The Rus’ church on the eve of the Mongol invasion (canonical aspect)

Abstract. The Mongol invasion was an event that split the history of Rus into the time “before” and “after” the invasion. However, the invasion had a special impact on the
Ancient Rus church organisation. The highest church hierarchy was able not only to preserve its integrity, but also to strengthen its position. This peculiarity can be traced
also in the field of canonical-legal relations. In the presented article an attempt is made to comprehend the church-legal situation in Rus on the eve of the Mongol invasion.
Preliminary observations allow to conclude that the problem of coming upheavals was basically absent in church-canonical texts. The themes of expectation of coming
disasters and fears are not traced in any way in the texts of the epoch. In fact, the subsequent events convince that despite the grandiose invasion and the disasters that
followed it, the canonical structure of the church and the legal processes that took place in it, characterized by ongoing and continuous development.

Keywords: history of Medieval Rus’, Church on the eve of the Mongol invasion, history of the Rus’ Church, canon law, the Mongol invasion.