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Polish Protestants and Their Connections with England and Holland in the 17th and 18thCenturiesAuthor(s): Nicholas HansReviewed work(s):Source: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 37, No. 88 (Dec., 1958), pp. 196-220Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4205019 .Accessed: 22/09/2012 14:56
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Polish Protestants and
their Connections with England
and Holland in
the 17th
and 18th Centuries
NICHOLAS HANS
The Polish reformation movement has contributed to Polish cultural
development much more than the Catholic Polish historians are
ready to admit. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Polish Protestants
had numerous and vigorous communities, famous schools and
academies and close connections with other Protestant countries,
especially with England and Holland. In England they influenced
directly the reform of education and the movement for religious tolerance. Although the influence of Komensky (Comenius) and the
Moravian Brothers is comparatively well known, the influence of the
Polish Socinians has not so far been specially studied and the his?
torians of English education hardly,ever mention them.
The origin of the Polish reformation had four independent sources.
The Lutheran Church came directly from adjacent Germany and
was propagated by German settlers in Polish towns. Comparatively few Polish squires and townsmen joined the Lutheran community which all the time remained a branch of the German Lutheran
Church and used German in both its schools and churches. Much
more influential among the native Poles was the Calvinist form of
reformation which was accepted by many Polish squires and mem?
bers of the titled aristocracy. In contrast to Lutheranism, which was
limited to urban centres, Calvinism spread to the estates of the Polish
nobles and influenced the rural population as well. Polish was the
language of Calvinist communities and their schools. The third form
of the Polish reformation, the anti-trinitarian movement, was mainly of Italian origin and was known under many names as Arian, Socinian or unitarian. Although started by Italian exiles this move?
ment was mostly fed by secessions from the Polish Calvinist com?
munities. Owing to its rationalist features unitarianism was adopted almost exclusively by Polish squires and intellectuals. Although very influential in Poland for a century, the normal growth of the
' Soci?
nian heresy' was cut short by Catholic persecution and total pro? hibition and closure of their churches and schools in 1660. As a
matter of fact both Lutheran and Calvinist deputies voted with the
Catholics in the Seym for this legal murder of one of the most
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 197
enlightened communities of Europe. Exiled and dispersed, the Polish
Socinians ceased to be an organised community and influenced
England and Holland only through individual members. The fourth
group of Polish protestants grew as ' Polska Jednota', a branch of the
Moravian Brothers of the 'Unitas Fratrum'.
The four Protestant churches of Poland clearly understood the
necessity of federation in order to withstand the dominant Roman
Catholic Church. Even the West Russian Orthodox leaders under?
stood the necessity of combined action by all 'dissidents'. The famous
West Russian leader Prince Constantine Ostrozhsky, the governor of
Kiev province, convened a conference of Orthodox theologians and
Calvinist divines to discuss the possibility of religious and political
agreement. In spite of all Ostrozhsky's efforts the theologians could
agree on only one point, namely that the Pope of Rome was the
Antichrist. This common ground proved to be insufficient for com?
bined action and the political agreement which was concluded did
not last long. More promising was a federation of the four Protestant
communities. The Socinians advocated mutual recognition and
tolerance, and common action against the increasing dominance of
the Catholic Church. However, neither the Lutherans not the Cal?
vinists could accept the 'Socinian heretics' as brother Christians and
they joined the Catholics in persecuting them. Thus the possibility of federation was limited to three Protestant communities: Lutherans, Calvinists and Moravians. The federation was concluded at the
synod of dissenters at Sandomierz in 1570 and was confirmed at
Torun in 1595. The majority of Polish Lutherans of German origin,
closely connected with the German Lutheran Church, were unwilling members of the Protestant federation and soon dissociated them?
selves from the native Polish Calvinists and the Czecho-Polish Unitas
Fratrum.
Thus only the Moravians and the Calvinists remained to form a
stable union. As early as 1555, at the conference of Kozminek, the
Moravian Brothers of Great Poland and the Calvinists of Little
Poland united into a single church with mutual recognition of tra?
ditional differences. This union was preserved throughout the 17th and 18th centuries; it transcended the frontiers of Poland and was
recognised by Calvinists in Lithuania and Prussia. Yet for historical
purposes we have to distinguish the mainly Moravian community of
Poland from the Calvinists of Lithuania and deal with them separ?
ately.
ig8 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
I
The Unitas Fratrum and their Academy at Leszna1
The Polish town Leszna (Latin, Lesna, German and English Lissa) lies
on the Polish-German frontier twelve miles from Wroclaw (Breslau) and ten miles from Poznan. Thus it was suitably situated for religious
refugees from Bohemia, Moravia, and Germany, who were persecuted
by Catholic powers during and after the Thirty Years War. The first
group of Czech Protestant refugees arrived at Leszna in 1552 after
their first expulsion from the empire in 1547. They were remnants of
the Hussite movement who, through the last Italian bishop of the
Waldenses, claimed the uninterrupted apostolic succession for their
bishops. As the owners of Leszna, the Counts Leszczinski, were mem?
bers of the Moravian Brotherhood, they afforded all facilities to the exiled Czechs. Three years after their arrival the exiles started a
school at Leszna in 1555 for their own members. The Polish and
German-speaking citizens of Leszna began to join the Unitas Frat?
rum and send their boys to the school. In 1579 Count Rafael IV
Leszczynski endowed the school and set it on a firm foundation. His
grandson Rafael V transformed the school into a gymnasium
(academy) in 1624 and undertook the payment of salaries of all the
teachers from 1626.
At that time the school became definitely international as not
only the Czechs but the Poles and the Germans took an active
part in its further development. Even the first rectors of the 16th
century confirm its trilingual character. David Knobloch was a
German from Silesia, Andreas Fabricius came from Hungary, Johann Musonius was a Leszna-born German, Georg Manlig a
German, and Michael Aschenborner a Pole from Leszna. Aschen-
borner was the last rector of the unreformed school. In 1624 Rafael
Leszczynski appointed a team of teachers from all three nations to the
new academy. A Pole, Jan Rybinski, educated at Frankfort-on-Oder and Leyden, became rector with Michael Henrici, a Silesian German, as co-rector, David Ursinus, a Leszna German, as coadjutor, and
Jan Dekan, a Czech from Prague, educated at Leyden, as cantor. In 1628 a second numerous group of Moravian Brothers arrived, led by two bishops, Erastus and Cyril, and Jan Amos Komen-
sky (Comenius). Although Komensky was at once acknowledged as an educational leader, he was appointed rector of the academy only in
1636. Meanwhile in 1629 a well-known historian, Andreas W^gerski,
1 J. Lukaszewicz, Von der Kirchen der Bohmischen Briider in ehemaligen Grosspolen, Gratz, 1877; J. Lukaszewicz, History a Szkol w Koronie etc., 2 vols, Poznan, 1849-51; F. J. Zoubek, ZivotJ. A. Komenskeho, 2 vols. Prague, 1902; Polski Slovnik Biograficzny (P.S.B), vols A to F.
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 199
was appointed in place of Rybinski, and after his retirement in 1633 the co-rector Michael Henrici acted as rector for three years.
With the arrival of Komensky the academy experienced the most
brilliant period of its history. New teachers were appointed: Jan Stadius, Adam Hartman, Jan Laubman, Martin Crusius, Jan Cyrill and Martin Gertich. Nikolas Gertich reported that in 1637 nis
teachers were: rector Komensky, vice-rector J. Dekan, pro-rector Daniel Wankius (a German Lutheran), co-rector Sebastian Macer, co-rector Benjamin Ursinus, and Crusius, Cyrill, Laubman, Andreas
Fabricius and Jan Borowski. Thus the staff amounted to ten teachers.
