Confederation of Warsaw

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The Warsaw Confederation Act that legally guaranteed religious freedom in the Republic of Poland-Lithuania.

The Confederation of Warsaw (also called Warsaw Religious Peace , lat. Pax dissidentium ) was a political act of January 28, 1573 to form a general confederation during the meeting of the Konvokationssejm , which was preparing the election of a new Polish king. The confederation also pursued the goal of a denominational edict of tolerance , while at the same time politically equating dissidents with Catholics .

The Confederation of Warsaw represented a significant development in Polish history and is considered to be the beginning of religious freedom in Poland-Lithuania , guaranteed by constitutional law . As a result, the Confederation was unable to prevent all religious conflicts and tensions in the state, but it did guarantee religious tolerance , civil rights and political equality to the fringe groups, the so-called dissidents, who did not follow the dominant Catholic state religion . At the same time it ensured inner peace and stability in the I. Rzeczpospolita , especially in a time of great religious upheavals in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. B. culminated in bloody Huguenot Wars and the devastating Thirty Years War .

In the Warsaw Religious Peace Treaty of 1573, as the legal and confessional processes, regulations and agreements at the time of the Confederation of Warsaw are also called, the Protestants, " Greeks " and Armenians were granted all the rights of Catholics by the republic and the king. The General Confederation of 1573 is regarded in European historiography as a “milestone in freedom of belief”, but initially referred to the aristocratic class and the bourgeoisie in Poland-Lithuania, which is broader in European comparison ; the peasant class was excluded from it.

history

Sigismund II August, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania and from 1569 first ruler of the First Republic. During his reign from 1548 to 1572, religious freedom was a royal will.

Historical background

Religious tolerance has a long tradition in Poland. The first Jews to emigrate to Poland in large numbers in the course of the persecution of the Jews at the time of the First Crusade (1096) and the Black Death (1348) were Ashkenazim . In addition to the Ashkenazim, there were also the Jewish Karaites in Poland . In the statute of Kalisch , 1264, of the Polish Duke Bolesław the Pious of Greater Poland (1221–1279), Polish Jews were placed under the protection of the state and given state-guaranteed rights and privileges. Under King Casimir "the Great" , the Kalisch Statute was confirmed several times (1334 in the Wiślica Statute , 1364 and 1367) and its validity was extended to the entire Kingdom of Poland. The same has been true for the Orthodox Ruthenians since 1341, when the Principality of Halych-Volodymyr was taken over by the Polish crown, and for the Armenians from 1356. With this, Poland had passed the world's first protection law for Jews. In the 16th century Poland was “the” center of the Jewish world in general. The Polish rulers granted the Jews a unique self-government right up to the first “Jewish Reichstag”, which met for the first time in 1581, the so-called four-country parliament or Wa'ad Arba 'Aratzot (see also Judaism in Poland ).

“The conditions of Jewish life in Poland and Lithuania were more favorable than in Western Europe. The Jews were given fair legal remedies in court, and synagogues and cemeteries were protected from vandalism. Spreading the ritual murder lie was a criminal offense. In 1534 King Sigismund I 'the old man' stressed against the will of the Sejm that the Jews in his empire did not have to wear any special badges on their clothing. The Krakow Rabbi Moses Isserles wrote: »In this country there is no such violent hatred of us as in Germany. May it stay that way until the arrival of the Messiah! "A papal legate reported in 1565:" In Poland one meets a large number of Jews who are not so despised as is the case elsewhere. They do not live in any state of humiliation and they are not limited to despicable jobs. They own land, trade, and study medicine and astronomy. Nor do they have any distinctive signs and are even allowed to carry weapons. In short, they have all civil rights. ""

In addition to Jews, Orthodox Ruthenians and Armenians, there have also been representatives of Islam in Poland since the late Middle Ages , the so-called Lipka Tatars , who were guaranteed cultural autonomy and religious freedom for their military services (see Islam in Poland ).

The relationship between the denominations was the dominant theme during the reign (1548–1572) of the Polish King Sigismund II August , who hardly acted against the Reformation in his dominion . The great time of the spread of Protestant ideas in Poland falls in the time of the liberal religious policy of the last Jagiellonian , who gave the bourgeoisie and the nobility in his districts the religious option and also used to say to them:

"I am not the king of your conscience!"

In 1572 the Protestants had an absolute majority among the secular members of the Senate .

