the Polovtsy and Russians united to attack the Tatars near the Kalka river. The Tatars afflicted the Russian forces with a devastating defeat. Seven years later the Tatars returned, each year penetrating further into Russian territory until Kiev was sacked in 1240 and Novgorod submitted to Tatar demands in 1259. For two centuries the Russians were under the constant control of the Tatars.

33. See V.M. Istrin, Ocherk istorii drevne-russkoi literatury (1922) and his Izsledovaniia v oblasti drevne-russkoi literatury (1906) [Author's note].

34. A Paterikon was a collection of quotations from worthy "Fathers" on the lives of worthy inhabitants in a specific monastery, often omitting any source reference. Pateriki were numerous in Old Russia.

35. Palaea, collections of Biblical history often replacing the historical books of the Old Testament, often merged canonical Biblical texts with apocryphal and, at times, even non-religious writings.

36. The Palaeologi Byzantine dynasty (1261-1453), established after the Crusades by Michael VIII Palaeologos (1259-1282), witnessed a flourishing of both religious and secular cultural life - especially under Andronikes II (1282-1328) - while Byzantium itself was in its declining years. Both the Slavic north and the Latin west reaped some of the harvest of this last Byzantine "renaissance." Although numerous persons particiated in this cultural renaissance the contributions of three persons will indicate the breadth of this rebirth: 1) Maximos Planudes (d. 1310), a writer of poetry and essays, was also an editor and translator. He annotated Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod, Aesop's Fables and a critical Greek Anthology. He also worked on the text of Plutarch's Moralia and translated - inter alia - Augustine's De Trinitate, Boethius' De Consolatione philosophiae and Cato's Dicta; 2) Demetrios Cydones (d.c. 139&), attracted to Latin scholasticism and a convert (1365) to Latin Christianity, translated Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae. He has left 447 valuable letters and his two "Exhortations" unsuccessfully urged the Byzantines to unite with the Latin west in order to prevent the Turkish conquest; 3) Theodore Metochites (d.1332), a statesman, scholar, scientist and poet, wrote an account of his travels in Serbia while negotiating with the Serbs. His commentaries on the Dialogues of Plato aided the l5th century Platonic renaissance in the West and his Miscellanea philosophica et istorica (ed. by Muller and Kiessling in 1821 in Leipzig) contains 120 essays on philosophical, political, moral, historical and aesthetic subjects.

37. Euthymius of Trnovo (c. 1317-c. 1402), a monk and spokesman for Hesychasm, was also a scholar and linguist. His translations of liturgical and canonical texts into Old Slavonic (an Ustav of the Liturgy of John Chrysostom and a Sluzhebnik which corrected and brought uniformity to liturgical texts) sparked the late medieval Slavonic renaissance. In 1375 he was elected Patriarch of Trnovo and hence became the primate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. When Trnovo fell to the Turks in 1393, he went into exile.

38. Patriarch Philotheus (c. 1300-1379), an ardent defender of Gregory Palamas and Hesychasm, staunchly opposed union with Rome. Author of several works, exegesis and lives of saints, he also wrote works against the thought of Akindynos and Barlaam and 15 Antirrhetica [Diatribes] against the historian Nicephorus Gregoras. The most important Palamite work, the Hagioritic Tome, a work used by Palamas himself in his own defense, was also authored by Philotheus. In 1353 he became Patriarch but later was imprisoned on a charge of treason. In 1364 he was reappointed Patriarch. Mainly through his efforts the concrete reality of Constantinople's supremacy over the Eastern Chruch was furthered and the Orthodox Slavs were consolidated under the Greek Patriarchate.

39. Gregory Palamas (c. 1296-1359), one of the most controversial thinkers in the history of Christianity, was the theologian of the Byzantine contemplative movement known as Hesychasm (hesychia - state of quiet), a movement which held that it was possible in this life to behold the vision of God, to experience God through his uncreated grace, through his Divine energies. The Hesychastic ascetical method, which combined repetitive prayer formulas with bodily postures and controlled breathing, was opposed by both Latin Christians and Byzantine Humanists. The Western view of grace as both created and supernatural found Palamas' teaching especially offensive. See John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas (London, 1964).

40. The "Non-possessors" [nestiazhateli ] , known as the Transvolgan elders [zavolzhskie startsyJ , believed that monasteries should follow the rule of poverty and not try to possess either land or money.

41. St. Basil (c. 329-379), one of the most important persons in the history of Christianity, has left his mark on doctrine, liturgy, canon law and asceticism. He worked tirelessly to bring the Arians and semi-Arians back to Nicaean Orthodoxy, a mission ultimately crowned with success posthumously at the Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople I) in 381. He, his younger brother St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Gregory of Nazianzus are known as the "Cappadocian Fathers."

42. Diadochus of Photice, about whose life little is known, died c. 468. Of his four extant works, the most important work and one which had a profound influence on later Eastern Christianity, especially Russian, was De perfectione spirituali capita centum (One Hundred Chapters on Spiritual Perfection ] ; it was printed in the Russian Philokalia.

43. Isaac the Syrian or Isaac of Nineveh (d. c. 700), a Syrian bishop, theologian and monk, is venerated as a saint by Eastern Christianity even though he passed his life as a Nestorian. He was a Nestorian bishop, however, for only five months. He then resigned and returned to monastic life. His numerous works, which were a basic source for both Eastern and Western Christianity, had a powerful influence on Russian spirituality.

44. Hesychius of Jerusalem (d. c. 450), renowned in Eastern Christianity as a theologian and Biblical commentator, wrote - according to the Menologion - commentaries on the entire Bible, the method of which was entirely allegorical. He played an important role in the Christological controversies of the Sth century reputedly rejecting all philosophical terms except logos sarkoutheis [ The Word became flesh ] . Among other works, he wrote a church history, a portion of which was read at the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553).

45. St. John Climacus (579-649), the details of whose life are little known, wrote his Heavenly Ladder while abbot of Mt. Sinai monastery. The Ladder, one of the most widely used handbooks of the ascetic life in Eastern  Christianity, greatly influenced the Hesychasts and Slavic monasticism. As the title reveals, the ascetic life is seen as an ascent; the 30 steps of the ladder represent the 30 non-public years of Christ's life. See PG 88, 632-1161; also Ladder of  Divine Ascent, tr. L. Moore (New York, 1959).

46. Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662), the most important Byzantine theologian of the 7th century influenced the whole of medieval theology and mysticism in the East. He is best known for his contribution to the development of Christology by opposing monothelitism (the belief that Christ had but one will and that was divine). Imprisoned from 653-655, Maximus was later  tortured and exiled.

47. See note 21.

48. Philipp the recluse was an eaily tvelfth centuiy Greek wiiter. His Dioptra or Guide for the Christian, in the Bibliotheque des Peres, is a dialogue between the soul and the ilesh.

49. The reference is to the mysterious genius who flourished at the end of the Sth century and called himself Dionysius the Areopagite, the name of one of St. Paul's converts in Athens (Acts 17:34). The unknown Dionysius wrote the Celestial and Ecclesiaatical Hierarchy, Divine Names of God and Mystical Theology. These writings became critically important for the theology and spirituality of Eastern Christianity. These works also became important later in the Latin West.

50. St. Sergei of Radonezh (1314-1392), who left an enormous oral influence on Russian spirituality, established the Trinity Monastery in Radonezh which became a center of spiritual, cultural and economic life. It served as a base of missionary and colonizing activity in the Russian North. (See Nordland's English edition entitled The 'Vita' of St. Sergii of Radonezh: Introduction, Translation, Notes, ed. by M. Klimenko).

51. Theophanes the Greek (c. 1335-1405), a prominent Byzantine painter of icons, murals and miniatures, worked in Russia after 1370 where his influence was great (Andrei Rublev was one of his followers.). Although  he closely followed Byzantine standards, he also assimilated specific features of Russian art. The frescoes in the Novgorodian Church of the Transfiguration are his.

52. The Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-1445), recognized by the Roman Church as the l7th Ecumenical Council, was the continuation of the significant Council of Basel. Pope Eugenius IV had it transferred to Ferrara and, when a plague hit there, it was moved to Florence. The Greeks ultimately accepted the Latin statements on the procession of the Holy Spirit, on purgatory, the Eucharist and papal primacy (only Mark Eugenicus, metropolitan of Ephesus, refused to sign). The pronouncement on union (Laetentur Caeli) was signed on July 6, 1439. Upon returning to Greek territory, 21 of the 29 who signed renounced the union and their signatures. When Constantinople fell to the Turks on May 29, 1453, the few Greek advocates of union fled to Italy.

