The First Three Commandments in the Polish Catholic Catechisms of the 1560S–1570S

CHAPTER 11 Man and God: The First Three Commandments in the Polish Catholic Catechisms of the 1560s–1570s

Waldemar Kowalski

Catechism: A New Tool in Religious Instruction

The sixteenth century brought a number of fundamental and far-reaching changes in the Polish Church’s approach to the cura animarum (cure of souls). In practice, the laity previously had cursory access to the fundamentals of the faith. From the end of the Middle Ages up until the mid-seventeenth century, elementary catechesis was limited to the repetition of the Pater noster, Credo, Ave Maria and the Decalogue before the Sunday Mass. An average priest was able to mobilize his parishioners to repeat the Ten Commandments and to memorize the relevant verses, following synodical recommendations. It was a far more difficult task, however, to explain convincingly the moral obligations arising from them. Hypothetically these rudiments of faith were taught more effectively during the second half of the sixteenth century.1 One of the expla- nations for these changes was the relative growth in the ranks of the educated laity. This was also at least partly due to the proliferation of printed catechisms. They were composed and published with a view to explaining and promot- ing the principles of the faith in opposition to Lutheran and, later, Reformed attempts to evangelize the population. The fight against ‘heresy’, the reason for which the provincial synod in Piotrków convened in 1525, was thereafter to become part of a wider reform programme within the Church.2 Such a

1 For a thorough discussion of the possibilities and limitations of religious education at the turn of the modern age, see: Bylina S., Religijność późnego średniowiecza (Warsaw: 2009) 26–38. Cf. Dykema P., “Handbooks for Pastors: Late Medieval Manuals for Parish Priests and Conrad Porta’s Pastorale Lutheri (1582)”, in Bast R.J. – Gow A.C (eds.), Continuity and Change: The Harvest of Late-Medieval and Reformation History. Essays Presented to Heiko A. Oberman on his 70th Birthday (Leiden – Boston – Cologne: 2000) 149–150; Duffy E., The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c. 1400—c. 1580 (New Haven – London: 2005) 53–63. 2 A selection of the most recent and important publications discussing various aspects of Church reform in Poland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries would include: Wyczawski H.E., “Studia nad wewnętrznymi dziejami Kościoła w Małopolsce na schyłku XVI wieku”, Prawo Kanoniczne 7, 1–2 (1964) 45–126; ibidem 7, 3–4 (1964): 21–116; Bylina S.,

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��7 | doi ��.��63/9789004325777_013 220 KOWALSKI programme did not crystallize, however, until the 1560s, and it would not prove effective on a large scale within the Gniezno Church province until the turn of the seventeenth century. Indeed, it remains unclear to what extent the laity’s access to religious education really increased. The following presentation of the exegesis of the first three commandments in sixteenth-century Polish Catholic catechisms sheds some light on the poorly studied effectiveness of instruction in the rudiments of the faith. In sixteenth-century Poland, around twenty Catholic catechisms were published. Almost all of these were printed in Cracow, with the overall number of editions estimated at fifty (twenty-eight Latin editions, twenty-one in Polish, and one in German). The majority of these were reprints of foreign works which were popular at the time: Georg Witzel’s handbook Questiones cathe- chisticæ (1543), Petrus Canisius’s Parvus cathechismus catholicorum (1565 and subsequent eight editions), and Anthony Possevino’s Epistola de necessitate utilitateque ac ratione docendi catholici catechismi (1583). The catechism, or rather, confessional document of the Warmian (Ermland) bishop, Stanislaus Hosius’s, Confessio fidei catholicæ christiana, was first published in Cracow in 1553, and was widely circulated throughout Europe soon after.3 Some of these imports were translated into Polish, such as Jacob Ledesma’s Christian Teaching or a Small Catechism for Infants (1572). The first Polish translation of the Roman Catechism (1568) by Walenty Kuczborski is a relatively faithful rendition of the Latin original, which had been edited two years before. The catechisms of Polish Catholic authors written in Polish or published in

“Jednostka i zbiorowość w pobożności ludowej Europy środkowowschodniej w późnym średniowieczu”, in Michałowski R. et al. (eds.), Człowiek w społeczeństwie średniowiecznym (Warsaw: 1997) 119–131; idem, Chrystianizacja wsi polskiej u schyłku średniowiecza (Warsaw: 2002); Hochleitner J., Religijność potrydencka na Warmii (1551–1655) (Olsztyn: 2000) 193–201; Kracik J., “Przeciw Reformacji”, in Kościół krakowski w tysiącleciu (Cracow: 2000) 169–274; Wiślicz T., Zarobić na duszne zbawienie. Religijność chłopów małopolskich od połowy XVI do końca XVIII wieku (Warsaw: 2001) 28–38; Marczewski J.R., Duszpasterska działalność Kościoła w średniowiecznym Lublinie (Lublin: 2002) 324–326; Ożóg K., “Pastor bonus – duszpasterskie zabiegi biskupa Zbigniewa Oleśnickiego w diecezji krakowskiej”, in Kiryk F., Noga Z. (eds.), Zbigniew Oleśnicki: Książę Kościoła i mąż stanu (Cracow: 2006) 157–180; Skierska I., Obowiązek mszalny w średniowiecznej Polsce (Warsaw: 2003); eadem, “Pleban w późnośredniowiecznej Polsce”, in Fałkowski W. (ed.), Kolory i struktury średniowiecza (Warsaw: 2004) 155–180; eadem, Sabbatha sanctifices. Dzień święty w średniowiecznej Polsce (Warsaw: 2008); Kaleta M., “Synody prowincjonalne arcybiskupa Jana Łaskiego”, in Tymosz S. (ed.), Arcybiskup Jan Łaski reformator prawa (Lublin: 2007) 133–154; Wronowski R., “Synody archidiecezjalne arcybiskupa Jana Łaskiego”, in ibidem 155–164; and Chachaj J., Bliżej schizmatyków niż Krakowa. Archidiakonat lubelski w XV i XVI wieku (Lublin: 2012) 192–195. 3 For a list of sixteenth-century editions, see: The Universal Short Title Catalogue (http://ustc.- ac.uk).