In: Gelehrte Geistlichkeit – geistliche Gelehrte.

Beiträge zur Geschichte des Bürgertums

in der Frühneuzeit, ed. by Luise Schorn-Schütte (Historische Forschungen, Band 97)
Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2012, pp. 25-52

Shepherds of the Catholic Flock: Polish Parochial Clergy,

Popular Religion, and the Reception of the Council of Trent

Tomasz Wi licz

1. Parochial clergy on the eve of the Tridentine reform

Every handbook of Polish Church history mentions that the canons of the
Council of Trent were promulgated by King Sigismundus Augustus in 1564 at
the Seym in Parczew. The same year the Tridentine canons were officially en-
dorsed by the synod of the Lwów province, especially convened for that pur-
pose by Archbishop Paweł Tarło. The greater and more important of the two
Polish Church provinces – the Gniezno province – waited until 1577, because
the summoning of the provincial synod was deliberately delayed for years. This
was a result of general disagreement among the gentry and clergy about the di-
rection of reforming the Catholic Church. The convention of the national synod
was still awaited since 1555 and it was suspected that Primate Jakub Uchański
was going to break from Rome and establish a kind of national church. Finally,
the synod took place in 1577 under the supervision of Papal Nuncio Vincenzo
Laureo. The synod promulgated the Tridentine canons, but their implementa-
tion at the parochial level was another matter. This process did not commence
in Poland until the late 1580s, with the exception of the diocese of Ermland,
ruled by Cardinal Hosius and subjected directly to the Papal See.
The first step in spreading the Tridentine reform down to the parishes was to
assess their actual condition. The task could have been accomplished only by
bishopric visitation, which – according to the new canons – became obligatory.
The first post-Tridentine visitations in Poland were carried out in the late 1570s
(in the Kuiavian and Pomeranian dioceses1), but most Polish territory had to
wait till the early 17th century. For instance, the greatest and first in the hierar-
chy of the Polish dioceses – the Krakovian one – was visited as late as the mid-
1590s, after Cardinal Jerzy Radziwiłł had been elected to the bishopric throne
___________
1
The proceedings of these visitations have been published by Stanisław Chodyński
(ed.): Monumenta Historica Dioeceseos Wladislaviensis, vol. 17, Wladislaviae 1899.
26 Tomasz Wi licz

in 15912. The proceedings of a visitation focused on the skills and morals of pa-
rochial clergy as well as on the property and revenues of their churches. It
proves that – as in all Catholic countries – Polish ecclesiastic authorities aimed
at disciplining the clergy and providing them with appropriate living condi-
tions.
The image of the parochial clergy at the starting point of the reform in Po-
land was deplorable. The bishopric visitors were hardly able to say a good word
about parsons and vicars. They were unskilled, inept, negligent and corrupted.
They made errors in saying Mass or administering the sacraments and many of
them were suspected of immoral living. Some of them did not know Latin, and
there were also a few illiterates found by the visitors3. This bleak image re-
sulted partly from the character of the source, but also from the objectives of
the Tridentine reformists. Their goal was to implement new higher standards in
order to crush not only the Reformation, but also to overcome all the weak
points of the late mediaeval Church that had driven it into crisis. Moreover, the
parochial clergy simply were not given an opportunity to become acquainted
with the principles of the reform. The process of accommodating particular
Church law to the Tridentine canons was chaotic until the beginning of the
17th century, when the pastoral letter of Bishop Bernard Maciejowski was is-
sued. This letter, addressed to the parochial clergy, was an extensive compen-
dium of Tridentine prescriptions, adapted to the local circumstances and sup-
plemented by a selection of the most important decrees of the provincial syn-
ods4. Although the first issue of Maciejowski’s pastoral letter appeared in 1601,
___________
2
Ferdynand Machay: Działalno ć duszpasterska kardynała Radziwiłła biskupa kra-
kowskiego (1591-1600) [Pastoral Work of Cardinal Radziwiłł, the Bishop of Krakow,
1591-1600], Kraków 1936. Thirty years earlier, the diocese of Krakow had been visited
by bishop Filip Padniewski, but his visitation in 1561 focussed on the extent of the Ref-
ormation and on the losses of the Catholic Church, see: Liber visitationis ecclesiarum in
civitate ac dioecesi Cracoviensi existentium ... Philippi Padniewski Ep. Crac. 1565, Ar-
chives of the Metropolitan Curia in Krakow (henceforth abbreviated as AMCK), deposit
of the Chapter 1.
3
Antoni Mączak: Parochorum errores. Reforma kleru parafialnego na Pomorzu
Gdańskim w końcu XVI w. [Parochorum errores. The Reform of Parochial Clergy in
Danzig Pomerania in the End of the 16th C.], in: Polska w wiecie. Szkice z dziejów kul-
tury polskiej [Poland in the World. Essays on the History of Polish Culture], hrsg. von
Jerzy Dowiat, Warszawa 1972, p. 258; Hieronim Wyczawski: Studia nad wewnętrznymi
dziejami ko cielnymi w Małopolsce na schyłku XVI w. (cz. 1) [Studies on the Inner
History of Church in Little Poland at the End of the 16th C., (part 1)], in: Prawo Ka-
noniczne 7, no 1-2, 1964, p. 119.
4
Epistola pastoralis ad Parochos Dioecesis Cracovien. Bernardus Maciejowski, Dei
gratia Episcopus Cracovien. Dux Severien., in: Constitutiones Synodii Dioecesanae
Cracoviensis, celebratae Anno Domini M. DC. I, X. Kal. Iunii. Cracoviae 1601. Macie-
jowski’s Pastoral Letter is analysed in details by: Sławomir Nasiorowski: “List paster-
ski” kard. Bernarda Maciejowskiego [Pastoral Letter of Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski],
Lublin 1992.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 27

it gained widespread popularity only after the author’s death in 1608. The fol-
lowing year, the successor of Maciejowski to the archbishopric throne in
Gniezno, Wojciech Baranowski, obtained the acceptance of the letter from
Rome and published it as an appendix to the constitutions of the provincial
synod. In 1628 it attained the status of law in the Polish Church. Numerous edi-
tions of the letter published in the 17th and early 18th centuries made it the most
important and usually the only handbook to be used by parish priests all over
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth5.
At the same time the way of educating priests in Poland began to change
considerably. Since the foundation of Cardinal Hosius’ first seminary in
Braunsberg in 1565, the seminaries slowly grew in number and their alumni
gradually became a major part of the parochial clergy. In the early 17th century
an academic degree was still an ideal to be achieved by a priest, but most of the
provincial clergymen gave up their learning after a month-long course at the ca-
thedral. Only in the first half of the 18th century were the majority of parsons in
the rural and small town parishes able to prove their seminary training6. But the
overall quality of the parochial clergy increased faster than the percentage of
seminary graduates among them. New ways of disciplining the clergy let the
bishops get rid of the completely inept priests and force the rest to meet the
principal demands.

2. Duties of parochial clergy towards the people

The Church authorities saw pastoral work as crucial to the reform of peo-
ple’s faith, but they did not provide the pastors with many indications of how to
fulfil their duties to their flock7. Instead, they contented themselves with harsh
criticism of the people, putting stress on their religious ignorance, impiety and

