Church and State in Russian History

N the early sixteenth century an acute struggle was going on within the ranks of the Orthodox Church in Muscovy. The immediate issue was the question of church land possession. Like the Western church during the Middle Ages, the Russian Church had accumulated, in the course of the previous centuries of its etistence, enormous wealth in land which for the most part belonged to the monasteries. It was against this state of affairs that a small but determined group of church reformers raised the voice of protest. Known as the Elders,' the protestants were grouped around the hermitage of Sorsk, a center of ascetic monas ticism, highly respected for the purity of life and the devotional zeal of its members. They had for leader a remarkable man-Nilus of Sorsk, himself an ascetic and a mystic, a man of deep convictions and of a great strength of character. The Trans-Volga Elders, who also were referred to as the noncovetous monks, loudly called upon the church to give up its worldly possessions in order to achieve the Christian ideal of poverty and humility. In their eyes, a truly monastic life and management of big land estates were fundament, ally incompatible. On the other side stood the so-called Josephites, by far the larger of the two groups, and one that enjoyed the support of the church hierarchy. To them the material wealth of the church was one of the indispensable conditions for the proper performance of its functions. The head of this faction, Joseph of Volokolamsk (hence the name of the Josephites) was the abbot of one of the richest and most influential monasteries in Muscovy. Throughout the sixteenth century this monastery played the part of a nursery of bishops,' and many of the most prominent hierarchs of the period had received their training there. Profoundly different from Nilus of Sorsk in character and outlook, Joseph too was a remarkable man, in his own

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• Church-State Cooperation and its Impact on Freedom of Religion or Belief and on Gender Issues in Russia

  Mikhaïl Antonov•The Review of Faith & International…•2022

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