Константин Философ Костенечки и „ересите“ в Сърбия по времето на деспот Стефан Лазаревич
Constantine of Kostenec the Philosopher and Despot Stephen Lazarević’s Lists of the “Heresies” in Serbia

Summary/Abstract: This study deals with Chapter 29 of Constantine Kostenečki’s Treaties on the Letters, which contains a list of “heresies” – several customs and beliefs from the daily life of clergy and laymen – in Serbia around 1400. This chapter still remains fairly cryptic and unexplained, having received little reflection from scholars who have been focused primarily on Constantine’s concepts of orthography and grammar. In this treatise, characterized as “theoretical peroration” (Goldblatt), detailed and explanatory descriptions give way to moralistic lectures and criticism, replete with scriptural citations and commonplace remarks. The contents of the 29th chapter can be understood in terms of social life’s conceptual diversity, which includes dietary habits, segmentation of time, veneration of particular customs and individuals, kinship ties, and aspects of church rituals. These concepts could be mapped onto dichotomies of high/low, official/unofficial, central/local, clerical/lay culture (J. Le Goff, J.-C. Schmitt, Peter Burke), but in many cases they do not overlap with the social strata and classes in the feudal society. Constantine criticizes customs and beliefs that are, more or less, shared by many in the parish and the diocese, from priests and lower clerics to laymen. These cultural models replace the official church practice in the social and religious lives of Belgrade clergy and their flocks—a tendency that Constantine ardently opposes.

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