History of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Front matter

Urszula Augustyniak

History of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

State — Society — Culture

Contents

Editors Prefatë EA OOOO 23 Introduction wo ————— '— 25 History of a Society, not of a Nation... ertt nnne 26 The Question of Nations in the Early Modern Polish-Lithuanian Chapter One KS "NAME EE 1.2. Emblem and Coats of Arms of the Lands 1:3.- "Capital Cites aa eaa E A OO 2.1... ‘Geographical: Positiori. eee e Z cresce dett IRE 34 2.3. Geopolitical Location

3.1. Granular Structure of Early Modern Europe...

3.3. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth... tte t eb tei 38 3.3.1. Terms of the Union of 1569... 39 3.3.2. Consequences and Appraisals of the Polish- Lithüaniari Union... Rte tht ntt 40 3.3.3. The Influence of the Union on the Rise of Magnates' POWER cedente e EIER NIE D DE 42

Chapter Two

1. Political Terminology... tette ttt 71 2. Legal Political Orders of Mixed Government... anawa. 73

px PET acne YA OWO ŻABA 73 3.1. The King s Authority... ete ea 77 3.2. Limitations and Obligations of the Elected King... 79 34- ILU c ——————— 81 3:5, The Royal Courts ssi WR GRA 82 4.2 The Hierarchy of Central Offices slurs 86 4:4... Central Officials... A HERE YW 89 4.5. Attempts to Modernize the Central Administration under the WettlIs.. i ctsinen i een lade du es ed ee ds 90 5. Local Administration 5.1. 5.2. 5.3.

SE CZCZO) CE 94 6. Parliamentary System... ee tenete iiie dile dites 95 6:2. The Genefal SEJM a aimer ee e AR 96 6.5. Procedures of Sejm Sessions... enne 104 6:6: + LIDEREM VELO dze WEAR AAAA 106

7.1. The Genesis of Confederation: Tesisinin 107 7.2. 7.3. 8.1.. General Sejmiks. sese etim mirer EFE THREE TORRENT 110 9. SEJMIK Seenaa 9.1. Types of Sejmiks 92 Rule OP Se ik Sisenna teniente pid a RU 9.3. Clientelism of Sejmik Sreser aaa 115 10.1. Program of Reform; e e tre 117

10.2.2. The Project of Unification of the Crown and Lithuania ....118 10.3. Legislation of the Delegation Sejm (1767-1768)

10.4. Legislation of the Partition Sejm (1773-1775)... 10.5. Sejms of 1776-1786... isse tdem rbi ain 10.7. The Government Act of 1791 and Later Legislation of the boür-Year SEJM a a O nti ttn eR Ere 123 10.8. The Most Important Provisions of the Government Act of 1791...123 10.8.1. Political System and Central Authorities... a 124 10.8.2. Parliamentary Institutions... 125 10.8.3. Polish-Lithuanian Relations in the Legislation of the Great Sejm eeren 10.9. Legislation of the Grodno Sejm of 1793 10.9.2. Polish-Lithuanian Relations in the Legislation of 11. Political System of the 1794 Insurrection „u.s 128

Chapter Three

2. Codifications and Sources of Law... 131

3. The Judiciary... eset ttt ttt nnt ttt tenentis inen 132 3.1. Royal Courts and the Sejm Court... 132

3:2. Nobility COUEtS...is e OR ie denn 133

3.2.1. Courts of First Instance - Land Courts, Borough Courts and Chamberlain Courts ...

322 blur ————— 3:2:3.. Special Courts... tele i 3:3. Rural and Urban Courts... asit dE A 34: The BAM e ———————— BD 136 3,5, - Performance of the Tüdiciaty.. ii eis ARRAS 137 3.6.1. The Noble Judiciary System... 139 3:6.2- “The Sepia COUTE niian tse hs CH IIO 139 3.6.4. The Rural Judicial System... 140 4. Fiscal and Financial Matters... rester anie anie ns 140 4.1. Development of Public Finances and Taxes in the Commonwealth of the 16" to 17% Centuries ss 140 4.2. Organization of Financial Authorities... 141 4.3. Court Treasure and Public Treasure... 142 4.4. Public and Private Income of the King... 144 5. Miltary Sy Stem ases bpek cire vate RR t PLUS 150 SP MEN Vo 0496 LB CO CEO 152 EEG ntis ————— 155 5.4. Social Composition of the Army... 158

