Okrucieństwo kacyrskie przeciw katolikom w Anglijej, czyli polski głos w sporze o męczeństwo

Abstract

Okrucieństwo kacyrskie przeciw katolikom w Anglijej. A Polish Voice in the Debate about MartyrdomThis article analyzes the book Okrucieństwo kacyrskie przeciw katolikom w Anglijej, krotko a prawdziwie przez jednego tegoż narodu opisane, a na polski język przełożone (Poznań 1582), and recognizes it as a hitherto unidentified Polish translation of the epistle De persecutione Anglicana by the English Jesuit Robert Persons (vel Parsons). Okrucieństwo kacyrskie was probably based on one of the Latin editions of Persons’ text (1582), containing its second version, different from the first, which had been used for the English translation. The Polish translator remains anonymous, though there are certain premises favouring attribution to Hieronim Powodowski. The book opens with the original long preface, where reference to St Augustine’s principle martyrem facit non poena, sed causa makes the author not only condemn persecutions of the Catholics in England, but also warns against the heretics gaining political power in the Commonwealth and, paradoxically, justifies using religious coercion against them. Persons’ text was rendered faithfully, without any significant reductions or amplifications, and is followed by the unique Polish translation of the 8th chapter of St Cyprian’s De Ecclesiae catholicae unitate, dealing with the problem of true martyrdom. By adding these elements, the Polish author moved Persons’ epistle on to a more general level and transformed it into an argument in the then current debate on true and false martyrs.