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Hermetism and Cahalism in the Heresy of the Judaizers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Joseph L. Wieczynski
Joseph L. Wieczynski*
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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Extract

To anyone with an interest in the general question of Russian relations with the West during the pre-Petrine period of Russian history the so-called heresy of the Judaizers merits special attention. Although our sources for the study of the Judaizing movement are limited, extant materials do provide a unique opportunity to observe Russian society of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries at a crucial moment of interaction with foreign elements that criticized, if not denied, traditional Russian beliefs and institutions. At a time of European history when criticism of the established order was rife, when traditions, attitudes, and creeds felt the sharp thrust of reasoned inquiry, Russia was not aloof from the ferment that threatened all dogmatism and rigorism of belief.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , Spring 1975 , pp. 17 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1975

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References

1 Research for this article was supported by a grant from the American Philosophical Society. The author wishes to thank Professor William Hine of York University, Canada, for his suggestions and criticism.

2 Lur'e, Iakov S., Ideologicheskaia bor'ba v russkoi publitsistike kontsa XV - nachala XVI veka (Moscow-Leningrad, 1960), pp. 129–135.Google Scholar Kazakova, N. A. and Lur'e, Ia. S., Antifeodal'nye ereticheskie dvizheniia na Rusi XIV- nachala XVI v. (Moscow-Leningrad, 1955), passim. Google Scholar

3 It is unnecessary here to cite the rather extensive literature on the genesis of the heresy. A concise account in English is provided by Pennell, J. L. I., Ivan the Great of Moscow (London, 1961), pp. 324–333.Google Scholar

4 See Vernadsky, George, ‘The Heresy of thejudaizers and the Policies of Ivan III of Moscow,’ Speculum, 8 (1933), 442–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Lur'e, pp. 129-130.

6 Vernadsky, p. 442.

7 Ibid., pp. 442-443. Zhmakin, V., Mitropolit Daniil i ego sochineniia (Moscow, 1881), P. 45.Google Scholar

8 Kliuchevsky, V. O., Opyty i issledovaniia (Petrograd, 1918), p. 71.Google Scholar

9 Because Russia's neighbors attempted to keep Russia isolated by hindering exchanges with the West, these intellectual encounters probably occurred in the cities of Novgorod and Pskov.

10 See Thorndike, Lynn, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York, 1923-41), IV, passim. CrossRefGoogle Scholar Yates, Frances A., Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (New York, 1969), pp. 4–6.Google Scholar

11 Ibid., pp. 1-9. Corpus Hermeticum (Paris, 1945-54), vols. 1 and 11. Ficino, Marsilio, Opera omnia (Bale, 1576)Google Scholar, passim. Yates's bibliography provides further reading for those wishing to learn more about Hermetism and its later influences.

12 Yates, pp. 84-116. Blau, J. L., The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance (New York, 1944).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Scholem, G., “Zur Geschichte der Anfange der christlichen Kabbala,’ in Essays Presented to L. Baeck (London, 1954).Google Scholar Seligmann, K., The History of Magic (New York, 1948), pp. 346ff.Google Scholar Additional bibliography is again furnished by Yates.

13 See Yates, chaps, i-v.

14 Ibid., pp. 106, 115-116.

15 See, for example, Klibanov, A. I., ‘Napisanie o gramote (opyt issledovaniia prosvetitel'no- reformatsionnogo pamiatnika kontsa XV - pervoi poloviny XVI veka),’ Voprosy istorii religii i ateizma, 3 (1956), 373–374.Google Scholar

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17 Kazakova and Lur'e, pp. 134-135.

18 See Billington, James H., The Icon and the Axe (New York, 1968), p. 87.Google Scholar

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21 Kazakova and Lur'e, p. 436.

22 On Gennadius’ literary circle, see my forthcoming article, ‘Archbishop Gennadius and the West: the Impact of Catholic Ideas Upon the Church of Novgorod,’ in Canadian-American Slavic Studies.

23 Budovnits, I. U., Russkaia publitsistika XVI veka (Moscow-Leningrad, 1947), pp. 59, 139-140, 172, 183.Google Scholar Golubinsky, E., Istoriia russkoi tserkvi (Moscow, 1900-17), 11, 684–690.Google Scholar

24 Lur'e, p. 270. Sedel'nikov, A. D., ‘Ocherki katolicheskogo vliianiia v Novgorode v kontse XV - nachale XVI veka,’ Doklady akademii nauk SSSR, seriia B (Leningrad, 1929), p. 18.Google Scholar

25 Budovnits, pp. 139-140.

26 Zimin, A. A., Rossiia na poroge novogo vremeni (Moscow, 1972), pp. 354–356.Google Scholar

27 Grek, Maksim, Sochineniia (Kazan, 1859-60), 1, 295–299.Google Scholar See also Klibanov, A. I., Rtformatsionnye dvizheniia v Rossii v XIV - pervoi polovine XVI vv. (Moscow, 1960), p. 368.Google Scholar Zimin, p. 357.

28 Golubinsky, II, part I, p. 690.

29 Zhmakin, M V., ‘Pamiatnik russkoi protivokatolicheskoi polemiki XVI v.,’ Zhurnal ministerstv a narodnogo prosveshcheniia (1880), p. 320.Google Scholar