Reformation at the Election Field. Religious Politics in the Polish-Lithuanian Royal Elections, 1573–1576

CHAPTER 9 Reformation at the Election Field. Religious Politics in the Polish-Lithuanian Royal Elections, 1573–1576 Miia Ijäs 9.1 Introduction The 16th century can be seen as a general transition period in most of Europe. It was certainly such a period for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The union between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was strengthened from a dynastic alliance to a political union of the two states, thus creating the Commonwealth.1 As the last Jagiellon king, Sigismund II August, died heirless in 1572, the Polish-Lithuanian state adopted the system of elective monarchy that lasted until the Commonwealth’s end in 1795. Through a representative political system in which the realm’s nobility took part in the legislation at the national parliament (Sejm), the role of the nobility in political decision-making increased while challenging the role of the monarch and senate, the latter consisting of the most important secular and ecclesiastical office-holders. The numerous Reformation movements created a challenge to social unity and questioned the traditional role of the Catholic bishops in legislation and the judicial system. Before the Reformation movements, however, there was already religious diversity in the Polish-Lithuanian state, as the traditional religious groups of the Polish-Lithuanian lands ranged from Catholics and Orthodox to Jews, Tatar Muslims, Armenians and Karaites.2 In addition, 1 The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were joined into a dynastic union in 1385 under the Jagiellon dynasty. In 1569, this alliance was strengthened into a political union as the Union of Lublin was signed. After this the state was officially called the Commonwealth (Lat. Res publica, Pol. Rzeczpospolita), although the same concept could have been used previously to refer to the Kingdom of Poland. See also Edward Opaliński, “Civic Humanism and Republican Citizenship in the Polish Renaissance,” Republicanism. A Shared European Heritage. Volume I: Republicanism and Constitutionalism in Early Modern Europe, (eds.) Martin van Gelderen and Quentin Skinner (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 152–153. 2 On religious multiculturalism in early modern Poland-Lithuania, see e.g. Norman Davies, God’s Playground. A History of Poland. Vol. I, The Origins to 1795 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 126–155; Michał Kopczyński and Wojciech Tygielski (eds.), Pod wspólnym © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��7 | doi ��.��63/97890043�8877_0�� Reformation at the Election Field 231 the state faced severe military and economic challenges that required political reform and renewed taxation. These are just a few examples of the changes that took place in 16th-century Poland-Lithuania. Religion and the idea of a true faith was an essential part of the Early Modern mentality and worldview. As such, it can hardly be separated from the political or social thought of the time. Religion was the glue that could ensure social cohesion, whereas religious diversity could potentially challenge that cohesion. I say potentially, as more often than not people would first try to find a way to settle their (religious) differences rather than immediately start hostilities. Traditionally, historians have not considered religious aspects as having any great importance in the Early Modern state-building process. In modern historiography, however, the perspective of confessionalism has high- lighted religious and other cultural aspects of Early Modern political life and state formation.3 The religious debate in the age of Reformation was intercon- nected with the question of the kind of society people wanted to live in. In this chapter, the emphasis is on the Polish-Lithuanian nobility and clergy, the privileged estates who could take part in political decision-making and in the creation of the society and state, rather than on lived religion or models of religious thinking among the peasants or burghers. As instances of political decision-making royal elections were especially decisive, and they therefore provide fascinating case studies for analysis of how the age of Reformation, increasing religious diversity, questions of religious freedom and competing ideas of a true faith all affected the decision. Did the 16th-century Reformation change Polish-Lithuanian politics and society, and was this development dif- ferent from other European experiences? Here the “Reformation” does not refer only to Protestant movements, but to a general “Reformation period” dur- ing which religion and its social and political connotations had to be redefined by both the Protestant and Catholic sides of the debate. niebem. Narody dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (Warsaw: Bellona SA and Muzeum Historii Polski, 2010); Waldemar Kowalski, “From the ‘Land of Diverse Sects’ to National Religion: Converts to Catholicism and Reformed Franciscans in Early Modern Poland,” Church History, 70:3 (2001): 484–487; Henryk Litwin, “The Nations of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Controversial Questions,” Acta Poloniae Historica 77 (1998): 43–56. 3 See e.g. Philip S. Gorski, “Calvinism and State-Formation in Early Modern Europe,” State/ Culture. State-Formation after the Cultural Turn, (ed.) George Steinmetz (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999); Karin Friedrich, “Von der religiösen Toleranz zur gegenre- formatorischen Konfessionalisierung,” Polen in der europäischen Geschichte, Ein Handbuch in vier Bänden. Band 2: Frühe Neuzeit, (ed.) Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg (Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 2011); Heinz Schilling, Konfessionalisierung und Staatsinteressen. Internationale Beziehungen 1559–1660 (Paderborn, München, Wien and Zürich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2007)..

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