Church history

There is much literature on the religious history of each of the groups-Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, Armenians-who inhabited Galicia during the period of Polish rule. As the official and representative church of Polish culture, Roman Catholicism first made its organizational appearance with the establishment of an archdiocese in Halych (1365) that was later transferred to L’viv (1414).

Wladyslaw Abraham has written two monographs on the early years of the Roman Catholic church in Galicia as well as a biography of its first archbishop, Jakob Strepa (consecrated 1391, died 1409).^[264] ^{^[265] There are also several studies of Jewish communities in Galicia, which at least before 1772 were governed by their own laws as formulated and enforced by religious leaders, as well as of the Armenians whose Apostolic church accepted union with Rome during the first decades of the seventeenth century.^[266] But by far the most extensive literature dealing with church history from this period concerns Ukrainians. In a sense, because they lived in a Polish state, had lost their traditional elite social strata during the process of polonization, and were deprived of a middle class owing to their exclusion from legal privileges enjoyed by other urban groups, the Ukrainians of Galicia maintained a distinct cultural and national identity primarily because of their membership in the Orthodox Rus’ and later Uniate church. Thus, in many ways, the history of Ukrainians in Galicia between 1387 and 1772 is the history of their Orthodox and Uniate churches.
Documents originating from Galicia and dealing with religious history during the era of Polish rule appeared in three of the volumes on “South-West Russia” published by the Commission for the Study of Ancient Documents in Kiev.^[267] All nine series of documents from the Vatican archives on Ukrainian church history also include much material on Galicia before 1772.^[268] As for the efforts at church unity that began in the late sixteenth century and continued during the seventeenth century, there are many documents not only in the Vatican series but also in three volumes published earlier by the Archeographic Commission in St Petersburg.^[269] Finally, two works contain numerous documents pertaining especially to the tithes due the clergy by the Ukrainian peasantry.^[270]
As for secondary literature, the years of Polish rule are covered in great detail in the first histories of the Galician church by Mykhailo Harasevych and Antin Dobrians’kyi,^[271] as well as in a more recent history of the church in Poland, in which Ludomir Bienkowski surveys the organization of the eastern church on Polish territory from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.^[272]To be sure, the most important event in Galician-Ukrainian religious history during these centuries was the Union of Brest (1595), and therefore a large portion of the secondary literature deals with the union and its aftermath, although most analyses pertain to the Ukrainian population in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a whole, not just to Galicia.
Because of the controversial circumstances in which the Union of Brest came about, the act and its implications for Ukrainians under Polish rule have been either adamantly defended or attacked by latter-day apologists or critics. Defenders of the Union of Brest see it either as a positive step toward “reuniting” the Orthodox “schismatics” into the one Catholic church and/or a symbol of Poland’s “civilizing mission” in the east whereby the level of culture, especially among the former Orthodox clergy, was substantially raised.⁵⁶ Opponents of the Union of Brest consider it a forcible act supported by the Polish government and Roman Catholic church to enhance further their control over the Ukraine and Belorussia and to create a more favorable basis for the eventual conversion of the Rus’ populace to Roman Catholicism.⁵⁷ Whereas Soviet writers are not concerned with the religious aspect of the Union of Brest, their view is a corollary to the Orthodox position in that they consider the union as a symbol of foreign aggression and domination over the Rus’ people and therefore an “act of shame and treachery.”⁵⁸ In a less impassioned approach to religious develop- 56 On the Union of Brest as an act of Christian reunification, see the general studies by Galician Greek Catholic (Uniate) prelates, chapter 2, notes 57, 58, 60; Nacherk ystoriy uniy ruskoy tserkvy z Rymom (L’iviv; Komitet iuvileinyi 1896); Ivan Rudovych, Uniia v I’vovskoi eparkhii (L’viv 1900); and by the former Roman Catholic archbishop of L’viv, Edward Likowski, Historya Unii koscioki ruskiego z kosciolem Rzymskim (Poznan: M. Leitgeber, 1875) and his Unja Brzeska r. 1596 (Poznan: p. a. 1896).
