Andreas Vengerscius

Andrzej Węgierski ( Polish ) or Andreas Vengerscius ( Latin ) or Andrzej Wengierski , ( pseud .) Adrianus Regenvolscius , (born November 16, 1600 in Ostrog in Volhynia ; † January 11, 1649 in Orzeszkowo near Birnbaum in Greater Poland ) was a Polish Reformation activist and Protestant preacher . He was a cleric of the Unity of the Bohemian Brethren , rector of the high school in Lissa , historian of the Reformation, poet, translator, educator, Calvinist pastor in Wlodawa ( 1633 - 1648 ), elder (senior) of the Calvinist district of Lublin (until 1644 ).

Life

Family and youth

His family belonged to the Polish landed gentry and came from the village of Węgierki (not far from Wreschen , about 50 km east of Poznan ). The family had been associated with the Polish Reformation for several generations . His father, Vaclav (Polish: Wacław Węgierski), was an avowed Bohemian brother and his brothers Thomas (Polish: Tomasz), Jan, Adalbert (Polish: Wojciech) and Matthias (Polish: Maciej) became well-known Calvinist preachers. He received his first education first at the Arian school in Ostroh , then at the Gymnasium of the Bohemian Brothers in Lissa and at the "Schönaichianum" in Beuthen an der Oder in Lower Silesia (1614-1620). After his return to Poland he worked as a preacher at the side of his brother Thomas, who was then a pastor in Bartschin in South Prussia. Then he stayed from 1621 to 1623 at the Thorner Gymnasium . He later studied theology at Leiden University .

Working as a pastor and teacher

As a Calvinist, Vengerscius was elected catechist and deacon at the synod in Ostroh in September 1622. Later he was seconded to Kwiltsch as the pastor's assistant and head of the church school . In 1625 he became court preacher in Opole Lubelskie at the court of the Calvinist magnate Barbara Słupecka (née Leszczyński ). In 1627 his congregation donated him a study trip to Leiden (city) , Franeker and Groningen , where he studied theology and dealt with history. In 1629 he returned to Poland to become pastor and rector of the grammar school in Lissa .

On October 4, 1629 he married Dorota Orlicz, daughter of Samuel Orlicz, who was a co-senior in Greater Poland .

On November 5, 1633 he came to Wlodawa . He followed the call of the voivode von Bels , the Calvinist Raphael von Leszczynski (Polish: Rafał Leszczyński), and was supposed to settle the dispute between the Protestant denominations in the city, which ostensibly broke out over the common use of the meeting rooms as with the local Calvinists and the (few) Lutherans were joined by many Bohemian brothers . They were resettled in the town of Leszczyńskis when they had to flee Bohemia after the lost battle on White Mountain because of the persecution of the faith . With the consent of the magnate, he became a pastor and headmaster.

Vengerscius quickly gained great recognition among Protestants in the Lublin district. Therefore, he took part in the nationwide general conference of the Calvinist Church and the Bohemian Brothers, when it came to the unification of the liturgy of both Protestant denominations in all of Poland-Lithuania . This work was successfully completed at a meeting that was scheduled on September 22, 1634 in Włodawa. He often took part in synods and convocations all over Lesser Poland . He himself hosted three (1639, 1642 and 1644) Calvinist general assemblies in Włodawa.

In 1634 Vengerscius was appointed district clerk, and in 1643 the synod of Bełżyce appointed him Con-Senior of the district of Lublin. On April 21, 1644, he was unanimously elected senior of the Calvinist district of Lublin at the Synod of Kock .

Create

After 1630 he began working with Johann Amos Comenius ; u. a. he translated his Janua linguarum reserata ( The Open Language Gate , Gdańsk 1633) into Polish. In addition to pastoral work, Vengerscius invested a lot of time in preparations for the planned " colloquium charitativum " and the rapprochement between the Calvinist Church and the Bohemian Brothers . In Wlodawa he wrote his three-part “Preacher” ( Kaznodzieja osobny , Kaznodzieja domowy , Kaznodzieja zborowy ). These are prayer books or instructions for personal, domestic and church use. Furthermore, he wrote his life's work, the history of the Reformation in Slavic countries, which was only published after his death in 1652 under the title "Systema historico-chronologicum Ecclesiarum Slavonicarum per provincias varias praecipue Poloniae, Bohemcae, Lituaniae, Russiae, Prussie, Moraviae etc. distinctiarum" had appeared. At first the book went unnoticed. Only a second edition found general recognition thanks to the Polish Arians who had fled to the Netherlands . Expanded to include the history of Polish anti-trinitarianism , the book, printed in Amsterdam in 1679, is still one of the most important sources of information about the beginnings of the Reformation in this part of Europe.

