THE SARMATIAN REVIEW Vol. XIX, No. 2 April 1999 NATO and Normalcy
Normalcy. Public domain. 610 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 The Sarmatian Review (ISSN 1059- 5872) is a triannual publication of the Polish In- From the Editor stitute of Houston. The journal deals with Polish, On March 12, 1999, Poland, conveys a part of the repressed history Central, and Eastern European affairs, and their the Czech Republic, and Hungary were of Central Europe American academia implications for the United States. We specialize in the translation of documents. admitted to NATO. After two hundred is unfamiliar with. It is also a wonder- Subscription price is $15.00 per year for individu- years of partitions, uprisings, wars, de- ful read, comparable to the Victorian als, $21.00 for institutions and libraries ($21.00 struction, colonialism, foreign occupa- texts which likewise envelop the world for individuals, $27.00 for libraries overseas, air tion, fear, brief independence - a period in comforting categories and explana- mail). The views expressed by authors of articles do not necessarily represent those of the Editors of peace and political security is finally tions. But unlike the Victorian novel- or of the Polish Institute. Articles are subject to in sight. Poles, Czechs and Hungarians ists, Dàbrowska presents a world that editing. Unsolicited manuscripts are not returned think of themselves as returning to the is well ordered in spite of attempts to unless accompanied by a self-addressed and Western fold. For them, March 12, introduce chaos and disorder into it. stamped envelope. Please submit your contribu- tion on a Macintosh disk together with a printout. 1999 symbolizes a return to normalcy. Perhaps the crux of the matter lies here: Letters to the Editor can be e-mailed to They can now engage in domesticity the Soviets and the Nazis tried to de-
123456789012345678901 LETTERS (Aleksandra Ziółkowska- beginning of this family saga. It would 123456789012345678901SR Boehm, Bogdan Czaykowski)...... 634 make us even happier if this fragment ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NOTES.635 led one of our readers to translate the About the Authors...... 635 entire novel. Dàbrowska’s text
April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 611 Sarmatian Review Index NATO FACTS Size of the three new NATO entrants: Poland 122,000 sq miles, Hungary 36,000 sq miles, Czech Republic 31,000 sq miles. Population: Poland 39 million, Hungary 10.5 million, Czech Republic 10.3 million. Defense: Poland: currently 220,000 members, to be cut to 180,000 by 2003; Czech Republic: 85,000; Hungary: 53,150. GDP per capita 1997: Poland $3,512; Hungary $4,46; Czech Republic $5,050, according to EBRD. Source: Agence France-Presse (Vienna), 8 March 1999. Health Life expectancy in Chukotka, a region of the ‘Russian’ [Rossiyskaya] Federation bordering on Alaska and inhabited by the Chukchi, Evens, Eskimos and other native peoples, in addition to the Russian colonists: 34 years. Source: Michael Waller, Russia Reform Monitor, No. 566 (16 December 1998). Number of registered drug addicts in Moscow in 1999: 20,000. Estimated number of drug addicts in Moscow: 50 times greater, or 1,000,000. Source: City Health Committee vice-chairman Nikolay Plavunov at a conference on 28 January 1999, as reported by AFP, 29 January 1999. Demography Percentage decrease in Ukraine’s population in 1998: -0.4 percent, a decrease of 205,000 persons. Ukraine’s population in 1998: 50.09 million. Source: State Statistics Committee, as reported by RFE/RL, 30 December 1998. Percentage decrease in the population of the ‘Russian’ Federation: between January-October 1998: -0.2 percent, a decrease of 311,000 persons. Source: AFP, 29 December 1998. Percentage of immigrants in the US population in 1997 and in 1910: 9.8 percent and 14.7 percent, respectively. US immigrant population in 1997 in millions: 26.3 million. Source: Gabriel Escobar, Houston Chronicle, 9 January 1999. Size of the Jewish community in Ukraine in 1998: 500,000. Names of two of the most important organizations (out of an estimated 300): the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress and the recently-formed Jewish Confederation of Ukraine. Stated reasons for the formation of the new organization: inactivity of the former. Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline, 24 February 1999. Size of the Jewish community in Russia in 1998: 600,000. Source: Paul Goble in Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, 26 February 1999. Estimated percentage of East Germans who have not yet come to terms with German unification: 33 percent. Source: The Economist, 6-12 February 1999. Number of Chinese living in Moscow in 1998: 100,000. Source: Gazeta, 3 March 1999 (http://www.gazeta.ru). Education Number of PhDs awarded annually in the United States: 40,000. Source: The New York Times, 11 November 1998. Economy Number of registered foreign trade organizations in Poland during the Communist era: 70. Number of registered foreign trade organizations in Poland in 1998: tens of thousands. Source: “World's busiest shopping street? Think Warsaw,” The Christian Science Monitor, 24 December 1998. Percentage of stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange held by Poles in 1998 : more than 60 percent . Percentage of stocks on the Moscow Stock Exchange held by Russians before the August 1998 meltdown: five percent.* Source: Peter Finn in The Washington Post, 20 November 1998. *Note: August 1998 financial crisis in Russia wiped out some 95 percent of the stocks’ value. Russian GDP in 1998: $110 billion.* Source: AFP, 4 February 1999. *Note: the dollar figure reflects a dramatic fall of the ruble since August 1998. Inflation in Russia in 1998: 84.5 percent. Source: AFP, 31 December 1998. Number of people employed by the government in Russia in 1999: 40 million (out of 67 million total employed). Source: Mortimer Zuckerman in U.S. News and World Report, 8 February 1999. 612 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 Economy cont. Number of Russia’s regions (out of 89) that do not have outstanding debts to state workers: the cities of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk Krai, and the Yamalo-Nenetsk and Taimirskii Autonomous Okrugs. Amount of money allotted to regions from the federal budget during 1998 for the payment of wages and reduc- tion of debts: $1.3 billion, or 30.4 billion rubles at the February 1999 exchange rate. Amount of money received by the regions in loans from the center during the same period: 2.5 billion rubles. Source: State Duma press release, as reported by the RFE/RL, 24 February 1999. Russia’s budget in 1999 (signed into law by President Yeltsin in February 1999): $25 billion. Source: AFP, 22 February 1999. Percentage of Russian finances which the city of Moscow controls: 80 percent. Percentage of the GDP which it controls: 13 percent. Source: Judith Matloff, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 January 1999. Percentage decline in the Russian production of gold in 1998 (as compared to 1997): variously reported by Russian sources as ten percent or two percent. Percentage decline in the production of gold in the Republic of Sakha, Chukotka Autonomous Oblast, Chita Oblast, and Amur Oblast, respectively: 66 percent, 50 percent, 