The Book of the Prophet Isaiah and the struggle against heretics and apostates in Russia in the second half of the XV–early XVI century.

Sdirkov Aleksei Vital'evich Postgraduate student, Department of History of Russia before the Beginning of the XIX Century, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119192, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Lomonosovskii Prospekt, 27 k. 4 asdirkov@yandex.ru

In the history of Russia, the period of the second half of the XV – beginning of the XVI century is of particular importance. At that time, the formation of a centralized Russian state was underway. The power of the Grand Duke was established in place of the former estates, and they became an organic part of his possessions. The attitude towards the grand–princely (and then the royal) power as having a divine origin has changed qualitatively ^{[3, p. 187]}. Already during the reign of Vasily II, a remarkable phenomenon applies: the Grand Duke of Moscow begins to be called "tsar" during his lifetime ^{[4, p. 302]}. But the main role here belongs to the unifier of Russian lands Ivan III, who adopted many Western European and Byzantine traditions of statehood.

This period was also a time of eschatological tension caused by the ideas of the coming of the Last Judgment at the end of seven thousand years from the Creation of the world. Many traditional views on certain phenomena, including the attitude towards heretics, have been revised. After the fateful date – 7000 from the Creation of the world, the end of the world did not come, but was postponed indefinitely. This contributed to the spread of eschatological experiences in the XVI century .

The purpose of this study is to show that the changes that took place significantly influenced the change in the attitude of society and the state to the punishment of those who committed serious crimes against the Church: heretics and apostates. The combination of the capabilities of the penitentiary system of the secular authorities (in this case, the Moscow sovereigns) and the authority of the Church, based on Holy Scripture, at the final stage of the formation of a single Russian state, apparently, became a key milestone in the development of the practice of punishment for heresy and apostasy. Those who opposed the centralizing aspirations of Moscow or questioned the church canons became apostates.

Apostasy, thus, was considered as a violation of the obligation to God, taken at baptism, and one of the most serious sins (mortal sin), and from a social point of view – as an encroachment on the foundations of the religious and social system ^{[23, p. 494]}. As K. Y. Baykovsky noted, Ivan III possessed full spiritual power in his understanding as a sovereign, therefore anyone who opposed the authority of an Orthodox sovereign objectively joined the ranks of apostates ^{[1, p. 114]}. This makes it possible to characterize apostasy in the understanding of the official Moscow ideology as a religious and political crime, treason to God and the sovereign, whose power has a divine origin.

To achieve the goal set in the work, it is necessary to solve the following issues: to consider the political context of the persecution of Russian heretics in the second half of the XV – beginning of the XVI century, since the final decision on the format of physical punishment for heresy was made by the secular authorities; to identify the key approaches of the church and secular leadership to the practice of punishing heretics and apostates, as well as to reveal the semantics of these executions, those semantic units of the cultural code of Moscow Rus that were responsible for penitentiary practices; to tell about the role of the book of Isaiah in the Moscow official ideology of that time, especially in the framework of the Novgorod-Moscow confrontation and the fight against the heresy of "Jews".

The comparative and cultural-anthropological methods used in the work contribute to the solution of these problems. The first method made it possible to compare various journalistic monuments and identify a common pattern in them: the widespread use of quotations and reminiscences from the book of Isaiah. The second method consists in studying the cultural paradigm of Russian society and identifying semantic aspects of the punishment of heretics and apostates associated with the development of the official ideology of the grand ducal power and the increase in eschatological experiences of the population. This allowed us to draw important conclusions about the relevance of the idea of apostasy for the church and secular leadership of Moscow in the second half of the XV century.

The object of the study is the relationship between the state and the individual within the penitentiary system of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the subject is a set of ideas about the punishment of heretics and apostates, as well as the embodiment of these ideas into reality by the state authorities. The chronological framework is the period from the second half of the XV to the beginning of the XVI century . as the most important stage in the formation of a unified Russian state, however, if necessary, earlier or later events related to the topic of the study will be taken into account. The territorial scope of the article is limited to the relations between Moscow and Novgorod, since the development of these relations played a crucial role in the formation of the ideology of apostasy.

