Marriage or mitre? The careers of bishops from the Pac family in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation
ENFor a few decades in the later seventeenth century, the Pac family (Pacai in Lithuanian) became the leading magnate clan in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The achievements and careers of clergymen from the family in state and ecclesiastical structures indicate their significance and position in the system of power at that time. While the 1660s and 1670s were for the Pac family a golden baroque age, the family's bumpy rise during the previous century and a half also merits examination. The article seeks to identify the factors conditioning careers in the context of the position of the family and to characterize the bishops (or nominated bishops) from this family. Over four generations, it is possible to observe a slow and far from stable process in which the bishops Pac aimed less to wield power than to satisfy their own ambitions. During this period, which saw the swift advance of the Reformation turn into the triumph of the Counter-Reformation, these ambitions turned upside down — between marriage and mitre. Keywords: History, Lithuanian History, History of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Carers, Counter-Reformation, Clerical Marriage and Celibacy, Vilnius, Medieval Bishops, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Bishop, History of Grand Duchy of Lithuania In the XVI-XVIII C., Reformations. [Academia.edu]
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