Jesuits' Historiographic Canon in the Works of A
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VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY THE LITHUANIAN INSTITUTE OF HISTORY Moreno BONDA JESUITS' HISTORIOGRAPHIC CANON IN THE WORKS OF A. WIJUK-KOIALOWICZ IN THE AGE OF THE HISTORICAL REVOLUTION (1580-1661) Doctoral Dissertation HUMANITIES, HISTORY (05 H) Kaunas, 2011 The doctoral dissertation was prepared at Vytautas Magnus University in 2006–2011. The doctoral study license is granted to Vytautas Magnus University together with the Lithuanian Institute of History by resolution No. 926 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the 15th of July, 2003. Scientific supervisor: Prof. habil. dr. Egidijus Aleksandravičius (Vytautas Magnus University, Humanities, History 05 H) 2 CONTENTS FOREWORD .................................................................................................................................................. 5 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 6 I. EUROPEAN JESUITS' HISTORIOGRAPHIC CANON ..................................................................... 32 I.1. FOUR PARAMETERS FOR THE DEFINITION OF A JESUITS’ HISTORIOGRAPHY ..................... 33 I.1.1 Eduard Fueter’s Criteria .................................................................................................................... 33 I.1.2. Humanist Historiography as the “Origin” of the Modern One. ........................................... 36 I.1.3. Re-Definition of the First Parameter: Permanence of the Scholasticism in the Neo- Platonism .......................................................................................................................................................... 39 I.1.4. Re-Definition of the Second and Third Parameters: the Non-Opposition to the Pagan Values Tradition ............................................................................................................................................. 44 I.1.5. Re-Definition of the Fourth Parameter: Rhetoric as a Method ........................................... 48 I.2. THE PLACE OF HISTORY IN 17TH CENTURY “ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCES” .......................... 52 I.2.1. Making history For the Major Glory of God (and Roman Church) ..................................... 52 I.2.2. Making History to Preserve Values: Jesuits and the New Political Doctrines ............... 54 I.2.3. The Cartesian Opposition to Memory .......................................................................................... 63 I.3. JESUITS HISTORIOGRAPHY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE ............................................................. 70 I.3.1. General Traits of Jesuits’ Historiography ................................................................................... 71 I.3.2. Jesuit Historiographers .................................................................................................................... 77 I.3.3. Piotr Skarga and Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza – The Two Phases of Jesuits’ Historiography................................................................................................................................................ 85 I.3.4. Definition of History in the Ratio Atque Insitutio Studiorum ............................................... 89 I.4. ANTONIO POSSEVINO: THE DEFINITION OF THE HISTORIOGRAPHIC CANON ...................... 93 I.4.1. Possevino's Moscovia ......................................................................................................................... 93 I.4.2. The Bibliotheca Selecta: a Project of Historiographic Canon ............................................ 102 II. KOIALOWICZ AS A JESUIT HISTORIAN ..................................................................................... 108 II.1. FOUR UNIONIST WORKS: SKARGA'S SERMONS TO THE DIET, POSSEVINO’S MOSCOVIA AND KOIALOWICZ’S FIRST BOOK OF HISTORIAE LITUANAE AND MISCELLANEA RERUM ....... 109 II.1.1. The “Polemical” Method of Skarga ........................................................................................... 113 II.1.2 Unionism in Possevino and Koialowicz: Historiae Lituanae as Implementation of the Moscovia’s Theories. .................................................................................................................................. 114 II.1.3. Unitarism in Koialowicz’s Miscellanea Rerum ad Statum Ecclesiasticum in Magno Lituaniae Ducatu pertinentium .............................................................................................................. 122 II.2. KOIALOWICZ'S HISTORIAE LITUANAE IN THE FRAME OF THE JESUITS HISTORIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................... 127 II.2.1. The Portrait of Mindaugas in Koialowicz: Between the structure of Stryjkowski and the Philosophy of Mariana ....................................................................................................................... 128 II.2.2. Historiae Lituanae and Historiae de rebus Hispaniae: Outlines for a Comparative Study ................................................................................................................................................................ 134 II.3. ADAM TANNER, MARTIN BECAN AND ALBERT WIJUK-KOIALOWICZ: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE PHILOSOPHES FROM BOHEMIA TO LITHUANIA ....................................................... 140 II.3.1. Rhetoric as Means of Education ................................................................................................ 145 II.3.2. The Historical Context: a Force that Shapes Consciences ................................................ 148 3 II.3.3. The Second Level of Understanding of Historiae Lituanae: Religious and Political153 II.3.4. The Third Level of Understanding of Historiae Lituanae: Moral and Gnoseologic . 158 CONCLUSIONS .........................................................................................................................................165 ABBREVIATIONS....................................................................................................................................168 SOURCES ...................................................................................................................................................168 LITERATURE ...........................................................................................................................................171 PUBLICATIONS ON THE DISSERTATION THEME ........................................................................181 4 FOREWORD This Doctoral work might appear too similar to a historiography handbook than to a monographic research because of its approach to the object studied. Some will claim there is too much theory in it and not enough work in the archives. However, the main aim of a Doctoral research is to plug gaps being original and „useful.“ For this reason, and since all previous works on the subject are very vast in terms of archive research and philological analysis but very poor in terms of philosophical contextualization of the problem, we decide to adopt this second, peculiar, approach even if it is unusual for a doctoral research. 5 INTRODUCTION The Field of Research. 'Sometimes, the modern thought even seams to dissolve in the history. […] The History not only has acquired its own autonomy but the historical knowledge is now knowledge of the truth'. 1 With these two short sentences, Federico Chabod pointed out, in his Lessons of Historical Method, the relevance, in the coeval thought, of the history as an instrument of knowledge in its widest sense. According to this scholar, not only the modern identities, but also the whole modern thought is impregnated with historical reflection. However, the phenomenon is not exclusively contemporary. Particularly during the Antiquity and Middle Ages, the philosophic reflection was imbued with history even if the latter was subordinated to ethic and theology: the dawn of humanity delimited the beginning of a process due to conclude with the accomplishment of the biblical prophecy.2 By the end of the 13th century, even the heritage of the Roman history had been incorporated in the frame of a history guided by the divine providence where the unification of the known world was due to prepare the descent of Christ among the men (see §I.2.1.). Nevertheless, it is only with the sunset of the medieval forma mentis, which subordinated every aspect of life to the religion, that history begins to be partially freed from the subjection to morals and the theology. This acquired autonomy stimulated the historical debate and, in turn, the elaboration of a historical method that finally evolved in a philosophy of history. It is only with the Humanism that history becomes an autonomous discipline, independent from the high purposes of the ethic and the theology. Yet, even after the 16th century, while the autonomy of history had been fully achieved by Humanists, some Christian historians continued to understand the study of the past, and particularly its narrative, as an instrument more than a process. According to these Christian scholars of the 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries, the great efforts exerted by Christians since the fall of the Roman Empire to make history the vox Dei, could not be wasted during the ideological conflicts of the modern ages: while it is true that, on one hand, the modern thought sometimes seems to dissolve in history, on the other hand, the challenges put