___________
5
Jan Fijałek: Pastoralna ks. Bernarda Maciejowskiego w redakcji z r. 1601 i korek-
turze rzymskiej z r. 1608, zatwierdzona przez papie a Urbana VIII w r. 1629. Z historii
recepcji prawa trydenckiego w ko ciele polskim [The Pastoral Letter of rev. Bernard
Maciejowski in its 1601 Version and Corrected by Rome in 1608, Approved by Pope
Urban VIII in 1629. From the History of the Reception of the Tridentine Law in the Pol-
ish Church], in: Pamiętnik IV Powszechnego Zjazdu Historyków Polskich w Poznaniu
6-8 XII 1925 [Memoranda of the 4th General Congress of Polish Historians, Poznań,
December, 6-8, 1925], Lwów 1925, section 4, pp. 1-3; Nasiorowski: “List pasterski”,
pp. 114-118.
6
Jan Pałyga: Duchowieństwo parafialne dekanatu kazimierskiego w XVII i XVIII
wieku [Parish Clergy in the Deanship of Kazimierz in 17th and 18th Centuries], in: Roc-
zniki Humanistyczne 14, no 2, 1966, pp. 41-44.
7
See: Władysław Rubin: Lud w polskim ustawodawstwie synodalnym do rozbiorów
Polski [People in the Polish Synods’ Legislation up to the Partitions of Poland], in: Sa-
crum Poloniae Millenium, vol. 2, Rome 1955, pp. 131-164.
28 Tomasz Wi licz

indolence. At the synod of 1634, Kuiavian Bishop Maciej Łubieński pro-

nounced that in general the people of his diocese did not know the basics of the
Christian faith and many of them could not make the sign of the Cross or say
the Lord’s Prayer; few were those who knew the Ten Commandments, and
hardly anyone comprehended the meaning of the Incarnation of Christ or the
Holy Trinity8. The parochial clergy was supposed to deal with these problems,
but the authorities simply provided them with insufficient instructions. Pastors
should introduce the people into regular church attendance, instruct the people
in the rudiments of religious knowledge, they should also see to the people’s
orthodoxy. The choice of means was left to the parsons themselves. They
would have been able to make good use of that freedom, if most of the paro-
chial clergy had been sufficiently skilful, inventive, and devoted to pastoral
work. But they were not. They acted within the framework of local traditions,
receiving little support from the authorities and trying to carry out the bishops’
commands without coming into conflict with their parishioners and patrons of
the church.
Church attendance was vital to successful pastoral work. The network of
parishes in the major part of Poland had already been formed in the late Middle
Ages and remained unchanged until the Partitions, with an interruption during
the 16th century for the Reformation period. In an average parish in the regions
with a preponderance of Catholic settlement the faithful lived at a maximum
distance of 5 or 6 kilometres from the church. This means that usually there
were no obstacles in getting to church9.
Eugeniusz Wi niowski estimates that in the 14th and 15th centuries only 30 to
40 % of parishioners regularly attended Sunday Mass10. In the times of the Tri-
dentine reform the Church authorities wanted to bump that percentage up to
100%. The simplest way was to oblige the faithful to attend by imposing a fine
___________
8
Zenon Chodyński (ed.): Statuta synodalia dioec. Wladislawiensis et Pomeraniae.
Varsaviae 1890, pp. 201-202.
9
In voivodship of Kalisz average parish in 1772 embraced 38 km2, in voivodship of
Krakow – 49 km2 and in voivodship of Mazovia – 84 km2 (Stanisław Litak: Ko ciół ła-
ciński w Rzeczypospolitej około 1772 roku [Latin Church in the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth about 1772], Lublin 1996, p. 64, table 8). The churches were not dis-
tributed regularly, of course. There were extended parishes, where a part of inhabitants
were unable to go to church and come back home on the same day, but this was a rather
extraordinary situation, which appeared only in mountainous or forested regions, see e.g.
Jan Kracik: Duchowe niedostatki wsi beskidzkiej w przeddzień utworzenia parafii –
Spytkowice 1758 [Spiritual Deficiencies of a Village in the Beskid Mountains on the
Eve of the Erection of the Parish – Spytkowice 1758], in: Nasza Przeszło ć 60, 1983,
p. 173.
10
Eugeniusz Wi niowski: Ko ciół parafialny i jego funkcje społeczne w
redniowiecznej Polsce [Parish Church and Its Social Functions in Mediaeval Poland],
in: Studia Theologica Varsoviensia 7, no 2, 1969, p. 206.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 29

or other penalty. This solution was adopted by Bishop Marcin Kromer in Erm-
land, who in 1570 issued the so called Kirchgangsedict, imposing a fine for ab-
sence at Mass (renewed in 1582 and 1726)11. The Church in the Polish-
Lithuanian Commonwealth could only use such a method within its own do-
main. Apart from Ermland, similar ordinances were published in the demesne
of Krakow’s bishops in Kielce (1589) and in the estate of the Cistercian monas-
tery in Oliwa (1616)12. In the royal domain as well as in the gentry’s estates ap-
plication of this method depended on the personal attitude of the owner or ad-
ministrator.
Usually, the people willingly attended Mass as part of the collective life of a
local community. However, they were also all too ready to justify their absence
for trivial reasons, such as urgent field works, doing business at the fair or addi-
tional labour for the manor. The Church synods forbade organising fairs and
compulsory labour on Sundays13, but the actual elimination of these obstacles
lay in the hands of the parochial clergy. They could reach an agreement with
the land owners and restrain them from employing the peasants on Sundays or
sending them to fairs. This depended, however, on the position of the priest and
on the quality of his contacts with the manor.
The other concern was how people understood the divine service. Generally,
the priests paid more attention to the proper behaviour of the faithful during
Mass than to instructing them about the meaning of the ritual. The faithful were
encouraged to say their prayers throughout Mass, except for the Elevation of
the Host, when they had to join the adoration. Since the 16th century the Jesuits
propagated the exercises of Mass, based on the symbolic division of the Mass
in 24 fragments corresponding to the different episodes of the Passion. The
faithful were to remember and think over a current episode. Nonetheless this
method flourished mainly in Jesuit schools. In France it became popular only
after the publication of a pictorial book entitled Tableaux de la Sainte Messe
représentés en 36 figures gravées in 176014. In early 18th century Poland some

___________
11
Zenon Chodyński/Edward Likowski: Decretales Summorum Pontificum pro Regno
Poloniae et constitutiones Synodorum Provincialium et Dioecesanarum Regni eiusdem
ad summam collectae. Posnaniae 1869-1883, vol. 2, pp. 46-48; Jan Obłąk: Z ycia
eucharystycznego na Warmii w drugiej połowie XVI wieku [Eucharistic Life in Erm-
land in the Second Half of the 16th Century], in: Studia Warmińskie 16, 1969, pp. 14-15.
12
Stanisław Kura (ed.): Ordynacje i ustawy wiejskie z archiwów metropolitalnego i
kapitulnego w Krakowie z lat 1451-1689 [Village Ordinances and Statutes from the Ar-
chives of the Metropolitan Curia and Chapter in Krakow, 1451-1689], Kraków 1960,
no 65; Stanisław Kutrzeba/Alfons Mańkowski (eds): Polskie ustawy wiejskie XV-XVIII
w. [Polish Village Statutes, 15th-18th C.], Kraków 1938, p. 67.
13
Chodyński/Likowski: Decretales, vol. 2, pp. 39-42.
14
Jean de Viguerie: La dévotion populaire à la messe dans la France des XVIIe et
XVIIIe siècles, in: Histoire de la messe. XVIIe-XIXe siècles, Angers 1980, p. 18.
30 Tomasz Wi licz

pastors already encouraged the faithful to exercise the symbolic interpretation

of the liturgy. For example we can find such indications in hand-written
sketches of catechesis by Benedykt Chmielowski, an author of the famous ba-
roque encyclopaedia and parson of a small town, Firlejów15. However, the ac-
tual popularity of this method is questionable. Also, using prayer books during
Mass was rare and perceived as a matter of prestige rather than piety. Some
pastors even condemned it for disturbing the other faithful16. Therefore, we
may expect that a vast majority of the faithful present at Mass confined them-
selves to saying the Pater Noster. Only in the 18th century did the parochial
clergy try to compensate for the inactivity of the people during service by in-
troducing diverse devotional activities before and after Mass, like singing godly
songs, saying the rosary or meditations led by a priest17.
One of the objectives of the post-Tridentine Church was the restoration of
the sacraments of communion and confession, having been abandoned during
the years of religious uncertainty. The Council of Trent regulated the practice
of confession. The order to build confessionals in all churches became a symbol
of the reform18. The second characteristic trait was the prohibition of hearing
collective confessions (confessio turmatim), practised mainly in the case of
children or penitents of the lowest social strata19. All the faithful were obliged
to go to confession and to receive Holy Communion once a year at Easter in
their own parish. Registers of the parishioners kept by parsons facilitated the
exertion of control over the fulfilment of this duty. The negligent could be sued
in the ecclesiastic courts and excommunicated20.

