ATHOS, MOUNT (see 2.851[1]).—In the summer of 1913 the monastic communities of Mount Athos were convulsed by the controversy arising out of the heresy of the Name of God. A Russianmonk named Ilarion, in the western Caucasus, had published a book, under the title of In the Mountains of the Caucasus, in which he argued that the name of God, being part of God, is divine, and therefore to be worshipped. The book was printed at the Pechersk monastery at Kiev, esteemed the special press of the Holy Synod, and its popularity is shown by the fact that it passed into three editions. Its teaching as to the name of God, which claimed to be based on the authority of such eminent saints as St. Gregory Palemon and St. Dmitri of Rostov, was welcomed with enthusiasm by the monks of the monasteries of St. Andrew and St. Pentelemon, its chief exponent being Antony Bulatovich, an ex-officer of the Hussars of the Guard, who had become a monk at St. Andrew's.
The crisis began when Archbishop Antony of Volinsk denounced the doctrine as heretical in The Russian Monk. The monks appealed against this to the Holy Synod; but the synod declared against them and ordered the abbots to repress the heresy. The monks thereupon expelled the abbots by force, and their action was approved by the monastery of Vatopedi, the Greek parent house of St. Andrew's. On the appeal of the abbots the dispute was now referred by the Holy Synod to the court of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the intervention of the Russian Government was invited. The condemnation of the "heretics" by the Patriarch led to their repudiation by the community of Vatopedi, and at the instance of the Russian ambassador at Constantinople the refractory monasteries were subjected to a rigorous blockade.
This failed to subdue the monks, whom the Archbishop of Volinsk described as "a band of soft-brained idiots led by a vainglorious hussar." It was feared that the heresy, if suffered to make headway, would spread like wildfire among the ignorant Russian peasantry, and Archbishop Nikon was sent to Athos to threaten the recalcitrant brethren with severe temporal and eternal penalties should they remain obstinate. But his reception was worse than cold, and the Russian Government determined to take strong measures. On June 24, 200 Russian soldiers landed on Mount Athos, and a month later 600 of the monks were deported to Russia, where they were distributed as prisoners in various monasteries. The Holy Synod decided that the peculiar tenets of Bulatovich and his followers were to be known and condemned as "the heresy of the Name of God."
See The Times, June 19 and 26 1913.
- ↑ These figures indicate the volume and page number of the previous article.