Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 33 (2016): Verbum movet, exemplum trahit. The Emerging Christian Community in the Eastern Baltic = Verbum movet, exemplum trahit. Krikščioniškosios bendruomenės tapsmas Rytų Baltijos regione, pp. 187–203
Abstract
The article explores the changes in the gathering, processing and use of amber on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea at the end of the Viking Age and in the 12th to 16th century. In the pagan sacral space, works in amber reflected mythological elements, and later they were transformed and adapted to Christian practice, at the same time as maintaining the commercial value of amber as a material. Archaeological material from the above-mentioned period illustrates the gradual diffusion of Christian elements in the pagan territories. Their expression is visible in new forms of amber works.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 33 (2016): Verbum movet, exemplum trahit. The Emerging Christian Community in the Eastern Baltic = Verbum movet, exemplum trahit. Krikščioniškosios bendruomenės tapsmas Rytų Baltijos regione, pp. 123–146
Abstract
The paper presents the general conditions in which the pastoral work of mendicant orders was conducted in the domains of the Teutonic Order and particular bishoprics in Prussia and Livonia, at the same time indicating similarities and differences in the situations in which friars had to work in these areas. The research focuses exclusively on pastoral work conducted among the urban population. The network of mendicant friaries in Prussia and Livonia was a reflection of the demographic potential and the degree of urbanisation of both parts of the domains of the Teutonic Order. The scale of effectiveness of the friars is authenticated by numerous references to prayer agreements concluded with members of religious orders and guilds of craftsmen, burials in friary churches (tombstones), and bequests of townspeople. The degree of success of mendicant orders and the support of the townspeople is confirmed in the partially preserved great hall-type churches erected by mendicants in the main towns (Gdańsk, Toruń, Tallinn, Riga).
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 29 (2014): Mobility in the Eastern Baltics (15th–17th Centuries) = Mobilumas Rytų Baltijos regione (XV–XVII amžiai), pp. 98–149
Abstract
The paper analyses the relationship between the growth of the transit infrastructure and the developments in Tilsit in the period 1514 to 1552. The place of Tilsit in the competition between the merchants of Gdansk, Königsberg and Kaunas for the transit of goods by the River Neman is discussed. The paper reveals how, due to the geo-political circumstances, Königsberg managed to establish itself and to subordinate Tilsit to its trading system. It examines how and why Tilsit turned from being an outer castle settlement (Flecken) to the first town established in the Duchy of Prussia. The dynamics of the growth of the number of inns in Tilsit, their ownership, and the official and family relationships of the owners are examined, as is the weight and the role of innkeepers in the process of Tilsit turning into a town.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 29 (2014): Mobility in the Eastern Baltics (15th–17th Centuries) = Mobilumas Rytų Baltijos regione (XV–XVII amžiai), pp. 16–32
Abstract
The conditions and the environment of the mendicant religious orders (Dominicans, Franciscan Conventuals, Franciscan Observants, Carmelites, and Augustinians) in the holdings of the Teutonic Order in Prussia differed from those in Western Europe. In newly built castles and newly founded cities, German and Polish-speaking communities predominated; while Prussians, unfamiliar with the basics of Christianity, prevailed in rural territories. The network of parish churches declined towards the eastern and northern boundaries of the state. Therefore, the mendicant orders operated there on a different model. An examination of its characteristics is carried out by means of an analysis of the stages, development and dynamics of the settlement of mendicant orders in Prussia. An attempt is made to identify the organisation of their provision and the supporting milieu. Particular attention is paid to the impact of mendicant orders on the deepening of the faith of the local Prussian population in the eastern part of the Teutonic Order’s holdings.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 27 (2013): Krikščioniškosios tradicijos raiška viduramžių – naujausiųjų laikų kasdienybės kultūroje: europietiški ir lietuviški puslapiai = The Development of Christian Tradition in Every-day Culture in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period …, pp. 87–117
Abstract
This study uses letters, tax records and other sources to study the maintenance of Lutheran clergy in Prussia between 1540 and 1570, concentrating on the example of the material life of the Ragnit pastor Martynas Mažvydas, namely his clothes, landholding, his parish and personal property, the sources of his income, his expenditure, his economic life, and his close and more distant personal connections. The example of this father of Lithuanian-language literature reveals the domestic aspect of the everyday life of Prussian Lutheran clergy.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 27 (2013): Krikščioniškosios tradicijos raiška viduramžių – naujausiųjų laikų kasdienybės kultūroje: europietiški ir lietuviški puslapiai = The Development of Christian Tradition in Every-day Culture in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period …, pp. 61–86
Abstract
The paper analyses the techniques and methods of creating propaganda narratives about Lutherans in the chronicle of Dominican monk Simon Grunau (the early 16th c.). It examines how, during the Reformation, in the debates of the propaganda character between its supporters and opponents, narratives or their complexes were used with the intention to belittle the image and the arguments of the opponents. It also explains how the Dominicans’ common European experience of the fight against the spreading Reformation was used in the stories of Grunau’s chronicle about the Reformation gaining a foothold in Prussia.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 25 (2012): Klaipėdos krašto konfesinis paveldas: tarpdisciplininiai senųjų kapinių tyrimai = Confessional Heritage of Klaipėda Region: Interdisciplinary Research into the Old Cemeteries, pp. 13–33
Abstract
On the basis of an analysis of legal documents, the article reviews the reglamentation of funeral rites in Prussia in the 16th to the 18th c. with the aim of disclosing the content of the legal orders and the intensity of reglamentation in the field of funeral. On the other hand, the regulation implemented by the Church and the state is sought to be reviewed as one of the components and consequences of the process of confessionalization.
Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 11 (2009): The Horse and Man in European Antiquity (Worldview, Burial Rites, and Military and Everyday Life), pp. 295–304
Abstract
Authors present problems connected with horse sacrifices in Early Middle Ages in Prussia. Discoveries nearby Poganowo site IV hill-fort, create new possibilities to discuss about Prussian religion in Early Middle Ages. Stone statue, cairns, hearths and remains of sacrificed horses have similarities to numerous cult places in Europe and in Asia.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 16 (2008): Baltijos regiono istorija ir kultūra: Lietuva ir Lenkija. Politinė istorija, politologija, filologija = History and Culture of Baltic Region: Lithuania and Poland. Political History, Political Sciences, Philology, pp. 9–20
Abstract
The article is devoted to the new historical investigations concerning the project of Anti-King Confederacy in Lithuania in 1788. The oligarchs opposing the King Stanisław August Poniatowski attempted to wreck his plan of making an alliance with Russia. Their plan was to establish in coordination with Prussia a confederacy outside the structures of Polish-Lithuanian Parliament. It is known that two Lithuanian oligarchs: Karol Radziwiłł (then the Voivode in Vilnius) and Michał Kazimierz Ogiński (the Commander-in-Chief of the Lithuanian Army) sketched a project of confederacy in Lithuania. Up until autumn 1788 both did not collaborate with the opposition and were very cautious in their political moves.