5.5. Participation of Townsmen in the Defense of the

Commonwealth... ed O WEW AAAA 159 5.6. Military Recruitment unninn 160 5.7. Military and Professional Training... 161 5.8. Soldier's Pay and Army Supplies... 161 5.9. Modernization of the Army in the 18" Century ss 163 Chapter Four The State and the Churches... oon EA 167 1. Relations between the State and Churches in the Early Modern Commonwealth... ace ttt AA rtt Lr 167 1.2. Confederation of Warsaw (1573)... serene 168 2. Christian Churches in the Commonwealth 2:1... Roman Catholic Church isisisi 2.2. Protestant Churches (Reformation Churches). " 2:24... “Reformed: Chelsea td 2.2.2. Lutheran Church (Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession)... tttntnnnnn 178 2.3. Churches of the Eastern Tradition... 179 2:3:1. The Orthodox Church... se tette 179 2.3.3. Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church... 181 3. Evolution of the State Policy towards Religion, 3.3. The Decline of Protestant Patronage. Conversions and Dying out of Protestant Families... 191 3.4. King Wladislaus IV's Religious Policy... 193

3.5. An Attempt at Conciliation - Colloquium Charitativum (1645)...195

3.8. Situation of Protestants in the Wettin Times...

Chapter Five ECONOMY cuo O A AL UEM LI LAS IEEE 207 11. Economic Specificity of the Commonwealth... 1.2. A division of Europe along the Line of the Elbe River’. 14. Economy ofthe Crown versus European Economy - Main Stages and Factors of Changes... een 209 2. The Crisis of the 17 Century... ttn 210 PA NE . Monetary Boo; NM —— 210 2.2. Global Crisis of the 17^ Century... 212 23 -Merea TEES rie ——ÓÀ 213 2.3.1. The Commonwealth's Economists in the Face of the Monetary Crisis: uec IER ER RUE TR RIED REB 214 23:2.. Solutions to the Crisis 2i RE o 215 Be C©OIMNIEFCE mm 216 3.1. Organization of Commerce and Banking... 216 3.4. Fairs and Contracts ttt 218 4. Transpotrtallon eet iet serait e OR E unsese bas AŚ ie 219 4.1... Land Transp ort wew 219 MER avc p ——— 220 4.3: Sea Transport or innn ——— 220 5.. Agricultüre usa o AE WG tient tite AA AAA

5.1. Farming Methods and Tools

5.2. Stages of Transformation of Manorial Economy inthe 16*—17* Centuries setenta tette dcc nd 222

6. Horticulture and Fruit Farming... ertet 223 FOREST O E AA ONA tene M OE 225 8.2... BEEKEEPDINE Za A ni n O A 226

9. „Fishing Industry doceo AA tee ga rect dA dan terrae 226

DO Gi ATES E A a EEA E 227

Ti TINGS a p W aaa —————M——— — 228 ii i. Cloth Manufacturing: swa O A R AAA A O 228 11:2. „Ming DudustÉy: owo tt A AAA PAY O 229 (i3, „MIEtAlUEPY z A R A Ad Eat O YĆ 230

12. Economic Changes in the 18" Century... 230 12.1. Recession of the Second Half of the 17^ — Early 18" Century ....230 12.2. Reconstruction of Economy in the Wettin Times... 231

1. Population Changes since the End of the 16^ Century towards the End of the 18" Century ttt ttt 11. The Reliability of Demographic Data .

