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A Model for Christendom? Erasmus, Poland, and the Reformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2014

Howard Louthan
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Abstract

This article examines the close ties that developed between Desiderius Erasmus and the Polish kingdom and the implication of these relationships on our understanding of the religious landscape of late medieval and early modern Europe. Few regions embraced Erasmus as enthusiastically as Poland, and nowhere else did he have such a concentration of allies positioned at the highest levels of society including the king himself. More than any other figure from western Europe, Erasmus helped shape the intellectual and religious agenda of the Polish kingdom during this period. A close analysis of this relationship expands our understanding of Reformation Europe in a number of critical ways. It brings Poland, normally viewed peripherally in this period, into key debates and discussions of the Reformation. Erasmus's relationship with Poland also speaks to wider issues and processes of change in the Christian world. As confessional distinctions were becoming more pronounced in the 1520s and 1530s and hope for ecclesial reunion receded, Erasmus looked to Poland as a model for Christendom. He held up the kingdom as an example of how difference could be accommodated and compromise could be reached through wise leadership in church and state.

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Articles
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Church History , Volume 83 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 18 - 37
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Copyright © American Society of Church History 2014 

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References

1 For an overview see Louthan, Howard, “Multiconfessionalism in Central Europe,” in Multiconfessionalism in Early Modern Europe, ed. Safley, Thomas Max (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2011), 369–392Google Scholar.

2 Kłoczowski, Jerzy, Młodsza Europa: Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia w kręgu cywilizacji chrześcijańskiej średniowiecza (Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1988)Google Scholar. Representative on crisis and decline is Eberhard, Winfried and Seibt, Ferdinand, eds., Europa 1400: Die Krise des Spätmittelalters (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1984)Google Scholar. In recent years this model has been challenged in the west as well. See for example van Engen, John, “Multiple Options: The World of the Fifteenth-Century Church,” Church History 77 (2008): 257–284Google Scholar.

3 Foxe, Paul, The Reformation in Poland (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1924)Google Scholar. For Poland's radicals one can begin with Williams, G. H., The Radical Reformation, 3rd edition (Kirksville, Mo.: Truman State University Press, 2000)Google Scholar. Though there is considerable variation in how one defines Poland in this period, for this article we will be focusing primarily on the royal capital Cracow in Lesser Poland (Małopolska).

4 Geographically, the exceptions to these generalizations tend to be found in the Baltic region. Danzig's reformation moment was most typically urban, and there was peasant unrest in ducal Prussia. Zins, Henryk, “Aspects of the Peasant Rising in East Prussia in 1525,” The Slavonic and East European Review 38 (1959): 178–187Google Scholar; Tazbir, Janusz, “Ze studiów nad stosunkiem polskich protestantów do chłopów w XVI wieku,” Reformacja w Polsce 12 (1956): 32–61Google Scholar.

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6 Allen, vol. 5, letter 1393, 343–345.

7 Allen, vol. 9, letter 2533, 336–340.

8 Allen, vol. 7, letter 1819, 59–65; letter 2034, 456–458.

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15 Allen, vol. 7, letter 1803, 2–5.

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18 Allen, vol. 6, letter 1652, 236–239.

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25 Allen, vol. 9, letter 2533, 336–40; letter 2584, 401–403.

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27 Allen, vol. 10, letter 2643, 13–16.

28 Allen, vol. 6, letter 1752, 413–414; vol. 7, letter, 1820, 65.

29 See for example Allen, vol. 7, letter 1958, 337–338; vol. 8, 2175, 190–191; vol. 10, 2874, 309–313.

30 Allen, vol. 7, letter 1952, 331–332.

31 Des. Erasmi Roterodami Epistola ad Inclytum Sigismundum Regem Poloniae (Cracow: Wietor, 1527).

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36 O'Malley, John and Perraud, Louis, eds., Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 69 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999)Google Scholar, xi.

37 Allen, vol. 11, letter 3049, 217–222.

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40 See here Erasmus's extended discussion with Tomicki concerning the practical lessons Seneca could offer contemporary church leaders (Allen, vol. 8, letter 2091, 25–39) as well as the discussion concerning Erasmus's forthcoming publication of his Ecclesiastes, a long awaited handbook for preachers (Allen, vol. 11, letter 3049, 217–222).

