Notes on the Role of the Basel Manuscripts in Sixteenth-Century Protestant Literature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Apstrakt

This study is an analysis of the text and sources of the Calvinistic catechism printed in the Nieśwież hymn book (1563), which was previously regarded as a compilation from Sz. Budny’s cyrillic text (1562). The given catechism is a revised translation of the most influential of the Basel Manuscripts, prepared by I. Oekolampad ca. 1525–1529 and edited by his successor O. Myconius as Institutio Christiana in 1544. The Polish version of the Basel Manuscripts reflects the progress of this dogmatic profile of Calvinism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the influences of anti-Trinitarianism in Calvinistic instructive and catechetical literature.