Due to the specific features of the scientific problem, the historiographical completeness of the study of its various aspects is different. The problem of punishment under the secular law of medieval Russia has been studied for a long time, but researchers have only recently begun to pay attention to the origin and symbolism of certain punishments for religious crimes. In general, the question of the semantics of punishment is touched upon very little in historiography. The punishments themselves were studied primarily in the legal sense, and the fact of their application, as a rule, was only stated without a detailed explanation of the reason. That is, thanks to the available research, it is possible to understand at what time and for what crime a particular punishment was imposed, but the most important question about the reason for the appearance of the execution often remains unanswered. For example, the historiography of heretical movements of the XV–XVI centuries is very extensive ^{[7, 30, 31, 32]}. It is a well-known fact that heretics were burned in a log cabin in 1504. But it is still not clear why they were burned in a log cabin, whether this execution was designed specifically for heretics and what was the basis for it.

A number of historiographical conclusions certainly deserve attention. So, back in 1975, the German researcher Edgar Hesh, in his famous work on Orthodoxy and heresy in Ancient Russia, spoke about such a process as the "politicization of heresy" ^[32]. Recently, researchers have been paying more and more attention to the importance of the political factor in the anti–heretical campaigns of the Moscow authorities in the second half of the XV - beginning of the XVI century, as well as the close connection between accusations of heresy and the external ("Latin") threat ^{[25, 28, 30]}. At the same time, the punishment of heretics and apostates often acquired a symbolic coloring based on iconographic and literary images. Interest in these images increased against the background of the aggravation of the eschatological experiences of the population. And the identification of the semantics of such penitentiary practices seems to be an urgent scientific problem.

The prospects of this approach are confirmed by interesting conclusions about the punishment of captured Novgorodians by Ivan III in 1471 with the help of images taken from the book of the prophet Ezekiel ^{[16, 26, 27]}. The events described are considered here, but from the point of view of the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah, along with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, is among the most significant prophets in the Christian tradition. Moreover, the authority of the prophet Isaiah in the Slavic Christian tradition was so great that apocryphal writings of Slavic origin proper were attributed to him ^{[29, pp. 78-82]}. As modern research shows, the influence of texts somehow related to the prophet Isaiah on Russian society in the second half of the XV century is difficult to overestimate ^{[5, 9, 10, 29]}. This, as well as the insufficient attention of historiography to the role of the prophet in the Moscow official ideology of the XV century, led to the choice of the book of Isaiah to study the question posed in the article about the semantics of the punishment of heretics and apostates.

First of all, it should be noted that in the ideological constructions of the Moscow scribes of the time of Ivan III, the theme of apostasy acquired a special sound. We are talking about the well-known events that occurred during the struggle of the Grand Duke of Moscow with Novgorod in 1470-1471, which ended with the defeat of the Novgorodians on the Sheloni River and the signing of the Korostyn Peace. The victory of the Moscow troops was perceived not only as a military and political success, but also as a triumph of the protection of the Orthodox faith from the encroachments of "apostates". This was the most important ideologeme of the government, which was developed in the official Moscow literature ^{[25, p. 106]}. The image of Ivan III as a fighter for the faith is revealed by "The Words chosen from the holy scriptures <...> about the pride of the majestic men of Novgorod" (hereinafter – "Words"). This literary monument was created in the entourage of Metropolitan Philip of Moscow shortly after the victory of Ivan III over the Novgorodians in 1471 and entered the Sofia I Chronicle of the junior edition. The most clear idea of this edition is given by its Balzer list (SPBI, coll. 11, No. 23), the final part of which is the "Words" ^{[11, p. 59]}.

