The reformation in Poland

by Paul Fox

Owing to the close proximity of Great Poland to Saxony and Wittenberg, Luther’s reforms reached it quickly. In 1524 King Sigismund found it necessary to dispatch a special emissary in the person of Nicholas Tomicki, starosta of Kościan, to the town of Kościan to suppress the spread of heretical views there, and to call upon the town authorities to assist Tomicki in his mission in every way possible.[69] In the city of Posen, according to Prof. H. Merczyng, Luther’s doctrines were preached publicly from the pulpit of Mary Magdalene’s Church by its preacher, John Seklucyan, in 1525.[70] For this offense Seklucyan was removed from his post by the magistracy of the city at the king’s behest. He found a protector, however, in the powerful magnate Andrew Górka, who sheltered him in his own palace in Posen, and secured for him from the king in the course of time a position as secretary of customs in that city.[71] Seklucyan remained in Posen until 1544, when he removed to Königsberg, where he was very active for a number of years in the preparation and publication of Polish Protestant literature.[72] The Reformation found favor with and protection from some of the most powerful aristocratic families of Great Poland, like the Górkas, Bnińskis, Tomickis, Ostrorogs, and Leszczyńskis.[73] The German reform movement was reenforced in Great Poland by the arrival there in 1548, on their way to East Prussia, of the Bohemian Brethren, exiled from their own country. During their brief stay in Great Poland, under the protection of the Górkas, they made many friends, won a considerable following, and laid the foundation for the Bohemian Brethren Church of Great Poland. Though forced to move on by a royal decree, issued on request of the bishop of Posen, many of them returned later, when conditions had changed, and settled in Posen and other places of Great Poland. By 1557 the Bohemian Brethren had thirty churches in Great Poland, and some of the foremost families, like the Leszczyńskis, Krotowskis, Ostrorogs, Opalińskis, and Tomickis, accepted their form of the Christian faith.[74]

In Little Poland, too, the Reformation was making a good deal of stir among certain classes of the population, and was creating a good deal of uneasiness among its opponents. The new ideas, soon after their appearance in Wittenberg, began also to be circulated in the city of Cracow. Luther’s books were imported into the city in defiance of the Edict of Thorn, were freely circulated and read, and his doctrines were even publicly preached.[75] So popular were Luther’s writings and his ideas in this city, that they caused the king, writing from Grodno, February 15, 1522, to Chancellor Szydłowiecki, to recommend to the City Council of Cracow that it diligently cooperate in the enforcement of the Edict of Thorn.[76] A little more than a year later, March 7, 1523, a new edict was issued in the city of Cracow, in which the king recognized that the penalty provided in the Edict of Thorn had failed to check the circulation of Luther’s books and the spread of his teachings in the capital, and consequently made it more severe. The transgressors of the edict were to be punished not by exile, as heretofore, but by burning at the stake as well as by confiscation of their property.[77] Evidently even this edict failed to accomplish the desired object; for three months later, August 22, 1523, another royal edict appeared. This new edict provided for the search of the homes of the residents of the city of Cracow for heretical books whenever the bishop of Cracow should ask the city magistrates that such search be made. It also provided for the censorship by the rector of the University of all books printed in the city or imported from abroad. Persons in whose possession heretical books were found, or publishers and booksellers who published, imported or sold heretical books, were to be punished according to the provisions of the royal edicts.[78] This edict also calls on other municipalities to adopt similar measures for the stamping out of heresy.

These royal decrees were called forth not by imaginary fear of a non-existent evil, but by actual and steady growth of the Reformation in Poland. There are a number of episcopal court cases on record of persons arrested and tried for heresy. In 1522 the parish-priest of Bienarów, near Bicz, Voyvodship of Cracow, was arrested for praising and sympathizing with Martin Luther. In 1525 sixteen persons were charged in the city of Cracow with professing Luther’s teachings, breaking fast-day regulations, denying the efficacy of prayers for the dead, the existence of purgatory, and the value of confession. These persons were of the lower social class, artisans, organists, singers, etc. In the face of the severe penalties provided for such offenders by the royal edicts, all the accused naturally denied being guilty of the charges. In 1526 there were two cases of priests charged with heresy. One of these was Bartholomew, rector of the school of Corpus Christi in the suburb of Kazimir; the other Matthew of Ropczyce. The latter was sentenced to confinement in the clerical prison at Lipowiec. There was also a case of a book-dealer, called Michael, who was charged with the importation of heretical books; and one of a Bohemian blacksmith charged with denial of Christ’s presence in the consecrated host. In 1530 another book-dealer by the name of Peter was charged with importing Luther’s Catechism. He defended himself by stating that he possessed only six copies of it. On December 10, 1532, four influential citizens of Cracow were charged with professing Lutheranism. A similar case came up the year following. Book-dealers seem to have been the worst offenders and the hardest to deal with. In 1534 two Cracovian book-dealers, Hieronimus Wietor and Philip Winkler, were charged with selling books containing Lutheran doctrines. At the same time similar books were found to be in the possession of Matthew of Opoczyn, rector of the church at Sieciechów. The most significant case on record, however, was that of James of Iłża, preacher of the Church of St. Stephen, Cracow, “artium magistri et collegiati minoris collegii.” James started to preach Luther’s doctrines openly from the pulpit of his church in 1528. When called to account for it, he denied being guilty, and his case was dismissed. But when he continued preaching the heretical doctrines publicly, he was again haled before the bishop’s court. This time he was ordered to retract the Lutheran errors publicly from his pulpit. Instead of doing that James escaped to Breslau. In consequence of that he was at once adjudged and condemned as a heretic.[79]

