The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

In the history of the Russian Orthodox church the first third of the XVI century was marked by the sharp arguments between two theological-practical tenors. One of them was represented by Vassian Patrikeev and the elders (startsy) from over the Volga, the other by Iosif Volotskii and the Metropolitan of Moscow Daniil. Guiding by the recent analytical investigations the author reconstructs a part of the arguments, the polemic about the church attitude to heretics that brought the attention of the church to the responsibility of pastors (including bishops and the Metropolitan) for the heretics’ conversation, their torments and death, for the sufferings of the common Christians. As the result of Iosif followers’ victory and the forced closure of the polemic, the raised problem was not solved. At the same time the polemic displayed that the way of the solution was bringing the practice of church life in correspondence with its evangelic norms.