53. Isidore (c. 1385-1463), a Greek, was sent to the Council of Basel (1434) as an imperial "Byzantine" envoy with the purpose of arranging a new council in Constantinople. He was unsuccessful, and, upon returning, was sent to Russia as metropolitan of Kiev and hence the head of the Russian Church. Again his mission was to work for union. Attending the Council of Ferrara-Florence without Grand Prince Vasilii II's support, he helped Bessarion draw up the decree of union. Shortly thereafter, he was made Cardinal and returned to Russia where he was convicted of apostasy by an ecclesiastical court and imprisoned. On Easter 1444 he escaped and fled westward. Returning to  Constantinople shortly before its fall, he was wounded during the siege but managed to flee to Rome where he wrote a description of the sack of Constantinople in  his Epistula lugubris [Sorrowful Letter] . Pope Pius II conferred on him the honorary title of Greek Patriarch of Constantinople. His valuable extant works were edited in 1926 by G. Mercati as Scritti d7sidore il cardinale ruteno (Studi e Testi, 46).

54. Andrei M. Kurbskii (1528-1583), prince, boyar, military commander and close associate of Ivan IV the Terrible, later defected to Poland wlien he fell out of favor with Ivan. He reputedly wrote religious works (defending Orthodoxy in Lithuania), A History of the Grand Prince of Moscow [Istoriia o velikom kniaze moskovskom ] and an excnange of letters with Ivan (see the English translation by J.L.I. Fennell). Recently serious doubt has been cast on the authenticity of these letters. See Edward L. Keenan, The Kurbskii-Groznyi Apocrypha (Cambridge, Mass., 1971). See also below, Chapter II, section II.

55. Iosif Volotskii (or "of Volokolamsk") (1439-1515), often termed "the Father of Medieval Russia," had an influentially active life and exerted a powerful influence on Russian spiritual thought. He opposed the Judaizers (advocating the death penalty for incorrigible heretics), defended the right of monasteries to own property and held an interesting theory of the divine right of kings. His thought is expressed in his Prosvetitel [The Enlightener] . See below.

56. Filofei, a monk from the Eleazar Monastery in Pskov, sketched this theory in a letter to Tsar Vasilii III in 1510/1511. For the text see the appendix of V. Malinin, Starets Eleazarova monastyria Filofei i ego poslaniia (Kiev, 1901). On the "T'hird Rome Theory" see W.K. Medlin, Moscow and East Rome (Neuchatel, 1952) and H. Schaeder, Moskav das Dritte Rom (Hamburg, 1929).

57. Chiliasm (from the Greek chilias meaning 1,000), also known by its Latin form (millenarianism), was (and still is) a school of thought which believes that Christ will rule visibly on earth for 1,000 years. Although there are many variations of chiliasm, they derive their original inspiration from a literal interpretation of the 20th chapter of Revelation.

58. N.F. Kapterev (1847-1917), a Russian historian, was best known for his studies on Nikon. See Patriarkh Nikon i tsar' Aleksei Mikhailovich (2 vols:, Sergiev Posad, 1909-1912).

59. "Hagarene" referred to those holding the Islamic faith, in this case the Turks. The derivation is from Hagar, Abraham's concubine and the mother of Ishmael (Gen. 16:1-16; 21:8-21). One legend claims that Ishmael was the ancestor of Muhammed.

60. In hisEcclesiastical History (3,1) Eusebius of Caesarea (d.c. 339), the "Father of Church History," established a tradition based on a report by Origen (d. 253) that the Apostle Andrew had preached in Scythia. The Russian Primary Chronicle added to that tradition: "(Andrew) . . . journeyed up the mouth of the Dnieper . . . he observed to the disciples who were with him: `See ye these hills? So shall the favor of God shine upon them that on this spot a great city shall arise, and God shall erect many churches therein.' He drew near the hills, and having blessed them, he set up a cross. . . Kiev was subsequently built (there) . . . He then reached. the Slavs at the point where Novgorod is now situated . . . He went thence among the Varangians and came to Rome." (Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, The Russian Primary Chronicle [Cambridge: The Medieval  Academy of America] , p. 54). The significance of this legend was that it could later be claimed - whether accurate or not - that Russia had an apostolic founding perhaps even earlier than Rome and at least as apostolic as Constantinople's. See F. Dvornik, The Idea of Apostolicity in Byzantium and the Legend of the Apostle Andrew (Cambridge, 1958).