For the stress on Polish cultural expansion as well as religious unity, see Antoni Prochaska, “Unia brzeska,’’ Przeglqd Polski, XII (L’viv 1896), pp. 441-462; Antoni Prochaska, “Z dziejow unii brzeskiej,” Kwartalnik Historyczny, XII (L’viv 1896), pp. 522-577; Oscar Halecki, From Florence to Brest (1439-1596), Sacrum Poloniae Millenium, vol.
V (New York: Fordham University Press 1958), and rev. ed. (New York: Archon Books 1968). 57 Makarii [Sergei Golubev], Istoriia russkoi tserkvi, vol. IX: Istoriia zapadno-russkoi ill litovskoi mitropolii (St Petersburg 1879; reprinted Vaduz, Liechtenstein: Europe Printing Establishment 1969); Vladimir Antonovich, “Ocherk sostoianiia pravoslavnoi tserkvi v iugo-zapadnoi Rossii,” introduction to Arkhiv lugo-Zapadnoi Rossii, pt 1, vol. IV: Akty ob unii i sostoianii pravoslavnoi tserkvi s poloviny XVII v. (1648-1798) (Kiev: Vremennaia kommissiia dlia razbora drevnikh aktov 1871), also separately (Kiev 1871) and reprinted in his Monografii (Kiev 1885) and Tvory (Kiev 1932), translated in Ukrainian for the series Rus’ka istorychna biblioteka, vol. VIII (L’viv: NTSh 1900), and reprinted as Volodymyr Antonovych, Shcho prynesla Ukraini Uniia: stan Ukralns'kii Pravoslavnoi Tserkvy vid polovyny XVII do kintsia XVIII st. (Winnipeg 1952); Ivan Vlasovs’kyi, Narys istorii Ukrains'koi' Pravoslavnoi tserkvy, 4 vols in 5 (New York and Bound Brook, NJ: Ukrains’ka Pravoslavna Tserkva v Z.D.A. 1955-56), especially vol. I—II, the only two of which have been translated into English: Outline History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 2 vols (New York: Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA 1974-79). See also Kazimierz Chodynicki, Koscidlprawoslawny a Rzeczpospolita Polska 1370-1632 (Warsaw 1934).
58 See the works by V. Dobrychev and S. Danilenko in chapter 2, n. 59. The Soviet view is also expressed in analyses of the anti-Uniate polemic literature that arose at the time, the most famous tract being the Perestoroha (Warning), which had its origins in L’viv. Porfyrii K. laremenko, 'Perestoroha'-ukrai'ns’kyi antyuniats'kyi pamflet pochatku XVII st. (Kiev: AN URSR, 1963).
For other anti-Uniate polemical texts, many of which were authored by natives of Galicia who served as Orthodox hierarchs in the Ukraine, see Peter Gil’tebrandt, ed., Pamiatniki polemicheskoi literatury v Zapadnoi Rusi, in Russkaia istoricheskaia biblioteka, vol.
IV (St Petersburg: Arkheograficheskaia Kommissiia 1878); and Arkhiv lugo-Zapadnoi Rossii, pt 1, vol. VII: Pamiatniki literaturnoi polemiki pravoslavnykh iuzhno-russtsev s latino-uniatami, intro, by S. Golubev (Kiev: Vremennaia kommissiia dlia razbora drevnikh aktov 1887). ments during this period, the nineteenth-century Galician historian Izydor Sharan- evych has in three studies traced the reaction of the Orthodox Patriarch in Constantinople toward the Uniate movement and how the socioeconomic status of the lower clergy changed as a result of its entry into the Uniate church.⁵⁹ Besides the problem of church union, there are also several studies dealing with other aspects of Ukrainian religious history during the era of Polish rule. These include works on the continuing efforts to revive the Galician metropolitanate,⁶⁰ histories of individual dioceses and parishes,⁶¹ descriptions of the important role played by monasteries before their abolition in 1785,⁶² and biographies of individual Orthodox and Uniate bishops.^[273]
