NOMOCANON: THEOLOGICAL AND LEGISLATIVE TEACHINGS OF SAINT SAVA IN THE SHADOW OF MAGNA CARTA LIBERTATUM

Abstract

In this paper the authors treat several aspects of theological and legislative teachings of St. Sava and influence of these teachings on organization of Serbian medieval Church and the state, while reminding of undeserved ignoring of Sava’s teachings to which the Western catholic historiography presupposed the famous medieval writing Magna Carta Libertatum, which was proclaimed only four years before Sava’s nomocanon. By moving wisely in the orthodox dogmatic sense between Augustin’s patristics (Credo, ergo sum) and Anselmo’s and later Thomas’s scholastics (Credo, ut intelligam), Saint Sava included into his legislative writings only those parts of Byzantine Nomocanons that provided the best frame for development of young Serbian church and the state. With his legislative teachings, Sava organized relationship between the church and the state on the principle of harmony. In opinion of the authors, that was a shining period of Serbian culture, arts, iconography and other artistic achievements. Through his Nomocanon and his typicons Saint Sava, the authors claim, established organization and appropriate laws in church and state institutions, which was a unique intellectual endeavor without peer in centuries long history of European statehood and constitutionality, including the great Magna Carta Libertatum.