Rus society was more complex and heterogeneous than that of the Irish and Icelanders. The Rus people looked to multiple sources of law, with different aims and ambitions, depending on who they were and what they were doing. The princes were inspired by grand lawmaking emperors, although they based their laws on practical issues; the church had penance and discipline firmly in mind; and ordinary people relied on custom and their own written documents, developing the beginning of legal forms to regularize their own commercial relations.
