The reformation in Poland

The phenomenal spread of the Reformation in Poland was due, first of all, to certain social causes. Among these probably the most potent were the Renaissance, the art of printing, the influence of foreign universities, particularly those of Germany and Switzerland, religious toleration in Poland in the sixteenth century, and the fact that the new ideas were accepted, championed, and maintained by the upper classes of the population, thus giving the Reformation movement a certain prestige, popularity, and much needed moral and material support.

As in the West, so also in Poland the way for the religious Reformation was prepared in a large measure by the Renaissance. The new learning, together with the new temper of mind resulting therefrom, reached Poland early in the fifteenth century, won many enthusiastic followers among the educated nobility and even among the higher clergy, and exerted a powerful influence over the minds of the upper classes in the nation throughout the sixteenth century. Many of the Polish bishops were ardent admirers of Erasmus, among whom were Tomicki, Maciejowski, Zebrzydowski, Padniewski, and Myszkowski. Their episcopal courts as well as those of some of the Polish magnates, including that of Hetman Jan Tarnowski, were centres of humanistic culture.[181]

The most notable representatives of the new temper of mind and exponents of the new ideas were John Ostrorog, who died in 1501, John Łaski, known also as John a Lasco, and Andrew Frycz Modrzewski; the first living and writing in the fifteenth and the second two in the sixteenth century. In his Monumentum pro reipublicae ordinatione, published in 1456, John Ostrorog opposed the Polish king’s humble submissiveness to the pope, the payment of annates, the proclamation in the country of papal jubilees and indulgences for the purpose of collecting money, contended for the separation of the Polish church from Rome, and advocated state control of clerical education.[182]

John Łaski (1499-1560), nephew of the primate of the same name, was the most ardent and conspicuous Polish humanist and patron of humanists before his acceptance of the Reformation and his break with the established church. He had spent some time with Erasmus at Basel, purchased the great scholar’s wonderful library, the use of which, however, he left to his master until his death, and on his return home in 1526 became a zealous promoter of humanistic studies in his own country and the most distinguished patron of a number of young Polish humanists, among whom were Modrzewski, Andrew Trzycieski, Rullus, Hosius; the Silesians, Pyrser, Lang, Ephorinus, Frederick of Freistadt; the Hungarian Antoninus, the Frenchman Aignan Bourgoin, known also as Anian, and the Englishman Coxe.[183]

Andrew Frycz Modrzewski (1503-1572) was educated at the universities of Cracow and Wittenberg, and at the latter institution he became intimately acquainted with Melanchthon. On his return to Poland he became secretary to Prince Sigismund Augustus. In 1546 he joined the Cracow circle of humanistic religious reformers, to which belonged Andrew Trzycieski, a fellow student of Modrzewski at Cracow, the publisher Wojewódka, the jurist James Przyłuski, James Uchański, deacon of the Cathedral Chapter, later archbishop and primate of Poland, Zebrzydowski, also deacon of the Cathedral Chapter and later bishop of Cracow, Lismanini, the Franciscan confessor of the queen, and others. In 1554 he published in Basel in the establishment of John Oporin his De republica emendanda, the fourth part of which consisted of his intended work, De Ecclesia, in which he dealt with the problem of church reform. Modrzewski was primarily a humanist, secondarily an advocate of religious reform. He strongly favored the establishment of a national church, independent of papal jurisdiction,[184] and leaned toward Calvinism.[185]

In the first half of the sixteenth century humanism reached the height of its development and influence in Poland, and as a result brought about a radical mental and spiritual change. It freed the individual from the mediaeval burden of religious and intellectual authority; and while it did in turn impose new authorities, yet it awakened a sense of criticism, of intellectual and spiritual inquiry, and of independent judgment.[186] This new critical attitude of mind constituted a well prepared soil for the reception, growth, and development of the new seed of religious reform. This accounts in a large measure for the easy and rapid spread of the Reformation in Poland. In their search for truth the humanists disregarded the authority of the church, and subjected the established faith and ecclesiastical order to criticism. Criticism led, in turn, to rebellion against the dogmas of the church and its organization.[187]