The famous rector organised the school according to his pedagogical ideas and wrote Leges illustres Gymnasii in 1635. The school was
divided into four classes (years), later into five classes, with a class
teacher for each year. There were two large lecture rooms, each
accommodating two classes. Besides Latin, the three mother tongues of
the pupils, Czech, Polish and German, were taught and used as media
of instruction. The subjects included Latin, Greek, the three modern
languages, history, geography, mathematics, natural history, and
theology. Mathematics was taught by J. Dekan, Polish by A. Uffan.
Sciences were not neglected, and the well-known physician John
Johnstone acted as school physician and part-time teacher of sciences.
The fame of Komensky and his academy of Leszna spread all over
Europe and resulted in the pilgrimages of Komensky to many foreign lands including England. Many teachers from Leszna took part in these
travels. Komensky was absent from Leszna during 1641-8 and his
co-rector Sebastian Macer acted as rector. After his return Komen?
sky was officially rector in 1648-50, but he again left Leszna to
organise a pansophic college at Saros Patak in Transylvania. During his absence a Czech exile, Georg Vechner, acted as rector, and when
Komensky returned in 1653 he relegated all administration of the
academy to his friend Adam Samuel Hartman, devoting all his time
to writing and publishing. In 1630 Wigand Funck (Funcius) from
Silesia settled in Leszna and became the chief printer of Unitas
Fratrum. Komensky was appointed the chief supervisor of printing.
During 1630-55 Funck published 147 books including some works of
Komensky. In 1656 during the war with Sweden, accompanied by civil war between the Polish Catholics and Protestants, Leszna was
burnt down by Catholics as a centre of Protestantism and Komensky left his academy for the last time for Holland where he died in 1670. Thus the first period of the Leszna academy ended with its destruc?
tion and closure for six years. The rebuilding of the school needed
funds and the Moravian Brothers appealed to England and Holland.
200 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
II
Links with England2
The first connection of Leszna with England can be traced to John
Johnstone who came to Britain in 1624. His father, Simon Johnstone of Craigieborn in Scotland, emigrated to Sambter in Poland where
John was born in 1603. In 1624 John, after graduating from Leszna, went to the country of his ancestors and matriculated at St Andrews
to study medicine. In 1629 he was at Cambridge studying botany and
medicine. In 1630 he matriculated at Leyden and graduated M.D.
in 1632. He returned to Cambridge in 1633 and was incorporated M.D. in 1634. This time he brought two students from Leszna with
him. They were Count Boguslaw Leszczynski and Wladyslaw Doro-
hostajski, son of the Marshal of Lithuania, both pupils of Komen-
sky. They graduated at the Leszna academy in 1630 and went to
Leyden, where they were supervised by Johnstone. He took them to
Cambridge and from the Bodleian Library Register we know that
B. Leszczynski studied at Oxford in 1633. Johnstone returned to Leszna
in 1636 and acted as physician to his former pupil Count B. Leszczyn? ski and as assistant of Komensky at the academy. In 1640 he married
a cousin of Georg Vechner, who acted as rector in 1650-3. Johnstone was offered a chair of medicine at Leyden in 1640, but remained in
Poland, where he died in 1675 and was buried at Leszna. Johnstone was a distinguished scientist and enjoyed a European reputation.
In 1632 two students from Leszna, Daniel Erastus and Samuel
Benedictus (Blajei), were sent by the Moravian Brothers to study at
Cambridge. They both matriculated, and Erastus received his B.A. in
1636 (under the name of Brestus), while Benedictus received his B.A.
in 1634 and an M.A. in 1638 (under the name of Bennet). The next
distinguished student of Leszna who came to England was Wictoryn
Bythner. After completing his medical studies in Frankfort-on-Oder, he came to Oxford in 1635 to study oriental languages, in which he
specialised after abandoning the medical profession. He went to
Cambridge in 1643 and in 1651 was appointed lecturer in Hebrew
at Oxford. We must also mention the other Leszna students who
studied in England: Jan Lactus, after spending some years at Leyden
(1632-5), came to England in 1636, and the two Vechner brothers, David and Georg, came to England in 1640. Georg was later acting rector of Leszna. Thus when Komensky arrived in London in 1641 his academy was well known in the English centres of learning.
Komensky brought two Leszna students with him as assistants. 2 R. F. Young, Comenius in England, London, 1932; Dictionary of National Biography;
P.S.B. (see 1); Alumni Oxonienses; Alumni Cantabrigienses; Stanislas Kot, Anglo-Polonica, vol. 20, Nauka Polska, 1935.
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 201
Petrus Figulus, a Czech, came to Leszna with Komensky in 1628 and
was educated by him in his academy. In 1636 he continued his
education abroad and accompanied Komensky in 1641. Later, in
1649, ne married Komensky's daughter and played an important role
in the Moravian Brotherhood. His son Daniel Ernst (grandson of
Komensky) is better known as Jablonski. The second assistant of
Komensky in England was Olyrius, who afterwards went to Leyden in 1643. Another pupil of Komensky at Leszna, Michael Arnold, went to Franeker in 1641, and Leyden in 1643 and came to Cam?
bridge in 1644 to study medicine. He went back to Franeker, was ap?
pointed professor of medicine and was rector of Franeker University four times, in 1653, 1661, 1671 and 1676. The story of Komensky's visit to England and his intimate connections with the circles of
Samuel Hartlib and Robert Boyle (invisible college) are well known
and need not be repeated here.
III
The New Foundation of the Leszna Academy3
In 1657 the acting rector of the destroyed academy of Leszna, Adam Samuel Hartman, and one of its teachers, Jan Cyrill, the
brother-in-law of Komensky, came to England to collect funds for
the reconstruction of the academy. Hartman sent a memorandum to
the archbiship of Canterbury in 1657 on the persecution of the Unitas
Fratrum in Poland. In 1659 they presented Cromwell with a
memorandum and the latter authorised them by an ordinance of
2 May 1659 to raise subscriptions throughout the country. With the
help of English and Dutch sympathisers the two Moravians collected
in England and Holland 120,000 marks (about ?6,000) and thus
were able to rebuild the academy. It was opened in 1662 and Hart?
man resumed his rectorship, which he held till 1673, when he
resigned. He was succeeded by his son-in-law Marcin Arnold, who
was rector until his death in 1685. Then through Hartman's influence
the grandson of Komensky, Daniel Ernst Figulus, was appointed. Daniel Ernst assumed the name of Jablonski, after the native vil?
lage of his father. As he is known in history as Jablonski, we shall use
this name. Jablonski was born in 1661 and hardly knew his grand? father. But he grew up under Komensky's shadow and influence.
Komensky's ideas and activities were transmitted to him by his
father and his teachers at the academy of Leszna. After graduat?
ing he and his three classmates. Samuel Gulich, Jakob Makowski and
Simon Arnold, went to Frankfort-on-Oder and matriculated there in
1677 f?r tne study of theology, and remained there till 1680. At that 1 H. Dalton, Daniel Ernst Jablonski, Berlin, 1903; see also 2.
