HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

462 FRANK E. SYSYNnobles. The Lachs who assumed burgher offices in the cities of theRuthenian lands or who were to populate cities nearer to Poland werecertainly not nobles. The Lachs and Poles described at the beginningof the tract seem to be a people comprising various social strata. Theauthor was cognizant that his description included non-noble Lachsand Poles, but he choose to ignore them.The Discourser sets out to associate the Ruthenians with all that isbarbarous and base. Although he sees the Ruthenians as essentiallynon-nobles, he does discuss the noble component of the Ruthenian"nation." A number of such instances have been pointed out above inthe analysis of the Discourser's attitudes towards Orthodox nobles.The most interesting case, however, occurs in his discussion of thehistory of Ruthenian-Polish relations. His lengthy account of theRuthenians' hatred toward the Lachs/Poles seems to refer to the entirecommunity, especially its higher orders. But in asserting that theRuthenians would rather live under the bondage of Turks or someother tyrants than in the free Commonwealth, he adds parentheticallythat he is talking about the "chłopstwo" who has neither good bloodnor education. Despite the qualification, it is difficult to see theRuthenians who directed wars, took loyalty oaths, and intermarriedwith the kings of Poland as "chłopstwo." Also not easily recognizableas such are the Ruthenians who are later said to be jealous of the Lachsfor having appropriated the senatorial posts and noble offices. TheDiscourser has two contradictory purposes which he attempts toreconcile. He portrays all Ruthenians, including their nobility, asenemies of Poles and the Commonwealth. At the same time, he strivesto identify the entire Ruthenian community as "chłopstwo."The comments on Ruthenians and Poles reflect the fundamentalcultural, social, and economic changes in the Ukrainian lands in theearly seventeenth century. In 1613 Jan Szczęsny Herburt had warnedthat to expect the Ruthenians to change their faith was like trying tohave a Poland without Poles or a people that spoke Polish but were nolonger ruled by Polish laws and customs, like relocating Gdansk nearthe Carpathians and Sambir near the Baltic. 59But contrary to Herburt'sview, the Ruthenians were changing. Members of their elite hadnot only become members of the nobility of the Commonwealth loyalto their noble republic, but also were abandoning their ancestral faith59"Zdanie o narodzie Ruskim, spisane podczas konfederacyi Moskiewskiej(1613) od pana Szczęsnego Herburta, Dombromilskiego, Wiśnińskiego,Mościckiego starosty," in Z dziejów Ukrainy, pp. 92-96.