Polish-Lithuanian State Research Articles

Кореспонденція між князем Василем-Костянтином Острозьким та Криштофом Радзивіллом як джерело

The article analyzes the correspondence of Kyiv voivode V.- K. Ostrozkyi to his son-in-law, an influential Lithuanian politician Kryštof Radziwill. This is almost the only relatively complete complex of the prince's correspondence in Ostroh, which, given the trusting relationship between both participants of the correspondence, allows us to reconstruct his inner world. As one might suspect, he significantly contradicted Ostroh's public persona. For the prince, the correct ("old") "world" remained in the past, in the times before the Union of Lublin from the year 1569. Innovations were perceived by Vasyl-Kostiantyn as a challenge to this world, which violated its traditional foundations and consisted of an attack on regionalism, a reduction in the political role of princes, and attempts to change the confessional picture of the newly created state. The prince believed that the policy of the Rzeczpospolita's leadership toward the Moscow state was ill-conceived. Ostrozkyi argued that constant wars with the eastern neighbor reduced the overall potential of Christian civilization in its confrontation with Islamic civilization, especially with the country which at that time embodied its offensive in Europe, the Ottoman Empire. Ostrozkyi appealed to Radziwill with the expectation of finding support in the confrontation with Jan Zajmoyskyi, an extremely influential crown chancellor and hetman in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is no coincidence that the Kyiv voivode focused on issues that might have been of interest to the Lithuanian magnate. In particular, these interests included: the attempts of the crown elite, led by J. Zamoyskyi to ignore the interests of the Lithuanian and Ruthenian nobility, unwillingness to pay due attention to defense issues, insufficient allocation of funds for the repair and construction of castle fortifications. Gradually, the correspondence reflects the problem of interfaith confrontation, which was the result of the growth of counter-reformation processes from the beginning of Sigismund III's rule in the Polish-Lithuanian state. Their main emphasis in Europe was on Protestantism (K. Radziwill represented Calvinism), but in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as a result of the Union of Brest in 1596, the Counter-Reformation also acquired anti-Orthodox content. In general, the correspondence of Prince V.-K. Ostrozkyi is a unique source that allows us to reconstruct the main features of the identity of an influential princely stratum, which was significantly influenced by the transformation processes in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

Impietas Gravissima – the Warsaw Confederation in the Papal Diplomacy’s Discourse in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century

The Warsaw Confederation represented one of the most significant issues raised in the correspondence of papal diplomats residing in Poland-Lithuania in the second half of the sixteenth century and of their Roman superiors. This article presents the role of the Holy See’s representatives in the interregna events accompanying the approval of the famous act and its subsequent inclusion in the oaths of consecutive elective monarchs. Moreover, the narrative of the papal envoys’ dispatches is analysed in the context of its coverage of the Confederation’s matter. The choice of words to describe the act in question, their contextual occurrence, and the emotional content of the discourse are considered. The study reveals papal diplomats’ difficulties in fighting the document – the lack of full support from the Polish-Lithuanian episcopate and the Catholic party or the nobility’s reluctance to be interfered with from abroad. The image of the Warsaw Confederation in the diplomatic discourse of the Holy See is shown as detrimental to the Catholic religion, the local ecclesiastical structures, and the Polish-Lithuanian state and monarch.

Relationship between the Crimean Khanate and the Polish-Lithuanian State during the Reign of Devlet I Giray and Mehmed II Giray in Mühimme Defters

Mühimme defters have a special place among all the archival material inherited from the Ottoman Empire. Recording copies of the decisions made in the Imperial Council, the highest administrative organ of the state, these defters contain important information not only about the domestic affairs of the Empire but also about its foreign policy. This study examines the relations between the Crimean Khanate and the Polish-Lithuanian State as reflected in mühimme defters from 1551 to 1584. Border disputes, annual payments made or not made by Poland to the Crimean Khanate, diplomatic relations, exchange of ambassadors, and the residence of Alp Giray and Selamet Giray in Poland were some of the main issues reflected in mühimme defters.