Formation of the Confederation in 1573

Under the Jagiellonians, the two states of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been linked in personal union since 1386 . With the Union of Lublin in 1569, this personal union had become a state union, a real union . After the death of the last Jagiellonian king Sigismund II August in 1572, the aristocracy of both states gathered in Warsaw prevented the dual state from falling apart and at the same time secured power in the state by unconditionally binding all imperial citizens to decisions made by a "legal body", for example a confederation. As early as 1570, the Lutherans , Calvinists and Bohemian Brethren in Poland achieved mutual recognition. They united by the Treaty of Sandomir to an interest group for "external and internal purposes". In January 1573 the authors signed the act of confederation, in which the representatives of all denominations promised each other mutual support and tolerance. The articles of confederation officially sanctioned the earlier common law and can be seen as the beginning and the culmination of Polish religious tolerance.

"This created the legal basis in Poland for a degree of tolerance that one seeks in vain in the rest of Europe and earned the country the 'fame' of a 'Paradisus hereticorum'."

Thanks to this religious tolerance, the great Polish-Lithuanian empire was spared the great religious wars that devastated Western and Central Europe . However, in the area of ​​I. Rzeczpospolita (with the exception of Polish Prussia and the Duchies of Prussia , Courland and Livonia ) Protestantism did not take deep roots within the peasant class.

Polish religious tolerance in the 16th and 17th centuries

Especially under the rule of Sigismund III. Wasas, King of Poland and Sweden, Grand Duke of Lithuania and Finland, was promoted in the I. Rzeczpospolita in the years 1587 to 1632 the Jesuit counter-Reformation and the Protestantism within the nobility gradually pushed back.

The confederation created a legal basis for a new political system (cf. "Aristocratic Democracy" ) and ensured the unity of the state, which had been inhabited for generations by heterogeneous ethnic ethnicities ( Poles , Ukrainians , Belarusians , Balts , Estonians , Slovaks , Moldovans , Jews , Germans , Armenians , Tatars ), who also adhered to the most diverse creeds ( Catholicism , Protestantism , Orthodoxy , Judaism , Islam ). The decision to adopt an edict of tolerance was probably significantly influenced by the events during Bartholomew's Night, which induced the majority of Polish, Lithuanian, Ruthenian and German nobility of the I. Rzeczpospolita to find regulations to ensure that a future Polish king should not be able to take such “criminal” measures against religious minorities in Poland as well. In addition, the devastating consequences of religious wars were also made clear by the example of the neighboring Holy Roman Empire (see Schmalkaldic War ) and the revolt of the Dutch against Spanish rule .

The nobles Sienicki , Firlej and Zborowski played a special role in the creation of the articles of confederation . Their efforts met with vehement resistance from many dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland-Lithuania; The broad mass of the Catholic priesthood also opposed the Edict of Tolerance. Krasiński was the only Catholic bishop to sign the articles of the Confederation of Warsaw (according to Starowolski , he allegedly did so under the "threat of the sword"). The following legal acts of the I. Rzeczpospolita, which also contained the Warsaw Confederation Articles of 1573, were signed by the high Catholic dignitaries of the Polish-Lithuanian state with the condition excepto articulo confoederationis . Another bishop, Goślicki , was excommunicated by his ecclesiastical employer because of his confirmation of the Reichstag resolutions of 1587 without the "excepto" .

The articles of the Warsaw Confederation were later integrated into the "Heinrich Articles" and consequently, along with the Pacta Conventa , had constitutional character .

The peaceful coexistence and coexistence of the most diverse denominations in Poland in the 16th century, a country located between the Orthodox Grand Duchy of Moscow in the east, the Islamic Ottoman Empire in the south, Protestant Sweden in the north and the mixed Catholic-Evangelical Holy Roman Empire in the west , torn between the Reformation and Counter-Reformation , was unique in Europe.

“On a European continent torn by religious wars, only Poland was able to produce the epoch-making general statute of tolerance that was adopted by the Warsaw Confederation in 1573. Isolated acts of religious fanaticism could still occur, but a general persecution campaign was not possible. Poland truly deserves its name as 'the country without a stake'. "

The last Polish Inquisition court ceased to operate in 1572 (cf.. Inquisitorial system ). It was not very active in previous years either. The country became, as Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius denounced, a “haven of heresy ”. It was a hoard in which the most diverse creeds sought and found protection and acceptance from persecution in their Catholic-dominated and partly Protestant home countries. Among other things, pursued settled Baptist from Germany (. See Anabaptists mandate ) and the Netherlands - especially Mennonites of Friesland and surrounding areas - in the Vistula estuary in Polish Prussia on.

