“True Faith” and Salvation

Abstract

The article deals with the polemic writings and preachings of two prominent early modern Ruthenian Uniate Church leaders, Ipatii Potii and Meletii Smotryts´kyi, and their resonance among the Eastern‑rite believers of the time. The key issues are the notions of sin, repentance, and forgiveness (i.e., problems involved in the concept of soteriology, the ways of salvation). The main related problem is how these concepts fitted into the general theological discourse around the Brest Union of 1596. The article consists of three parts. It starts with biographical overviews of the two Church hierarchs, followed by an analysis of their views on soteriological perspectives. The article closes on an excursus on the reflection of these concepts in early modern Ruthenian testaments. The study demonstrates that the idea of Church unity was not totally foreign to some Eastern‑rite believers. However, most of the testators (nobility, clergy and burghers) did not share the soteriological views of Potii and Smotryts´kyi in their interpretations of Papal primacy. Other common pillars of Potii’s and Smotryts´kyi’s visions of the “true faith”—the concept of satisfaction, the differentiation of mortal and venial sins, etc.—were even less important in the eyes of the testators.