Purity of blood
The Russian and pro-Russian media in Ukraine (not in Russia!) are still raging at the fact that the so-called Uniates — the Ukrainian Greek Catholics — are enjoying all those religious freedoms that the Constitution of Ukraine provides for its citizens. In particular, they are freely choosing sites for religious institutions, taking active part in public life, developing their religious life, and they even have demands with regard to the government. Some authors of Orthodox publications in Russia and Ukraine see in this practically the end of the world, while their clergymen ignore elementary rules of civilized conduct when they meet with their Greek Catholic colleagues (what an example for the faithful!) Where does all this come from? Is it the Soviet school or the Russian medieval tradition? Meanwhile, Russian history offers examples of entirely different relationships between Orthodox and Uniate or Catholic believers.
In 1453 the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Paleologus, fell in battle defending Constantinople from the troops of Ottoman sultan Mehmed II. After the fall of the great city a large number of Greek refugees, especially wealthy and learned ones, settled in Italy, also at the court of the Roman pope. One of the late emperor’s brothers, Thomas, also moved to Italy, but his brother Demetrius preferred to serve the sultan. Pope Pius II welcomed Thomas, his children, and his entourage. He and his successor Paul II took special care of Thomas’s daughter Sophia whose beauty and erudition was admired by the Italians. Several years later Pope Paul II married the Greek princess to the Orthodox Muscovite Prince, Ivan III Vasilievich, one of the best known and respected figures in the history of Russia, the grandfather of Ivan the Terrible.
How could Orthodox Byzantines live so comfortably in Italy in the 15th century, and at the papal court at that? At the time Orthodox and Catholic adherents were divided by several centuries of enmity that was anything but Christian, especially after the Crusaders plundered Byzantium in the early 13th century. As it was, shortly before the siege and fall of Constantinople the Byzantine emperor and his court, along with a large part of the Orthodox clergy, concluded a union with Rome, signed in 1439 in Florence. For the Greeks this was a compulsory measure, as the Byzantine court thereby hoped to enlist the Catholic West in the struggle against the Ottoman Empire. Although papal Rome could not organize an anti-Ottoman coalition, it welcomed refugees from Constantinople and made them feel at home as Orthodox Uniates who had recognized the supremacy of the pope. Princess Sophia Paleologue, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, was also raised as a Uniate.
By marrying his foster daughter to the far-off Muscovite prince, the pope hoped to influence the policy of the Muscovite court and eventually to involve Muscovy in the struggle against the Ottoman aggressors. In any event, the Orthodox Ivan III married the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, who was raised in the Roman papal court in the Uniate tradition of the Council of Florence.
The matchmaking procedures and negotiations between Moscow and Rome took a long time, and there was active correspondence between the capitals and exchanges of diplomatic representatives, couriers, and gifts. Muscovite envoys eloquently assured the pope that the “Grand Duke feels quite approvingly about the unification of the churches (the Latin and the Greek).” His fiancee’s entourage in Moscow included a number of Uniate and Roman Catholic clergymen, among them the legate Antoniy, as well as men of the arts, Greek and Italian painters, architects, and builders, who would be of great help in building up Moscow. According to Russian chroniclers, after the wedding Princess Sophia quickly turned into a “devout Christian of the Greek faith.”
The dynastic marriage of Ivan III and Sophia marked an important event in the history of Muscovy and, later, of all Russia. After all, a grand duke had joined the celebrated Byzantine Paleologue dynasty (even if through a Uniate noblewoman). So what if the dynasty eventually sank into oblivion together with the empire? In conjunction with the marriage, Ivan III of Muscovy accepted the Byzantine coat of arms — a double-headed eagle — which is still the national emblem of the Russian state. Since then a proud ideologeme, “Moscow, the Third Rome,” has taken root in the Russian public consciousness, and this despite the fact that Princess Sophia’s brother Andreas, the legitimate successor to the throne of the fallen Constantine Paleologus, had officially surrendered his rights to the Eastern Empire (already nonexistent) not to Ivan III but to the rulers of Castile, Ferdinand and Isabella.
Ivan III’s close contacts with non-Orthodox Christians went even further than his marriage to Princess Sophia. He married his daughter Helen to Alexander, the Catholic Grand Duke of Lithuania, son of the Polish king. This was a purely political alliance aimed at redividing disputed lands in Moscow’s favor (although Ivan III never succeeded in persuading his son-in-law to part with Smolensk and Briansk, something he wanted very much). Ivan III’s son, Grand Duke Vassili, father of Ivan the Terrible, also had friendly contacts with Rome. He corresponded with Pope Clement VII, sent him valuable gifts, and received his legates in Moscow with honor. However, he refused the pope’s proposals to start a war against the Ottoman Empire, even though Clement had promised him the title of king in return.
How did the Muscovite church, the metropolitan, and the clergy feel about their princes’ friendly contacts with the Catholics? Russian historian Nikolai Karamzin writes in his History of the Russian State: “The grand dukes always had at their disposal the Metropolitanate and there is no example in our history showing that the religious authorities have ever argued with them over an important right...”
This brief sketch is proof of how far the modern “keepers of the purity of Orthodoxy” have departed from their ancestors in their rejection of Catholicism, Uniatism, and what they generally call non-Orthodox, including Protestantism. Incidentally, these “keepers” must have totally forgotten that almost all the Romanov tsarinas were German princesses, born Protestants; that most of them never mastered the Russian language or became accustomed to Orthodox liturgies; and that because the heirs to the Romanov throne were forbidden to marry their subordinates — i.e., Russians — the last crowned tsars were foreigners by blood. Emperor Paul I’s grandson Peter III was only one-quarter Russian. And so as the prominent Russian fabulist Krylov once wrote, “‘Twere better, gossip, on thyself thy look to turn.”