This literary work emphasizes that the victory over the apostate Novgorodians who betrayed the faith and turned to "Latinism" was granted to the Grand Duke by heavenly powers for his piety and virtues ^{[2, p. 239]}. By apostasy (in the terminology of the source – "retreat"), the author of "Words" understood the rejection of the Orthodox faith and the transition to the side of the Catholic enemy, that is, a crime that had both religious and political motives. This thought is repeatedly repeated in the source: "... if you want to retreat from your sovereign, from the Grand Duke, and date to the king of the Latin sovereign, you want to destroy the whole Orthodoxy"; "... if you want to introduce a great rebellion and a schism of the holy Church of God, yes, retreating from Orthodoxy and from the great antiquity, yes, they want to approach Latin"; "... from Orthodoxy they retreat to the king to the Latin sovereign"; "... that they, our people, the true faith of piety retreat, and to the Latins they give up"; "... and then all the evil and pernicious of them became their departure, for their deceit and untruth, and for their retreat to Latin." ^{[18, pp. 4-15]}.

All this is extremely important for understanding what punishment can be imposed on apostates. However, the term "retreat" itself was rather vague at that time: it often did not touch on political issues and was perceived as an extreme form of heresy. Or, on the contrary, it could not be about treason, but about political concessions. A similar formulation can be found in the "Words" ("... and which the lands and waters of the Supreme Court in the old way retreated to the Great Prince") ^{[18, p. 3]}.

According to the "Dictionary of the Old Russian language of the XI–XVII centuries", the term "apostasy" can mean both "treason, refusal to obey someone" and "renunciation, apostasy (from faith, beliefs)" ^{[13, p. 42]}. The "Dictionary of the Old Russian language of the XI–XIV centuries" interprets the action of "otstoupiti", including as "to refuse, reject, renounce, renounce the faith" ("about bishops and acolytes who have departed from the faith"), as well as as "to change someone" ^{[12, p. 287]}. The same definitions are given by I. I. Sreznevsky ^{[24, p. 814]}. At the same time, in the source one can find a direct indication of the betrayal of the Novgorodians: "... the great Prince moved all over the lands, went to his fatherland to Veliky Novgorod, for the pride and disobedience of the people and for their retreat to Latin" ^{[18, p. 9]}. It is also important that the pathos of "Words" reaches its apogee at the moment of the Battle of Shelon. It was then that the term "apostates" appears in the text in relation to the Novgorodians: "... like Gideon over the Magyams, and Abram on the tsar Hodolmogor of Sodom, so God will help the Prince's great governors on these untruthful apostates (highlighted by me – A.S.), on the men of Novgorod" ^{[18, p. 11]}.

The events that took place after the battle on the Sheloni River on July 14, 1471, show the seriousness of the Grand Duke's intentions to punish the "apostates". According to chronicle evidence, the noses, lips and ears of the captured Novgorodians were cut off, after which they were released, and their armor was drowned in water or burned ^{[20, p. 230],[21, p. 236-237]}. An unusual way of punishment (regardless of whether it was actually carried out, or it is a literary construct) a number of researchers explain the influence of eschatological experiences, noticeably intensified by the end of the XV century. There is a direct reference in the chronicle text to the 23rd and 39th chapters of the book of the prophet Ezekiel ^{[26, pp. 73-74],[28, p. 23],[16, p. 137]}.

An important trend that has emerged in the Russian literature of the XV century is an increase in interest in the book of the Intelligent Prophets. As V. V. Kalugin notes, the reader's demand for Explanatory Prophecies in the last quarter of the XV century was caused by several reasons: the heresy of the "Jews", the church council against heretics in 1490, expectations of the end of the world in 7000 (1492) and the work on creating a complete Slavic translation of the Bible in 1499 ^{[9, p. 98]}. A. V. Grigoriev suggests that the books of not only Ezekiel, but also Zechariah and Isaiah carried an obvious eschatological load and could be especially in demand during the period of heightened premonitions of the coming end of the world ^{[5, pp. 401-402]}. And a certain connection of the theme of apostasy with the book of the prophet Isaiah can indeed be found.

