Other Activities
The bishops of Vilnius, presiding over a vast diocese and being senators and members of the Council of Lords of Lithuania, could not give all their attention to the spiritual necessities of their flock; hence, from the fifteenth centuries they had coadjutors or suffragans. Many of these, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries, were titular bishops of Methoni, Messenia (on the Peloponnesus). Among the most famous may be mentioned George Casimir Ancuta (d. 1737, author of "Jus plenum religionis catholicae in regno Poloniaw", showing that the Protestants and Orthodox had not the same rights as the Catholics. Beginning from the seventeenth century there were also suffragans for Belarus. In 1798 Pius VI recognized the ancient See of Brest-Litovsk as suffragan of Vilnius. So also the ancient Diocese of Livonia, suppressed in 1797, had become suffragan to Vilnius, and in 1798 had for its first bishop Adam Kossiafkowski (died 1828) but in 1848 was annexed to the Diocese of Samogitia (in Lithuania proper) or see of Kaunas.
The flourishing Catholic life of the Diocese of Vilnius is attested by the large number of synods held there. The first of these was in 1502, under Bishop Tabor. Then followed the synods of 1526, for the reform of manners and the organization of the parochial schools; of 1528, to collect funds for the restoration of the cathedral; of 1555, to oppose the spread of Lutheranism; of 1582; of 1607, which made many regulations for the administration of the sacraments and the discipline of the clergy; of 1630, regulating the administration of ecclesiastical property; of 1654, to aid the state with new imposts; of 1669 with its disciplinary regulations; of 1685, with ordinances relating to the administration of the sacraments and the life of the clergy; of 1744, with regulations in regard to the catechism, mixed marriages and spiritual exercises. After the synod of 1744, under Bishop Michael Zienkowicz, no others were held, but the bishops addressed to their clergy pastoral letters, some of them of notable import.
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