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62 HARVEY GOLDBLATTseverely punished for their sins. 111In this regard, we should not forget thatin chapter 3 of his Knyika VySens'kyj had already concluded that in Rus' itwas better to be without clerics installed by the devil—that is by secularpower because of earthly ambitions—than to be with them, for those notpurified and consecrated by the faith were incapable of being true pastorsand would trample the faith:And as to those who rise to the rank of the priesthood in accordance with the rales ofthe holy fathers and not according to what is desired,... let them acquire thisdignified office.... And do not accept anyone who jumps into [this position], andchase out and curse the one offered by the king without your assembly. For youwere not baptized in the name of the pope nor in the power of the king For it isbetter for you to go to church and preserve Orthodoxy without bishops and priestsappointed by the devil than to be in church with bishops and priests not called byGod and thereby deride it and trample Orthodoxy. For it is not priests who will saveus, or the bishops or metropolitans, but the Orthodox mystery of our faith and theobservance of God's commandments—this is what can save us (24.6-17).Of course, in chapter 3 of the Knyika, which was written after 1596, historicalreality is important: in the aftermath of the Union of Brest, according tothe Athonite monk, the Ruthenian clergy who had accepted union withRome were to be rejected as false pastors who had disgraced the Churchand spread evil among Christians. 112 Yet it is fair to say that VySens'kyj'scondemnation extends beyond one specific category of Ruthenian clericsand seems distinctly hostile to the idea that the rank of the priesthood couldoffer salvation to the Orthodox faithful. 113It is not by chance that in the titleto the Knyika, where the Athonite monk addresses all ranks of OrthodoxChristians in Little Rus' to whom he is sending his writing, he excludesboth the priesthood and the episcopate. 114Within the basic parameters ofVySens'kyj's thought, the clergy was corrupt and could not act as the spiritualconscience of Orthodoxy. Only the monks, for whom the Spiritual111De sacerdotio, IV, 1, PG XLVIII, 659-63.112See the table of contents for chapter 3: "Porada, како da sja oćistit cerkov xristova,zapljuhavljennaja ffivymi pastyri i nećistym źitiem onyx,... i kotoryj smrad pohanskijv"zlonravstvisja ν xristijanex" (8.21—24). On the dating of chapter 3, see Eremin, IvanViSenskij, pp. 297-301; I. Z. Myc'ko, "Ostroźskij kul'turno-prosvetitePnyj centr i ego bor'baprotiv ideologiceskoj èkspansii katolocizma i unii na Ukraine (1576-1636)," Avtoreferatdisseitacii na soiskanie ucenoj stepeni kandidata istoriceskix nauk (Lviv, 1983), p. 19.113Grabowicz, "The Question of Authority," p. 787.114In his enumeration of "all Orthodox Christians" and "all pious people living in LittleRus', in the Polish Kingdom," VySens'kyj does include the confraternities, monastic communities,archimandrites, hieromonks, virtuous monks, all nuns, and "others who exert themselveson behalf of the Church" (7.2-9).