202 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
time two brothers Hartman had strong connections in England. Pawel Hartman went to Oxford, graduated M.A. in 1658 and settled
permanently in England as Anglican rector at Shillingford, Berk?
shire. His brother, retired rector of Leszna, Adam Samuel Hartman, visited England in 1679 and was awarded a degree of D.D. at Oxford
in 1680. Through their influence the Church of England published at
its own cost a memorandum on the Unitas Fratrum in 1683 and dis?
tributed it in all dioceses. At the same time Jan Petroselin collected funds for the Polish Protestants. Through their connections the two
brothers succeeded in receiving a grant of ?200 from Charles II for
the education of two Leszna students at Oxford. Hartman selected
Jablonski and Gulich, who had just returned to Leszna from
Frankfort-on-Oder. They came to Oxford in 1680 and resided at
Christ Church for three years as Royal stipendiaries. But they did not
officially matriculate as they did not sign the articles of the Church of
England. The residence at Oxford and frequent visits to London influenced
Jablonski far more than the studies at Frankfort-on-Oder. In
London he was in touch with puritan societies which included
both Anglicans and Presbyterians, and which endeavoured to raise the moral standard of the people lowered by the Stuart reaction. He came into intimate contact with the bishop of London, Compton, William Beveridge, later bishop of St Asaph, and the German
clergyman, Horneck. These connections and his personal friendship with the chaplain of Christ Church, Oxford, John Ernest Grabe (a Prussian by birth, D.D. of Oxford in 1706), helped Jablonski later in
his appeals to England. After their return to Leszna in 1683, Samuel Gulich was ap?
pointed co-rector of the academy in 1683 and Jablonski rector
in 1686. The Leszna academy was slowly recovering from its closure in 1656. In 1663 there were only 13 pupils which grew to
71 in 1675 and 126 in 1723. During the first year of Jablonski's rectorship the upper three classes had only 21 pupils, but half of them were sons of the Polish nobility and one was the future King Stanislaw
Leszczynski, the father-in-law of Louis XV. Jablonski followed
Komensky's tradition, invited parents to take an active interest in the school and promoted amateur theatricals. He married Barbara Fer-
gushill, of Scottish origin, and kept pro-British sympathies alive in his
family. In 1691 he left Leszna for Berlin, where he was appointed court preacher. Yet he kept close contacts with the Moravian
Brothers, was consecrated as their bishop and played an important role in the movement for Protestant unity. But that activity belongs to the 18th century. Jablonski's successor was Jan Serenius Chodo-
wiecki, educated at Frankfort-on-Order, son of J. S. Chodowiecki
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 203
senior, who matriculated at Franeker in 1635 and was a student of
Jan Makowski. Rector Chodowiecki translated some of Komensky's works into German and Bishop Edward Fowler's The Principles and Practices of the Latitudinarians into Latin.
IV
The Unitas Fratrum in the i8th Century4
During the first half of the 18th century the Leszna academy was
under the constant threat of closure by the Catholic government of
Poland. Count Stanislaw Leszczynski, the pupil of Jablonski and later
king of Poland, was converted to Catholicism and although he con?
tinued to protect and provide for his academy, he could not be so
favourably disposed as his ancestors had been. During the long
struggle of Charles XII of Sweden with Peter the Great, Leszna quite
naturally sided with King Stanislaw Leszczynski and the Protestant
Charles XII. It was burned down again in 1707, this time by the
Russian troops. The rector, Samuel Arnold, son of Marcin, succeeded
in reconstructing the academy but it was uphill work and the number
of pupils grew very slowly. The patronage of the Leszczynski family and of many Polish nobles was withdrawn and the pupils were mostly Leszna merchants of German origin. Nevertheless Polish as the lan?
guage of instruction survived even the annexation of Leszna by Prussia, and the academy became a German gymnasium only in the
19th century.
Jablonski, now a preacher at the Prussian court, could assert his
influence and appeal to the Prussian rulers for protection. He was
active in the realisation of the old dream of Komensky and John
Dury in attempting to unite all Protestants in a religious federation.
His connections with England were useful in this respect. He was
awarded the D.D. at Oxford in 1706 and sent his son Pawel to study in England in 1716. Later P. Jablonski studied at Leyden and was
appointed professor at Frankfort-on-Oder. In 1715 the Privy Council
issued an order 'for the relief and for preserving the Episcopal Churches (Unitas Fratrum) in Great Poland and Polish Russia'.
That was the result of Jablonski's visit to England in 1709, when he
met Marlborough and attended a meeting of the Privy Council under
the chairmanship of Lord Sommers. Through his friend the arch?
bishop of Canterbury, and with the approval of George I, Jablonski received the right to collect funds for the Moravian Brothers in all
parts of England. The collection amounted to 237,000 marks (about
?12,000) which was divided equally between the Polish and Hun?
garian communities of the Unitas Fratrum.
4 See 2 and 3, also Deutsche Allgemeine Biographie.
204 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
The Leszna Synod again sent students to England. In 1717
Krystian Sitowski, a minister of the Unitas Fratrum, came to England to collect funds. In 1718 Bogusaw Kopijewicki came to study and remained in England for eight years. The financial conditions
of the academy were more precarious since the conversion of
Stanislaw Leszczynski. In 1717 the Leszna Synod had to assume the
payment of salaries of four teachers of the academy on condition that
the Polish nobles would pay for the fifth. Leszczynski lost interest in
his Protestant heritage and sold Leszna to Prince Sulkowski in 1738.
Although Sulkowski proved to be a kind patron of the academy, the
old intimate connections with the Polish nobility could not be re?
stored.
The precarious position of Polish Protestants and the intimate
relations of the Moravian bishop Jablonski with the Church of
England made England a promised land to the descendants of the
Moravian exiles. The coming of the Moravian Brothers to England has an interesting history. In 1722 a Czech carpenter, Christian
David, with a group of ten Moravians, emigrated from Bohemia
and found asylum on the estate of Count Nikolas Ludovik Zinzendorff
in Saxony and named his settlement 'Herrnhut'. Jablonski was
interested in the new community of Moravian Brothers and started a
correspondence with Zinzendorff, who joined the community in
1729. In 1737 Jablonski consecrated Zinzendorff as bishop of the
Unitas. Zinzendorff was in England in the 1720s and he had many friends among the English aristocracy. He came to England again and
obtained an Act of Parliament in 1749 recognising Unitas Fratrum as
an episcopalian church in community with the Church of England. On the strength of this legal recognition Zinzendorff sent a group of
Moravian Brothers to England for permanent settlement.
One of the first Englishmen who joined the Moravians in 1737 was
James Hutton, who was married by Zinzendorff in 1740. At first
Hutton was connected with John Wesley, who at that time considered
the possibility of joining Unitas Fratrum himself. But he disagreed with Zinzendorff and started his own methodist movement. Hutton
officially joined the Unitas Fratrum and became the leader of the
English Moravians. He was a very broad-minded man and an inti?
mate friend of Benjamin Franklin and English deists and unitarians.
The English Moravians founded their own academies where the
principles of Komensky were directly accepted through the channel
of Zinzendorff and Jablonski. The English Moravians sent their
missionaries to America and established their communities not only in the English-speaking North but in the Spanish-speaking South as
well. Thus the century-old relations of the Unitas with England resulted in an English-speaking branch of Komensky's church.
