«Evil for evil to die»: punishments of the ancient russian bishops (experience of a church judge of the XI - beginning of the XIV centuries)

Abstract

With all the attention of Russian historiography to the life of ancient Russian bishops, the problem of punishing bishops did not often attract the attention of researchers. If there was any interest in the noted topic, it was mainly within the framework of individual plots. However, a comprehensive consideration of the problem of punishment of ancient Russian bishops of the XI - the first quarter of the XIV was not carried out. Meanwhile, an analysis of the sources allows us to conclude that, for all the height of their ministry, the ancient Russian bishops not only regularly found themselves in the face of various courts, but were also subjected to various punishments, both ecclesiastical and those that took place in the practice of Byzantium and Russia. Within the framework of the presented article, an attempt was made to systematize the various punishments applied to bishops in the 11th - first quarter of the 14th centuries. The author comes to the conclusion that, despite their high status, the ancient Russian bishops were regularly subjected to various punishments. These punishments were not always fair. However, we can confidently say that the legal culture within the church was explained by the strong influence of Byzantine legal traditions. From a canonical point of view, punishments were far from always justified. But even in this case, the Old Russian scribes perceived them as corresponding to the realities of Old Russian reality and even fair.

Keywords

• history of ancient russia
• history of the russian orthodox church
• history of church law
• canon law
• church court