History of Lutheranism Describes by Jan Poszakowski

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the origins and spread of Lutheranism in Europe as perceived by the Jesuits and historian Jan Poszakowski. He was a Jesuit, teacher and historian. The author of several books on historical and theological topics. One of tchem, entitled The Lutheran History, describes in detail the stages of the Reformation movement, specificialy Lutheranism, in European countries. The author begins his History of Lutheranism from the 16th century, but also refers in some fragments to earlier eras, ending with the Thirty Years’ War. The historical perspective is especially valuable in this work, as the author also describes events close in time for him. The premise of the article was to relate the story written by Jan Poszakowski to the story written by later authors. The main source for writing the article is Historia Lutherska by Jan Poszakowski, as well as several items of literature on the history of the Church and the history of the reformation. The religious movement in the sixteenth century grew up on the basis of socio-political conflicts and led to a permanent split in the Roman Church, and thus to the emergence of Protestantism The discussed work of Poszakowski presents a biography of Martin Luther. The author, having at his disposal Luther's writings, enumerated in detail the issues that formed the basics of the doctrine of Lutheranism. He also did not fail to mention the spread of Lutheran science in other countries, m.in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In the book of the first Lutheran History, the author presented Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia as one nation, he also discussed the circumstances of bringing the Teutonic Knights to Prussia. Book two of the Lutheran History described the time from Luther's shedding of his religious habit to the time of the Augsburg confession. Poszakowski also presented a brief historical outline of the spread of the Christian faith in Livonia itself. It was based here on the history written by Collegium Ryskie Societatis Iesu. Further described the author of the war with Moscow for Livonia and the takeover of Riga by Stefan Batory, who brought the Jesuits there.

Keywords

• lutheranism
• Reformation
• religion
• heresy
• Marcin Luther
• Jan Poszakowski