Black futurology

Abstract

The Polish-Lithuanian state was at the summit of its power in the 16th century. It was fully entitled to be proud of a flourishing development of culture, of its military achievements and a successful economic development. Nevertheless, it was then that predictions of the state’s decline began to appear. The Catholic Church, too, felt itself endangered, its representatives resenting the toleration of numerous heresies. Complaints about corruption, which was quite frequent in judicature, were widespread. These black visions of the future multiplied in the second half of the 17th century. They materialised a hundred years later when after the three partitions the state lost its independence for 123 years (1795-1918).