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 205
From 1716 to 1824 the Leszna academy was closely connected with
the family of Cassius. The family originally came from Kaszkow in
Pomerania and their name was Kaszkowski. In the middle of the
17th century a branch of the family settled in Leszna and assumed the
latinised name of Cassius. Another branch emigrated to Germany and
was gradually germanised. Christian Cassius, of the German branch, was educated in Paris and Leyden, and in Paris he lived in the house
of Hugo Grotius in 1628-31. The first Cassius of the Leszna branch
connected with the academy was David who was a teacher in 1660
and was appointed co-rector of the academy in 1669. I know of
twelve members of the family educated at the Leszna academy during
150 years of their connection with it. The first rector of this name was
David Cassius, matriculated at Franeker in 1692, who on his return
became senior and bishop of Unitas Fratrum. He was a pupil of
Jablonski and later was associated with him in all his activities as a
junior bishop. In 1707, after the burning of Leszna by the Russians, David Cassius was sent by the Unitas to Germany to collect funds, and in 1714 he went to Holland for the same purpose. He was
appointed rector in 1716 and sent his Polish pupils to Frankfort-on-
Oder, Leyden and England. After his death the next rector was
David's brother. Jan Alexander Cassius, son of the Moravian senior
Pawel, who was educated at Frankfort-on-Oder and Leyden. During his long rectorship of forty-eight years the number of pupils in the
academy grew to more than 200. He was succeeded by his son
Christian Theofil, who also was educated at Frankfort-on-Oder
and Leyden. He was appointed rector in 1788 and wrote textbooks on
logics, antiquities, history, and geography which were used in the
academy in manuscript form. In 1797 he resigned in favour of his
cousin, Boguslaw David Cassius, who was pro-rector in 1797 and rector
in 1800-24. He was the last Polish rector who defended the use of
Polish as a medium of instruction. After his resignation in 1824 the Leszna academy was germanised and became one of the German
gymnasia.
V
The Polish Socinians5
The anti-trinitarian movement within the Christian Churches, known in history as the Arian heresy, was started by the Canon of
Alexandria, Arius, in the 4th century and at one time had as many
6 E. M. Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism, Sodnianism and its Antecedents, Cambridge, Mass., 1946; E. M. Wilbur, Our Unitarian Heritage, Boston, 1925; S. Morawski, Arjanie Polscy, L'vov, 1905; St. Kot, Ideologia . . . Bract Polskich, zwanych Arjanami, Warsaw, 1932; H. Dalton, Johannes a Lasko, Beitrage zur Reformations Geschichte Polens, Deutschlands und Englands, Gotha, 1881; H. Dalton, John a Lasko, his Earlier Life, Labours, etc., London, 1886; P.S.B. (see 1) and Deutsche Allgemeine Biographic.
206 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
adherents as the orthodox trinitarian church which accepted the
Nicaean creed. Suppressed and persecuted by the Roman Church, the anti-trinitarian views became a secret creed of a few intellectuals,
especially in Spanish universities under Moslem kings when Moslem,
Jewish and Christian professors mixed freely and shared the same
'deistic' opinions. After the reformation which split the unity of
Western Christendom, anti-trinitarian opinions reappeared in the
open and were organised in a separate denomination with their
churches and schools. The famous Spanish physician, Miguel Servetus, was one of the first anti-trinitarians and was burnt by Calvin in
Geneva for heresy. His follower, Cassiodorus de Reyna, fled to London
and became a preacher to Spanish exiles. At the same time many Italian theologians adopted these heretical views and had to flee from
the inquisition to Switzerland, England and Poland. Many of them
came to London and were members of the Strangers Church at
Austin Friars during the first period of the English reformation. The
Strangers Church was a link between the English and continental
Protestants and incidentally connected the Church of England with
Poland.
When Archbishop Cranmer formulated the catechism and the
prayer book for the Protestant Church of England, he invited the
Polish theologian, John A. Lasko (Jan Laski), to assist him in this work.
Laski took an active part in Cranmer's reforms as a member of the
commission of 1551, and when the archbishop had established a
special church for continental Protestants he appointed Laski as
superintendent of Strangers Church in 1550. Although Laski was not
openly an anti-trinitarian he welcomed anti-trinitarian Spaniards, Italians and others to his church. De Reyna was appointed Spanish
preacher and Ochino, Giacomo Aconzio, and Laelius Socini were the
leaders of the Italian community. With the death of Edward VI in
1553 both Laski and Laelius Socini left for Poland.
The first Polish anti-trinitarian was Peter Goniondz (Gonesius), who was influenced by the lectures of S. Chatillon (Castello) and
the Italian Curione at the University of Bale. As is well known
Chatillon, who sympathised with Servetus, escaped from Geneva
to Bale. Goniondz returned to Poland in 1555 and started pro?
pagating anti-trinitarian views among the Polish Calvinists. The Italian anti-trinitarians Biandrata, Alciati, Gentile and Laelius Socini all went to Poland and furthered the movement. But the
most important influence was exercised by the nephew of Laelius Socini?Faustus. Faustus Socini, after escaping from the Inquisi? tion of Florence, settled permanently in Poland near Cracow and
organised the scattered groups of Polish anti-trinitarians into a
new denomination, which became known as Socinians. The new
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 207
church called itself neither Arian nor Socinian and officially adopted the name of'Polish Brothers' or the 'Minor Reformed Church'
(the Calvinists being the 'Major Reformed Church'). As the
Polish members of the Unitas Fratrum (Moravian Brethren) were
also known as 'Polish Brothers' this has led to the confusion by many historians of individual members of the two communities. For in?
stance Ch. G. Woide of the British Museum is wrongly identified in the
Dictionary of National Biography as 'Socinian', when he was a Moravian.
The Pax Dissidentium, enacted by the Polish Seym in 1573 as the law
of Poland, protected the new church for about a century and the
movement spread very rapidly. In this growth the most important
part was played by the academy of Rakow. The township of Rakow, a
property of the noble family Sieninski, which lies between Cracow
and Warsaw, became the recognised centre of the Socinians. In 1602
Jan Sieninski and his son Jakub founded the famous school of Rakow.
It soon grew into a large academic centre of learning known as
'Athenae Sarmaticae' and attracted pupils from all over Poland-
Lithuania and from abroad. For instance two Frenchmen, Cristophe and Pierre Statorius (Stoinski) studied at Rakow and matriculated
at Altdorf in 1604. Even an Englishman, Thomas Segeth, was a
student of Rakow and matriculated at Altdorf in 1614 under the
name of Seghetus. The number of pupils soon increased to a thousand, of whom about three hundred belonged to the Polish noble families, both Socinians and Calvinists. Leszczynskis, Branickis, Tarlows,
Niezabitowskis, Sieninskis and other well-known Polish names can be
found among the students of Rakow.
The relations between the Socinians and the Moravians were
friendly on the whole and Komensky's pedagogical ideas were ac?
cepted wholeheartedly at Rakow. Moravian students attended the
academy of Rakow and Socinian students attended Leszna. Komen?
sky himself was often approached by Socinians to join their church.
In 1640, when Rakow was closed, the leading Socinian writer and
teacher Jan Schlichting personally asked Komensky to accept his
son as a pupil at Leszna and handed to Komensky his works against the Trinity. Komensky accepted young Schlichting and read his
father's works but did not join the Socinians. Whether he firmly be?
lieved in the divinity of Jesus or did not wish to join an outlawed church
and to disrupt the working agreement with the Calvinists is uncertain, but he was undoubtedly influenced by Schlichting's arguments.