2.1. The Factors of Social Structure Change in 16" to

the 18 Centuries pa A r AAA 244

3.14. Noble Exclusivisin co REUNIR NR AAAA 245 3:3, Citizenship... eco oe nta eret AA 246 3.5. Economic Divisions within the Nobility... eee 248 3:6 Tbe Mar mates. caede caet ncm ERR 248 3.7. The Specificity of the Magnate Patronage in the

4.1. Catholic Clet ey e ——— M 255 43. Clergy of Other Christian Confessions... 258 The Bürgher Estate? uade oen prt ctt de EE 259 5.2. Internal Divisions within the Burgher Estate... 261 "The Peasant Estate: eset tate ettet A AŚ Wini 265 6.1. Stratification of the Peasants ninss 266 Ethnic-Legal Groups = ZU» UIBeSCOLSnau enden ite OO ARASHI 7.2. The Armenians 7:3: "The: Kaaitesa ww RW EA O REGA Iced iron t TAs. The JEWS ————————— — 8.2. Social Margin (the Loose People) 9.1. The Ethnic Structure of the Commonwealth 9.3. The Nations of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom Sh 9.4. The Nations of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania... eee 9.5. The Evolution of Confessional Relations... 282 9.6. The Social and Ethnic Structure of Polish and Lithuanian Protéstantssc eee me ta 283 Multiethnicity and Multiculturalism in the Cities... 286 10:1. Tumults (RAGES) euntes adum rccte rerom f 287

12. Peasant Reforms in the 18 Century... ertet 294 12.1. New Regulations Regarding Land Usage... sss 294

13.1. The Shift in the Concept of Nation... 13.2. The Nation and the Citizens...

Chapter Seven

2. SocialEnvironmernt.... edad dad dH rb d 309 VA PESO € M——M 309 2.2; The Ciby m ———— 311 2.3. Noble and Magnate Courts... eene 313

34. he Parish, te ee i ER RR III ERAT 313

4.. * SOCIAECATE ento titi emper dilema ei det UNE 315 4.1. The Stages and Tendencies of Change... 315 42. Catholic Social Care... tremens tecti iret ll b 315 4.3... Protestant Social: Cate. trees siccis LH AA 316

5. Hygiene and Health... aec e tee ERE dn 5.1. Personal Hygiene 5.2. Epidemics and Plagues 5.4. Remedies s or. „Lite Standard. saw ha ettet idus iraque 6.1. Quality of Life versus Lifestyle... 321 6:23. iilagloto rc —Ó—Ó———— 321 OS WEN PNIIRd c NM A 323 viii ————————À 325 7,14. "Ihe: NobleEstates.... 2 RR etii dtt ORE 325 7:2. Palaces And: Castles... tte HE RE 326 7:3... Peasant Buildings: Re idit bett TTE RN 326 C vtri dh db ee ERR 327 8.. Clothes and Hairstyle sez z ree t ERE RR 328 84. Noble DfGssz... eom R eee eee RE 328 82. BürpherDiYessssnep e ee OR RR UHR ULIS 330 8:3. -Foreign Dress... iti eerte tee resort a an 331 LI MEE S caer a — 331 8.5, Hairstyle was ————Á 332 8.6. Cultural Breakthrough of the Enlightenment: “Moustache and Wig” sessie mtem RAE iiia 332 Chapter Eight Culture and Ideology a= PN: > 1.. Models of Culture: sete A A A A AEO ee s 2.1, -Myths Of Origin... pe EBEN ISSN 336

2.9. Political Ideology of Decadent Sarmatism.

3. Urban Culture in the Commonwealth of the 16* and ihe 17 Cen ties ie o od ŚM 353 334, UTDAMIJEÓlOSY a tton eene rcd 354 3.2. Urban System of Values and Role Models... ss 354

4. Popular Culture - Folk Culture... enn 358 4.1. The Creators of Popular Culture... 358 4.2. Characteristic Features of Popular Culture... 359 4.3. Social Range of Popular Culture sssrin 360

5:5, Fok OE ien uno o o GA eati TRES 361 Sls (Noble Folklore... 361 5.2. The Noble Manor as a Cultural Institution. eee 362

6... REPIOUSNESS = Z A AO AA 362 6.3. The Folklorization of Catholicism

7.3. Transformations of Political Ideology

Chapter Nine

1. The System of Social Communication 12. .Pomts:of SoclalContact.is seam tet 377

1,5.. Censorship of Information. ttd 383 Zl LANTOS B —————M HÀ 385 23: Polonia Oi t ————— 388 2.5. The Enlightenment Tendencies of Unification... 390 3:3. Ihe Press. enti e etel GA rn Re n cones 398 Educational ROAR CO Oo A WA retire 399 4.1... "Education of Girls. aee edidi RE RR EHE 399 Catholic Education. i aem o ctae ideae ts 401 Bele. Parish: SCHOOLING. PE 401 5:3. ElighierJEQUCall90: tte PEE a eret tte 404 Protestant Education ou... ees ———— 406 6.1. Lutheran Gymnasia in Royal Prussia... 406

