Was a Confessional Agreement in Early Modern Europe Possible? On the Role of the Sandomir Consensus in the European Debates

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the continuity of irenic thought in early modern times using the example of a confessional agreement concluded in 1570 in Poland, called the Sandomir Consensus (Consensus of Sandomierz). The initiators and authors of the document were Calvinists at the time, but the document’s theologians soon attributed it to the post-Hussite community of the Bohemian Brethren. Here, the point of departure is the 1605 publication of the history of the Bohemian Brethren in Heidelberg, with an appendix containing the Consensus. The article explains the meandering origins of this historical interpretation: its roots in confessional polemics, as well as its legacy, to prove that irenicism was not a marginal or apolitical movement but actively contributed to shaping modern attitudes toward religion.