Commentary on A. L. Lifshits’ article “An unknown document of King Stephen Báthory from the collection of K. V. Bazilevich”

Abstract

This article is a scholarly commentary on A. L. Lifshits’s publication of a 1584 charter from King Stephen Báthory, published in Shagi/Steps (Vol. 7. No. 3. 2021), concerning a land dispute involving the Polotsk Jesuit Collegium. The author argues that a comprehensive understanding of this document requires sources beyond the archives of the Commission for National Education, turning instead to the Jesuit archives in Rome (ARSI) and Kraków (APPPTJ). The study introduces several previously unstudied historical documents into scholarly circulation: the 1583 land revision (regestrum) of the Polotsk Collegium’s properties, a 1584 report by Piotr Skarga with a thorough description of the royal court’s decisions on property disputes, and the Historia fundationis Collegii Polocensis. These sources enable a detailed reconstruction of the broader conflict between the Jesuits and the local nobility (szlachta) over land ownership. They clarify the context, timeline, and legal arguments of the specific case of the nobleman Ivan Sholukha and the village of Mezhdchichi, and also shed light on its final resolution. Furthermore, the article corrects several factual inaccuracies in the original publication, including the timeline of the collegium’s establishment, the precise nature of Piotr Skarga’s role, and the toponymic identification of the disputed village. By integrating these new archival materials, the study illuminates the complex process through which the Society of Jesus consolidated its institutional presence and property rights in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 1580s.