Petrus Gonesius

Polemic pamphlet by Petrus Gonesius against the Trinity

Petrus Gonesius (* 1525 in Goniądz , † October 15, 1573 in Węgrów ) was a Polish theologian and representative of anti-Trinitarianism during the Reformation .

Life

Coming from a rural background, Gonesius studied theology at the University of Cracow and became a Catholic priest in 1546. In 1551 Gonesius was sent by the Bishop of Vilnius to study at the University of Padua , where Gonesius received his doctorate in philosophy in 1554 and then taught dialectics . In Padua Gonesius also met the Piedmontese lawyer Matteo Gribaldi , who introduced him to the anti-Trinitarian writings of Michel Servet for the first time . Under Gribaldi, Gonesius finally took over increasingly Reformation and Antitrinitarian positions. After Gribaldi moved to the University of Tübingen in 1555 , Gonesius returned to Poland-Lithuania via Moravia . In Moravia he met the Hutterites, who came from the Anabaptist movement , and the Moravian Brothers , founded by radical Hussites and Waldensians , who also had a strong influence on his further theological development. Above all, the pacifism represented by the Hutterites found recognition with Gonesius. Gonesius now openly represented Reformation and anti-Trinitarian standpoints. At that time Poland was already heavily influenced by the Reformation. In the Greater Poland region , Lutheran and Bohemian positions were particularly widespread. In the Lesser Poland region , the Reformation was more influenced by Zwingli and Calvin . At the Minorpolish Synod of Secymin in January 1556, which among other things decided on the Confession Polonica , which was influenced by the Bohemian-Moravian Brothers, Gonesius finally spoke out in favor of a subordinate Christology in the sense of Gribaldi and declared the Trinity unbiblical. Although the synod rejected the anti-Trinitarianism represented by Gonesius and excommunicated him as a heretic in a subsequent synod in Pińczów in April of the same year , he was able to gather a number of supporters in the following years. Sections of the clergy and nobility also stood by his side. Gonesius found support above all from the Polish-Lithuanian magnate Jan Kiszka. In 1556 Gonesius published his main text De filio Dei homine Christo Jesu . In December 1558, Gonesius took part in another Reformed Synod in the city of Brest , which at that time still belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , where he also represented anti-Trinitarian and Anabaptist positions. Gonesius thus defined the thematic framework within which the theological debates would move in the following years within the Reformation movement in Poland-Lithuania and finally in 1564/65 in the split of an Anabaptist-anti-Trinitarian Eclesia reformata minor (also called Polish Brothers ) and an Ecclesia reformata maior adhering to the Trinity and infant baptism resulted. Petrus Gonesius, together with Marcin Czechowic, became one of the leading figures of the Unitarian churches in Poland and Lithuania. Petrus Gonesius finally died on October 15, 1573 during a plague epidemic .

Web links

• Rudra Vilius Dundzila: Peter Gonesius . In: Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography ( Memento of February 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )