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180 FRANK E. SYSYNthenian nation" as well as of the nobility, and he denounced theill-treatment of commoners and priests as well as of nobles, therebydefining the Rus' in cultural-religious rather than only social-territorialterms. This identification of the "Ruthenian nation" as a communitycomposed of a number of orders was accompanied by a differentiationof the community along religious lines. Kysil described the conflict asbeing between "old Rus'" — the Orthodox, and "new Rus'" — theUniates, thereby revealing his conception of the Rus' community asone that had formerly been monoreligious and whose factions stillretained Rus' identity. In broaching the religious issue, Kysil touchedupon the territorial, social, national, and religious aspects of thedesignations "Rus' " and "Ruthenian nation" that make their meaningso variable and complex in seventeenth-century texts. 33In addressing the question of princely titles, Kysil took up a controversythat affected only the nobility of the incorporation lands — andin fact, only one part of it. In the mid-1630s, Władysław IV planned tocreate a royal order named for the Immaculate Conception to beconferred on foreign dignitaries and loyal nobles from within theCommonwealth. The plan met with firm opposition from non-Catholics,who feared the increasing influence of the Catholic church atcourt, from numerous magnates and senators, who saw the plan ascreating an elite royalist party, and from the nobility as a whole, whosaw it as a threat to the principle of nobiliary equality. The oppositionwas directed especially at Władysław's close collaborator, Jerzy Ossoliński,who had secured confirmation of the order's statute fromRome. The plan was abandoned, due to the widespread opposition,but the furor over the breach of nobiliary equality led to attacksagainst Ossoliński for having accepted the title of prince from theHabsburgs. At the Diet of 1638, the infuriated Ossoliński agreed torenounce his title, but only if the princely titles stemming from theGrand Duchy of Lithuania were also revoked. The offer, aimedagainst his political enemies, was applauded by the many delegateswho were against all gradations within the nobility. But the proposalclearly contravened the terms of the Union of Lublin and of the33For a discussion of various definitions of Rus', see my articles "Ukrainian-Polish Relations in the Seventeenth Century: The Role of National Consciousnessand National Conflict in the Khmelnytsky Movement," in Potichnyj, Poland andUkraine, pp. 72-73, and "Seventeenth-Century Views on the Causes of theKhmel'nyts'kyi Uprising: An Examination of the 'Discourse on the Present Cossackor Peasant War;" Harvard Ukrainian Studies 5, no. 4 (1981): 452-464.