What was the consequence of the adoption of the council code of 1649. Establishment of serfdom (enslavement of peasants)

Cathedral Code 1649. Page with the beginning of chapter 11

In July 1648, the tsar convened his boyar duma and the council of the patriarch (“consecrated cathedral”) and conferred with them about what needs to be done to establish order and justice in the state, so that “all sorts of ranks for people, from great to lesser rank, the court and reprisal was equal in all matters to everyone. And it was decided to instruct the boyar, Prince N.I. Odoevsky, with four assistants, to collect all the old laws, that is, the Sudebnik of 1550, additional decrees to it (which have accumulated a lot over almost a hundred years) and articles from the Pilot's Book (§ 12). All these laws had to be brought into order and system, corrected and supplemented, and thus a new complete set of them was to be compiled. It was assumed that when Odoevsky will finish collecting the old laws, the Zemsky Sobor will convene in Moscow and "general council" will discuss his work, supplement and approve it. The Zemsky Sobor was ordered to assemble in Moscow by September 1, 1648.

Thus, the young sovereign wanted to establish justice and best orders giving the people a new set of laws. This thought was very reasonable and correct. The people then did not know those laws by which they had to live and sue; it was this that mainly helped the lawlessness of the clerks and governors. The Old Code of Laws was not printed; he could only be written off, and therefore few people knew him. Even fewer knew the Pilot, which was so large that it was difficult to rewrite it. As for the decrees additional to the Sudebnik, no one knew them, except for officials, because decrees were usually not announced to the people, but only recorded in the “specified books” of Moscow orders. Under such conditions, clerks and judges turned things around as they pleased, concealed some laws, and misinterpreted others; no one had the opportunity to check them. The old caustic proverb belonged to this order: "The law is that the drawbar: where you turn, it went there." Put the old laws in order, make one set of them and print it in general information it was a very necessary thing. And besides, it was necessary to revise the laws in terms of their content, improve them and supplement them so that they better correspond to the needs and desires of the population. It was decided to do all this by the “general council” at the Zemsky Sobor.

The cathedral began to operate around September 1, 1648. It was attended by elected representatives from 130 cities, both service people and hard-working citizens. They sat in one of the chambers of the palace, separate from the boyar duma and the clergy. Listening to the reports of Prince Odoevsky, who collected old laws and decrees on various branches of government (estate structure, land ownership, court, etc.), elected people discussed them and went to the sovereign about them with petitions. In these petitions, they all together asked the sovereign to establish new laws to abolish obsolete or inconvenient ones. The emperor usually agreed, and new law, thus, was approved and introduced into the collection of Prince Odoevsky. The most important of the new laws were the following: 1) The clergy were deprived of the right to continue to acquire land for themselves (§ 56) and lost some judicial privileges. 2) The boyars and the clergy lost the right to settle their peasants and serfs near the cities, in "settlements", and to accept "mortgagors" (§79). 3) Posad communities received the right to return all the "mortgagers" who had left them and to remove from the settlements all people who did not belong to the communities. 4) The nobles received the right to search for their fugitive peasants without "lesson years". Finally, 5) the merchants achieved that foreigners were forbidden to trade within the Muscovite state, anywhere except Arkhangelsk. Considering all these new resolutions, we notice that they are all made in favor of service people (nobles) and townspeople (townspeople). The servants secured for themselves the lands (which hitherto had been passed from them to the clergy) and the peasants (who were still moving from place to place). Posad people destroyed pawning and closed the settlements from strangers who beat off their bargaining and crafts and took away pawnbrokers. Therefore, the nobles and townspeople were very pleased with the new laws and said that "now the sovereign is merciful, leads the strong out of the kingdom." On the other hand, the clergy and boyars could not praise the new order, which deprived them of various benefits; they thought that these orders were allowed "for the sake of fear and civil strife from all black people, and not for the sake of true truth." The mob was also dissatisfied: the pawnbrokers, returned to the taxable state, the peasants, deprived of the possibility of an exit. They were worried and were inclined to go to the Don. Thus, the new laws, established in favor of the middle classes of the population, irritated the upper classes and the common people.

Legislative work was completed already in 1649, and the new code of laws, called the “Council Code” (or simply “Code”), was printed at that time in a huge number of copies (2 thousand) and distributed throughout the state.

The adoption of the Council Code (date of adoption - 1649) is one of the most significant events in the history of Russian law. For its time, it was the most important document that forced the Muscovite state to evolve into a developed society.

