A conflict arises in Muscovy in the second quarter of the sixteenth century between church and state, as well as between cultural nativism and innovation.

It ends in compromise: the agreement reaffirms and strengthens the autocratic political values of Moscow while respecting the economic power and position of the church.

It also liberalizes cultural life to admit the influences from the Balkans and western Europe.

Yet the strain between those who champion a spiritualistic church, divested of worldly wealth (the nonpossessors, or Volga Elders), and the possessors, followers of Joseph of Volokolamsk, who seek to retain the church's wealth and institutional power, continue to affect Muscovite cultural life.