Some remarks on the sources of the Unia theology at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. For the 300th anniversary of the Council of Zamo??, 1720

The Council of the Uniate Church held in the Polish city of Zamo?? in 1720 can be considered as an important milestone in the process of confessional identity formation of this church. Published by the decision of the Council in 1722 in the town Supra?l, the doctrinal compendium Sobranie pripadkov kratkoe (‘A short collection of cases’) was addressed to both the clergy and ordinary believers. This article undertakes for the first time a source analysis of Sobranie pripadkov, the authorship of which is traditionally attributed to Metropolitan Lev (Kiszka, 1633–1728). The relation of Sobranie pripadkov to two earlier works of the Metropolitan was analysed: the fi rst was published 1693 in Lublin in Polish, the second was a Cyrillic edition of ca. 1697, preserved in bad condition and without title page in the collection of the State Historical Museum (Moscow). As a result of the study, it was found out that the version of 1693 is an abstract presentation of the theological and canonical treatises of the Milanese Martino Bonacina (1585–1631). Material borrowed from Bonacina is expanded in the version ca. 1697 through instructive examples of Western origin and polemical theology of the Jesuit Bellarmino; and in the fi nal version of 1722 the material is supplemented by a number of fragments from the canon law treatises, quotations from theological and liturgical works. In its signifi cance, Sobranie pripadkov is comparable to the posttridental Roman Catechism (1566). Throughout the 18th century, the doctrinal compendium of the Council of Zamo?? was reprinted many times with various additions and changes; by the end of the century Sobranie pripadkov gains signifi cant circulation in parish practice.