Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland: A Beleaguered Church in the Post-Reformation Era Magda Teter Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland takes issue with historians' common contention that the Catholic Church triumphed in Counter-Reformation Poland. In fact, the Church's own sources show that the story is far more complex. From the rise of the Reformation and the rapid dissemination of these new ideas through printing, the Catholic Church was overcome with a strong sense of insecurity. The "infidel Jews, enemies of Christianity", became symbols of the Church's weakness and, simultaneously, instruments of its defense against all of its other adversaries. The beleaguered Church sought to separate Catholics from non-Catholics: Jews and heretics. This process helped form a Polish identity that led, in the case of Jews, to racial anti-Semitism and to exclusion even of the most assimilated Jews from the category of Poles. Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland will be considered controversial in some circles not only because it challenges the historians' claim of the Church's triumph by emphasizing the latter's sense of insecurity, but also because it portrays Jews not only as victims of Church persecution but also as active participants in Polish society who, as allies of the nobles and placed in positions of power, had more influence than has been recognized. Magda Teter is Assistant Professor of History at Wesleyan University. She is the recipient of the Koret Foundation Publication Prize and has been published in English, Polish, and Hebrew in such journals as Jewish History, AJS Review, and Gal-Ed.