Converting physicians: the apostasy of Socinian Gaspar Wilkowski and the confessional boundaries of medicalization in 16th century Poland-Lithuania
ENWithout question this story ought to begin with two interconnected events which took place on Low Sunday, April 17, 1583, in Venice and in Lublin: in Venice, the most important Polish and Lithuanian soul reclaimed from Protestant ranks, Duke Mikolaj Krzysztof Radziwill “Sierotka” [the Orphan] (1549-1616), boarded a ship along with his escort and set off on a voyage along the Adriatic coast to reach Jerusalem and Egypt (Kempa: 2000, 119); thanks to the efforts of Jesuits, Radziwills account of this journey became the most recognizable literary emblem of a penitential pilgrimage in the region in the seventeenth century. On the same day, it appears, in St Michaels church in Lublin, a public apostasy took place of Gaspar (Kasper) Wilkowski (d. after 1608), a future physician to Radziwill “Sierotka": the young man left the Anti-Trinitarian community where he had grown up and matured, by publicly adopting the Catholic faith. One of the reasons for Radziwills pilgrimage was repentance and hope to recover from his illness. Today we can only wonder whether Wilkowski then knew about his future employment as the princes physician. Such a possibility cannot be excluded, although in the sixteenth century we find many examples of physicians and their patients belonging to opposing faiths; it is obvious, however, that in the second half of the sixteenth century the Jesuits of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were highly concerned with a growing network of “heretic physicians” while suffering a shortage of trained Catholic medical practitioners. [Extract, p. 213]
- Andreas Volanus und die Reformation im Grossfürstentum Litauen / von Kęstutis Daugirdas. Mainz : von Zabern, 2008. VII, 324 p.
- "Fa una setta da sé": Niccolò Buccella e la tradizione dell’antitrinitarismo veneto nell’esilio polacco-lituano / Dainora Pociūtė. Eretici e dissidenti tra Europa occidentale e orientale (Secoli XVI-XVIII) / a cura di Antonella Barzazi, Michela Catto, Dainora Pociūtė. Padova: Padova University Press, 2018. P. 35-57.
- „In angulo cum libello“: asmeninės istorijos pėdsakai Lietuvos jėzuitų užrašų knygelėse / Irena Katilienė, Liudas Jovaiša. Senoji Lietuvos literatūra. 2019, 47, p. 196-221.
- L’arginamento dell’eterodossia riformata nel Granducato di Lituania e in Polonia : il trattato Orthodoxa fidei confessio di Mikołaj Pac / Dainora Pociūtė. PL.IT / rassegna italiana di argomenti polacchi. 2017, 8, p. 5-21.
- Maištininkų katedros : ankstyvoji reformacija ir lietuvių-italų evangelikų ryšiai : monografija / Dainora Pociūtė ; Vilniaus universitetas. Vilnius : Versus aureus, 2008. 599, [1] p.
- Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł Sierotka (1549-1616) : wojewoda wileński / Tomasz Kempa. Warszawa : Semper, 2000. 381 p.
- Mirties nugalėti nepavyko: Biržų ir Dubingių kunigaikščių Radvilų biologinė istorija (XV a. pabaiga - XVII a.) / Raimonda Ragauskienė. Vilnius : Lietuvos edukologijos universiteto leidykla, 2017. 735 p.
- Nematomos tikrovės šviesa : reformacijos Lietuvoje asmenybės ir idėjos / Dainora Pociūtė. Vilnius : Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2017. 331 p.
- Vilniaus tėvas, Vytauto įpėdinis: jėzuitų edukacinė strategija Stepono Batoro laikais ir valdovo įvaizdis amžininkų literatūroje / Dainora Pociūtė. Nuo apaštalų iki kankinių. Jėzaus Draugijos reprezentavimo modeliai nuo pat pradžių iki uždraudimo. Kaunas : Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas ; Vilnius : Versus aureus, 2016. P. 87-120.