Another factor contributing to the spread of the Reformation in Poland was the art of printing. The first printed book, Gutenberg’s Bible, appeared from the press at Munich in the year 1455. Ten years later books in the Latin language were printed in Cracow by a certain Gunther Zainer, who, it is claimed, had been invited to Cracow by the University.[188] Later Zainer is said to have removed to Augsburg, where he was to open a permanent printing establishment.[189] The earliest known print struck off in Cracow was a calendar for the year 1474, Calendarium anni Domini 1474 currentis, a copy of which is preserved in the library of the University of Cracow.[190] Immediately following this publication there appeared two editions of Joannis de Turrecremata Explanatio in Psalterium Davidi, the first in 1473-1474, the second in 1475. Until recently this book was regarded as the earliest publication printed in Poland.[191] Contemporaneously with Turrecremata’s work there appeared from the press in Cracow two other interesting books, namely, St. Augustine’s Opuscula, de doctrina christiana, de praedestinatione Sanctorum (1473-1474), and Franciscus de Platea’s Opus restitutionem, usurarum et excommunicationum (1475).[192]

Books in the Slavic language in cyrilic characters were printed in Cracow as early as 1491 by a certain enterprising German printer from Neustadt, Franconia, by the name of Schwaipolt Fiol.[193] In 1492 Fiol was summoned before an ecclesiastical court to be tried for openly expressing heretical opinions. After that nothing more is heard of his printing and publishing activity.[194] The first Polish book was printed in Breslau in 1475. Its title was Statuta synodalia Wratislawiensia episcopi Conradi Oelsnensis, item statuta episcoporum Petri Nowak et Rudolphi Ruedesheimii, and it contained in Polish the Lord’s Prayer, Ave Maria, and the Apostles’ Creed. A copy of this book is to be found in the British Museum.[195]

Whatever printing was done in Cracow in the second half of the fifteenth century was, however, sporadic. Permanent printing and publishing business had not been established until the beginning of the sixteenth century. This was first accomplished in 1503 by John Haller, a merchant of Cracow, who imported a printer from Metz, Caspar Hochfeder by name, with all necessary equipment. Chmielowski claims that Hochfeder was the printer who had previously been in Cracow and had printed Turrecremata’s, Augustine’s, and de Platea’s works, and not Zainer. It is also known that in this undertaking Haller was assisted by Georg Stuchs von Sulzbach. From this time on Cracow had a permanent printing establishment, owned and managed by John Haller. This enterprising merchant owned also a paper mill and maintained a bookstore.[196] After Haller’s death in 1525 the business was efficiently carried on by his widow, and merited a considerable degree of renown.[197]

Encouraged by the example and success of Haller’s enterprise, others soon entered the publishing business, and the number of printing presses in Cracow multiplied rapidly. In the first half of the sixteenth century the Polish capital was the proud possessor of the printing establishments of Florian Ungler, Hieronimus Wietor, Matthew Scharffenberger, Siebeneicher, Wierzbięta, Lazarus Andrysowicz, and of Piotrkowczyk.[198] Ungler was the first one of the Cracow printer-publishers to attempt Polish prints. Among his employees was a certain John of Sącz (Jan z Sącza), who later became a very active promoter of Polish printing. In 1533 this John of Sącz, known now also as Małecki and Sandecki, had a printing establishment in Pułtusk. By 1536 we find him in East Prussia at first as printer-publisher and afterwards as Lutheran pastor and superintendent at Elck.[199] Ungler’s successors became Stanislaus of Zakliczyn and Gregory Przeworski.[200] The largest and best in point of output and quality of work was the printing establishment of Andrysowicz. By it were printed the constitutions of the Polish Diet, Wujek’s Bible, and many other important and valuable books of the sixteenth century.[201]

