Power, Sainthood, and the Art of Myth
Pierre Gonneau, A l'aube de la Russie muscovite: Serge de Radonege et Andre Roublev. Legendes et images (XIVe-XVIIe siecles) (At the Dawn of Muscovite Russia: Sergius of Radonezh and Andrei Rublev. Legends and Images [14th-17th Centuries]). 357 pp., illus., appendices. Paris: Institut d'etudes slaves, 2007. ISBN-13 978-2720404351. 24.00 [euro]. Elisabeth Teiro, L'Eglise des premiers saints metropolites russes (The Church of the First Saintly Russian Metropolitans). 418 pp., illus., appendices. Paris: Institut d'etudes slaves, 2009. ISBN-13 978-2720404511. 24.00 [euro]. During the Soviet era, publications covering the religious life of medieval and early modern Rus' tended to emphasize land issues and the condition of the peasantry. The scope of this area of scholarship has broadened considerably in recent years to encompass the cultural and spiritual aspects of Muscovite church history. This expansion has been aided significantly by the publication of documents supplementing fundamental collections of source materials created in the 20th century. Rich collections in Russian museums and art restorers' revelations are becoming increasingly accessible through the bountiful production of high-quality albums and exhibit catalogues as well as the development of websites devoted to art and architecture. The two excellent monographs reviewed here will further expand our understanding of the formative period of the Muscovite polity because they underscore the crucial interconnections that permitted church leaders and Moscow's princes to construct the symbiotic relationships that promoted their mutual success. Both books reveal the importance of sainthood as the social and political "glue" holding together the rising status of rulers and church hierarchs, while simultaneously laying out the widely divergent itineraries for future saints to follow during their earthly lives. The saints who figure in Elisabeth Teiro's examination of the Russian metropolitanate during the 14th to 16th centuries are cut from very different cloth from the legendarily humble monk Sergius of Radonezh--adviser of princes, conciliator, counterpart of St. Francis in giving away worldly possessions, and source of inspiration for unity against the Tatars and rebuilding Russian spirituality. In contrast, the saintly metropolitans contribute to the building of church and state as political activists who move to Moscow and thereafter link the destiny of their church to that of the local rulers. Sergius and the metropolitans alike were then posthumously claimed as wonder-working intercessors for Moscow, an image fostered both by church hierarchs and by Moscow's rulers. Teiro's study begins with Peter's relocation of the seat of the metropolitan to Moscow, his initiation of the construction of the Dormition Cathedral, and his burial in 1326 in his unfinished church. His relatively rapid recognition as the first saint associated with the principality of Moscow was initiated by his successor, Theognost, backed by Ivan Kalita of Moscow; and the Byzantine patriarch agreed to canonization. Metropolitans before Peter had not been the focus of special veneration, but thereafter his successors came to be given serious consideration for this status. Analyzing the grounds for sainthood, Teiro concludes that after Peter "admission to the ranks of the saints" (199) rather than canonization, with its connotation of the procedure used in the Roman Catholic Church, better describes the process at work in Muscovy, especially before Metropolitan Makarii's councils of 1547-49 made glorification a more formal process. Incorrupt relics served as an indication of worthiness for sainthood, but the indispensable requirement was that the potential saint perform miracles, in life or after death (and a candidate's record in this regard might be "improved" to strengthen his claim). After the Russian church became autocephalous in 1448, candidates native to the Russian lands were more likely to be canonized. …
Multiethnicity in Muscovy: a consideration of Christian and Muslim Tatars in the 1550s-1580s
As persistent territorial expansion transformed the predominantly Slavic, Orthodox Christian Muscovite state into a multiethnic empire by the mid-16th century, the Church articulated an ideology that set adoption of the Orthodox faith as the fundamental criterion for admission and assimilation into Muscovite society. An examination of Tatars in Muscovite service during the 1550s-1580s, however, reveals that in practice religious affiliation was not the sole factor determining acceptance into Muscovite society. Orthodox Christian Tatars, both members of the Chingissid elite and common servicemen, entered Muscovite society, but their ethnic Tatar identity continued to distinguish them from their Muscovite peers and inhibit their complete assimilation. Muslim Tatars, also represented at both elite and common levels, were not excluded from Muscovite society, but also found positions in it and were treated in a manner similar to that of their Orthodox brethren.
Ruling Without Mercy: Seventeenth-Century Russian Bishops and Their Officials
The 17th century has rightly been described as the “century of revolt” (buntashnyi vek) by both contemporary observers and 20th-century historians such as Viktor Ivanovich Buganov and Hans-Joachim Torke. The Stepan Razin revolt (1670–71) and the frequent rebellions of the Don Cossack region were only the most dramatic manifestations of a general crisis of authority. Countless smaller revolts occurred in Muscovy’s towns and provinces and the Kremlin often had to resort to military campaigns, mass floggings, and hangings in order to reestablish control. During the Moscow revolt of 1648, for example, enraged townsmen set out to “smash the boyars ... and their friends with stones,” warning that they would take terrible revenge against their tormentors for making them “walk in blood up to [their] knees.” Indeed, throughout the century there were reported incidents