___________
15
Powinno ci chrze ciańskie albo summa, lub sama tre ć nauki chrze cijańskiey albo
krotki katechizm dla prostych ludzi [Christian Duties, or Summa, or the Very Substance
of Christian Learning, or the Short Catechism for Simple People], Jagiellonian Library,
ms. 7079, fol. 26v; see also: Jan Kracik: Duszpasterstwo parafialne w dekanacie Nowa
Góra w pierwszej połowie XVIII wieku [Pastoral Work in the Deanship of Nowa Góra
in the First Half of 18th Century], Lublin 1977, p. 236.
16
Stanisław Brze ański: Owczarnia w dzikim polu, to jest katechyzm polski z
przyczyn w informacyi wyra onych pie niami wydany [A Sheepfold in the Wild Field,
or the Polish Catechism Edited in the Form of the Songs for the Causes Explained in the
Information], Lwów 1717, vol. C4v.
17
See the Sunday activities in an exemplary Mazovian parish in 1781: Michał
M. Grzybowski (ed): Materiały do dziejów ziemi płockiej [Sources for the History of the
Płock Region], Płock 1995, vol. 7, p. 22.
18
Wincenty Urban: Z dziejów duszpasterstwa pokutnego w diecezji wrocławskiej do
końca XVIII w. [From the History of the Penitential Pastoral Office in the Diocese of
Wrocław up to the End of the 18th C.], in: Prawo Kanoniczne 7, no 1-2, 1964, p. 211.
19
Teofil Długosz: Spowied turmatim w diecezji krakowskiej w r. 1596 [Confession
turmatim in the Diocese of Krakow in 1596], in: Roczniki Teologiczno-Kanoniczne 4,
no 1, 1957, pp. 87-89.
20
Chodyński/Likowski: Decretales, vol. 2, pp. 394-396 and vol. 3, p. 213.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 31

Bishopric visitations controlled the performance of the yearly confessional

duties. The visitation reports suggested that the faithful soon became accus-
tomed to it. Already in the first half of the 17th century the visitors reported
from almost every parish that “anno currenti omnes confessi sunt” 21. Surely the
completeness of parish registers was questionable, especially in the denomina-
tionally mixed regions. Moreover, long into the 18th century many provincial
parishes did not hold registers at all. But the negligence of confession ceased to
be a major problem for the Church as soon as the counter-Reformation pre-
vailed. Indeed, the negligent usually came from the margins of parochial com-
munity whether they were nobles or beggars22.
Whereas the parochial clergy did their sacramental duty quite efficiently, the
sacrament of confirmation administered by bishops was almost neglected. For
example, in the diocese of Krakow the first bishop to approach this task seri-
ously was Jan Aleksander Lipski in the years 1732-1746. But even he and his
suffragan managed to confirm only 6.5% of the faithful in the diocese during
his fourteen-year rule23.
One of the greatest challenges for the Catholic reform was the religious in-
struction of the people. Following in the Protestant footsteps, the Roman
Church acknowledged the spoken word as the principal instrument of influence
on the faithful. All the parishioners were to listen to a sermon every Sunday and
holiday. The regular preaching often went beyond the capacity of parochial
clergy, particularly those without seminary training. Moreover, the synods’ pre-
scriptions obliged the parsons to adjust the level of the sermon to the age,
knowledge and perception skills of the audience. In case of any difficulty, the
Church authorities recommended reading aloud a sermon from a printed homil-
iary by Jakub Wujek or Piotr Skarga. And if the parson was totally incapable of
preaching, he should hire a skilled preacher24.
The faithful, however, rather unwillingly listened to sermons. Many parish-
ioners customarily left Mass soon after the Elevation of the Host. They per-
ceived seeing the Host as fulfilling the obligation to attend Mass. Still in 1693
___________
21
Akta wizytacyj dekanatu jarosławskiego diec. przemyskiej z lat 1755-1810 [Pro-
ceedings of the Visitation in the Deanship of Jarosław in Diocese of Przemy l,
1755-1810], Czartoryski Library in Krakow, ms. 2147, pp. 56, 75, 76 et al.
22
Similarly to all Catholic countries of Europe, see: Dominique Julia: La réforme
postridentine en France d’après les procès-verbaux de visites pastorales. Ordre et résis-
tances, in: La società religiosa nell’eta modernà, ed. by Gabriele de Rosa, Napoli 1973,
pp. 351-352.
23
Jan Bendyk: ycie sakramentalne i paraliturgiczne w diecezji krakowskiej w okre-
sie rządów kardynała J.A. Lipskiego (1732-1746) [The Sacramental and Paraliturgical
Life in the Diocese of Krakow in the Times of Cardinal J.A. Lipski, 1732-1746], in:
Analecta Cracoviensia 17, 1985, p. 458.
24
Epistola pastoralis, pp. 34-36.
32 Tomasz Wi licz

Andrzej Chryzostom Załuski, Bishop of Płock, advised the parsons of the par-
ishes where this custom existed to shut the church door during Mass, thus not
letting anyone out before the sermon ended25.
In the course of time, preaching appeared to be an ineffective method of in-
struction in the rudiments of religious knowledge. During the first half of the
17th century a custom caught on in Polish churches, where priests catechised the
faithful every Sunday after Mass. There was no fixed method of catechesis.
Some priests simply read a page from the Roman Catechism26; others employed
schoolboys, who recited the Catechism in the form of questions and answers27.
The most effective method seemed to be group recitation by the people under
the direction of the priest, followed by discussions28.
But the catecheses were not obligatory for the faithful and gradually the
preaching became similar to catechesis, especially in provincial churches. For
example, at the convention of the clergy of rural deanship at Nowa Góra in
1668, the parsons were ordered to spend one half of the sermon on repeating
the catecheses. In the 18th century, standard sermons were given only on the oc-
casion of solemn holidays. On Sundays pastors usually preached the basics of
the faith29.
The catecheses were to teach the people rudimentary prayers and formulas
by heart, with little care about their understanding. The parsons ought to have
examined the knowledge of their parishioners every year at the beginning of
Easter confession, but this examination was also limited to the mechanical and
meaningless repetition of prayers, so it did not give an exact image of the ef-
fects of pastoral work.

___________
25
Wojciech Góralski: Andrzej Chryzostom Załuski biskup płocki 1692-1698. Wkład
w dzieło recepcji reformy trydenckiej [Andrzej Chryzostom Załuski, the Bishop of
Płock in 1692-1698. His Contribution to the Reception of the Tridentine Reform], War-
szawa 1987, p. 74.
26
Jan Kracik: Biblioteki parafialne a prywatne księgozbiory duchowieństwa.
Dekanat Nowa Góra w XVII-XVIII w. [Parochial Libraries and Private Libraries of the
Clergy in the Deanship of Nowa Góra in 17th-18th C.], in: Archiwa, Biblioteki i Muzea
Ko cielne 32, 1976, p. 252.
27
Andrzej Zapart: Szkolnictwo parafialne w archidiakonacie krakowskim od XVI do
XVIII wieku [Parish Schools in Archdeanship of Krakow, 16th-18th C.], Lublin 1983,
pp. 270-273; Edward Ziarniewicz: Udział uczniów polskich szkół parafialnych w liturgii
od XVI do XVIII w. [Participation of the Pupils of the Polish Parochial Schools in Lit-
urgy, 16th-18th C.], in: Studia Liturgiczne 6, 1990, p. 44.
28
Jan Kracik: Katolicka indoktrynacja doby saskiej w parafiach zachodniej Małopol-
ski [Catholic Indoctrination in the Parishes of Western Little Poland in the Times of
Saxon Kings], in: Roczniki Teologiczno-Kanoniczne 20, no 6, 1973, p. 16.
29
Kracik: Katolicka indoktrynacja, p. 17.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 33

