6_Religious Interlude

This is the sixth #generalhistory note, following 5_Cossacks.

It's Complicated

• Many have attempted to map Ukraine’s religious divides, but all have failed due to the complexity of the situation.
• A common oversimplification is that Galicia and Volhynia are Catholic while the rest of Ukraine is Orthodox. However, this ignores that Volhynia is predominantly Orthodox. Even in Galicia, Catholics only hold a plurality, and they also adhere to Orthodox rites.

Why?

• This is because Galicia’s Catholics belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which traces its origins to the Uniate Church.
• The Uniate Church emerged from an effort to merge the Orthodox Church in Ukrainian lands—then under Polish Catholic rule—with the Catholic Church. Orthodox believers were placed under the Pope’s jurisdiction but retained their rites.
• The motivation behind this was partly economic: the Polish Catholic Church was wealthier, making Catholic education more attractive for Orthodox nobles.
• The problem was compounded by a lack of Orthodox educational institutions, prompting Volhynian nobles (notably the Lviv Brotherhood) to establish their own. However, these nobles despised the Orthodox bishop. (This was occurring around the 1590s.)
• As a result, Orthodox hierarchs found themselves in a precarious position:
  • Subordinate to Catholic bishops, who had greater access to power.
  • Opposed by the Brotherhood, which had the backing of the Patriarch of Constantinople (who had been bribed).
• Seeking a way out, Orthodox bishops turned to Rome. The Polish king and the Vatican quickly approved, and the formal union was set to be proclaimed in Brest in 1596.

The Orthodox Response

• Volhynian princes, major stakeholders in the Orthodox Church, strongly opposed the union. Their concerns included:
  • Loss of political influence and cultural authority.
  • Loss of control over church landholdings.
• Kostiantyn Ostrozky, the most powerful of these princes, refused to accept the decision and organized a rival council in Brest.
• This led to a schism, dividing the Orthodox Church into Uniate and Orthodox factions.
• The Orthodox Church remained in a weak position, lacking recognition from any patriarchate while facing active suppression by the Commonwealth, which sought to starve it of bishops.
• This led to Orthodox leaders gaining support from Protestant nobles in the Commonwealth.
• Just as the Union of Lublin had weakened noble loyalty to the monarchy, the Union of Brest undermined royal authority instead of strengthening it.
• The schism also sparked a fierce theological dispute, giving rise to a genre of polemical literature filled with heated academic debates. Interestingly, Orthodox scholars often published under Greek pseudonyms to emphasize their religious heritage.

Cultural Boom and the Cossacks

• The Union of Brest, combined with the rise of Cossackdom, shifted Ukraine’s two main cultural frontiers eastward:
  • The Christian-Muslim divide.
  • The division between Eastern and Western Christianity.
• This shift sparked a revival of Kyiv as a religious and cultural center in the early 17th century. Kyiv became the hub of an Orthodox reformation aimed at countering both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation.
• Kyiv’s role grew because it became a refuge for Orthodox intellectuals fleeing Polish persecution in Galicia. This broader shift was marked by the relocation of the printing press from Lviv to Kyiv, where the Kyivan Cave Monastery took charge of publishing. Writers, proofreaders, and intellectuals followed, and the Lviv Brotherhood was replaced by the Orthodox Brotherhood in Kyiv, which also founded a school.
• By 1624, Kyiv had surpassed Ostrih and Vilnius as the center of Orthodox publishing.
• The rise of Kyiv was also driven by the Cossacks:
  • They secured the southern frontier from Tatar raids.
  • They provided the Orthodox Church with protection from Polish-Lithuanian pressure.
  • The Cossacks played a decisive role in saving the Orthodox Church by persuading the Patriarch of Jerusalem to come to Kyiv and consecrate a new Orthodox hierarchy in 1620.
    • This effort was led by Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny, commander of the Cossacks during the Kaffa raid and the Battle of Khotyn.
• Conveniently, this act also secured Kyiv as the seat of the metropolitanate.
• The newly appointed metropolitan was not recognized by the Commonwealth and faced an arrest warrant, forcing him to take refuge in Kyiv.
• The emerging Cossack-Orthodox alliance soon became a major threat to the Commonwealth, particularly when the Cossacks allied with Muscovy to retake Smolensk, a city Russia had lost during the Time of Troubles.
• This was especially unfortunate for the Commonwealth, as it coincided with the election of a new king following the death of Sigismund III in 1632.
• By this point, Polish authorities recognized that Sigismund’s Union of Brest had not solved religious divisions but had instead deepened them and alienated a significant portion of the population.

Accommodation

• In response, Warsaw implemented the Accommodation of the Ruthenian Nation of Greek Worship. This policy aimed to:
  • Secure Orthodox support in the war for Smolensk.
  • Drive a wedge between the Orthodox Church and the Cossacks, making the Church less dependent on Cossack protection.
• The Orthodox Church adapted to this shift by electing Peter Mohyla as the new Metropolitan.
  • He was of noble descent and had full Commonwealth backing.
  • He undertook significant reforms to revitalize the Orthodox Church, including restoring and rebuilding churches in a new architectural style, earning him praise as a leader of Rus’.
• This new style was heavily influenced by Western Catholic Baroque, reflecting a broader trend in which both the Uniate and Orthodox Churches sought to modernize by adopting Western elements while maintaining Eastern traditions.
• The Uniate Church had a natural advantage in this process, as it could send students to Rome. However, Mohyla countered by founding the first Orthodox college in Kyiv.
• Under his leadership, Kyiv solidified its position as the publishing capital of the Orthodox world, producing major works such as Liturgicon and Confession of the Orthodox Faith.
• These reforms successfully modernized Kyivan Orthodoxy, standing in stark contrast to the stagnation of the isolated Muscovite Patriarchate, which saw itself as the sole guardian of true Christianity. Constantinople, meanwhile, struggled under Ottoman domination.

Impact

• The Union of Brest permanently split the Ruthenian (Ukrainian and Belarusian) population, as well as its elites, into two religious camps—a division that persists to this day.
• It also led to two rival churches, both attempting to integrate Western elements to reform themselves.
• However, the intellectual debates surrounding the schism also sparked an awakening in the region’s scholarly and cultural life.
  • The topics discussed ranged widely, from the Baptism of Rus’ to the history of the Kyivan metropolitanate, as well as the various rights granted under Lithuanian rule and later royal decrees.
• In short, these debates helped shape a new sense of identity.
• Despite their differences, writers from both sides showed deep respect for the concept of a Ruthenian nation (naród Ruski) and framed their struggles as efforts to defend its interests.

Continuation

Continues in 7_Hetmanate

Sources

This information was gathered from The Gates of Europe_A History of Ukraine (pages 85-95)