Earning Heavenly Salvation: Peasant Religion in Lesser Poland. Mid-Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries (Geschichte – Erinnerung – Politik. Studies in History, Memory and Politics)

"The book offers a comprehensive model of religious culture of peasants of the Lesser Poland in the early modern times. Its principal research topic is the influence of religion on the life and attitudes of peasants in the period of religious and social transformations resulting from the introduction of the Tridentine reform of the Catholic Church in the period starting from the peak of the Reformation movements in Poland to the Enlightenment reforms and the fall of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth. Due to the fact that the study focuses on an illiterate group, its issues primarily concern the so-called external religiosity of peasants as a group, discussing its social, communal, and economic aspect, along with its impact on the formation of social ethics and individual morals, beliefs, and folk rituals." -- Publisher, page four of cover Cover Copyright information Contents INTRODUCTION I. THE FRAMEWORK OF EARLY MODERN PEASANT RELIGION 1. The mediaeval legacy and Reformation influences 2. Counter-Reformation in the countryside: the participation of peasants in religious cult 3. Counter-Reformation in the countryside: the teaching and the sacraments 4. Early modern religious culture and peasant religion 5. Religious attitudes among the peasantry II. THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF PEASANT RELIGION 1. The village community as a religious unit and ceremonial community 2. Religious confraternities in rural areas 3. Religion as the basis for the village’s social structure 4. Social harmony as religious value 5. The role of religion-related individuals in the life of village communities III. THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION OF PEASANT RELIGION 1. The cost of participating in religious life 2. Obligations and duties towards the Church, iura stolae offerings 3. Customary offerings and contributions related to religious rites 4. Religious factors in peasants’ economic lives IV. RELIGIOSITY AND MORALITY 1. The background behind the rural moral standards 2. The functioning of the peasant ethical system 3. Sexual ethics of peasants in the light of the Christian model 4. Confession and conscience 5. Fear of God and Divine punishment 6. Salvation and condemnation V. RELIGIOUSNESS AND SUPERSTITION 1. Magic and superstition in the peasant vision of the world 2. Magical practices in the countryside 3. Persecutions of witches in rural settings 4. Superstition Christianised 5. On the borderline of religion and magic CONCLUSION ABBREVIATIONS CODEWORDS OF FREQUENTLY QUOTED SOURCES REFERENCES INDEX