3. Reforming the social religion

Ignorance and lack of religious zeal were only symptoms of a more general
problem – the predominant type of religion at the starting point of the reform.
Most of the faithful experienced religion as a social activity, bound directly to
worldly prosperity and welfare. It was the community and ritual that ensured
the functioning of religion. In contrast, the post-Tridentine Church emphasized
the inner and individual contact with God, yet mediated by a priest30. Indeed,
popular religion was the emanation of the system of communal control of time,
space and social organisation at the local level. The Church was faced with the
task of breaking that structure down and of establishing the new order of paro-
chial piety, centred around the orthodoxy and the priest31. Parochial clergy was
supposed to take over the supervision of the social forms of religious life and of
local rites. In the first stage, they should be purified of any elements of enter-
tainment, like dances, drinking sprees or night-time processions. But the sup-
pression of that kind of celebrations gained little support among the faithful.
Particularly, the Christian rites de passage, like weddings, christenings and
wakes remained almost unaffected by the reform.
The main target of the bishops’ criticism among the communal quasi-
religious ceremonies was the blessing of the fields during equestrian proces-
sions with the crucifix or Host. From the 1560s onwards, the proscriptions of
the rite were repeated by the synods32. The custom required the presence of the
priest, who should have immediately submitted to the ban. Nonetheless, the
ceremony disappeared only in the second half of the 17th century. The parsons
could not just defy the custom, since it was very important to community life. It
took some time to assign the same meaning to the procession of Corpus Christi,
which gradually substituted horse-rides with the crucifix and gave even more
solemnity to the blessing of the fields.
Some meaningful difference between the bishops’ standpoint and the par-
sons’ view can be seen in the case of unofficial sanctuaries, so called “miracu-
lous sites” or “apparitions”, because they were usually linked with visions of
the Virgin Mary and other holy beings. The Church authorities were generally
suspicious of this kind of devotion and during the 18th century their distrust
___________
30
Julia: La réforme postridentine, p. 353.
31
Stanisław Czarnowski: Kultura religijna wiejskiego ludu polskiego [Religious Cul-
ture of the Polish Folk People], in: Stanisław Czarnowski: Dzieła [Works], War-
szawa 1956, vol. 1, p. 91; Marc Venard: Réforme protestante, Réforme catholique dans
la province d’Avignion au XVIe siècle, Paris 1993, pp. 1064-1065; Henry Phillips:
Church and Culture in Seventeenth Century France, Cambridge 1997, p. 32.
32
E.g. Epistola pastoralis, p. 64; Alfons Mańkowski (ed.): Constitutiones Synodales,
necnon ordinationes Dioecesis Culmensis. Pars I, Torunii 1929, p. 87; por. Rubin: Lud
w polskim ustawodawstwie, pp. 140-141.
34 Tomasz Wi licz

turned into open hostility. For example, the Bishop of Przemy l Wacław
Hieronim Sierakowski, who in 1754 visited his diocese in person, gave the or-
der to cover a miraculous little fountain at Rakszawa and to cut down and burn
a nearby oak figure (presumably a cross), while a vicar of the parish church was
ordered to see to it that the memory of the place would vanish33. However, the
parish priests’ attitude was not so evident. Some of them forbade devotion at
miraculous sites or even tried to destroy them. But there were also parsons who
met their parishioners’ needs and led the processions to clearings in the woods,
where the Virgin Mary had appeared or preached sermons there34. They took
the risk of receiving the bishop’s reprimand but served their parishioners’ spiri-
tual life and participated in their concerns. Moreover, some miraculous sites, if
supported by a magnate or rich nobleman, obtained the approval of the Church
authorities and became regular sanctuaries. Thus, the actions of parochial
clergy towards miraculous sites had to be sensitive to the local community and
its needs35.
The positive programme for reforming the social aspect of religion consisted
of the propagation of newly established or renewed devotional fraternities, such
as the Marian Sodality and scapular or rosary brotherhoods. In France, Spain or
Northern Italy the Church’s support for them meant disapproval of old-
fashioned communal fraternities, which were responsible for the organisation
of half-pagan banquets in honour of local saint patrons, often those unrecog-
nised by post-Tridentine Church36. Newly established and thoroughly con-
trolled brotherhoods served as a means of suppression of unwanted quasi-
religious custom.
In Poland, similar to some other European countries like England or South-
ern Italy, the medieval fraternities declined earlier than they could cause prob-

___________
33
Julian Ataman: W.H. Sierakowski i jego rządy w diecezji przemyskiej [W.H. Sie-
rakowski and His Rule in the Diocese of Przemy ], Warszawa 1936, p. 162.
34
Czesław Bogdalski: Pamiętnik ko cioła i klasztoru OO. Bernardynów w Le ajsku
[Memoranda of the Bernardine church and monastery in Le ajsk], Kraków 1929,
pp. 22-23; AMCK, AVCap 25, part 3, p. 110.
35
See: Tomasz Wi licz: ‘Miraculous Sites’ in the Early Modern Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth, in: Religion und Magie in Ostmitteleuropa. Spielräume theologischer
Normierungsprozesse in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, ed. by Thomas Wünsch,
Münster 2006, pp. 287-299.
36
Jean-Pierre Gutton: Confraternities, Curés and Communities in Rural Areas of the
Diocese of Lyons under the Ancien Régime, in: Religion and Society in Early Modern
Europe 1500-1800, ed. by Kaspar von Greyerz, London 1984, pp. 205-206; Maria del
Prado Ramírez: Cultura y religiosidad popular en el siglo XVIII. Censo de
hermandades, gremios y cofradías del Conde de Aranda en la Provincia de Ciudad Real,
Ciudad Real 1989, p. 23; Keith Luria: Territories of Grace. Cultural Change in the Sev-
enteenth-Century Diocese of Grenoble, Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford 1991, p. 34.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 35

lems to the reformers37. When the spreading of the new type of brotherhoods
commenced in Poland, such organisations almost did not exist outside the
greatest cities38. At the beginning of the Tridentine reform, the confraternities
were propagated mostly by religious orders and arose mainly in cities or towns
where the cloisters were founded. The Church authorities also encouraged the
parochial clergy to establish confraternities at the parishes, because they were
regarded as an efficient method of religious activation of the faithful. Neverthe-
less, it was not easy to deal with those organisational and administrative obsta-
cles that confronted a priest of a provincial parish who wanted to set up a con-
fraternity at his church. As a result, parochial clergy began to introduce the
brotherhoods only in the last decades of the 17th century39.
This action could be perceived as evidence of the deepening of pastoral
methods employed by the parochial clergy. At the beginning of the 18th century
there appeared provincial priests who showed a creativity that had been lacking
previously in parochial pastoral office. For example, a few rural parsons tried
independently to revive the fraternity of Saint Isidore, which had been imported
to Poland a hundred years earlier for the purpose of religious activation of
peasants, but left forgotten40. And a priest from the rural parish of Zalas in the

___________
37
David Gentilcore: From Bishop to Witch: the System of the Sacred in Early Mod-
ern Terra d’Otranto, Manchester/New York 1992, p. 82; Christopher Marsh: Popular
Religion in Sixteenth-Century England. Holding Their Peace, Basingstoke/Lon-
don 1998, pp. 117-118.
38
Jerzy Flaga: Bractwa religijne w archidiakonacie lubelskim do początku XVII w.
[Confraternities in Archdeanship of Lublin up to the Beginning of the 17th c.], in: Roc-
zniki Humanistyczne 21, no 2, 1973, pp. 166-167; see also: Eugeniusz Wi niowski:
Bractwa religijne na ziemiach polskich w redniowieczu [Confraternities in Polish
Lands in the Middle Ages], in: Roczniki Humanistyczne 17, no 2, 1969, pp. 60-61.
39
Emilia Piekarz: Struktura organizacyjna parafii w dekanacie kazimierskim w
drugiej połowie XVIII wieku [Organisational Structure of a Parish in the Deanship of
Kazimierz in the Second Half of the 18th Century], in: Roczniki Humanistyczne 14,
no 2, 1966, pp. 88-89; Henryk Borcz: Bractwa religijne w ko ciołach parafialnych
diecezji przemyskiej w okresie potrydenckim [Confraternities in Parish Churches of the
Diocese of Przemy l in Post-Tridentine Times], in: Roczniki Teologiczno-
Kanoniczne 28, no 4, 1981, p. 87; Jerzy Flaga: Bractwa religijne w archidiakonacie
lubelskim do końca XVIII wieku. Chronologia i terytorialne rozmieszczenie. [Confra-
ternities in Archdeanship of Lublin up to the End of the 18th Century. Chronology and
Territorial Distribution], in: Archiwa, Biblioteki i Muzea Ko cielne 42, 1981, table on
pp. 302-327.
40
Janusz Tazbir: Społeczna funkcja kultu Izydora „Oracza“ w Polsce XVII wieku
[Social Functions of the Cult of S. Isidore “the Ploughman” in Poland of the 17th Cen-
tury], in: Przegląd Historyczny 46, no 3, 1955, p. 439; Czesław Deptuła: Legenda i kult
w. Izydora Oracza a problemy polskiej wsi pod zaborami [The Legend and the Cult of
S. Isidore the Ploughman and the problems of the Polish Countryside during the Parti-
tions], in: Zeszyty Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego 39, no 1-2, 1996,
p. 132; Andrzej Komoniecki: Chronografia albo Dziejopis ywiecki [Chronography, or
36 Tomasz Wi licz

