Antytrynitaryzm w Polsce w drugiej połowie XVI wieku

Abstract

Anti-Trinitarianism is derived from the spirit of Reformation. It was particularly well developed in the second half of the 16th century. The Spanish thinker Miguel de Serveto (Servetus) is believed to be the father of the European anti-Trinitarism. Besides him the Italian physician Giorgio Biandrata played an important role in promulgating anti-Trinitarism. He returned to Poland in 1556 and was a senior of Calvinist communities in Małopolska (from 1562 he stayed in Transylvania). Anti-Trinitarianism in Poland was represented mainly by the movement of the Polish brothers, called Arians, which was formed in the years 1562-65. Its beginnings are connected with the secret meetings in the Cracow bookseller Andrzej Trzecieski’s flat, where the thought of Erasmus Dsiderius was, discussed as well as that of Servetus, L. Socinus and B. Ochino. A big role in promulgating anti-Trinitarianism was played by the Italian thinkers, besides Biandrata, L. Socinus and B. Ochino, also J. P. Alciata, F. Negri, G. V. Gentile, F. Stancaro, F. Lismanino as well as P. Statorius Sr, of French descent, the rector of the school in Pińczów, and A. Dudycz, coming from Hungary. The Anabaptist, and especially Christological arguments led to a break-up in the unity of Polish anti-Trinitarians, who devided into three groups: the supporters of tritheism, ditheism and Unitarianism, with some Unitarians proclaiming themselves in favour of the worship of Christ, and others rejecting it. In the 16th century both Calvinist and Lutheran theologians and Catholic ones carried on conrotversies with anti-Trintarianlsm. Their works contributed to the fall of anti-Trinitarianism in Poland in the next century and to the development of Christology.