In the years 1503-1536 there were published in Cracow alone two hundred ninety-four printed books, or as many as in the whole of England in the same period.[202] Thus, the Polish capital became the centre of cultural activity, not only for Poland, but also for eastern and south-eastern Europe. “The earliest books for Hungary, Moldavia, Transylvania, Ruthenia, and Lithuania were printed in Cracow.”[203]

But Cracow was not the only Polish city in which printing establishments were to be found. Other cities had them, too. In the first half of the sixteenth century printing establishments were found in Wilno, Pułtusk, and Poznań. Later, in the course of the second half of the same century, printing presses were established in Lublin, Brześć-Litewski, Kowno, Łosk, Nieświez, Łowicz, Płock, Kalisz, Pińczów, Raków, Zamość, Warsaw, Gdańsk, Chełm, Lwów, Kiev, and other provincial cities and towns.[204]

Moreover, many of the Polish printer-publishers were either open adherents of the Reformation or in sympathy with it. Some of the Cracow printers, though remaining in the Catholic Church, yet for the sake of business printed and circulated Protestant books. Wietor, suspected of heresy, had to make a confession of the Catholic faith before an episcopal tribunal. The printer Andrysowicz was placed on the index.[205] Some were open adherents of the Reformation. The court printer, Michael Wierzbięta, was a Calvinist, an elder in the Reformed Church of Cracow, and in his establishment were printed Calvinistic books and pamphlets as well as many of the best Polish literary productions of the time.[206] Alexander Rodecki, another Cracow printer-publisher, conducting printing establishments also at Raków and at Łosk, was an Arian. His daughter Judith married Sebestian Sternacki, who was also a publisher of Arian literature at Cracow and Raków. Sebestian Sternacki’s son, Paul, married Catharine Siebeneicher, and continued as publisher of Arian literature.[207] Other Protestant printers were Daniel of Łęczyca, an itinerant printer, Bernard Wojewódka, active at Brześć-Litewski, and Cyprian Bazylik, who married a niece of one of the earliest Cracow printers, Wolfgang Lerma von Pfaffenhoffen.[208]

Besides a number of printer-publishers, there was in Cracow and in Poland in general a considerable number of booksellers thoroughly sympathetic with the Reformation movement. One of the earliest Cracow booksellers imbued with the new religious ideas was Georg Fenig, of Crailsheim, Würtemberg. He had been in Cracow as early as 1515. In 1520 he was in Leipzig, where he had a bookshop and where he became a Lutheran. In 1527 he returned to Poland, and settled in Poznań. After his death in 1538 his widow carried on the business until 1551, when she removed to Königsberg in East Prussia with her daughter, who married there John Seklucjan, formerly of Poznań.[209] Other Cracow booksellers, favoring the Reformation, were Sebestian Pech, Michael Królik, Zachaeus Kessner, Jean Tenaud, of Bourges, and Estienne Le Riche, of Lyon.[210] Pech and Królik were Calvinists, and were in constant touch with Geneva, Zurich, and Basel. Just as soon as a new book was published in Switzerland it at once found its way to Poland through these intermediaries. Pech maintained a bookstore not only in Cracow, but also in Lwów.[211] The largest Cracow bookseller in the second half of the sixteenth century, and a very influential member of the Lutheran congregation there, was Zachaeus Kessner. His business connections extended throughout Poland and northern Hungary, and he dealt chiefly in books of scholarly value.[212] John Policjusz, a former business manager of Kessner’s, became a bookseller at Zamość.[213] Jean Tenaudus was a Frenchman and a leading Calvinist, who came into touch with Polish Calvinists through Geneva. He came to Poland in 1558, and was first a teacher in the Calvinistic gymnasium at Pińczów and later principal of the Calvinistic school in Cracow, conducting a bookstore at the same time. Owing to his fame as a bookdealer, he won the honor of being designated by King Stephen Batory in 1578 as court bookdealer.[214] Estienne Le Riche, known also as Stephen Dives, of Lyons, seems to have succeeded Tenaud, and was an important intermediary in the book business between Poland and the West.[215] As a result of this active book trade in Poland in the sixteenth century, the writings of Luther and Calvin and of other reformers were speedily imported into Poland and received wide circulation. As early as 1520 Luther’s books were brought to Cracow, sold in the university buildings to the students, and were read and discussed by them with the tacit approval of the faculty until they were condemned by Pope Leo X.[216]

