The search fan a more rational and universal form of faith appears to have attracted considerable interest in cosmopolitan western Russia, where a syncretic, unitarian offshoot of the Protestant Reformation had to be
anathemized by a special church council of 1553-4. Like the Judaizers who were condemned by a-eouncil just a half century before, this movement is shrouded in obscurity. Once again, some connection with Judaism seems probable in view of the importance that the leader, Fedor Kosoy, attached to the teaching of the Pentateuch and his later marriage to a Lithuanian JewessT^Kosoy insisted eloquently at the council oi 1553-4 that 'all people are as one in God: Tatars, Germans and simple barbarians.'48 It seems reasonable to assume that this movement like that of the Judaizers continued to have sympathizers after official condemnation; and that the rapid subsequent flowering of anti-trinitarian Socinianism in Poland continued to attract attention in western Russia.
Four influential Russians of the mid-sixteenth century, Andrew
Kurbsky, Fedor'Karpov, Ermolai-Erazm, and Maxim the Greek, repro-
, duced ofrRussian soil the philosophic opposition to both superstition and
'scholasticism that was characteristic ofWestern humanism. Each of them
had a vital interest in classical antiquity-particularly Ciceronian moralism
and Platonic idealism.
Despite his traditional, Muscovite view of politics and history, Kurbsky was the most deeply enamored with the classical past and was the only one to leave Russia to soak up the Latinized culture of the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom. Having acquired a direct knowledge of Platonic and early Greek thought from Maxim the Greek, he added an even more extensive knowledge of the Latin classics during his long stay abroad. Informally associated with a coterie of Latinized White Russian noblemen, Kurbsky visited the easternmost Latin university of medieval Europe at Cracow and sent his nephew to Italy. In the later stages of his correspondence with Ivan the Terrible, he included a long translation from Cicero as a means of proving that forced flight cannot be considered treason.49
An even deeper absorption of classical culture is evident in the writings of Karpov, a Latin interpreter and leading official for more than thirty years in the Russian foreign office. He consciously strove to write with 'Homeric eloquence' in a pleasing, grammatical 'non-barbaric' way,50 His few surviving compositions reveal subtlety of intellect as well as considerable style and a sense of irony and concern for moral order.'1 This latter quality bordered on the subversive in Muscovy, for it led him tb conclude that *fnoral laws were Higher than the will of the sovereign. Almost alone in his day he contended that civil.and ecclesiastical affairs,should be separated, and that justice is both a moral imperative and a practical necessity for human society. The monastic virtue of 'long suffering' is not sufficient for civil society, which will be ruined if law and order are absent. Law is, however, not bracketed with terror as it was in the writings of Peresvetov. To-
gether with justice must go mercy, because 'mercy without justice is faintheartedness, but justice without mercy is tyranny.'52
In keeping with the spirit of the time, Karpov invokes a providential theory of history; but his style is ironic and his conclusion pessimistic. Man has progressed frornlTprimitive law of nature through the Mosaic law to the Christian law of grace; but the men who live under this law do not live by^ it. Greed and lust prevail, so that even the first of the apostles would be denied a hearing in contemporary Muscovy without money for bribery. ArTequally pessimistic view of Muscovite life is propounded in the writings of the monk Ermolai-Erazm, who echoes another favorite theme of Western reformers: the dream of a pastoral Utopia, of aTTeturri to a naturaTecoffiJiny and true Christian love. The source of all the world's ills is pride and estrangement from the land; peasants should be freed of all duties save' a single donation of a fifth of each harvest to the tsar and nobility. Other exactions should be taken from parasitic merchants and tradesmen; gold and silver exchange should be eliminated; knives should be made unpointedTo discourage assassins-such are some of the often naive ideas'containedTri his handbook of the 1540's: On Administration and Land-measurement.53 The number mysticism and cosmic neo-Platonic theologizing of the high Renaissance is also apparent in Ermolai's efforts to vindicate the doctrine of the trinity by finding triadic patterns hidden in almost every natural phenomenon.54
The finest representative of Renaissance culture in early-fifteenth-century RussiaTanrhthe teacher of KurhsKy, Karpov, and Ermolai-Erazm, wasTKTrFrrTaflcable figure of Maxim the Greek. Through him humanism acquired' aii OrthlidoTOnstiar^cqSrafion and made its strongest efforts to modify thirTTncntlcai fanaticism of the Muscovite Jdeology.55 An Orthodox Greekbrought up in Albania and^Corfu, he spent long years studying in Renaissance Italy before becoming a monk and moving to Mount Athos. From there, he was called in 1518 to Russia, where he remained-at times against his will-for theThirty-eight remaining years of his life. Summoned by the Tsar to help translate holy texts from the Greek and Latin, Maxim proceeded to write more than 150 surviving compositions of his own, and attracted a large number of monastic and lay students. He was the first to bring news to Russia of Columbus' discovery of America, and he called atteritiorTas welrto'undiscovered areas of classical antiquity.56
Maxim illustrates the humanist temperament not only in his knowledge of the classics and interest in textual criticism, but also in his concern for style and his inclusion of poetry and a grammar among his works. He delighted in the favorite humanist pastime of refuting Aristotle57 (even though this hero of the medieval scholastics was barely known in Russia),
and had a typical Renaissance preference for PlatoJHeJreguently.wrote in dialogue form, and idenfflieTl~reason closely withgoodness and beauty:
True Godly reason not only beautifies the inner man with wisdom, humility and all manner of truth; but also harmonizes the outer parts of the body: eyes, ears, tongue and hands.58
Florence, the home of the Platonic Academy of the cinquecento, infected
Maxim not only with neo-Platonic idealism, but also with the authoritarian
and puritanical passion of Savonarola, whose sermons he admired as a
young student,59 His admiration for this famed prophet may hold a key to
his fate in Russia. Like Savomu-oTF,~1vlaxim^ccWmWded attention for his
passionate opposition to tKelmmorality and secularism of his day, and was
liohlze'd 'f^prbphetic' and 'apocalyptical elements. Like the Florentine,
MaxmPiuttered martyrdom-though both his ordeal and his influence
lasted longer than Savonarola's.
›Unlike Savonarola, Maxim retained the style and temperament of the
