The paper presents opinions coming from the 16th and 17th centuries pertaining to lay patrons and seniors of the Polish Reformed Church. Dedications attached to confessional publications emphasised the significant role of, among others, Krzysztof Dorohostajski, the Radziwiłł family of Biržai, the Gorajski family, the Leszczyński family as protectors of their co-religionists, book sponsors, founders of Protestant churches, and patrons of institutionalized education. The loss of patrons was considered God’s punishment. Documents reporting synodal meetings provided specific actions that should be undertaken by lay senior members of a community. A Protestant assembly in Kėdainiai in 1630 presented the criteria of the selection of lay seniors and their scope of duties, which included: supervising the behaviours of their co-religionists, admonishing misbehaving gentlemen and ministers, regular participation in assemblies, etc. Documents from provincial synods of Unitas Lithuaniae featured both praises of its patrons’ activities, particularly of Krzysztof Radziwiłł, and critique of financial support they offered to Protestant churches and ministers.

This paper has two objectives: to characterize Lutheran communities in Vilnius depicted in counter-Reformation satires written and published by Jesuits and to provide detailed information concerning individual Lutheran priests and members of the community of Augsburg Evangelicals.

Six satires analysed here form an interesting source material because they reflect – in an obviously exaggerated and hyperbolized manner – facts and situations, most of which were not recorded in Lutheran sources. In addition to commonly known individuals, such as the royal physician and diarist Maciej Vorbek-Lettow, or the author of the most famous Polish postil Samuel Dambrowski, the texts also feature less known persons, such as a senator’s wife, Zuzanna de domo Nonhart Chreptowiczowa, pastors Mikołaj Burchardy, Adam Reks and Dawid Krusius. Thanks to diverse techniques and genres (news, elements of heroicomicum, parodies of gratulatio, a letter, visio, songs) the image of the Lutheran ministers from Vilnius is colourful and generally non-stereotypical. Beside schematically sketched characters (deceivers, misers, philanderers, drunkards, sybarites), the satires also present educated pastors, such as Samuel Dambrowski, Joachim Goebel, or priests endowed with the temperament of warriors. In none of them is the knowledge of Lutheran priests questioned.

Attributional research revealed that the satire Witanie na pierwszy wyjazd z Królewca do kadłubka saskiego wileńskiego iksa Hern Kutermachra (Vilnius, 1642) is about the priest Joachim Goebel, later a secretary in Colloqium Charitativum on the Lutheran side (Toruń, 1645), while the poem was most probably written by a Jesuit, Jan Chądzyński, a lecturer at the Vilnius University.

The paper presents an examination of the interplay of music and lyrics in the Orgelbüchlein by Johann Sebastian Bach that summarises some of the earlier findings in this area and outlines a wider context of the studies concerning the relationship of rhetoric and music. The attention is devoted to the affect theory and the musical rhetorical figures theory. Parallels in creating speech and music are discussed as well; this element of musical rhetoric is the least prominent in Orgelbüchlein, but the interpretation of its chorales in terms of inventio, dispositio and elocutio seems legitimate. Finally, a remark is made of the significant influence of the Lutheran tradition, which elevated music, seeing it as a means for the efficient spreading of faith and teaching the Gospel. The paper concludes with a case study of chorale Das alte Jahr vergangen ist BWV 614.

The objective of this edition of Marcin Białobrzeski’s Kazanie o przyjmowaniu ciała i krwie Pana Jezu Krysta pod jedną osobą is to remind an important voice in the discussion between Catholics and Protestants about the manner of receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist under one or two kinds. Beginning with Jan Hus, one of the postulates raised by the supporters of the reform of the Catholic Church was to introduce the practice of administering Holy Communion to the laity under two kinds, to which the Catholic Church’s legislation opposed. In Protestant communities, the Eucharist was administered under both kinds and lay Catholics also demanded the introduction of this practice. In 1578, in response to ever more frequent postulates, bishop Marcin Białobrzeski gave the Good Thursday sermon in Kamie­niec Podolski, in which he explained to the audience the reasons why Catholics were administered Holy Communion under one kind only. The sermon was written down and published a year later in Cracow in the press house of Andrzej Piotrkowczyk, and next included in a collection of his sermons entitled Postylla ortodoxa (1581) as a sermon for Good Thursday.

The bishop mainly called for retaining love and unity recommended by Jesus during the last supper. The main message of the sermon was to prove the complete sufficiency of receiving the Eucharist under the form of bread only. He also strove to demonstrate that the Eucharistic kinds are disproportionately insignificant as compared to the question of faith in Christ’s sacramental presence in the Holy Communion. Białobrzeski drew his arguments from the Holy Scripture, the writings of the Church Fathers, the council and synodal legislation, as well as from the studies of history and nature. Apart from the rational line of thought, he also tried to convince his listeners to this practice by engaging in an apparent dialogue with them.