Everyday Life of the Ukrainian Parochial Clergy of the Late 16th — First Half of the 17th Century (Based on the Work 'Perspective' by Cassian Sakowicz)

The article deals with the history of everyday life of the Ukrainian parochial clergy of the late 16th – first half of the 17th century. This was a very important time period for both the history of the Church in Ukraine and Ukraine itself. It was then when the Ukrainian society, divided by confessional identification, found itself on the crossroad of civilizational choice. Further political, social, and religious transformations in Ukraine were significantly influenced by national and religious movements of that epoch. In native and foreign historiography, the mentioned processes were examined within the context of global political and cultural development of Central and Eastern Europe. However, “small living worlds” of petty nobles, clergy, bourgeoisie, and peasants have not been sufficiently studied, as well as the motivation for actions of great masses of population, who profoundly impacted the cultural progress of Ukraine. The article is based on the polemical work by Cassian Sakowicz “Perspektiwa” (“Perspective”) (1642), with the additional information from the works of his opponents (Petro Mohyla and Pachomiusz Oranski). The author makes an attempt to explore the everyday life history of the Ukrainian parochial clergy belonging to the first generations after the Union. The author examines the questions related to the origin of the parochial church senior priests, level of their education, professional ability, and material security. Major attention is paid to venal practices in the church structures (both Orthodox and Uniate), which considerably caused the decay of religious life on the parochial level. The social state of the priests is examined separately, as well as their interactions with the land-owners and parishes. The author argues that despite the low level of professional ability of the priests and lack of special educational institutions, the representatives of higher Uniate clergy and well-educated monks from the Basilian Fathers’ community did their best to improve the educational level and religious upbringing of the parochial priests. It can be concluded that this activity caused the development of the confessional identification of the Uniate believers.