„The Gutfor’s Case”, that is on the Polish Followers of the Early Reformation and Their Trials. Some Remarks Related to Natalia Nowakowska’s Study of King Sigismund I of Poland and Martin Luther Cover Image

Casus „Gutfora”, czyli o polskich zwolennikach wczesnej reformacji i ich procesach. Uwagi źródłoznawcze w związku z książką Natalii Nowakowskiej o królu Zygmuncie Starym i Marcinie Lutrze
„The Gutfor’s Case”, that is on the Polish Followers of the Early Reformation and Their Trials. Some Remarks Related to Natalia Nowakowska’s Study of King Sigismund I of Poland and Martin Luther

Author(s): Paweł Kras
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, 16th Century, Other Christian Denominations, History of Religion
Published by: Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: King Sigismund I of Poland; Martin Luther; Reformation in Poland; Polish Lutherans; heresy trials;

Summary/Abstract: The article engages in the polemics over the findings of research on the supporters of the Lutheran Reformation in the monarchy of King Sigismund the Old, presented in the study by Natalia Nowakowska, published in 2018. In the author’s opinion, the search query was conducted selectively, and some readings of Latin sources and their interpretation raise objections, as evidenced by, among other things, the case of the Cracow goldsmith Matthias Bochsler (Guthslar), dealt with in December 1532, and registered along with several other trials of Lutheranism, in the court book of Cracow bishops catalogued under the shelfmark AEp 2. The sources analysed by the British scholar do not fundamentally change the opinion of the small impact of Martin Luther’s ideas on the Polish society in the 1520s and 1530s, except for Prussian cities and elite groups of burghers of German origin active in Lesser Poland (Cracow) and Greater Poland (Poznań).

  • Issue Year: 64/2020
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 123-155
  • Page Count: 33
  • Language: Polish