Moral Theology in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Based on Manuscript Sources

Abstract

The article is based on the manuscripts which contain texts of theological courses taught in the Kyiv-Mohyla college/academy in Latin. These manuscripts were written mainly by students who took those theological courses. This group of sources has been insufficiently researched and is unavailable for a wide range of scholars. The goal of theological courses, as of other subjects in the curriculum, was didactic, and, therefore, moral theology in Kyiv academy was deemed an academic subject. Kyiv college was set up on the pattern of Jesuit colleges, and teaching theology in Kyiv was genetically connected to the academic tradition of Jesuits. According to the records, theology had been taught in Kyiv since the academic year of 1693/4. Until 1745/6 teachers (with the exception of Theophanes Prokopowicz) based their lectures on the sources of Jesuit origin. In Ratio studiorum, which was the teaching program of Jesuits, one of the subjects studied in theological school was moral theology. Casus conscientiae (casuistry) comprised a considerable part of the course. However, there was only one case in Kyiv academy until the end of 18th century when moral theology was taught separately from the course of speculative theology. This is proved by fragments of a course of moral theology in the academic year of 1735/6. These fragments show that the course was a compilation: there are references to works by the Catholic theologian of the 17th century Martin Bonacina, in some places the text coincides with works by Jesuits theologians Hermann Busenbaum and Martin Becan. There are no reasons to assert that the teacher who taught this course (Hieronymus Mitkiewicz) was himself the author of this compilation since a source, used by Mitkiewicz for his course, could have already been such a compilation. In other theological courses elements of moral theology were scattered over the sections of the course of speculative theology. The theoretical base of casuistry in courses offered to students before 1745/6 was moderate probabilism.