Dysputy wyznaniowe w Wilnie (XVI w.)

The paper is devoted to a unique form of religious polemics, which in the Reformation period was a public religious dispute. The focus is on the disputes held in Vilnius in the second half of the 16th century. The paper introduces their history and uses their example to present the share that particular kind of dispute had in religious struggles; it was public and always carried out viva voce. The study also shows the inefficiency of the tool a dispute was, in the processes of building religious alliances. An example of using it fruitlessly and inopportunely in order to remove discrepancies between the views of Lutherans and Lithuanian Calvinists on the Eucharist can be the dispute held on 14 June 1585 in Vilnius by the then province governor of Vilnius, Krzysztof Radziwiłł nicknamed “Piorun” (Lightning).