The Judaiser Heresy in Fifteenth Century Russia

The Judaiser Heresy in fifteenth century Russia is a historical enigma not unlike that of the better known Cathar heresy in thirteenth century France. As with the Cathars the Judaisers have left us no actual statement of their beliefs and all we have is what their opponents wrote about them.

The Judaiser heresy began in Novgorod in its last years as an independent state in 1470 with the arrival of a jew or a jewish convert to Christianity named Zechariah or Skharia. (1) Zechariah came to Novgorod as part of the retinue of Prince Mikhail Olel'kovitch of Lithuania. (2)

Zechariah's teachings spread fast and in a short time he had gained a significant number of converts to his ideas in Novgorod. (3) With the transfer of the Novgorodian priests to Moscow however the Judaiser heresy began to attract powerful individuals to its ranks. (4) The most notable of these converts as well as the only clearly identified member and financial patron of the group at court (although many others were or are suspected) was Princess Elena of Moldavia. (5)

The reason for this strangely quick access to the court of these new and obviously heretical ideas was that Princess Elena's mother was the sister of Prince Mikhail Olel'kovitch. (6) This suggests that if Princess Elena wasn't already a convert before she married into the Russian monarchy; she very quickly became one once Zechariah arrived as part of her uncle's retinue.

We know that the Judaiser heresy was considered to be extremely dangerous by two intellectual Russian churchmen; namely Archbishop Gennadi of Novgorod (7) and Joseph of Volok (the Abbot of Volokolamsk). (8) Both these churchmen were in the thick of the fight against the Judaisers by 1488 and this bore fruit in 1490. When a council of the Orthodox Church urged Ivan III of Muscovy to condemn and vigorously prosecute the heretics. (9)

In the meantime Archbishop Gennadi had numerous Judaisers publicly whipped and chastised in the centre of Novgorod. (10) Until in 1502 the reluctant Ivan III finally acted against the Judaisers and burned their followers at court - including Princess Elena - at the stake. (11) A further council of the Orthodox Church in 1504 recommended to the Tsar that the prosecutions be continued until the Judaiser heresy was stamped out, which was duly put into action by the authorities. (12)

The Judaiser heresy itself - from what little we know of its beliefs - was a mix of ideas derived from Kabbalistic mysticism and the writings of Hussites as well as general anti-Trinitarianism and anti-clericalism. (13)

The identification of the Judaisers with Judaism has not been without some controversy with Marxist scholars in particular preferring to see it as a 'pre-reformation Christian movement', but this claim is difficult to sustain when we acknowledge that the evidence of their beliefs we have suggests that the Judaisers were converts to some kind of Messianic Judaism. (14)

For example we know that they didn't believe in the authority or the teachings of Church Fathers and openly questioned the veracity and authority of the gospels. (15) This - in addition to the known ready availability of translated jewish manuscripts at the Lithuanian court - (16) suggests that the only conclusion we can make is that the Judaisers really were converts to some kind of Messianic Judaism. (17)

Interestingly the effectiveness of the Judaiser's message was down to timing; in so far as the onset of 1492 – the end of the seventh millennium in the Orthodox calendar – caused the spread of the beliefs that its advent would bring about the end of the world and the apocalypse. (18)

In other words the Judaiser heresy was likely an attempt by a jew to undermine the Christian church by converting its flock into jews, which was only foiled due to the theological vigilance of Archbishop Gennadi and Abbot Joseph of Volok.

References

(1) Nicholas Riasanovsky, 1993, 'A History of Russia', 5th Edition, Oxford University Press: New York, p. 123; Isabel de Madariaga, 2005, 'Ivan the Terrible: First Tsar of Russia', 1st Edition, Yale University Press: New Haven, p. 20; Robert Crummey, 1987, 'The Formation of Muscovy 1304 – 1613', 1st Edition, Longman: London, p. 126 states that it was 1471 not 1470 however.

(2) Madariaga, Op. Cit., p. 20; Bernard Pares, 1947, 'A History of Russia', 3rd Edition, Jonathan Cape: London, p. 123 lists him as Prince Mikhail of Kiev however.

(3) Madariaga, Op. Cit., p. 20

(4) Riasanovsky, Op. Cit., p. 123

(5) Madariaga, Op. Cit., p. 20; Crummey, Op. Cit., p. 126

(6) Ibid., p. 389, n. 54

(7) Ibid., p. 20; Crummey, Op. Cit., p. 126

(8) Pares, Op. Cit., p. 124; Riasanovsky, Op. Cit., p. 123

(9) Crummey, Op. Cit., p. 127

(10) Ibid.

(11) Ibid.

(12) Pares, Op. Cit., p. 124

(13) Madariaga, Op. Cit., p. 20

(14) Crummey, Op. Cit., p. 126

(15) Ibid.

(16) Madariaga, Op. Cit., p. 20

(17) Crummey, Op. Cit., pp. 126-127

(18) Madariaga, Op. Cit., p. 21