End of life

Despite the missionary efforts of numerous reformers and the nobility, who were pro-reformers, Protestantism in Poland always had a difficult time. It was mainly limited to a section of the elites, people of German origin and political and religious migrants. But the culture of discussion and the prevailing religious tolerance among the Polish elites gave the country a huge boost. Because the religious dispute in Poland was not fought with swords and muskets, but with a quill pen and printing press, of which Vengerscius is a good example. But as early as the 17th century, the Polish Protestants were faced with great problems, and those were the problems of the whole country and not so much the counterreformation. It was the wars that killed many Protestants and destroyed churches and libraries. This is how the life of this Polish reformer ended: in 1648 a great Cossack uprising broke out in south-east Poland , which was even to reach the centrally located Wlodawa , where Wengierski had his official residence. With foresight he packed his wife, his three sons and his most valuable books onto the horse-drawn cart and set off to flee to Greater Poland , where they were related. He managed to escape, but his church, rectory and most of the books he had left behind fell victim to the flames during a Cossack attack. When he arrived at his destination, he worked again as a pastor in Schokken (Polish: Skoki). At a funeral he contracted pneumonia, from which he did not recover and died on January 11, 1649. He was buried in Schokken on February 7, 1649 .

Works (selection)

• Gamelia pio coniugio… Johannis Wegierski… et Susannae Petriciae , Toruń 1623, Frisian printing works (5 wedding poems ; one deals with the theme of the marriage of priests)
• Disputatio theologica de conciliis ecclesiasticis , Leiden 1628, print shop B. i A. Elsevier
• Generalis confessio doctrinae ecclesiarum reformatarum , (place of publication unknown) 1645, (creed prepared for the Thorner religious discussion in Anno 1644)
• Kaznodzieja osobny… II. Kaznodzieja domowy… III. Kaznodzieja zborowy , Danzig 1646, Hünefeld printing works; 2nd edition: Königsber 1706 - Kaznodzieja osobny ; First edition individually by J. Twardomęski, Baranów 1642 (hymn book and prayer book with a detailed description of the religious convictions of the Czech brothers)
• Systema historico-chronologicum ecclesiarum Slavonicarum per provincias varias , Utrecht 1652, printer Johann a Waesberge; extended edition. Liberi quatuor Slavoniae reformatae , Amsterdam 1679, (published under the pseudonym "Adrianus Regenvolscius"; expanded to include the history of the Czech brothers).

Translations

• JA Komenski Ianua linguarum reserata , Danzig 1634

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Węgierski, Andreas . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 54th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1886, p. 287 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Bibliografia Literatury Polskiej - Nowy Korbut , t. 3 Piśmiennictwo Staropolskie, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 1965, pp. 385–387.
• A. Vengerscius, Libri quattuor Slavoniae reformatae , Varsoviae 1973, pp. 419-420.
• Janusz Tazbir, Andrzej Węgierski - historyk słowiańskiej reformacji , in: Ars historica. Prace z dziejów powszechnych i Polski , Poznań 1979, pp. 603-616.
• Wacław Urban, Epitalamia i epitafia pastorskiej rodziny Węgierskich w XVII w. In: Wesela, chrzciny i pogrzeby w XVI – XVIII w. , Ed. Henryk Suchojad, Warszawa 2001, pp. 167-172.
• Wacław Urban, Rola braci Węgierskich w podtrzymywaniu protestantyzmu polskiego , in: Religia, edukacja, kultura. Księga pamiątkowa dedykowana Profesorowi Stanisławowi Litakowi , Ed. M. Surdacki, Lublin 2002, pp. 47–51.
• Henryk Gmiterek, Andrzej Węgierski - nadbużański intelektualista z XVII w. , in: Życiorysy w trzy kultury wpisane. Włodawskie biography , edited by M. Bem i Adam Duszyk, Radom - Włodawa 2008, pp. 73–84.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wacław Urban, Epitalamia i epitafia pastorskiej rodziny Węgierskich w XVII w. In: Wesela, chrzciny i pogrzeby w XVI – XVIII w. , Ed. Henryk Suchojad, Warszawa 2001, pp. 167-172