61. In 1469 Cardinal Bessarion wrote from Rome and offered the hand of his ward, Zoe Palaeologus (niece of the last Byzantine emperor), to Ivan in marriage. Three years later Zoe married Ivan and took the name Sofia.

62. Bessarion (1403-1472), former hegumen of St. Basil's Monastery in Con-Notes to Chapter I 279 stantinople and archbishop of Nicaea at the time of the Council of Florence was the leader of the pro-union party in the Greek church and was instrumental in obtaining the approval of many Greek sepresentatives to the terms of the council. After failing to win the support of his pe6ple in Constantinople for the union, he returned to Florence in 1440, was made a cardinal, arid upon the death of Isidore in 1463 he was made Uniate patriarch of Constantinople. His collections of Greek literature, both classical and patristic, were a profound contribution to the Italian renaissance.

63. Baron Sigismund von Herberstein (1486-1566) entered the service of Emperor Maximillian I in 1514. He twice visited Muscovite Russia (1517 and 1526), the result of which was a book of his observations, a work which was extremely inlluential in forming Western views of Russia: Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii. At least two English translations exist: one by O.P. Backus (University of Kansas Press, 1956); another by J.B.C. Grundy (Dent, London, 1969).

64. Aristotle Fioravanti of Bologna, a well-known architect and engineer in northern Italy, accepted an invitation from Prince Simeon Tolbutsin to go to Russia in 1475 where he remained until his death.

65.Aloisio or Alevis Novi, the "New," to distinguish him from an earlier Alevisio who had worked in Russia from 1494, was summoned by Ivan III in 1505 to rebuild the old Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel.

66. Pietro Antonio Solario, along with Marco Ruffo, directed the rebuilding of the Kremlin walls entirely in red brick (1485) and built the famous Faceted Palace [Granovitaia Palata] , erected between 1487 and 1491.

67. Suleiman I (c. 1494-1566), under whom the Ottomans flourished culturally and militarily, conquered Belgrade (1521), Rhodes (1522), the Hungarians (1526), Iraq (1534-1535), regions of Persia and Tripoli (1551).

68. Princess Elena Glinskaia, a Lithuanian living as a refugee in the Russian court, so charmed her new husband by her youth and beauty, it is claimed, he shaved off his beard to please her, something the Orthodox Church then considered sinful, or at least highly questionable.

69. See below, section VI.

70. I. Zabelin (1820-1909) was a well-known Russian historian.

71. The strigol niki ["shorn-heads"] were members of a mid l4th century heretical movement dominant in Novgorod. Little reliable information is extant because the movement was stopped and their writings destroyed. See the study by A.I. Klibanov, Reformatsionnye dvizheniia v Rossii v XIV- pervoi polovine XVI vv. (Moscow, 1960), 118-136.

72. Gennadii (d. after 1504), who became archbishop of Novgorod in 1485, convened 3 synods to stop heretical movements (especially the Judaizers). To counteract the influence of the Judaizers, who were distributing Russian translations of the Psalms, Gennadii organized the undertaking of the first Russian translation of the Bible. He was also responsible for the translation of Guillaume Durandus' (c. 1230-1296) work on the liturgy entitled Rationale divinorum officiorum. Forced to resign in 1504 because of the Moscow-Novgorod political situation, he was imprisoned on a charge of treason.

73. The oldest known dated copy of the Enlightener is that made in 1514 by Nil Polev a prominent follower of Joseph. His copy, however, does not contain the later Sermons against the Heretics [Slova na eretikov] . The Polev manuscript is found in the Gosudarstvennaia publichnaia biblioteka im. M.E. SaltykovShchedrina (Leningrad), sobranie Solovetskoe, 346/326. [Author's note; exact citation by the translator. ]

74. Makarii ( c. 1482-1564 ) became metropolitan of Moscow in 1542. He established the first printing press in Russia, compiled the Velikii chet i-minei (texts on Russian saints arranged for 12 monthly readings), wrote the Stepennaia kniga [Book of Generations] (a history of the ruling Russian families), and was a central figure at the Stoglav Sobor (Council of 100 Chapters) in 1551. See section VII in this chapter.

75. Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), the most important intellectual personality in medieval Judaism, was a jurist, philosopher and physician. Having passed his childhood in Muslim Spain, he later moved with his family to Morocco and then Egypt where he later was appointed the Sultan's physician. A prolific writer, he wrote - inter alia - a work on logical terminology, a commentary on the Mishna, a code of Jewish law and a highly influential work on religious philosophy entitled The Guide of the Perplexed.

76. Algazel (1058-1111), an important Arab theologian and philosopher, wrote works on logic, religious knowledge, philosophical problems, canon law and theology.

77. Karaism (from the Hebrew qara' - to read) was a Jewish religious movement which began in Persia in the 8th century and spread throughout Europe. It claimed that the only source of divine law was the Hebrew Scripture; hence, it renounced all rabbinic oral tradition and the Talmud. It supported a personal interpretation of Scripture, became fanatically ascetical and, paradoxically, legalistic. In its support of montheism, karaism rejected many  Jewish ritual objects (e.g. phylacteries) which, it felt, were in conflict with strict monotheism.

78. Haphtarah (Hebrew - "conclusion"), a lesson from the prophets read in the synagogue on the Sabbath and on feast and fast days, was the "conclusion" and followed the reading known as the parashah (which was taken from the Torah and read on the Sabbath and on Mondays and Thursdays).

79. According to a work (c. 1495) entitled Povest' o belom klobuke [Tale of the White Cow1 ] , a white cowl was given to Pope Sylvester I (d.335) by Constantine the Great. Later another pope returned it to Constantinople and finally Patriarch Philotheus gave it to the archbishop of Novgorod, Vasilii Kalika, in the 14th century. Some relationship seems to exist between the Tale and the famous 8th century forgery, the Donatio Constantini, a work which claimed that when Constantine transferred his capital to Constantinople (Byzantium), he left Pope Sylvester in charge of the western empire. In the Donatio the Pope wears a "white cowl." For the text of the Povest' see Pamiatniki starinnoi russkoi literatury (St. Petersburg, 1860), vol. I, 288-298.

80. Menander (342-291 B.C.), Greek dramatist and chief representative of the "New Comedy," was the author of more than a hundred comedies. Until the end of the 19th century, all that was known of Menander were fragments of 1650 verses or parts of verses, in addition to a considerable number of words quoted expressly as from Menander by the old lexicographers. The manuscript The Wisdom of Menander the Wise [Mudrosti Menandra Mudrogo or Menandra Mudrogo razumi ] mentioned by Gennadii, known in Russia from the end of the l4th century, is a collection of moral-didactic verses taken from Menander's comedies. It is one of the few examples of classical literature transmitted to Russia via Byzantium. For a discussion of  Menander and the other works and authors mentioned here in connection with Gennadii, see Ia. S. Lur'e, Ideologicheskaia bor'ba v Russkoi publitsistike konsta XV - nachala XVI veka (Moscow-Leningrad, 1960), 186-197.

81. Fedor Kuritsyn, a diplomat and Ivan III's adviser on foreign affairs might have been the author of Povest' o Drakule [Tale of Dracula], a work about an actual ruler of Wallachia.

82. Pachomius the Serb, a writer of Lives of saints, established the "style" of Russian hagiographical writing for future centuries. See V. Iablonskii, Pakhomii Serb i ego agiograficheskie pisaniia (St. Petersburg, 1908).

83. The Vulgate (from the Latin "editio vulgate" - "the common edition"), mainly the work of Jerome (d. c. 419) under commission by Pope Damasus (382) became the authoritative Biblical text for the Latin church.  The Council of Trent (1546) proclaimed it the sole Latin authority but suggested it be published with fewer errors. In 1592 Pope Clementine's Vulgate edition became the "official" text for the Roman Catholic Church.

84. See I.E. Evseev, Gennadievskaia bibliia 1499 g. (Moscow, 1914).

85. See note 72.

86. Nicholas of Lyra (c. 1270-1349), author of the earliest Biblical commentary in print (Rome 1471-1472), was a leading Franciscan theologian and taught at the Sorbonne. His main work was a 50-volume Postillae perpetuae [Exegetical Notes] on Holy Scripture, a work of literal interpretation which greatly influenced Luther.

