The Brest Union is a church-historical event in 1596 and on this basis established an understanding between the Ukrainian-Belorussian Orthodox Church and the Roman Throne: the recognition of the Roman Pope as the head of the Church with all the conclusions of this confession in matters of faith, morals and church administration, with the preservation of administrative, ritual, disciplinary and, in general, ecclesiastical and cultural autonomy within the framework of the Kyiv Metropolitanate. The Turkish captivity of the Constantinople Patriarchate, the (...) complicated cases of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the dislocation of its internal discipline, the creation of the Moscow Patriarchate, which encroached on the whole of the European East, the Protestant influences and polonization of the upper classes of Ukraine caused the Ukrainian Church in the 2nd half of the XVI century century of deep crisis. (shrink)