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Nasza Przeszłość

Vol. 97 (2002): Our Past

Articles

Baroque sermons as a source for the research on shaping the mechanisms of the attitudes of the inhabitants of the Republic of Poland

  • Robert Kościelny
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.2002.97.89-124  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2002-06-30

Abstract

In the 17th century it was quite common for the clergy, and especially the religious, to project from the pulpits extremely gloomy visions of Poland’s future. The blame for the impending catastrophe was laid at the door of the Catholic nobility. Poland was sinking but, as the preachers insisted, the country could still be saved by a moral reawakening. This entailed a reappraisal of the very idea of nobility, which had become too dependent on birth to the exclusion of other qualifications, such as virtue and exemplary Christian life. A more balanced view of what constituted nobility would, it was argued, create an opportunity to recognize and honour the most deserving burghers and peasants.In another line of argument Poland’s worsening condition was blamed on foreigners and religious dissidents, ie. the Polish Brethren, Lutherans and Calvinists. This way of thinking received a boost from the fact that the war of 1648-1660, which left a trail of unprecedented misery and devastation, was triggered off by a foreign invader (Sweden) in collusion with the Protestant interest. Moreover, the crisis caused by the Swedish invasion made the other, self-reproaching line rather unhelpful. The preachers were faced with a problem: how to keep up their criticism of Polish society without undermining the self-confidence of those Poles who were ready to fight the invading armies.It must be added that critical self-examination did not stop during the ‘Swedish Deluge’; in fact, the vices and abuses embedded in the mentality of Poland’s ruling class continued to be exposed with undiminished ardour. At the same time, however, neither the expulsion of the Polish Brethren nor the shift in the fortunes of the war in Poland’s favour did anything to soften the position of those preachers who saw the elimination of the dissident threat as the most important condition of the country’s revival. What united both strands of the clerical opinion-makers was a desire to instil a moral dimension into the traditional model of Catholic and political Polishness.

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