Later development: decrease in tolerance

The religious tolerance practiced at the beginning, however, decreased significantly in later times. Kings like Stefan Bathory (1576–1586), but especially Sigismund III. Wasa (1587-1632), operated with support from the Jesuits on an intellectual basis, a Counter-Reformation Rekatholisierungs policy (see. Confessionalization ) were however, is through the great power of the nobility braked. The first Jesuits came to Poland as early as 1565, where they founded a Catholic college in Braunsberg in the Principality of Warmia under the supervision of Prince-Bishop Stanislaus Hosius. The middle of the 17th century is generally considered to be a turning point in the history of Polish tolerance.

John II Casimir, of the Wasa tribe, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Titular King of Sweden and Finland. During his reign (1648–1668), caused by the great Cossack uprising of Bogdan Chmielnicki (1648–1654) and invasions of non-Catholic hostile neighboring powers (including war with Russia (1654–1667), Sweden (1655–1660), Transylvania and Brandenburg (1656–1657)) was badly shaken, the anti-Trinitarians were driven out of Poland and Lithuania under the influence of the Jesuits.

Overall, the anti-Trinitarians in particular (cf. Polish Brothers and Socinianism ), who were generally highly educated and represented a branch of the so-called “Radical Reformation” , lost ground in Poland and Lithuania in the medium term. Since the anti-Trinitarians exercised a profound influence on “radical theology ” across Europe in the 17th century , their doctrine was regarded by the church “ elites ” of the time, the Catholics and non-anti-Trinitarian Protestants of a conservative streak, as “heresy of the first degree”. The anti-Trinitarian center in Lublin was closed as early as 1627 . On the initiative of the Catholic Bishop of Kraków and Chancellor of the Polish Crown, Jakub Zadzik , action was taken in 1638 against the spiritual center of anti-Trinitarian life in the I. Rzeczpospolita, Raków . There the important anti-Trinitarian academy and printing plant was closed. Their students and teachers have been expelled from the country. Then it was the turn of the anti-Trinitarian printers, schools and communities in Ukraine . In the Thorner Religious Discussion , 1645, King Władysław IV. Wasa tried in vain to establish a balance between the different Protestant denominations. In 1652 the anti-Trinitarians in the Marienburg parliament in Polish-Prussia were deprived of all rights to administer offices and to own property.

So harassed by the Catholic reaction , which announced in a manifesto to the Warsaw royal court in 1648 that the anti-Trinitarians were to be excluded from the group of dissidents of the Warsaw Confederation, the Polish anti-Trinitarians now saw the Swedish King and Lutheran, Karl X. Gustav , the 1655 in alliance with the two Calvinist feudal lords Georg II. Rákóczi , Prince of Transylvania , and Friedrich Wilhelm , Elector of Brandenburg , invaded Poland bloody and devastating with his army and thus the Second Northern War (in the collective memory of the Poles to this day also as " The Bloody Flood "or" Swedish Flood "known) unleashed a protector of their church and interests. This granted the anti-Trinitarians in the Swedish conquered Krakow , which was subordinate to the military commander Paul Würtz , full freedom of religion. The collaboration of the “Polish Brothers” or “ Arians ”, as the anti-Trinitarians in Poland were also called, with the “cruel Heretic enemies” and the military defeat of the Swedes and their allies finally broke the neck of anti-Trinitarians in Poland.

“... Oil was also poured into the fire by Rákóczi's actions, who of all things looted churches and monasteries. The fact that the liaison men between him and Würtz u. a. Socinians, namely the Pileckis, were also the fact that Samuel Grądzki and Ladislaus Lubienecki also acted as secretaries during the invasion, has also caused immeasurable damage to their co-religionists. "

“A certain part of the anti-Socinian suspicions and accusations already coincided with reality. For some Polish brothers, as already stated, were in fact diplomatic couriers between Sweden and Transylvania. Yes, even more so, they also took part in two punitive expeditions against Catholics with the Swedish army and other dissidents. "

In a series of edicts and restrictions of the Polish Diet of 1658 under the primacy of King John II Casimir , formerly a Jesuit and cardinal priest , the state of the anti-Trinitarian church was completely withdrawn from the status of a tolerated church community in the I. Rzeczpospolita. Its members were given the choice of either converting to Catholic or Reformed doctrine or, if they wanted to remain loyal to anti-Trinitarianism, to sell their goods over the next three years, i.e. until 1661, and to leave the country or as a result, illegally to evade "underground" . In the event of failure to comply with this order, the eviction decree provided for the death penalty . Furthermore, with the proclamation of the law, the anti-Trinitarians were denied all political rights and the freedom to practice their religion. The Jesuits Mikołaj Cichowski and Severin Karwat, but also Bishop Andrzej Trzebicki, were the driving forces behind the enforcement of the expulsion decree.

