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SHORT NOTES

Antoni Mironowicz, Diecezja białoruska w XVII i XVIII wieku [The Byelorussian Diocese in the 17th and 18th Centuries), Białystok 2008, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku, 351 pp., bibl., index, sum. in Engłish and Russian

In this extensive study Antoni Mironowicz presents the Byelorussian Orthodox diocese in a synthesizing way and sums up the research he has conducted for many years and the conclusions of his publications. The book is based mainly on handwritten sources kept in the archives of Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, the Vatican, Vilnius, Cracow, Kiev and other towns.

The eparchy was set up in 1633, when Ladislaus IV tried to normalize religious matters; it functioned in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth up to 1772. After the fali of the State it was incorporated into the Russian Orthodox Church and after some timc was abolished. The author describes the history of the diocese chronologically, dividing it into the terms served by successive bishops. Each chapter begins with a biographical outline which is followed by a description of the situation of the bishopric and the Orthodox church in the Polish-Lithuanian State. The last two chapters deal with the monasteries in the Byelorussian diocese and the situation of the Orthodox Church in the Polish-Lithuanian state in 1772-95 (between the first and the last partition of Poland).

Mironowicz shows the fate of the Byelorussian diocese against a wide historical background, taking into account Rome’s policy towards the Orthodox Church, the policy pursued by the rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian State and the activities of Moscow rulers. According to Mironowicz, the Orthodox Church, faced with political pressure, owed its survival to the bishops, many of whom were very well educated, had great preaching talents and were strongly attached to the Orthodox faith. (MP)

Konrad Bobiatyński, Michał Kazimierz Pac — wojewoda wileński, hetman wielki litewski. Działalność polityczno-wojskowa [Michał Kazimierz Pac — Voivode of Wilno, Grand Hetman of Lithuania: His Political and Military Activity|, Warszawa 2008, Neriton, 458 pp., ills., genealogical table, bibl., index of persons, sum. in English and Lithuanian

This is the first scientific biography of Michał Kazimierz Pac, a Grand Hetman of Lithuania and Voivode of Wilno who exerted considerable influence on the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the 17th century. On the basis of still unused, very extensive source materials prescrved in Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian and also Swedish, German and Austrian archives, the author presents his protagonist’s public activity and military career. The book is chronologically divided into nine chapters. In addi-tion to describing, and freąuently re-interpreting, certain facts from Pac’s life story, the author tries to point out the factors which madę it possible for him to make such a rapid career, and to explain whether his career was typical of the times. Bobiatyński depicts in a very interesting way Pac’s changing political