The Origins of Autocracy

[100] The assembly of 1503 is described by at least seven different sources, some Josephite, others Non-Acquirer. Naturally, they contradict one another. In regard to one of them, investigators hold diametrically opposed opinions: A. A. Zimin ("O po- liticheskoi doktrine Iosifa Volotskogo") assumes that this document is of Non-Acquirer origin, and Lur'e (p. 414), and G. N. Moiseeva (Valaamskaia beseda—pamiatnik russkoi publitsistiki XVI v., pp. 22-3) think that it was written by Josephites. The version set forth here is based essentially on Pavlov's classic work, with minor corrections based on an eighth source found by Iu. K. Begunov in the library at Perm' in the 1960s.

[101] Pavlov, p. 46.

[102] Cited in ibid., p. 46.

[103] Cited in Pavlov, p. 71.

[104] Solov'ev, Istoriia Rossii s drevneishikh vremen, Bk. 3, p. 122.

[105] S. M. Kashtanov, "Ogranichenie feodal'nogo immuniteta pravitel'stvom russ- kogo tsentralizovannogo gosudarstva," pp. 270-71.

[106] Iu. K. Begunov, "Sekuliarizatsiia v Evrope i Sobor 1503 v Rossii," p. 47.

[107] S. M. Kashtanov, Sotsial'no-politicheskaia istoria Rossii kontsa XV—pervoi poloviny XVI v., p. 257.

[108] A. A. Zimin, "O politicheskoi doktrine Iosifa Volotskogo," p. 175.

[109] Malinin, p. 128.

[110] Solov'ev, Istoriia Rossii s drevneishikh vremen, Bk. 3, p. 556.

[111] A. A. Zimin, Reformy Ivana Groznogo, p. 435.

[112] The author of the classical work on the history of Russian law, V. I. Sergeevich, holds precisely this point of view on Article 98. "In order to add new provisions to the law code," he writes, "a verdict by all the boyars is required. This is undoubtedly a lim­itation of the tsar's power, and a novelty; the tsar is only the chairman of the College of Boyars, and cannot issue new laws without its agreement" (Russkie iuridicheskie drevnosti, vol. 2, p. 360).

[113] V. O. Kliuchevskii, Sochineniia (1st ed.), vol. 3, p. 37. "Kissing the cross" was the customary old Slavic form for taking an oath in any context, whether judicial or political.

[114] Ibid., p. 44.

[115] B. N. Chicherin, О narodnom predstavitel'stve, p. 543.