FROM THE HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF RELIGION IN RUSSIA: “RUSSKOE SLOVO” PUBLICISTS ABOUT MEDIEVAL HERESIES

Abstract

The article considers the views of prominent Russian philosophers and publicists of the journal “The Russian Word” D.I. Pisarev and V.A. Zaitsev concerning social nature of medieval religious heretic movements. V.A. Zaitsev was interested in the low class unrest in a religious form and D.I. Pisarev recognized in these riots the development of the public thought which had not yet discarded its religious outfit, but was on the rise stimulated by positive economic changes. It is concluded that D.I. Pisarev and V.A. Zaitsev considered religious movements of the Middle Ages as expressions of interests of different social strata in the form typical of the period, and paid special attention to the social nature of the movements.