Vilensky privile 1563

The process of registration of the gentry class Grand Duchy of Lithuania was delayed for decades. In 1387, the king of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jagailo, issued the first estate privilege for the Lithuanian chivalry ( boyars , gentry ), who adopted Catholicism according to the Union of Krevo . Privileges of 1387 freed the Lithuanian gentry from state duties, leaving behind it only military service and the obligation to build grand-ducal castles. This privilege was approved by local territorial judicial authorities. It should be noted that the Lithuanian gentry made up about 10% of the population of the principality (in France at that time, 1.5%) ^[1] .

The Gorodel Union of 1413 had a clear Catholic character. The princes and magnates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as "Orthodox schismatics", were not allowed to the higher government. Even the administration of the voivodship approved only Catholics. Thus, the Lithuanian princely families had nothing to do but to go into the Polish coat of arms ^[2] . At the same time, Matvey Lyubavsky in his work “Lithuanian-Russian Diet” noted that the conditions of the Gorodel Union were not respected, and the Orthodox deputies in the Seimas and Rada enjoyed all the rights that their Catholic colleagues ^[3] .

But M. V. Dovnar-Zapolsky , who claimed that until the middle of the XVI century, objected to him. Only Bishop of Vilnius, Vilnius voivode and kastelyan, Trokai voivod and kastelyan, and a Samgei headman were allowed to state affairs from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And these people were not Orthodox at all, but Catholics ^[4] .

International relations ON and Poland with their neighbors were very complicated. In February 1563, Russian troops laid siege to Polotsk . They captured up to 60 thousand people. Most of them were sold into slavery (to Persia, etc.), these are Catholics; Orthodox, as "baptized souls," did not sell ^[5] .

At the meeting of the Crown Sejm of Poland in 1564, King Sigismund Augustus, known for his love of luxury, came in modest gentry clothes. Then he refused the inheritance rights to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and transferred them to the Crown. Sigismund August, rejecting the Polish crown, would gladly confine himself to the hereditary crown of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and therefore secretly opposed the Lithuanian-Polish unification, disrupting this issue with the help of Nikolai Radzivill Ryzhy on the coronary seims of 1548 and 1550 ^[6] .

And in ON, meanwhile, Protestantism was spreading, which could not help but trouble Poland ^[7] .

Frequent raids Tatars on ON. This is another reason for the Vilna Privilege.

At the 1563 hostile Sejm, the Lithuanian gentry filed a petition to the Grand Duke: “I wouldn’t give a shame to a nobleman and a man who’s not the image of a little ankyla, who was the first to become God’s name to the Trinity of every sub-servant of faith, his own law.” At the same time, they are led by Nikolai Radziwill Cherny “alone”, against the article of the Gorodelsky Privilege of 1413, which forbade the Orthodox to occupy top government posts ^[8] .

Privileges were published in the West Russian (Old Belarusian) language, according to the unanimous ("one-sided") request of the gentry deputies due to the fact that some articles "will require a wide explanation of the issue of vyruzumenyu."

Privilege finally equalized the political gentry with the Catholic gentry in the first place. The text of the privilege meant that the restrictive articles of the Gorodelsk privilege of 1413 lose their force. It was also emphasized that the nobility of the Orthodox religion and previously sat in the Panah-Rada with the ancestors of Sigismund Augustus. According to the privilege, all the representatives of the gentry class “yak of Lithuanian and the Russian people would have the same christs faith” for all time enjoy all the liberties of the gentry class, with the rights to occupy all the posts of the district and courtyards, sit in the panah-rade: “Because all other classes of knightly and gentry, both Lithuanian and Russian people, if only they had Christian faith ... courtyards and district offices, not only citizens of the Roman Catholic Church, from this time they can be appointed and appointed, but equally and equally all knights th class of people gentry people of the Christian faith, Lithuania and Russia, each according to his merits and achievements, from us, the great prince, the posts of high office and to other posts according to our will may be appointed ... "

The Vilna Privileges, having canceled the tough articles of the Gorodelsky Privilege, made the Lithuanian gentry a follower of the future Union of Brest. This question was raised by the Russian historian V. I. Pichet ^[9] .

V. O. Klyuchevsky writes: “Sigismund-Augustus, a soft and idle reveler, brought up among new trends, as far as his state allowed him, even patronized new teachings, he himself gave out to read Protestant books from his library, in the court church he allowed sermons in Protestant spirit; he did not care when leaving the palace for a holiday, where to go, to the church or to the pickaxe. Protecting Protestants, he favored Orthodox; the decision of the Gorodelsky Sejm, which prohibited the Orthodox to occupy state and public posts, he explained in 1563 so that the explanation was tantamount to cancellation. With the weakening of Catholic propaganda, which was supported by the former kings, the Orthodox population of Lithuania ceased to be fearful or hostile to the Polish government. This turn in a popular mood made possible the continuation of the political union of Lithuania with Poland ” ^[10] .

In the RL ON, only two Catholics remained after the privilea: the bishops of Vilna and Jamoit, their presence there was secured by the statute of the Grand Prix, and all the other members were glad the Gospel Christians. Among the latter were the Vojvodu ^11] .

• Troksky Privilege

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• Chodynicki K. Geneza równouprawnienia schyzmatyków w Wielkim Ks. Litewskim, Stosunek Zygmunta Augusta do wyznania grecko - wschodnego // Przegląd historyczny - 2. Ser. Ii. - Kraków, 1913/14 /. S. 1-81
• Kiaupa Z., Kiaupiene J., Kuncevičius A. Historia Litwy. Od czasów najdawniejszych to 1795 roku. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2008, s. 176-178. ISBN 9788301151904
• Kutrzeba S. Unia Polski z Litwa // Polska i Litwa w dziejowym stosunku. - Warszawa, Lublin, Lodze, Krakow. 1914.

• Izbornik: Vilna Privilege 1563
• The History of Belarus ў documents and materials. V. 1. IX — XVIII Art. / Sklali: acadamic V.K. Shcharbakoў, dacent K.І.Kernazhitskі і вучоны archeograf D.I.Daўgyala. Mensk, 1936
• CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 1180—1572
• Bednov V. A. Orthodox Church in Poland and Lithuania