Особенности генезиса христианского антитринитарного движения в Польско-Литовском государстве и формирования Малой реформатской церкви

The article examines the genesis of the Christian anti-Trinitarian movement in the Polish-Lithuanian state and the subsequent formation of the Lesser Reformed Church. To achieve this goal, the authors identify three main factors that in their combination led to the unique situation of the emergence of religious freedom in the Polish-Lithuanian state in the second half of the XVI century, including: weak royal power, the struggle of Catholic and Orthodox religious denominations, and a tense foreign policy situation. According to the article, the creation of the Minor Reformed Church was a landmark event in the history of the country and Europe, as it consolidated the position of the adherents of Christian anti-trinitarian ideas. The article distinguishes and describes the char-acteristic features of the Polish radical Reformation, playing an important role in the formation of Christian ide-as based on the belief in One God and rejecting the concept of the Trinity in Europe as well as contributing to the development of social thought, culture and science of all the peoples of the Polish-Lithuanian state.

In the Circle of Power: Friends of King Vladislav IV Vasa

Any early modern ruler had to have devoted supporters. Most of them gathered around the king in order to obtain specific official and financial benefits, and sometimes they had similar political views to the monarch. However, this issue looked a bit different in relation to Vladislav IV Vasa, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania, who was considered by the nobility as a sympathetic and easy-going ruler (as opposed to his more secretive father, Sigismund III). Vladislav was a king who made friendships easily, and people close to him were very clearly at the centre of influence and thus political power. One of the main objectives of this article is to indicate when and how the magnates established private contacts with Vladislav as prince and how they developed once he became king. A separate issue discussed centres on categories related to the understanding of friendship as an element of privacy in the early modern period. Through an in-depth analysis of the letters and memoirs left by the elite of the Polish-Lithuanian state, case studies of private friendships emerge, including the King’s close relationships with Adam Kazanowski, Jan Stanislaw Sapieha, Gerard Denhoff, Aleksander Ludwik Radziwiłł, Krzysztof Radziwiłł and several others.

Atak na Pałac Saski w dniach 29–30 września 1733 roku

The article deals with events in Warsaw in the late summer of 1733. On the basis of diplomats’ accounts, the diplomatic and military situation in the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian state just before the outbreak of the War of the Polish Succession in 1733–1735 has been reconstructed.

Piotr Mieszkowski o Senacie Rzeczpospolitej. Kilka uwag na temat XVII-wiecznego polskiego republikanizmu

Piotr Mieszkowski is one of the forgotten republican writers of 17th century Poland. His reflections on the political system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth are the culmination of the debates that took place in the 16th century. In his treatise Polonus Iure Politus, Mieszkowski presents a mature perspective on the proper system of the Polish-Lithuanian state, which merges the Roman republican tradition and the achievements of Polish political philosophy of the Renaissance, its golden age. According to Mieszkowski, the Senate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is of particular importance. The author of the article proves that Mieszkowski is one of the representatives of a group of constitutionalists of 17th century Commonwealth who considered the senate the crucial element of the political system, ensuring its durability and stability. The necessary condition for fulfilling this role, however, is the cultivation of republican virtues.

Courts of Marianna Lubomirska née Bielińska and Joanna von Stein Lubomirska, the wives of the Grand Standard Bearer of the Crown, as an example of a women’s court in Old Poland

The current article contributes to the research on the functioning and organisation of female magnate courts in the Polish-Lithuanian state in the 18th century. The discussed courts belonged to Marianna née Bielińska and Joanna née von Stein, the wives of the Great Standard-Bearer of the Crown Jerzy Ignacy Lubomirski. Both ladies closely collaborated with the Wettin family, then ruling the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania. Special attention has been devoted to Joanna von Stein Lubomirska, whoafter her hers husband’s death still surrounded herself with a large court and continued numerous economic ventures which allowed her to retain high standards of living.