The Rakow academy developed on the lines of Komensky's ideas
even before they were made known by publication. The Socinian
views on the social equality of all true Christians led to the com?
pulsory acquisition of a manual trade by all pupils, whether aristo?
crats, merchants or craftsmen. Marcyn Ruar, a German Socinian,
208 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
who matriculated at Altdorf in 1611 and later became rector of
Rakow, wrote a memorandum on education for the relatives of
Piotr Rzeczyski, who went to Leyden to complete his education. In
it he recommended that all young squires should study mathematics,
politics and law, Polish and general history and geography, in?
cluding maps. Geometry and mathematics should be studied in
useful application to civil and military sciences.
The first rector of Rakow was the author and poet Erasmus
Otwinowski who died in 16io at the age of ninety. During the short
period of its existence, 1602-38, the Rakow academy had a brilliant
team of rectors and teachers. The second rector, Krzysztof Ostorod
(Osterodus), was a Socinian minister who, together with another
Socinian leader, Woidowski, came to Leyden in 1598, had personal contact with Arminius (Harmensch) and propagated his views orally and in writing. They converted some Leyden students, among them Ernest Soner, later rector of Altdorf. They were ordered to leave
Holland and their books were publicly burnt; they then went to
Rakow, and Ostorod was appointed rector of the academy. In 1616
another outstanding Socinian was appointed rector?Jan Crell
(Crellius), who was at Altdorf together with Marcyn Ruar and
emigrated to Poland in 1612. His anti-trinitarian works acquired a
European reputation, were translated into English and read by many
English intellectuals. He resigned his post to his friend Marcyn Ruar
in 1621. Ruar was another German by birth, like Crell, who became
a naturalised Pole. He travelled widely: in Paris he became a friend
of Hugo Grotius, in England he met the English latitudinarians, and
in Holland he had contacts with the Arminians. His views on edu?
cation have been mentioned before. The teachers were also able
writers and had progressive pedagogical views. Jan Schlichting,
Walenty Szmalc, Petrus Statorius (French by birth), his son Jan Stoinski, Andreas Wiszowaty (grandson of Faustus Socini), three
Liubienieckis, two Stegmans?were all outstanding teachers, not only of theology but of history, mathematics, and classical languages.
Rakow was the centre of Socinian learning and was well known for
its publishing activities. The printing office was at work from 1575. Here were printed the Rakow Catechism and works of all the Soci? nian leaders at Rakow, and thence these publications penetrated
(being in Latin) into all Western countries including England. Although the first Socinian MSS were already available in England at the end of the 16th century, a wider distribution of Socinian books
took place in the 17th century. In 1638 John Hales and later John Prideaux of Oxford, afterwards bishop of Worcester, read Crell's
books printed at Rakow in 1623. Polish Socinians, after the closure of
Rakow and the dispersion of its teachers, started coming to England
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 209
for the propagation of their views. But before we deal with their
English contacts we must finish the story of the Socinian schools.
In 1638 the Polish Seym with the help of Calvinist and Lutheran
votes outlawed the Socinian Church and ordered the closure of all its
churches and schools. The Rakow academy was shut at the peak of its
achievement and European reputation. However, in Podolia among the Russian (Ukrainian) Orthodox population, the Socinian squire
Jerzy Czaplic-Szpanowski founded a secondary school in 1614 on his
estate of Kisielin, and when Rakow was closed he invited its teachers
to Kisielin to continue their work. Jan Schlichting, Krzysztof Liubie-
niecki Samuel Przypkowski and Krzysztof Stoinski migrated to
Kisielin and joined the local teachers Maciej Twardochleb and Jakub
Hryniewicz, thus continuing the Rakow tradition. Yet the govern? ment, prompted by the Catholic hierarchy, closed this Podolian
academy as well in 1644. One should not presume that the Orthodox
Cossacks looked with favour on the Socinians. The troops of Bogdan
Khmel'nitsky burned down and looted all Polish churches and
estates, whether Catholic, Calvinist or Socinian. The higher Socinian
learning found an asylum for a time outside Poland, just on the
German side of the frontier at Luclawici, where the local landowners
Stanislaw Taszycki and Abraham Blonski founded an academy. Jan Crell, Marcyn Ruar, Joachim Stegman, the mathematician Adam
Frank, Wojciech Manlius, all from the Rakow academy, continued at
Luclawici. The studies included theology, methaphysics, logic,
physics and mathematics, besides classical subjects, history and
geography. The Socinian works came to England, mostly in manuscript,
already in the 16th century; the printed works of Simon Budny were
also available at the end of the 16th century. In 1618 a whole group of well-known Socinians came to London from Leyden. They in?
cluded Sbignew Sieninski, Samuel Przypkowski, Krzysztof Przyp? kowski, Jonasz Schlichting, Mikolai Lyszko, Jan Morsztyn and
Krzysztof Milanowski. Undoubtedly they had some connections in
London and left traces of their visit.
VI
Socinians in England6
The first known English Socinian was John Biddle, BA. Oxford
1634 and M.A. 1641. He was appointed headmaster of St Mary le
Crypt Grammar School (Gloucestershire) and apparently developed Socinian views independently through reading. In 1638 the Socinian
6 St. Kot, Anglo-Polonica, vol. 20; D.N.B.; M. Cranstone, John Locke, 2 vols, London, 1957-
210 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
Jan Cizchowski from Rakow was in Oxford for the propagation of
Socinian views and it is very likely that Biddle was influenced by him. To escape imprisonment Biddle confessed his errors publicly in 1644 but nevertheless he was gaoled in 1647 and released only in 1652 with the passing of the Act of Oblivion. He started the first
Socinian congregation in England and had contacts with the Polish
Socinians, since he met Crell-Spinowski and corresponded with
Jeremiusz Feldbinger, a Polish Socinian, who was educated at Frank?
fort and was rector of Wroclaw. Biddle wrote a Socinian catechism
which was translated into Latin by a member of his congregation, Nathan Stukey, and he published Socinian tracts by S. Przypkowski,
J. Stegman and others. Biddle was again imprisoned and died in
gaol in 1662. But his views were propagated by his friend Thomas
Firmin, who by his prudent behaviour escaped persecution. In 1662
Firmin collected money, partly in churches, Tor the exiled anti-
trinitarians of Poland'. In 1681 he collected ?680 for the persecuted Polish Calvinists. The non-juring Bishop Frampton called Firmin 'a
nonconformist to all Christendom besides a few lowsy sectaries in
Poland'. In 1687 Firmin published A Brief History of Unitarians called
also Socinians and other Socinian books. It appears that Firmin was
the first to use the term 'unitarians' which was later accepted in
England and Transylvania. After the restoration of the Stuarts Fir?
min used to hold gatherings of latitudinarians at his house. Fowler, later bishop of Worcester, Tillotson, later archbishop of Canter?
bury, and other unorthodox Anglicans attended these meetings, and
John Locke went regularly. From indirect evidence they met there
Crell-Spinowski and other Polish Socinians.
