The Empire of Muscovy, shut off from Western Europe by
a Chinese--or, more correctly, Byzantine--wall, maintained
during the sixteenth century its attitude of utmost prejudice
towards the Jews, and refused to admit them into its borders.
This prejudice was part of the general disfavor with which the
Russian people of that period, imbued as it was with the
traditions of Tataric-Byzantine culture, looked upon foreigners
or "infidels." But the prejudice against the Jews was fed,
in addition, from a specific source. The recollection of the
"Judaizing heresy" which had struck terror to the hearts
of the pious Muscovites at the end of the fifteenth and the
beginning of the sixteenth century ¹ had not yet died out. The
Jews were regarded as dangerous magicians and seducers,
superstitious rumors ascribing all possible crimes to them.
The ambassador of the Muscovite Grand Duke, Basil III.,
at Rome, observed in 1526 to the Italian scholar Paolo Giovio:
"The Muscovite people dread no one more than the Jews, and
do not admit them into their borders."

Jewish merchants of Poland and Lithuania visited occasion-
ally, in connection with their business affairs, the border city
Smolensk, but they had no permanent residence there. From
time to time they would carry their goods even into the capital,

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