Uwagi o edukacji moralnej synów szlacheckich w XVI-wiecznej Rzeczypospolitej

Abstract

Education and upbringing of a "new man" required great effort from parents and teachers. The linguistic rhetorical education (with new teaching content) in the 16th century Europe was to assure a moral future life. In the Polish nobility tradition, moral education of a son was absolute priority, regardless of the family's religion, status or position in the nobility. Moral education was often referred to as philosophy. It usually included ethics (morality), economic ethics (eqmomics) and political ethics (polities). Scarce information has survived about noble sons' teachers. The families mostly remembered them in a positive light. Teachers were connected with employers in various ways. Some of them had previously benefited from the magnate's support and paid offtheir debt by raising and teaching children of a former patron. Novices as well as acclaimed poets, writers, school founders or school reformers, handbook authors, Catholic and Protestant religious polemists were all engaged in pedagogical activity. In addition to teaching, they were in charge of the employers' library. Most teachers held university degrees (sometimes of several universities). The highest recognition for the hardship of education was granting teachers a nobility status, but in the Noble Republic of Poland, it did not occur too often.