diocese of Krakow, a certain Piotr Paweł Gawlikowski, designed and created a

completely new fraternity of St. Mary Magdalene and procured the Pope’s ac-
ceptance and indulgences for it in 171041.
Nevertheless, in the mid-18th century approximately 60% of rural parishes
still didn’t have any fraternity, and in many others the fraternities existed but
did not function42. The number of parochial fraternities rose rapidly only in the
last quarter of the 18th century, when a few enlightened bishops obliged the par-
sons to introduce the brotherhood of Mercy to every parish43.
The parochial clergy was also burdened with the supervision of morality of
the faithful. The Church reformers believed that the lower social strata did not
comply with the basic standards of Christian ethics, and that the Church had to
impel the faithful to internalise the Ten Commandments44. Magic, blasphemy,
adultery, drunkenness and non-observance of Sunday were regarded as the
most widespread sins. The parish priests had to preach against them in sermons,
to threaten the faithful with God’s punishment and to stigmatise sinners.
However, the greatest role in moral supervision was played by the sacrament
of confession and each parishioner had to confess at least once a year. Surely,
many faithful were unable to analyse their conscience without the help of a
confessor, so the parish priests undertook great responsibility as being the sole
moral guidance of the numerous simple folk. Little is known about the imple-
mentation of positive patterns and the refinement of conscience regarding the
lower social strata. Their moral education seemed to focus on the basic rules of
behaviour, which was sometimes very rude indeed. Some priests used to insult
their penitents or even beat them with fists, and public sinners were put in the
shackles at the entrance to the church45. In the countryside the priest could
___________
the History of ywiec], ed. by Stanisław Grodziski/Irena Dwornicka, ywiec 1987,
p. 518 and pp. 525-526.
41
Piotr Paweł Gawlikowski: Pustynia szczę liwej pokuty [The Wilderness of Joyful
Penance], Kraków 1715, pp. 105-106.
42
Piekarz: Struktura organizacyjna, pp. 88-89; Flaga: Bractwa religijne w archidia-
konacie lubelskim do końca XVIII wieku. Chronologia i terytorialne rozmieszczenie,
pp. 302-327; see also: Jerzy Flaga: Bractwa religijne w archidiakonacie lubelskim do
końca XVIII w. [Confraternities in Archdeanship of Lublin up to the End of the 18th C.],
in: Biuletyn Lubelskiego Towarzystwa Naukowego 25, no 1, 1983, p. 74.
43
Stanisław Litak: Bractwa religijne w Polsce przedrozbiorowej XIII-XVIII wiek.
Rozwój i problematyka [Confraternities in the Pre-Partition Poland, 13th-18th Centuries.
Development and Problems], in: Przegląd Historyczny 88, no 3-4, 1997, p. 520.
44
Philippe Ariès: Religion populaire et réformes religieuses, in: Religion populaire et
réforme liturgique, Paris 1975, S. 88.
45
See e.g. Józef Półćwiartek: Z badań nad rolą gospodarczo-społeczną plebanii na
wsi pańszczy nianej Ziemi Przemyskiej i Sanockiej w XVI-XIX wieku [Research on the
Socio-economic Function of the Rectory in the life of a village of the Przemy l and Sa-
nok Regions, 16th-19th Centuries], Rzeszów 1974, p. 119.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 37

count on the help of a landlord or communal court eagerly engaged in punish-

ment for moral faults. Nonetheless this disciplining remained a limited and lo-
cal activity, depending on the personality of a priest, his prestige and his rela-
tions with the landlord or mayor. The state never pursued any disciplining pol-
icy, which was a Polish particularity in Europe at these times, and even the
Church authorities advised the parsons to act attentively and with respect to lo-
cal circumstances.

4. Post-Tridentine popular religion and the personal religious experience

The profound reforming of the Church had to contain the reformation of

popular religion. It is believed that the main traces of contemporary Polish reli-
gious culture were formed in post-Tridentine times due to the unprecedented
evangelising effort of parochial clergy. Still, little is known about the mecha-
nism of spreading the reform to the lowest, parochial level. We cannot figure
out the influence of pastoral work without research into popular religion and
personal religious experience of the people, especially country folk, who com-
prised four fifths of all the faithful in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
When Christina Larner published her study on The Thinking Peasant 25
years ago46, the main subject of the research on early modern peasantry was its
mentalities. The assumption that a peasant could think, and – what’s more – we
can reconstruct the way he was thinking, was a great challenge to historical sci-
ence. Since then, many works by historians have dealt with this question and
pushed forward our knowledge of the past, but research in this field encounters
great obstacles when scholars try to go beyond the assumed popular beliefs. In
fact, we can tell what the peasants could have probably been thinking of, but
we cannot tell what an individual peasant’s thoughts were like. Ginzburg’s
Menocchio is an exception that proves the rule. Our knowledge of the mentali-
ties of early modern peasants is limited by the almost complete lack of personal
written testimonies. Historians have to use anthropological methods of re-
search, but their results are unverifiable, for the only fieldwork they can under-
take is an imaginary one. The metaphorical meeting with the Other is actually
the testing of historians’ intellectual constructs.
A critical point of historical understanding in the research on early modern
popular religion and religious culture is the personal religious experience of the
common people. The absence of any first-hand written sources makes it diffi-
cult to ruminate on this question. Historians use two main types of explanation

___________
46
Christina Larner: The Thinking Peasant. Popular and Educated Belief in Pre-
industrial Culture, Glasgow 1982.
38 Tomasz Wi licz

for the phenomenon. The first is based on the presupposition that religious
emotions and feelings are human-specified and universal, thus empathy allows
us to advance some hypotheses. The second type of explanation assumes the
prevalence of a locally-specific socio-cultural tradition; therefore research fo-
cuses on the differences and local context. Since the mid-1970s this method of
historical analysis has been much appreciated and developed steadily in close
connection with the changes in cultural anthropology.
The main hindrance in the historical anthropology of early modern popular
religion is the aforementioned scarcity of epistemologically adequate verifica-
tion tools. A scholar acts like an anthropologist aiming at the understanding of
a different culture, but the culture under research is not given to him directly.
This is a text that acts as a go-between, but as a rule the text under considera-
tion is not an artefact of the investigated culture. A historian of the early mod-
ern popular religion claims to do anthropological fieldwork or even a “partici-
pant observation” (which has become the main anthropological method since
Bronisław Malinowski’s trip to the Trobriand Islands), but the only existences
he/she gets in contact with are the texts loosely associated with the presumed
subject of research. To put it straight: we cannot ask an early modern illiterate
what he/she believed in, we can only read the texts we accept and recognise as
sources for that question. Thus, the historian works on various kinds of repre-
sentations and second-hand ideas, and – amongst them – on his/her own pre-
supposed beliefs. This is why it can be called imaginary fieldwork.
In spite of that, there is no other way of achieving a more comprehensive
and perspective examination of early modern popular religion than the anthro-
pological method. I believe that all the hindrances and limitations will become
the challenges for the methodological creativity of scholars, if only we can ac-
knowledge the interpretative nature of history instead of the reconstructive one.
In the passages below I focus on a few persons whose lives and works en-
able us to take a closer look at early modern popular religion as well as at the
spreading of Tridentine reform at the parochial level in the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. All of them were parish priests from the 17th-18th centuries,
working in rural surroundings. They were both participants of the popular reli-
gious culture of the era and its critics at the same time. Moreover, they found it
useful to write down their observations. There are many such surveys from
Western Europe, with the famous study of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Thiers in first
place47, but they are unique in the east-central part of the continent, or, rather,
they are much less known, even to Polish scholars.

