Konflikt wartości stanowych, patronackich i wyznaniowych w kręgu Radziwiłłów birżańskich w I. połowie XVII wieku

Abstract

The aim of the article is to confront the system of ethical values promoted in Latin academic dissertations and occasional laudations by eminent evangelical theoreticians of education: Johannes Sturm, Adam Rassius and Andrzej Wolan, with real attitudes of representatives of evangelical political elite, in particular the Radziwiłł from the Evangelical/Birżan line and their adherents as well as their views expressed in private and public correspondence on royal duties, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Lithuanian Evangelical-Reformed Church (the Lithuanian Unity), and fellow believers. The authoress tried to explain the reasons for permanent tension, and sometimes open conflict, between the civic obligations of Lithuanian magnates - Evangelists and their patron duties. The folIowing were presented: demands for the Evangelical magnate as a public and private person, a conflict between his/her personal patronage obligations and "common law", and a general conflict between evangelical religious patronage and the Vasa religious policy. In conclusion, it was noted that "indecent" behaviors of magnates (not only evangelicals) resulted primarily from their obligations to clients, which continually forced patrons to act against the law and tested their compliance with patronage obligations that were as important as protectionists.