87. Samuel the Jew was a Morroccan Rabbi who wrote a letter in 1072 to a certain Rabbi Isaac expressing his doubts about Judaism and describing his gradual full acceptance of Christianity. The letter was originally written in Arabic, and later translated into Latin. See A. Lukyn Williams, Adversus Judaeos, (Cambridge, 1935).

88. Orest Fedorovich Miller (1833-1889) was a famous Russian historian and literary critic.

89. Bruno Herbipolensis of Warzburg (c. 1005-1045), a cousin of Emperor Conrad II, served as an adviser to him and his successor, Henry III, and also held the position of Imperial Chancellor of Italy from 1027-1034. He then became bishop of Wurzburg, where he left his mark in education and church restoration. His exegesis of the Psalms and his catechetical writings are in PL, 142:39-568.

90. See V. Zhmakin, "Mitropolit Daniil," Chteniia obshchestva istorii i drevnostei Moskovskogo universiteta (1881), I, 1-226; II.

91. St. Nil Sorskii (Nikolai Maikov) (1453-1508), who received his name from the river beside which he established a monastery (Sora River), opposed monastic ownership of property and the involvement of monks in social and political life. He became one of the central figures of the "Transvolgan Elders." One of the first Russians to leave writings on the mystical life, he has left his letters to his disciples and his Sketic Rule. For an English translation of the Rule see vol. II in Nordland's The Collected Works of George P. Fedotov, pp. 90-133. On St. Nil see vol. IV in Nordland's The Collected Works of George P. Fedotov, pp. 264-284.

92. See note 74.

93. The Book of Degrees was a triumphal history of "Holy Russia" written from the perspective of the Josephites.

94. Vassian Patrikeev, whose non-monastic name was Vasilii, was the son of one of Ivan III's close advisers, Prince Ivan Iv. Patrikeev. In 1499 they were nearly executed and were saved only by the intervention of Metropolitan Simon. After the death of Nil Sorskii in 1509, Vassian became the acknowledged leader of the Transvolgan Elders. At the council of 1531 he was condemned (with Maxim the Greek) for following the teachings of Aristotle and Plato and for monophysitism. He was sentenced to a cell in the monastery of Volokolamsk where he died in 1532. See H.W. Dewey & M. Matejic, "The Literary Heritage of Vassian Patrikeev," Slavic and East European History, X (Winter, 1966), 140-152.

95. The Philokalia is an anthology of patristic writings on prayer, asceticism and mysticism compiled by Nicodemus the Hagiorite (1748-1808), an Athonite monk. First published in Venice in 1792, it was instrumental in bringing about a revival of interest in the Desert Fathers, the monks of Mount Sinai, and the Hesychasts of Mount Athos. For its impact on later Russian spirituality see below, Chapter IV, section VII.

96. Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), a controversial figure of  the age, was a Dominican prior, a reformer and a powerful preacher. He was a preacher of repentance, a voice urging moral reform in Florence, in Italy and within the entire Church. Through 1495 his influence in Florence was unmatched. The fiery and often accusatory nature of his zeal for reform and his support of the French at this time embittered Pope Alexander VI (1492-1593)  who summoned him to Rome on July 21, 1495 to explain the nature of his revelations. Savonarola replied that he was too ill and too needed in Florence to come to Rome. He sent rather his recent work Compendium Revelationum, a work which he claimed would answer the question on the nature of "revelations." On September 8, 1495 the Pope condemned any divine inspiration he might claim and suspended him from preaching until his case had been tried. Savanarola responded that he would respect the Pope's decision and that he never claimed to be divinely inspired. During Lent of 1496 Savonarola began to preach (some claim with verbal papal permission). But his attack on the corruption of the Church, especially the Roman Curia, became increasingly more vehement. On May 13, 1497 the Pope's Cum saepenumero excommunicated him. He refrained from preaching in 1497 and wrote the Pope asking for a pardon. There was no reply. On Christmas Day Savonarola celebrated Mass publicly. His greatest error seems to have been the letters he sent to the rulers of Europe asking them to convene a council and to judge the Pope. Such an action was counter to Pius II's (1458-1464) Exsecrabilis (1460) which prohibited secular authority from convening councils. By papal permission Savonarola's trial involved torture. He was hanged and then burned in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. As early as 1499 he was venerated locally as a saint. Although respected by the Reformers and influencing them somewhat (Luther published Savonarola's Meditatio on Psalm 32 and 51 with a preface in 1523), Savonarola was a moral rather than a doctrinal reformer. Doctrinally he was clearly a Thomist, as evidenced by his major apologetical work Triumphus crucis. Maxim the Greek was indeed influenced by Savonarola's preaching (see Sochineniia prepodobnago Maksima Greka v russkom perevode [Sergiev Posad, 1910J, 100.) In 1501 Maxim returned to Florence and entered Savonarola's former monastery. He never, it appears, mentioned his Dominican past to the Russians. For two excellent works on Savonarola translated into English, see R. Ridolfi, Vita di Giroiamo 2 vols. (Florence, 1939) (Engl. tr., 1959) and J. Schnitzer, Savonarola: Ein Kulturbild aus der Zeit der Renaissance, 2 vols. (Munich, 1924) (Engl. tr., 1931).