“Before the Sejm deliberations began, the court preacher Severin Karwat gave a sermon in which all dissidents were attacked: They were denied any right to hold offices. He called on the Catholic estates to deal not only with the enemies of the crown but also with the enemies of the church. This attack then eventually erupted over the most hated and also the weakest links of the dissidents - the Socinians. The religious fanaticism, reinforced by the struggle against the Protestant invaders as well as the friendly attitude of the Polish brothers towards the Swedes, were the reason to expel this long-fought opponent from the country. "

Some "Socinians" converted to the Catholic or Reformed Church, which led to the phenomenon of "cryptoarianism". Andrzej Wiszowaty , an important representative of the anti-Trinitarian Church in Poland, made one last desperate attempt to save the Church of the Polish Brethren from ruin, but in vain. Since he had refused to convert to the Catholic or Reformed faith on grounds of freedom of conscience , he went into exile , like almost all of his fellow believers . In the fall of 1660 Poland left four exiles groups, most people went into the Unitarian Transylvania, Items returned after Prussia and the Netherlands . Attempts at a permanent settlement of the Polish anti-Trinitarians in the German Reich failed due to the opposition of the conservative Lutheran clergy.

The complete liquidation of the socinian movement in Poland and Lithuania did not take place until the next generation, i.e. after about 30 years. The slow course of the liquidation as well as its peculiar - for the circumstances at the time - even mild form were closely connected with the Polish social order. Several factors stood in the way of a vigorous eradication of the rest of anti-Trinitarianism. One such factor was the weakness of the state apparatus , which in this area was unable to rigorously enforce the laws passed at the Reichstag, especially since the cryptosocinians mostly belonged to the nobility and one always had to take certain considerations towards them. The aristocratic society ruled by the Counter-Reformation was probably in favor of driving the Socinians out of the country; but she was not ready to continue persecuting her civil society.

The Calvinists , Lutherans , Orthodox , Anabaptists (such as the Mennonites ), Armenians and Muslims , insofar as they belonged to the bourgeoisie or nobility , succeeded in maintaining their full rights, including political equality, intact in the course of the 17th century.

the Age of Enlightenment

Stanislaus August Poniatowski as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the last ruler of the First Republic. Poniatowski, who is generally regarded as one of the most important personalities of the European Enlightenment, granted full political equality back to the non-Catholic “dissidents” in Poland-Lithuania under his rule in the years 1764–1795.

During and after the Third Northern War (1700–1721), which, similar to the Second Northern War, had left large parts of the Polish-Lithuanian state through foreign non-Catholic powers in addition to devastation and depopulation in the surviving population as well as war trauma , the number of files increased again of intolerance against non-Catholics, such as the so-called " Tumult of Thorn " in 1724. the long-term negative effect of the Prussian propaganda on the Poles idea of European Enlightenment is difficult to overestimate. With reference to the Thorner events , Voltaire denounced the intolerance of the Poles even decades later. He praised the Russian army as the bearer of “civilizing Poland” and legitimized the first partition of Poland as an “act of spreading tolerance”.

When the number of (non-anti-Trinitarian) Protestants in Poland had decreased considerably, the dissidents were deprived of their political equality in the Reichstag in 1717 and 1718 .

The complete political equality of Protestants with Catholics only became a key issue of his reforms during the reign (1764–1795) of King Stanislaus August Poniatowski , who among his ancestors also had anti-Trinitarians. The first attempts at liberal religious policy towards the dissidents during the " Pazifikations Sejm" of 1736 at the time of the Polish Succession War taken (1733-1738) "for the sake of the common fatherland" in attack. The dissidents were granted peace and security of property and equality of personal rights by the Catholic estates; but they were forbidden to hold meetings and to call on foreign powers in their cause for assistance and intervention in Poland. As part of this liberalism of the 18th century hiked over up to 30,000 German settlers , predominantly Protestant, in the wars and epidemics depopulated region Wielkopolska one. A fundamental change in church conditions on the one hand and political participation on the other hand in favor of the Protestants brought the enlightenment, which quickly spread in the high Catholic circles of the I. Rzeczpospolita. Thanks to her, the Polish dissidents in 1768 and 1775 got their political equality back, as well as the renewed confirmation of their civil rights and religious freedom. The constitution of May 3, 1791 , which is considered the first modern constitution in Europe in the sense of the Enlightenment, the second in the world after the constitution of the United States , lifted all restrictions on the political equality of dissidents, except for the office of king .

In the age of King Stanislaus August Poniatowski, Protestantism, especially Lutheranism, awoke to new life.

World heritage

The Articles of Confederation of Warsaw were in the 2003 World Documentary Heritage of UNESCO added.

