Jotvingiai "Senoji Lietuva" ir jų tikėjimas XVII a.
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Jotvingai, "Senoji Lietuva", XVII a. Vilniaus arkivyskupijos vizitacijos; Jotvingiai; Pagonių religija; Senoji Lietuva; "Old Lithuania", The Visitations of Vilnius Diocese of the 17th century; Old Lithuania; Paganism; Yotvingi; Yotvingians.
ENThe author presents the group of people called the ‘Old Lithuania’ residing in six parishes (Jelnia, Kosovas, Olševas, Bžostovica, Šidlovica, Porozovas) of deaneries Ružanai, Valkaviskas and Slanimas and parish Žiežmariai of Kaunas deanery. The presentation is based on the documents of the visitation of Vilnius diocese in the 17th century. In the 60s and 70s of the 17th century parish priest of Jelnia, Józef Butkiewicz Popuciewicz wrote that people living in his parish, so called the ‘Old Lithuania’ were Yotvingians. They called themselves the ‘New Yotvingians’ and they did not live according to the teaching of the Church, cultivated ancestral traditions which could be regarded as pagan beliefs. They were peasant and did not follow the Gregorian calendar. They had favourable conditions to maintain their paganism in the 17th century, because the parishes of Vilnius diocese were large, multi-cultural and multi-religious. Their residents showed the tolerability of religion, while the nobles were not always interested in the religious life of their lieges. Only after the Council of Trent the Catholic Church was able to force the pagans to become Christians. [From the publication]