50 percent, 33 percent. Amount of gold produced by Russia in 1998: 103.7 tons. Source: Interfax and ITAR-TASS, as reported by RFE/RL, 25 February 1999. Trade Percentage decline in Russian foreign trade in 1998: 17 percent, to $116 billion (exports worth $72 billion and imports, $44 billion). Source: Russian Trade Minister Georgy Gabunia, as reported by Agence France-Presse, 28 December 1998. Chinese-Russian trade in 1998: $5.5 billion, the level of 1995 (a slump of ten percent). Chinese-United States trade in 1998: $55 billion. Source: AFP, 23 February 1999. Proposed number of Chinese loggers who would move to Siberia as guest workers to remove timber from 1.5 million hectares of Siberian forest damaged by fires last year. 6,000. Source: Matt Frost reporting on the Chinese-Russian talks in Moscow, RFE/RL, 25 February 1999. Who Reads What Percentage of national newspapers among all newspapers in the Russian Federation in 1990: 71 percent. Percentage of local papers in the newspaper total in 1990: 29 percent. Percentage of national newspapers in the newspaper total in the Russian Federation in 1998: 30 percent. Percentage of local papers in the newspaper total in 1998: 70 percent. Source: Paul Goble, RFE/RL, 8 January 1999. Politics Number of nations represented in the United Nations in 1978 and 1998, respectively: 149 and 185. Source: The Economist, 19 December 1998-1 January 1999. Bureaucracy Number of federal employees in the Russian Federation under President Yeltsin’s government: 1.1 million, or almost twice as many as under the government of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Source: AFP, 17 December 1998. Military Russia’s military budget in 1999 (as part of state budget): $6 billion. Source: AFP, 11 December 1998. Projected pay increase for soldiers in Russian 1999 budget: 62 percent. Projected pay increase for officers: 102 percent.. Source: Michael Gordon, “Russia Offers 1999 Budget,” The New York Times, 11 December 1998. Crime Number and size of criminal groups operating in Russia in 1999: 8,000 to 10,000 criminal groups with a total of 50,000 to 100,000 members. Number of businesses and banks currently controlled by the mafia: about 40,000 businesses and 550 banks. Source: Interpol, as reported by the AFP, 25 February 1999. April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 613 such an extent that his purchase led to the loss, not only of the newly bought estate, but also of one of the remaining family villages. So it was that the son of Maciej Niechcic, Nights and Days Michał, inherited from his father the family estate Jarosty considerably trimmed down, as well as his father’s rest- By Maria Dàbrowska less disposition. He also tried to wrench himself out of the family world and began his grownup life with a scan- dalous deed. He married a Dominican novice Florentyna Part One: Bogumił and Barbara Klicki. This Miss Klicki was the pretty and very poor bearer of a prominent name, who entered the convent in Introduction order to avoid being at the mercy of her rich relations. The story went out that Michał Niechcic had been seeing her secretly in the cloister, and that, if the truth were known, In the old days, the Niechcic family lived more he had simply stolen her away. And even though, later or less like all the rest of the squirearchy. They main- on, everything was done according to law and custom – tained close and varied relations with their relatives – even the lady repented according to all propriety, was released with the most remote – who usually held estates similar from her novitiate, and both received absolution and the to theirs or, what amounted to the same thing, suburban sacrament of marriage – the noble houses, great and small, gardenlands supplying comparable agricultural income. would not forgive Niechcic his behavior for a long time. They felt themselves to be an intimate part of a powerful He, however, did not make much of it, for, even though self-sufficient tribe, which had its own jargon of kinship he was kind to everyone, he resembled his father in seek- and friendliness, pondered how to educate its children ing for the associations to which he aspired: respect, friend- aloof from outside influences and, in general, conducted ship, closeness – not in the neighboring mansions, but in its business in such a way that movement outside the tribe, the world at large, with people busy with intellectual work or even outside the local ever-expanding family structure, or with public affairs. As for Lady Florentyna, she felt was rare. The grandfather of Bogumił Niechcic, Maciej, happy in her new circumstances, partly because having however, had begun to drift slowly out of the family world. tasted many humiliations in her youth from people of her More and more often he received into his home friends own circle, she considered the society of anyone else a and acquaintances from outside the clan: scientists, pro- great blessing, and partly because to be happy was con- fessors, artists, journalists, members and activists of po- sistent with her truly affectionate nature. litical parties, people of doubtful origin or those who also left their own circle. The tale went out that Maciej Niechcic gave away heart, mind and, last but not least, Michał’s participation in the 1863 rising was money to perfect strangers. He acquired a reputation as a significant enough to have Jarosty confiscated af- restless man and his own people began to avoid him. ter the defeat and to send him to Siberia. His wife What extenuated these antics in the minds of his more sympathetic relations was Maciej’s supposed am- followed him…. Lady Florentyna, having buried bitious desire to emulate the great nobles, magnates and her husband in the remote Siberian forests, came celebrities who traditionally patronized science, art and back to Poland and, having cried her eyes out over politics. the lost son, became a housekeeper in a mansion Soon, however, it became evident that Niechcic belonging to some acquaintances. was a stranger to such ambitions: it was not in the least evident that the significance and splendor of his house was increasing in any sense. On the contrary, Maciej These were the parents of Bogumił Niechcic. Niechcic seemed to be doing everything to become poorer Bogumił Adrian was their youngest son; he came into the and less conspicuous. For example, after the rising of world after many years of marriage. The older children 1830, he conceived the idea of exchanging one of his died, one after another, which was, according to local hereditary estates for another which, for some reason or opinion, God’s punishment for Lady Florentyna’s depar- other, suited his purposes better. Conducting the negotia- ture from the road of her holy vocation. tions connected with the transfer, he showed more faith Bogumił grew up healthy, and at the age of fif- in his fellow men than prudence in seeing to his interests teen he took part with his father in the rising of 1863. – as a result of which he bought an estate mortgaged to [Polish rising for independence against the Russians. Ed.] 614 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 In point of fact, Michał Niechcic had joined the while in the process of losing his inheritance he was on insurrection not when the gentry finally decided to do so, the best terms with