Time of Troubles
The Church found the Time of Troubles perplexing. Patriarch Iov, who had helped Godunov become tsar, was deposed by the first pretender. Reflecting on this in i606, the monk Terentii of the Kremlin Annunciation church described a dream in which the Lord lamented that there was no true tsar, patriarch, clergy or people in His 'new Israel'.[184] When Prince Vasilii Shuiskii overturned the pretender at the end of i606, he selected Germogen (Hermo- gen) as patriarch. Germogen was to lead resistance to the Polish occupation of Moscow and crown Michael Romanov tsar in 1613. The careers of his rival, Metropolitan Filaret of Rostov, and of Avraamii Palitsyn, the monk-narrator of the ordeal of the Trinity-Sergius monastery during the smuta (Time of Troubles), however, better typified the conflicted loyalties of prelates. Filaret had been Fedor Nikitich, the doyen of the Romanov family, thus related by marriage to Ivan IV In 1600 Tsar Boris tonsured him to end his political life. The first pretender freed Filaret, making him metropolitan of Rostov; the second pretender installed him as patriarch, a rival to Germogen. When his candidacy collapsed, Filaret negotiated with King Sigismund of Poland to make Sigis- mund's son Wladyslaw tsar. Filaret was in a Polish jail when Russian forces liberated Moscow and crowned his son Michael. Palitsyn, a failed serviceman, became a monk no earlier than 1597 and in 1608 was cellarer of the Trinity- Sergius monastery. Early in Michael's reign, he wrote a tale of the smuta. Its core was a description of a siege of the monastery, September 1608-January 1610, by the second pretender and the Poles. Authentic details, visions and miracles, and an anti-Polish patriotism informed its narrative. Yet, during the siege Palitsyn was in Moscow, intriguing to replace Shuiskii with Wladyslaw. For a time he favoured Sigismund's candidacy. The Polish occupation, however, consolidated for ordinary folk a faith-based national consciousness. Konrad Bussow, a German eyewitness, wrote that on 29 January 1611 commoners, resentful of Polish mockery of their services and dishonour to their saints, besieged them in the Kremlin. That spring, after the Poles forbade the Palm Sunday ritual, an angry crowd staged its version of the feast. What once was an elite affair had become a popular celebration in which an ersatz tsar, symbolically the humble Christ, led the Church, symbolised by Patriarch Germogen, to the Jerusalem chapel of the Intercession church, a symbolic renewal of the promise of salvation.[185]
16
The law
RICHARD HELLIE
There were significant changes in the law in this period. First, it completed the evolution from a dyadic process to a triadic process. Second, it made significant progress in the shift from a law based primarily on oral evidence to one based on written evidence. Third, it featured four major law codes, Sudebniki, which were major advances over what Russia had known previously.
The medieval legal compilation, the Russkaia pravda, which was initiated in 1016 and was completed in the 1170s, remained the 'fundamental law' of Russia through to 1549. What follows is a summary of the provisions of the Pravda.[186] This will be used for comparison to illustrate the evolution of middle Muscovite law, as the era of the Sudebniki is sometimes called.
Russkaia pravda
The Pravda began as a court handbook to facilitate the protection of the people of Novgorod against mercenary Viking oppression. Accretions added around 1072 by Iaroslav's sons, probably based on estate codes, were motivated by an attempt to protect representatives of the princely administration and their property with sanctions of various fines for homicide or theft or destruction of princely property. The so-called 'Statute of Vladimir Monomakh' (1113-25) dealt particularly with debt. Accretions added during the reign of Vsevolod around 1176 included a 'slavery statute' (in which it was observed that a slave was not an animal, but had human characteristics - 'a to est' ne skot'), plus articles on court procedure, penal law and inheritance.
The Pravda was quite thorough on the matter of evidence. Witnesses could be either an eyewitness (vidok) or character/rumour witness (poslukh). Direct evidence, such as the testimony of a kidnapped or stolen slave or black and blue marks left by an assault, was considered definitive. The confront- ment/confrontation also produced good evidence. Various forms of divine revelation were also considered possible evidence, such as the oath and ordeal by iron and water. The Pravda was compiled for an oral society in which written evidence was so sparse that it was not worth mentioning.
Inheritance norms were also relatively elaborate. Wills (typically oral) were recognised. Guardianship was permitted. When there were no heirs, property escheated to the prince. Wives could not inherit, and children of female slaves could not inherit. A homestead was passed to the youngest son (presumably as a reward for having looked after the parents) and could not be divided.
Crimes were those against property, plus arson, murder and assault. The ordinary remedies were fines, but in addition banishment and exile were possible, as were confiscation of property, corporal punishment and execution.
The functions of law in the half-millennium Pravda era were the following: to limit the circle of relatives who could get vengeance; to expropriate from the relatives of the deceased for the prince the obligation to punish a killer; to protect citizens from the prince's retinue; to protect society against offenders; to protect the lower classes from the upper classes; to preserve order; and to establish harmony in a multi-ethnic society. The law also took on the obligation of protecting Christianity, preserving social hierarchy and male superiority while protecting helpless women, and enforcing collective responsibility. Law was also a centralising device, extending capital norms throughout the rest of Rus'. The law tried to support institutions of private property and protect commerce and business. One of the main functions of law was to provide financial support for officialdom and, in a minor way, maintain the army. Finally, like all law everywhere, the Russkaia pravda served as a device for resolving conflicts, regulating compensation for damages, and creating a more humane society - replacing the law of the jungle. Below this will be contrasted with the functions of middle Muscovite law.
184
A. I. Pliguzov and I. A. Tikhoniuk (eds.),
185
Konrad Bussov,
186
The literature on the