6.3. Gymnasia in Raków and Leszno

Orthodox Education ay ana A AAAA EJ adn 408 7:1.. Brotherhood Schools... tete 408 7.3. The Kiev-Mogila Academy... eene 409 7.4. Hospodar Schools in Moldavia and Wallachia... 409 8.1. Jewish Schools E 8:2. "TIatarSchools noo RR ROTER NE Nee EIER ER StudieszAbroad M ——— 410 Military Education. Projects of the School of Chivalry in the Commonwealth of the 16^-17* Centuries sse 411

11. The Reform of Education in the 18'* Century...

11.2. The Piarist Reform and the Collegium Nobilium... Chapter Ten Art = Science -~ Literature ooo O O GOA okno 419

2. MManfierism.cd csset iam iet e o ce e red otis 421 24. “Architecture and Arts «eu pep aa 421 2:2; JULeratureszaecesume t CBA RENTUR eem HR IRE 424 2:9; MUSIC; rtm HER RR HE re DU IRE ERE recien n ia 426

4. Mature Baroque (1630-1670)... eerte trennen 431 41. Architecture and Arts... tenentes ipia 4.2. RoyalPatronage and the Propaganda of Power 43.. Belles Lettres ttt t nene annua tT Mel T ——— 450. TH Gate EE ——À——— 4.6.

5. Late Baroque and Rococo (1670-1770)... etn 443 5.1. Architecture and the Arts... enne 443 5:2... IEeEatUte. sees tn rece WEB QUEEN ceret tren 445 5:9; SCENE sse mime nit ee e n e EHI RR RENI AW 445 5:4.- « Music and Theatre... ee te ata 445 5.5. The Beginnings of the Enlightenment... 446

6.3. The Enlightenment Influences in the Stanisław August

6.4. Urban Elites in the Enlightenment... 450

6.5. Warsaw and the Province issscssccccccssssssssssssssssossssssscsssossesssessssssesonscesseesessnsens 451

6.7. Architecture and Arts... oett A AE 452

6.8. Classicism (1770-1800)... aaa tttttnnnntnnnitttnnn 454

Conclusions... "7" ttt ttt ttt ttt ttt ttti 459 Glossary of Polish and Latin Terms... s 463 List of Polish Monarchs 11111 ttt 469

Main Historical Events of the Polish-Lithuanian

Commonwealth, 1573-1795... eene 47 Biblagrabhy e ———— 479 S EUIS o creciente tein di te acetone iter teu des E 479 Nip ———————————— — 504 Maps aud DIAEEABIS Goose EO AO OO 519

List of Polish Geographical Names and Their English

Editors’ Preface

Language is an intrinsic part of any culture and any history of a given society. Thus, preparing an English version the History of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was an immensely difficult task. It was not the first and certainly will not be the last book devoted to this multicultural, multiconfessional, and multi-ethnic area. Yet, the fact of huge diversification, plenty of languages in use, and vicissitudes of East-European history, always made it difficult for historians and other scholars writing in English to render crucial terms in an understandable way.

In the case of geographical names, we tried to use generally accepted English versions (Warsaw, Cracow, Great Poland, Little Poland) whenever possible. In many instances, the names used in the 16'"-18" centuries have been changed (sometimes several times), thus we adopted the principle to use modern names (with a few exceptions: for example, Kónigsberg instead of Kaliningrad) and to give names appearing in the sources in brackets. This is why we opted for Gdansk instead of Danzig and Wroclaw instead of Breslau. For the same reason, the reader of this book will find Kaunas instead of Kowno. The principal reason for this choice is the spread of the new media and, above all, the Internet with its omnipresent Wikipedia, which adopted the same principle. Of course, this principle has some disadvantages (for example, there is the city of Cracow and Kraków Voivodeship).

