"He knows both żaczek and boy that every Pole is a Catholic" - says the popular saying. Yet at one point our ancestors almost turned their backs on Catholicism. It was close, and Sigismund Augustus would become the head of the Polish national Church and our response to Henry VIII.
In the first half of the 16th century, when wars and religious conflicts began to roll across the continent, Poland did not remain a Catholic monolith at all. Religious news reached here, moreover, they found many followers. It did not seem at all impossible for the Republic of Poland to be among the Protestant states.
The popularization of new trends in Poland was fostered by the fact that the first completely Protestant state in Europe was ... Ducal Prussia, which was subordinate to the Republic of Poland. Already in 1525, the last grand master of the Teutonic Order, Albrecht Hohenzollern, converted to Lutheranism and became a secular prince of the Polish monarchs. From then on he zealously advocated the cause of the Reformation, funded scholarships and established printing houses . Of course, they published the writings of the supporters of changes in the Church - also in Polish.
From the former monastic state, Luther's ideas penetrated, among others, into Greater Poland and Royal Prussia. But that was not the only way the Reformation reached our lands. Czech brothers who came from the south found shelter in the Commonwealth; there were also Anabaptists and Zwingli's followers on the Vistula.
Zygmunt's Calvinist subjects
While Lutheranism was popular mainly among the bourgeoisie, the nobility most often chose Calvinism. Evangelical Reformed confession found powerful protectors in Lithuania and western Lesser Poland. In the mid-sixteenth century, up to 20 percent of the nobility could have been dissenters in the Crown itself.
Lutheranism penetrated the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from, among others, Prince Prussia ruled by Albrecht Hohenzollern.
Why was this particular stream of the Reformation chosen? The reasons were practical. "The nobility liked his democratism and the possibility of making him an instrument of political power," explains prof. Andrzej Chwalba in the book "Zwrotnice historów. Alternative stories of Poland ”. "Calvinist clergy, or ministers, were appointed by a nobleman whose property included an Evangelical church. [...] Thanks to this, the heir gained one more factor enabling him to control what is happening in his property. "
Moreover, it should be remembered that for contemporary Poles, doctrinal issues were not always the most important. The sixteenth-century nobility knew little about theology. As professor Chwalba adds:
They were practical people. Discussions about whether man is predestined by God for salvation, or whether the priest transforms the host and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ at the consecration, was of little concern to them. The nobility also liked the idea of the so-called cheap Church, avoiding riches and splendor, for which you do not have to pay tithing .
Nobility wall behind a married priest
Among the promoters of the Reformation in Poland there were representatives of powerful families, for example Jan Łaski (the younger), Mikołaj Oleśnicki and Rafał Leszczyński. The changes in the Church were also supported by famous intellectuals, for example Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski. His work "On the repair of the Republic", published in 1551 in three books and in 1554 in five, echoed loudly throughout Europe.
The chapter "On the Church", added in the second edition of the treaty, was widely commented on among the nobility. Frycz Modrzewski also presented his postulates to King Zygmunt August. "Religion is no longer discussed in secret, as was previously done, but it is happening openly at national meetings ... we have the right to establish the rules of our own faith," he wrote to the monarch. He believed that lay people should also speak at the council, and that every nation should have its own independent Church.
Remember that Luther and his followers did not come without a reason. In the early sixteenth century, the Catholic Church was indeed in crisis. The education and morale of many clergymen left much to be desired. The level of religious knowledge of rank and file Catholics was also not very impressive. Although the Council of Trent began in 1545, it was still a long way from the end.
Meanwhile, the Polish nobility rebelled more and more against the jurisdiction of the bishops, who often pursued dissenters with excessive zeal. No wonder that in 1551 the vast majority of sejmiks spoke out against the church judiciary, and above all against the enforcement of church judgments by starosts. Demanded that "priestly power" be "brought to the limit and restrained by public authority ..." . In turn, the Seym meeting in 1552 under the chairmanship of Rafał Leszczyński (Evangelical) suspended the execution of the eldership.
The fact that the situation in Poland was far from unambiguous is also evidenced by the case of Stanisław Orzechowski, the famous intellectual and priest, who in 1551 decided to… get married. The church reacted violently:it condemned the marriage and sentenced Orzechowski to banishment and confiscation of the property. However, in the name of state solidarity, magnates and noble masses stood up for the rebel.
The nobility stood behind priest Stanisław Orzechowski after he decided to get married.
Zygmunt August like Henry VIII?
