Heresy of the Judaizers

Execution of the Judaizers in 1504, miniature from the Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible

The Heresy of the Judaizers (Russian: ересь жидовствующих, romanized: yeres zhidovstvuyushchikh)[1][2] was a religious movement that emerged in Novgorod and later Moscow in the second half of the 15th century which marked the beginning of a new era of schism in Russia.[3] Initially popular among high-ranking statesmen and even the royal court, the movement was persecuted by the hegumen Joseph Volotsky and the archbishop Gennady of Novgorod. Several councils of the Russian Orthodox Church later condemned the Judaizers as heretics.[4]

Some scholars see them as a Russian variant of the pre-Reformation era.[5] Any filiation with the strigolniki, who appeared in the 14th century, remains conjectural, but highlights the religious situation in Novgorod at the time.[6]

  1. ^ Vernadsky 1933.
  2. ^ Kornblatt, Judith Deutsch (20 February 2004). Doubly Chosen: Jewish Identity, the Soviet Intelligentsia, and the Russian Orthodox Church. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-299-19483-3.
  3. ^ Langer 2021, pp. 93–95.
  4. ^ Robinson, Michael D. (14 June 2019). Christianity: A Brief History. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 320. ISBN 978-1-5326-1831-4.
  5. ^ Langer 2021, p. 96.
  6. ^ Treadgold, Donald W. (24 May 1973). The West in Russia and China: Religious and Secular Thought in Modern Times. CUP Archive. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-521-08552-6.