Criminal Cases as a Source of Everyday History of the Parish Clergy in Volyn at the Early 17th Century

Abstract

The article deals with the problems of everyday life of the parish clergy of Volyn during the Lithuanian-Polish era. It is noted that such a topic is important in the context of the study of the cultural and national movement on the Ukrainian lands at the border of the 16th and 17th centuries. The importance of criminal cases of district courts of the Volyn Voivodeship for the study of everyday problems of all strata of the Ukrainian population of this era, in particular the parish clergy, is emphasized. The author expressed the opinion that criminal cases reflected evidence about everyday life that could not be recorded in other sources available to modern scientists.The purpose of the article is to reveal a number of aspects of the daily life of the Volyn parish clergy using the example of the protest of a priest from the village of Biskupychi, Fr. Hryhoriy Zhukovych, as well as the testimony of the ministerial in this case. The analysis of Kostyantyn Gulevich’s crime – beating the victim, as well as rape and robbery of his wife (in the victim’s interpretation) made it possible to draw the following conclusions: first, the crime had not only a sexual motive and the desire to rob. The criminal also sought to humiliate the social dignity of the victim. This was manifested in her dressing in peasant clothes and a violent peasant-style haircut. Secondly, based on the protest and the ministerial’s testimony, it was possible to discover additional information about the history of Ukrainian clothing. According to the list of selected items, it was concluded that the bishop’s wife had quite expensive clothes and could afford to wear silver and gold jewellery. The forced dressing of the victim in peasant clothes gave additional insights into what the peasants wore at that time. Thirdly, the text of the protest made it possible to reveal the figure of the vernacular using the example of both individual words and idioms. In addition, an archaic term related to the metrology of those times and dating back to the princely era was discovered. Finally, a conclusion was made about the perspective of further research of the materials of criminal cases for the study of a wide range of problems related to Ukrainian everyday life during the Lithuanian-Polish era.