POJAVE HRIŠĆANSKOG ETOSA U ZAKONICIMA SVETOG PETRA CETINJSKOG
REFLECTIONS OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS IN THE LAWS OF SAINT PETER CETINJSKI

Summary/Abstract: Sa­int Pe­ter Ce­tinj­ski was a re­li­gi­o­us, spi­ri­tual and tem­po­ral ru­ler of Monte­ne­gro in the to­ug­hest hi­sto­ri­cal pe­riod of the co­un­try. From the ear­li­est years of his li­fe he was com­mit­ted to spi­ri­tu­a­lity; At the age of 12, he jo­i­ned a Se­mi­nary, and at the age of 36 he be­ca­me a ru­ler of Mon­te­ne­gro, and stayed in­cum­bent for 46 years, un­til his de­ath in 1830. Lar­ge ma­te­rial po­verty, which ma­de the li­fe of the pe­o­ple dif­fi­cult, was even mo­re com­pli­ca­ted by the fight with the Turks, who con­ti­nu­o­usly at­tac­ked and de­so­la­ted the co­un­try. All of that in­flu­en­ced the spark of of­ten con­ten­tion in the pe­o­ple, which of­ten re­sul­ted in blood re­ven­ge. Wanting to end the law­les­sness, which con­stantly mul­ti­plied, Sa­int Pe­ter Ce­tinj­ski de­ci­ded to gi­ve the pe­o­ple a writ­ten law, to which all wo­uld abi­de to. That’s how two le­gal co­des ca­me to be, „Stega“ and „The general legal code of Montenegro and the hills“, which are com­ple­tely en­so­u­led by Chri­stian et­hos. „Ste­ga“ has only six ar­tic­les (cla­u­ses), and it plays a ro­le of a pro­gram dec­la­ra­tion, in which the fight aga­inst the Turks is set as a duty of the en­ti­rety of the pe­o­ple. The text alo­ne begins by cal­ling upon the na­me of Holy Tri­nity, and in the ar­tic­les it says, that the pe­o­ple will fight for rig­hte­o­us Chri­stian fa­ith, Fat­her­land, fre­e­dom, Mo­na­ste­ri­es and the­ir fa­mi­li­es. „The ge­ne­ral le­gal co­de of Mon­te­ne­gro and the hills“ has 33 ar­tic­les (cla­u­ses) and it al­so starts with the na­me of Holy Tri­nity. This le­gal code tran­scri­bes the de­ath sen­ten­ce for law­les­sness such as: mur­der, com­pli­city in a cri­me, blood re­ven­ge (ven­det­ta). Ne­vert­he­less, kno­wing that the Sa­int who wrote this co­de and who played the part of a jud­ge in the har­dest ca­ses, ne­ver ever sen­ten­ced so­me­o­ne to de­ath, so we can con­clu­de that hard sen­ten­ces li­ke these tran­scri­bed in the co­de ha­ve a pre­ven­ti­ve ro­le in the fight aga­inst the law­lessness. Co­de tran­scri­bes cer­tain sen­ten­ces for the Chur­ches wrong­do­ing, ha­ving in mind that the to­ugh si­tu­a­tion the co­un­try had its fa­ir sha­re of bad in­flu­en­ce on the spi­ri­tual sta­te of the Church. The one thing both co­des ha­ve in com­mon, is the fact that they both re­so­na­te with the de­e­pest Pa­stor-li­ke con­cern for the pe­o­ple and the lo­ve that the Sa­int had for his „flock“. The only and the most certain gu­a­ran­tee of the cor­rec­tness of the law, was Sa­ints li­fe of its aut­hor, Saint Pe­ter Ce­tinj­ski. Not only that he in­tro­du­ced the law and or­der to the co­un­try with his le­gal co­des and his li­fe of a Sa­int, but he al­so spi­ri­tu­ally re­vi­ved his peo­ple. Ha­ving that the both co­des of Sa­int Pe­ter Ce­tinj­ski are en­so­u­led with the Chri­stian va­lu­es that ha­ve ti­me­less va­lue, cer­ta­inly can be of big im­por­tan­ce for to­days le­gi­sla­tion, hel­ping in the for­ma­tion of the laws which wo­uld be use­ful for every so­ci­ety.

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