Foreign Intruders

Foreign Intruders is the first study in English to examine the rise of anti-Jesuit literature in Poland–Lithuania during the reigns of Stephen Báthory and Sigismund III (1576–1632), a period of profound political and religious change. Through an analysis of theological treatises, political pamphlets, speeches, and poetry, the book reveals how fear of the Jesuits transcended confessional divides, uniting Protestant and Catholic critics alike. It examines key figures like Jakub Niemojewski, Andrzej Wolan, Marcin Czechowic, and Jan Brożek, while reassessing long-debated texts and their attribution, including Monita privata and Equitis Poloni in Jesuitas actio prima.

Author Biography

Robert Aleksander Maryks, Ph.D. (Fordham University, New York), is Professor of Early Modern History and Literature at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. He has published extensively on the history of the Jesuits, including the monographs Saint Cicero and the Jesuits(Ashgate, 2008) and The Jesuit Order as a Synagogue of Jews (Brill, 2010), as well as a dozen co-edited volumes. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Jesuit Studies and of several Jesuit-related series at Brill.

Michał E. Nowakowski is a doctoral candidate at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. His research focuses on Catholic–Calvinist polemical literature, Jesuit political and social thought, and early modern diplomatic theory.