Letters of Clement VIII on the Union of the Ruthenians

Theiner printed these letters in the nineteenth century from the Vatican registers of papal briefs. Three are cited in this wiki. In a letter of 18 January 1597 (no. 198) the pope thanks the Latin bishops and Lithuanian magnates who had attended the synod of Brest and says that he has learned from their report that the metropolitan Michael and his fellow bishops ratified there what their envoys had done in Rome; he adds that some of the Ruthenian bishops did not accept the union. In a constitution of 5 June 1597 (no. 199) he declares null an excommunication which the patriarch of Constantinople, whom he calls the “so-called patriarch”, had pronounced against the Ruthenians who had joined Rome. And in a letter of 15 January 1605 (no. 229) he answers Konstanty, duke of Ostrog and palatine of Kiev, who had written to him about the union.

The letters are evidence for what the pope knew and wanted, and they describe the opponents of the union in the pope’s terms. What the Orthodox bishops and Ostrogski said for themselves is known here only as the pope reports or answers it.