In category ::: 16th century

The polemical tradition of Joseph of Volokolamsk was continued by Daniel, who first succeeded Joseph as abbot of the Volokolamsk Monastery, then became Metropolitan of All Russia. Daniel is the author of a large Miscellany of sixteen sermons and also of many epistles to individuals. Unlike Joseph, Daniel was dealing with vanquished adversaries; consequently his writings are in the nature of homilies, rather than lively disputes. Satire is also found in his work.

In one of his homilies, for example, he describes a dandy trying to catch the eye of some loose women. Daniel ridicules his dress, the fashionable narrow boots, “very fine and far too small, so that your feet suffer great constraint from their tightness”, and says to the dandy: “You parade, prance, bray, and neigh like a stallion… You not only cut your beard and flesh with a razor, but tear and pluck it out by the roots, shamelessly, envious of women, and change your man’s face into a woman’s…” ²⁷