In the 1650s Krzysztof Crell-Spinowski, son of Jan Crell, came to
England for the first time and due to his father's fame was accepted in English radical circles as one of their members. He met Biddle and
formed a friendship with Firmin. Crell-Spinowski started his educa?
tion at Rakow, then followed his teacher Marcyn Ruar to Danzig. In 1646 he was appointed teacher at the academy of Luclawici and
in 1648 he completed his education at Leyden together with three
other well-known Polish Socinians: Maciej Przypkowski, Alexander
Konarski (uncle of the famous Piarist Stanislaw Konarski) and Jan
Arciszewski, who went to England in 1651 with Crell. In 1662 Crell
came to England again, and in secret Socinian circles at Oxford and
Cambridge he propagated his views with success. He advised the
English Socinians not to follow the example of Biddle and to abstain
from forming Socinian congregations. In his opinion the latitudin?
arian views leading to Socinian ideology would be better propagated
by remaining officially within the Church of England. In 1666 he
went to Holland to collect funds, but came back to England. Mrs
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 211
Stukey, mother of Nathan and friend of Biddle, offered Crell suffi?
cient money to educate his two sons, Samuel and Paul, at Cambridge. Paul Crell became a physician and practised in England. Samuel
Crell (Crellius) became one of the most learned men in Europe of
his time; he collaborated with Pierre Bay le and was a friend of
Newton, Locke, and Shaftesbury, who shared his views whilst re?
maining members of the Church of England. Locke's Reasonableness
of Christianity, published anonymously, was obviously a Socinian
book, and it was at once attacked as such by the orthodox trini?
tarians. If Locke publicly denied his Socinianism, it was only in
accordance with the advice of Crell-Spinowski. Crell himself
adopted the name Spinowski (Spinovius) to escape the Socinian
fame of his father. Samuel went to Luclawici where for a time he
acted as preacher and teacher. He made frequent visits to England,
Holland, Berlin and Russia. In 1725 he settled at Amsterdam with
the Remonstrants (or Collegian ts) under whose professor, Philipp van
Limborgh, he had studied earlier. As is well known, Limborgh was an
intimate friend of Locke. Samuel Crell died in Amsterdam in 1747. He had followed the example of his father and had published his
works under an assumed name?Lucas Mellierus?which was an
anagram of Samuel Crellius. In London he knew Archbishop Tillot-
son, who publicly spoke in high appreciation of Socinians as men.
The younger brother of Krzysztof Crell, Jan, was educated at
Luclawici and came to England in 1657. He went to Leyden in 1653 to study medicine. He sent his son Daniel to Cambridge to be edu?
cated with his two cousins (as Socinians all three Crells were not
matriculated). Daniel was introduced to Locke by his cousin Samuel.
Besides the Crell family other Polish Socinians also came to England. In 1660 Andreas Wiszowaty came to England. His two classmates at
Leyden, Alexander Czaplic-Szpanowski and Krzysztof Arciszewski, also visited England earlier. Christian Sandius was at Oxford in
1669. Adam Frank of Luclawici was in England in 1630. As a result of these contacts with the Polish Socinians their views
were disseminated in England quite widely, and an embittered con?
troversy was started after the publication of Locke's Reasonableness of
Christianity. Especially prolific in his heterodox publications was
William Whiston, an Anglican clergyman and successor of Newton as
professor of mathematics at Cambridge, who was expelled from
Cambridge in 1611 for his heretical opinions. The Socinians were
joined by 'deists' and the controversy raged throughout the 18th
century. In this polemic the orthodox Calvinists were more intolerant
than the Anglicans. It was the puritan parliament which imprisoned Biddle and it was the Scottish Church which burnt a Scottish
Socinian as late as 1797. In the 18th century, however, the English
212 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
Calvinists, being a persecuted minority themselves, advocated the
policy of toleration and many of their leaders became openly 'uni?
tarians'. The case of Joseph Priestley is well known. Here it should be
mentioned that the practice of Polish Socinian academies in pro?
moting scientific studies and tolerant and reasoned argument was
adopted by the dissenting academies of England, of which Warrington
Academy was a famous example.
VII
The Lithuanian Calvinists and Their Contacts
with England7
Lithuanian Calvinism owed its growth to two causes. First the ex?
tremely rich and influential princely family of Radziwill joined the Geneva creed and promoted it in all its towns and estates.
Secondly, after 1615 the Scottish Calvinists, persecuted by James I,
emigrated to Lithuania in thousands and settled mostly in the two
towns of the Radziwill family, the Lithuanian Kiejdany near Kaunas
and the Belorussian Sluck (Slutsk). It was in these two towns that
Krzysztof Radziwill founded the well-known Calvinist academies, at
Kiejdany in 1625 and at Sluck in 1626. His son Janusz Radziwill
founded the printing office at Kiejdany in 1650 and at Sluck in 1670, from which Calvinist books were distributed all over Europe. The
Scottish refugees settled in these two centres of Calvinism and from
the very beginning took an active part in their activities. The names of
Haliburton, Gordon, Motteson, Paterson, Ramsay, Middleton, Wat?
son, Forbes, Inglis, Hunter all figure in the history of Lithuanian
Calvinism. They kept in touch with their country, and a Scottish
emigrant merchant established a fund at Edinburgh University for
the education of a Calvinist student from Lithuania. One of them, Tomasz Ramsaeus (Ramsay), received his B.D. at Edinburgh and
went to London in 1678-82, where he studied medicine and gave
private lessons. Another, Gabriel Bieniaszewski, ^fter Leyden went
to Edinburgh in 1726 and on his return was appointed co-rector of
Kiejdany. In 1726 two Polish-Lithuanian students were awarded
M.A. degrees at Edinburgh: Jacobus Inglis and Chr. Henricus
Karketell. Later Inglis became rector of the Sluck academy. The two
academies at Kiejdany and Sluck, although they could not rival the
older Polish foundations of Leszna and Rakow, grew into recognised centres of Calvinist learning and had many distinguished scholars as
rectors and teachers. In Kiejdany in the 17th century we would
7 J. Lukaszewicz, Geschichte der reformirten Kirchen in Lithauen, Leipzig, 1848; J. Lukasze- wicz, Dzieje Kosciolow Wyznania elweckiego w dawnej Malej Polsce, Poznan, 1853; P.B.S.; Russkiy Biograficheskiy Slovar'; D.N.B.', St. Kot, Anglo-Polonica.
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 213
mention Pawel Demitrowicz, educated at Frankfort-on-Oder in 1611;
Jan Borzymowski, educated at Sluck, Leyden (1636) and Franeker; Adam Freytag, M.D. Leyden 1632, astronomer, mathematician and
writer; Frydrich Stark, rector 1643-8; in the 18th century the two
grandsons of Jan Borzymowski?Daniel, educated at Frankfort-on-
Oder in 1695, rector of Kiejdany in 1700-1, and his brother Samuel, rector in 1703; Jan Bythner, educated at Leyden in 1697, rector in
1720; Claudius Canot, educated at Leyden in 1717; Kazimir Kazarin, educated at Frankfort-on-Oder and rector in 1732; and Samuel
Bernacki, educated at Marburg in 1728 and rector in 1733. His son
Boguslaw Bernacki, educated at Frankfort-on-Oder in 1770, was co-
rector at Kiejdany till 1784. In Sluck we should equally mention
Jan Borzymowski junior, educated at Kiejdany under his father, rector of Sluck in 1670; his son Jan Borzymowski (tertius) educated
at Frankfort-on-Oder in 1695 and Leyden in 1698, rector in 1700; Gabriel Dyjakiewicz, educated at Leyden in 1683 and co-rector in
1686; Martin, his son, educated at Leyden in 1694, co-rector of
Sluck in 1713 and rector of Kiejdany in 1719; Jacob Inglis, M.A. of
Edinburgh 1726; and Michael Bernacki, educated at Marburg, like
his father Samuel, rector in 1776. Rejnold Adam, the inspector of
the academies in 1642, was known for his publications and as a
teacher. He supervised a group of Sluck students at Leyden and
Altdorf in 1631-3 and visited Paris and London. In Paris he met
Hugo Grotius in 1636. After the partition of Poland-Lithuania both
academies continued under Russia.
