Erasmian Irenism and Confessional Polemic in Sixteenth-Century Poland

This article examines confessional polemics in sixteenth-century Poland within the broader European Reformation, focusing on the Erasmian context that shaped modes of religious debate in the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth. Through a comparative analysis of two dialogic works published in 1549 – Stanisław of Szczodrkowice Morawicki’s Catholic Rozmowa Pielgrzyma z Gospodarzem o niektórych cerymoniach kościelnych and the Protestant Rozprawa krótka a prosta o niektórych ceremoniach a ustawach kościelnych, traditionally attributed to Jan Seklucjan – the study reconstructs competing Catholic and Lutheran positions on church ceremonies, the sacraments, the cult of saints, free will, and devotional practice. Both texts employ the polemical dialogue, a genre widely used across Reformation Europe to translate doctrinal confl ict into accessible vernacular exchange. Read comparatively, they reveal not only opposing confessional commitments but also shared rhetorical strategies grounded in Scripture, exempla, and appeals to communal experience. The article situates these works within an Erasmian framework of irenicism, moderation, and moral pedagogy, highlighting Erasmus of Rotterdam’s close intellectual ties with Poland and his vision of the Commonwealth as a model of religious coexistence. Against the background of widespread religious violence and confessionalization elsewhere in Europe, the Polish materials demonstrate how, in mid-sixteenth-century Poland – Lithuania, doctrinal confl ict could still be articulated primarily through textual debate rather than confl ict. The analysis thus nuances the notion of a monolithic “European Reformation” by foregrounding Poland – Lithuania as a space where confessional contestation remained socially legible, rhetorically sophisticated, and non-violent.