Most personal names are given in their original language (for example, Jan Zamoyski, Heinrich von Briihl), even though in various Polish sources their names were sometimes slightly differently spelled. There are two major exceptions from this rule: the names of Polish-Lithuanian monarchs and generally accepted Anglicized or Latinized names (John Calvin, Desiderius Erasmus, Justus Lipsius). There is no consensus on the matter of the names of the Polish-Lithuanian kings. For example, in the case of the second Vasa on the Polish-Lithuanian throne we opted for a semi-Latinized version Wladislaus, but there are at least three other versions that the reader may find in other books. To clarify this issue, we included a list of Polish monarchs at the end of the book.

Variety of different names for offices and institutions have been used in the historical writing on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this book, we have taken “a middle way.’ Whenever it could be reasonably explained we rendered Polish terms in their English version; e.g. podskarbi wielki koronny is translated as Grand Crown Treasurer, but it would make no sense to render hetman wielki koronny as grand crown general, which is why in this book we opted for Grand Crown Hetman. Such examples can be multiplied. Yet, in many cases we decided to leave the original names, even if some attempts have been previously made to find their English counterparts. Such names include very common words such as sejm and sejmik; they were sometimes translated as diet and dietine, but in our opinion such rendering blurs the historical reality and suggests much greater similarities to the institutions of other countries than there actually were.

In order to avoid getting overflowed by italic text, we decided to treat most common Polish words as if they were English and apply English plural form to them. In the case of less common words e.g. grzywna, wilkierz, we opted for using Polish plural.

We hope that more difficult terms have been properly explained in the glossary at the end of the book. The reader may find it useful to refer to the tables included in the book in order to systematize the terminology.

Introduction

The first version of this book was published by the Polish Scientific Publishers PWN under the title History of Poland, which fits in with the Polish historiographical tradition. Adapting the term Poland (Polish: Polska; Latin: Polonia) with reference to the Polish-Lithuanian state between the end of the 16* century and the end of the 18" century is not a manifestation of historical imperialism.! It is justified by the fact that, at that time, the name referred to a state/territory and was employed to describe the community of Polish people? - the symbol of familiarity for the Crown nobility in the same way as the name Lithuania was for the citizens of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Not only was Poland a synonym of the Polish Kingdom but also of the whole Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in cartography and propaganda texts designed for foreigners,’ and in texts written by urban historiographers from Silesia, Pomerania, and Royal Prussia, where the Renaissance image of Polonia played an important role in Polish-German cultural relations. Nevertheless, in the English edition the name Poland has been given up in order to emphasize the common and indivisible heritage of all the contemporary nations, whose ancestors inhabited the early modern Polish-Lithuanian state.

Writing about the Polish-Lithuanian state in the 16"—18'^ centuries we use most frequently a simple term Common wealth, without any adjectives resulting from current fads, such as the Commonwealth or Republic of Many Nations‘ — suggesting the existence in the 16'"-18" centuries of nations in the modern sense of the term, or Nobles’ Commonwealth’ — attributing to the privileged estate the whole cultural heritage, created also by plebeians.

After the union of 1569 the Commonwealth of Both Nations was neither a state of all Poles nor primarily a state of Poles. The perception of bonds between lands that once belonged to the Piast dynasty diminished and the desire to unite them

1 Andrzej Sulima-Kamiński, Historia Rzeczypospolitej wielu narodów 1505-1795, Lublin, 2000, pp. 10-11.

2 EwaBem-Wiśniewska, Funkcjonowanie nazwy Polska w języku czasów nowożytnych, Warsaw, 1998, pp. 108-133.

3 Marcin Kromer, Polonia sive de situ, populis, moribus, magistratibus et Republica regni Polonici libri duo, 1557 (Polish edition: Polska czyli o położeniu, ludności, obyczajach i sprawach publicznych Królestwa Polskiego ksiegi d'wie, trans. S. Kazikowski, introduction and preparation R. Marchwiński, Olsztyn, 1977); Stanisław Krzysztanowic, Polonia seu brevis descriptio status Regni Poloniae, Moguncja, 1606; Szymon Starowolski, Polonia, 1632 (Polish edition: Polska albo opisanie położenia Królestwa Polskiego, trans. A. Piskadło, Cracow, 1976).

