The Origins of Autocracy

In 1480, while in Novgorod, Ivan had received denunciations of two heretical priests, Dionisii and Aleksei. Instead of punishing them, he took these seditious persons with him to Moscow, where both of them were suddenly raised to dizzying heights: they became the arch- priests of the Uspenskii and Arkhangel'skii cathedrals respectively. Then, after Gerontii died, the grand prince approved the appoint­ment to the metropolitan's chair of the Archimandrite Zosima, who was suspected—apparently not without reason—of being in sympa­thy with the heretics.

Iosif's comrade-in-arms was the ferocious Gennadii, archbishop of Novgorod, who literally every month discovered new nests of heretics in his archdiocese, and constantly called for an antiheretical cam­paign throughout Russia. The grand prince now forbade him to come to Moscow for the installation of the new metropolitan, who was himself—Gennadii did not doubt for a minute—a heretic. This was an open scandal. Could Gennadii keep silent, when in his letter to the church assembly of 1490 he had declared that it was criminal even to argue about the faith with heretics? ("One has only to convene the assembly in order to execute them, by burning or hanging," he wrote.)[94] Inspired by the example of Spanish Catholicism, Gennadii had praised the way the Catholics had "cleansed their earth."[95] Could Iosif himself be silent, for that matter, after writing to the bishop of Suzdal' that,

From the time when the sun of Orthodoxy rose over our land, we have never had so much heresy: in houses, on the streets, in the mar­ketplace, everyone—both monks and laymen—is dubiously discussing the faith, basing themselves not on the doctrine of the prophets, the apostles, and the Holy Fathers, but on the words of heretics, apostates from Christianity; they make friends with them, learn Jewishness from them. And the heretics never leave the metropolitan's house, and even sleep there.²

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New ideas were advanced, disputed, rejected, and advanced again—and not only within closed circles of scholars or government officials. None of the conflicting factions were officially embraced by the government. An open struggle of ideas permeated the air of Mus­covy. To me this picture alone certifies beyond any doubt that the gov­ernment of Ivan III recognized ideological limitations on power.

Well, one might argue that the state did not persecute the heretics because heresy was to its advantage. This is true. But neither did it persecute their opponents. Just after the first confiscations in Novgo­rod, Gennadii, on his own initiative, included in the ritual of the church a special anathema on those who "offend against the sacred things of the church.'"[96] Everyone understood perfectly whom Novgo­rod's priests were cursing from the pulpits of the churches. And nothing happened: Gennadii was not ousted, and the anathema was not even forbidden. In the 1480s, Gennadii's cothinkers published a tract with a title six lines long, which for some reason is known in the literature as "A Short Word in Defense of Monastery Property." The authors of the "Short Word" by no means briefly, and quite openly, took to task tsars who "allowed violations of the law."[97] And the cir­culation of the tract was not prohibited. Iosif fearlessly pronounced anathema on the grand prince in numerous letters and pamphlets, stating that "if he who wears the crown begins to follow the same sins . . . may he be cursed in this age and in the future one."[98]

Does this boiling Muscovite Athens sound like the voiceless desert of the "service state" ?

With the memories of the Tatar heritage still fresh, and national feelings high, Russia argued, harangued, denounced, and preached. There was no official monologue by the state; there was open, fero­cious ideological dialogue. And all this was, moreover, on the thresh­old of the expected end of the world. In a few years, according to the Orthodox calendar, the seventh millennium since the creation would come to an end, and at its conclusion the Messiah was supposed to appear anew before the eyes of an amazed humanity. Passions were heated to the boiling point; the hierarchy was in open revolt. Ivan III did not let matters come to an explosion, however. Once again, he was the first to retreat, turning over to Gennadii several heretics from Novgorod who had fled under his protection to Moscow.