Тhe Clergy in the Judicial Practice of the Hetmanate in the Second Half of the 17th — 18th Centuries

Abstract

The article highlights the role of the Orthodox clergy in the judicial system of the Hetmanate. It notes the interference of clergy in the activities of courts, which influenced their verdicts. In particular, it emphasizes the subjective factors that allowed priests to mitigate court decisions. Using specific everyday examples, the article traces the evolution of the perception of the highest measure of punishment by hetmans, elders, city officials, and rural communities with the participation of the clergy, and also shows “casuistic” cases of courts deviating from the legislation of that time. It has been proven that in the Zaporizhzhia Host there were about a dozen main types of criminal offenses that were punishable by death, but many of which, due to the intervention of the clergy, received legal leniency. Thieves of church property, blasphemers of clergy, and apostates were subjected to particularly severe torture. It was noteworthy that after the execution of a criminal, part of his property, including money, could fall into the hands not only of the relatives of the deceased, but also of senior representatives of the judicial process, including monasteries. This gave rise to the material interest of the latter and, on this basis, to the corruption of the courts. In the course of judicial proceedings, church fathers most often used terms such as “God’s judgment,” “unrighteous sins,” “holy law,” etc. Throughout the 18th century, the “layering” of tsarist legislation regarding courts and their verdicts became increasingly noticeable, and references not only to the Lithuanian Statute and Magdeburg law, but also to the sovereign’s decrees began to appear more frequently in documentation. The subordination of the church to secular authority at the end of the 18th century ended with the secularization of monastic land ownership, and with it, the role of the clergy in judicial practice diminished.