The Influence of Byzantine Law in East Central Europe

Abstract

The first part of the chapter is dedicated to the sources of Byzantine law, that is, secular and ecclesiastical. The most important secular laws are: 1) the Farmer’s Law from the 7 th or 8 th century, concerning the peasantry and the villages; 2) the Ecloga (726 or 741) issued by Emperor Leo III and his son Constantine V; 3) Legislation of the Macedonian dynasty or the so-called ‘Re-cleansing of the Ancient Laws,’ including Epanagoge, Procheiron, Basilika, and the Novels of Leo VI; and 4) Hexabiblos (Six Books), which is a private codification compiled by Constantine Harmenopoulos, judge of Thessalonica. The most important ecclesiastical laws are: 1) Synopsis Canonum, a summary of abridged canons arranged in alphabetical or chronological order; 2) ‘Systematic collections’, Synagoge, and Syntagma Canonum, organized by topic; 3) Nomokanons, compilations of secular laws and canons; and 4) Matheas Blastares’ Syntagma and Constantine Harmenopoulos’ The Epitome of the Holy and Divine Canons. The second part of the text treats the reception of Byzantine law in Slavonic countries: 1) the Slavonic Ecloga and the oldest preserved Slavonic legal text Zakon Sudnyj Ljudem (Law for Judging the People or Court Law for the People); 2) the Slavonic Nomokanons or Kormchaia kniga; and 3) the Stefan Dušan’s codification, consisting of the Serbian translation of Matheas Blastares’ Syntagma, Justinian’s Law (a short compilation of 33 articles regulating agrarian relations), and Dušan’s law code in the narrow sense. The third part of the chapter refers to the reception of Byzantine law in the Danubian principalities (Wallachia and Moldavia) transmitted through the Serbs and the Bulgars and their processed Slavic legal works received through Byzantine officials and through the church. The last part of the text is dedicated to the Byzantine public law’s ideas in East Central Europe. The most important and common ideas espoused in the work are: 1) the Roman, Byzantine, and Slavonic concepts of law, 2) the idea of Rome and a hierarchical world order, 3) the emperor’s task, and 4) concordance or ‘symphonia’ between the church and the state.