Abstract

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The research objective of this article is to present the different ways in which the sixteenth-century representatives of the ­Polish intellectual and political elites, who supported republicanism, defined and understood freedom.

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem centres around the description of a model of liberty within the framework defined by the legal order. The key issue was to capture the relationship between, on the one hand, the scope of civil liberty and, on the other hand, the way in which state legal norms were defined and created.

THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: After highlighting the importance of freedom as a key category and concept for political thought, the views on freedom and a republic of three sixteenth-century Polish political writers – Stanisław Orzechowski, Wawrzyniec Goślicki, and Piotr Skarga – are discussed. In their political considerations, they paid attention to different aspects, as each of them represented one of the three key “political subjects” ingrained in: democracy (local parliaments called sejmik), aristocracy (senate), and monarchy (king).

RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis conducted in the article allows the following conclusion to be formulated: a characteristic feature of Polish political thought in the sixteenth century, which stemmed from the concept of natural law ingrained in Catholicism, was the definition of freedom as human actions fully compatible with both natural and positive law and the conviction that the most appropriate system to guarantee it was a republic. 

CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The main recommendation stemming from the analysis is to present the views of Polish political writers on the same topics from three perspectives: those typical of Protestants, Arians, and supporters of absolute monarchy.