Reformierte Eliten im Preußenland: Religion, Politik und Loyalitäten in der Familie Dohna (1560–1660)

Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg

doi:10.14315/arg-2004-0109

ABSTRACT

The archives of the Dohna family contain materials on the efforts at creating a “Second Reformation” in the Duchy of Prussia, where the early establishment of a Lutheran confessional foundation (the Corpus doctrinae pruthenicum| of 1567/68) and a solid ecclesiastical constitution prevented Calvinism from gaining a foothold. The Reformed creed found followers among the nobility through connections with the Reformed territories in the Holy Roman Empire, by close contact with Reformed theologians in royal Prussia, and by connections with the Calvinist church of the nobility in Poland and Lithuania. This network radiated into ducal Prussia, where the Dohnas became Calvinists. During the first three decades of the seventeenth century this led to a conflict between the Reformed party and the Lutheran majority among the theologians and the lower nobility. Drawing on the support of the Polish king, the Lutheran party succeeded between 1610 and 1620 in shutting out the Reformed officeholders by means of lawsuits and unequivocal oath formulas. The Reformed nobility were not helped by the connection they forged in 1613 with the equally Reformed territorial ruler because he had to take into account the Polish crown as well as ecclesiastical legal determinations in ducal Prussia.

The Dohnas, who stood close to the Calvinist “party of movement,” tried nevertheless to introduce elements of the Reformed faith or to engage men who were inclined toward the Reformed creed into the churches within their patronage. In this context, the Dohnas argued with the noble concepts of patronage held by the Lithuanian Radziwiłłs, who used their rights of patronage to introduce Calvinist pastors. Repeated conflicts arose with the Ko¨ nigsberg consistory and neighboring Lutheran pastors, in the course of which both sides adhered to their positions. On the level of religious symbolism, the Dohnas removed images of saints and programmatically transformed older works of art to conform to Calvinism.

The confessional disputes in the Duchy of Prussia are typologically similar to those in the Prussian cities (Elbing, Danzig, Thorn), except that in the former noble patronage and in the latter bourgeois patronage was contested. It is evident that in eastern Prussia, too, along with Lutheran confessionalization, numerous other religious influences were felt. Therefore, the region can be included more definitely than previously thought in the religious history of eastern central Europe.

Reformierte Eliten im Preußenland: Religion, Politik und Loyalitäten in der Familie Dohna (1560–1660)

ABSTRACT

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