97. The "Order of Carthusians" (O. Cart.) was founded in 1084 by St. Bruno of Cologne in the valley of Chartreuse (cartusia). The Carthusians, unlike many Roman Catholic monastic orders, were not obliged to follow any specified "type" or "form" of spirituality or "school of thought" (e.g., Scotism, Thomism, etc.). Their primary purpose was to attain union with God and hence their main characteristic became external and interior silence, a silence which would enable them to be attentive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit with the help of their spiritual directors. Bound to their world of silence, the Carthusians "preached" by  copying manuscripts, editing and printing. The Carthusians played an important role in the western monastic reform movement of the l lth and l2th centuries. They, more than other forms of western monasticism, most resemble Orthodox monastic spirituality.

98. Aldus Manutius (1449-1515), a scholar, editor and famous printer, was most renowned as the organizer of the Aldine Press. Manutius published the first editions of many of the Greek and Latin classics.

99. Janus Lacaris (1445-1535) was a famous Greek scholar and diplomat for western powers. As a librarian for Lorenzo de'Medici, Lascaris traveled throughout the East collecting and editing manuscripts. When the  Medici fell, Lascaris served the French court as a diplomat. It was he who aided Pope Leo X with the establishment of the Quirinal College for young Greeks, a school which lasted only brietly. Through his French contacts he contributed to the beginnings of the French Renaissance.

100. Fedor I Ivanovich (1584-1598), son of Ivan IV the Terrible and his first wife, Anastasia Romanovna, succeeded his father in 1584. Dim-witted and weak, he played no role in governing, a responsibility assumed by Boris Godunov, his wife's brother. All the achievements of Fedor's reign were hence the work of Godunov - the war against Sweden (1590-1595) regaining territory lost under Ivan the Terrible; the stopping of a Tatar raid on Moscow in 1591; the building of numerous fortress-towns; the recolonizing of Siberia and reassertion of control in the Caucasus; and, most importantly, the establishment of theRussian Patriarchate in 1598. When Fedor I died childless in  1598, the Rurik dynasty came to an end. Power was transferred to Boris Godunov by the authority of a zemskii sobor. His reign (1598-1605) inaugurated what is commonly known as the "Time of Troubles" in Russian history.

101. R. Wipper, Ivan Grozny (tr., Moscow, 1947).

102. See the characteristic degeneration of the Jesus Prayer in chapter 13 of the Domostroi [Ordering of the House ] . [Author's note]

103. See note 35.

104. The Chronograph was a collection of general history compiled in Russia in the mid l5th century. There were subsequent editions. It consisted of accounts of Biblical events, Roman and Byzantine history, and sections on Russian and South Slavic history. Later editions added sections on Western European history.

105. The Stoglav (100 chapters or decrees) Council (1551) lists its decrees in a rather disorderly manner, for they are arranged in the list of 37 questions posed by Ivan the Terrible. The decrees are mainly on matters of ecclesiastical disciplinary problems and contain no important doctrinal statements. By decreeing the chanting of two Alleluias and the signing of the cross with two fingers, the Council laid the groundwork for the Old Believers' schism a century later. There is a French translation by E. Duchesne, Le Stoglav ou 1es Cent Chapitres (Paris, 1920).

