POLITICAL THEOLOGY AND THE LEGITIMATION OF CATHERINE’S COUP OF 1762: “SOLEMN EULOGY” OF KONSTANTIN (BORKOVSKIY)

Abstract

The paper analyzes the role of political theology of Russian 18th century in the legitimation ideology of Catherine II aimed at justification of the palace coup of 1762. The subject of analysis is the sermon delivered by Konstantin (Borkovskiy) in Moscow on July 10th, 1762, and dedicated to explanation of the events of the coup. The author shows that Konstantin’s sermon deploys two main systems of argumentation: providential appeal to the history understood as uncovering of God’s plan for Russia (Augustinism), and the cult of monarch supported by the historical and Biblical comparisons and the direct glorification of monarch’s specific qualities. These parameters of Konstantin’s sermon could be compared with the earlier block of political sermons of Elizabeth’s age and the other texts which were justifying the coup (official manifestoes, poetical panegyrics). Such comparison allows author to conclude that Augustinism, being an intellectual tool to justify the fall of the monarch, was an unchangeable element of the legitimation ideology of the age, while the glorification of the monarch, being a tool to explain the enthronement of a particular person, was acquiring its ideological content depending on the circumstances. And even though the legitimation strategy of the 1762 coup included secular ideological systems (for instance, natural and Roman law, anti-absolutist rhetoric), the political theology remained pivotal element of Catherine’s legitimation ideology.