Basic prerequisites

The adoption of the Council Code did not take place from scratch. There were many reasons for creating a single document regulating the life of a person in the Russian state.

Until 1649, the Code of Laws of Ivan the Terrible, written in 1550, was a single code of laws. For a hundred years, the system of feudal government has changed a lot, requiring the introduction of new rules for the management of the state. And they were accepted. True, in the form of decrees, not added to the judicial code.

The reasons for the adoption of the Council Code lie in the need to bring all decrees and laws into a single system. Until 1649, they were all scattered around various sources. Often the situation became absurd - the decree was issued and successfully forgotten, and the state continued to live according to the old concepts.

1649

Against the background of such a disorganized and poorly functioning system, the need for such a legal act as the adoption of the Council Code became clear. The date was far from accidental.

The final impetus for the much-needed reform was the events of 1648, which went down in history as the Salt Riot. The shock in the form of an unexpected uprising forced Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to act immediately. Fortunately, then Russia had an extremely intelligent leader who understood what the people expected from him. The convening of the Zemsky Sobor, which eventually led to the creation of the code, was an extremely correct reaction to the riot in Moscow. He allowed people to calm down and stabilize the situation. Who knows, perhaps if another person had sat in the place of the wise politician Alexei Mikhailovich, the adoption of the Cathedral Code in Russia would have happened centuries later.

Creating a Document

Aleksey Mikhailovich entrusted the responsible mission of preparing a code of laws to a specially created commission, consisting of princes and churchmen. They had to do a hard job: to analyze and put together all the sources in which there were decrees and norms written earlier, not in the year of the adoption of the Council Code.

In fact, the entire top of the then Muscovite kingdom was involved in editing and listening to the document. The Boyar Duma considered every article that fell into the Code. Another editorial committee was also created, consisting of specially selected people of various ranks.

After the proposal of the law and its consideration by the two aforementioned instances, which also involved re-editing, the law was signed by each member of the Zemsky Sobor. The presence of responsibility for each editor made the adoption of the Council Code completely legal and legally justified.

Crime and Punishment

The system of punishment in the Cathedral Code is extremely interesting. For that time, such a view of justice seemed absolutely normal, but now it causes nothing but disgusting surprise.

The adoption of the Council Code of 1649 carried many different punishments, working on the principle of "an eye for an eye." So, a criminal who deliberately injured a criminal was inflicted exactly the same injury as an “education”. Especially in this context, the punishment for perjury is interesting. The offender had to bear the punishment that was provided for by the crime that was not actually committed. If the atrocity actually took place, but the opposite was shown, the person was recorded as an accomplice.

A lot of indicative and talkative about the society of that time is the frequent postscript that accompanied the punishment - "at the discretion of the king." Thus, Alexei Mikhailovich retained the institution of absolute monarchy, making the throne higher than any code and code, and leaving the last word to the ruler.

Serfdom

The adoption of the Council Code of Alexei Mikhailovich finally completely completed the formation of the institution of serfdom in Russia, forever tying the peasants to the land and the landowner and completely limiting their freedom of movement. For example, a serf could no longer defend himself in court - he had to rely on the beneficence of his overlord.

Such decisions consolidated a solid and well-coordinated feudal system inside Russia for a long time. The Council Code itself was aimed precisely at this, so there is nothing surprising in the appearance of such norms that severely limited the lower strata of the population.

But even in this barrel of tar, a spoonful of honey was found for the peasant: from now on, he had the right to protect his life and personal property from the overlord's encroachments. Of course, this did not always work (especially with the addition that the peasant cannot answer for himself before the court), but the very presence of such a norm in the code meant that the government was aware of the problem of abuse of power and was making attempts to eliminate this shortcoming of feudalism.

Church and Cathedral Code

In connection with the policy of Alexei Mikhailovich regarding the church, the dominating role of churchmen in the state system is clearly visible in the Cathedral Code. The only thing that angered the church was the deprivation of the clergy of the right to be single and absolute judges during the proceedings. Now officials are doing the same thing.

However, despite this, it cannot be denied - the adoption of the Council Code only consolidated the power of the churchmen in the country. It got to the point that there are almost more articles for “crimes against the church” in the code of laws than on other points put together. Here you can find damage to the property of the church, and blasphemy, and insults to the priest, and heresy. In a word, the clergy always had the opportunity to eliminate the "extra" person. The punishment for offenses before the church in almost all respects was the same - burning at the stake.

