Paul Fox

“ The indignation of the nobility rose to a high pitch. The relation between the two estates became more tense and hostile than ever, and inevitably precipitated a bitter struggle over the fundamental question of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
The jurisdiction of the clergy now became an intolerable burden to the Polish nobility. Its scope had gradually expanded until, in the fifteenth century, in spite of protests and attempts to fix limits, it came to cover not only questions of religion, but also all sorts of civil matters. ”

“ The Polish szlachta, regardless of religious affiliation or sympathies, rose almost to a man in most indignant protests against such high-handed usurpation of power on the part of the hierarchy and against such brutal attacks upon their most fundamental rights. At the provincial diets in the fall of that year, at which delegates were chosen to the next Diet, the szlachta voiced their indignation against the clergy, and instructed the chosen deputies to the Diet of 1552 to protest against ecclesiastical jurisdiction and to demand its abolition. ”

“ Orzechowski’s case was the first instance in the history of the Polish Commonwealth of a noble deprived of honor and of his hereditary possessions and condemned to exile and death as a result of episcopal excommunication, without due trial, according to law, guaranteed the Polish nobility by the Charter of Jedlnia (1483) . Immediately the nobles, not only of Orzechowski’s province, but of the whole of Poland, rose as one man against this high-handed attack on their liberties both by the clergy and by the king. ”

“ Due to the removal of all commercial barriers and obstructions and a good and convenient channel of export, such as the Vistula was, Poland’s commerce grew by leaps and bounds, bringing unprecedented prosperity to the country.
To meet somewhat adequately the demands of trade and at the same time to take advantage of the unusual opportunities for gain and enrichment, the Polish landowners turned to agriculture in dead earnest. This caused a change in the method of agriculture and created a great demand for more land and for more labor. ”

“ The clergy should help bear the burdens of the state as well as other citizens; there is no need of being indignant when the king orders the melting of church utensils for public needs. The church has gold not for the purpose of keeping it, but for the purpose of helping the needy. All payments for the benefit of the Pope should be abolished. Poland needs all the funds she can spare for war with invaders and for the preservation of domestic order and peace. ”

“ The ignorance of the lower clergy was proverbial. Simony was the order of the day, paving the way to higher ecclesiastical appointments. The higher clergy were wholly indifferent to religion, and cared far more for comfort, luxury, and the enjoyment of life than for the things of the spirit. Bishop Zebrzydowski of Cracow used to say: “Believe in a goat, if you wish, only pay me your tithes.” [335] John Drohojowski, learned, prominent, and influential, for years bishop of Kuyavia, preached only twice in his church during that time. ”

“ CHAPTER IV The Conflict Between the Polish Nobility and the Clergy: its Economic Aspects Besides the great wealth of the church as such, there existed a whole series of potent causes, all essentially economic in their nature, leading to a revolt from the established church and furthering the spread of religious reform.
The social classes in Poland affected by the Reformation were the townspeople and the szlachta or nobility. Of the two the most influential class as well as the most instrumental in the promotion of the religious reform movement was the nobility. ”

“ So great was the exodus of Polish students to German and other foreign universities, and so great the danger of infecting the country with the new religious doctrines and practices through the channel of intellectual intercommunication that the reactionary elements in the country found it necessary to force the king to pass laws forbidding the Polish youth to frequent foreign universities infected with heresy or suspected of such infection. ”

“ Naturally, therefore, when the question of religious liberty once arose, the Polish nobility immediately applied to the sphere of religion the same principle it had established in the realm of politics. ”

“ This general interest of the intelligent classes of the Polish people in the Reformation and the free discussion of the very fundamentals on which the existing ecclesiastical system rested were creating a great deal of uneasiness among the higher clergy, and caused them to put forth still more determined efforts in defense of the old faith and the old form of worship, not altogether from religious motives but also from economic and social considerations. ”

“ In the face of the growing strength and aggressiveness of Protestanism, it is interesting to note the policy of the Catholic Church toward the state, toward its own clergy, and toward Protestanism, as that policy is revealed in the decisions of the synod of 1561. The Polish Catholic clergy fully realized by this time the precarious position of the Catholic Church in Poland, and decided upon conciliatory measures. To show the king their loyalty and generosity, they agreed to make a liberal contribution, 60,000 thalers, to the king’s treasury for purposes of defense. ”

“ CHAPTER II Social Causes of the Polish Reformation The phenomenal spread of the Reformation in Poland was due, first of all, to certain social causes. Among these probably the most potent were the Renaissance, the art of printing, the influence of foreign universities, particularly those of Germany and Switzerland, religious toleration in Poland in the sixteenth century, and the fact that the new ideas were accepted, championed, and maintained by the upper classes of the population, thus giving the Reformation movement a certain prestige, popularity, and much needed moral and material support. ”

“ Before the thirteenth century the prince called upon the population of ecclesiastical estates as well as on that of the estates of the knighthood to participate in the building of new or in the rebuilding of old strongholds, but in the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, owing to the immunities granted the clergy, the princely right to summon the population of ecclesiastical estates to perform any work on defenses was either very much curtailed or altogether abolished. ”

“ Naturally, the Polish szlachta rose in arms. It demanded that the mayors of ecclesiastical villages render military service as did the mayors of secular villages; that if the clergy objected, they should produce their privileges exempting the mayors of their villages from that public duty; that the Diet should prohibit the clergy from buying village mayorships; that all newly acquired ecclesiastical lands should be sold to the nobility, which was bearing the burden of public defense ”

“ The Polish bishops were far more interested in their incomes, their social standing, and in their political influence than in religion and morals. The indignation of the nobles, therefore, at the freedom the clergy enjoyed from taxation and other burdens was intense. They were strongly opposed to church tithes and to ecclesiastic jurisdiction, and resented papal interference in matters of state. ”

“ The great demand for grain in Western Europe and Poland’s new and easy access to world markets led to a revival of Polish agriculture, resulting in a more intensive cultivation of the soil, increasing exports of agricultural products, growing prosperity, and in new deepening interest on the part of the Polish nobility in agriculture rather than in war. ”

“ Land ownership was looked upon as a special privilege of the Polish nobility. The szlachta, therefore, strove with determination toward its complete monopolization and toward the monopolization of agricultural production. [381] Its next step was to exclude the townspeople from land ownership, to prohibit the clergy further to enlarge their landed estates, and to restrict access to all the higher ecclesiastical offices with their rich benefices to itself and its sons. ”

“ For we see now the most arrogant and audacious people, to whose insatiable passions there is nothing sacred or inviolable, who draw inspiration and power from their wilfulness and impunity, lie in wait for the church’s property. ”

“ In 1525, the year when the Reformation resulted in most far-reaching changes in Danzig, Albert Hohenzollern, Grand Master of the Order of the Teutonic Knights, left the Roman Church, accepted Lutheranism, secularized the possessions of the Order with the consent of the Polish king, and by the Treaty of Cracow of the same year became the secular hereditary ruler of the vassal Duchy of East Prussia with a right to the first seat in the Polish Senate. ”

“ In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Polish 109 princes, and following their example, the magnates and the clergy, in order to encourage colonization, offered special inducements to German colonizing entrepreneurs by allowing them for their services a certain amount of land free of charge and of all public burdens, and by granting them special rights and privileges, which placed them practically on an equal footing with the Polish nobility. ”