The Metropolitan Affiliation of the Diocese of Lutsk in the Modern Period

Abstract

The article is a voice in a discussion among historians on the issue of the administrative affiliation of the Diocese of Łuck in the Modern Era. Drawing on the primary sources from the late Middle Ages and the modern period, we can find the roots of the complex formal-legal situation of the Lutsk diocese. Equally crucial are the various sources on the authority of the archbishops of Gniezno over the diocese of Lutsk. Since the 15th c. when the office of a Primate was established, the archbishops of Gniezno had also ruled over the Lviv ecclesiastical province (Pol. Metropolia) and since then it had been difficult to clearly state what powers the archbishop of Gniezno held over Lviv suffragan dioceses, particularly, which rights stemmed from the role of a Primate and which from the affiliation to the ecclesiastical province. Combining the two legal roles is best illustrated by the fact that the Gniezno Provincial Synods were tantamount with Primate and Country Synods, the decrees of which were implemented in both Gniezno and Lviv ecclesiastical provinces. Also, the court procedures since the beginning of the 16th c., granted the Primate a right to rule over the suffragan dioceses in the first instance. The author stands on a position that due to lack of Papal document granting the jurisdiction over Łuck diocese to Gniezno ecclesiastical province, it remained a Lviv’s suffragan diocese throughout the entire Modern Era.