Words That Burn:Catholic-Reformed Polemics and Their Impact in Early Modern Vilnius (1574-1647)

Between 1574 and 1647, Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, became a battleground for one of the fiercest religious conflicts in Eastern Europe. What began as a private theological exchange between the Jesuit preacher Piotr Skarga and the Calvinist writer and politician Andrzej Wolan soon erupted into a decades-long controversy. This struggle played out not only in academic disputations, learned treatises, and satirical poetry but also in violent anti-Protestant tumults that ultimately led to the destruction of Vilnius’s Calvinist church and the suppression of Reformed worship in the city.

This paper examines the development of polemical literature in Vilnius and its role in escalating religious hostilities. It traces the arguments of key local figures such as Skarga, Wolan, or Jesuit Marcin Śmiglecki, alongside the direct involvement of major European polemicists like Antonio Possevino, Francisco Torres, and Fausto Sozzini. By analyzing approximately 120 printed and manuscript sources, it explores how polemic shifted from doctrinal disputes to mockery and justifications for violence. Special attention is given to the impact of anti-Protestant literary attacks in inciting real-world aggression, particularly the repeated destruction of Reformed churches by Catholic mobs.

Beyond close reading textual analysis, this research utilizes a database to map intertextual connections and track shifts in popularity of polemical genres, themes, and theological authorities. By comparing Vilnius’s controversial literature with similar texts from other cities in Poland–Lithuania and Europe, it aims to reassess polemical writings not merely as a textual phenomenon but as an active force shaping the urban religious landscape.

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Speaker information

Michał E. Nowakowski is a doctoral candidate at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland), previously a Fulbright visiting researcher at Boston College, and currently a Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange visiting researcher at the University of York. He is the principal investigator of two research projects on Catholic–Reformed polemical literature and early modern European diplomacy, which have resulted in over ten scholarly publications, including two monographs (one co-authored with Robert Maryks is forthcoming in Brill this year). Nowakowski is also a member of research teams working on anti-Jesuit literature and Jesuit translation culture.