Court

The year of the adoption of the Cathedral Code also forever and radically changed the judicial system in the Muscovite state. Probably, it was he who fell into the field of view of most reforms.

Firstly, a clear definition of the concept of "court" and "search" has finally appeared. They were divided among themselves and were various stages investigation, while before 1649 the search for a criminal was already (legally) a court.

Secondly, there was a legal background to the search. Now his organization by the authorities and the things found during him were considered full evidence during the process.

Thirdly, the procedure for conducting interrogation through torture was regulated. Now they could be carried out no more than three times and after a clearly defined period of time, which should have significantly reduced the number of false repentances.

Perhaps it was precisely because of the last point that Russia managed to do without its own inquisition.

Family

Strange as it may sound for our time, in the Cathedral Code a lot of space is devoted to family issues. Great importance was attached to the description and explanation of the structure of the smallest unit of society.

In fact, the adoption of the Council Code did not bring any cardinal changes, however, it completely consolidated the status of the family and its structure. Of course, the family was obliged to remain patriarchal - the man was the "builder of the house", he also accepted all the most important decisions. The status of a woman was completely dependent on the status of a man, and this meant that a free woman would never marry a serf.

A family was a man and a woman who went through a wedding in a church. This was another important item related to the clergy.

However, there were changes, and they were significant. This is the emergence of divorce as a legal act. Of course, it happened extremely rarely, but now it was allowed: in the case of the barrenness of the wife or the criminal actions of one of the spouses.

Meaning

The year of the adoption of the Council Code became a new step in the evolution Russian society. A full-fledged code of laws, according to which the whole world now lived, finally visited the Muscovite state. It was important step not only in development within the country, but also in strengthening the status in the international sense.

It would seem, what difference does it make to foreign merchants? But even they more actively reached out to Muscovy, where, after the adoption of the Cathedral Code, written forms of the contract became mandatory for any trade transaction.

It is difficult to overestimate the significance of the Cathedral Code. Periodically changing, it survived until the 19th century, being the main support for the legal life of Russia. It became unnecessary with the advent of the Code of Laws Russian Empire", which marked new round development of the Russian state.

The Cathedral Code of 1649 is a single set of laws of Russia that regulates all spheres of life of the state and citizens.

Reasons for the creation of the Cathedral Code

The last legislative document, adopted before the creation of the Cathedral Code, belonged to 1550 () and was undoubtedly outdated. Since the adoption of the last document, there have been significant changes in the state and economic system: new state bodies have been created, decrees have been adopted, sometimes repeating the old ones with some clarifications, and sometimes contradicting them. It was impossible to work with an outdated document, so we decided to create a new one.

Existing legislative acts and new documents were not stored in one place, but were scattered throughout the country and belonged to the departments in which they were adopted. This resulted in the litigation different parts The country was conducted on the basis of different laws, since in more remote provinces they simply did not know about the orders from Moscow.

In 1648, the Salt Riot took place. The workers who rebelled demanded civil rights and the creation of a new regulatory document. The situation became critical, it was no longer possible to postpone, so it was assembled, which spent a whole year developing a new bill.

The process of creating the Cathedral Code

The creation of a new document was not carried out by one person, as was the case before, but by a whole commission headed by N.I. Odoevsky. The code went through several main stages before it was signed by the king:

• first, careful work was carried out with numerous sources of law (documents, judicial codes, etc.);
• then meetings were held on the topic of certain legal acts that raised any doubts;
• the drafted document was sent for consideration to, and then to the sovereign;
• after editing, there was another discussion of all the amendments;
• the bill was to come into force only after it was signed by all members of the commission.

This approach was innovative and made it possible to create a complete, well-organized document that compares favorably with its predecessors.

Sources of the Cathedral Code

The main sources of the Council Code were:

• Byzantine law;
• Lithuanian Statute of 1588 (used as a model);
• petitions to the king;
• ukazny books in which all issued acts and decrees were recorded.

In the Council Code, there has been a tendency to separate the norms of law according to various industries and to systematization in accordance with this division. This approach is used in modern law.

Various branches of law in the Council Code of 1649

The code determined the status of the state, the status of the king, and also contained a whole range of rules governing all sectors state activities, starting from legal proceedings and ending with the economy and the right to leave the country.

