THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
D'Espence conferred, at the queen's command, with Beza and Nicolas des Gallards on a compromise formula. The result was as follows: " We believe that the true body and the true blood of Jesus Christ really and substantially, that is, in their proper substance, are, in a spiritual and ineffable manner, present and offered in the Holy Communion and that they are thus received by the faithful who communicate." When, on Sept. 26, negotiations were continued publicly, Beza declared that the Reformed could not accept this formula. The ultimate failure of compromise is perhaps due to the Jesuit general Lainez, who hitherto played his part under cover but, admitted to the colloquy on Sept. 26, vehemently and scurrilously attacked the Protestants, to whom Beza replied. The debate continued until late at night; and for further discussion a committee of five on each side was appointed ; among the Roman Catholics being Montluc and D'Espence, and among the Reformed Beza and Peter Martyr. After three conferences (Sept. 29, Oct. 1, and Oct. 3) a formula was reached teaching the real presence, of which the substance was given through the operation of the Holy Ghost, the body of Christ being received spiritually and through faith. All at court were satisfied, but when the formula was submitted to the assembled prelates on Oct. 9, the majority declared the formula heretical. A rigidly Roman Catholic formula was immediately drawn up, and it was resolved to give no further hearing to the Reformed after their refusal to subscribe, and to urge the king to banish the recalcitrants. Negotiations were broken off at Poissy on Oct. 9. Ten days later five German theologians arrived at Paris, Michael Diller, Peter Bouquin, Jakob Beurlin, Jakob Andrea (qq.v.) and Balthasar Bidembach, summoned to explain the Augsburg articles. Their leader Beurlin died on Oct. 28 and on Nov. 8 the rest were received in audience by the king of Navarre, who expressed a wish that they would bear witness to the harmony between the Augsburg Confession and the compromise formula at the conclusion of negotiations at Poissy. After many futile conferences on the union of German and French Protestantism, and, after having explained to the king the meaning of the Augsburg Confession and urged him to accept it, the envoys were finally dismissed on Nov. 23. The conference at Poissy had shown that reconciliation between Roman Catholics and Protestants on the basis of mutual concession was entirely impossible, and that the only alternatives were mutual toleration or a war for existence.
(Euoen Lachenmann.)
Bibliography: H. M. Baird, Hist, of the Rise of the Huguenots, i. 505-546, London, 1880; Theodore Beza, Hist. ecclesiastique des eglises reformees . de France, Geneva, 1580, new ed., ed. P. Vesson, 2 vols., Toulouse, 1882-83, and, in 3 vols., ed. J. W. Baum and A. E. Cunitz, Paris, 1883-88; J. W. Baum, Theodor Beza, vol. ii., Berlin, 1852; G. de Felice, Hist, des protestants de France, pp. 131 sqq., Toulouse, 1850, new ed., 1861, Eng. transl., 2 vols., London, 1853; G. von Polenz, Oeschichte des franzbsischen Calvinismus, ii. 47 sqq., Gotha, 1859; N. A. F. Puaux, Hist, de la reformation francaise, ii. 101 sqq., Paris, 1860; H. Klipffel, La Collogue de Poissy, Paris, 1868; A. de Ruble, Le Jnurnal de Claude d'Espence, in Memoires de la societe d'histoire de Paris, xvi., 1889; H. Amphoux, Michel de I'HSpital, pp. 185 sqq., Paris, 1900. |
POLAND, CHRISTIANITY IN.
I. Before the Reformation.
Slavic Foundations (§1). German Influence and Organization (§ 2). Reaction and Turmoils (§ 3). Ecclesiastical Independence (§ 4).
II. The Reformation and After. Need and Preparation (§ 1). Reformation (§ 2). Counter-Reformation (§ 3). Later History (§ 4).
I. Before the Reformation: When Poland received Christianity in the tenth century, it comprised the territory between the Russian grandduchy in the east, Prussia and Pomerania in the northeast and north, the Wendish
i. Slavic tribes in the northwest, the German
Founda- empire as far as the Oder in the west, tions. and Moravia in the south and southwest. After Duke Mieczyslaw of Poland had been defeated in 963 by the Wends, he sought protection from them by submission to the German emperor. But in spite of the favorable opportunity thus afforded for the introduction of Christianity from Germany, no efforts were made in this direction. Christianity was introduced as a resultant of the Slavonic mission of the Greek- Oriental Church; and, in particular, according to the oldest and most reliable reports from Bohemia, where it had obtained a permanent foothold under Duke Boleslaw I. the Pious. Duke Mieczyslaw married in 966 Dambrowka, the sister of Boleslaw II., duke of Bohemia, and in 967 accepted Christianity, followed immediately by the nobles and a part of the people. Further expansion was promoted by priests from Bohemia ; and at the order of the duke all his subjects were baptized. All idols were to be broken, burned, or thrown into the water.
At this point Germany began missionary work
in Poland. Under the protection of the emperor,
Jordan, a German priest, worked with great zeal
and under many difficulties, as missionary. The
Poles had indeed accepted Christian-
2. German ity after the example of their duke,
Influence nominally; but in secret they were and Organi- still attached to their old gods, and at zation. a later time heathenism was yet strong enough to produce a reaction. The ecclesiastical organization of the country soon followed the acceptance of Christianity by the duke. This could not possibly have been accomplished by the efforts of the Slavonic-Greek mission; but the close political connection of Poland with Germany and the feudal relation of the duke to the emperor effected in the course of time close relations with the German-Occidental Church, and from these a firm foundation and organization of Polish Christianity proceeded. Mieczyslaw, in 977, after the death of his first wife, married Oda, the daughter of the Saxon Margrave Dietrich, under whose influence the Greek rite gave way to the Roman forms of church service (see Roman Catholics, "Uniate Churches")- Otto the Great conceived comprehensive plans for a permanent Christianization of the Slavonic people who were compelled to submit to his power. At his instance and with his cooperation, the first Polish bishopric, Posen,