Religia i polityka: kilka uwag do biografii Janusza Radziwiłła (1612-1655)

ENThe main assumptions adopted for the upbringing and education of Janusz Radziwiłł resolve to this: constancy in religious beliefs, service to the Republic and its ruler and ties with the House of Radziwiłł. The results achieved cause bitter disputes. According to the author, there is no reason to doubt the Prince’s piety. Surely, it is not the discrepancy, which is often pointed out, between the severity of principles proclaimed by Calvin and the splendour with which he surrounded himself. The latter came from the whole world of concepts of the Republic, and not only of the Republic, it was an expression of a concern for the glamour of the House of Radziwiłł, was an evidence not only of the different norms of the religious and nobleman’s life, but the superiority of the latter. Piety and sense of responsibility for the coreligionists went hand in hand with political prudence of the Prince and his ability to predict the effects, which could be brought by the persistence to their postulates only to the heretics and the whole Republic. Disturbance through obstinacy of convocations or the election of 1648, which occurred at the time of successes of the Cossack uprising, would have had to bring incalculable losses to the whole society, and, in addition, on legal grounds, to the dissidents themselves. Janusz Radziwill’s conciliatory attitude made possible, or at least facilitated, the repetition by the Catholic majority of the resolutions guaranteeing to those whose religious beliefs were different that they would retain their place in the Republic.