Reflections on church jurisdiction in Pre-Mongol Rus. A response to the article by I. A. Shershneva-Tsitulskaya (Christian reading No. 3 for 2022)

The article is a response to the work of I. A. Shershneva-Tsitulskaya “On the Question of Church Jurisdiction over Russian Princes in the Context of Russian-Byzantine Relations in the 11th - middle of the 15th Centuries” and continues the cycle of publications devoted to the problems of church jurisdiction in pre-Mongol Rus, developed within the framework of the activities of the section “Ecclesiastical Law of Medieval Rus” of the Barsov Society of St. Petersburg Theological Academy. It is shown that although these issues are based on a wide layer of historiography, they do not often become the subject of scientific controversy. That is why the study of I. A. ShershnevaTsitulskaya is of interest and deserves discussion, especially since it made a serious attempt to consider the hierarchical jurisdiction over the Russian princes. It is concluded that 1) when touching on the problem of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Medieval Rus, one has to take into account not only the messages of canonical legal sources, but also the historical, cultural and political context of the era, 2) the scope and boundaries of ecclesiastical jurisdiction were constantly changing, and were determined not only by political circumstances of the time and the canonical situation in Russia, but also by “regional” influences.