Categorical characteristics of participants in cases considered by church and judicial authorities in Tobolsk diocese in the 17th–18th cс.

The actualization of attention to this problem is caused by the fact that there has been a revival and development of the church and judicial system in Russia. It is obvious that the church and judicial system and canon law influenced on the formation of the Russian judicial system. The scientific novelty of this study is that it reflects the sources that were first introduced into scientific circulation, which contributes to a deeper theoretical understanding and actual enrichment of this problem. The aim of the study is to give a categorical description of the participants in court cases and the system of punishment in the Tobolsk diocese in the 17th–18th centuries, since the formation of the judicial system in the region has special features. Despite the large number of works on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, the normative legal framework and practice of the church and judicial system were not given sufficient attention. The analysis of the material obtained in the course of this study makes it possible to fill in the existing gaps. The methodological basis of the research is the principle of historicism (from which private methods – problem-chronological, historical-comparative, historical-system and historical-typological), the principle of systematic and the principle of objectivity. The archpastors of Tobolsk had broad powers in church and judicial matters, based on the decrees of the tsar and the patriarch. To their help were appointed clerical elders, customers, the desyati and the pyatidesyati priests, the vicars, desyatilniy, deacons, boyars' children, thanes, lenders, bailiffs and nedelschick etc. A particularly acute problem in the study period was family relations, which was aggravated by the lack of a sufficient number of women in Siberia. The result of the study should be a description of the participants in cases and punishments considered by the church and judicial authorities of the Tobolsk diocese. Most of the church court cases concerned certificates of illegal marriages, divorce, forced marriage and theft of church property, dishonest behaviour of clergies and clergymen, etc.