Artemii

Died in the early 1570’s. Russian church figure and publicist. One of the ideologists of the nestiazhateli (nonmoney-grubbers); a monk at Pskovo-Pecherskii Monastery.

About 1536, Artemii settled in the Porfir’eva Hermitage at Beloozero, where a group including Feodosii Kosoi, Ignatii, and Vassian formed around him. In 1551 he was appointed father superior of the Troitse-Sergiev Monastery, but within half a year he returned to Porfir’eva Hermitage because of his conflict with the Josephites. In 1553 he was summoned to a church council in Moscow in connection with the case of M. Bashkin; he was brought to a church trial on the basis of the Josephites’ charge of heresy the next year. Artemii was excommunicated and banished to Solovetskii Monastery, from which he fled to Lithuania around 1554–55. He lived at the court of the Slutsk prince and fought against Catholicism and Lutheranism. Artemii was the author of 14 epistles (“Epistles of the Elder Artemii,” Russian Historical Library, vol. 4, St. Petersburg, 1878), which constitute a valuable source for the history of social thought in the 16th century.