Religiosity of the prospective members of the Stańczycy group in their youth in comparison with their later religious views

Abstract

This article discusses the religious views of Stanisław Koźmian, Ludwik Wodzicki and Stanisław Tarnowski, as well as the shape of their piety before the January Uprising. The religiousness of their youth was confronted and compared with their later religious views, which allowed for a change in their views over the years.This work begins with a discussion of the spiritual formation of the heroes of this article, which was greatly influenced by the family environment in which they were brought up - an environment of patriotic nobility and aristocracy, sincerely devoted to Catholicism (for personal and national reasons). However, despite their attachment to religion and fulfilment of religious practices (especially in the case of Stanisław Tarnowski and Ludwik Wodzicki), the future Staśniks were not uncritically inclined towards the Catholic Church. On the contrary - just like the majority of the generation to which they belonged - they often expressed negative opinions about the moral condition of the clergy, and were opposed to the secular power of the Pope, which put them in opposition to ultra-Montane members of their families and some members of the Hotel Lambert - the organisation with which they were ideologically and politically associated.After the January Uprising there was a gradual evolution of their views towards almost complete obedience to the institutional Church. Nevertheless, for several more years their religious outlook was marked by a certain liberalism, and their views on the behaviour of the Catholic Church were often critical, which resulted in accusations of moderantism being levelled at them by the ultramontane milieu of the "Przeglad Lwowski".