Article

Name: The history of Maximus the Greek’s epistles against Luther (in defense of icon worship)

Authors: Lyudmila I. Zhurova

Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The Russian scholarly tradition describes the religious struggle against Lutherans, starting with the works by Maximus the Greek. A. I. Ivanov’s guidebook includes six words related to the publicist’s anti-Protestant polemic. Although, the Epistle against Heretics on Worship of Holy Icons is a special variant of Epistle 6 by Iosif Volotsky the Apostle and does not belong to Maximus the Greek. Another work, The Epistle against Lutherans is the treatise by Starets Artemius. Maximus the Greek is the author of the Epistle against Luther on Worship of Holy Icons. It exists as an intravitam manuscript (mid-16th century) with the author’s corrections and as a copy from the Pomorskoye Sobraniye (18th–19th centuries), without the author’s corrections, but with several fuller archetypal readings. Maximus the Greek’s relying on oral sources resulted in misrepresenting the Lutherans’ teaching of icon worship: he assumed Lutherans to worship icons of Jesus Christ, the Virgin, and John the Baptist. Of concern is the manuscript’s dating. Maximus the Greek meant to disprove Luther’s teaching of non-worship of holy icons and constructed his speech on appeals to Luther. Vocatives, appellatives, and imperatives are the expressive components reflecting the mood and emotional state of the indignant author. These should indicate that the Epistle was written before Luther’s death in 1546. However, Maximus the Greek writings tend to follow a polemical script, and in this Epistle, the learned monk quotes Luther’s address to him, suggesting that it was written before 1552 when Messingheim appeared in Moscow with protestant works.

Keywords: Maximus the Greek, Martin Luther, manuscript heritage, text history, icon worship, polemics

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