HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

58 HARVEY GOLDBLATTAntioch and as a reforming Patriarch of Constantinople. The priest's soul, justbecause he lives and works in the midst of the world's storm and dangers, must bestronger and purer even than the monk's, who stays as it were in a safe port. Thedignity of the priesthood is now extolled over all merely terrestrial things and comparedto the pure ministry of the angels; for, the priest's throne is set up in heavenand stands on a higher plane than all human ralership. 89What is especially relevant here, it seems to me, is that Vysens'kyj's pretextfor writing the Spiritual Spectacle—namely, the perceived distortion ofChrysostom's homily VI on First Corinthians—must be evaluated withinthe context of the entire book entitled Book on the Priesthood or, more precisely,against the broader background of the volume's ideological attitudeand how this attitude reflects the situation in the Ruthenian lands.The ideological position offered by the Book on the Priesthood isperhaps most clearly evidenced by the v/rii strategically located throughoutthe volume. While a detailed analysis of the virSi in question is beyond thescope of this paper, permit me to make some general observations aboutthem.(1) The first virS is devoted to Lviv and its confraternity and is accompaniedby their coats of arms. 90 Havrylo Dorofijovyc, the author of the virS,stresses here that the Lviv Confraternity has been granted its status directly"by the patriarchs" and has been given its privileges in perpetuity "by thekings." 91(2) In the second v/ri 92 —also accompanied by a coat of arms—Dorofijovyc praises the "noble" and "virtuous" members of the Balabanfamily, the "defenders of the fatherland," whom God calls into his serviceand from whom the Church receives comfort. 93(3) In the third v/ri 94 —dedicated to Alexander Balaban, starosta of Vynnycja,at whose expense the volume was printed—emphasis is placed on the89Ladner, The Idea of Reform, p. 127. In his book Ladner further noted that the intimationsof hierarchy would later be most fully developed in the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius, whoseecclesiastical and celestial hierarchies imparted special dignity to the clergy, above all to thebishops (pp. 348-50).90KS, fol. Γ (Kolosova and Krekoten', Ukrajins'ka poezija, p. 189).91"... ν kotrom bratstvo ot patriarxov jest nadano, / i ot krolev vîine uprivilijevano" (KS,fol. l v ). In the 1580s the Confraternity of the Assumption was established in Lviv and granted"stauropegial" status—that is, it was placed directly under the jurisdiction of the patriarch ofConstantinople.92KS, fol. 2 r (Kolosova and Krekoten', Ukrajins'ka poezija, p. 189).93"I obron'cami sja otäzni naxodili. /... / Boh sam na sluźbu sobî ix pobolyvajet, /Iz Balabanovpotîxu cerkov mîvaet" (KS, fol. 2 1 )·94The vira is entitled: Do Vel'moïnogo pana, jeho milosti pana Aleksandra Balabana,starosty Vinnickoho і prolaja (KS, fols. 2 ν -3 Γ[Kolosova and Krekoten', Ukrajins'ka poezija,p. 190]).