___________
47
Jean-Baptiste Thiers: Traité des superstitions. Croyances populaires et rationalité à
l’Age Classique, ed. by Jean-Marie Goulemot, Paris 1984.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 39

My choice of these four priests and their writings was mostly accidental, de-
termined by my diffusive archival research, but this choice also forms – to
some extent – a logical string of personalities, modes of activity, intellectual
and ethic stances. My heroes belonged to the post-Tridentine and pre-
Enlightenment formation of clergy. All of them were acute observers and harsh
critics of the popular religious culture, and – contrary to Bishop Thiers – they
were not interested in ethnography and morals, but in a practical and pastoral
approach. What is their role in the imaginary fieldwork of the historian with an-
thropological tastes? The simplest answer is that they can act as our agents in
the obscure world of early modern peasantry. They observed and described it;
and even if we do not share the framework of their reflection, it can be easily
understood, for we can find out their education, worldview, literary skills etc.
In this way the early modern parish priest becomes our substitute in the anthro-
pological research that we can not carry out personally. The historian’s task is
to decode their eye-witnessed narratives.
But the highly evaluated credibility of information derived from this kind of
source records can be delusive. When we treat the relations of the early modern
parochial clergy as purely descriptive narratives, we lose sight of the unique-
ness of each of them, the uniqueness resulting from its author’s personal ex-
perience and reflection. As I have mentioned above, the writings of the chosen
four Polish parochial priests were to a great extent practical and connected to
their pastoral work. I will attempt to outline the popular religion through the
prism of the actions undertaken by these four priests in the face of their parish-
ioners’ modes of religious behaviour and belief. I must stress that I do not as-
sign the notion of “popular” to any type of religion existing in the given parish,
nor to that of parishioners, nor to that of the priest, nor to any other type or sub-
type. The balance of “popular”/“official” or “popular”/“unpopular” was dy-
namic and should not be perceived as a constant social-based opposition. In-
stead, I propose a model of reciprocal influence and substitution. Therefore my
question is: what was the role of the parish clergy in creating the religious cul-
ture of the rural milieu?

5. Piotr Zaborski: the renewal of an abandoned parish

The oldest of the aforementioned four priests was Piotr Aleksander Zaborski
(*?, † after 1695), the priest of Częstoborowice from 1670 onwards. The main
source record concerning his life and deeds are his hand-written memoirs enti-
40 Tomasz Wi licz

tled Summary of the transactions of the Częstoborowice Church (fig. 1)48.

Częstoborowice was a poor parish east of Lublin, on the borderland of the terri-
tory with a prevailing Uniate population (see map). The church was abandoned
in the 16th century, for its patrons converted to the Calvinist faith. But even af-
ter their return to the Roman Catholic denomination they did not care much for
the church building. It was probably deserted for a dozen-odd years after the
disastrous wars of the mid-seventeenth century. Finally, in 1670 a patron man-
aged to bring Rev. Zaborski to the parish. In fact, Zaborski did not take over the
benefice until the bishop’s official admonished him. Little wonder that Zabor-
ski was so reluctant. The parish church was abandoned for years and soon the
proprietary rights to the benefice turned out to be questionable.
The church in Częstoborowice, a simple wooden building, was already 200
years old in 1670 and mostly rotten, thus Zaborski was afraid it might collapse
during Mass. The roof leaked and the threshing floor was muddy after rain. The
church was bare, save for a single altar of Saint Anne and a wooden cross.
There was no monstrance or even a single pew. The situation worsened when
the patron of the church, who brought in the priest, was killed during the inter-
regnum after King Michael’s death in 1672. His heirs were completely uncon-
cerned about the fate of the church, and then Zaborski tried to give up the bene-
fice officially. The bishopric authorities refused his resignation and even threat-
ened him with imprisonment. Zaborski considered an escape to the archdiocese
of Lwów to start a new life in a faraway Carpathian parish. But finally he
stayed and began the long struggle for the renewal of the church, the recovery
of the benefice and the conversion of the parishioners.
It is worth adding that Zaborski was of noble origin. His way of living, inter-
ests and worldview resembled those of the petty gentry. For instance, he spent
much time and money on prolonged lawsuits inherited from his predecessors
and also brought action against the patrons of the Częstoborowice church in
hope of regaining stolen income previously taken from the parish. He must
have felt lonesome being stuck in the peripheral parish for over 20 years, in
conflict with the local gentry and Uniate clergy, resentful against the hierarchy
of his own Church, annoyed by his bitter fate, chance events, and losses in his
lawsuits.
All this affected his attitude towards his peasant parishioners. He seldom
mentioned them in his memoirs. He found them to be passive and dull, indiffer-
ent in religious matters, interested only in mundane affairs instead of the salva-
tion of the soul. He seemed to believe that the proper cult performed in the ap-

___________
48
Summariusz transakcyi ko cioła Częstoborowskiego [Summary of the transactions
of the Częstoborowice Church], The Kórnik Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences,
ms. 1735.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 41

propriate financial abundance was crucial for the renewal of the religious life of
the laity. But this condition appeared almost impossible to fulfil in a parish like
Częstoborowice. The only interaction with his parishioners’ religious culture
reported by Zaborski was the problem of the customary fees paid on the occa-
sion of marriage or funeral. It was an important part of a priest’s income, and
for that reason the Church authorities took pains to sustain this custom, and
even special diocesan tariffs of the fees were published to avoid arguments and
abuse. Zaborski needed the money badly, but he had to hold back his appetites,
for it was impossible to require fees in the amount fixed by the bishop in
Częstoborowice. The parishioners, living for years in the abandoned parish
coped in their own way with such everyday problems as marriages or funerals.
Brides and grooms took their vows in the nearby Uniate churches. As a rule,
the Uniate clergy charged less for Church ceremonies, so it competed in a way
with Roman Catholic priests in the territories of mixed rites. Although chang-
ing the rite for saving money was not a frequent phenomenon, in Często-
borowice it was being practised due to the prolonged lack of a parish priest. To
attract the faithful to the local church, Zaborski had to reduce the marriage fee
amount to the level of the neighbouring Uniate parishes.
The question of funerals looked even worse. During the vacancy in the par-
ish church, the parishioners had begun to bury their dead in the fields, under
roadside crosses. When Zaborski ordered them to make graves in the church-
yard, they opposed. It was not only a question of fees, but also of local tradi-
tion, for the parishioners preferred to bury their dead among their ancestors, i.e.
in the fields. Thus, Zaborski had to abolish completely the funeral fees in his
parish, which certainly meant a serious loss to his income, since the funerals
were the most expensive of the church ceremonies.
Zaborski’s endeavours to reconstruct the church building and to regain con-
trol over the benefice can be perceived as the primary activities of a parish
priest with the post-Tridentine formation. He was not much concerned about
the religious life of his parishioners, but in the case of striking aberration, he
was able to act determinedly in implementing Church regulations and even giv-
ing up his financial interests. His actions seemed to be highly efficient, but af-
fected only a little part of local religious culture.

