Rodziłem się Żydem... : konwersje Żydów w Rzeczypospolitej XVII-XVIII wieku

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Žydai; Abiejų Tautų Respublika (ATR; Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów; Žečpospolita; Sandrauga; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); Žydų konversija į krikščionybę; Neofitai; Socialinės struktūros; Jews; Jewish conversion to Christianity; Neophytes; Social structures.

ENThe present paper focuses on the issue of Jewish conversion to Catholicism. Although the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a multi-religious country, Roman Catholicism was its dominant creed. The title of this book, "I was born a Jew", refers to phrases used in statements frequently made by neophytes, and captures the essential difference between the modern understanding of Jewishness and the one present in the former Commonwealth. For a European society in the modern era the term "Jew" meant a follower of Judaism, and not a member of a nation, and definitely not a representative of a separate race. A follower of Judaism - a separate legal and religious group in the Republic - once he was baptised, ceased to be a Jew and became a member of the Christian community. As part of the research project entitled 'Jewish Apostasy in the Early Modern Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth' an attempt was made to investigate the phenomenon of conversion, basing on primary sources - baptism books of the Roman Catholic Church, mainly from the diocese of Kraków. Since, however, the Jewish conversion happened mainly in cities, additional queries were conducted in the public registers available in Lviv, Poznań, Vilnius and Warsaw. The main aim of the project was also examining the attitude of the Polish Church (the episcopate, clergy and worshippers) towards Jews converting to Christianity, and especially to asses whether this attitude was consistent with the policy of the Holy See and the tradition of the Latin Church, especially in view of the fact that the Papacy in the sixteenth century (Paul III, Paul IV and Gregory XIII) changed its "Jewish" policies and intensified their actions against Jews, implementing a program isolating them in ghettos, weakening their economic position and the encouraging the policy of forced sermons.However, in the 16th century Republic, unhindered expansion of the Jewish population took place, and since the 17th century even those cities that had the privilege of de non tolerandis Judaeis were increasingly populated by Jews. The existing literature on the subject tended to see the missionary involvement of the Polish Church as present only in the 18th century. The aim of this study was to verify the above claim and specify the conditions of Jewish conversions to Christianity, the extent to which they were influenced by internal factors (social attitudes, legal situation of the Jews, etc.), and to what extent they came as a result of pressure on the part of Papacy. Another objective was to investigate the differences between the phenomenon of conversion in the Polish-Lithuanian state and other European countries, the attitude towards neophytes in Christian communities, legal relations (eg. changes in legislation, both ecclesiastical and secular) and ways of resolving conflict situations caused by the change of creed. The book is divided into six main chapters, the first of which discusses selected demographic issues. The second chapter is devoted to the motivations of converts and the issue of baptism of children and minors. The third chapter provides an overview of the new policy of the Church and the State on conversion, especially the conversion of children. The fourth chapter is devoted to the issue of state membership of new Christians, while chapter five focuses on their legal situation and practical ways to solve various problems related to neophytes in secular and ecclesiastical courts, with special emphasis on converts returning to Judaism, and the problem of property and marriage of new Christians. The last chapter discusses missionary and charitable activity of the Church, especially in the 18th century.When one looks at the numbers, it may be observed that the phenomenon of conversion in the 18th century did not yet constitute a real threat to the Polish Jewry. Even according to the most optimistic estimates, one may only speak about more than one convert per mille, and in some regions in the years of most conversions, that is 1740s and 1750s, perhaps three converts per mille of the entire Jewish population. However, some milieus, both Jewish and Christian, perceived the issue as a serious problem. But there is no doubt that hundreds, or even thousands of Polish Jews in the scale of the whole century, abandoned Judaism in this period - at least for some time, as returns to Judaism were relatively common. This is a clear change from the 17th century, when conversion to Christianity was a very rare phenomenon. Most of the converts came from the poorer strata of the society, even from its underclass, or were minors, which gave rise to many social problems. Neophyte baptisms were celebrated mainly in large cities, where even several hundred converts were recorded in parish registers of the 17th century in cities like Kraków or Warsaw. In small towns and rural parishes more than several converts were rarely reported. Most of the converts of this period are boys and young men. In the 18th century Republic, however, the number of young female neophytes increased, especially in the countryside. In this respect, the phenomenon of conversion in the period of Old Poland does not differ from similar cases both in the past and present. It also seems that the increase in the number of converted minors, especially girls, was partly the result of their more frequent contacts with the Christian population and in many cases living outside the Jewish communities. [...]. [From the publication]

• Teologija / Theology
• Istorija / History