„Łodź wiary prawdziwej”. Wyznaniowe oblicze Pieśni pokutnych Olbrychta Karmanowskiego

• Authors: Janusz Ziembiński
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

„Łodź wiary prawdziwej”. The Denominational Character of Penitential Songs (Pieśni pokutne) by Olbrycht KarmanowskiThe article is an attempt to describe the denominational character of the cycle of fifteen penitential elegies (Penitential Songs) by Olbrycht Karmanowski – a clerk and a courtier as well as one of the most prominent poets in the milieu of Radziwiłł of Birże. So far he has been almost unanimously thought to belong to the Socinian church of Polish Brethren. A fragment of a letter written by the Socinian minister Krzysztof Lubieniecki the Younger to Piotr Sieniuta (1636) characterizes Karmanowski as a convert to Calvinism who, however, has not dispensed with his doubts about the new faith and is still looking back to his previous denomination. Penitential Songs reflects this state of uncertainty. In the philosophical content of the cycle one can find such elements as man’s possibility of autocreation, the importance of deeds in the perspective of salvation, which are not in agreement with the system of Calvinist orthodoxy. The cycle also contains elements (the pessimistic view of man’s abilities, the role of the sacrifice of blood of Christ–the Mediator) which don’t seem to conform to the principles of Socinian theology although its author seems to have accepted the Socinian view of christology. Karmanowski’s penitential poems focus on the expression of emotions and are driven more by Psalmic inspiration than by accordance to doctrine. The elements which can be pigeonholed as “doctrinal” appear only casually, while David’s speech of repentance remains the main expression of the penitent’s own confessions. Karmanowski’s penitential poems focus on the expression of emotions and are driven more by the Psalmic inspiration than by the accordance with the doctrine. The elements which can be pigeonholed as “doctrinal” appear only casually, while the speech of repenting David remains the main expression of the pennitent’s own confessions.

Keywords

PL

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 56

Dates

published

2012

online

2012-01-01

Contributors

author

Janusz Ziembiński

Identifiers

DOI

10.12775/OiRwP.2012.03