To the Issue of the Peculiarities of Church Legal Thinking Archbishop Michael (Mudyugin) (Based on the Decrees on the Canonical Penalties of 1980–1992)

The article was written based on the author’s report at the III Barsov readings held on December 16, 2019, in the Book Room of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Based on the results of the consideration of the decrees on canonical punishments of Archbishop Michael (Mudyugin), the following conclusions: 1) Archbishop Michael took himself as a diocesan court and judged in the pre-revolutionary tradition; 2) it isn’t known why Archbishop Michael didn’t refer to the canons in his decisions, but it is assumed that he was familiar with the canonical corps; 3) Archbishop Michael took into account the requirements of state labor legislation, although he could not directly apply it; 4) Archbishop Michael could allow himself to draw up judicial decisions in the form of a high-ranking, literary image of the St. Petersburg intellectual, saturated with images and metaphors; 5) Archbishop Michael drew special attention to such means of influence on violators as conversation, suggestion, explanation, and only after he was convinced of their inefficiency, applied administrative measures. The article introduces five previously unpublished decrees of Archbishop Michael.