TRANSLATION-TRADUCTION

HUGH F. GRAHAM, tr. and ed.

The Missio Muscovitica

This valuable informative account of conditions in the Grand Duchy of Muscovy during the latter half of the sixteenth century is also of the greatest significance for East-West relations at a crucial period. The narrative was composed by the distinguished Italian priest and diplomat, the Jesuit Father , who was sent by the pope on a mission to Moscow at a time when Russia under Ivan the Terrible was experiencing a severe crisis. In general this was a period of turmoil in Europe, since new forces, impelled by the rapid spread of Protestantism, were coming to the fore. The papacy had resolutely set its face against innovation in the spheres of religion and high politics, which it continued to regard as inseparable from one another, and had rallied its very considerable resources to launch the Counter Reformation. Moreover, it never ceased to search for opportunities to enhance and expand its influence and domain. The papacy had for centuries been seeking ways to acquire recognition and authority in the Orthodox lands of Eastern Europe. Circumstances had heretofore never favored its ambitions, but the popes continued to hope that the Russians would someday reconsider their curt rejection of the decisions taken at the Council of Florence. They failed to realize the depths of Orthodox hostility to Catholic pretensions, which, for the Orthodox, had been translated into immediate realities by the rulers of Poland, who sought to make territorial gains at Russia's expense. The popes were, however, keenly aware of the spread of Protestantism in adjacent areas, and this development made them even more anxious than before to reach some advantageous understanding with the ruler of the Orthodox. There was a further factor of great importance. The sixteenth century marked the high point in the advance of Ottoman power into Europe, and all the popes of the period cherished the dream of forming a league of Christian princes to drive the Turks from and the Balkans, and perhaps, with the help of Persia, from Asia Minor and the Holy Places as well. The papacy believed that Moscow, with its long tradition of hostility to the tatars, some of whom were now under the protection of the sultan, would have to play an essential role in such a league. The popes thus had most pressing temporal reasons impelling them to seek relations with Moscow in addition to their desire to augment

1. Joseph Gill, S.J., The Council of Florence (Cambridge, 1959), discusses at length the ecumenical significance of the Council, and (pp. 358-363) the Russian reaction to it in particular. their spiritual domain. In these circumstances it would be difficult to imagine the surprise and delight experienced by the pope and his advisors when suddenly and totally unexpectedly, in 1580, Ivan the Terrible himself took the initiative and sent a courier, Istoma Shevrigin,2 to Rome to seek the pope's assistance. The difficulty that caused Ivan to seek contact with the pope arose from the recent reverses he had sustained in the , which he had been waging off and on with the Baltic powers of Poland, and for over twenty years. For a long time the war had on the whole gone well for Ivan but developments occurring in the previous two years had placed the Russian presence in in jeopardy and had enabled Poland, under the able and effective leadership of King Stefan Batory (1576-1586), to threaten Muscovy itself with invasion. Recovering from the astonishment, the cardinals who advised the pope on matters of state were too astute not to recognize that Ivan had made a clever move to extricate himself from an extremely dangerous situation when he asked the pope to mediate peace between himself and the Polish king. They also understood that the pope could deliver Ivan from his difficult situation only at the expense of Batory, who had proven himself to be a sincere and devoted supporter of the papacy and the Counter Reformation.3 On the other hand, Ivan's action appeared as a heaven-sent opportunity to bring Russia into the anti-Turkish league and, above all, to win the Orthodox for the Roman church. Weighing the advantages and disadvantages in the balance, Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) decided to respond favorably to Ivan's appeal, and chose a man to represent him in the delicate negotiations which he foresaw lay ahead. The man he selected was Father Antonio Possevino (1534-1611), who had already acquired a formidable reputation as a diplomat, negotiator and man of affairs, a scholar and writer, whose energy was limitless and whose zeal for the cause of the Church was unbounded.4 Possevino had already demonstrated his capacity in his efforts to arrest the spread of Protestantism in Savoy and France, and he had just returned from a delicate assignment in Sweden, where he had sought to influence the royal family to restore Catholicism in that country.5 In view of its diplomatic importance Possevino kept careful records of his Mission to Muscovy and left several versions of it. His work merits comparison with that of the Baron Sigismund von Herberstein,6 the English

2. On Shevrigin's mission see P. Pierling, S.J., Un Nonce du Pape en Moscovie (Paris, 1884), pp. 2-36. 3. P. Pierling, S.J., La Russie et le Saint-Siege; etudes diplomatiques, 5 vols. (Paris, 1896-1912; reprinted The Hague: Europe Printing, 1967), II, 20. 4. For the life and work of Possevino (on the many facets of whose long and varied career an immense literature abounds), see the paean to him, J. Dorigny, La Vie du P�re Antoine Possevin de la Compose de Jesus (Paris, 1712); J. Ledit, article on Possevino, in Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique (12-2) (Paris, 1933), Cols. 2647-2657, which contains a useful bibliography of Possevino's writings, and the recent assessment by Hans Wolter, S.J., "Antonio Possevino (1534-1611), Theologie und Politik im Spannungsfeld zwischen Rom and Moskau," Scholastik, XXXI, 3 (1956), 321-350. 5. L. von Pastor, ll2e History of the Popes, 40 vols. (London, 1891-1953), XX, 426-433. 6. The Baron Sigismund von Herberstein, Notes Upon Russia (Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii), trans. and ed. by R. H. Major, Hakluyt Society, Vol. I,