Canon law in medieval Russia: The Kormchaia kniga as a source of law

Historical studies of the Russian medieval period have traditionally overlooked the Kormchaia kniga as a source of law. The Kormchaia kniga, a collection of ecclesiastical canons and Byzantine civil law dating from the tenth century, served as a central source of law in Russia. Contained within the Kormchaia was the constitutional-legal basis for the relationship between church and state - that is, for the division between the temporal and ecclesiastical spheres of authority (regnum and sacerdotium). In addition, the Kormchaia served as the primary source of Russian property law. Part I examines the Kormchaia kniga and other canonical collections with the purpose to determine how the Russian form of state compared with other models of medieval Christian societies. Chapter 1 discusses Western and Byzantine forms of canonical collections and Byzantine legal collections as a means to demonstrate what kind of canonical legal system existed in Russia. Chapter 2 examines the manuscript history and sources of texts comprising the Kormchaia kniga, revising and adding to earlier work. Part II examines how the Kormchaia provided the legal framework in Russia for a constitutional relationship between church and state based on the Byzantine model. Chapter 3 examines the ecclesiastical legislation of the Emperor Justinian governing ecclesiastical property and jurisdiction, which comprised Chapter 42 of the Kormchaia. It discusses how these statutes underpinned the constitutional relationship between church and state in Russia. Chapter 4 discusses the role of immunities in this constitution, and how they were legally supported by the Kormchaia, Part III examines the Kormchaia as a source of civil law in matters of property law - in particular: dowry, inheritance and life-estates. Using Russian wills, donation charters, dowry agreements, and betrothal contracts, it is demonstrated in Chapters 5 and 6 that operation of these legal transactions was governed by the Byzantine law contained in the Kormchaia.