The Monastic Rule of Iosif Volotsky, and: Drevnerusskie inocheskie ustavy: Ustavy rossiiskikh monastyrenachalnikov (review)

David Goldfrank's revised edition of The Monastic Rule of Iosif Volotsky is a welcome update to a good translation. This revised edition contains not only the extended version of Iosif Volotskii's (1439/40-1515) so-called rule but also a separate translation of his "Brief Rule" ("Abba Iosif's Discourses"). Goldfrank has enlarged his scholarly biography of Iosif and expanded his examination of Iosif's instructions for, and commentary on, monastic life. These two introductory studies provide an important background to the translations of the "Brief Rule" and the "Extended Rule," each based on previous scholarly Russian publications of the earliest known extant versions.¹ The revised volume has an appended letter by Iosif commenting on commemorative prayer, a list of biblical citations, an extensive bibliography of published primary and secondary sources, and a good index.

Iosif Volotskii was one of many charismatic monastic leaders who founded new cloisters during a renaissance of monasticism in Muscovite Russia (approximately 1350 to 1550) and were later recognized as saints. Iosif's was a decisive voice at court and in Church councils, remembered in historiography primarily for his political involvement in the so-called "possessor" versus "non-possessor" debate over monastic property, although recent scholarship has called into question the existence of such a dispute.² Although the nature and timing of the "possessor"/"non-possessor" debate has been questioned, Iosif himself has long been labeled as the leader of a group that upheld the right and responsibility of monasteries to own and administer property. He has also been studied as an opponent of small heretical groups that appeared in Russia in the late 15th century. Thanks to his notoriety as a hard-line defender of Orthodoxy, Iosif's role as an ascetic and a shaper of Russian monastic life has been neglected.

Goldfrank presents Iosif as a strict ascetic and remarkable monastic reformer who influenced Russia's cenobitic monastic life by becoming a model for later founders such as Kornilii Komel'skii (d. 1537/38) and Metropolitans Daniil (1522-39) and Makarii (1552-63) of Moscow. Few detailed studies exist of Russian monastic rules as historical sources, though the classic work of Skaballanovich describes the evolution of the Russian Orthodox liturgical rule up until the 19th century.³ The dearth of in-depth works on Russian monasticism, a fundamental influence on early Russian culture, leaves large gaps in our understanding of the period. Iosif's two rules are among the better-known sources for 16th-century Russian Orthodox history, but few studies have delved into their implications for monastic life. Consequently, Goldfrank provides an indispensable aid to teachers as well as scholars of pre-modern Russian culture. Until Goldfrank's first edition, the two rules were only available in Russian.

These translations of Iosif's writings are elegant and heavily annotated with references to published works that Iosif cited or used. The power behind Iosif's thought comes through in the translation and illuminates the erudition and attention he gave to all aspects of religious life. Nevertheless, one must realize that these texts do not necessarily reflect universally accepted attitudes and resolutions of 16th-century monastics.

The "Brief Rule" is, as Goldfrank points out, a series of discourses, a "statement of principle" of the monastic life rather than a systematic series of regulations, activities, or behaviors. The "Extended Rule" is Iosif's will and testament. Both documents share similarities with the idea of a monastic "rule" as described by the traditional scholarship of the High Middle Ages in the West, yet the term "rule" (Russian ustav, Greek...