59 Izydor Szaraniewicz, Patryarchat wschodni wobec kosciola ruskiego i Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej (Cracow 1879), first published in Rozprawy Wydziahi Historyczno-Filozoficznego Akademii Umiejgtnosci, vols VIII and X (Cracow 1878-79), pp. 255-344 and 1-80; Isydor Sharanevych, Tserkovnaia unyia na Rusy y vliianie ey na zmienu obshchestvennogo polozheniia myrskogo ruskogo dukhoven'stva (L’viv 1897), translated into Polish as Koscielna unia na Rusi i wptyw jej na zmian^ spolecznego stanowiska swieckiego duchowieiistwa ruskiego (L’viv 1899); Izydor Sharanevych, Rzut oka na beneficya koscioia ruskiego za czasow Rzeczpospolitejpolskiej (L’viv 1875), 2nd rev. ed. entitled Cherty iz istorii tserkovnykh benefitsii i mirskogo dukhovenstva v Galitskoi Rusi (L’viv 1902).
See also the descriptions of the clergy based on the visitation of M. Shadurs’kyi between 1759 and 1763 in Melaniia Bordun, “Z zhyttia ukrains’koho dukhovenstva I’vivs’koi eparkhii v druhii pol.
XVIII v. (na osnovi vizytatsii M. Shadurs’koho 1759-1763),” Zapysky NTSh, CXXX1V-CXXXV (L’viv 1924), pp. 137-160. 60 Myron Stasiw, Metropolia Haliciensis (eius historia et iuridica forma), Analecta OSBM, series II, sectio I: opera, vol. XII (Rome 1954), 2nd ed. (Rome 1960).
61 Leonid Sonevyts’kyi, “Ukrains’kyi iepyskopat peremys’koi i kholms’koi ieparkhii v XV-XVI st.,” Analecta OSBM, series II, sectio II, vol. II, 1-2 (Rome 1954), pp. 23-64 and vol. II, 3-4 (1956), pp. 348-394, also separately in Analecta OSBM, series II, sectio 1: Opera, vol. VI (Rome 1955); Stepan Tomashivs’kyi, “Do istorii Peremyshlia i ioho iepyskops’koi katedry,” Zapysky ChSW, III, 1-2 (Zhovkva 1928), pp. 179-190.
62 Ivan P. Kryp”iakevych, “Serednovichni monastyri v Halychyni: sproba katalohu,” Zapysky ChSW, II, 1-2 (Zhovkva 1926), pp. 70-104; Anton Petrushevych, “Kratkaia rospys’ russkym tserkvam y Monastyriam v horodi L’vovi,” Halytskii ystorycheskii sbornyk... Halytsko-russkoi Matytsy, I (L’viv 1853), pp. iii-iv, 1-48; M. Holubets’, “Materialy do katalohu vasyliians’kykh monastyriv v Halychyni (dodatky do kataloha I.P. Kryp”iakevych),” Zapysky ChSW, III (Zhovkva 1930), pp. 165-170; Borys Balyk, “Manastyri peremys’koi ieparkhii za vladytstva Innokentiia Vynnyts’koho (1679-1700),” Analecta OSBM, series II, sectio II, vol. Ill, 1-2 (Rome 1958), pp. 69-97; luliian Tselevych, “Ystoriia Skytu Maniavskoho vod ieho osnovania azh do prystuplenia 1’vovskoy eparkhii do unit (1611-1700),” in Spravozdanie dyrektora ts. k. hymnazit akademychnoy u L’vovi za rbk shkbl’nyi 1885/6 (L’viv 1886), pp. 1-72; idem, Ystoriia Skytu Maniavskoho vraz z zbornykom hramot, lystov y deiakykh sudovyh dokumentov, dotychnykh toho monastyria (L’viv: p.a. 1887); Venedykt A. Ploshchanskii, “Lavrov: selo y monastyr’ v samborskom okruzi,” Naukovyi sbornyk Halytsko-russkoi Matytsy, II (L’viv 1866), pp. 318-339; idem,
Cultural history: the brotherhoods
Closely connected with the history of the church were the brotherhoods (brat- stvos), which by the late sixteenth century had taken the lead in the Orthodox cultural revival.
The oldest and most influential of these associations, the L’viv Assumption, later Stauropegial, Brotherhood (L’vivs’ke Uspens’ke [Stavropi- hiis’ke] Bratstvo), has received the most attention in both documentary collections and secondary literature.^[274] ^{63 ^[275] The Soviet Ukrainian specialist on this period, laroslav Isaievych, has prepared a comprehensive handbook outlining the existing source material on the brotherhoods, on education, and on publishing.^[276] Five volumes of documents cover the activity of the Stauropegial Brotherhood between the years 1519 and 1881,^[277] while two studies by Izydor Sharanevych have extensive appendices that include minutes of the brotherhood’s meetings between 1605 and 1725.^[278] Factual information is found in Denys Zubryts’kyi’s chronicle of the L’viv Brotherhood (1453-1793),^[279] in the more general chronicles of Antin Petrushevych,^[280] and in a collection of articles on the brotherhood’s activity during the eighteenth century.^[281] The brotherhood movement throughout the Ukraine is surveyed in two larger works by Mykhailo Hrushevs’kyi^[282] and in specialized monographs by laroslav Isaievych and Fedir Sribnyi,^[283] each of whom concentrates largely on activ’iy in L’viv.}}

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Source: Magocsi P.R.. The roots of Ukrainian nationalism. Galicia as Ukraine's Piedmont. University of Toronto Press,2002. — 214 p.. 2002

Church history

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