Tolerance, society, and sovereignty: the retreat from pluralism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

ENThe Polish Brethren were fervent advocates of religious tolerance. Johann Crell's "Vindiciae pro Religionis Libertate" (1637) is prominent among their works, because of its far-reaching and progressive arguments for freedom of religion. This article outlines the historical and intellectual context of this pamphlet, and its reception in seventeenth-century Europe. Despite being familiar with a historical situation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth where toleration was practiced on a societal level, Crell strongly argued that freedom of religion had to be enacted through a public law. Only in this way could freedom of religion be truly effective and guarantee safety for all citizens. [From the publication]

• After the deluge : Poland-Lithuania and the Second Northern War, 1655-1660 / Robert I. Frost. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2003. xxiv, 211 p.
• Citizenship and identity in a multinational Commonwealth : Poland-Lithuania in context, 1550-1772 / edited by Karin Friedrich and Barbara M. Pendzich. Leiden ; Brill, 2009. xix, 307 p.
• Historical overview of the political and denominational reality in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century / Wojciech Kriegseisen. Word of God, words of men: translations, inspirations, transmissions of the Bible in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth in the Renaissance / Joanna Pietrzak-Thébault (ed.). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018. P. 19-38.
• Jesuit culture in Poland and Lithuania, 1564-1773 / Krzysztof Fordoński, Piotr Urbański. Journal of Jesuit studies. 2018, vol. 5, iss. 3, p. 341-351.