Sect of Skhariya the Jew

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Skariya the Jew is also the name used by Ivan III of Muscovy to refer to Zacharias de Ghisolfi.

The Sect of Skhariya the Jew, much more commonly known as the Heresy of the Judaizers or Zhidovstvuyushchiye, was a sect that appeared in Novgorod the Great and Moscow in the second half of the 15th century and marked the beginning of a new era of heresy in Russia. Some scholars, however, consider it to have developed from the earlier Strigolniki heresy that also had developed in Novgorod in the fourteenth century.

The term Zhidovstvuyushchiye (Жидовствующие in Russian), as it is known in the sources, is derived from the Russian word жид (zhid, nowadays a slur for Jews, but historically not exclusively used in a pejorative sense.)^[1] Zhidovstvuyuschiye may be loosely translated as “those who follow Jewish traditions”, Hegumen Joseph Volotsky, the main critic and persecutor of this sect, considered a certain Skhariya (a.k.a. Zakhariya, Skara; Схария, Захария, Скара in Russian, correspondingly)—a Jew who came to Novgorod from Lithuania in 1471—to be the founder of the heretical movement. The sectarians themselves, Volotsky nicknamed zhidovomudrstvuyuschie (жидовомудрствующие, or “those who think like Jews”), thus, arbitrarily presupposing their adherence to "Judaism", even though most of Skhariya’s followers had been ordinary Russians of Russian Orthodox faith and low-ranking Orthodox clergy and had never confessed Judaism.

Almost all we know about the heresy is found in accounts left by their accusers (a not uncommon phenomenon in medieval heresies). This makes it difficult to determine the true beliefs of the sect, since the aim of the accusers was to blacken the name of the sect and crush it. According to most accounts though, the Sect of Skhariya renounced the Holy Trinity and the divine status of Jesus, monasticism, ecclesiastic hierarchy, ceremonies, and immortality of soul. Some sectarians even professed iconoclasm. The sect also promoted the idea of "self-authority," or the self-determination of each individual in matters of faith and salvation. Priests Denis and Aleksei were considered ideologists of this heretical movement.

In the late 15th and early 16th century, this heretical movement spread over Moscow. In 1480, even Grand Prince Ivan III himself invited a few prominent sectarians to visit the city. The Grand Prince’s seemingly strange behavior could be explained by the fact that he had greatly sympathized with heretics’ ideas of secularization and the struggle against feudal division. Thus, the Judaizers enjoyed the support of high-ranking officials, statesmen, merchants, Yelena Stefanovna (wife of Ivan the Young, heir to the throne) and Ivan’s favorite deacon and diplomat Feodor Kuritsyn. The latter even decided to establish his own club in the mid-1480s.

Despite the growing popularity of this heretical movement in Novgorod and Moscow, Ivan III was wary of the fact that it could irreversibly infiltrate broader masses of ordinary people and deprive him of ecclesiastic support in his foreign policy. Indeed, a denial of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ would destroy Christianity, while the sects opposition to the clergy and the secular authorities would have undermind the entire society. This made Ivan III renounce his ideas of secularization and ally with the clergy.^[2]

The struggle against the heretics was led by hegumen Joseph Volotsky (and his followers – иосифляне (iosiflyane or Josephinians) and Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod.^[3] Beginning at the time he uncovered the heresy in Novgorod around 1487,^[4] Gennady wrote a series of letters to other churchmen over several years calling on them to convene sobors ("church councils") with the aim "not to debate them,but to burn them." These councils were held in 1488, 1490, 1494 and 1504, and outlawed heretical books and permitted their burning, sentenced a number of people to death, sent sectarians into exile, and excommunicated them. In 1491, Skhariya the Jew was executed in Novgorod by the order of Ivan III. With Gennady’s approval, some of the heretics were executed, such as archimandrite Kassian of the Iuriev Monastery (who had allowed a number of heretics to hide there), Nekras Rukavov (they first tore out his tongue and then burnt him at the stake), a Pskovian monk Zakhar and others.

By the end of the 15th century, some of the heretics remained under the protection of Yelena Stefanovna and her son tsarevich Dmitry (grandson of Ivan III). However, in 1502 Dmitry was stripped of his title (transferred to Vasili III – son of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologue). As soon as Ivan III died in 1505, Yelena and Dmitry were arrested and imprisoned, leaving the heretics vulnerable to attacks from the authorities. In 1504, deacon Ivan-Volk Kuritsyn, Dmitry Konoplev and Ivan Maksimov were burnt at the stake. Other sectarians were banished, imprisoned, or excommunicated. Feodor Kuritsyn’s heretical club ceased to exist.

Thus, repressions in the early 16th century in Russia led to the weakening of the heretical movement.

In the early 19th century, a number of communities appeared in Tula, Voronezh and Tambov, which followed Jewish traditions and dogmas. They were also called zhidovstvuyuschiye and were persecuted severely in the times of Nicolas I. Since the beginning of the 20th century, they have been also called iudeystvuyuschie, from iudeystvo, a neutral term for Jewish religion. Now they are generally considered a part of Jewish people (although with no real Israelite descent) and some of them have emigrated to Israel. These groups, however, are not linked to the Sect of Skhariya.

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