6. Krzysztof Świątecki: the plague and Transfiguration

The second priest I want to deal with had a distinctly different personality.
Krzysztof wiątecki (*1666?, †1727) was born a Jew, and was only baptised at
42 Tomasz Wi licz

the age of 13 (probably in 1679)49. In spite of that, he made quite a great career
in the Church. He obtained the degree of Doctor of Divinity at the Krakow
University, became an altarist of St. Catherine in the Wawel cathedral church, a
canon of the All Saints collegiate church in Krakow and an apostolic protono-
tary. In 1699 he took on the duty of parish priest of the village church in Tenc-
zynek (25 km west of Krakow; see map), where he resided until his death in
1727. wiątecki was a thoroughly educated clergyman, devoted to pastoral
work in a manner specific for his times50. Moreover, he was a man of high lit-
erary skills, which is proved by his memoirs, published in fragments only at the
end of 19th century51. Most of his writings were devoted to the great plague that
afflicted all the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the years
1709–1712. Nonetheless, his observations concerned only the events in the par-
ish of Tenczynek and his own deeds during that time.
In 1709 a Krakow councillor arrived at wiątecki’s residence, a certain
Mikołaj Królik and his family, who fled from the plagued city to wiątecki’s
rectory in the countryside, hoping to wait out the danger. It was reminiscent of
the setting of the Decameron, but turned into a gothic horror. The village was
free of the plague, but the guests brought the disease with them. They began to
suffer and some of them died, one after another. The parishioners, seeing the
focal point of the pest at the rectory, became scared to death. Therefore
wiątecki faced two great problems: providing a pastoral service to the sick
Krakow burghers and assuring the continuity of the parish religious life in this
extraordinary situation. The latter problem posed a dilemma – on the one hand
the parishioners awaited more pastoral service and care from their pastor, while
on the other they were afraid of him and tried to avoid all contact. wiątecki
solved this question in compliance with common sense and medical prescrip-
tions. He limited personal contact with the faithful to a minimum. On his de-
mand, he obtained from a Krakow bishop official, as an exception, written
permission to celebrate Mass in the fields. Actually he used a pasture, where he
built a temporary wooden chapel without front- and side-walls. In front of the
chapel he marked out separate places for the communities of all the villages in
the parish. The purpose of this was to avoid the mixing of people, which was
believed to facilitate the spreading of the plague. As for himself, wiątecki
celebrated Mass some distance from the congregation. Even an altar boy did
___________
49
wiątecki was baptised in Stopnica and it is very likely that he was registered on
October 19, 1679, as Iudaeus 12 circiter annorum in the register of converts kept in the
monastery of Friars Minor of the Strict Observance in this town; see: Waldemar
Kowalski: Stopnicki rejestr konwertytów XVII–XIX w. [The Register of Converts from
Stopnica, 17th-19th C.], in: Nasza Przeszło ć 76, 1991, p. 238.
50
Kracik: Duszpasterstwo parafialne, pp. 233-234.
51
In: Wincenty Smoczyński: Kartka z dziejów Tęczyna [A Leaf from the History of
Tenczyn], Kraków 1888, pp. 45-88.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 43

not need to approach him. The administration of sacraments was suspended ex-
cept for the dying. wiątecki believed that these means would teach his parish-
ioners rational plague prevention instead of their “superstitious custom” (as he
judged it). As superstition he regarded an exaggerated fear of the sick, inter-
mingled with the too optimistic belief that the danger was over when the pest
ceased for a couple of days.
In his ministry among the sick, wiątecki adopted the “heroic” model that
meant fearless service, following some exemplary priests, who worked in really
severe conditions in big towns hit by the plague. Nonetheless wiątecki
stressed in his memoirs that he had done it “from love and not from false
pride”52. He helped the sick, cared for their souls, and finally he arranged Chris-
tian funerals for them. It was a complicated task as all his assistants had left
him, including church servants, a grave-digger and bell-ringer, so he had to do
it all himself. Moreover, his parishioners for some superstitious reason were
sharply opposed to ringing the bells at funerals of the victims of the plague.
wiątecki managed to break their resistance, which turned out to be quite easy,
because no one dared to come too close to the priest, who was considered to be
plague-stricken.
wiątecki thought highly of the religious aspect of his experience during the
plague. He even ordered that he was to be buried in the cassock he had used
during the days of the plague. The rest of his life wiątecki spent on fulfilling
the vow he had taken in that danger. He promised to build a brick chapel of the
Transfiguration of Jesus at the church in Tenczynek. He started with establish-
ing a parochial feast on August 6 (i.e. the Transfiguration Day), then he com-
missioned a painting of the Transfiguration by a Roman painter (fig. 2). The
picture arrived at Tenczynek in 1723, but the construction of the chapel had to
wait until wiątecki had gathered enough money. Finally, the chapel was built
after wiątecki’s death, but with the sums granted in his last will.
The cult of the Transfiguration was perceived at the turn of 18th century as
“intellectual”, not suitable for the simple faithful of the countryside. But the
world of wiątecki’s ideas and tastes resembled that of the burgher’s elite or
the professors of the Krakow Academy and he did not even make an attempt to
understand his parishioners – he would only criticise their faults. In spite of that
the parishioners welcomed the cult eagerly. At parish feasts wiątecki had to
ask for help from the neighbouring priests, for he was unable to hear confes-
sions of all the penitents. Moreover, soon after the picture of the Transfigura-
tion arrived at the church in Tenczynek, a rumour began that the image was mi-
raculous. This can be regarded as the highest level of its acceptance by the
faithful.
___________
52
Ibidem, p. 65.
44 Tomasz Wi licz

wiątecki’s case shows that a parish priest could heavily influence the relig-
ion of his parishioners, even if the cult he promoted was in theory not suitable
for them. On the other hand, the parishioners were not mere recipients. They
enriched the message of the priest with their own concepts, like in the case of
ascribing a miraculous character to the picture of the Transfiguration in Tenc-
zynek. Thus, the reform of popular religion resulted from both the priest’s in-
spiration and the manner of its understanding by the faithful.

7. Stanisław Brzeżański: singing catechism

A part of the clergy, however, remarked that people largely misunderstood

the message of their pastoral work. The next two priests I want to deal with
persistently controlled the understanding of the doctrine by their parishioners
and looked for the best way of religious education directed at the simple faith-
ful. The first of them, Stanisław Brze ański (*ca. 1650, †1738), came from a
petty noble family which dwelt in the little town of Buszcze, east of Lwów (see
map). In 1677 he became a vicar in his native town and from 1693 until his
death in 1738 was a parish priest there. In 1703 he was appointed head of the
Dunajów deanship. He is best known for transforming the parish church at
Buszcze into a fortress (ecclesia castellata), for the renewal of the church in
Dunajów and a project of fortifications around the town53. At the same time he
was occupied with historical and literary work. He wrote several volumes of a
history of the church at Buszcze. The hand-written book was lost during World
War II and only a few of its fragments were published in 1929 by Józef Wida-
jewicz54.
In his other great work Brze ański turned to pastoral questions. He planned
13 volumes, but only the first one is known, for luckily he succeeded in print-
ing it in 1717. It was A Sheepfold in the Wild Field, or the Polish Catechism
Edited in the Form of the Songs for the Causes Explained in the Information
(fig. 3)55. The book consists of a dozen or so long songs, transmitting the rudi-
ments of the Catholic doctrine. The author wrote them to the melodies of well-
known church hymns as well as popular lay songs. Brze ański explained his
idea in an extensive foreword. Horrified by the deplorable state of the religious
knowledge of his parishioners, he decided to find a simple and effective tool of

___________
53
See his biography: Józef Widajewicz: Brze ański Stanisław, in: Polski Słownik Bi-
ograficzny [Polish Biographic Dictionary], Kraków 1937, vol. 3, p. 45.
54
Józef Widajewicz: Napady Kozaków, Tatarów i Turków na Buszcze w latach 1667
i 1672 [Attacks of Cossacks, Tatars and Turks on the Town of Buszcze in 1667 and
1672], in: Kwartalnik Historyczny 43, no 1, 1929, pp. 537-542.
55
See footnote 16.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 45

education of these mostly illiterate people. Brze ański did not intend to break
off with the traditional procedure of teaching: passing the text – learning by
heart – controlling. He wanted to make the first stage of the system more effec-
tive, hoping that it would ease the learning process. “It seemed to me to be an
efficacious means” – he wrote – “to arrange the spiritual lessons into rhymes
and in this way use them in the godly church and teach [the people] by singing,
with these songs”56. Brze ański advised the singing of the catechism with the
people every Sunday for two hours before Mass. He even proposed a couple of
ways for spreading the song texts among the illiterate and described his own –
successful, as he claimed it – experience in using this method of catechisation:
“I tried it, and that’s for the good, praise be to God, because the folk of my
Buszcze parish got used to what they sing in church, and now even a child
when asked about anything, answers in rhymes, leaving or adding nothing […]
and the country people willingly sing at their homes the songs they have
learned at church”57.
Thus, in spite of his very sharp and accurate remarks on popular religion,
Brze ański had a mechanical and optimistic concept of religious education. Ac-
cording to him success would be sure as shooting if the teaching contents were
prepared properly and if the parishioners’ participation in catechisms were
obligatory.
The aim of the songs was not only to improve the knowledge of the cate-
chism among the parishioners but also to strengthen their morals, as “they
caused an aversion to all ungodly meetings, particularly those cursed evenings
[wieczornice58] that […] train the youth to all evil, so because of these eve-
nings, as a flame from the spark, the wrath of God glows in these lands„59.
(Probably Brze ański regarded the Great Northern War as a wrath of God
caused by the sins of his young parishioners).

