HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

REGIONALISM AND POLITICAL THOUGHT 183Orthodox church, they took care to except the issue of military taxes. 38Kysil voiced the frustration and fears of the nobles of the Ukrainewhen he addressed the Diet. He maintained that the burden of warand the benefits of peace should fall equally on the entire Commonwealth,not on the inhabitants of the Ruthenian territories alone. Helikened the situation of the Ukrainian lands to that of the provinces ofthe Roman republic that were forced to maintain troops. Yet, heargued, while these provinces had been conquered, the "Ruthenianprovinces and principalities" had joined the Commonwealth freely. Incalling for equal distribution of the burden of maintaining the army, heargued that wintering troops outside the Ukrainian lands was impracticalsince it would give the Tatars the advantage in mounting attacks.He even went so far as to propose that the Commonwealth abandonthe pretense of unity in defense and that each province defend itself— hardly an acceptable alternative for the nobles of the Ukrainianlands — before he demanded an equalization of obligations.Kysil concluded his votum with an appeal to his fellow nobles tolook upon "these pestilential symptoms of slavery in the body of theCommonwealth." He warned that the "mystical body of the Commonwealth"would decompose if the nobles of the incorporation landswere forced "to drink of slavery." He vowed that his generation andtheir descendants would continue to demand their rights as long asthey were able to do so. Should these rights not be restored, however,inequality would destroy the "free Commonwealth" and all its citizenswould come to know the fate of slavery.Contemporary responses to the three grievances lodged in the votumwere very different. The problem of princely titles was resolvedimmediately. The Diet passed a constitution reaffirming the right ofthe eastern princes to their titles as guaranteed by the Union of Lublinas well as by the incorporation charters. 39 The Diet also reaffirmedprevious legislation on the rights of the Orthodox church, but on thismatter the legislation was far from decisive. 40Kysil complained about38See the instructions of the Volhynian nobility to delegates to the Diet dated27 January 1638 and 27 August 1639, Arkhiv Iugo-Zapadnoi Rossii, pt. 2,vol. 1: 231, 256-58. For exceptions made on military issues, see the Diet diary of1638 in Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Polonica Varia, Akc. 1949/KN439 (Steinwehr II), fol. 474.39Volumina legum, 4: 8-9.40Volumina legum, 4: 6-7.