The Reformation Period and Since. — In order to make clear the history of the Polish Church in the Reformation period, it is necessary to retrace our steps to the 11th cen- tury. It was then that the neighboring churches of Ger- many acquired a great influence over the Poles, while priests and monks flocked from France and Italy, but particularly from Germany, to Poland, built everywhere convents and churches, and at the same time used the Romish ritual in opposition to the simple worship of the Polish national churches, which, however, main- tained their ground till the 14th century. The Huss- ites (q. v.) from Bohemia found a favorable field in Poland for the propagation of their peculiar tenets, and the Romish clergy in consequence took active measures for the purpose of checking the spread of the obnoxious doctrines. With this view the parish priests were or- dered to seize and bring before the bishops all who were suspected of holding Hussite sentiments. Severe enactments were passed for the punishment of the her- etics. But in the face of all opposition the new doc- trines were embraced by some of the most influential families in the land, and the reforming party indeed was very numerous when their leader was slain on the field of battle. But although the doctrines of Huss
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had fount many Bupportera in Poland, the national reeling was .-(ill in favor of the dominant Church. We . "" "i Protestantism in Poland dependenl largely on Gardner, Dictionary of Religions, p. 670 ><[. :
-In the commencement of the 16th century a powerful impulse was giveu !•> the cause uion and
-Lin. m nf tbe I . ivereity of < ra- meut given in that Beminary to idj a goodly number ■ I terary men bad issued from the [Jul i - ime of whom were cb
■
■ -. and thus in a Bhort time there . id in tbe Polish Cburch not a few prelates dis- ■ i alike for their piety and learning.
I views whicb some ofthe-e ere le-ia-tical dL'ni-
i various
fer reforming the Chnrch. Thus Mai tin
Tromba, the primate <d Poland, ordered the liturgical
• be translated into the national Inuj ■
. p in" the direction of Church re- - taken by Ostrowo, palatine of i • i the Polish diet of 1489 :i propo-
sal for Introducing improvements ofsucb a vital charac- ter that, had they been adopted, a separation of the Church of Poland from Rome would have beeu tbe im- result, 'In tins plan,
tnlng tbe Cburcb of Poland be maintained that, Christ h that his kingdom was uol of this
world, tbe pope bad no authority whatever over the king
, ami should not even be add ter in bumble terms, unbecoming bis dignity ; tliai Rome from the country large -urn- un- der the pretence of religion, but, In fact, by mean- ofsu- I bishop of Rome was inventing
H8l reasons fer levying taxes, tbe pro Willi b v, . 1101 "for the real wants of the
Cburch, but for the pope's private Interests; that all the al lawsuits Bhould be decided in the conntry, nnd not al Rome, which did uol take ••any sheep withoul wool ;" that there- were, I les people
lao bi ribblings Furnished with red seal- and hempen strings, and suspended "ii the door of
■ i- w run.' to Submit to '
Be i . thei says: 'Is il uol a ai mposes upon us, in Bpite of the king and the i : .n't know what, bulls n
curing people that he absolves their siu ; I bj In- prophet, "My boh, give me thy thai be employs ■
-. I Bhall pass in silence
monks who praise
eat number of preachers
and ' • •• think how to get the richest
. ind who Indnlgi ing plun-
I her of ks unlit for the clei leal offl e, s lyiug, " After
I and en lowed n co\\ I. n man
think* blmself : whole world. He cries,
n -, in the pulpit, because be sees no op- i men, and even thawe who [
hont hor- ror to the -eu-e, and almost blasphemy, u
..at- avowed by a Polish seuator in the
that pnhlic opin-
mi the 15th century, was prepared for the great
n u blch comment ed i
later In Germnny and Switzerland. As if -till further
the way' for that important movement, treatises
little interval Issnlng from the presB
I I Ing Opill loilS « llicll Koine i.
ed to brand a- In reaies. < tne woi k. lu
ow in 1MB, which open)}
prluclple that the lloh
ved, and all merely human ordi-
• with. The d i
i- before Luther publicly
mer i ommeni ■
b Prussia; and bo
e, that, in 1624, no
I i • Bciples of
pari ofihelnhab-
1 I. Who al that
iploriug hi- h,ter. made bi d m deep
banished
ueilL Hut while
for pnrelv political reasons Sigismund in this case acted in the nio-t tyrannical aud oppressive manner, he allowed the doctrine- ol Protestautism to spread in all the other pan- of his dominious withoul persecuting those who in Dantztc Itself, when Luther- auism, in the conrse of a few years, began to be again
Within its walls ■ take a miil'V -lep