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56 HARVEY GOLDBLATTSpirit;" 79 and—above all—the Epistle to Sister Domnikija, where theAthonite monk insists that the wilderness takes precedence over preaching,inasmuch as one who is unpurified and not "dispassioned" cannot help others.80Evident in these earlier writings is a specific and deliberately polemicalreaction to particular aspects of the humanistic renovatio studiorumwhich the Ruthenian lands were undergoing at the end of the sixteenth andbeginning of the seventeenth century. 81 And, in similar fashion,VySens'kyj's efforts in the Spiritual Spectacle to prove the fallacious characterof the Slavic version of Chrysostom's "eclogue" can be said torepresent an essential component in a programmatic response to what wasregarded as a direct threat to the very essence of the Orthodox spiritual heritage.One should not forget that in the educational and printing revival whichtook place in Ruthenia during VySens'kyj's lifetime the writings of JohnChrysostom played a central part. From the appearance of a collection ofhomilies called the Mar gar it in Ostroh in 1595 to the printing of his homilieson the Acts of the Apostles by the Kievan Caves Monastery in 1624,the writings of John Chrysostom, in their Slavic version, were presented toRuthenian readers as a part of an educational and cultural program aimed at79See fn. 54 above.80Here, too, Vysens'kyj relies on Pseudo-Dionysius's scheme of purification, illumination,and perfection: "I pervoe ubo cudujusja semu, jako pan Jurko [i.e., Jurij Rohatynec'] vedja££eestestvo ¿elovîceskoe nemoScno suäce, strastno, hrîsrıo i vsîmi uzami aernyx duxov zlobyzvjazano,—bez ispytanija, iskusa, nakazanija, oćiśćenija, prosvîScenija i sversenija, po DionisijuAreopahitu, ne ν emu neduznyx, ale zaraz ν' zdravyx, oääcennyx, prosvîacenyx isverSennyx—celovîka tvorit i razumüt" (160.21-26). In defense of life "in the wilderness,"VySens'kyj also makes reference to the above-cited epistle of Basil the Great addressed to Gregoryof Nazianzus: "Nexaj ie ne vykladaet pan Jurko xristovyx sloves po strasti і svoemuuhozdeniju, ale po pravdî. I moju pustynju da ne unićiźaet, bez kotoroe і on sam (esli sxocetmira svleääsja i pamjati i żitija strastnoho svoboditisja, po Vasilija Velikaho pisaniju кHrihoriju Bohoslovu) byti ne możet" (165.14-19).81On the cultural and intellectual revival of the period, see, inter alia, S. T. Golubev, lstorijaKievskoj duxovnoj akademii, vol. 1, Period domogilijanskij (Kiev, 1886); K. V. Xarlampovic,Zapadno-russkie pravoslavnye śkoly XVI i naćala XVII veka, otnoSeme ix к inoslavnym, religioznoeobuienie ν nix i zasługi ix ν dele zaSiity pravoslavnoj very i cerkvi (Kazan', 1898); M.Hrusevs'kyj, Kultumo-nacional'nyj rux na Ukrajini XVl-XVII st., 2nd éd. (n.p. 1919); A.Savyô, Narysy z istoriji kul'turnyx ruxiv na Ukrajini ta Bilorusi v XVI-XVII v., ZbimykIstoryćno-filolohićnoho viddilu Vse-Ukrajins'koji Akademiji Nauk, no. 90 (Kiev, 1929); E. N.Medynskij, Bratskie Skoly Ukrainy i Belorussii XVI-XVII vv. (Kiev, 1954); Ja. D. IsajevyC,Bratstva ta ix roi' v rozvytku ukrajins'koji kul'tury XVI-XVIII st. (Kiev, 1966); idem, Dïerelaz istoriji ukrajins'koji kul'tury doby feodalizmu XVI-XVIII st. (Kiev, 1972); A. S. Lappo-Danilevskij, lstorija russkoj obSiestvennoj mysli і kul'tury XVII-XVIII v. (Moscow, 1990), pp.43-121.