It is evident that neither royal edicts, nor episcopal court decrees were able to check the spread of the religious reform movement in Poland. The new ideas invaded even the king’s court, and found followers among those nearest to the king and to the queen. Justus Decius, the king’s private secretary, was an admirer of the Reformation and knew Luther personally. Francis Lismanini, an Italian Franciscan, private confessor of Queen Bona, was a most ardent promoter of the new movement.[80]

The spread of the Reformation in Poland is registered not only in the royal edicts, but also in the resolutions and decrees of the ecclesiastical provincial synods. The clergy were not particularly desirous to carry on a war with the religious innovators. At the provincial synods of 1520 and 1522 the Polish hierarchy took no action whatever regarding the new movement. The synod of 1523 did not go beyond reaffirming Leo X’s bull, excommunicating Luther and condemning his teaching, and repeating the king’s edicts which penalized the innovators and the promoters of innovations. Instead of fighting the new movement, the Polish clergy were ready to negotiate with the Protestants and to make concessions. In fact, they went so far as to lay before Pope Clemens VII in 1525, through a special envoy, the Primate’s Chancellor Myszkowski, their hard lot, and to appeal to him to call a general synod together for the purpose of bringing about a restoration of church unity. The Pope, however, engaged at the time in a conflict with the emperor, made only promises and exhorted the Polish clergy to greater religious zeal, at the same time conferring on the primate of Poland full powers to deal with the spreading heresy as circumstances might demand, either to suppress the heresy or to absolve the heretics.[81]

Complying with the Pope’s exhortation, the next provincial synod, assembled at Łęczyca in 1527, adopted more definite and decided measures to combat effectively the spread of the heretical movement. It resolved that every bishop in the diocese appoint an Inquisitor, selected either from the regular or from the secular clergy, who would be on the lookout for heretics, and who would report them to the bishop in order that they might be properly punished.[82] But the synod did not stop with repressive measures. It realized the futility of repression without effective prevention. Therefore, it further resolved to improve the general intellectual character of the Polish clergy. Every bishop was to seek out expert theologians and eloquent preachers, who would be able to instruct the people and to expound to them the Scriptures in a rational and intelligent way. These were to be given appointments especially in places infected with heresy.[83] And that the clergy might not lack for subjects to preach upon, every clergyman was recommended to provide himself with the Scriptures, the Church Fathers, Homilies, and other similar books.[84] Then, too, the synod of that year was especially concerned about the atmosphere of the king’s environment. It resolved that the king be requested to keep a learned preacher at court, to hear him every holy day, and especially during the sessions of the Diet. In this connection the bishop in whose diocese the Diet met was charged to appoint such a preacher for the king, in case the king failed to provide himself with one.[85] The next two synods, of 1530 and of 1532, favored the use of stern measures against the importation of heretical books and against the adherents of heretical doctrines.[86]

But these synodical edicts were no more effective in checking the spread of the Reformation in Poland than were the royal decrees.[87] Instead of intimidating the adherents of the new religious movement, they stimulated them to greater boldness. In 1534 at the provincial diet of Grodzisk the nobility of Great Poland demanded books in the Polish language, particularly the Bible. Every nation has writings in its own language, it asserted; but as for us, the priests want us to be ignorant.[88]

The steady growth of the religious reform movement in Poland led its opponents to the employment of extreme repressive measures. In 1534 the Polish clergy secured from the king an edict, forbidding the Polish nobility to send its youth to any seat of learning known or suspected to be heretical. Those that were at such universities were recalled. If any refused to return, they were to be deprived of all rights and privileges of citizenship. As was to be expected, the edict was ignored. Hence, in 1540, in response to an appeal from the clergy, the king issued a call on the starostas to enforce the aforesaid edict[89] and on the bishops to report any violations of it in order that the recalcitrant parties might be duly punished.[90] By a law of 1538, owing to the tendency of Germans to take up with heretical ideas, only native Poles were to be appointed to abbacies of Polish monastic institutions.[91] Moreover, in 1541 the king went so far as to threaten those receiving and harboring heretical ministers with the loss of all nobility rights and privileges.[92] And to cap the climax, in 1539, Peter Gamrat, bishop of Cracow, ordered Catherine Zalaszowska, an eighty-year old lady, the wife of Melchior Zalaszowski, a member of the Cracow City Council, to be burned, because of her opposition to the adoration of the eucharistic host. The order was carried out, and the old lady was executed.[93]

However, this execution of Catherine Zalaszowska by the ecclesiastical authorities, and the threats of the king of 1540 and 1541, mark both the climax of the opposition and the end of the first period of the religious reform movement in Poland, the period of its early beginnings and defensive struggles. From now on the movement assumes an aggressive attitude.

Second Period, 1540-1548: Growing Aggressiveness.—By 1540 German Lutheranism in Poland became reenforced by Calvinism from Geneva. This new form of the religious reform movement recommended itself more favorably to the Poles because of its non-German origin, its recognition of laymen in church councils, and because it was considered more appropriate for a free republic.[94] Conversions to Calvinism among the higher classes in Poland became now more and more frequent. The relatives of the once famous Bishop and Cardinal Oleśnicki, the Stadnickis, the Sienieńskis, the Firleys, the Jazłowieckis, the Szafraniec family, and other aristocratic families of Little Poland became adherents of Calvinism.[95] The Grand Hetman of Poland, Jan Tarnowski, though not an avowed adherent of Calvinism, yet corresponded with John Calvin,[96] and openly opposed ecclesiastical jurisdiction and Rome’s influence.[97] And in 1539 Calvin dedicated his Commentary on the Mass to the young Crown Prince, Sigismund Augustus.[98]