Apokrisis

a polemical work directed against the instigators of the Union of Brest of 1596. It was written by a person who hid his identity under the pseudonym of Chris-tophorus Philalethes (Greek, “loving truth”). It was first published in 1597 in Vilnius, in Polish; in 1598 or 1599 it was published in the western Russian literary language. The author of Apokrisis defends the principle of “democracy” of the church—that is, participation in church councils, not only by the clergy but by the laity as well; he sharply criticizes the higher local Greek Orthodox clergy, who proceeded in their own interests to come to terms with the Vatican and the Polish feudalists.