In the spread of intelligence regarding the new religious movement the Polish magnates, favoring and supporting the Reformation, played also an active and important part. A number of them established printing presses of their own for the distinct purpose of religious propaganda. Thus, for instance, Michael Radziwill, the Black, an ardent supporter of Calvinism, founded a printing press at Brześć-Litewski, where Calvinistic literature was printed, and where in 1563 the Radziwill Bible was published. John Kiszka, starosta of Żmudź, established presses at Łosk and Nieśwież. These together with Raków and for a time with Pińczów were publication centres for Arian literature. At Nieśwież in 1572 Budny’s Arian Bible was published. The presses at Pińczów were maintained by the Oleśnickis. Moreover, we must not fail to bear in mind that one of the earliest, most prolific and most influential Polish Protestant publication centres was Königsberg in East Prussia, where Prince Albert had established one of the best and largest printing and publishing enterprises of the time for the dissemination of the Reformation doctrines both in his own duchy and throughout Poland.[217]

These Protestant presses were kept busy, printing pamphlets, books, and the Scriptures or portions thereof. This literary output consisted partly of translations and partly of original writings. A good deal of it was polemical, making a severe attack on Catholicism. What helped to stimulate this publishing activity was the fact that by a statute of 1539 the royal edicts of 1520 and 1523, forbidding the dissemination of heretical literature, were revoked, and freedom of the press was established in Poland.[218] From the presses of Königsberg John Seklucjan fairly flooded Poland with religious literature between the years 1544 and 1559. Among his publications deserving mention there were: A Confession of Christian Faith, published in 1544, Luther’s larger and shorter catechism and a collection of hymns (1547), a Polish translation of the New Testament, effected by Stanislaus Murzynowski and published in 1550-1553, and Seklucjan’s volume of homilies (1556).[219] Here, too, appeared in 1552 Małecki’s translation of the New Testament.[220] This Małecki is the same person whom we met before in Cracow and at Pułtusk as printer-publisher under the name of John of Sącz. Following Seklucjan’s example, Scharffenberg published in Cracow in 1561 John Leopolita’s translation of the Bible, known as the Leopolitan Bible. The Calvinistic or Radziwill’s Bible, as we have already noted, appeared at Brześć-Litewski in 1563, the Arian or Budny’s Bible at Nieśwież in 1572, and the Catholic or Wujek’s Bible in 1599.[221] Among the Protestant publications of this time deserving mention were also two significant volumes of homilies, Nicholas Rey’s published in 1557, and Gregory’s of Żarnowiec, which appeared in 1572-1580.[222] Both of these works have survived in various editions the vicissitudes of time to the present day, and are still in use in Protestant homes of Poland. The Arians, too, made a large and credible contribution to Polish religious literature, consisting of translations of the works of Stankar, Lismanini, Ochino, and Socino, and of original writings of their leading representatives. Among the leading Arian writers of the sixteenth century were Martin Krowicki, Gregory Paul or Pauli, Peter of Goniądz, Simon Budny, John Niemojewski, and Martin Czechowic. Czechowic had studied at Poznań and Leipzig (1554), and was the most distinguished of the Arian writers. His most important works were published between the years 1575 and 1583, his Racovian Catechism appearing in 1575, his translation of the New Testament in 1577, and the Epistomium, a polemical work, in 1583.[223]

We have seen that the number of books printed in Cracow alone in the years 1503-1536 was two hundred ninety-four. The total number of books printed in Poland toward the end of the fifteenth and during the sixteenth century is estimated to have been seven thousand five hundred.[224] This extensive printing and publishing activity contributed greatly to the popularization and spread of the ideas of humanism and the doctrines of the Reformation.

