Participation of clergymen in military campaigns of Ancient Rus’: canonical and legal grounds

The study is devoted to the tradition of priests’ participation in ancient Russian campaigns. Consideration of this phenomenon from the standpoint of the canonical rules regulating this aspect of the cleric activities results in the conclusion that those activities were not prohibited. However, escort of warriors by clerics could have quite definite though, sometimes, not the most obvious semantics for contemporary researchers, due to the connection with the Byzantine influence on Rus’ and also with the development of an old Russian view of the idea of a just and “holy war”.