Moral Aspect of Support of Russian Impostors of Early 17th Century by Polish Gentry: by Sources of Polish-Lithuanian Origin

Abstract

The article considers the moral attitude in the nobility of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the Russian phenomenon of imposture by the example of funeral speech at the funeral of Andrey Studnitskiy, member of the Time of Troubles, Polish magnate and relative of Marina Mnishek, and some other Polish sources. It is established that in the Polish-Lithuanian state at the beginning of the 17^th century the idea of a “social elevator” was very popular, proclaimed by ancient authors Plato and Seneca, so the coming to power of the ruler from lower classes of society was, from their point of view, unacceptable and reprehensible. Especially popular “teachers of morality” of the Polish nobility were not the sacred Christian texts, but the “Moral letters” of Seneca to Lucilio, according to which the nobility of origin is nothing before the wisdom and generosity of spirit, and therefore, a slave possessing such qualities worthy to become a ruler. The resemblance between philosophical attitudes identified in the funeral speech and ideological positions of Dmitry the Impostor are discovered. The author comes to the conclusion that in the framework of morality and ethics that prevailed at the time in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the support of the imposture was not a thing that transcends the accepted norms of morality, therefore, was not considered immoral.