Then, too, the spread of the new ideas in Poland was due to close intellectual connections between Poland and the West and to the influence of German and Swiss universities. It was customary for the sons of the Polish aristocracy and the well-to-do gentry to frequent foreign universities for the purpose of rounding out their education. The leaders of that day, whether in science, literature, or politics, were invariably men educated abroad. Moreover, visits home on the part of the Polish students, regardless of whether they were studying in Germany, Switzerland, or Italy, were more common and frequent in the sixteenth century than today.[225]

The University of Cracow, famous for its learning, attracting students from all over Europe, and flourishing in the fifteenth century, lost its influential position and its drawing power with the beginning of the sixteenth century, owing to its reactionary character and its pronounced opposition to the new current of thought and learning. The universities of the West and of the South superseded it in influence and attractiveness. The flow of foreign students to Cracow ceased; and Polish students began to turn now more and more to German, French, Swiss, and Italian universities in search of learning and knowledge.[226] Up to 1525 the sons of distinguished Polish families still frequented the University of Cracow, spending their first years there and then finishing their studies in universities abroad. After that, however, the character of the student body at the university changed entirely. The sons of the Polish aristocracy disappeared; they turned to other universities. The names appearing on the university register after 1525 were names of the small gentry, the town population, and the peasantry.[227] The youth of the Protestant families in particular had nothing to gain by registering at the University of Cracow; it, therefore, sought the universities of Wittenberg, Zurich, and Basel, especially so by the middle of the sixteenth century.[228]

The Polish students were eager to become acquainted with the new ideas, they absorbed them readily, and on their visits home or their final return they disseminated them in their own country. So great was the exodus of Polish students to German and other foreign universities, and so great the danger of infecting the country with the new religious doctrines and practices through the channel of intellectual intercommunication that the reactionary elements in the country found it necessary to force the king to pass laws forbidding the Polish youth to frequent foreign universities infected with heresy or suspected of such infection.[229]

It is of great interest to note that in the sixteenth century Polish students were registered in considerable numbers in nearly every German and Swiss university of any consequence. They were at Wittenberg, Leipzig, Königsberg,[230] Frankfort on the Oder, Heidelberg, Herborn, Altdorf, Marburg, Freiburg, Würzburg, Dillingen, Mainz, Ingolstadt, Zurich, and Basel.[231] The German universities most largely attended by Poles were Wittenberg, Leipzig, Königsberg, and Frankfort on the Oder. The number of Polish students registered in these institutions of learning in the course of the sixteenth century was over two thousand.[232] At Heidelberg there were in the course of the century about one hundred and sixty-five Polish students,[233] at Altdorf, from its foundation in 1575 until 1617, two hundred and seventy,[234] at Marburg, from 1527 to 1628, about seventy,[235] and at Basel, from 1549 to 1570, also about seventy.[236] At Wittenberg we find representatives of prominent Cracow families among Luther’s students as early as 1520.[237] By the end of the same decade the number of Polish students in that university had considerably increased, and there were found among them Stanislaus Orzechowski, Stanislaus Warszewicki, I. Krotowski, I. Lipczyński, three Górkas, two Ostrorogs, Tomicki, and Grudziński.[238] After 1530 the sons of the Polish nobility flocked to Wittenberg in steadily growing numbers.[239]

