The life and Rule of Iosif Volotsky (1439/1440-1515)reveal many of the contradictory forces at work within the medieval muscovite church and Russian monasticism: social reform amid noble privilege, monastic austerity bounded by a despotic social structure. 'Non-possessor' reformers might advocate the renunciation of monastic villages and peasants universal manual labor, and hesychastic prayer, but Iosif defended liturgical formalism and the retention of lands and privileges as safeguards of monastic life.

First published in 1983, this first English translation of Iosif's rule has been revised to include in full both versions of Iosif's legislation: the Brief Rule and the Extended Rule. Bibliography and notes have also been expanded to incorporate new scholarship, some of it stemming from the recent remarkable revival of the Russian Orthodox Church.