Communis Consensus – Unanimus Consensus: Sejm walny Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów w latach 1586-1668

Abstract

COMMUNIS CONSENSUS – UNANIMUS CONSENSUS. THE GENERAL SEJM OF THE POLISH-LITHUANIAN COMMONWEALTH IN THE YEARS 1586-1668 In the 16th century, in Europe, with reference to ancient ideas, attempts were made to create the state “well ruled”, which was called the commonwealth. These aspirations headed in different directions. While France became a cradle of monarchy absolutism, the Kingdom of Poland was characterised by reinforcement of the nobility who in confrontation with the king, based on the pushed program of the execution of rights and possessions, led to the creation of a special political hybrid. Taking over some powers of the ruler, a commonwealth was established on this basis – as the combination of oligarchy represented by “senatorial lineages” and democracy with the nobility as a “political nation”. In this way, a mixed monarchy was formed, mixed doubly as the monarchy and commonwealth, and within the latter – an oligarchy with democracy. In the commonwealth, the nobility was the supreme authority, for senators came out, after all, from the circle of “brothers”, while the monarch was a sovereign in the kingdom. An internal order was to be guaranteed due to the balance between these political forms. At the end of the 1560s, these principles were also introduced in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and under the Union of Lublin the Polish-Lithuanian state called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was created.