https://doi.org/10.15290/std.2024.10.03
The first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its circumstances were a profound shock for the majority of its citizens, including those who viewed the laws guaranteeing noble freedoms as the foundation of the nation’s strength. This created fertile ground for attempts to implement reforms of a scope and pace never seen in the Commonwealth. A crucial role in these reforms was attributed to the Catholic Church, whose reform-oriented hierarchy, including Bishop Ignacy Massalski of Vilnius, was prepared to take on this challenge and risk. This issue was central to Polish Catholic Enlightenment thought. Reformers, in keeping with the spirit of the age, recognised that the foundation of the transformation lay in changing the way all citizens perceived their duties to the state. These efforts also required a religious sanction. At the level of parish ministry, this entailed efforts to make the faithful – particularly those most overlooked and neglected in this regard – aware of their religious and confessional identity by reminding them of the fundamental truths of Christian teaching in its Catholic interpretation. It was reasoned that a properly informed individual, through subsequent stages of religious and patriotic formation, would come to understand independently that they possessed a “homeland” that provided security and was their home; that this home was under threat and could be lost to neighbouring schismatic and heretical rulers. This idealistic and, from a contemporary perspective, somewhat naïve conviction underpinned the decision to employ the pulpit as a tool for state reform.
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