The universities most popular with the Poles were the Protestant universities rather than the Catholic. The relative proportion of Poles attending German Protestant and Catholic universities was, in the sixteenth century, six to one.[240] The most popular Catholic university was Ingolstadt, registering in that century three hundred and sixty-five Polish students and occupying the fifth place among the German universities frequented by Poles.[241] Freiburg in the course of fifty-six years, from 1575 to 1631, during a period when the Catholic reaction had already set in, registered less than a hundred Polish students.[242] Dillingen, Würzburg, Mainz, founded by Catholic bishops for the purpose of counteracting the influence of the Protestant universities and under the control of the Jesuit Order, began to draw Polish students with the rise of the Catholic reaction after 1564.[243] Of the Protestant universities the most popular with the Poles were Wittenberg, Königsberg, Heidelberg, and Frankfort on the Oder,—all centres of Lutheranism. Of the Swiss universities the one most largely attended by Poles was the University of Basel. The Swiss universities together with Altdorf, Herborn, and Marburg in Germany were centres of Calvinism, and were sought and frequented by Calvinistic sympathizers from among the Poles.[244] At Altdorf, where the number of students was comparatively small, the Poles constituted in some years one-fourth of the total student body. Owing to their numerical strength, the honorary rectorship of the university was held twice by one of their number, in 1583-1584 by Nicholas Ostrorog, and in 1609-1610 by Adam Sienieński.[245]

The Polish students registered in the German and Swiss Protestant universities were the sons of the Polish aristocracy and the well-to-do Polish gentry.[246] At Altdorf, for instance, we find the sons of such Calvinistic aristocratic families as the Firleys, the Ostrorogs, the Naruszewiczes, the Wollowiczes, the Lanckorońskis, the Wiśniowieckis, the Krotowskis, and the Sienieńskis; of the Calvinistic well-to-do gentry, namely, the Gołuchowskis, the Reys, the Przecławskis, the Lipskis, the Czernows, the Grochowskis, the Balls, the Boguszes, the Zielińskis, the Ossolińskis, the Przyjemskis, the Pieniążeks, and the Suchorabskis; and later, with the beginning of the seventeenth century, of such Arian noble families as the Przypkowskis, the Stoyeńskis, the Lubienieckis, the Otwinowskis, the Filipowskis, the Dudyczes, the Hoyskis, the Niemieryczes, the Taszyckis, the Morsztyns, the Szlichtyngs, and even the Radziwills.[247] At Herborn, in the years 1611-1619, there were the Ostrorogs, the Gołuchowskis, the Drohojewskis, and the Rożyckis. These, too, were sons of Calvinistic families.[248] At Marburg, in the years 1601-1620, we find representatives of the Lithuanian Calvinistic szlachta from around Słuck and Kieydany, the Swięcickis, the Rekuckis, the Ceraskis, the Estkos, the Kozdryns, and the sons of Calvinistic pastors, the Wannowskis, Krosniewieckis, and the Molesons.[249] At Wittenberg, Leipzig, and Frankfort on the Oder there were to be found the sons of the powerful aristocratic families, the Mniszeks, the Ostrorogs, the Lanckorońskis, the Myszkowskis, the Radziwills, and the Przyłęckis.[250] Finally, at Basel we find in the years 1549-1570 representatives of the best and most influential Polish families. From Great Poland there were the sons of the Zbąskis, the Ostrorogs, the Rozrażewskis, the Nadarzyckis, the Łasickis, and of the Woynowskis; from Little Poland, the Myszkowskis, the Dłuskis, the Gnoyeńskis, the Lipnickis, the Ossolińskis, the Czyzowskis, the Pieniążeks, and of the Słupeckis; from Mazovia, Iłowski; from Lithuania, Skumina, Tyszkiewicz, Kiszka; from Kuyavia, Zebrzydowski; from the district of Sieradz, the Lutomirskis, Zalewski, Kotkowski, Paklepka; from the eastern provinces, Drohoyowski, Strzelecki, Drzewińiski, Strzechowski, and Uhrowiecki.[251] All these names found on the register of the University of Basel are well known in connection with the Reformation movement in Poland. The bearers of them played prominent rôles in Polish politics and in the spread of the Calvinistic and later of the Arian faith in their native land.[252]

Another significant cause furthering the spread of the Reformation in Poland was Polish religious tolerance. In the sixteenth century Poland was a country not only of political liberty, but also of intellectual freedom and of religious liberty. To be sure, owing to the pressure exerted by the clergy upon the kings, royal edicts, forbidding the dissemination of the new doctrines in the land and imposing severe penalties upon transgressors, were issued freely. However, these edicts violated constitutionally guaranteed liberties of the nobility, and, consequently, were never approved by any diet; hence, they had not the force of law, and remained largely a dead letter.