The Lithuanian Calvinists were not only intimately linked with
Scotland; they also had connections with England. Boguslaw Samuel
Chylinski was educated at Kiejdany under F. Stark and was sent as a
scholar to Franeker in 1654. He arrived in London in 1657 and went
to Oxford where he started the translation of the Bible into Lithuan?
ian. Oxford dons helped him with funds and printing, and in two years
Chylinski completed his translation. Fifteen Oxford professors signed a certificate that Chylinski was' a learned and polite scholar5. In 1659
Chylinski published in English An account of the translation of the Bible
into the Lithuanian tongue. He also translated the Anglican catechism
and psalms into Lithuanian. The subsequent story of the Lithuanian
Bible is very involved. Chylinski was not approved by the Synod of
Lithuania, and when in 1660 the Calvinists of Vil'na sent Jan
Krainski, treasurer of Boguslaw Radziwill, to collect funds in Eng? land and Scotland for the destroyed Lithuanian Calvinist churches,
they also sent Mikolaj Minwid to supervise the publication of the
new Bible. Charles II, by his Letters Patent of 27 August 1661, allowed public subscriptions for the Lithuanian Calvinist Church.
Chylinski, however, was obliged to return to Lithuania to defend
214 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
his translation. The Kiejdany convention appointed Jan Borzymow- ski and Skrodzki to revise the whole translation of Chylinski. The
latter went back to England and appealed to the Privy Council.
Meanwhile Krainski found mistakes in the translation (from the
orthodox Calvinist point of view) and persuaded the Secretary of
the Privy Council, Sir Richard Browne, to stop printing the Bible.
The Privy Council decided that the expenses and printing should
be taken over by Lithuanian Calvinist authorities, and although Robert Boyle and John Walis defended Chylinski's translation it
remained in MS only. The Lithuanian Synod appointed a commis?
sion of Jan Borzymowski junior, Stanislaw Monkiewicz, Samuel
Bythner and Samuel Lipski to make the new Lithuanian translation
independently of the Oxford dons.
The relations of Lithuanian Calvinists with Oxford were not
limited to the story of the Lithuanian Bible. Princess Karolina Lud-
wika Radziwill (married to the Markgraf of Brandenburg) financed
the education of several Lithuanian Calvinists at Oxford. One of
them, Samuel Lutomirski, became rector of the Kiejdany Academy in 1681 and senior of the church in Lithuania. As Calvinists these
students were not officially matriculated and are not included in
Oxford registers. The Lithuanian students continued to come to
England in the 18th century but they went to the dissenting aca?
demies and not to Oxford. The most notable case is that of Sies-
trzencewicz-Bogusz who, after graduating at Kiejdany, came to a
London dissenting academy to complete his education. Later he
played an important role in Russia as archbishop of Belorussia and
as the president of the Free Economic Society {Volnoye ekonomicheskqye
obshchestvo).
VIII
The Russian Protestants in Belorussia8
About half the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania-
Russia were Russian-speaking Orthodox Belorussians. Although some
of the Orthodox gentry followed their Lithuanian neighbours and
joined either Catholic or Calvinist churches, the mass of the Belo?
russians remained steadfastly Orthodox and were not touched by Western European forms of Christianity. Strangely enough the re?
forming ideas came to them not from the West, but from the East, from the depth of Muscovite Russia. In 1551 the abbot (Igumen) of
the Troitsko-Sergiyev Monastery (Lavra), Artemy (in Poland Ar-
temius), started the propagation of anti-trinitarian views. He was
condemned by the clerical convention (Sobor) of 1553 for heresy and
8 P.S.B-1 Russkiy Biograficheskiy Slovar', article 'Feodosy (Kosoy)'; J. Lukaszewicz (see 7).
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 215
imprisoned in a monastery near Moscow. One of his followers, a serf
of a Moscow boyar, Feodosy (Theodosius), fled to the Volga dissenters
(raskol'niki) and was consecrated a monk (chernets). He was caught in Moscow in 1554 and also imprisoned in a monastery. Artemy,
Feodosy, and a third monk Foma (Thomas) managed to escape from
prison and fled to Lithuania. They arrived at Vitebsk and started
propagating their views among the Russian-speaking population.
They gathered a considerable following and began destroying ikons
and other symbols of the Orthodox faith. Persecuted by the Orthodox
clergy and by fanatical mobs, they dispersed into the depth of
Lithuania. Feodosy, who meanwhile had married a Jewess, soon died
at the age of eighty. Artemy found asylum on the estate of Prince
George Slutski and Foma went to Polotsk. There he established a
congregation and became minister of a unitarian church. In 1563 Ivan Grozny took Polotsk, drowned all the Jews in a frozen river and
ordered the drowning of Foma as a traitor and a heretic. Nevertheless
their congregations survived them and joined the Lithuanian Cal?
vinists or the Socinians.
Socinian views penetrated into Lithuania from Poland. One
of the Italian anti-trinitarians, Biandrata, was invited by Radzi-
will as a Calvinist, but soon proved to be a Socinian and had
considerable success among the Calvinists. One of the Calvinist
landowners, Jan Kiszka, became a fervent Socinian and in all his
estates transferred the Calvinist churches to Socinians. Simon
Budny, a Calvinist minister of Klecko, also became a Socinian and
was invited by Kiszka to Losiek, where Kiszka had a printing office.
Here at Losiek Budny translated the New Testament into Polish in
Socinian interpretation and printed it. Being a Belorussian Budny knew Russian and evidently was connected with the three Russian
monks as he mentioned them in his introduction to the New Testa?
ment. So far as I know it is a unique instance in the history of the
Christian Church when Western rationalists (Socinians) met
Eastern rationalists (Great Russian sectarians) to form a combined
congregation.
IX
Polish Students at Foreign Universities in the
17TH and i8th Centuries9
The leading Protestant academies of Leszna, Rakow, Kiejdany and Sluck were in fact secondary schools, although in some subjects,
notably theology, they rose above that level and imparted the kind
9 Nederlandsch Biografisch Wordenboek; Leyden University, Album Studiosum; Frankfort- on-Oder University, Aeltere Universities Matrikeln; Altdorf University, Matrikeln der Uni- versitat.
2l6 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
of education which was usually the preserve of the universities.
Nevertheless they could not rival Western Protestant universities
either in resources or in scholars. Their students, to complete their
education, had to go to the established seats of learning in Western
Europe. It has been previously mentioned that fourteen Polish
Polish Students at Leyden University i 601-1800
ijth Century _
Faculty whom The- Medi- Mathe- Philo- not Ger-
ology Law cine matics sophy known mans Total
o x
cc
I
3 7
20 io
2
1601-1610 1611-1620
1621-1630 1631-1640 1641-1650 1651-1660 1661-1670 1671-1680 1681-1690 1691-1700
Total 17th century 52
4 2 2
11 16
3 3 2
3 5
4 9
20
3 1 2
4
12 26 12
49 52 19 5 1
7 1
2
14 19
119 19 14
2
2
4
7 8
4 6
20
45 46
210
117 43 18
7 18 18
5* 23 43 l84 J89 3$ 542
18th Century
The?
ology Law Medi?
cine Mathe? matics
Faculty not
known
Of whom Ger? mans Total
1701-1710 1711-1720 1721-1730 1731-1740 1741-1750 1751-1760 1761-1770 1771-1780 1781-1790 1791-1800
Total 18th
century
12 12
15 12
13 14 16 8
14 2
118
1
3
5 1 6 1 2
19 11
5 4 3
5 8 2
7
16
13 22
13 28 20 26 io 18 2
18 38 168
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 217
students studied at Oxford, ten at Cambridge, ten at London hos?
pitals and dissenting academies, and five at Scottish universities. The
number was probably much larger: as dissenters, most of them
did not matriculate and were not officially registered, and it is very difficult to ascertain their names. Far more important than the
British universities were the two Calvinist centres: Leyden in Holland
and Frankfort-on-Oder in Prussia. The number of Polish students in
these two universities amounted to 1,484 in 1601-1800.
