Artykuły wojskowe jako źródło poznania religijności żołnierzy doby wczesnonowożytnej

Abstract

Despite numerous works drawing on military articles, few researchers ventured a serious reflection on this kind of normative acts as historical sources. Only S. Kutrzeba, G. Błaszczyk and U. Augustyniak took their stand on the subject. In the literature concerning the issue it is common to believe that the abovementioned laws have little value in the research of the religiosity of the military men. The analysis, however, indicates that military articles should play a prominent role in the research on the religiosity of the military men in the early modern era. Their significant epistemological value should be treated with obvious reservations regarding all normative sources. At the same time, it does not seem that military articles should be loaded with flaws diminishing their value or excluding their use in the assessment of so complex a problem. One of the crucial mistakes in the hitherto prevailing historiography was treating all military laws as a homogenous collection. Nonetheless, while analysing the legal norms the additional factors should be considered, e.g. the way the articles were issued, the time that passed between their acceptance and the indicated period. lt also seems necessary to position the legal norms against the dynamie process in which military law was created, in both temporal and geopolitical sense. The change of the regulations, their specification, sharpening, mitigation or the penalisation of deeds not considered in other European countries may provide additional information in the analysis of a given issue.