See also

literature

  • Janusz Tazbir: History of Polish Tolerance. Interpress Publishing House, Warsaw 1977.
  • Gottfried Schramm : A milestone in freedom of belief. The status of research on the origin and fate of the Warsaw Confederation from 1573. In: Zeitschrift für Ostforschung. 24: 711-736 (1975).
  • Gottfried Schramm: The Polish Nobility and the Reformation 1548–1607. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1965.
  • Winfried Eberhard: Requirements and structural foundations of denominationalization in East Central Europe. In: Joachim Bahlcke, Arno Strohmeyer (Ed.): Denominationalization in East Central Europe. Effects of religious change in the 16th and 17th centuries in the state, society and culture (Research on the history and culture of Eastern Central Europe, Vol. 7). Steiner, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-515-07583-6 , pp. 89-104.
  • Alfons Brüning: Unio non est unitas. Poland-Lithuania Path in the Denominational Age (1569-1648) (Research on Eastern European History, Vol. 72). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05684-7 , pp. 111–141 (Section 3.1: The Warsaw Confederation. Deficits and provisionalities of "Polish tolerance". )
  • Hans-Joachim Müller: Irenik as a communication reform. The Colloquium Charitativum von Thorn 1645. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-35860-1 , pp. 15-77 (Chapter 1: Introduction. Between consensus and conflict. Irenicism, syncretism and tolerance. )
  • Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland: Studies on Socinianism and its influence on Western European thought in the 17th century. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 .
  • Martin Schmeisser (Ed.): Socinian confessional writings: The Rakow catechism of Valentin Schmalz (1608) and the so-called Soner catechism. Oldenbourg Akademieverlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-05-005200-7 .
  • Bernhard Stasiewski: Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Poland. New research results. Aschendorff, Münster / Westf. 1960.
  • Heinrich Lutz : Reformation and Counter Reformation. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2002, ISBN 3-486-49585-2 .
  • Joachim Bahlcke, Arno Strohmeyer: Confessionalization in East Central Europe: Effects of Religious Change in the 16th and 17th Centuries in State, Society and Culture. Steiner, Stuttgart 1999.
  • Lorenz Hein: Italian Protestants and their influence on the Reformation in Poland during the two decades before the Sandomir Consensus (1570). EJ Brill, Leiden 1974.
  • Norman Davies : In the Heart of Europe: History of Poland. 4th edition. CH Beck, 2006, ISBN 3-406-46709-1 .
  • W. Budka: Kto podpisał Konfederację Warszawska 1573 r.? In: Reformacja w Polsce. R. I, nr 4, 1921.
  • A. Jobert: La tolerance religieuse en Pologne au XVIc siecle. In: Studi di onore di Ettore Lo Gato Giovanni Maver. Firenze 1962, pp. 337-343.
  • M. Korolko: Klejnot swobodnego sumienia. Warsaw 1974.
  • Konfederacja warszawska 1573 roku wielka karta polskiej tolerancji. opr. M. Korolko, J. Tazbir, Warszawa Instytut Wydawniczy PAX, 1980.
  • J. Tazbir: Państwo bez stosów. Szkice z dziejów tolerancji w Polsce XVI – XVII w. Warsaw 1967.
  • J. Tazbir: Reformacja, contrreformacja, tolerancja. Wrocław 1996.
  • Paweł Janowski, Ołeksandr Dobrojer: Konfederacja Warszawska. In: Encyklopedia Katolicka. Lublin 2002, t. IX, col. 564-565.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Sylvie Le Grand, in: Hans Jürgen Heringer et al.: Tendenzen der Deutschen Gegenwartssprache , 1994, p. 234.
  2. ↑ Including the Protestant anti-Trinitarians ( Polish Brothers ), whose teaching was considered first-degree heresy by conservative Catholics and non-anti-Trinitarian Protestants (cf. Michael Servetus ). The existence of the anti-Trinitarian church on the soil of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was placed under protection by the aristocratic rulers there before the Jesuit Counter-Reformation and tolerated by the institutions of the First Republic and the kingdom until 1658/61; Konfederacja warszawska 1573 roku wielka karta polskiej tolerancji , opr. M. Korolko, J. Tazbir, Warszawa Instytut Wydawniczy PAX 1980.
  3. ↑ With "Greeks" are meant the Christian Orthodox Belarusians and Ukrainians.
  4. ↑ Talvj: Clear manual of a history of the Slavic languages ​​and literature. Leipzig 1852, p. 200.
  5. ↑ Gottfried Schramm : A milestone in freedom of belief. The status of research on the origin and fate of the Warsaw Confederation from 1573. In: Zeitschrift für Ostforschung 24 (1975), pp. 711-736.
  6. ↑ Up to 10% of the population in Poland-Lithuania belonged to the nobility. No other European state, except Hungary, had such a high proportion of nobility; there it was mostly only around 1–3%.