Polish Students at Frankfort-on-Oder University 1601-1800
Poles Ger? mans Total Poles
Ger? mans Total
1601-1610 1611-1620
1621-1630 1631-1640 1641-1650 1651-1660 1661-1670 1671-1680 1681-1690 1691-1700
Total 17th" century
27 17 52
6
45 45 12
l9 24 27
8
7 io
5 40 28
13 5
11 8
35 24 62 11
85 73 25 24 35 35
274 135 409
1701-1710 24 16 40 1711-1720 13 6 19 1721-1730 25 11 36 1731-1740 13 9 22
1741-1750 17 11 28
1751-1760 23 40 63 1761-1770 13 23 36 1771-1780 23 18 41 1781-1790 io 8 18
1791-1800 53 9 62
Total 18th
century 214 151 365
The table of Polish students at Leyden and Frankfort-on-Oder has
many peculiarities which have to be explained. First, I considered it
necessary to distinguish the Polish and polonised students of Scottish,
Czech, and German descent from German students who, although Polish citizens, were mostly Lutheran and of German speech and cul?
ture. After the partition of Poland they all openly declared them?
selves Germans and were no longer classified asc Polonus \ Only those
few Germans who came from Warsaw and other centres of Polish cul? ture continued to be classified as Poles. That fact explains the decrease in the number of Polish students of German descent after the parti? tion. The Prussian annexation of Polish lands also explains the fact
that so many Poles went to Frankfort-on-Oder at the end of the cen?
tury instead of to Leyden. Secondly, we have to distinguish the
students of four Protestant denominations. The Socinians and the
majority of the Moravians went to Leyden, the Calvinists attended
both universities in almost equal numbers, and the Lutherans, with a
few individual exceptions, attended Frankfort-on-Oder. This fact ex?
plains the enormous influx of Polish students at Leyden in the 17th
2l8 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
century. Most of the Polish students in 1611-60 were Socinians from
Rakow and other Socinian academies. Their attendance in large numbers also explains the distribution by faculties. The Socinians did
not attend lectures on theology and were matriculated in philosophy and mathematics, or law and medicine. Many of them were not dis?
tributed by faculties. Most of the Calvinists, especially in the 18th
century, were trained in divinity. We must add in conclusion that
Polish-speaking Lithuanian students of Kiejdany and Sluck con?
tributed about ninety Calvinist students to Leyden University (thirty in the 17th century and sixty in the 18th century) and about sixty Calvinists to Frankfort-on-Oder (fifteen in the 17th century and
forty-five in the 18th century). Another German school of higher learning which attracted
many Polish students was the academy of Altdorf, transformed into a
full university in 1625. Already at the end of the 16th century Polish
students, especially those with Socinian tendencies, started to go to
Altdorf. In the period 1575-1601 no fewer than 114 Polish students
were matriculated at Altdorf. During the period 1601-31, 105 Polish
students, mostly Socinians from Rakow, studied at Altdorf. In 1631 the Polish students ceased to go to Altdorf and went to Leyden. This
change of university was connected with the change of the Altdorf
authorities towards Socinians. Although officially Calvinist, Altdorf
academic circles were lenient to Socinian views and welcomed Polish
students, who in some cases were open adherents of Fausto Socini. In
1583 Prince Nicholas of Ostrorog was even elected rector of Altdorf.
In 1609 Adam Sieninski (of Rakow) was elected rector after Ernest
Son er, rector 1607-8, had openly made Altdorf a Socinian centre.
Most of the teachers of the Rakow academy were trained at Altdorf.
Feeling secure, the Socinian students formed secret societies with
initiation rites and a cypher; Socinian tracts were much in evidence, and Professor Ernest Soner openly propagated anti-trinitarian doc?
trines. Besides the Poles many Germans were also infected by these
views, and the Calvinist authorities had to take notice. In 1616 they
expelled Samuel Przypkowski and his Polish associates from the
university (they went to Leyden in 1617) and they prohibited Socinian societies. During the years 1617-19 there were no Polish
students at all; from 1620 to 1631 only eighteen officially Calvinist
Poles matriculated at Altdorf, and after 1631 Polish students do not
appear in the registers any more.
POLISH PROTESTANTS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS 2ig
Links with Holland10
The majority of German Protestant universities were strictly Lutheran and did not accept Polish Calvinists or Socinians. Frankfort-
on-Oder was half Calvinist, half Lutheran but would not matriculate
members of Socinian churches. Dutch universities, on the contrary,
accepted students of all denominations, including Catholics, Soci?
nians and Jews. Especially liberal was the University of Leyden. As
we have seen, hundreds of Polish Protestants attended Leyden. Other
Dutch universities also had individual Polish students, especially Franeker at which a strong Polish group studied theology under Jan Makowski. Known in Holland as Johannes Maccovius, Makowski
was educated at Leszna and taught there. He tutored three boys of the
Sieninski family and two Gorai Gorayskis. With Counts Zbigniew and
Jan Gorai Gorayski he matriculated at Franeker in 1613, at the age of twenty-five. He graduated as D.D. and was appointed professor of theology. His fame as a university teacher attracted many Polish
students. Besides the two Gorayskis, his students included Mikolaj Arnold, later professor and rector of Franeker, Jan Serenius Cho-
dowiecki, senior of the Unitas Fratrum and writer, Jan Andziewicz
and Jan Borzymowski. B. S. Chylinski, the translator of the Bible, was also at Franeker in 1654. The rector of Leszna, David Cassius, was at Franeker in 1692.
Yet ties with Holland were not limited to university students and
professors. The Moravian Brothers of Unitas Fratrum were inti?
mately connected with Dutch liberal Calvinists. Komensky was the
most prominent of its members who found his final asylum in
Holland. Many others resided in the Netherlands for long periods, and whenever the Leszna community was short of funds they
regularly appealed to their Dutch friends and always received a
favourable response. The Socinians, on the other hand, found friends and protectors in the community of Dutch Remonstrants and often attended their theological seminary at Amsterdam.
XI
The facts related here lead us to several conclusions. First, the Polish Calvinists, the Czecho-Polish Moravians, and the Polish Socinians were in the centre of Western European religious and educational movements and directly influenced the progressive thought of England. Thus the Slavonic contribution to European
10 See 9 and previous.
220 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW
reform was not limited to a single genius, Jan Amos Komensky.
Secondly, the role of the Polish Socinians in the history of English education is often neglected and the transformation of orthodox dis?
senting academies into unitarian and scientific seats of learning in
the 18th century is usually ascribed to purely English sources. We
have seen that the English latitudinarians and unitarians were closely connected with the Polish Socinians. The Polish Protestants in?
fluenced the reform in Holland as well as in England. They were not
only passive recipients in Dutch universities, they were active con?
tributors as well. The Socinians influenced for instance Harmensch
and Hugo Grotius and particularly the community of Remonstrants.