Material relations between the priest and the laity as a reason for the development of the neo-union movement in Volyn

Abstract

The article deals with one of the main directions of neo-union propaganda aimed at separating the Volyn population from the ancestral Orthodox faith and their adoption of the so-called Catholicism of the Eastern rite. This refers to the attempts of the Uniates to convince the faithful of the material benefit of accepting a new jurisdiction, consisting in free occasional services, which Orthodox priests could not do, and obtaining church land at their disposal.It was with such proposals that the Uniate priests visited the parishes of Volyn and worried the local population. The research suggests how successful such actions of apostates were, as well as the reaction of Orthodox pastors to them.