ABSTRACT
The translation of scriptural and other religious texts for the benefit of the Slavs was from its inception a subject of controversy and an occasion for polemic. In the early sixteenth century surfaced in a polemic which was conducted on two levels: through explicit charges of heresy and through underlying disagreements over linguistic usage, which were articulated through the catalytic involvement of an outsider to the linguistic culture of Muscovy. That catalyst was Michael Triboles, known in Muscovy as Maximos the Greek. The digests of the trial records and the writings of Maximos contain accounts of the charges against him and the rebuttals which he offered. The supposed errors in translation have often been attributed, on occasion by Maximos himself, to his limited knowledge of the Church Slavonic language into which his translations were made or to the advice which he received from his Russian assistants. In Church Slavonic this preposition means introduces the goal of movement.