The Component of Respublica Romanorum in the Constitutional Heritage of Nobiliary Polish-Lithuanian Republic (16th through 18th Centuries)

When in the 16th century in many European states, the monarchal power began to drift toward absolutism, the Polish-Lithuanian state evolved in its constitutionalism along the Republican lines. Its monarch could be brought to accountability for the violation of the law. Likewise, he was freely elected by the nobles and held his position for life. The nation of nobles that, by the standards of the time, made up a remarkable section of the entire population of the country was protected against the monarch’s attempts against their liberties by a series of remarkable privileges. And indeed, a noble’s property was prevented from being unreasonably confiscated. Likewise, an individual of nobiliary status could not be arbitrarily imprisoned. The representatives of nobles, while sitting in the benches of the Seym, had a considerable share in exercising the state power, particularly in the area of the law-creating process and when the imposing of tax liabilities was debated. In addition, the clauses of the Henrician Articles (1573), which were a kind of Fundamental Law of the Nobiliary Republic, guaranteed the mass of the nobles’religious toleration within the Christian denominations. The spirit of this toleration in practice also applied to the non-Christians (Jews and Muslim Tartars who inhabited the Republic). The republican slogans that were responsible for forming a specific frame of mind of the nobles assumed a new dimension when the culture of Latinitas type began to be promoted. The latter started to develop on the occasion of the acceptance by the authorities of the Nobiliary Republic of the principles of the Council of Trent, which happened in the 1570s. The Republic remained within the Catholic Camp. From that time on, the young nobles used to be educated in numerous Jesuit colleges and had not only a fluent command of Latin but also a profound knowledge of the history and culture of antiquity. Hence, they looked at their state, the Respublica Polonorum as a successor of the late Respublica Romanorum with the virtues of the latter. These virtues, when filtered through the system of Christian values –pushed to the foreground the concern for the welfare of the motherland, support for the democratic ethos and egalitarian spirit within the nobiliary milieu, and also the willingness to defend the Christian world against the invasion of the barbarians (the concept of Antemurale). The republican spirit survived the era of constitutional deterioration in the country that started in the mid-17th century. With the era of reforms which began in the 1760s, the constitutional improvement reached its climax in the Constitution of 3rd May 1791. Like in the British system, king was located at the position of the monarch who could do no wrong since all his executive acts required the endorsement made by the right minister. The separation of powers was emphasized. The ministers could be brought both to their political responsibility to parliament if they lost the support of the majority in the houses and also to constitutional responsibility for their contra legem acts.

The Agony of the “Yoke”: The Great Horde as a Fading Threat to Muscovite Rus

The last period of the existence of the Golden Horde and its relations with Muscovite Rus and the Polish–Lithuanian state have been considered, and the gradual degradation of the Horde statehood has been shown, including the change in the relations of the Tatar rulers with former Russian tributaries.

“Jesuit Priests” in a union project and a romantic myth

The reception of relations between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches by the Ukrainian national consciousness was largely formed by a romantic myth. It appeared in the works by Taras Shevchenko, in the documents of the the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius. According to this myth, the Church Union of Brest (1596) was the result of the colonial policy of the Polish government and the intrigues of the Jesuit priests. In fact, the influence of the royal administration on the religious life of the inhabitants of the Polish-Lithuanian state was extremely limited. „Henrician Articles” of 1573 forced the king to adhere to religious tolerance and to recognize the nobility’s right to free choice of religion. The Roman Catholic clergy, for the most part, did not want to grant Christians the Eastern rite of parity. The Society of Jesus, which formed a separate province in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1574, was guided not by political but by religious motives. Benedict Herbest (1531–1598) already in his work „Wypisanie drogi” („The Desribing of The Way”, 1566) discusses the prospect of restoring unity with the Orthodox Ruthenians. In the book „Wiary Kościołu Rzymskiego wywody” („The Arguments of the Roman Church’ Belief”) he explains Ruthenia’s departure from unity with Rome by lack of education and low religious consciousness. Piotr Skarga (1536–1612) wrote the book „O jedności Kościoła Bożego” („About the God’s Church’s Unity”, 1577), when he had not great authority in the Church and when he was little known in society. At the Brest synod in 1596 Skarga was not a participant and organizer, but only an observer and chronicler. Both Herbest and Skarga were only inflammatory polemicists who responded to the challenge of the Reform by calling for the consolidation of the Church in a single organism. The romantic myth is refuted by a closer acquaintance with their works and life experience.

