Russia under the Old regime

THE CHURCH AS SERVANT OF THE STATE

But the gravest challenge to the established church came from within its own ranks, from elements whose doctrinal and ritualistic orthodoxy was beyond suspicion. The roots of this particular reform movement lay in Greece. In the latter part of the fifteenth century among the monks living at Mt Athos, the centre of Orthodox monasticism, there spread talk of an imminent end of the world. Some monks left their abbeys to settle in hermitages. Here, living in utmost simplicity, they prayed, studied and meditated. This so-called 'hesychast' movement was imported to Russia by the monk, Nil Sorskii, who had been to Mt Athos. Around 1480, Nil moved out of his monastery and dug himself a pit in the marshy forest wilderness north of the upper Volga, where he henceforth lived in solitude praying and studying the scriptures and patristic writings. Other monks followed his example, settling in the vicinity of Nil's hermitage or pushing on further north. These 'Transvolga Elders', did not at first seem to threaten the interests of the established church because the kind of life they advocated was too rigorous to attract many followers. But in time Nil became involved in a debate concerning the principle of monastic landholding, and when that happened, the church was thrown into a crisis.

By the end of the fifteenth century, its claim to monocratic authority well established, the Muscovite monarchy required much less urgently the worldly favours of the church. In fact, it was beginning to cast a greedy eye on the church's properties to whose growth it itself had made major contributions, as these yielded neither taxes nor services and could be put to better use by being carved up for distribution as pomestia. Ivan in indicated his attitude clearly enough when in conquered Novgorod he confiscated most of the ecclesiastical holdings on his own behalf. The friendly reception accorded the Judaizing movement at his court may have had something to do with this heresy's outspoken opposition to monastic wealth. His son, Basil in, began to supervise closely monastic revenues and occasionally even helped himself to them. He probably also issued some kind of an order prohibiting monasteries from acquiring additional land without royal approval because a decree to this same effect issued early in the reign of Ivan iv (1535) made reference to a previous law. Many boyars also sympathized with the vision of a spiritual church, partly to deflect the crown's attention from their own holdings, partly to help it acquire more land for distribution to servitors. There are suspicions that it was either the tsar or boyars close to his court who prevailed on Nil Sorskii to leave his anchorage and denounce the monasteries for owning land. This occurred in 1503 when Nil suddenly made his appearance at a synod to urge that the church renounce its wealth and resort to alms. His appeal threw the assembly into panic. The synod unanimously rejected the proposal, passing a resolution which