No wonder that amid the pan-European confusion also on the Vistula River, the project of a national church appeared. Some Catholic clergy favored the idea, for example the bishop of Chełm and the later primate, Jakub Uchański. The reform was also supported by Bishop Jan Drohojowski.
The postulate to convene a national synod, which was to be entrusted with the consideration of this matter, was most widely discussed at the Piotrków Sejm in 1555. His work was led by another Protestant, Mikołaj Sienicki. The nobility gathered in Piotrków hoped that the synod would reform Polish Catholicism and regulate relations between the state and the Church. It was also believed that an appeal could be made to the still pending Council of Trent on the articles of faith.
Among the issues discussed at the Sejm in 1555 were abolition of priestly celibacy, liturgy in the vernacular or communion in two forms . These were typical Protestant demands. The deputies were clearly influenced by Frycz's writings.
At the same time, they did not want to break with Rome, but only to become independent from it. If their demands were met, a kind of Reform Catholicism would arise . A king who would be expected to support this local council could head a separate national church.
The nobility expected the king to support her efforts to make the Polish Church independent of the Vatican. The illustration shows the nineteenth-century image of the ruler.
Zygmunt August promised the nobility to convene a council. He did so mainly because he needed the help of the crown for Lithuania, where the threat of an invasion from Moscow was increasing. The dissenting nobility probably did not expect to achieve so much. However, the king's declaration was commonly perceived as taking the side of the Reformation.
Meanwhile, the monarch began to stall. He sent an envoy to Rome asking for permission to convene his own council, which, of course, was never issued. Pope Paul IV wrote to the Polish king with bitter excuses. As he wrote:
If I am to believe the rumors that come to my ears, I must doubt with deep sadness about you and your salvation:because you look after the hangmen, you attend their sermons, you listen to their conversations […]. You don't need to wait for a council when you have the means ready to end heresy .
It was about the freedom of the nobility
The project of convening a synod continued in the following years, but was never implemented. There were many reasons. The monarch's will was certainly lacking:Sigismund Augustus was simply not fit to be a religious reformer. He was a humanist, reluctant to any kind of devotion. He was credited with the statement that he was not "the ruler of human consciences." He also knew that a change of religion would entail a change of political alliances and certainly dragged Poland into new conflicts .
Another obstacle was the heterogeneity of the Polish Reformation. Protestants did not form a single denominational front. Individual groups negotiated with each other, but in the period we are interested in, permanent agreements were rarely reached between them. In Koźminek in 1555, the Protestant synod led, for example, to an alliance of the Czech brothers and Calvinists, but a year later "Koźminek broke up":the Calvinist synods rejected the union.
Moreover, the religious postulates of Protestants enjoyed the support of the nobility only as long as the project of denominational reform was one of the elements of the long-awaited "repair" of the state, which was postulated by the movement for the enforcement of rights and goods. His supporters demanded an increase in the powers of the Seym. They also demanded, among other things, the return of royal lands illegally held by magnates, and the restriction of the rights of the Church. They also postulated a closer relationship between the Crown and Lithuania and granting freedom of religion to the nobility.
The reform of faith was not the most important thing for the citizens of the Republic of Poland. They were primarily concerned with defending the freedom of the nobility. When in 1562, again under the threat of Moscow, the king began to implement the executionists' demands, religious issues began to recede. A survey of the royal lands was commenced and changes were made to state positions. A quartered army was established. The ruler also ceded the Jagiellonian hereditary right to Lithuania to the Crown, opening the way to the Union of Lublin.
Finally, in 1573, after the death of Sigismund Augustus, the Warsaw Confederation was concluded - an act that ensured freedom of religion for the nobility and guaranteed non-believers equal rights with Catholics . A similar law was something unique in comparison to Europe at that time, but at the same time closed the issue of the Reformation in Poland. The dissenting nobility had no reason to change Polish Catholicism from then on.
The act of the Warsaw Confederation of 1573 closed the issue of the Polish Reformation.
Moreover, the Church herself has initiated the work of repair:the Counter-Reformation has begun in earnest. The Council of Trent concluded its deliberations in 1563. A year later, Jesuits appeared in Poland, who, thanks to their schools, soon became almost the sole teachers of Polish youth and gradually changed the religious sympathies of the nobility.
In the middle of the 17th century, and thus one hundred years after the 1555 Seym, Protestant Poland was something completely unthinkable. In 1656, Jan Kazimierz made his vows in Lviv, during which he entrusted the Commonwealth to the protection of the Mother of God. It is worth remembering, however, that the story almost turned out a bit differently ...