Dovbycshenko M. Ukrainian nobility of Volyn in religious movements at the end of the 16th - on the beginning of the 17th century

In the thesis on the base of a wide circle of sources the participation of the nobility of Volynian province in the religious movements at the end of the 16th - on the beginning of the 17th centuries are researched. After studying of more than 900 testaments and several hundreds of the donatives' notations for the churches of all Christian confessions of Volyn, the author investigated the processes of religious stratification of the nobility of the named region, traced the peculiarities of political struggle of the Volynian nobility for the protection of the rights and interests of their Churches. The author found out an influence of the religious factors on the crystallization of ethnic consciousness of the Volynian nobility within three religious groups of the region - members of the Orthodox, the Uniat and the Roman Catholics churches. The wide range of the questions considered religious conflicts in Volyn, specialties of spiritual and religious life of the Ukrainian nobility are also looked through in the thesis.