JUDAIZERS. - This was the name given in Russia at the end of the fifteenth century (1487–1503) to deniers of the Trinity, especially numerous in Novgorod but also present at the court of the Grand Prince of Moscow Giovanni III (1462–1505). Perhaps they had arrived there with the wife of the son he had by his marriage to Elena, originally from Moldavia, while those of Novgorod spread as far as Kiev and then into the Balkans.
Their books were largely the work of Jews, such as the Logic of Aristotle, which bears the influence of Moses Maimonides, or the astrological work Le sei ali, deriving from the French Jew Bonfils of Tarascon. They also used cabalistic writings. Their concern was to procure direct translations from Hebrew of the Sacred Books into Old Slavic, which at that time constituted a great innovation. Thus the J. contributed something original to Russian culture. Gennadio (v.), archbishop of Novgorod, immediately denounced the J. to the metropolitan of Moscow, but he did not succeed in having his severe measures accepted until the third Synod (1504) held against the J., whose leaders were sentenced to death. Gennadio was supported by Giuseppe di Volokalamak, and opposed in turn by certain circles in Moscow and by some hermits living near the River Sorus, notably by Nilo Sorskij. Together with the heresies of the J., the Russian Church rejected their cultural innovations. It may nevertheless be that the version of the Bible prepared by Gennadio was the work of the J. The victory over the J. also meant a more rigorous isolation of Russia from the West.