IN VERITATE FIRMATUR SOLIUM: THE CONCEPT OF RIGHTEOUS RULING IN EARLY IRELAND AND EARLY KIEV RUS

This article is in Russian. It describes the manner in which the concept of righteous ruling survived in early Irish wisdom-literature. Mainly concerned with such texts as De duodecim abusivis saeculi, Audacht Moraind, and Tecosca Cormaic, a good deal of attention is devoted to the concept of iustitia regis and fír(inne) flathemon. As these are the central principles of the wisdom-text genre, the descriptions represent a detailed exposition of the characteristics of a righteous ruler. The author focuses on such topics as the creative consequences of the just ruling and the destructive consequences of the unjust one, both in Hiberno-Latin and in Early Irish sources. The ethical notions pertinent to the texts of the genre are also dealt with. They are not necessarily Christian, although modern scholarship tends to connect the “righteous ruler” concept exclusively with Christian morality. Towards the end of the work, the author brings some light to bear on the problem of the concept’s origin and its genesis, its Christian editing and its synthetic (native Irish-cum-Christian) character. The final passages are devoted to the fate of the concept of the righteous ruler as developed by Irish clerical scribes in the works of authors of Carolingian Europe and those of early medieval Kiev Rus. The analogies and ideas outlined were not necessarily borrowed from a common source: their provenance in sources such as The Life of Charles the Great by Einhardt and The Instruction by Vladimir the Monomachus may be cultural and typological .