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
humanist, even in prophecy. There is a poetic quality to his denunciation of the three evil passions: "love of sweets, praise and silver" (slastoliubie, slavoliubie, srebroliubie).™ He defends his efforts to correct faulty translations in Russian churchbooks, and pleads with those who have placed him in monastic imprisonment at least to let him return quietly to his library: "If I am wrong, subject me not to contempt, but to correction, and let me return to Athos."61 Maxim always felt close to this center of the contemplative life and of Hesychast spirituality. Opposition to clerical wealth and ' dogmatism forged a link between his early humanist teachers from Italy and his later monastic followers from the upper Volga. ¦jf* Mj^om opposed the Josephite defense of monastic wealth not only for f bringmg_^a_MaspJiemous, servile, Jewish love of silver"62 into holy places, I but jSscTforJ^ J In the course of hliTsustained" Hebate^wTth tffiTTosiphite Metropolitan /f Daniel of JMoscow, Maxim voicesThe fear that the church is coming under J the authority of ^??????????^??^?^???? than "just rules" (pravila) -thus . anticipatmgjthe_ opposition between "crook^dn£sXLand^4nith"-(krivda-pravda) which was to become so important in Russian moral ^pjlilosoghy.63 In a sEllful dialogue, Maxim likens the Josephite argument that monastic property is a common trust to a group of sensualists' justifying their relations with a prostitute on the grounds that she "belongs to us all in common."64
Maxim gradually turned to political writings denouncing Tsar Vasily Ill's divorce, ancTunsuccessfully attempting to make young Ivan IV "the just" rather than "the terrible." Maxim's political philosophy was moralistic
•? /? rv
and conservative: a kind of moral rearmament program designed by a sympathetic foreigner for the less-educated leader of an underdeveloped area. All ponflict can be resolved without changing" the social order. The firstTask is to infuse the prince with moral fervor. "Nothing is so necessary to those rulingon earth as justice";65 but no prince can ultimately be just without the accompanying virtues of personal purity and humility.66
The fall of Byzantium was a moral warning to Muscovy against pride
and complacence in high places rather than an_assurance that Moscow was
now the "third Rome^Tn a letter ?6~ young Ivan TV Maxim implies that
adherence to the~true faith will not in itself guarantee God's favor to an
unjust prince, because evil Christian kings have often been struck down,
and a just pagan like Cyrus of Persia enjoyed God's favor "for his great jus
tice, humility, and compassion."orMaxim juxtaposed the classical Byzantine
idea of a symphony of power between imperial and priestly authority to the
Muscovite arguments for unlimited tsarist power. Like his friend Karpov,
Maxim explicitly said that the tsar should not interfere^rf the ecclesiasticaO^
sphere, and implfedjthat he was ?????^^??????^by a higher
moral la\£
This foreign teacher was revered, however, not for the logicjrfJiifL
arguments or the beauty of his style but for the depth of his piety. In his early~yeaTTTfe argued for a crusade to liberate Constantinople and for a preventive war against the Crimean khan;68 but as time went on, the simple Pauline ideals of good cheer, humility, and compassion dominate his writings. In and out of monastic'prisons, confronted with false accusations, torture, and near starvation, Maxim underscored with his own life his doctrine of love through long-suffering. Far from showing bitterness toward the ungrateful land to which he had come, he developed a love of Russia, and an image of it different from that of the bombastic Josephite monks in the Tsar's entourage.
Maxim shows almost no interest in the mechanics of rule or the possibilities of practical reform, but he feelscompassion for the oppressed and sorrow,.fpr the wealthy in Muscovy, He is convinced thaT"the heart of a mother grieving for her children deprived of the necessities of life is not so full as the soul of a faithful Tsar grieving for the protection and peaceful well-being of his beloved subjects."69 Whatever its faults, Russia is not a tyranny like that of the Tatars. She bears the holy mission of Christian rule in the East, through alt her harassment from without_and corruption from within.