The reformation in Poland

by Paul Fox

In consequence of this turn of events at the Diet of 1556-1557, the papal legate, Lippomano, immediately left Poland for Rome. There he complained of the lack of religious fervor and zeal on the part of the Polish hierarchy, attributing to their religious indifference the vigorous growth of Protestantism in Poland, and of the king that he was permitting everyone to believe and to worship as he pleased.[160] His complaint of the Polish bishops was not altogether groundless. How little they apparently cared for the spiritual welfare of the church is shown by their attendance at the synod of 1557, which met at Piotrków on May 17. Besides the archbishop of Gnesen, there were present two bishops only, Zebrzydowski, bishop of Cracow, and Uchański, bishop of Chełm. The other bishops were represented by their delegates. Moreover, one of the bishops present, Uchański, asked his colleagues to vote at the next Diet for the introduction into the Polish church of communion of both kinds. But the delegates of the cathedral chapters opposed this suggested innovation most decidedly, and turned it down.[161]

Meanwhile the Reformation was making steady progress, not only in the possessions of the szlachta, but also in cities and among government officials. And owing to the fact that Protestants were now found among senators, starostas, royal court officials, and among the king’s most intimate friends, punishment of heretics was becoming increasingly more difficult.[162] In Little Poland the Calvinistic churches had become so numerous that for administrative purposes they were divided in 1560 into districts, over which superintendents were appointed both clerical and lay,—clerical, to care for the spiritual welfare of the churches, and lay, for the administration of temporal affairs. At the joint synod of the Calvinists and the Bohemian Brethren at Włodzisław, on June 15, 1557, on motion of the distinguished reformer John Łaski, it was decided that steps be taken to effect a union with the Lutherans, such as had previously been effected between the Calvinists of Little Poland and the Bohemian Brethren of Great Poland.[163]

At the Diet of 1558-1559, called at Piotrków for November 20, 1558, the Protestants were again in full control, and for president of the Chamber of Deputies they again elected Nicholas Siennicki, who presided over its deliberations in 1555. The foremost problem before the present Diet was “the execution of laws,” and, of course, inseparably connected with it was that of religion. Growing out of these, there were the further problems of the exemption from military service of the mayors of ecclesiastical villages, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the participation of the clergy in royal elections. Bishop Uchański moved in the Senate that problems of religion be set aside until the calling of a national synod, in which both the clergy and the laity would be free to participate. He argued that only such an assembly so composed and gathered for that particular purpose would be able to adjust the troublesome religious differences. The Chamber was willing to set matters of religion aside until a national synod could be called together, but on condition that ecclesiastical jurisdiction, not only in matters of religion, but in all matters, with all cases pending, be suspended. Knowing the seriousness of the situation, yet very reluctant to surrender their jurisdiction, the bishops pledged themselves to use it with utmost care. But the new papal legate, Kamill, bishop of Sutri, refused to countenance any idea of calling a national synod, to which, besides the Roman clergy, the laity and the heretics would be admitted. The Chamber, on the other hand, was equally determined to do away and for good with ecclesiastical jurisdiction in all matters.[164]

Next, in connection with the larger problem of the execution of laws, the Chamber questioned the legality of the exemption from military service of the mayors of ecclesiastical villages. It was found that according to the Code of Casimir the Great the mayors of ecclesiastical villages were required to render military service. The Diets of 1538 and of 1550 confirmed the old law, requiring compliance with its provisions, unless the clergy produced documentary evidence of special privileges of exemption for such cases. The Chamber of 1558, therefore, demanded that the clergy produce the documentary privileges they claimed to possess,[165] but the evidence was not forthcoming.