  7. ↑ As a rule, the status quo applied to the peasant class ; Excepted from this were the areas of Royal Prussia, the Duchy of Prussia, the Duchy of Courland and Semgallia and the Duchy of Livonia on a “large scale”.
  8. ↑ Hans Joachim Müller: Irenik as a communication reform: the Colloquium Charitativum von Thorn 1645 , p. 72.
  9. ^ A b Andreas Lawaty: Germans and Poles: History, Culture, Politics , p. 154.
  10. ↑ Susanna Buttaroni, Stanislaw Musial: Ritualmord, p. 215.
  11. ↑ Hannelore Müller: Religious Studies Minorities Research , p. 121.
  12. ↑ Burchard Brentjes: Three Millennia Armenia , p. 238.
  13. ↑ Brigitte Jäger-Dabek: Traveler in Poland , p. 31.
  14. ↑ Michael Brenner: Small Jewish Story , p. 142.
  15. ^ Alfred Kohler: From the Reformation to the Peace of Westphalia , pp. 46, 47.
  16. ↑ Horst Balz: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Volume 33, p. 653.
  17. ↑ Tomasz Torbus: Poland: Travel between the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains, Oder and Bug , p. 32
  18. ^ A b Norman Davies: In the Heart of Europe: History of Poland , p. 267.
  19. ↑ In the 16th century, the imperial citizens or the people of the state made up only the nobility and part of the bourgeoisie. As in other parts of Europe, the peasant class was excluded from this (cf. serfdom and peasant liberation ).
  20. ↑ Horst Balz: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Volume 33, p. 653.
  21. ↑ a b c Talvj: Clear manual of a history of the Slavic languages ​​and literature. Leipzig 1852, p. 200.
  22. ↑ From 1568 onwards (Edict of Turda) in Europe only the prince and the estates of the Principality of Transylvania granted a comparable, far-reaching act of tolerance, which was an autonomous Hungarian feudal state under Ottoman protection from around 1541 (Theodor Schieder: Handbuch der Europäische Geschichte: The emergence of Modern Europe , p. 1030).
  23. ↑ Quoted from Stefan Fleischmann: Szymon Budny. A theological portrait of the Polish-Belarusian humanist and Unitarian (approx. 1530–1593). Böhlau, Köln 2006, p. 11. The term “Paradisus hereticorum” was coined by Jörg K. Hoensch (ders .: Geschichte Polens , Stuttgart 1998, p. 99).
  24. ^ A b Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: works, articles, drafts ... , p. 1083.
  25. ^ Nation, nationalities and nationalism in Eastern Europe: Festschrift ..., p. 53.
  26. ^ A b c Norman Davies: In the heart of Europe: History of Poland , p. 268.
  27. ↑ Sabine Beckmann et al.: Cultural history of Prussia royal Polish share in the early modern period. 2005, p. 215.
  28. ^ Hanswilhelm Haefs: Poland , p. 316.
  29. ↑ Hans Joachim Müller: Irenik as a communication reform: the Colloquium Charitativum von Thorn 1645 , p. 75.
  30. ↑ a b c d e f Zbigniew Ogonowski: The Socinianism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 33.
  31. ↑ Urs Leu: The Zurich Anabaptists 1525–1700 , p. 95.
  32. ↑ See Michael Servetus' death by fire in 1553 at Geneva by order of Calvin . For a long time, this event symbolized the intolerance of non-anti-Trinitarian Protestantism towards people of different faiths. (Hans-Jürgen Goertz: Religious Movements in the Early Modern Age , p. 42)
  33. ↑ a b c Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 9.
  34. ^ Staats-Lexikon or Encyklopädie der Staatswissenschaften, Volume 12, Altona 1841, p. 552; Tomasz Torbus: Poland: Travel between the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains, Oder and Bug , p. 32.
  35. ↑ Barbara Becker-Cantarino: Daphnis, Journal for Middle German Literature and…, Issues 1–2, pp. 225, 226.
  36. ↑ Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 10.
  37. ↑ The Principality of Transylvania and the Electorate of Brandenburg had been in an alliance with the Kingdom of Sweden against Poland since 1656.
  38. ^ Hanswilhelm Haefs: Poland , p. 318.
  39. ^ A b Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 18.
  40. ↑ Of course, it should be noted that the greater part of the non-anti-Trinitarian nobility in Poland and Lithuania, who adhered to either Catholicism or Calvinism, from the beginning of the Swedish invasion up to the end of 1655 massively with Charles X. Gustav of Sweden against their own King had collaborated and conspired (see Treaty of Kėdainiai and Treaty of Ujście ). The leaders of the Polish anti-Trinitarians did not, however, have the will to break with the Swedes in time and to change the fronts (cf. Confederation of Tyszowce ); Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 10 f.