family and neighbors. He was a lively but at the very beginning, together with the burghers, ar- rip and was generally liked because he drank, hunted, tisans, and youngsters of all extractions. His participa- played cards and danced with everyone. Thus, he left his tion in the conflict was significant enough to have Jarosty sons nothing but small leaseholds. One of these sons, confiscated after the defeat and to send him to Siberia. Adam, had an alluring appearance and his father’s dispo- His wife followed him. The son BoguÊ was taken care of sition. While his brothers came back to the ownership of by some of those relatives who regarded the progeny of small estates, he lost everything on his lease, and since he Maciej Niechcic as a family of madmen. Their under- hated the country, he soon moved to the city where he standing of their educational duties toward the youngster became a treasury clerk. He associated, however, only entrusted to their care was such that, shortly afterwards, with the neighboring squirearchy, for only among them he fled from them so cleverly that they were unable to was he able to enjoy himself to the full. He was lucky, find a trace of him. In the meantime, Lady Florentyna, people liked him despite his lack of means and he soon having buried her husband in the remote Siberian forests, married Miss Jadwiga Jaraczewski, the heiress to the two came back to Poland and, having cried her eyes out over estates. In accomplishing this match, he was helped by the lost son, became a housekeeper in a mansion belong- luck as well as by accident. To be specific, the father of ing to some acquaintances. She was satisfied with the the bride gave her to Adam in a fit of rage because she bread she earned, for she had preserved the serenity of dared to fall in love with a neighbor’s tutor, a German and spirit which had never left her whatever her situation. After a burgher by birth. The father, a Mason, a democrat and a some time, her health deteriorated from age and the hard- major under Bonaparte, was permeated with the ideals of ships of past life. Then the owners of the estate Kr∏pa the French Revolution; all this did not weaken, however, where she worked, fixed her a little flat in an outbuilding his blind attachment to tradition, to his coat of arms and and settled her there together with her brother Klemens the family line. He had wanted to marry his daughter in a Klicki, also an ex-insurrectionist, who until then, lacking way that would be consistent with her feelings and with material means and somewhat deranged mentally, had the demands of her position. However, when she began lived in a poorhouse. to give him trouble after the discovery of her romance with the teacher, and threatened to become a nun if her marriage were not accepted – in a fit of spitefulness, cru- Teaching was one of the few professions elty and pride, the father decided to give her away with- open to educated Poles under the Russian out minding her feelings, to the first suitor who appeared, government….lacking a broader field of activity for- provided he was a noble. Adam Ostrzeƒski had recently bidden to them by the government, Poles expended stepped in; moreover, being a likable man, he had already their energy in long chats and in play. won the hearts of the parents. Miss Jaraczewski took the compulsory marriage vows with tears and was not happy with her husband. Adam Ostrzeƒnski soon lost both dowry estates and be- One day at the door of this cottage, where the gan to neglect his wife for months at a time for other resident Florentyna Niechcic was finishing her days to- women. She, on her part, was unable to forget her teacher. gether with Klemens Klicki, knocked the son Bogumił, Both of them, however, had so much gentleness of dispo- having returned after the wandering of many years. sition and attractiveness about them, that they could not The maiden name of Barbara Joanna, later the remain indifferent to each other. After each financial loss, wife of Bogumił Niechcic, was Ostrzeƒski. As for her each argument and each emotional parting, they would grandfather, Jan Chryzostom Ostrzeƒski, he lost his es- return to each other amidst outbursts of desperate love, tate Lorenki amidst many unfavorable circumstances of and they gave life to six children, four of whom survived. an economic nature which testified as much to the diffi- Barbara was the youngest of them, just as cult situation of the whole country as to the fact that gath- Bogumił was his parents’ youngest. She had no ering and maintaining earthly goods did not agree with rememberance of a well-to-do home. She was born in a the nature of the aforesaid Jan Chryzostom. But if he town where Adam Ostrzeƒski, after many vicissitudes of resembled the Niechcices in his ability to lose material fate, had obtained the office of mayor. She was five when goods, he did not betray any inclination to acquire, or she lost her father. Adam Ostrzeƒski was struck by light- create, any other more intangible ones. He did not try to ning in his own flat, at the moment when he was trying, wrench himself out of his sphere either; on the contrary, April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 615 during a storm, to close the window tightly so that water sium, began to give lessons; they did not always suffice would not drip on the floor. for dinner, but they kept them from starving. Widowed, Jadwiga Ostrzeƒski moved to the pro- The family situation got considerably better when vincial capital of Kaliniec, following the advice of the Daniel and Julian completed their studies. Julian remained patriarch of the family, the rich councillor Joachim in St. Petersburg, and only announced by a letter that he Ostrzeƒski, who felt an obligation to supervise the family had received a good position, but Daniel settled down of his imprudent relative. There she opened a boarding with his mother and sisters and began to teach biology in house for high school boys, at the same time educating the recently established private technical gymnasium in her own children with great difficulty. After one year of Kaliniec. The teaching profession was, at that time in such life, the insurrection of 1863 broke out; all boys, Poland, one of the few open to the educated Poles. So including her oldest son Daniel went to the woods to join that, shortly afterwards, the daughter Teresa also began to the guerrillas. At that time, Jadwiga Ostrzeƒski sank so teach in the same gymnasium which she had previously low financially that she had to exchange her spacious flat attended and when the youngest one, Basia, completed for a room with a garret, and to sell almost all her furni- her schooling, she, in turn, began to disseminate her freshly ture. However, she did not lose her strength of mind even acquired knowledge in various private houses. for a moment, nor did she allow her children to quit school. Sad experiences of her early years had disenchanted her with the prestige and benefits of affluence and birth. She Chapter One believed only in education. She wished her sons to be- come scientists, or at least to acquire positions requiring Gaiety, bustle and small talk began now to reign only mental work; she wanted to provide the same oppor- in the household of Adam Ostrzeƒski’s widow. A suit- tunities for her daughters. When the insurrection