It is known that in Russia the texts of the book of Isaiah existed in two editions: as part of the Paremiyniki and the book of the Explanatory Prophets, and the texts of the Paremiyniki differ in a much larger volume ^{[6, p. 7]}. A paremium is a collection of excerpts (paremias) from Old Testament books, usually read in the evening. The prevalence of Paremia books was higher, they were used not only in liturgical practice, but also for home reading. So, it is known that Volyn Prince Vladimir Vasilkovich in 1276 read a parody from the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 61:1-4) ^{[17, p. 206]}, and the manuscript of the 14th century Paremic (OP RNB, Q. I. 14) contains an inscription dated 1587: "This book is the house of Nikita the son of Grigoriev Stroganov" ^{[8, p. 432]}. Texts from the book of the Explanatory Prophets could also be used by Moscow scribes. The book of Isaiah is also contained in the manuscript OR RNB, Cyr. – Bel., No. 9/134, which may be associated with the compilation of the "Moscow Tale of Ivan III's campaign on Novgorod" ^{[26, p. 74]}.

The author of the "Words" repeatedly uses reminiscences (this is how it is customary to designate fragments of Holy Scripture that are not marked with an autograph ^{[27, p. 5]}) or direct quotations from the book of Isaiah in relation to the Novgorodians. For example, asserting: "About them it is said: the day of the Lord of hosts to come on every vexer, and proud, and on everyone is high and majestic" (Isaiah 2:12) ^{[18, p. 2]}. Comparing Novgorodians with Jews, the scribe cites the opening verses of the first chapter of the book of Isaiah ("...The prophet says: hear heaven, inspire the earth"), where the prophet denounces the "ancient crime" of the Israelites of the Mosaic Law ^{[18, p. 2]}. The full text of this verse: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear to the earth, for the Lord has spoken: The sons have begotten and exalted, but these have rejected me" (Isaiah 1:2).  The parallel with the Jews who fell into wickedness and destroyed Jerusalem will be very important in the future, when it becomes necessary to expose the heresy of the "Jews".

But the most important thing is that, according to the author of the "Words", the Novgorodians did not heed the terrible warning of the prophet: "... if you do not listen to me, nor do my commands, you will take your works against your enemies, and you will fall before your enemies <...>, and you will find the sword, and it will be your land is empty and your yards are burning with fire" ^{[18, p. 5]}. This reminiscence from the beginning of the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 1:7 and 1:20) is another confirmation of the importance of the biblical motive of burning in the punishment of the Novgorod "apostates".  The direct reference ("Isaiah to speak") concerns the actions of Grand Duke Ivan III. Here, on the contrary, God's approval of these actions is strongly emphasized: "From Zion, let the law and the word of the Lord come from Jerusalem, and judge through the tongue, and rebuke many people" (Isaiah 2:3-4) ^{[18, p. 2]}. In bright colors, the monument paints the image of Ivan III as a fighter against lawlessness. The image of Moscow as a new Israel is revealed through an appeal to Isaiah 11:10: "There will be a root of Josiah in the region of the tongue, on the new tongue of hope" ^{[18, p. 3]}. This testifies to the development of Messianic ideas in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the desire to protect the Orthodox faith.

The Moscow authorities showed a special interest in the book of Isaiah not by chance. Important observations about the exceptional role of this prophet in the cultural paradigm of the Grand Duchy of Moscow were made by M. P. Kudryavtsev, who studied the urban planning policy of the Moscow sovereigns of the XV–XVII centuries. According to Kudryavtsev, the influence of the book of Isaiah on the grand ducal circles was noticeable already in the XV century. The author believes that it was at this time that Isaiah's prophecies about the transition of the glory of the people of God to other nations (Isaiah 65:15), and about the transition of the glory of Jerusalem to a city with a different name, that is, Moscow, became relevant: "And the pagans will see your truth, and the king of your glory, and will call you by a new name, The Lord also calls them e" (Is. 62:2) ^{[10, p. 227]}. We see similar motives in the "Words of the Chosen Ones". The prophecy is also noted that the walls of the new city "will be built by the sons of strangers" (Isaiah 60:10). Therefore, M. P. Kudryavtsev regards the invitation of Italian craftsmen to build the walls of the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod as a conscious embodiment of the prophecy of Isaiah by Ivan III ^{[10, p. 227]}. Moreover, the sayings of the prophet Isaiah indicate that the prophecies taken from his book could be the basis of the awareness of the spiritual role of the future Russia and its capital that arose in Russian medieval society ^{[10, p. 226]}.