  41. ↑ Damian J. Schwider: Mikołaj Toreński: a Polish composer at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries , p. 16, remark 14: The anti-Trinitarians were suspected [by the Catholics] of betrayal and collaboration with the Swedes.
  42. ↑ Wacław Walecki: Polish Literature - Approaches: From the Middle Ages to the late 20th century , S. 59th
  43. ↑ The majority of the Swedes belonged to the Lutheran Protestant Church.
  44. ^ Henryk Rutkowski in Poland and Austria in the 17th Century , p. 118.
  45. ↑ Another name for the anti-Trinitarians in Poland.
  46. ↑ A relative of the well-known anti-Trinitarian Stanislaus Lubienecki .
  47. ↑ Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 24.
  48. ↑ Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 25.
  49. ↑ Hans Joachim Müller: Irenik as a communication reform: the Colloquium Charitativum von Thorn 1645 , p. 75.
  50. ^ Hanswilhelm Haefs: Poland , p. 317.
  51. ↑ Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 48: The last anti-Trinitarian synod on Polish soil took place in 1662 at an unknown location; “Anti-Trinitarian underground” in Poland and Lithuania after 1661, see pp. 67, 68.
  52. ↑ Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 32.
  53. ↑ Herbert Jaumann: Handbuch Gelehrtenkultur der Early Modern Age , Vol. 1, p. 618.
  54. ↑ Martin Schmeisser: Socinianic Confessional Scriptures , p. 50.
  55. ↑ Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 48.
  56. ↑ In the Lutheran Duchy of Prussia, after a relatively short period of toleration, especially after the death of the Calvinist Bogusław Prince Radziwiłł , who had previously taken care of the fate of the persecuted Polish and Lithuanian brothers, from 1670 a creeping ostracism, discrimination and Persecution of the anti-Trinitarians in East Prussia (Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 76 f. ; Johann Jakob Herzog: Real Encyclopedia for Protestant Theology and Church , Volume 14, p. 498). As early as 1640, Elector Georg Wilhelm von Brandenburg, under pressure from the Prussian estates, issued an edict against the Antitrinitarian Church, (...) because, especially in Germany, many representatives of the intelligentsia adhered to the Socinian ideology (Siegfried Wollgast: Philosophy in Germany between Reformation and Enlightenment, 1550–1650 , P. 409). The prohibition edict of 1640 was repeated in 1670 under pressure from the Lutheran theologians and the estates; for the time being without any practical consequences for the anti-Trinitarians who continued to have “only” tolerated status in East Prussia. It was even worse for the Mennonites living in the East Prussian Memelland, who were expelled from their homeland by the "soldier king" Friedrich Wilhelm I as early as 1724 because of their pacifism . After their expulsion, the Mennonites settled along the Vistula in Polish Prussia (Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg in Religious Refugees : Causes, Forms and Effects of Early Modern ... , pp. 130, 132).
  57. ↑ After their expulsion from Poland (from 1658) in the northern Netherlands, the majority of whom had already become Calvinist from the second half of the 16th century, the anti-Trinitarians were only tolerated on the condition that they did not hold any public offices and did not practice their teaching in spread to the public. After 1653, a report by the University of Leiden on behalf of the " States General " declared anti-Triniarianism to be "heretical heresy". A state edict issued thereupon forbade any dissemination of the anti-Trinitarian doctrine in print, sale or oral transmission. However, due to the individual freedoms enshrined in the Dutch constitution, the order was not strictly obeyed, which subsequently benefited the anti-Trinitarians (Martin Schmeisser: Socinianic Confessions , p. 41). Nevertheless, there were expulsions of "heretical" sects from the Protestant Netherlands, for example the Remonstrants, also known as Arminians. Especially with the Remonstrants, the Polish Brothers had many common points of intersection in addition to their life in exile, also on an ideological basis, so that some anti-Trinitarians entered Remonstrant communities (Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (ed.): Reformation and early enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 59 f.)
  58. ^ In Kreuzburg , Altona , Hamburg , Lübeck , Mannheim and Friedrichstadt .
  59. ↑ Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , pp. 58-63.
  60. ↑ a b c d Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , p. 64.
  61. ↑ Karin Friedrich, Barbara M. Pendzich: Citizenship and Identity in a Multinational Commonwealth: Poland-Lithuania ... , p. 159.
  62. ^ Henryk Rutkowski in Poland and Austria in the 17th century , pp. 122, 123.