was put able apartment was rented in the middle of the town and down and Daniel, wounded in the leg, came home at last, friends and acquaintances of Daniel and Teresa began to Lady Jadwiga moved heaven and earth – including the flock there afternoons and evenings to read books, sing vice governor of Kaliniec, whom the councillor Ostrzeƒski and dance together. The budding Miss Basia’s hemline knew – to enable her son to finish the gymnasium and was still very high, in spite of her respectable earnings afterwards to enter the university. Timid and unsure of reaching as much as a few rubles a month. She was still herself by nature, she was fierce and unyielding when she regarded as a little girl by the company which gathered in confronted difficulties or harassment related to the edu- Lady Ostrzeƒski’s home, but in a way which did not hurt cation of her children. In this respect, she was ready for her self-esteem. For she was not only admitted to all the the greatest humiliations and sacrifices, including the re- amusements of the more adult assembly, but also enjoyed pugnance of asking for favors in governing circles. She a number of privileges on various occasions. Daniel would not accept any financial help, however – in that Ostrzeƒski’s friends were young students or freshly baked she was unpleasantly and rudely proud – she would agree lawyers, doctors and teachers, biologists, historians, math- unwillingly, only to the summer trips to Piekary Wielkie, ematicians. All of them had great reserves of vigor and the estate of the councillor Joachim. Besides, she be- talent commensurate with great enterprises and, lacking a lieved herself capable of getting out of the greatest diffi- broader field of activity forbidden to all by the govern- culties, and trusted that her children would help out in ment, they expended their extra energy in long chats and time. One son was supposed to be a biologist, the other, in play. They read together Buckle’s History of Civiliza- an engineer. Already they were in higher educational in- tion in England and Huxley’s The Physical Basis of Life, stitutions, Daniel in Warsaw and Julian in St. Petersburg, discussed Darwin’s theory, played Chopin’s revolution- and supported themselves by giving lessons. But they ary etude, his ‘insurrectionist’ prelude and Sonata could not as yet send anything to mother, or perhaps they Pathetique of Beethoven; they sang Mickiewicz’s ballads did not feel obliged to do so, occupied as they were with and such songs as “Rise up, o eagle, from your wounds scholarly pursuits. So it was that Lady Jadwiga lived, and shackles…,” “Hide away mother, my gowns, pearls, with her two daughters in indescribable poverty. During rose wreaths…,” “Why is the heart sad,” etc., took long the first few years their sustenance depended almost ex- promenades in the moonlight on the river bank and in the clusively on the sale of the grand remnants of the past: park, danced until the small hours, went boating in the linen tablecloths, old furs, cambric undergarments and country near Kaliniec and, under Daniel’s leadership or- keepsake silver. When this stock ran out, the older daugh- ganized botanic expeditions. In the summer, the same ter, Teresa, having reached the upper forms of the gymna- manner of spending the time was transferred to the coun- 616 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 try estate of the councillor Joachim, who gladly gathered bly lost all hope in this respect. Daniel Ostrzeƒski’s bride around him both his poor relations and their socially and was Miss Michalina Poleska, the daughter of a family of intellectually distinguished friends. squires from the countryside near Warsaw. Her parents At that time, Miss Barbara took a strong liking were just on the eve of losing their estate, their bad finan- to the diversity of life and to mental entertainment, whose cial standing had recently scared off several desirable suit- contagious gaiety she took to be the essence of her own ors; in this situation, they considered it not unacceptable nature. She felt then herself to be happy and joyful, espe- to give their daughter away to a young man of good par- cially when the guests included a certain Mr. Józef entage to whom a brilliant scientific career was predicted. Toliboski, a young lawyer of small but shapely propor- Still, they could not deny themselves the pleasure of ex- tions, the dark-haired owner of a black beard and fair eyes, plaining here and there that their daughter had committed cold and steely in color but in expression, fiery and ca- a mésalliance, justified only by the ardor of her love – in ressing. He seemed to be taking a great interest in the which they, as parents, had not wished to interfere. These younger Miss Ostrzeƒski. They had never been alone tales reached the ears of Lady Jadwiga, and on that ac- with each other, but in every gathering he was always count the new daughter-in-law was received somewhat near her. haughtily. One day during a country excursion, the whole Daniel Ostrzeƒski’s wife was Miss Barbara’s jun- company was resting on a hill by the river. Part of the ior. She was seventeen, but she had already developed riverbed at that place was overgrown with the blossom- into a splendid and abundant, full-grown womanhood; ing water lilies which Miss Barbara liked very much. smartly dressed, with rosy cheeks, she attracted all eyes. ‘What a pity,’ she said, ‘that one cannot pick Side by side with her, Miss Barbara looked like a frail them.’ little girl, and so she felt. It seemed to her that now for the Józef Toliboski glanced at her and, saying noth- first time she saw a true woman, facing whom such crea- ing, as if it were not a coquettish prank but an austere tures as herself could do nothing but retreat into the shade. proof of his readiness to do anything, proceeded into the So that when, after the first and second wedding, there river just as he was and, immersing himself up to his shoul- indeed came a few quiet, empty, and penny-pinching ders, came back with his arms full of heavy white flow- weeks – she secretly decided that the period of her youth ers. Those on the riverbank cracked jokes during the whole was over; and on that occasion, she cried her eyes out time, roaring with laughter, and Miss Barbara cried. Af- over the inevitable, as she thought, loss of Mr. Toliboski’s ter this event she was even more happy when Mr. Józef friendship. For if he did not fall in love with her sister-in- was among the invited crowd. law, which he could only avoid by the most serious pre- A few years passed. Daniel became engaged, cautions, in the luster emanating from the latter, he would and shortly afterwards Teresa followed his example. Miss lose all notice of little Basia. Barbara doted upon Daniel and adored Teresa. Therefore Things did not turn out so badly, however. On their betrothal filled her simultaneously with joy and de- the contrary, after a short break, social relations were re- spair; she rejoiced in their happiness but regretted the ne- established, the friendly circle began to meet again not in cessity of losing them to some degree. And not only them. one, but in three homes. Daniel’s Michasia was indeed She was afraid that when brother and sister left the house, anxious to receive praise, but she did not believe that any the sympathetic