Entrepreneurs, Guarantors of Religious Peace, and Pious Catholics: The Town Lords of Rzeszów during the 17th and 18th Centuries

• In Event: Performative Politics and Civic Dilemmas in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Abstract

During the early modern period the noble lords of the Rzeszów latifundium, as magnates on other large estates, had to weigh up various, partly contradictory private and public interests. In their quality as entrepreneurs they tended to extract the maximum of income out of their holdings. As rulers over a religiously heterogeneous population they often had to mediate compromise, especially between Roman Catholics and Jews, in order to maintain social peace. In this context the town lords could act as patrons of Catholic churches and monasteries as well as of synagogues, while in the religious field they presented themselves as dedicated promoters of Catholicism.
The paper will connect the various fields of interests and demonstrate on the basis of case studies, how an equilibrium could be reached and how it was publicly communicated.

Author

• Yvonne Kleinmann, Martin Luther U of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany)