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442 FRANK E. SYSYNCommonwealth and the Catholic faith. The latter he attributed to theinferiority of the clergy's culture and intellect, and to their envy atthe spread of Catholicism. He charged the clergy with obstructing thepolitical processes of the Commonwealth by bribing participants inthe Diets and dietines. Finally, he accused the clergy and their"bought" champions of leading the revolt and of manipulating theCossacks into the attack. But in his discussion the Discourser citesfew incidents that compromise the Orthodox leadership, lay orclerical. 26How did the readers of the "Discourse" react to its charges againstthe Orthodox? Certainly the suspicions and theories of conspiracythat abounded in 1648 should have assured a receptive audience. 27Some readers may have agreed that God was punishing the Commonwealthfor its concessions to schism. All must have been aware thatOrthodox clerics had been involved in revolts in the past. Like theDiscourser, they must have heard reports of treason in the taking ofcities. But at the core of the Discourser's charges was an attack onthe Orthodox hierarchy that could have been accepted only by thosepredisposed to view all Orthodox as traitors. The religious compromiseof 1632, which recognized the Orthodox hierarchy, had produceda church leadership loyal to the Commonwealth and hostile torebel causes. It might have been plausible to charge Metropolitan IovBorets'kyi with kindling the fires of revolt in the 1620s; it wasimplausible to make such an accusation in the 1640s against metropolitansPeter Mohyla or Sylvester Kosiv. The Discourser's insistencethat Orthodoxy was the underlying cause of the revolt and that onlythe extirpation of schism would ensure peace may have been acceptableto some Counter-Reformation Catholics. But the Orthodox26In discussing the ingratitude of the Orthodox for concessions already grantedthem and the misguided policy of seeking peace through more concessions, hementions that "w liście swoim jeden euisdem officinae figulus et omnium secretorumet arcanorum, jako się przechwala, satio thrasonice conscius, quo successu?"(lines 108-110). I have been unable to find this letter, but consider AdamKysil a likely candidate for the "figulus."27Anti-Orthodox sentiment was voiced at the Convocation Diet in July. See, e.g.,the reaction to Adam Kysil's speech on July 23, "Dyaryusz konwokacyi warszawskiejpodczas bezkrólewia od dnia 16 lipca do 1 sierpnia 1648 odprawiającej się"in [Jakub Michalowski] Księgapamiętnicza (Cracow, 1864), pp. 122-23 (Zabytki zdziejów, oświaty i sztuk pięknych wydawane staraniem C. K. TowarzystwaNaukowego Krakowskiego, 2). Fear of the Orthodox was so great that rumorsspread that Kysil would be elected king by a coalition of Orthodox and Protestants:Litterae Nuntiorum Apostolicorum Historiam Ucrainae Illustrantes (1550-1850),ed. A. G. Welykyj, 13 vols. (Rome, 1959-69), 6: 267.