and intelligent company in which her competitor could deprive her of it. She liked to shine in youth was passing in such a blissful manner, would also every respect, but she drew others into the light in which disperse. Though it often happened that she felt herself she moved – indeed, she had an exceptional ability to an inseparable part, or even the center of the soirees, organize successful social events. Whether at a recep- merrymakings and chitchats, she did not have so high an tion, country excursion or skating party, or during more opinion of herself as to think that these nice people gath- serious social gatherings, she knew how to bring out in ered for her sake as well. Her brother, the wisest and full relief the role and assets of each one of those present, most learned of them all, was the cause of their coming, so that everyone felt himself to be necessary, desirable and also her sister, who was so very interesting and more and at his proper place – and, therefore, willingly ceded beautiful than she herself. Both wedding ceremonies left top priority to her. She had not had much education, had little in the memory of Miss Barbara, because she won- not even completed the gymnasium unlike Basia and dered all the time whether her brother’s friends would Teresa Ostrzeƒski, so that when the young company dis- continue to frequent the Ostrzeƒski home. cussed topics taken from history, biology or philosophy, Having seen her new sister-in-law, she irrevoca- she would sometimes say something stupid, confuse gen- April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 617 erally known facts or even mispronounce less common courtship was pursued not only in public – now they were words, not to speak of names. But she organized poetry taking walks together, during which the young man, even recitations, tableaux and amateur theatricals with great though less eager to flatter than in public, knew how to delight, and drew everyone into these activities – which convey his friendship by a look, a handshake or a few talent did not, in fact, raise any grudges against her be- words. Miss Barbara patiently enjoyed this state of af- cause it contributed greatly to the diversity of social rela- fairs during the next two years, until the day that the word tions. Lady Michasia’s specialty was to create everything went out that Mr. Toliboski was to be married. Entertain- out of thin air. ment and parties already were less frequent at that time, ‘Out of nothing,’ she would say, ‘I fixed his sup- the professions of the members of the group were con- per, patched up the curtain and the décor. And also this suming more and more time, and Daniel and Teresa had dress that everyone so dotes upon, I made, if the truth become parents. The wedding of Józef Toliboski and Miss were known, out of nothing.’ Narecki – plain but rich – took place in Warsaw, where The new sister-in-law proved to be very affec- parents of the bride were spending the winter. Józef tionate towards Miss Barbara, and both young ladies soon Toliboski renounced the promising career at the bar which developed a warm friendship. This friendship was more people were predicting for him. And the young couple uninhibited on the part of Lady Michalina, for Miss Bar- settled down in Borowno, the dowry estate of the bride, bara always entertained certain reservations. Among other several miles away from Kaliniec. notions, Lady Michalina considered it a manifestation of Soon afterwards Barbara Ostrzeƒski became as friendly closeness to discuss together wardrobe and the one terrified of participating in life. She removed herself details of beauty care. It was hard for Miss Barbara to from worldly affairs, began to dress austerely in black, bear this sort of intimacy. Both her self-esteem and her and since she wore short hair and looked somewhat boy- modesty suffered a great deal when her sister-in-law ish, she was nicknamed ‘the seminarist.’ The only per- praised or upbraided her on her appearance, or when she son with whom she kept in close touch was her sister, undressed to show Basia a new styling of the bodice or who was, it appears, also her confidant. Some familiarity panties. But it was merry and pleasant to talk to Michasia existed also between her and her brother-in-law, a witty about current events. Moreover, the fear concerning the and energetic Lithuanian by the name of Kociełł, some- possible loss of Mr. Toliboski’s friendship was gone. what ugly in appearance, but who liked his sister-in-law Daniel Ostrzeƒski’s wife was, in fact, much less danger- very much and knew how to make her enjoy herself. ous in this respect than one might have supposed. Men Miss Barbara, who once dreamed of further stud- admired her, but only from a distance. In spite of the ies and of some vaguely envisaged distinction in intellec- great freedom of her manner, she was too monumental tual pursuits or perhaps in letters, now abandoned all and too Sunday-best to kindle more personal feelings. ambitions in that field and decided to master the art of Perhaps also her love for Daniel made her inaccessible; sewing. In order to achieve this goal, she left for Warsaw some men, however, maintained that she evoked indiffer- using the money borrowed from her brother-in-law for ence in her husband also, for she did not have the talents that purpose. There she began to take the appropriate and the temperament of a great lover. Nonetheless, Daniel schooling in the well-known salon of the sisters Kunke, must have held different opinions about that: Miss Bar- at the corner of Krakowskie PrzedmieÊcie and Królewska bara could not imagine anyone looking happier more ar- streets. This kind of work made up for certain inhibi- dently in love than he did at that time. tions in her friendship with her sister-in-law Michalina. Be that as it may, Lady Michalina’s charms did Now, from a professional standpoint, she could discuss not deprive any of the other young ladies in the circle of with her ladies’ garments and underwear with great plea- her admirers. Indeed, Miss Barbara even acquired two sure. And, since she felt guilty that she could not satisfy new ones in the course of the parties organized by her Michalina in this respect before, she now wrote to her sister-in-law – they both were, however, rejected on very often and described in her letters the most fashion- grounds which were not quite clear for the rest of the com- able garments of the season, which included black satins pany. As for Józef Toliboski, he did not cease to court with golden trimming, sky-blue dresses with yellow dam- Miss Barbara in spite of the obvious beauty of the ask tops, smart dark-sapphire velvets and the otter-col- professor’s wife (for that was the name by which Lady ored costumes, so greatly in demand in Paris. Michalina was called), in spite of her curly tresses, jet- When the borrowed funds ran out, Miss Barbara black and elaborately set, her hazel eyes, and her happy abandoned sewing but did not leave Warsaw. She began facility for moving around in the world. And now his to earn money again, teaching arithmetic and handiwork 618 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 at a school for girls established by a classmate of hers. In neath, broad forehead, narrow round chin and luxurious that way she returned to the same sort of acquaintances mustache falling on ruddy lips. Married to a clever but and intellectual hobbies which she had enjoyed in the past. sickly, tiny, timid girl, he detested her all his life. Mrs. In addition to that, she discovered a new kind of spiritual Zenobia Łada was, in comparison to him, a great lady by pleasure, detached from personal relations. It was fur- birth and upbringing; he liked to humiliate her for that nished by museum collections, theaters, art exhibits, and with acrid jokes reminded her now of her plainness, Musical Society matinées, and public lectures. In the let- now of her sickness. In connection with that he was con- ters to her sister, she called this new manner of familiariz- stantly infuriated with her frail intelligent children who ing herself with science and art ‘the true enjoyment of had inherited their mother’s nervousness, and beat them life.’ She regained her gaiety, ceased to regard the old till the air whistled. He was hospitable, kind and gay Kaliniec bunch of friends as irreplaceable and found other with strangers, and did not produce the impression of ways of spending the summer than visits with her mother hypocrisy. He simply liked everyone better than his own and sister. She began to spend her summer and winter family. vacations either with the family of her brother-in-law in Barbara Ostrzeƒski’s visits were truly god sent Lithuania, whom she had recently met and at whose home for Lady Łada. She would bring books and magazines, she had again rejected the proposal of a serious young her conversations would make one forget about the sad suitor, or with lady Zenobia Łada, a remote relative of the and sour life – the life which made Miss Barbara think: Ostrzeƒskis living in the town Borek in the northern part ‘How good I have not married and never will.’ of Mazovia. Miss Barbara liked to go to Borek, for she For Jan Łada, Miss Ostrzeƒski’s presence pro- felt herself welcome there: she was looked at and admired vided the occasion to organize parties and receptions of as a person from the upper set, a Warsaw elegante. Be- which he was very fond. sides, the countryside there was different from that near To one such party there came a man who danced Kaliniec. The road to Borek led through large and varied at first but then withdrew to a neighboring room and be- broadleaf woods, which stretched around for miles. While gan to watch one of the dancing ladies. In doing that, he travelling on this road Miss Barbara would gladly expel began to ease himself into the shadow of the velvet cur- from her memory all thoughts about past and future, and tain, as if trying to keep secret the direction in which he let herself sink entirely into the swarthy thickets, into the looked. He was not a youngster, but a grown man, tall, luxuriant greenness, full of music and the sigh of the wind. with long and beautiful legs, slim waist, wide shoulders All this would happen, of course, in the daylight, for if and a broad, pleasant face. she happened to travel through those woods at night, she The young person at whom he was looking so trembled a little, especially while passing the immense incessantly, wore a sequin-covered blouse and a black forest in the Kr∏pa estate, where rotting trees emanated a folded skirt with the sides pinned up in a manner which, pale phosphorescence through the darkness. to him appeared much less exaggerated than other women. Jan Łada was a descendant of petty nobility, but She looked eighteen at most, her hair was black and cut even the memory of the few acres that must have belonged short like a boy’s, her eyes – he did not yet have time to to his ancestors, had long since died out. His past jobs notice their color; her face, small, but clearly delineated, included bookkeeping and clerking for big estates, and proud and sincere. Of a free yet restrained manner and since he was industrious and lucky, he had made some uninhibited movements, she was bustling about the ball- money. A part he had made by himself and a part he room in her golden little cuirass, which all the while re- acquired in his wife’s dowry. flected the light in thousands of golden zigzags and twists. When Miss Barbara met him, he was comfort- Someone from the household passed by the guest ably off, held the office of town clerk and was employed who was occupied with gazing and who then shuddered as the secretary in a business establishment of the Agri- with embarrassment and asked: ‘Who is this young lady cultural Society; on top of that, he had become again a in the zigzagged blouse?’ landowner of sorts, for he owned a beautiful mansion with The young man who thus inquired was Bogumił a garden in the Borek suburbs, together with some hun- Niechcic. ∆ dred acres of land – all this once having belonged to a
large estate, now defunct, with its center in Borek Dworski. 12345678901234 Thus, he engaged in several occupations, and looked as if 12345678901234SR he could manage twice as many. He was a handsome, strong fellow of bushy dark brows with fair eyes under- April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 619 as the original sin, predestination, vicarious atonement Catholics and Heretics and justification by faith. Some Aspects of Religious Debates in the This radical and exclusively Scriptural theology was based on a rationalistic interpretation of Scripture Old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and it rejected many fundamental principles of the tradi- tional Christian theology including the statements of the Piotr Wilczek first Councils. It presented a serious challenge not only for the Roman Catholics but also for Calvinists and In the 1560s, the whole Christian community in Lutherans. The debate between the Socinians and their Poland was challenged by the crisis in the Polish Calvin- adversaries was conducted by theologians and preachers ist church after the death in 1560 of Jan Łaski, a figure skilled at the level of theoretical and scholarly theology, significant both for the Polish and English Reformations. and also at the level of popular polemic and preaching. Deprived of the powerful and dedicated leadership of The debate in Poland acquired a unique character and Łaski, the Polish Reformed Church soon produced an vigor by comparison to the religious polemics in other offshoot, the so-called Minor Church where dissident European countries at the time. When I studied the pri- ministers practiced their antitrinitarian and Anabaptist mary and secondary sources dealing with the European beliefs. John Calvin himself became very concerned polemics of the period of the Reformation and Counter- about the situation, as evidenced by his letters to the Reformation, I realized that at that time and also earlier, leaders of the Polish Reformed Church. Supported by there were no pamphleteering activities in Europe which the Italian Protestants such as Giorgio Biandrata and later, can be compared to the exchange of opinions that took from the 1570s, by Fausto Sozzini, a group of Polish Re- place in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between formed pastors formed the most radical and theologically the 1560s and the 1660s. It was only there that an adver- sophisticated heresy of the Reformation period. sary appeared who demanded a discussion of various fun- Fausto Sozzini (Latin name: Faustus Socinus) damental