Выборы епископов в Русской Церкви домонгольского периода

ASPIRATIO. Церковно-гуманитарные исследования. 2023. № 1. С. 10–45.

Vinogradov A.

The author reconstructs the process of the election of hierarchs in pre-Mongol Rus’. Analysis of sources shows that there were four models of such elections. The fi rst and, apparently, the
most common in Russia is the nomination of a hierarch by a prince and its approval by a metropolitan
or patriarch (in the case of a metropolitan). The second, typologically similar, is the election of
a candidate by the citizens and local clerics, with a possible participation of the local prince and its
coordination with the metropolitan (and later without him), typical for Novgorod since the mid-12th c.
and, perhaps, emerging in the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality of the late 12th c. These two models
correspond to the norms of “Procheiron” and “Epanagoge”. The third is the choice of a candidate by
the Metropolitan of Kiev, which, however, is described directly only once, in 1183 or 1185, and which
took place when the power of the Kiev prince was weakening, and stumbled upon the resistance
of the Vladimir-Suzdal prince and the citizens; it speaks rather in favour of the marginal character

of such an option, approved by Alexios Aristenos and mentioned (but not approved) by Theodoros
Balsamonos. In all these variants, the choice of a candidate by the council of bishops (fourth model)
prescribed by the canons is not mentioned; it is known only when the metropolitan of Kiev was
elected in 1147 (and possibly 1051). Therefore, in pre-Mongol Rus’, as in the Middle-Byzantine
Empire, there was a competition of models for choosing a hierarch, the choice of which depended
mainly on political factors.

Keywords: выборы, Древняя Русь, епископы