Konflikty o kościoły pomiędzy katolikami a protestantami w Prusach Królewskich i Książęcych w I połowie XVII wieku
The conflicts about churches between Catholics and Protestants in the Royal and Ducal Prussia in the first half of the 17th century

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the history of Catholic and Lutheran churches during Swedish wars in the south part of Baltic sea the 17th Century. The Swedish rulers Gustav II Adolf and Carl X Gustav when they were fighting with Polish Republic during the first and second Swedish-Polish wars (commonly called the war at the mouth of the Vistula river and Swedish deluge) led to the strengthening of the religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics. The result in the Royal Prussia was, depending on the support of the authorities’ power, not only destruction or the mutual receipt of church buildings but also numerous robberies and exports of church cultural goods and liturgical equipment to Scandinavia. In this article the author discusses the fate of the individual buildings, their pastors and gives examples of church war losses. In the second part of the article the author presents the war expedition of the Polish-Lithuanian-Tatar troops to Ducal Prussia to break the alliance of Frederic William, Elector of Brandenburg with Charles X Gustav of Sveden. The soldiers destroyed dozens of Lutheran churches, burned down many cities and towns, and contributed to the death of thousands of people. Finally, the author mentioned grave monuments commemorating soldiers taking part in the both wars. The result of those events in the mid-17th century was the final imbalance of confessional balance and the growing, increasingly hostile attitude toward Polish Protestantim.

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