theological questions, and it was only there that was an Italian theologian who, together with other for- such a discussion was possible to sustain over a long pe- eign radical theologians, especially those of German ex- riod of time without resorting to violence. Apparently the traction, found refuge in tolerant Poland. He was partly social, political and religious situation in Poland was ex- responsible for the theological premises of the movement ceptionally favorable for such activities. They constituted which for that reason is sometimes called Socinianism. a real challenge for the Catholic theologians who were This name is misleading and in some way anachronistic, involved in a dialogue which often became public and because Socinus entered an already well established which was held in the vernacular. Minor Church, one that had been in existence for over The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a ten years, and because there were many other important kingdom with one sovereign, parliament and army. It theologians in this church including Johann Crell, Andrzej comprised the larger parts of present-day Poland, Wiszowaty and Johann Ludwig Wolzogen. The dissi- Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine. It thus dents called themselves the Polish Brethren or simply was the largest country in Europe at that time, excluding Christians; their enemies called them Arians because of Muscovy. The Commonwealth was a multinational and an alleged connections with the ancient heresy of Arianism multicultural country comprising less than 40 percent which rejected the dogma of the Holy Trinity. The of Roman Catholics, the remainder being divided between antitrinitarianism of the Polish Brethren was similar to the Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Lutheran, Calvinist and the views of Miguel Servet burned at the stake in Calvin- even Muslim minorities. The state policy of religious peace ist Geneva. A rejection of infant baptism and of service did not allow one to take a heretic to court or expel him in the army (especially in the early and most radical pe- from the country. In such a situation, there was an urgent riod) was reminiscent of the most extreme examples of demand for a serious exchange of opinions between the European Anabaptism. The repudiation of the divinity of radical Socinians on the one hand and Roman Catholics, Jesus Christ (according to the Brethren, Jesus was a hu- Lutherans and Calvinists on the other. man being made divine by God after death in recognition Thus contrary to an erroneous view often encoun- of his merits) and of a co-equal divinity of Christ and tered in popular writings on the Reformation, it was not the Father caused some people to assume that they were always the Roman Catholics who opposed the Calvin- not Christians. Socinus and his followers also denied a ists and the Lutherans, or vice versa. There appeared dur- number of other Catholic and/or Protestant beliefs, such ing the Reformation other groups which were more radi- 620 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 cal than the ‘mainline’ Protestants, and in such a situa- I would like to discuss in some detail two very tion, Lutherans and Calvinists were closer to the Catho- different examples of polemical anti-Socinian pam- lics than to those radical reformers. Socinianism, or Pol- phlets written by two Jesuits, Marcin Łaszcz (Martinus ish Arianism, was one such group. Lascius) and Piotr Skarga. Łaszcz was born in 1551 and he entered the Jesuit Order in 1571. He studied There were no religious pamphleteering philosophy at the University of Vilnius (then Wilno) activities in Europe which can be compared to the in 1571-74, then he himself taught grammar and rheto- exchange of opinions that took place in the Polish- ric at that university. He was also a preacher, a school- Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1560-1660. master and an administrator in many Jesuit centers. He died in Cracow in 1615. Łaszcz published about At that time, Poland and Transylvania were the 15 pamphlets in Polish and some theatrical plays in only countries in Europe where Catholics had public theo- Latin; the plays were staged in Jesuit colleges. A mod- logical discussions with representatives of this most radi- ern Jesuit historian once wrote that Marcin Łaszcz cal Reformation movement. We have convincing evi- ‘oversimplified the Counter-Reformation polemic, dence of how strange the whole situation appeared to stimulated intolerance and used demagogy in religious foreign visitors who were unused to these manifestations disputes.’ This view, that he was an enfant terrible of of religious liberty. Damiano a Fonseca, a Spanish Do- Polish Catholic polemical writers of the sixteenth and minican conducting a visitation of the convents of his or- seventeenth centuries, has gained some currency, but der in Poland, recollected that in 1617 during a reception it is unjustified, in my opinion. Łaszcz’s rhetoric may at the court of Prince Jerzy Czartoryski, he was forced to appear unacceptable to the modern ear, but his learn- undertake a public debate with a Socinian nobleman about ing was genuine and profound. the divinity of Jesus Christ. He reportedly was successful and received an ovation from the tipsy guests. Fonseca In early seventeenth century, Poland and noted how puzzled he was ‘to find Catholic, Orthodox Transylvania were the only countries in Europe and Arian [Socinian] nobles there in the greatest harmony!’ where Catholics had public theological discussions It happened quite often that public debates with with representatives of the most radical Reforma- the Socinians - more official than the one just mentioned tion movement of Socinianism....The Jesuit theo- and held mostly in Catholic churches - were later sum- logian Piotr Skarga (described by his twentieth- marized by the disputants or their followers. Such accounts century adversaries as an intolerant religious fa- of public debates comprise a special section of polemical natic) argued that such debates were necessary be- literature of that time. A collection of such pamphlets cause of a large number of heretics. was published in 1592. Two public disputes held in Janu- ary and May between a Jesuit and a Socinian, both about The work most often quoted in support of the divine preexistence of Jesus Christ, were later such negative opinions is Prescription for a Plaster of chronicled by writers from the opposition groups. We have Czechowic, or the Anabaptist Minister published un- also official protocols of these debates. In fact, the most der a pen name Szcz∏sny Îebrowski. The Prescrip- significant polemics were held between the Jesuits and tion originated in a discussion about the first modern the Socinians. At that time, the Jesuits were the most effi- Catholic translation of the Bible into Polish. The trans- cient Catholic order so far as organization, learning and lation was done by a Jesuit named Jakub Wujek. Wujek debates were concerned. Examples of Jesuit skill include openly acknowledged the achievements of the most the teachings about religious controversies in the Col- recent Polish translations, including the controversial legium Romanum and the works of Roberto Bellarmino. Socinian translations by Szymon Budny and Marcin The most interesting