As to the attitude of the kings themselves, they were rather tolerant of differences in religious belief and practice. Sigismund the Old, while a very good and loyal Catholic and a ruler who seemed to be easily induced to issue decrees proscribing the new religious movement, was very tolerant personally. When Johann Eck, the German Catholic theologian and zealous opponent of Luther, called on him to adopt a stern policy and to use severe measures in suppressing Lutheranism in Poland, the king replied that his desire was to rule over the goats as well as over the sheep.[253] When, again, in July, 1546, Pope Paul III urged him to take an active part on the side of the cause of the church in the religious war which had broken out in Germany at this time, Sigismund I not only refused to do so, but also by royal order forbade Polish citizens to engage even privately in any way on either side of the German controversy and conflict.[254] Then, too, it was Sigismund I who in 1525 consented to the secularization of the Teutonic Order and of the Duchy of East Prussia, then a part of the Polish kingdom. And it is a well known fact that his court was unusually liberal and a safe shelter for humanists and humanistic sympathizers with the Reformation movement.

If Sigismund I was tolerant, his son, Sigismund Augustus, who succeeded his father to the throne in 1548, was still more so. Reared in the liberal atmosphere of the court and educated by humanists in sympathy with the ideas and doctrines of the Reformation, Sigismund Augustus was a religious liberal. Out of state policy he remained in the Catholic Church and stood by it, though to all appearances his personal convictions and sympathies leaned in the direction of the Reformation movement, certainly so in his earlier if not in his later years. He surrounded himself with humanists and with supporters of the Reformation. He read books of the reformers, participated in religious discussions with his friends, and corresponded with Calvin. He formed an intimate friendship with Nicholas Radziwill, the powerful magnate and grand hetman of Lithuania, and an avowed and staunch Calvinist, and married his beautiful sister, Barbara, who, too, had embraced the Calvinistic faith. With Franciscus Lismanini, the former Franciscan confessor of his queen mother, he maintained a friendly connection for years, even after Lismanini had become openly known as an ardent admirer and sympathizer with Calvinism. He favored certain church reforms, and had gone so far as to send an embassy to Rome to secure the pope’s sanction of them, which sanction, however, was not granted. And when at one time the Pope urged him to exterminate the heretics from his land, Sigismund Augustus gave the Holy Father this characteristic reply: “I fear that by trying to pull up the tares, I might uproot the wheat also.”[255]

The same religious broad-mindedness, liberality, and tolerance characterized the person and the reign of the third notable Polish king of the sixteenth century, Stephen Batory (1576-1586). King Stephen was a faithful Catholic, a generous supporter of Jesuitism, and a ruler who saw the strength of the royal power in a close alliance with the Church of Rome. Yet, in spite of his strong Catholic loyalty, he would not tolerate any religious persecution. He steadily discountenanced all religious disturbances, and firmly kept his coronation oath to maintain peace among the adherents of different religious faiths, asserting that he did not wish to violate anybody’s conscience.[256] He, too, like Sigismund I, wished to rule peaceably over the goats as well as over the sheep.