106. Matvei Bashkin was condemned for allegedly believing that the eucharist was just bread and wine, that Christ was unequal to God the Father, that confession was not necessary, and for holding iconoclastic views. See A. Borozdin, "Matvei Semenovich Bashkin," Russkii Biograftcheskii Slovar', II.

107. See below, Chapter II, section II, "Artemii and Kurbskii."

108. Most of what is known about Feodorit, whose dates are uncertain, comes from the History of the Grand Prince of Moscow by Prince Kurbskii, who was his spiritual son and regarded him as a true saint. His missions to the Lapps began around 1530 and continued until he beC.ame archimandrite of the Spaso-Evfim'ev Monastery in Suzdal' in 1551. He was summoned to Moscow to testify against Artemii at his trial, but instead defended him, which provoked Artemii's accusers to charge Feodorit with the same "heresies." He was then banished to the monastery of St. Kirill but was released shortly on the orders of Metropolitan Makarii. Tsar Ivan IV sent him to Constantinople in 1557 to obtain the patriarch's confirmation of his titte "Tsar" ("Emperor"), which Iosaf II granted in 1561. Sometime after 1564 Feodorit reportedly defended the defector Kurbskii in front of Ivan, and the enraged tsar ordered him drowned. See J.L.I. Fennel, ed., Prince Kurbsky's History of Ivan IV, (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 252- 285.

109. Feodosii Kosoi was the leader of a syncretic, unitarian heretical movement with Protestant and Jewish influences. He was condemned at a council in 1533-4.

110. Fedor Ivanovich Buslaev (1818-1897) was a Russian grammatician and historian of Russian art and literature.

111. The Trullan Council, or the "Quinisext" ("Fifth-sixth") was held in Constantinople in 692 and was conceived as a  supplement to the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils (held in Constantinople in 553 and 680-1), which had promulpated no canons. It is most important for its canons regarding the married clergy and confirming the 28th canon of the Council of Chalcedon (451), which gives the see of Constantinople "equal privileges with the see of Old Rome." The Western Church, already practicing clerical celibacy, rejected its decisions.

112. Jan Rokyta, a Moravian Brethren, came to Moscow in 1570 with the Polish embassy. At that time, however, it was common for Russians to consider all "Protestants" as "Lutherans." Ivan IV responded to Rokyta's exposition by utilizing a work against Lutherans written by a "holy Fool" named Parfenii. See E. Amburger, Geschichte des Protestantismus in Russland (Stuttgart, 1961).

113. The Czech (Bohemian or Moravian) Brethren were a remnant of the Hussites which broke off from the Catholic and Utraquist parties in Bohemia in 1457, calling for a return to primitive Christianity. With their rejection of war, violence and oaths, their strict discipline, and their use of the Bible as the sole authority on faith, they anticipated later Anabaptist movements.

114. Antonio Possevino (1534-1611), a staunch opponent of the Protestant Reformation, became a Jesuit in 1559. Possevino, successful in preaching against the Reformation in France (1562-1572), became a special legate of Pope Gregory XIII in 1577. His assignment was to bring King John III of Sweden to Catholicism. (King John actually converted but quickly lapsed when the Pope refused to consider certain reforms: a vernacular liturgy, marriage of the clergy and communion under "both species.") His next papal assignment was to Ivan the Terrible who had asked for papal mediation after his loss to Poland. In 1581 he arrived in Russia and negotiated an armistice. His attempts to work out a reunion of the Church failed and he returned to Rome in 1582. He then served as papal nuncio to Poland with instructions to continue to work for reunion. When Ivan the Terrible died in 1584, contact with the papacy was broken off. From 1587 to .1591 Possevino was professor of theology at the University of Padua. Among his writings he left his invaluable Moscovia (Vilna, 1586). See S. Polcin, S.l., "Une tentative d'Union au XVIe siecle: La mission religieuse du Pere Antoine Possevin S.J. en Moscovie (1581-1582)," Orientalia Chrtstiana Analecta, CL (Rome, 1957) and O. Halecki, "Possevino's Last Statement on Polish-Russian Relations," Orientalia Christiana Periodico, XIX (1953).