Odbiór gazety „Nowoje Wriemia” (1868-1871) w Rosji. Przyczynek do dziejów recepcji prasy w epoce wielkich reform

The article deals with the newspaper “Novoe Vremya” in the first years of its existence (1868-1871), when its editor-publisher Adam Honory Kirkor (1819-1886) set the tone. The subject of this article is the reputation of “Novoe Vremya” as an organ representing Polish interests in Russia. Discourse analysis method was used in the research. The basis of the source material are the yearbooks of the newspaper, additionally the Polish press was used. The conclusions of the study demonstrate a strong identification of “Novoe Vremya” with Polishness, perceived by the tsarist and the Russian public opinion as a cultural force preventing an effective unification of the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the Russian Empire. At the same time, the relatively low readership and recognition of the newspaper in Polish circles are shown. This research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation. The grant No. 19-18-00073 “National Identity in the Imperial Politics of Memory: History of The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian State in Historiography and Social Thought of the 19th-20th Centuries”.

Ladislaus II Jagiełło (1386–1434)

Ladislaus II Jagiełło (1386–1434). Ladislaus II Jagiełło is the founder of the Jagiellonian dynasty that had ruled over Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (until 1572), Bohemia (1471–1526) and Hungary (1440–1444, 1490–1526). A Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1377, and from 1386 a king of Poland and lord of Lithuania, which he ruled jointly with his cousin Witold (Vytautas), the son of Kęstutis. Five medieval portraits of Jagiełło survive, four of which date from the period of his reign in the Polish–Lithuanian state and one was executed posthumously. The earliest image, on Jagiełło’s Great Seal, was made in connection with his coronation as king of Poland (1386). Two portraits in the Holy Trinity Chapel at the Castle of Lublin (1418) are part of a wall paintings scheme commissioned by the monarch and executed by a team of painters brought from Ruthenia. Furthermore, the sumptuous tomb (before 1430) in Cracow was commissioned by the king. Its top slab bears an effigy of Jagiełło with his suggestively rendered countenance, which undoubtedly reflects the actual facial features of the elderly monarch. An image of the king represented as one of the Three Magi in a panel of an altarpiece in the tomb chapel of Casimir IV Jagiellonian, Jagiełło’s son and his successor on the Polish throne, dates from 1470. The chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross, erected at Cracow Cathedral, was in all likelihood commissioned by Casimir himself and his consort Elizabeth of Austria.

Историко-археологические исследования Тарской крепости

In Russian archaeology, there has been a steady increase in the attention of scientists to the study of materials of Russian pioneers who founded the first Siberian towns, one of which is Tara.The first two centuries of its existence, the town was the southernmost outpost of the Russians in the Irtysh region, a military, trade and diplomatic center. During excavations in 2007-2020, an expedition of the Omsk archaeologists studied the sections of the Tara fortress proper, its guard part and the posad. In the cultural layer up to 4.5 meters thick, from 3 to 7 building horizons were cleared with the remains of up to 11 lower rims of residential (the estate of a rich tarchanin with all the buildings was excavated almost completely), economic structures (cellars, baths, wells), the remains of wooden pavements, gutters, boxes for garbage collection, the remains of fences and stockades that separate one dwelling from another. Studied two fortress towers - Knyazhya and Tobolskaya - and storage for gunpowder. There were also found places where the workshops of a tanner, a potter, a place for the production of mica windows were located. The good preservation of wooden structures and products made from organic materials (leather, wood, birch bark, silk and cotton fabrics) was facilitated by the special conditions for the formation of a wet cultural layer saturated with manure and wood chips.Foundations of churches destroyed during the years of Soviet power were found (Tikhvin, Assumption, Pyatnitskaya). The foundation of the Nikolsky Cathedral was excavated, around which there was a church cemetery. The objects found in the cultural layer allow us to speak about the directions of the Tara trade: China, the Bukhara Khanate, the European part of the Muscovite state and, through it, the western countries: definitely Poland and Venice. The same finds indicate that not only ethnic Russians from the northern parts of the state and indigenous Siberian Tatars lived in Tara, but also immigrants from the Polish-Lithuanian state (“Lithuania”, “Poles”, “Germans”), Sarts (Bukharlyk, Kirghiz) from Small and Big Bukharia.The obtained materials correlate well with the data of written sources, information on the geography and statistics of the peoples of the Irtysh region, and significantly supplement and expand the ideas of scientists about one of the first Siberian cities.