The Book of Isaiah pays great attention to the issues of apostasy and purity of faith. In particular, Isaiah 1:28 says: "And the lawless and sinners will be crushed together, and those who forsake the Lord will die." This and other possible allusions to the book of Isaiah, apparently, will not lose relevance a little later – in the course of the fight against the heresy of the "Jews". The context of this struggle is extremely important, since for the opponents of heresy there was a direct connection between its origins and the events of the Moscow-Novgorod confrontation in 1471. Moreover, the beginning of the spread of heresy, as well as the Novgorod "apostasy", will be associated with the arrival in Novgorod in 1470 of Prince Mikhail Olelkovich. In his retinue, according to Joseph Volotsky, there was a certain "Jew named Scharia", who allegedly converted the first followers to his heresy – priest Denis and protopop Alexei ^{[22, p. 31]}.

According to the belief of the hegumen of Volotsk, in order to establish order in the country, it was necessary to completely physically destroy all heretics. He wrote that everyone has the opportunity to be saved, except heretics, because heresy is worse than any lawlessness ^{[22, p. 171]}. The eradication of heresy was declared the work of all Orthodox, it was necessary to "partake" of the Heavenly Kingdom ^{[22, p. 482]}. Unlike the ancient heretics, the current ones, as the worst and most dangerous, were called apostates, for whom the punishment should be the most severe. A special role was assigned to the secular authorities. Kings and princes, according to Joseph, received authority from God to punish criminals. He wrote that the king "is like the power of the highest God" ^{[22, p. 547]}. It is very important that the Monk Joseph appealed both to the apostasy of the "Jews" and to the possibility of the secular authorities to punish them. And by this time, the authorities were already very good at punishing "apostates" and did it demonstratively.

To justify the need for severe punishment of heretics, Joseph Volotsky relied not only on Byzantine laws and ancient cases of reprisals against heretics, but also on stories from the books of the Old Testament prophets. First of all, we are talking about the motive of self-ignition of fire by a sinner, in which he perishes. Probably, this argument, although simple in fact, turned out to be the most deadly in the case of heretics. This idea is contained in the book of the prophet Isaiah: "Behold, all of you create fire and strengthen the flame: walk with the light of your fire and with the flame that you kindle. It is for the sake of this that you have been, in sorrow you will have time" (Isaiah 50:11).

It is to this phrase that the Monk Joseph refers, saying that heretics who talk about the Second Coming of Christ, just throw up a stone that will crush their heads, and kindle a fire from which they will burn ^{[22, p. 379]}. That is, fire is already intended in advance for heretics (and heretics are for fire), and their burning, according to Joseph, will not only be an ideal execution, but also an omen of the future. Therefore, we can agree with A. D. Okhotsimsky that burning at the stake more clearly than other methods of execution indicates not only the earthly one that has already taken place, but also the impending punishment of God ^{[14, p. 176]}. The church council of 1504 brought an end to the long-term persecution of heretics, as a result of which the most prominent of them were brutally executed. Ivan Volk Kuritsyn, Mitya Konoplev and Ivan Maksimov were burned in a log cabin on December 27 in Moscow, and Nekras Rukavov, Archimandrite of the Yuriev monastery Kassian and some other heretics were burned in Novgorod ^{[19, pp. 371-372]}. Isn't this one of the first examples of transferring ideas about posthumous retribution into real practice?

After the defeat of the Novgorodians in an open confrontation with Ivan III, the conflict was by no means extinguished. The echoes of those events were the arrests of rich Novgorodians and the looting of their courtyards in the winter of 1483-1484 on false charges of ties with Lithuania ^{[19, pp. 318-319]}. And only a few years later, in 1487, the Novgorod Archbishop Gennady (Gonzov) informed Bishop Prokhor Sarsky about the appearance of heretics in Novgorod "Judaizing" ^{[7, p. 310]}. The first news about the punishment of the Novgorod heretics also dates back to this time. In February 1488 Ivan III ordered the three heretics to be subjected to the "city execution" and sent them to Gennady with an order to transfer the unrepentant governors to the Zakharyins for repeated punishment with confiscation of property ^{[7, p. 314]}.

