Modelling the interreligious relations in the early Orthodox polemics after the Union of Brest

Abstract

The article dwells upon the Orthodox polemics on the relations with Catholics and the state power of Rzeczpospolita in the initial period after the Church Union of Brest in 1596. Two models of interfaith relations are distinguished, based on fundamentally diff erent assessments of the past experience under Catholic rule and the nature of the modern confl ict. The territorial divergence of these lines of controversy is determined, connected with the two main centers of public activity of the Orthodox population of the country. The highlighted dissimilarities were determined by signifi cant diff erences in the history of the entry into the Polish state of the aforementioned lands with a predominantly Eastern Christian popula-tion. The nature of the problems of the Orthodox population of these lands was largely determined by the diff erence in their historical experience and the confessional structure of their upper class. Already at the early stages of the debate (based on materials written before 1610), we can talk about the formation of two models of interfaith relations in the Orthodox milieu. One of them turned out to be associated mainly with the Vilna fraternal environment and was represented mainly by Orthodox fi gures in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the second — with the southeastern lands of the country, mainly with Lvov and the Ostrog circle.