Thereupon a still more serious question was raised, namely, that concerning the clergy’s participation in royal elections. Since the bishops were ever appealing to canonical law rather than to the law of the land, and since they regarded the interests of the Church of Rome and their loyalty to the Pope of greater importance than the interests of the country and their loyalty to the Polish king, the Chamber through its spokesman, Hieronimus Ossoliński, a Protestant, argued in the Senate in the king’s presence that from such a weighty matter as the election of a Polish king the bishops, whose allegiance is divided, should be excluded.[166]

This proposal capped the climax. It now became fully evident to all that the difficulties had become practically insurmountable, and instead of diminishing they were constantly increasing. The king proposed, therefore, a dissolution of the Diet. His proposal, being acceptable to all parties, was put in effect February 8, 1559.

At this Diet the Protestants had been in indisputable control, and in their struggle with the hierarchy had made considerable advance. They had demanded the abolition of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the appeal to canonical law, not only in questions of religion, but in all other matters. They had proved that mayors of ecclesiastical villages were subject to military service in time of need, and not exempt from it as the clergy claimed. They had raised the question of the right of the bishops, as representatives of a foreign potentate, to participate in the elections of the Polish king.

In the face of the growing strength and aggressiveness of Protestanism, it is interesting to note the policy of the Catholic Church toward the state, toward its own clergy, and toward Protestanism, as that policy is revealed in the decisions of the synod of 1561. The Polish Catholic clergy fully realized by this time the precarious position of the Catholic Church in Poland, and decided upon conciliatory measures. To show the king their loyalty and generosity, they agreed to make a liberal contribution, 60,000 thalers, to the king’s treasury for purposes of defense. To win the people back to the Mother Church, they resolved on reforms in the life of the Polish episcopate and the abandonment of the persecution of Protestants. The bishops were urged to live more simply, to give more personal attention to the administration of their dioceses, to establish schools, to assist in the education of the sons of the poorer gentry by providing free maintenance for them at their episcopal courts. To reclaim the Protestants, they resolved now to treat them kindly.[167] Even the Vatican adopted a conciliatory attitude toward the Polish government by immediately confirming the king’s appointment to the archbishopric of Gnesen in 1562 of Bishop Uchański, who for years had been a suspected heretic and a persona non grata to the Holy See.[168]

Nevertheless, whenever their incomes were at stake, the Polish bishops were still quick to resort to their ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to excommunicate those failing to pay their tithes according to the agreement at the Diet of 1555. If the excommunicated person remained under the ban for a year without an effort to have it lifted, his property was to be seized and confiscated. The execution of such episcopal decrees was not easy; for the civil authorities declined to act. And even if there were officials who tried to execute such decrees, they found the task was altogether too difficult to perform. For instance, Lasocki, a well known Arian Protestant, failing to pay his tithes to the cathedral chapter of Cracow, was excommunicated. After a year Chancellor Ocieski, who was at the same time starosta of Cracow, ordered his possessions seized. The Protestant nobility, aroused by this order, came armed, one thousand men strong, to Cracow on May 14, 1561, and refused to allow the seizure of Lasocki’s estate.[169]

This and other similar cases determined the course of action of the Protestant nobility at the Diet of Piotrków, 1562-1563. The Protestants were well represented, and again elected one of their number, Raphael Leszczyński, as president of the Chamber. They protested now, not only against ecclesiastical jurisdiction in matters of heresy and tithing, but also against the edicts issued against heresy by Sigismund I.[170] They appealed to their special privileges received at Czerwińsk in 1422 and at Jedlnia in 1430, guaranteeing them freedom of person and inviolability of property rights, and to the constitution of the Diet of Radom, 1505, which made the royal edicts against heresy unconstitutional. For that constitution, known as “Nihil novi,” explicitly declared that no new fundamental law could be passed without the common consent of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.[171] In these matters the Chamber again had the full support of all the temporal peers in the Senate, regardless of creed. As a result of these protests the king issued instructions to the starostas to respect the constitutionally guaranteed privileges of the szlachta. By this act all the edicts against heresy were practically annulled and the execution of judgments of ecclesiastical courts, whether in cases of heresy or in case of failure to pay tithes, was made impossible.