Criminal law was replenished with a new classification of crimes. Such types as crimes against the church, crimes against the state, crimes against the order of government, crimes against deanery, malfeasance, crimes against the person, against morality and property crimes have appeared. The classification became more detailed, which greatly facilitated the judicial proceedings and sentencing process, as there was no more confusion.

Types of punishment were also added: execution, exile, imprisonment, confiscation of property, a fine, dishonorable punishments.

The growth of commodity-money relations led to the transformation of civil law. There was a concept individual and collective. Women received more rights to make certain transactions with property. Purchase and sale agreements were now sealed not verbally, but in writing (a prototype of a modern agreement between the parties).

There have been only minor changes in family law. The principles of "Domostroy" were in effect.

The Council Code also determined the order of legal proceedings, criminal and civil. New types of evidence of guilt appeared (documents, kissing the cross), new types of search and procedural measures were identified. The court has become more fair.

A convenient system for describing laws and acts made it possible not only to quickly and efficiently use the new law, but also to supplement it if necessary - this was another difference from previous documents.

Enslavement of peasants

The Cathedral Code was of great importance for the peasants, since the issues of feudal property were described in it as fully as possible. The code did not give the peasants any freedom, moreover, it tied them even more to the land and the feudal lord, thereby enslaving them completely.

Now there was no right of exit, the peasant with his whole family and things completely became the property of the feudal lord, which could be sold, bought or inherited. The rules for searching for runaway peasants have also changed: now there was no time limit of ten years, they were looking for a person all his life. In fact, the peasant could not leave or run away from the feudal lord and was obliged to obey his master all the time.

The meaning of the Cathedral Code

The Council Code of 1649 outlined new trends in the development of law and jurisprudence, fixed a new public order and new social norms. It became the prototype of the modern systematization and cataloging of legal documents, creating a restriction on the branches of law. The cathedral code was in effect until 1832.

The Cathedral Code of 1649, having generalized and absorbed the previous experience of creating legal norms, had its own sources . Sources of the Code are:

Code of Laws;

Decree books of orders;

Royal decrees;

Duma sentences;

Decisions of Zemsky Sobors ( most of articles was compiled by the petitions of the vowels of the cathedral);

- “Stoglav”;

Lithuanian and Byzantine legislation;

New decree articles on “robbery and murder” (1669), on estates and estates (1677), on trade (1653 and 1677), which were included in the body of legal norms of the Code after 1649.

The Council Code defines head of state status- king, autocratic and hereditary monarch. The regulation on the approval (election) of the tsar at the Zemsky assembly did not at all shake the established principles, but, on the contrary, substantiated them. Even criminal intent (not to mention actions) directed against the person of the monarch was severely punished.

The code contained a set of norms that regulated the most important industries government controlled. These norms can be conditionally referred to as administrative ones. Attachment of peasants to the land (ch. 11 "Court on the peasants"); township reform, which changed the position of the “white settlements” (ch. 14); change in the status of the patrimony and estate (Ch. 16 and 17); regulation of the work of local governments (ch. 21); the regime of entry and exit (Article 6) - all these measures formed the basis of administrative and police reforms.

Important transformations with the adoption of the Cathedral Code took place in the region judicial rights. The Code constituted a whole complex of norms regulating the organization of the court and the process. There is an even greater differentiation of the process into two forms compared to the Sudebniks: “trial” and “search”.

Chapter 10 of the Code describes in detail the various procedures of the court: it was divided into two processes - the actual “judgment” and “execution”, i.e. sentencing, decision. The trial began with the “introduction”, the filing of a petition. The defendant was summoned to court by the bailiff, he could introduce guarantors, and also not appear in court twice, if there were good reasons for that. The court adopted and used various proof: testimonies (at least ten witnesses), written evidence (the most trustworthy of them are officially certified documents), kissing the cross (in disputes for an amount not exceeding one ruble), lot. To obtain evidence, a “general” (survey of the population about the fact of a crime) and “general” (about a specific person suspected of a crime) search were used. A kind of procedural action in court was the so-called “pravezh”. The defendant (most often an insolvent debtor) was regularly subjected to corporal punishment by the court (beating with rods on bare calves). The number of such procedures was to be equivalent to the amount owed. So, for example, for a debt of one hundred rubles, they were flogged for a month). “Pravezh was not just a punishment - it was also a measure that prompted the defendant to fulfill the obligation (himself or through guarantors). Judgment was oral, but recorded in the “judicial list”, each stage was drawn up with a special letter.

