Brotherhood School Statutes in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in XVI-XVII century

ENThe first of a new type of Orthodox Brotherhoods in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were the Vilnius and Lviv brotherhoods. The Lviv confraternity opened in 1586 and the one in Vilnius in 1584. The patriarch of Antioch, Joachim V (1584-1587) stay ed in Lviv from January to May 1586, on his way to Moscow. The statute of the Lviv brotherhood must have been redacted and consulted with the patriarch earlier, as the head of the Antioch Church approved it during the first day of his stay in Lviv. The statute described the goals and obligations of the confraternity. The next objective of the brotherhood was education - the founding of schools and printing shops - with the aim of improving the situation in the Orthodox Church. The statutes described in detail the tasks and duties of teachers and students, as well as their personal qualities and qualifications. They were modelled after Byzantine schools, but the curriculum was much richer than in the postByzantine world; for example more languages were taught. The Lutsk and Lviv statutes described the basic tasks of the school. They confirmed the parents’ responsibility for the educational plan. The school was, according to its statute, a part of the brotherhood communit)', for which all members were responsible. The statutes of the Lviv and Lutsk brotherhood schools became a model for other brotherhood schools in Volhynia, Ruthenian lands belonging to the Crown, and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 17th and 18th centuries. Keywords: Brotherhood School, Statutes, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. [From the publication]