Kalwińska mowa podszyta nienawiścią: Wilno lat 1581–1582 i „Apologeticus”
Calvinistic Speech Fraught with Hatred: Vilnius between 1581–1582 and “Apologeticus”

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses an anonymous poem “Apologeticus” (published in Vilnius 1582) being the first direct evangelical statement in a polemics about the Confederation of Warsaw. Not only was it a defensive response to previous Catholic speeches, but also an offensive monition directed to them and provoked by the 1581 Vilnius turmoil. The objects of Calvinian attack are the Pope (alongside of the Jesuits and Stanisław Hozjusz), the Polish clergy, Polish renegades, worship of the saints and of Holy Mary, Catholic idolatry, and celibacy. The arguments, essentially conditioned by historical “there” and “then” (Vilnius between 1581–1582), with time in the writings of evangelic polemists ceased or even did not appear at all. Thus, such writings were not characterised by such intensity of emotions unfriendly to the Catholics as visible in the poem in question. Provided Piotr Skarga is “a warrior of Counter Reformation,” the unknown author of “Apologeticus” may be per analogiam referred to as “a swashbuckler of Reformation” due to his anti-Catholic invectives.

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