4 Andrzej Sulima-Kamiński, Historia Rzeczypospolitej, pp. 1-11.

5 Andrzej Wyczański, Polska Rzeczą Pospolitą szlachecką 1454-1764, Warsaw, 1965; Jarema Maciszewski, Szlachta polska i jej państwo, Warsaw, 1981.

deteriorated, superseded by an awareness of a new, federative identity. The process of legal and mental integration took place within the noble nation crosswise ethnic (community of language, culture, and historical tradition) and confessional bonds. Attempts to impose confessional and ethnic uniformity under the banner of a Pole-Catholic — undertaken since the end of the 16" century by the Catholic Church, and at the end of the 18 century by the state administration - turned out to be unrealistic and often counter-productive.

History of a Society, not of a Nation

Our purpose is to present a full picture of functioning of a multi-ethnic and multicultural society, taking into consideration both what united and what divided it. Thus, if we focus on the nobility and Polish language speaking population, it is the result of the limited space of this book and availability of sources.

Domination of the nobility in public life and of the Polish language in early modern culture of the Commonwealth does not change the fact that its history includes the fortune of all its inhabitants, regardless of economic, legal, confessional, and ethnic divisions. In the social reality of the 16" to 18" centuries they did not live in separate enclaves but coexisted and influenced one another. There is no substantive justification for a “parcelling out" of the common heritage between present Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. The fact that the past weighs heavily on the present is commonly observed as a specific feature of the East-Central European countries. As Juliusz Bardach noticed, “Past difficulties, the memory of harms suffered determine to a large extent — also today - the consciousness of some nations in the region, especially those which have relatively recently developed their political identity?"

Understanding the emotional attitude towards the concept of a nation in the societies that have recently regained their sovereignty, one should not ignore the danger of mistaking nationalism for patriotism and of “intermingling of traditions of discord in the formerly federative states, merged or reconstructing their contemporary statehood in the territories that once belonged to the neighbouring states?

Nonetheless, it is as natural that Polish historians are interested mainly in Polish contribution to the political and cultural history of the Commonwealth of the 16*—18" centuries as is writing history anew by researchers from the countries that

6 Michal Tymowski, Jan Kieniewicz, Jerzy Holzer, Historia Polski, Paris, 1986, p. 115.

7 Juliusz Bardach, “Od narodu politycznego do narodu etnicznego w Europie Srodkowo-Wschodniej,” Kultura i Społeczeństwo 37 (1993), no. 4, p. 5.

8 Barbara Maria Topolska, ^Z dziejów kultury Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego od XV do XVIII wieku,” in: Litwa i jej sąsiedzi od X do XX wieku. Studia ofiarowane profesorowi Jerzemu Ochmańskiemu w 60. rocznicę urodzin, Poznań, 1999, p. 171.

once were a part of this multi-ethnic state — Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian or German historians specializing in the history of Livonia and Courland.?

The Question of Nations in the Early Modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

In Polish and — in general — in European historiography a national community is considered to be a superior form of social bonding. At the same time, there is a strong conviction that European nations should be understood as direct heirs of ethnic groups, whose origins can be traced back at least to the Early Middle Ages." According to this view, differences between "modern nations” developed after the English and French revolutions and earlier types of national communities are rather quantitative than qualitative.

Recently, scholars interested in the ethnic developments of East-Central Europe raised an issue of the uniqueness of this region and of limited applicability of Weberian 'ideal types” in studying these problems as well as of commonly adapted by Anglo-Saxon political theorists (above all by Ernst Gellner) constructionism, which presupposes that it is impossible for authentic state-wide and society-wide bonds in preindustrial era to emerge.