Nieznane dokumenty dotyczące sejmiku województw poznańskiego i kaliskiego z lat 1701 i 1735 w londyńskich zbiorach archiwalnych. Edycja źródłowa

Recently, we can observe an increased interest in research on the history of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth based on the analysis of Western European archival resources. They present the image of Poland and Lithuania from a different point of view, which provides an interesting cognitive perspective and an opportunity to distance oneself from one’s own historiographical opinions. This is because facts that are commonly known but seen from a different, external perspective often acquire a new and valuable overtone. During the research in the National Archives and the British Library, we can find a large number of sources concerning the history of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which results from the active functioning of the Polish-Lithuanian state in the political struggles in Central and Eastern Europe, which was taken into account in diplomatic games in the west of the Old Continent. At the forefront of such documents are diplomatic correspondence, political writings, diaries of the Parliament, complete or partial. This group also includes instructions and accounts of local councils. Sometimes in the course of scientific research it is possible to come across manuscript documents completely unknown to Polish historiography, which either supplement the already known facts or present them in a slightly different way. This type of material is the instruction of the local council of the Poznań Voivodship “Points de l’instruction que la Province de la Grande Pologne a donnée à ses Députés, ou Nonces pour la Diète prochain” from 1701 and “Relation de ce qui s’est passé à la Diétine de la Grande Pologne à Szroda par rapport aux Dissidents” from 1735. The first manuscript concerns the local council of the Poznań and Kalisz voivodships, which was break off, but the draft instruction was made public. On the other hand, the instruction found in London is slightly different from that known from domestic research, but the reasons for this cannot be resolved at present. As far as the latter document is concerned, i.e. the account of the 1735 local council, although the instruction itself is known, we do not know much about the course of the congress, especially about the relations between dissidents and Catholics during the local council. The found manuscript explains this in some way.

Textual Study of the Latin-graphic Book of Psalms in the Church Slavonic Language from Norov´s Book Collection

This article is devoted to the research of the Book of Psalms manuscript from A.S.Norovʼs book collection stored in the Manuscripts Department at the Russian State Library. The manuscript was written in the beginning of the 18th century in Church Slavonic language Polish letters. The manuscript is of interest primarily as a Latin-graphic text, which is a transliteration of the originals inChurch Slavonic.The article presents the results of a textual analysis of the manuscript, which has made it possible todefine it as a collection consisting of several independent parts, each of which may have had its ownprotograph. A comparison of the text of the manuscript with printed liturgical books published in Moscow,Kiev and in the Polish-Lithuanian state has enabled the identification of possible protographs ofthe manuscript, most of which date back to prayer books published in Ukraine.Since one of the protographs is the Moscow Book of Psalms of 1718, it can be assumed that the authorsof the manuscript are nuns of one of the Southwestern Russian Uniate monasteries who at that timemoved to one of the Russian monasteries, supplementing the already existing collection with textsnecessary for home prayer.Since the authors of the transliteration themselves had very good command of Church Slavonic, it canbe assumed that the text was written to order.

THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT OF 1663 FROM THE ARCHIVES OF POLAND ABOUT THE BEGINNINGS DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITY OF IVAN MAZEPA

The article provides an original letter of the Murza of the Crimean Khanate to the King of Poland in 1663, which mentions the diplomatic activities of the future Hetman of Ukraine Ivan Mazepa. Analyzing the original document in the Main Archive of Ancient Acts in Warsaw (Poland), the authors conclude that Ivan Mazepa, as the personal secretary of King Jan II Casimir, was instructed by him to deal with the "Crimean" and "Ukrainian" directions of the Polish-Lithuanian state. The published letter is one of the first documentary mentions of the political activity of such an outstanding figure in the history of Ukraine and Eastern Europe as Ivan Mazepa. In addition, the submitted document reveals the place of the Crimean Khanate in international relations in the 1660s and its role in the preparation of a joint Polish-Tatar-Ukrainian military campaign of 1663–1664 against the Muscovy in the Left Bank of Ukraine.

