Andrzej Wiszowaty

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Andrzej Wiszowaty also Andreas Wissowatius or Voidovius (born November 26, 1608 in Filipów , † July 29, 1678 in Amsterdam ) was an influential Polish Unitarian philosopher and theologian . He was the grandson of the founder of Socinianism in Poland, Fausto Sozzini , and the author of the much-cited work religio rationalis , which made him the founder of religiously based rationalism .

Coat of arms of the Wiszowaty family

life and work

Andreas Wissowatius' mother, Agnieska (Agnès) Wiszowaty, was the only daughter of Fausto Sozzini . His father Stanislaw Wiszowaty belonged to the lower Polish nobility. Andreas Wissowatius was born in the small town of Filipów in the Troki ( Trakai ) voivodeship . Soon after he was born, his parents moved to south-west Poland near Krakow. In his first school years he went to school in Raciborsk near Jankówka. Because of his great talent, he was sent to the Socinian Academy in the Socinian town of Raków at the age of eleven , where he was a student of Martin Ruarus and Johannes Krell from Nuremberg , who was rector of the Rakau Academy at that time (1616–1621) . Wissotatius left the Academy in 1629, and since he was able to make many international contacts through his participation in the Synod of the Polish Brothers , he went on extensive trips to Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and England. From June 1632 he studied theology and philosophy in Leyden , the Netherlands, for several years . In Paris, Wissowatius met Marin Mersenne , Pierre Gassendi and Hugo Grotius several times . Wissowatius is said to have been René Descartes ' Polish companion on his hike through Flanders. On the return journey to Poland, Andreas Wissowatius was in Hamburg in 1642 with Joachim Jungius , who held him in high regard as a friend.

Since 1643 he was a Unitarian clergyman in Ukraine, Volhynia and Lesser Poland. After the relentless expulsion of all Unitarians from Poland, initiated by the Counter Reformation in 1658, Wissowatius went to Habsburg Silesia and from 1660 to 1662 to the Unitarian friends in Transylvania. From 1663 he stayed with other Unitarians in Mannheim and Heidelberg. He spent his twilight years in Amsterdam, where he wrote his most important work religio rationalis from 1676 to 1678 and where he died on July 29, 1678 at the age of 69.

Remarks

  1. See also Andreas Wissowatius - Religio rationalis (= Wolfenbütteler Forschungen Volume 20), Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel 1982, p. 9ff.
  2. Cf. Theologisches Universal = Lexicon for hand use for clergy and non-theologians , Verlag von RL Friderichs, Elberfeld 1874.

literature

  • Zbigniew Ogonowski (Ed.): Andreas Wissowatius - Religio rationalis (= Wolfenbütteler Forschungen, Volume 20), Herzog August Bibliothek , Wolfenbüttel 1982, ISBN 3-88373-022-X .
  • Theological universal = lexicon for manual use for clergy and non-theologians , published by RL Friderichs, Elberfeld 1874.
  • Siegfried Wollgast, Philosophy in Germany 1550–1650 , 2nd edition Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-05-002099-7 .