It is noteworthy that the subject of study of political theorists are not the nations themselves, but it is the concept of nation. Highlighting the instrumental, or even manipulative aspect of nationalist activities and deeming a nation to be the result of 19*- and 20"-century social engineering, a work of political and opinion-forming elites in the age when the old order collapsed, they yet recognize that the modern nation was in a way “moulded” out of varieties of pre-existing supra-local forms of group consciousness and social bonds (tradition, language, religion/confession, customs etc.). In this study we accept Gellner's general idea that: “It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the other way round"! In spite of Tomasz Kizwalter's sceptical remarks on the issue of the range of influence of Sarmatian ideology," we maintain that there are reasons to believe that already in the mid- 17% century Commonwealth, the “Sarmatian” cultural identity of Poles and Lithu-

9 Hienadź Sahanowicz, Historia Białorusi. Od czasów najdawniejszych do końca XVIII wieku, trans. H. Łaszkiewicz, Lublin, 2001; Zigmantas Kiaupa, Jüraté Kiaupiene, Albinas Kuncevičius, The History of Lithuania before 1795, Vilnius 2000; Zigmantas Kiaupa, The History of Lithuania, Vilnius, 2002; Natalia Jakowenko, Historia Ukrainy. Od czasów najdawniejszych do końca XVIII wieku, trans. O. Hnatiuk, K. Kotyńska, Lublin, 2000; Almut Bues, Das Herzogtum Kurland und der Norden der polnischlitauischen Adelsrepublik im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, Giessen, 2001.

10 Benedykt Zientara, Świt narodów europejskich. Powstawanie świadomości narodowej na obszarze Europy pokarolińskiej, Warsaw, 1985.

11 Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Oxford 1983, p. 55.

12 Tomasz Kizwalter, O nowoczesności narodu — przypadek Polski, Warsaw, 1999, pp. 42-90.

anians began to emerge. Some traces of this identity can also be found among the plebeians.” At the same time — basing on Jūratė Kiaupiene 's, Hienadź Sahanowicz's, Teresa Chynczewska-Hennel's and Natalia Jakowenko's research — it is possible to conclude that already in the early modern period there existed ethnic and cultural identities among Lithuanians," Belarusians,” and Ukrainians.'* Moreover, in the case of the last of them it was not only on the level of social elite.

Already at the end of the 16" century intellectual elites of the Commonwealth’s provinces - not only the nobility but also patriciate (regardless of their estate affiliation) - began evolving into "political nations?

Of course, this does not alter the fact that neither in the Commonwealth, nor anywhere else there were nations in the modern meaning of the term. Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian or Polish nations - understood as having a society-wide sense of membership - had not yet come into being. Therefore, I consider the term the Common wealth of Many Nations” popularized by Andrzej Sulima Kaminski and used also to refer to various ethnic, legal and confessional groups living in the diaspora (Jews, Armenians, the Romani people) and to immigrants (Scots, Vlachs, Oledrzy [German: Hollander], and Mennonites) a fancy mental construct, albeit leading to a false picture of the past.

“Parcelling out" of the common cultural heritage of the Commonwealth of Both Nations is contrary to historical reality, in which people of changing ethnic consciousness, shaped by territorial, confessional and linguistic affiliation coexisted and influenced one another. Following the advice of Sir Isaiah Berlin, ^ we must not dis-

13 Urszula Augustyniak, Koncepcje narodu i społeczeństwa w literaturze plebejskiej od końca XVI do końca XVII wieku, Warsaw, 1989.

14 Jurate Kiaupienė, “Mes, Lietuva”. Lietuvos Didziosos Kunigaigstystés bajorija XVI a., Kronta, 2003; ead., "Litewskie cechy kultury politycznej szlachty Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego w XVI wieku,” in: Kultura Litwy i Polski w dziejach. Tożsamość i współistnienie. Materiały międzynarodowej konferencji zorganizowanej w dniach 15-17 października 1998, Cracow, 2000, pp. 67-78; Mathias Niendorf, Das Grofsfiirstentum Litauen. Studien zur Nationsbildung in der Frühen Neuzeit (1569-1795), Wiesbaden 2006 (Polish edition: Wielkie Ksiestwo Litewskie. Studia nad ksztaltowaniem się narodu u progu epoki nowożytnej (1569-1795), trans. M. Grzywacz, Poznań, 2011, passim).

15 Hieniadź Sahanowicz, Historia Białorusi do końca XVIII w., trans. H. Łaszkiewicz, Lublin, 2002, pp. 185-190.

16 Teresa Chynczewska-Hennel, Świadomość narodowa szlachty ukraińskiej i kozaczyzny od schyłku XVI do połowy XVII wieku, Warsaw, 1985; Natalia Jakowenko, Druga strona lustra. Z historii wyobrażeń i idei na Ukrainie XVI-XVII wieku, trans. K. Kotyńska, ed. T. Chynczewska-Hennel, 2010, pp. 263-305.

