Marcin Krowicki

Marcin Krowicki (German: Martin Krowicki , * 1500 in Lubawa , † 1573 in Piaski ) was a Roman Catholic and later Reformed and Unitarian priest and theologian in Poland . He was one of the translators of the Brest Bible .

Live and act

In 1515, Krowicki began studying at the University of Krakow . After graduating, he first became secretary and governor under the Krakow voivod Piotr Kmita Sobieński . During this time he met with the writer Stanisław Orzechowski , among others . In 1537 he took over a Catholic pastor in what is now the Ukrainian town of Sudowa Wyschnja , but increasingly distanced himself from Catholicism under the influence of the Reformation . As one of the first priests in Poland, Krowicki broke celibacy in 1550 and, with Orzechowski's support, married the much younger Magdalena Pobiedzińska. After breaking with the Catholic Church, in 1551 he took over from Francesco Stancaro as the preacher of the Reformed community in Pińczów , which had been an early center of the Reformation movement in Poland. To avoid arrest, Krowicki moved but already two years later to Wittenberg , at the University he took up further studies in the years 1553/1554. He later became superintendent of the Reformed congregations around Lublin and took part in the translation work for the Brest Bible. In the internal church conflict about the rejection of the Trinity , he increasingly adopted anti-Trinitarian standpoints. Under the influence of Petrus Gonesius , he appeared openly as a Unitarian from 1562 and took part in the synods in Kraków and Pińczów, which initiated the establishment of the Unitarian Church in Poland-Lithuania ( Polish Brothers ). In the following years, Krowicki worked primarily for the Unitarian communities in the Podlachia area . In 1570 he returned to Lublin and became a preacher in Piaski, where he died in mid-November 1573. Shortly before his death, he wrote another letter to Symon Budny , in which he Unitarian intra-where from 1572 smoldering to 1575 conflict over the legitimacy of violence after Livornischen war clearly against the Anabaptist - pacifist party in Rakau to Marcin Czechowic turned and defended the state and military service.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Olaf Reese: Lutherische Metaphysik im Streit - Reports of Calov's anti-Socinian campaigns , Göttingen 2008, p. 171
2. ↑ Antitrinitarians. European History Online (EGO), accessed August 25, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Stefan Fleischmann: Szymon Budny - A theological portrait of the Polish-Belarusian humanist and Unitarian (approx. 1530–1593) , Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2006, ISBN = 978-3-412-04306-3, p. 46– 47.
4. ↑ Peter Brock: A Polish Antitrinitarian against nonresistance. Krowicki's letter of 1573 . In: The Mennonite quarterly review, 72. Goshen, 1998, pp. 441-448.

literature

• Theodor Wotschke: History of the Reformation in Poland , 1971