Editing Meletius Smotrytsky (section)

==As Uniate Bishop==

Following the adoption of the Union Smotrytsky was a huge advocate of complete reunification of the Church. He hid the fact that he had already converted to the Union. His attitude, however, began to raise suspicions among the clergy. While retaining his popularity among the priests and faithful in [[Belarus]], he lost trust among both the [[Vilnius]] fraternity and Kyiv monks in monasteries. At the same time, Catholics were not yet convinced that Smotrytsky maintained full fidelity to his recently adopted Catholicism. On April 8, 1628, Cardinal Ludovisi in a letter to Alexander Zasławski demanded that the minister make a public profession of the Catholic faith. Smotrycki by then no longer resided in Vilnius but in a monastery in Derman. The events that led to the final disclosure of Smotrytsky's conversion to Catholicism are known from several documents originating from himself or his Orthodox opponents. Smotrytsky claimed that for the first time after conversion, he had met with the Orthodox bishops of the Republic during the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lady in 1627 in Kyiv. The meeting was also attended by [[Peter Mogila]], who was still a layman. Mogila and Archbishop Job asked Smotrycki to show them the catechism that the Patriarch of Constantinople had presented. The next meeting of the hierarchy took place on the sixth Sunday of Lent in Horodku, on property belonging to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. In addition to Meletius Smotrytsky, it was attended by the Metropolitan Job, Bishop Isaac of Lutsk, Chelm Paisjusz and Peter Mogila, who was already igumen in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Smotrytsky delivered a speech at the meeting, discussing the six basic differences between the two confessions. Then the assembled council decided to convene the Orthodox Church in Kyiv; not only the clergy had taken part in it, but also representatives of the Orthodox nobility and bourgeoisie. The bishops agreed to present at the Council a draft union for the Orthodox and Uniate Churches. Hierarchs agreed thereby that contrary to earlier findings, Meletius Smotrycki published no new treaty discussing the differences between the rival churches. Smotrytsky later argued that both  Metropolitan Job and Peter Mogila allowed for the conclusion of a new union. It was not until a great anti-union stance by the Cossacks in attendance at the council to Kyiv that they were prompted to change their position. Smotrycki was increasingly suspected of pro-Uniate sympathies. Therefore, after he arrived in Kyiv he was not accommodated in Pechersk Lavra and had to live in the monastery of [[St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery]]. The priest wrote that he had been in the council visited by representatives of the Cossacks, who threatened him with death if the Orthodox hierarchy agreed to join the union. His design of a new union of churches and arguments for the introduction signed the Treaty of Apology peregrinated to Eastern countries. Discussions on Smotrytsky's projects of the union were held at the Kyiv council without the participation of Cossack delegates. Smotrytsky was accused of preaching heresy, including [[Sabellianism]] and [[Manichaeism]]. Smotrytsky's works that occurred in the years 1628-1629 were also repeatedly criticized publicly by the Orthodox monks. This meant the failure of pro-union initiatives, although projects to unite the two Churches were still presented in the following years. Smotrytsky's arguments in favor of the union were presented again in 1629 and published in Paraenensis but were not supported by Orthodox Bishops.
Smotrycki was considered Orthodox bishop in January 1629 (Joseph Bobrykowicz was even then his deputy in the office of the monastery of Saint Spirit in Vilnius), but a few months later the Orthodox recognized him as a traitor, who renounced his former profession of private material benefits. Also, the Catholic Church immediately after the council of Kyiv decided Smotrytsky was not fully devoted to the union, especially since it was still not publicly acknowledged that he had left Orthodoxy. In September 1629 Smotrytsky took part in the Orthodox-Uniate Synod in Lviv, where he had already performed at the opening of the Uniate and Orthodox negotiations to convert to Catholicism. It was his last public appearance during which he took voice on issues of religion and the position of the Ruthenian nation. Synod of Lviv, in which assumptions and the Uniate Metropolitan King were to lead to the establishment of the Republic of the Uniate Patriarchate, ended in complete failure, because neither the Orthodox hierarchy nor even sent a fraternity to Lviv agreed with their delegates.