Полеміка Теодора Скуминовича щодо хрещення Русі-України в історичному освітленні

Abstrakt

The article reveals the view of the Ukrainian Catholic polemicist-theologian Theodore Skumynovych, the author of the work 'Przyczyny porzucenia Disuniey' (1643), on the history of the baptism of Rus'-Ukraine and the links of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv with Rome since the baptism of Princess Olga. Defending the historiographic conception in which Rus' Church was in unity with the Bishop of Rome from the beginning of its foundation, the writer gave proofs of the christening of the Kyiv Princess Olga by the Patriarch Theophylact, while orthodox polemicists maintained that it was done by Polyeuctus, who, in contradistinction to his predecessor, was not friendly to the Pope. Th e author also proved the opponent's mistake that Prince Volodymyr was baptized by Patriarch Photios, who lived a century earlier and committed schism. In reality, he was baptized by Patriarch Nicholas Chrysoberges. In the understanding of Theodore Skumynovych, Rus’ Church was separated from the schismatic processes, which took place at the time of Michael Cerularius, and until the 16th century was in close ties with Rome. In the history of Rus' Church, its Metropolitans acknowledged the jurisdictional primacy of the Bishop of Rome and repeatedly tried to restore the lost Church unity. The use of such methods of scientific analysis as cultural-historical, comparative-historical, descriptive, textual, and biographical allowed to comprehensively analyze this work in the context of polemical literature of the first half of the 17th century and research the historical sources, which the author used in his work.