17 Andrzej Sulima-Kamiński, Historia Rzeczypospolitej wielu narodów 1505-1795, Lublin, 2000.

18 Isaiah Berlin, “Nationalism — Past Neglect and Present Power, in: Against the Current, Essays in the History of Ideas, New York, 1980, pp. 341-343.

regard the dangers of patriotism turning into nationalism or of growing tendencies to unify the politics of memory as well as of using the past for one's own interests.

Structure and Periodization

The sequence of the presentation reflects the way of thinking about the 16'"— 18'*-century Commonwealth by its citizens and early modern historians who began their descriptions of Polonia with its geographical location, characterization of its natural conditions, and only then presenting its political system and customs of its inhabitants. The fact that we have devoted a separate chapter to the church-state relations and to confessional policy reflects recognition of the crucial importance of this issue, considering the fact the notion of a secular state did not come into being until the 18" century, which entailed that religion influenced all spheres of human life. For history of art and literature, the entire course has been arranged into epochs, with a further division into sub-periods proposed by specialists in these fields.

The State of Research and Literature on the Subject

In our presentation of the history of the Commonwealth we have tried to make good use of the significant progress that has been made in recent years in all the fields of historical study: history of parliamentarism and finances, military history, social history (a theory of clientelism) and political history (especially of the 18* century), history of social communication and culture, of mentality and art, history of churches and confessional relations, ethnic-legal groups (especially Jews) and economic history. It has become a common practice to study the history of the Commonwealth against a broad European background and to draw on the achievements of other disciplines: historical statistics, cultural anthropology, sociology, political science, and linguistics.

Because of the limited space of the book, we had to restrict the references only to the sources and studies quoted in the text. The bibliography includes mainly syntheses and collective volumes, as well as the most important editions of sources - from both present-day and the 19" century - and papers, which are crucial for interpretation of the studied issues. Of course, it was virtually impossible to take into consideration all monographs. Texts in Polish and other languages are treated equally.

Chapter One Physiognomy of the Commonwealth

1. Names, Emblems, Capitals

1.1. Name

The official name of the Polish-Lithuanian state after 1569 arouses controversies. Introductory formulas of documents written for internal use (for instance, in the pacta conventa) refer to the estates of “the Commonwealth of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Provinces belonging to them" or to *the Commonwealth of Both Nations,’ and only exceptionally to “the Crown of the Polish, Lithuanian and Ruthenian Nations and states belonging to them" (1699). Diplomatic treaties with foreign states, in turn, were concluded on behalf of the Crown and the Grand Duchy, with emphasis on the equal status of both political entities. Names used to refer to the state functioning in public life were neither imposed by an administrative decision nor accepted thoughtlessly, but they were changing between the 16" and 18" centuries together with the evolution of social conditions and political system. The term Polish Kingdom already at the end of the 16" century was predominantly replaced by the term Crown. Contrary to the declaration included in the act of the Union of Lublin that “one common Commonwealth, one people blended and united is made out of two states and nations"? Names Polish Crown or simply Crown were used alternatively with the term Commonwealth to denote the whole polity. Some scholars assume that initially political elites of the Crown wanted the term Corona Regni Poloniae coined in the mid-14" century to encompass the whole Polish-Lithuanian state, with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania playing a role of a province. According to Henryk Wisner, only ca. 20 years after the Union of Lublin the unifying terminology was abandoned, and the union of the Crown and Lithuania acquired a character of a federation of two states. Paradoxically enough, although the practice of calling only the Crown the Commonwealth was abandoned, Lithuanian political elites continued using the term "Lithuanian Commonwealth" in reference to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania itself, in order to emphasize its individuality. This tendency (traditionally regarded in Polish historiography as a manifestation of Lithuanian “separatism”) found its expression even during the debate on the “arrangement of the form of government” during the Great Sejm (Polish: Sejm Wielki) in 1789-1790, when the project of adapting a new name — Polish Commonwealth — suggesting a greater homogeneity of the state,