Heresy of the Judaizers

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.

The hegumen Joseph Volotsky, the main critic and persecutor of this thought, considered the founder of this religious movement to be a certain Skhariya (also known as Zakhariya or Skara; Russian: Схария, Захария, Скара).

This was Zacharia ben Aharon ha-Cohen, a scholar from Kiev brought to Novgorod by Mikhailo Olelkovich from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1470.

According to most accounts though, the Belief of Skhariya renounced the Holy Trinity and the divine status of Jesus, monasticism, ecclesiastic hierarchy, ceremonies, and immortality of soul.

[5] Despite the growing popularity of this religious 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 adherents' opposition to the clergy and the secular authorities would have undermined the entire society.

[12] After uncovering adherents in Novgorod around 1487,[13] Gennady wrote a series of letters to other churchmen over several years calling on them to convene a sobor (church council) with the aim "not to debate them, but to burn them".

The councils outlawed religious and non-religious books and initiated their burning, sentenced a number of people to death, sent adherents into exile, and excommunicated them.