Religious and moral context of social protection of medieval space

Abstract

People have preserved and respected space since ancient times. The reasons were manifold: socio- economic, legal, religious and moral. Serbian medieval rulers tended to largely provide with riches, but also to protect estates of monasteries, as evidenced by surviving charters or their parts called appeal and anathema. When resolving property disputes (including the boundaries of a certain area), in addition to the representatives of state authorities, the witnesses who took the most frightful oaths went out in the field in order to determine the accurate boundaries. In order not to disturb the economic life, throughout the Middle Ages Serbian rulers used to issue charters to people of Dubrovnik (and to the other foreign merchants) that ensured undisturbed transit across Serbian territory. Serbian medieval rulers usually invoked: God, Virgin Mary, a patron saint of a monastery, Last Judgment, the Cross, First Council of Nicaea and Judah. They inspired awe in people and contributed to the protection of the space.