Struggle Against Heresies
Joseph Volotsky is also known to have been a staunch opponent of the heresy which was spreading in Russia at that time (Judaizers). During the Church Sobor of 1504, he demanded that all heretics be executed.
In his major work, called The Enlightener (Просветитель), which consisted of 16 chapters, he tried to prove the wrongfulness of the "new teaching" in order to be able to prosecute the heretics and convince people not to believe in the sincerity of their repentance. He called for an all-out search for heretics and their imprisonment and execution.
Joseph's doctrines became a part of the official theology of the Russian Orthodox Church following his local canonization in 1579 and national canonization in 1591.
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