Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland
A Beleaguered Church in the Post-Reformation Era

Portrayal of Jews as victims of Church persecution but also as participants in Polish society.

Magda Teter (Author)

9780521109918, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 April 2009

312 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

'The strengths of this book are numerous. … This is a much more nuanced look at the actual situation in post-Reformation Poland than found in previous studies.' Sixteenth Century Journal

Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland takes issue with historians' common contention that the Catholic Church triumphed in Counter-reformation Poland. In fact, the Church's own sources show that the story is far more complex. From the rise of the Reformation and the rapid dissemination of these new ideas through printing, the Catholic Church was overcome with a strong sense of insecurity. The 'infidel Jews, enemies of Christianity' became symbols of the Church's weakness and, simultaneously, instruments of its defence against all of its other adversaries. This process helped form a Polish identity that led, in the case of Jews, to racial anti-Semitism and to the exclusion of Jews from the category of Poles. This book portrays Jews not only as victims of Church persecution but as active participants in Polish society who as allies of the nobles, placed in positions of power, had more influence than has been recognised.

Preface and acknowledgements
Notes
Abbreviations
Map of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Introduction
1. 'One Mystical Body … Only One Shepherd': church ideal of spiritual and social hierarchy
2. The upset social order: Nobles and the Jews in Poland
3. Heresy and the fleeting 'Triumph of the Counter-Reformation'
4. 'Bad and cruel Catholics': Christian sins and social intimacies between Jews and Christians
5. 'A shameful offence': The Nobles and Their Jews
6. 'Countless Books against common Faith': Catholic insularity and anti-Jewish polemic
7. 'Warding off heretical depravity': 'Whom does the Catholic church reject, condemn and curse?'
Conclusion: did the Counter Reformation triumph in Poland? Glossary
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], History of religion [HRAX]