The social role of Jesuit pharmacies in the former Republic of Poland

The article presents the social role of Jesuit pharmacies in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth based on the sources of religious provenance and inventories of Jesuit colleges drawn up as a result of the dissolution of the Society of Jesus in 1773. In the first part, the author analyzes the ecclesiastical and secular legislation and its impact on the activities of Jesuit pharmacies. Canon law did not forbid clergymen to deal with medicine, but only limited the possibility of obtaining academic education in this field and conducting surgical procedures. By adopting these rules, Jesuit legislation placed the main emphasis on superiors’ control over the finances of pharmacies and limited the sale of drugs to protect the order from being accused of unfair competition by the townspeople. In the context of state pharmaceutical law, the privilege of June 30, 1662, which allowed for the liberation of journeymen by Jesuit pharmacists, was of great importance. In this way, a path of professional education in the field of pharmacy under the management of the Society, an alternative to the guild system, was created. The second part of the article discusses the social factors that favoured the establishment of monastic pharmacies. Particularly noteworthy is the uneven distribution of Jesuit pharmacies in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. While in Royal Prussia the Jesuits did not run pharmacies to avoid conflicts with the Protestant bourgeoisie, in the eastern borderlands of the Polish-Lithuanian state, Jesuit pharmacies were often the only institutions of this type. The third part of the work presents the financial situation of Jesuit pharmacies. They had significant income, but also required considerable investments related to the purchase of raw materials and equipment in the Baltic ports. The fourth part of the article concerns the social scope of the activity of Jesuit pharmacists, who not only provided medicines to the poor, but also treated nobles, magnates and high church dignitaries. Not being obliged by guild regulations, apart from preparing medicines, they also diagnosed them, performed minor surgical procedures and assisted women during childbirth. The last part of the article discusses drugs and raw materials in terms of their availability to the broadly understood clientele. The offer of Jesuit pharmacies included both cheap products derived from the local flora, intended for the treatment of the poor, and expensive raw materials from abroad. Moreover, among the medical matter there were preparations for women and infants, as well as for people suffering from syphilis. In the end, the author emphasizes the centrality of pharmacies in the Jesuit pastoral strategy. Thanks to their high level, pharmacies not only corresponded to the ideal of mercy, but also contributed to gaining the favour and trust of representatives of social elites. In this context, the dissolution of the Society is an important turning point not only in cultural and religious life, but also in the history of medicine and pharmacy in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Москва, Варшава та Чигирин в умовах становлення віленсько-раднотської політичної конфігурації (друга половина 50-х рр. XVII cт.)

The aim of the article is to analyze the viewpoints and front-office policy of Muscovite state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ukraine, which were formed under the influence of the Compacts of Radnot and Vilno in 1656. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, versatility, integrity, and systematics, as well as the methods of analysis and synthesis, historical-comparative, historical-typological, problem-chronological, are used. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that one again in historiography the attempt was made to trace the course of the Moscow-Polish-Ukrainian confrontation, which took new forms because of the Vilno and Radnot agreements and to analyze the efforts of the parties to realize their own state interests, concentrated in the region of Central Eastern Europe. Conclusions. The analysis of the military-political situation in CEE in the autumn of 1656-spring 1657, connected with the conclusion of the Treaty of Vilno and the formation of the Radnot Anti-Polish Coalition, shows that it could lead to a radical change in the balance of forces in the region. The active participants of the given military and political confrontation were the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Muscovite state and Ukrainian state which tried by all means to realize their state interests. If for Chyhyryn they encompassed the creation of conditions for the liberation of all Ukrainian lands from the rule of Poland, and for the latter, the question of its very existence arose, in Moscow, various plans were developed for the realization of the imperial idea. They tried to take advantage of the crisis of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the anti-Polish uprising in Ukraine, and the Swedish “Flood”, and internal conflicts that were swinging the Polish-Lithuanian state, and, finally, the military advance of the Radnot coalition states) to eliminate their main rival in the region, and in an ideal scenario just to take it over.

Szkoła Bractwa Cerkiewnego we Lwowie w polskich badaniach naukowych

The paper discusses the educational activity conducted by the Orthodox Church fraternitie in Lviv in the second half of the 16th and 17th centuries. Attention was paid to textbooks on the history of Christianity in Poland as well as monographic works devoted to specific problems related to the history of the Orthodox Church in the Ruthenian lands of the Polish-Lithuanian state in the 16th and 17th centuries.. The study presents also an analysis of publications on the problem of educational activities of the Lviv Brotherhood.