@article{b36cd7d7-88f6-4d34-99e3-0b72e594e0b7,
author = {Sławomir Kościelak},
title = {Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century Gdańsk – a Safe Haven for Religious Refugees? On the History of Religious Coexistence in Modern Era},
journal = {Studia Historica Gedanensia},
volume = {2014},
number = {Volume 5 (2014)},
year = {2014},
issn = {2081-3309},
pages = {196-216},keywords = {},
abstract = {During the period between Reformation (1525) and the second partition of Polan (1793), there can be distinguished several phases of religious exile to Gdańsk. In the 1520s and the 1530s, for a short time, Gdańsk attracted Catholics from the Reformation Sweden. The emigration wave was renewed at the turn of the 16th and 17th c., when the Kingdom of Sweden saw a political coup and removing the supporters of Sigismund III the Vasa, mostly Catholics. When Gdańsk was increasingly under the influence of Protestantism, after 1535 (1550), there appeared in the city Protestant radicals, including Anabaptists, but also Arians, later also representatives of nonconformist trends in reformation, e.g. English Chiliasts, but in very small numbers. But only in some phases (Mennonites – Anabaptists right after 1535, Arians after 1658) they can be called typical religious refugees, looking for a haven in Gdańsk. At the turn of the 17th and 18th c. Quakers joined. For some time, especially in the first half of the 17th c. Calvinists, the so Arminians, then English Puritans, and at the end of the 17th c. and at the beginning of the following century – French Huguenots appeared as refugees in Gdańsk. In the 17th c., besides another wave of Protestants radicals, there appeared in Gdańsk also Lutherans – refugees from counterreformation areas, and also converts to Lutheranism, leaving the Catholic religion. The attitude of the citizens of Gdańsk (Gdańsk authorities) varied. Catholics were tolerated, but that was mainly due to political and social reasons. The Mennonites, Quakers and, to some extent, also Arians faced problems with settling down, as both their religious radicalism and economic competition they might pose were not easy to accept. On the other hand, support and welcome was extended to various fractions of Calvinism, which was also probably based on influential assistance of the Gdańsk Calvinist community. The biggest support, however, could be enjoyed by converts from Catholicism to Lutheranism. The ones most endangered by repression, that is former clergy were helped – although not always – to escape from the city. In the 18th c. the economically and politically troubled Gdańsk ceased to be an attractive haven.},
doi = {10.4467/23916001HG.14.010.2675},
url = {https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/studia-historica-gedanensia/article/gdansk-xvi-xviii-wieku-bezpieczna-przystan-dla-religijnych-uchodzcow-z-dziejow-koegzystencji-miedzywyznaniowej-w-epoce-nowozytnej}
}