Search or “search” was used in the most serious criminal cases. A special place and attention was given to crimes, which were declared: “the word and deed of the sovereign”, i.e. in which the public interest is involved. The case in the search process could begin with the statement of the victim, with the discovery of the fact of the crime, or with the usual slander.

Chapter 21 of the Council Code of 1649 for the first time regulates such a procedural procedure as torture. The basis for its application could be the results of the “search”, when the testimony was divided: part in favor of the suspect, part against him. The use of torture was regulated as follows: firstly, it could be used no more than three times, with a certain break; secondly, the testimony given under torture (“slander”) had to be cross-checked with the help of other procedural measures (interrogation, oath, search).

In the area of criminal law the following changes have been made. First of all, the circle of subjects of the crime is determined: they can be either individuals or a group of persons. The law divides the subjects of the crime into main and secondary ones, understanding the latter as accomplices. In turn, complicity can be physical (assistance, practical assistance, committing the same actions as the main subject of the crime) and intellectual (for example, incitement to murder in Chapter 22). In connection with this, even a slave who committed a crime at the direction of his master began to be recognized as the subject of a crime. At the same time, it should be noted that the law distinguished from minor subjects of a crime (accomplices) persons who were only involved in the commission of a crime: accomplices (persons who created the conditions for the commission of a crime), conniving parties (persons obliged to prevent a crime and who did not do this), non-informers ( persons who did not report the preparation and commission of a crime), concealers (persons who hid the criminal and the traces of the crime). The Code, among other things, knows the division of crimes into intentional, careless and accidental. For a careless crime, the perpetrator is punished in the same way as for a deliberate criminal act (punishment follows not the motive of the crime, but its result). The law also highlights mitigating and aggravating circumstances. Mitigating circumstances include the state of intoxication; uncontrollability of actions caused by insult or threat (affect); and aggravating - the repetition of the crime, the amount of harm, the special status of the object and subject of the crime, the totality of several crimes.

The law identifies separate stages of a criminal act: intent (which in itself may be punishable), attempted crime and commission of a crime. The law also knows the concept of recidivism, which in the Council Code coincides with the concept of "a dashing person", and the concept of extreme necessity, which is not punishable only if the proportionality of its real danger on the part of the criminal is observed. Violation of proportionality meant exceeding the limits of necessary defense and was punished.

According to the Council Code of 1649, the objects of the crime were: church, state, family, person, property and morality. Crimes against the church were considered the most dangerous and that is why they were put in the first place, which was done for the first time in the history of Russian secular codifications. This change had a double meaning. On the one hand, the church occupied a special place in public life, and on the other hand, the acceptance of the church under the protection of state institutions and laws indicated their priority in the political system.

The Cathedral Code of 1649 brought great changes to the region real, liability and inheritance law. The scope of civil law relations was defined quite clearly. The legislator was encouraged to do this by the development of commodity-money relations, the formation of new types and forms of ownership, and the quantitative growth of civil law transactions.

The subjects of civil law relations were both private (individual) and collective persons. In the 17th century, the legal rights of a private person gradually expanded due to concessions from a collective person. For the legal thinking of this era, it was characteristic to consider the established relations as eternal relations. For legal relations that arose on the basis of norms regulating the sphere of property relations, the instability of the status of the subject of rights and obligations became characteristic. First of all, this was expressed in the division of several powers associated with one subject and one right (for example, conditional land ownership gave the subject the right to own and use, but not dispose of the object). With this, difficulties arose in determining the true full-fledged subject. Subjects of civil law had to meet certain requirements, such as gender (there was a significant increase in the legal capacity of a woman compared to the previous stage), age (a qualification of 15-20 years made it possible to independently accept an estate, bonded obligations, etc.), social and property position.

Things according to the Council Code were the subject of a number of powers, relationships and obligations. The main ways of acquiring property were considered to be capture, prescription, discovery, award and direct acquisition in exchange or purchase.

In the Code of 1649, regulation acquires grant of land. It was a complex set of legal actions, including the issuance of letters of commendation; drawing up a certificate (i.e., recording certain information about the endowed person in the order book); putting into possession, which consisted in the public measurement of land. The distribution of land, along with the Local Order, was also carried out by other bodies - the Discharge Order, the Order of the Grand Palace, the Little Russian, Novgorod, Siberian and other orders. The contract in the 17th century remained the main way of acquiring ownership of property, and, in particular, land. Ritual ceremonies lose their significance in the contract, formalized actions (participation of witnesses at the conclusion of the contract) are replaced by written acts (“assaults” of witnesses without their personal participation).

