KORMCHAYA KNIGA

The Kormchaya Kniga, also known as the Navigator's Chart (Map) or The Pilot's Book, is the Slavic version of the Greek laws known as the Nomocanon. The first Slavic translation of the Greek Nomocanon was probably made by St. Methodius in the second half of the ninth century. It included the canons found in the "Syntagma of Fifty Titles" and the first Slavic manual of laws called the "Court Law of the People" (Zakon sudny lyudem). The Kormchaya usually contained information such as Apostolic canons, decrees of the first four Ecumenical Councils, resolutions of local synods, instructions of the Church Fathers, and imperial edicts on church issues. It became the guide for ecclesiastical courts and church affairs in Rus. Before the seventeenth century, no single copy of the Kormchaya served as the official code of the Russian Church. A copy assumed local authority when a bishop made it the law of his eparchy. Consequently, by the beginning of the seventeenth century, the diversity of materials in the many existing copies created confusion. Around 1649 Patriarch Joseph, concerned by this ambiguity, arranged for a correct version of church laws to be published. In 1650, the first printed Kormchaya appeared, but three years later Patriarch Nikon published a revised version, which, although severely criticized by the Old Believers, remained the official code. The Holy Synod reprinted Nikon's version in 1787 and reissued it in 1804, 1810, 1816, and 1834. In 1889 Patriarch Joseph's Kormchaya was reprinted and used by a sect of Old Believers. It was reprinted again in St. Petersburg in 1912 and 1913.

See also: nikon, patriarch; old believers; patriarchy; orthodoxy; russian orthodox church

bibliography

Dewey, H. W., and Kleimola, Ann M., tr. (1977). "Zakon sudnyi liudem." Michigan Slavic Studies 14.

Žužek, Ivan. (1964). Kormc čaja kniga: Studies on the Chief Code of Russian Canon Law. Rome: Pont. Institutum Orientalium Studiorum.

Martin Dimnik