___________
56
Brze ański, Owczarnia, fol. A3.
57
Ibidem.
58
Wieczornice (evenings) – the folk custom similar to French veillées, or German
Spinnstuben, see: Jean-Louis Flandrin: Les amours paysannes (XVIe-XIXe siècle), Par-
is 1975, pp. 119-122; Hans Medick: Village spinning bees. Sexual culture and free time
among rural youth in early modern Germany, in: Interest and Emotion. Essays on the
study of family and kinship, ed. by. Hans Medick/David Warren Sabean, Cam-
bridge 1984, pp. 317-339.
59
Brze ański, Owczarnia, fol. C3v.
46 Tomasz Wi licz

8. Marcin Nowakowski: conversations with the people

The fourth parish priest I would like to present, Marcin Nowakowski, repre-
sents other concepts and means. The youngest of this selection, he was born in
1704 (died in 1753) to a Sub-Carpathian peasant family and was already twelve
when he began to learn to read and write. In 1737, after studying at the Prze-
my l seminary, he became a parish priest in Ja liska, a little town in the landed
estate of the bishop of Przemy l60. He published two pastoral handbooks: A
Merciful Guide61 and A Spiritual Visit62. The latter was the only theological
book from the time of King August III which was appreciated by Hugo Koł-
łątaj, an enlightened priest and publicist, a Polish “Jacobin” who sharply criti-
cised the relations in the Polish Church during his youth63. From a theological
point of view, the works of Nowakowski are worthless64, but they are a very in-
teresting historical source revealing remarkable literary talent of the author.
They consisted of a series of exemplary dialogues between a priest and the
faithful from different social strata, mostly plebeians. A Merciful Guide pre-
sented the conversations in periculo mortis, while A Spiritual Visit depicted an-
nual pastoral visits at the parishioners’ dwellings. They were works of a skilful
practitioner and devoted pastor, based on the author’s experience, full of anec-
dotes concerning the life of the provincial clergy.
In the traditional procedure of teaching the catechism: passing the text –
learning by heart – controlling, Nowakowski focussed on the latter. He won-
dered how to determine a level of actual knowledge of the faithful and how to
make them realise their own faults. Nowakowski proposed to seize every op-
portunity to talk with the parishioners in private, such as confession or pastoral
___________
60
See his biography: Janina Bieniarzówna: Nowakowski Marcin Józef, in: Polski
Słownik Biograficzny [Polish Biographic Dictionary], Wrocław 1978, vol. 23, p. 291.
61
Marcin Nowakowski: Przewodnik miłosierny w drodze nayniebezpiecznieyszej
idących, y do spocznienia najpo ądańsszego wiodący [A Merciful Guide for Travellers
by the most Dangerous Road, that Guides them to the most Desirable Rest],
Kraków 1747.
62
Marcin Nowakowski: Kolęda Duchowna Parafianom od Pasterzów dla wygody
wszystkich od iednego sprawiona [A Spiritual Visit at Parishioners’ Paid by Pastors, for
the Convenience of All, by a Pastor Procured], Kraków 1753.
63
Hugo Kołłątaj: Pamiętnik o stanie Ko cioła polskiego katolickiego i o wszystkich
innych wyznaniach w Polszcze [Memoranda of the State of the Polish Catholic Church
and of all other Denominations in Poland], in: Stan o wiecenia w Polsce w ostatnich
latach panowania Augusta III (1750-1764) [The State of Enlightenment in Poland in the
Last Years of the Rule of King Augustus III (1750-1764)], ed. by idem, Wrocław 1953,
p. 232.
64
Mieczysław Jabłoński: Teoria duszpasterstwa (wiek XVI-XVIII) [Theory of the
Pastoral Office (16th-18th Centuries)], in: Dzieje teologii katolickiej w Polsce [History of
the Catholic Theology in Poland], ed. by Marian Rechowicz, Lublin 1975, vol. 2, part 1,
pp. 326-327.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 47

visit at one’s home. He also opted for adapting the argumentation to the intel-
lectual capacity of the interlocutor. In Nowakowski’s view the acquiring of re-
ligious knowledge was a never-ending process with perfection being out of
reach, but the main aspect was a constant intention of self-improvement, result-
ing from conscious self-analysis. A pastor’s task was to help the parishioners to
become aware of their sins and their faults. That must have been a very persua-
sive method of influencing popular religious culture, but it demanded a strong
commitment on behalf of the priest and opportunities for frequent private con-
tacts with parishioners.
Nowakowski’s method made him listen to the parishioners in search for
weak points of pastoral work. And although he aimed at a one-way transmis-
sion of knowledge, he was inclined to meet the needs of the faithful. For in-
stance, in his Merciful Guide Nowakowski gave a complete rite for the blessing
of cow-sheds against evil spells65. He was convinced that such an unorthodox
blessing would help in fighting the superstition that is various magic means of
securing dairy farming.

9. Conclusions

The Polish parochial clergy, burdened with the task of implementing the
Tridentine reform in the parishes, faced problems that overwhelmed it for a
long time. The Church authorities established new educational patterns for
priests and made efforts to provide them with an appropriate living standard,
but only in the early 18th century the results of their pastoral work could be
seen. The tasks of parochial clergy were to introduce the people to regular
church attendance and to yearly confession, to teach, catechise and preach to
the faithful, and to see to the people’s orthodoxy and proper behaviour. How-
ever, the Church authorities provided little support to the parish priests, so their
activity was confined by the boundaries of local circumstances and traditions.
Also the methods of pastoral work had to be adapted to local conditions, but
few provincial parsons were able to do it in a creative way.
The pastoral strategy of a parish priest formed the framework for shaping
early modern popular religion in line with the directives of the post-Tridentine
Church. However, the content of this framework depended on the actions of
both sides and reflected pastoral strategy itself. We have seen four cases and
four distinctive ways of coping with these pastoral duties – from efforts to fulfil
the rudimentary requirements of the Church, through two different kinds of
forceful indoctrination, up to a personal discussion and sensitive reaction to the

___________
65
Nowakowski: Przewodnik miłosierny, pp. 323-334.
48 Tomasz Wi licz

needs of the faithful. Four cases obviously do not allow us to generalise, but a
certain kind of progress could be traced in the pastoral methodology of parish
priests from the last quarter of the 17th to the mid-18th century. It may reflect a
relatively late reception of the Tridentine reform in the Polish countryside,
caused by the deep economic and social crisis after the destructive wars of the
mid-17th century. New generations of parish priests had to begin efforts anew
and only after resolving material problems did they begin to think about their
everyday pastoral strategy and search for methods more efficient than those
they had learned in seminaries.
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 49

Fig. 1: Piotr Aleksander Zaborski, Summary of the transactions of the Częstoborowice

Church [ca. 1695] (The Kórnik Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences, ms. 1735),
first page of the manuscript.
50 Tomasz Wi licz

Fig. 2:
Fig. 2: Anonymous
Anonymous Roman
Roman painter,
painter, The
The Transfiguration
Transfiguration of
of Jesus
Jesus (1723).
(1723). The
The painting
painting
commissioned by Krzysztof
commissioned Świątecki wiątecki
by Krzysztof (parish church
(parishinchurch
Tenczynek, a photograph from
in Tenczynek).
the collection of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, positive
without number, folder T.34)
 Shepherds of the Catholic Flock 51

Fig. 3: Stanisław Brze ański: Owczarnia w dzikim polu, to jest katechyzm polski z
przyczyn w informacyi wyra onych pie niami wydany [A Sheepfold in the Wild Field,
or the Polish Catechism Edited in the Form of the Songs for the Causes Explained in the
Information]. Lwów
Information]. 1717,1717,
Lwów frontfront
pagepage
(Jagiellonian Library
(Jagiellonian in Krakow,
Library, 38807 38807
II). II).
52 Tomasz Wi licz

Map 1: Locations of the parishes: Częstoborowice, Tenczynek, Buszcze, and Ja liska.

(made by author)