page_title: History of Lithuanian culture
section_title: Lithuanian-language culture in the Duchy of Prussia
hierarchical_section_title: History of Lithuanian culture / The Middle Christian period (The mid 16th – 17th century) / Lithuanian-language culture / Lithuanian-language culture in the Duchy of Prussia
caption_attribution_description: English: Title page of the first published Lithuanian book
context_page_description: The culture of Lithuania, dating back to 200 BC, with the settlement of the Balts and has been independent of the presence of a sovereign Lithuanian state.
context_section_description: Lithuanians, mostly villagers, lived in the North and North-East regions of the Duchy of Prussia. This fact was confirmed later in administrative way, and administrative unit, called Lithuanian counties was created. Unofficially it was called Lithuania, Prussian Lithuania, or, in later times, also Lithuania Minor. In the beginning of the 16th century, Lithuanians in Prussia had the same cultural traditions as neighboring Lithuanians in G.D.L., and some inessential differences are not worth mentioning here. 
  But later the cultural difference between Prussian Lithuania and Lithuanian part of G.D.L. increased. The main points of this process were: In 1530, Prussia became a secular Protestant state. So Prussian Lithuanians became Protestants (Lutherans), while Lithuanians in G.D.L. stayed Catholics. The next point was presence of some official attention to religious education in the native language in Prussia. At the beginning, after 1530, for this purpose the first secular ruler of Prussia, the duke Albert invited a number of educated Lithuanians Protestants from G.D.L. They became senior priests in Prussian Lithuania and authors of church texts, holy songs in Lithuanian and their translations into Lithuanian, but one of them, Martynas Mažvydas, wrote a catechism, which was published in 1547  in Königsberg, becoming the first printed book in Lithuanian.
  Since this time priests of Lithuanian parishes were obliged to know the Lithuanian language and they did this obligation more or less. There were talented persons among them, and sometimes books in Lithuanian with new translations of religious texts, new holy songs and so on were published. In 1653 the first Lithuanian grammar, Grammatica Litvanica by Daniel Klein, was issued in  Königsberg. And unpublished material on Lithuanian language and culture, collected by them, was big too.
  The interest of Lutheran priests of Prussian Lithuanian parishes in Lithuanian language was deeper than the interest of their Catholic colleagues in G.D.L., and they managed to print more books for a relatively small Lithuanian population in Prussia, than Catholic editors for all Lithuanian population in G.D.L.
  Catholic priests paid less attention towards Lithuanian popular traditions than Lutheran ones. Also the existence of G.D.L. had some influence to Prussian ruling persons and even put some pressure on them, and it did not allow disregarding of existing Lithuanians and their cultural needs. And the situation of Lithuanians was better, than, for example, the Old Prussian population, whose language was called "barbarian" and attained only minimal attention. 
  Despite good attention to the Lithuanian language, Lithuanians were not admitted to the Prussian ruling class, which remained German. And the church career was the only one available for Lithuanians. Concentration of Lithuanian intellectuals in priest estate had some significant consequences. The Lithuanian language remained in usage in Prussian Lithuania till the beginning of the 20th century and later. Besides this, Lithuanians became loyal and faithful to Evangelical Church in Prussia and Protestantism, their faith assumed some forms of pietism. And, in its turn, they became loyal and devoted subjects and patriots of Prussia. Thus, in fact, this part of the Lithuanian nation was separated from the main part in G.D.L. during this period.
  The later part of Middle Christian period from the end of the 17th century to the mid-19th century suffered a period of decline for the Grand duchy of Lithuania.
caption: First Lithuanian printed book (1547) The Simple Words of Catechism
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