  63. ↑ The Russian Tsar Peter I, who is known to have turned the neck of a Basilian prior of Polatsk with his own hand in 1705 and drowned the rest of the friars in the Daugava (see Augustin Theiner: The latest conditions of the Catholic Church of both rites in Poland and Russia , p. 126; Bernhard Stern: History of public morality in Russia , p. 43; Julius Bachem: An den border Russland , p. 253; Julian Pelesz: History of the Union of the Ruthenian Church with Rome , p. 294) , referred to the Poles as the "most barbaric nation in Europe" with a view to the Thorner events of 1724, and Friedrich Wilhelm I, Elector of Brandenburg and King of Prussia, used his influence on the press to avoid the negative image of Poland as a hoard of To assert intolerance across Europe (Martin Schulze Wessel in Europe of Affiliations: Integration Paths Between Immigration and Emigration , pp. 26, 27).
  64. ↑ Regarding the Thorner events of 1724.
  65. ↑ Martin Schulze Wessel in Europe of Belongings: Integration Paths Between Immigration and Emigration , p. 27.
  66. ↑ Not only the Protestants, but also the Orthodox.
  67. ↑ For the dissidents, the year 1717 was considered the "normal year" and the basis for negotiations with the Catholics. According to the date, their political equality from the year 1573 was revoked by King August II and the parliamentary majority of the Catholic estates (Johann Georg Veit Engelhardt: Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, volume history of the last three centuries , p. 485).
  68. ↑ The rights of the dissidents, which had been confirmed several times afterwards, were gradually withdrawn, especially in 1717 and 1718 under King August II (who had been a Lutheran until 1696), where they were deprived of their right to vote in the Reichstag (Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon: Allgemeine German Real-Encyclopedia for the educated estates ..., Volume 3, p. 308; Johann Georg Veit Engelhardt: Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte: Geschichte der last three centuries, Volume 3, S. 483; Jean-Henri Schnitzler: History of the Russian Empire from the oldest period to the death of Emperor Nicholas I , p. 156).
  69. ↑ The rights of the dissidents, which had been confirmed several times afterwards, were gradually withdrawn, especially in 1717 and 1718 under King August II (who had been a Lutheran until 1696), where they were deprived of their right to vote in the Reichstag (Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon: Allgemeine German real encyclopedia for the educated classes ..., Volume 3, p. 308; Janusz Tazbir: History of Polish Tolerance , p. 180).
  70. ↑ After 1718, the Protestants continued to enjoy religious freedom and civil rights, albeit without the legal opportunity to express their voice and will in the Reichstag of the Republic. They were also forbidden to build new churches.
  71. ↑ a b Universal History of the Christian Church: Textbook for Academic Lectures. Mainz 1860, p. 953.
  72. ↑ Without the right of political equality in parliament (Janusz Tazbir: History of Polish Tolerance , p. 180). They were also excluded from all public offices, nor were they allowed to become civil servants or judges (Hans Heyck: The great king: a life and time picture , Volume 2, p. 279).
  73. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg in Religious Refugees : Causes, Forms and Effects of Early Modern ... , p. 138.
  74. ↑ a b Four hundred and fifty years of the Lutheran Reformation 1517–1967. Festschrift for Franz Lau on his 60th birthday , p. 34.
  75. ^ Restoration of all civil and political rights for the dissidents in 1768 (Zbigniew Ogonowski: Socialism and the Enlightenment. In: Paul Wrzecionko (Ed.): Reformation and Early Enlightenment in Poland . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, ISBN 3-525-56431-7 , P. 76 f.), Free exercise of religion, access to all state offices, right to vote in the Reichstag etc. (Karl Friedrich Becker: Weltgeschichte: reworked and up to the present ..., volumes 7–8, p. 234).
  76. ↑ In 1775 the Edict of Tolerance of 1768 was expanded to include a restriction under pressure from the Catholic estates: dissidents could not be elected as ministers or senators; Talvj: Clear manual of a history of Slavic languages ​​and literature , Leipzig 1852, p. 200; Johannes Baptist Alzog: Universal History of the Christian Church: Textbook for Academic ... , p. 954; Friedrich Rudolf Hasse: Church History, Volume 3, p. 89.
  77. ^ Siegfried Hüppe: Constitution of the Republic of Poland , p. 230, 231
  78. ↑ The king or grand prince had to be a Catholic.
  79. ↑ The Confederation of Warsaw of 28th of January 1573: Religious tolerance guaranteed | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved August 28, 2017 .