STOSUNKI WYZNANIOWE W MIASTACH WIELKOPOLSKICH NA POGRANICZU POLSKO-ŚLĄSKIM I POLSKO-BRANDENBURSKIM W XVI I XVII WIEKU

Abstract

The article discusses the religious relations in the towns of Wielkopolska located near the border with Silesia and Brandenburg in the 16th and 17th centuries. Protestant Reformation appeared there much faster than in the other regions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Economic relationships of these towns to the Silesian and Brandenburg towns and the private contacts Polish, Silesian and Brandenburg nobility made that the Protestant religion expanded very quickly. In the second half of the 16th century, Protestants took over the Catholic churches that Catholics regained half a century later. Despite the Counter-Reformation at the beginning of the 17th century, the communities living in the towns on the borderland remained with their reformed confession. Keywords: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 16th and 17th centuries, Great Poland, borderland, towns, reformation, religious relations.