When we turn from the kings to the nation, we meet with the same broad-minded liberality and tolerance. The Polish nation of the sixteenth century loved liberty no less than at any other period of its history. Liberty constituted the foundation and was an essential characteristic of all its institutions, political and social. The Polish nobility worked and fought strenuously for its political rights and privileges, and having secured them, guarded them jealously. Naturally, therefore, when the question of religious liberty once arose, the Polish nobility immediately applied to the sphere of religion the same principle it had established in the realm of politics. It insisted on freedom of thought, on liberty of conscience, on toleration of divergent views, beliefs, and practices. In 1539 freedom of the press was established, and in 1556 full liberty of conscience.[257] To secure the realm still further against any possible religious intolerance, dissensions, persecutions, or strifes and conflicts, the ruling classes entered, on the death of Sigismund Augustus, into a compact, sealed by the Confederation of Warsaw on the twenty-eighth day of January, 1573, mutually pledging themselves to maintain religious peace and toleration in the land.[258] This compact was confirmed by the Diet, became a part of the Polish constitution, and had to be sworn to by succeeding kings on their accession to the Polish throne.[259]

Owing to this remarkable degree of religious toleration, Poland became a land of refuge for persecuted religious dissenters and reformers of other European countries. Here found refuge such men as Franciscus Stankar, Blandrata, Negri, Lelio and Faustus Sozzino, Bernard Ochino, Alciati, Gentilis, Franciscus Lismanini, and Peter Statorius,[260] all of whom were Italians of extreme religious views and unwelcome even in Switzerland; and later at the beginning of the seventeenth century the German anti-trinitarians, Crell, Smalz, Ruarus, and Stegmann[261] also found refuge in Poland. Bernard Ochino, driven out from Zurich, came to Poland in December, 1563, and in appreciation of the freedom of thought and of conscience there existing, dedicated his twenty-eighth dialogue to King Sigismund Augustus. Ochino had opposed the execution of Servetus, and admired Poland’s religious toleration.[262] Ruarus was led to emigrate to Poland by the reports of its “golden liberty of conscience established by the constitution of the Estates and sworn to by Polish kings.”[263] Besides these extremists, others sought and found refuge in Poland from religious persecution in their homelands. The most notable case is that of the Bohemian Brethren. While as a group they were ordered to move on to East Prussia, where Duke Albert offered them asylum, many of them remained in Poland, and exerted a powerful influence on the Reformation movement in that country. Moreover, at Cracow, Vilna, Posen, Tarnov, and Lublin there actually existed Protestant congregations composed not only of Germans, but also of Italian, French, English, and Scotch religious refugees.[264] The Scotch congregations were naturally Calvinistic, and some of them were still in existence by the middle of the eighteenth century. Such names as Gordon, Hyson, Sinclair, Pipe, Leigh, French and Ross still appeared on the Calvinistic rolls at that time.[265]

In this connection it is worth noting that while in liberal England hundreds of persons were executed for their religious convictions in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in Poland there was only one such execution, that of an eighty year old lady in the city of Cracow in 1539.[266]

The remarkably rapid spread of the Reformation in Poland was, therefore, due in no small measure to Polish religious toleration.

Finally, in our study of the social causes of the growth of the Reformation in Poland, we must by no means overlook the fact that the Polish religious reformation was a class movement. It was accepted, adhered to, and championed by the upper classes of Polish society; in the cities by the commercial population, largely German, and throughout the country by the nobility, the large magnates and the well-to-do gentry, particularly the large magnates. This was due to the circumstance that both of these classes were in close contact with the outside world and with new movements abroad; the first chiefly through commercial intercourse, the second through educational, social, and diplomatic relations.

This class aspect of the movement was both its strength and its weakness. The fact that the Reformation won to itself, and was accepted by, the most alert, socially most influential, and politically most powerful classes constituted its strength. It lent the movement a certain dignity and prestige, made it unavoidably popular, and assured to it rapid spread and certain victory. In its strength, however, lay also its weakness. The Polish Reformation remained an upper class religion. It did not filter through down to the masses of the population; it did not grip, transform, and revitalize the people. This circumstance harbored the movement’s inevitable doom from the very beginning, however glorious that beginning might have been and however phenomenal the development.

The Renaissance, the art of printing, the influence of foreign universities, religious toleration, and the aristocratic character of the Polish Reformation,—these were, then, some of the most important social causes of the growth of the Reformation in Poland.