The formation of ecclesiastical law as a scholarly discipline in Russia in the late 18th - early 20th centuries

In this article, the author provides an overview of the development of church law as a scholarly discipline in the system of humanitarian knowledge in the Russian Empire in the late 18th - early 20th centuries. The process of formation of ecclesiastical law is determined by the systematization of Russian law that began under Emperor Nicholas I. The complex development of the scholarly discipline of “ecclesiastical law” gave pre-Revolutionary jurisprudence new legal categories (spe-cial legal area / system, freedom of conscience, secular state, and others), and some institutions of law. The article analyzes the monographs of the greatest canonists of the second half of the 19th century who left a significant legacy - Archimandrite Gabriel (Voskresensky), Archimandrite John (Sokolov), I. S. Berdnikov, I. M. Skvortsov, N. S. Suvorov, etc. In conclusion, the author presents the complexity and relevance of these issues in the study of canon law today.