41 Allen, vol. 8, letter 2173, 187–189; vol. 10, letter 2713, 91–2; vol. 11, letter 3000, 78–79.

42 Allen, vol. 8, letter 2175, 190–191, cited in Tracy, James, Erasmus of the Low Countries (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 197Google Scholar.

43 Allen, vol. 6, letter 1717, 350–352.

44 Allen vol. 11, letter 3137, 345–347.

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46 Allen, vol. 11, letter 3049, 217–222.

47 Erasmus, An Exposition of Psalm 38 in Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 65, Expositions of the Psalms, ed. Baker-Smith, Dominic (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), 42Google Scholar.

48 Erasmus, An Exposition of Psalm 38, 43, 51, 52.

49 Erasmus, An Exposition of Psalm 38, 59.

50 Collected Works of Erasmus, 65:xii–xiv.

51 Rummel, Erika, “Erasmus and the Restoration of Unity in the Church,” in Conciliation and Confession, eds. Louthan, Howard and Zachman, Randall (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004), 63Google Scholar.

52 Erasmus, On Mending the Peace of the Church in Collected Works of Erasmus, 65:202.

53 Erasmus, On Mending the Peace of the Church, 213. For a fuller analysis of this text see Erika Rummel, “Erasmus and the Restoration of Unity in the Church,” 62–72.

54 Allen, vol. 5, letter 1334, 173–192; cited in Collected Works of Erasmus, 63:lvii.

55 Erasmus, An Explanation of the Apostles' Creed in Collected Works of Erasmus, 70:261.

56 Cited in Backus, Irena, “Erasmus and the Spirituality of the Early Church,” in Erasmus's Vision of the Church, ed. Pabel, Hilmar (Kirksville, Mo.: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1995), 112–113Google Scholar.

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58 Cited in Mansfield, Bruce, Phoenix of his Age: Interpretations of Erasmus 1550–1750 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979), 4Google Scholar.

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61 Cytowska, Maria, “Érasme en Pologne avant l'époque du Concile de Trente,” Erasmus in English 5 (1972): 15Google Scholar. Jacqueline Glomski has looked most closely at the early period and has suggested a chronology that has Erasmus's influence peaking by 1530. Glomski, “Erasmus in Cracow,” 16.

62 Bietenholz ed., Contemporaries of Erasmus, 3:328.

63 Allen, vol. 11, letter 3014, 127–9; letter 3049, 217–222.

64 Allen, vol. 11, letter 3066, 240–246.

65 Erasmus, The Lord's Prayer, 58.

66 Allen, vol. 11, letter 3000, 78–79.

67 Allen, vol. 7, letter1919, 274–275.

68 Allen, vol. 7, letter 1819, 59–65.

69 Allen, vol. 7, letter 2034, 456–458.

70 On his understanding of Sigismund see Letocha, Danièle, “Quand Érasme se fait politique: la première lettre à Sigismond 1er le Vieux,” Renaissance and Reformation 12 (1988): 251–271Google Scholar.

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72 Erasmus, Aliquot epistolae selectae (Basel: Froben 1536), H1r-H3r; E2v-E4r.

73 Erasmus, Aliquot epistolae selectae, F6v-F7r.

74 Erasmus, Aliquot epistolae selectae, D3v-D4v.

75 Cited in Augustijn, Cornelis, Erasmus. His Life, Works and Influence, trans. Grayson, J. C. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995), 3Google Scholar.

76 This letter was appended to Erasmus's letter to King Sigismund. Des. Erasmi Roterodami Epistola ad Inclytum Sigismundum Regem Poloniae &c. . . (Cracow: Wietor, 1527), Biiir-Bvv.

77 A Lasco to Bullinger, March 1544, in A. Johannis a Lasco Opera, vol. 2, ed. Kuyper, A. (Amsterdam: F. Muller, 1866)Google Scholar, letter 16, 568–569.

78 Most important is his De Republica emendanda. The literature on Frycz in western languages is thin. Best is Séguenny, André and Urban, Wacław, eds., Andrzej Frycz Modrzweski, vol. 18, Bibliotheca dissidentium (Baden-Baden: Valentin Koerner, 1997)Google Scholar.

79 For a brief commentary and edited translation see Olin, John, ed. The Catholic Reformation (New York: Fordham University Press, 1992), 182–197Google Scholar.