HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

444 FRANK E. SYSYNWhile the "Discourse" is only an outsider's description of Orthodoxdiscontent, it is direct testimony that some defenders of the Commonwealthviewed the revolt as primarily a religious war. The text isevidence of the growing Catholic religious fanaticism that made interconfessionalrelations in the Ruthenian lands very difficult. Between1632 and 1648, such thinking paralyzed attempts at a lasting accommodationof the disputes in the Eastern church. After 1648, it doomed allefforts to come to terms with the resurgence of Orthodoxy.In contrast to the emphasis on religious issues, the Discourser payslittle direct attention to social and economic strife. Because no controversialpoint of view is presented, attitudes are not spelled outexplicitly. However, the Discourser does reveal his attitudes towardsocial and economic factors indirectly, through discussion of otherissues.In early modern Europe, acceptance of the division of society intohereditary groups varying greatly in privileges, power, and wealth wasvirtually universal. The defenders of the existing social order hadwell-articulated explanations for their position. These explanationswere sometimes directed at rebels against authority, and sometimesjustified revolts against monarchs who tampered with an elite's privileges.Forces for change — economic, social, and political — weresuspect in an age that viewed novelty as illegitimate and social divisionsas ordained by God. At times, however, the structure of societyand the distribution of privileges became so far removed from theactual allocation of power and wealth that redefinition of relationsamong social orders was unavoidable. At other times, the economicand political system broke down, giving the lower social orders achance, at least temporarily, to throw off the bonds that oppressedthem. But always the privileged orders, especially the nobilities, hadthe advantage of defending established and well-defined social patterns.31The Khmel'nyts'kyi revolt stands out among the revolts of earlymodern Europe in its radical consequences for the social order and its31For a discussion of early modern societies maintaining that revolution washardly possible in them, see Moote, "Preconditions of Revolution in Early ModernEurope." Also see Elliott, "Revolution and Continuity in Early Modern Europe."For discussion of the revolutionary elements in the seventeenth-century revolts,see Rosario Villan, "Revolte e conscienza rivoluzionaria nel secólo XVII," Studistorici 12 (1971) : 235-64.