History
In the late 15th and early 16th century, this heretical movement spread over Moscow. In 1480, even Grand Prince Ivan III himself invited a few prominent sectarians to visit the city. The Grand Prince's seemingly strange behavior could be explained by the fact that he had sympathized with heretics’ ideas of secularization and the struggle against feudal division. Thus, the Judaizers enjoyed the support of high-ranking officials, statesmen, merchants, Yelena Stefanovna (wife of Ivan the Young, heir to the throne) and Ivan's favorite deacon and diplomat Feodor Kuritsyn. The latter even decided to establish his own club in the mid-1480s.
Despite the growing popularity of this heretical 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 sects opposition to the clergy and the secular authorities would have undermined the entire society. This made Ivan III renounce his ideas of secularization and ally with the clergy.
Read more about this topic: Sect Of Skhariya The Jew
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