Impietas Gravissima – the Warsaw Confederation in the Papal Diplomacy’s Discourse in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century

Abstract

The Warsaw Confederation represented one of the most significant issues raised in the correspondence of papal diplomats residing in Poland-Lithuania in the second half of the sixteenth century and of their Roman superiors. This article presents the role of the Holy See’s representatives in the interregna events accompanying the approval of the famous act and its subsequent inclusion in the oaths of consecutive elective monarchs. Moreover, the narrative of the papal envoys’ dispatches is analysed in the context of its coverage of the Confederation’s matter. The choice of words to describe the act in question, their contextual occurrence, and the emotional content of the discourse are considered. The study reveals papal diplomats’ difficulties in fighting the document – the lack of full support from the Polish-Lithuanian episcopate and the Catholic party or the nobility’s reluctance to be interfered with from abroad. The image of the Warsaw Confederation in the diplomatic discourse of the Holy See is shown as detrimental to the Catholic religion, the local ecclesiastical structures, and the Polish-Lithuanian state and monarch.