Under these conditions, the political aspect in the case of the heretics of the "Jews" manifested itself especially clearly. This is indicated both by the behavior of Gennady himself, who came into conflict with the local clergy and supported the policy of the Moscow governors, and the absence of tough sanctions against the majority of those accused of heresy by Gennady at the church council of 1488. Apparently, the position of Metropolitan Gerontius, who, being an ardent opponent of any deviations from Orthodoxy, apparently became a significant obstacle to their condemnation., did not consider Gennady's evidence of the existence of "heresy" obvious and sufficient ^{[15, p. 223]}. The situation was quite different at the Council of 1490, the course of which Gerontius, who died in 1489, could not influence.

The very nature of the accusation of "Jewishness" is also interesting. In general, the terms "Judaizing", "Judaizing" were quite widespread in the Byzantine anti-heretical literature, proceeding from the fact that all heresies are based on the "stupidity" of Jews or the mistakes of pagans ^{[30, p. 64]}. This implies a fairly broad nature of the accusations, often poorly consistent with each other. Thus, the "Jews" sought to identify with the ancient heretics in order to give legitimacy to their condemnation. Joseph Volotsky wrote that they adhered to the Sadducean and Messalian (Bogomil) heresy ^{[22, p. 44]}. O. V. Chumicheva notes that such placement in one row in one accusation of heterogeneous heresies was quite possible for a medieval person due to their equal sinfulness. This corresponded to the worldview of the Russian people inherited from Byzantium ^{[31, p. 223]}.

Moreover, the connection of the "Jewish wise" with the anti-Latin translated works is revealed. Thus, the main part of the accusations against "Latins" and Jews coincide here: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, violation of the order of fasts, the special significance of the Sabbath, refusal to worship icons, blasphemy against the Virgin, meaning disbelief in the divinity of Christ, and so on ^{[31, p. 219]}. Accordingly, the line between "Jewish wisdom" and "Latinism" for the Russian people of that era was quite conditional ^{[31, p. 223]}. Considering that the Novgorodians in 1471 were already accused by the Moscow authorities of "Latinism", and the nature of this obviously tendentious accusation was purely bookish ^{[25, p. 109]}, as well as the vagueness and uncertainty of Vladyka Gennady's accusations against the Novgorod "heretics" ^{[15, p. 239]}, allows us to include these events in the general the line of the Novgorod-Moscow conflict.

So, the confrontation between Moscow and Novgorod in the last third of the XV century caused an increased interest of scribes to the topic of heresy and apostasy. This was expressed not only in the appearance of journalistic writings like "The Words of the Elect", but also in the nomination of specific accusations of "Latinism" and "Judaism" against the Novgorodians. Ivan III's march on Novgorod in 1471 is important because by this time the idea of apostasy as treason to God and the sovereign, whose power has a divine origin, was being formed in the official Moscow ideology. The chronicle data contain a narrative about the symbolic punishment of the Novgorod "apostates", in which one can see allusions to biblical stories from the books of the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah. The latter is generally very indicative from the point of view of the attitude towards apostasy. Perhaps that is why Isaiah is repeatedly quoted in the "Words of the Elect", reflecting the Moscow version of the march on Novgorod and compiled in the metropolitan's office. It is worth noting that the growth of eschatological experiences in the country and the spread of the heresy of "Jews" also contributed to the change in the attitude of society and the state to the punishment of heretics and apostates.

In conclusion, it should be said that for severe punishment on such non-obvious charges, it was necessary to rely on a truly recognized authority, which, without a doubt, the Prophecies possessed. The Book of Isaiah, as one of the most famous prophetic books in Russia, with its terrible curses against villains and apostates, could well serve for such a purpose. Another similar image of fire contained in it is Isaiah 7:4, where the Syrians and the Israeli king Pekah, who tried to capture Jerusalem, are compared to burning brands that caught fire from their own anger. However, they could not harm the Jewish capital as a stronghold of the true faith, and their fire was harmful only to themselves. Now, among the burning brands, it was destined to be a "Jew".