For the first time in the Cathedral Code of 1649, it was regulated institution of easements(legal restriction of the right of ownership of one person in the interests of the right of use of another or other persons). The legislator knew personal easements (restrictions in favor of certain persons, specially stipulated in the law), for example, the destruction of meadows by warriors in the service. Easements in rem (restriction of property rights in the interests of an indefinite number of subjects) included: the right of the owner of a mill for production purposes to flood the underlying meadow owned by another person; the opportunity to build a stove near the wall of a neighbor's house or build a house on the boundary of someone else's plot (ch. 10). Along with this, the right to property was limited either by the direct prescription of the law, or by the establishment legal regime, which did not guarantee "eternal property".

The Cathedral Code, created by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1649, is the first set of laws in Russia in the New Age.

Written in those days when Russia stood, so to speak, with one foot in the Middle Ages, this code existed for almost 200 years - until 1832.

Why, under the reformer tsar, the father of Peter I (both physical and psychological father), was it necessary to create the Code? Was there really no legislation in the country?

Reasons for the creation of the Code

Of course, there was legislation in the then Russia. However, over the period from 1550, when Ivan the Terrible's Sudebnik was written, to 1648, the Romanovs created 445 laws that bore little resemblance to a single system.

1. Some laws were repeated, others directly contradicted each other.
2. New laws were usually created at the request of a certain order (department) and recorded in the corresponding order book. Thus, there was no coordination and communication between the decrees, and the existence of new entries in the books was often known only to the heads of the orders.
3. Causal law, characteristic of ancient Russian legislation, to XVII century outdated.
4. The adoption of new legislation was prompted by popular demonstrations, especially the Salt Riot, the participants of which demanded that the Zemsky Sobor be convened and a new code be developed.
5. Harmonious legislation was also required following the results of the Time of Troubles, during which chaos reigned in the country.

What was the Regulation?

The new legislative code was a new type of document for Russia. He was the first to formalize laws into a system consisting of several branches of law. To carry out such a serious work, the Zemsky Sobor worked with sources for a long time. These were the former royal Sudebniks - 1497 and 1550, order books, petitions, as well as foreign samples - the Lithuanian Statute of 1588, the Byzantine Pilot Book.

The basics of legal technique were taken from foreign codes - the composition of phrases, formulations, division into headings. The code may seem unusual in many ways. Thus, the section on criminal law prescribes not to punish the murder of a thief caught in the act. Horse theft is presented as a separate type of crime, and not a variety of ordinary theft.

The punishment was often the death penalty. various kinds- hanging, quartering, burning at the stake, pouring red-hot metal into the throat, etc., as well as corporal punishment - cutting off the nose and ears, branding, beating with a whip. Many articles traced the influence of Domostroy: for example, a son or daughter who killed a father or mother was sentenced to death penalty, and if parents kill their child, then they were sentenced to a year in prison and subsequent repentance in the church.

What led to the creation of the Code?

As already mentioned, the code of laws compiled in pre-Petrine times continued to function in new Russia, although his articles were modified and supplemented.

• The code was the result of the development of Russian law, starting from the 15th century.
• It formalized the new features characteristic of the social life of the 17th century and consolidated the existence of new legal and state institutions.
• It also secured absolute power for the Romanovs, a dynasty that by that time had relatively recently ascended the throne.
• The code was the first printed set of laws in the country. Prior to this, the promulgation of royal decrees was reduced to their announcement in squares and temples.

The new format of legislation ruled out the possibility of abuse by officials. The Cathedral Code, by the way, was one of the first codes of laws in Europe. Earlier is perhaps the aforementioned Lithuanian Statute, which grew out of Casimir's Sudebnik of 1468; Western codes (Danish, Bavarian, Sardinian, etc.) appeared somewhat later, and French was adopted only under Napoleon.

In Europe, legislative codes were drawn up and adopted with difficulty, since the legal base of many countries was huge and it took many years to put it in order. The Prussian code contained almost 20 thousand articles, and the Napoleonic code contained “only” 2281 articles. The Cathedral Code clearly wins in comparison with these documents - it had only 968 articles, which made it possible to draw it up in short term- For half a year.