| Abstract [eng] |
The review of the scholarly publications by Dainora Pociūtė „Reformation and the Development of the Confessional Thought in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania“, which has been submitted for the habilitation procedure, discusses the monograph of the said author titled Rebellious Cathedrals. Early Reformation and the contacts between Lithuanian and Italian Evangelicals (2008) as well as her various scholarly papers on the topic of Reformation and Protestant literature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). The main subject of her study deals with the cultural processes of the early Reformation of GDL (the first two decades of the Reformation); however some aspects of the later development of Protestant literature and culture at the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century have also been taken into consideration. This interdisciplinary research integrates the issues and concerns of the history of culture, churches, confessions and literature of GDL. The main issues of the research are: the beginning of the Reformation in Lithuania and the reconstruction of the intellectual biography of Abraomas Kulvietis (Abraham Culvensis Gynvilionis), the pioneer of Lithuanian Evangelical thought; the two early Lithuanian confessions of Evangelical faith: Confessio fidei by Culvensis (1543) and Radziwiłł the Black’s answer to the Papal Nuncio Aloisio Lippomano (Duae epistolae, 1556); the links between Lithuanian and Italian Evangelicals and the role of the Italians in the early Reformation of the GDL; the relations of two Italian dissidents – Bernardino Ochino and Pier Paolo Vergerio – with Lithuanian Protestants; the identity of GDL Evangelicals and their connection to Western European Augsburgian and Helvetian orthodoxy; the sources of the official Lithuanian Evangelical literature (catechisms and hymnals) and its historical development; the beginning of Trinitarian polemics in Lithuania and Italian heterodoxy. The conclusions of this research have uncovered a number of new historical facts in Kulvietis’ biography as well as suggested new commentaries on the impact of the Italian philo-Protestant movement on the early Lithuanian Reformation as well as the significance of Ochino in the first Evangelical Confession of faith in the GDL. A detailed analysis of the early Lithuanian Evangelical Church, which was founded in 1553-54, has shown that from the very beginning the Lithuanian Evangelical community embraced elements of different confessional doctrines which, in turn, were synthesized with the local religious thought. The activities of Vergerio, who struggled to help the Augsburgian confession take the upper hand in Lithuania is discussed with regard to his rich literary production in Prussia as well as the main aspects of the history of the Lithuanian Evangelical hymnody and catechisms up to the mid-17th century. |