Polish polemics took place between Czechowic. He made use of these translations in his 1580 - 1625: polemics about the output of Jakub Wujek own work while openly criticizing errors and misin- (his translations of Bellarmino and of the Bible), tracts by terpretations of his doctrinal opponents. We know that Marcin Âmiglecki, Marcin Łaszcz’s polemics with non- from notes placed in the margins and after each chap- Catholics (mainly Socinians), and a series of polemics ter, in sections called Teachings and warnings. with the Socinians by the famous Jesuit orator, Piotr In reply to Łaszcz’s criticism, Marcin Skarga. The most significant pamphlets were produced Czechowic published his Plaster for a publication of by four distinguished Polish Jesuits, three of whom were the New Testament by Father Jakub Wujek. He started associated with the city of Kraków. from a polemic with Wujek about specific translation April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 621 problems from the point of view of biblical scholarship, villages. During such missions, Jesuit preachers instructed then made a detailed, critical analysis of the Jesuit’s trans- peasants in basic truths of faith and in Christian duties. It lation and then debated Wujek’s Teachings and warn- is probable that such a ‘physiological’ and down-to-earth ings. He accused Wujek of stealing words, phrases and imagination was to some extent a result of Łaszcz’s ex- even longer passages from his translation without cred- periences as a village preacher. iting the source. Prescription for a Plaster of Czechowic What images did he present to a devout reader? by Łaszcz is a reply to this work of Czechowic. Łaszcz First of all, the portraits of his adversary, Marcin wrote his work ‘on behalf’ of Wujek who for unknown Czechowic. He is called a ‘stinking and rotten corpse’ reasons preferred not to respond. who ‘rotted and became stinking in this Anabaptist stench’ In his pamphlet, Łaszcz deals with the prob- so much that ‘his mouth and hair exudes stinking sins lems raised by Czechowic, but in his generalizations and odors.’ According to Łaszcz, Czechovic and other and opinions he goes far beyond a mere response. Such Socinians like to smell ‘human odors and squalors’ and chapters as Reasons for Anabaptist deceptions, to ‘chew’ other people’s sins. Czechowic is also pre- Anabaptist jokes about the Pope, On Anabaptist im- sented as a ‘stinking beggar’ with ‘a mouldy beard,’ ‘a mersion, abound in insulting and abusive language. stinking corpse’ and ‘a rotten brain’ who washed his ‘mug’ In the writings of his adversaries, this pamphlet even- with ‘dung in latrines’ that are full of other people’s sins. tually became the leading example of a Catholic po- lemic full of hatred and derision. We should remem- Contrary to a view often encountered in ber, however, that in this period all authors made use popular writings on the Reformation, it was not al- of the early Christian genre called the invective which ways the Roman Catholics who opposed the Cal- was a treatise elaborating a certain theme and filled vinists and the Lutherans, and vice versa. In some with insults against persons who propagated different cases, the radical reformers were poles apart from religious opinions. As a genre, the invective went out both Roman Catholicism and from original of use, but as a method of dealing with an adversary, it has been thriving to this day in various contexts. It Lutheranism and Calvinism. should also be kept in mind that pamphlets written ‘in a spirit of genuine humility and love’ by Catholics, Another frequently encountered image is a Lutherans, Calvinists or Socinians expressed broth- Socinian as a ‘non-whitened Negro.’ A Negro here is a erly love not in a way that we consider appropriate in combination of man and devil, while ‘non-whitened’ re- our own time. A twentieth-century approach to the fers to ineffectiveness of Socinian baptism which involved style of Reformation polemics risks taking them out a complete submersion in water. ‘You will try to whiten of the context and customs within which they func- a non-whitened Negro in vain,’ writes the polemicist and tioned. They should be kept in the context of the works then adds: ‘I do not want to whiten you, infernal Negro.’ by François Rabelais, the brothers Bruegel, or There is also a shocking picture of a Socinian baptism Hieronymus Bosch, rather than compared to the po- presented as an immersion of swine in a puddle by swine- lemical style appropriate for the post-Enlightenment herds and compared to the biblical picture of swine ‘im- world. When a polemicist describes a Socinian doc- mersed in the sea by the devils (a reference to Mat. 8, 30- trine as ‘an old and rotting cabbage’ and the Socinians 32).’ themselves as ‘Arian bats and owls’ or ‘a stench of The polemicist presents to the reader visions of infernal perfumes,’ such statements (by H. Powodowski evil behavior and debauchery of the Moravian and M. Łaszcz) should not cause righteous indigna- Anabaptists, ‘among whom omnia sunt communia [ev- tion but rather provoke reflection on the imagination erything is communal] and wives are shared’ and ‘chil- of those writers and expectations of their readers. dren do not recognize parents and parents do not recog- Unlike many other polemicists, Łaszcz tries to nize children’ because ‘they are mixed together as if be persuasive by conjuring up certain images which they were cattle.’ This second ‘vision’ meant to appeal enable a reader to visualize the monstrosity of the heresy. to the reader’s imagination refers to an event that alleg- In order to persuade more effectively, he combines an edly happened in Germany. There the Anabaptists were appeal to the visual and olfactory stimuli. An invective supposed to gather on a mountain just before the planned thus becomes self-dependent and it becomes an image. departure from the earth to heaven. While waiting for We should remember that our polemicist often and will- the event to happen, ‘they were beguiled by the devil and ingly took part in missionary visits to small towns and shamelessly copulated with each other.’ The most bizarre image, however, is that of ‘Czechowic’s wife with four 622 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 heads….a monstrosity more monstrous than the sea mon- was dominant and the linguistic analysis of Bible pas- sters.’ Czechowic claimed that the Church is a body of sages was more important than imaginative and artistic Christ and has only one head (Jesus Christ), while the writing, the polemicists also followed Quintilianus who other heads (such as the Pope) are not necessary because encouraged an orator to use experiences called visions ‘one body with two heads, inconsistent with each other ‘whereby things absent are presented to our imagination like water and fire, cannot survive.’ In his reply to this with such extreme vividness that they seem actually to be argument, Marcin Łaszcz creates an image of a wife with before our very eyes.... From such impressions arises... four heads to demonstrate that Czechovic confused apples actuality’ which makes the orator seem to ‘exhibit the and oranges as it were in his inability to understand that actual event.’ the earthly head of the Church (the Pope) belongs to a Among other Jesuit polemicists, Piotr Skarga different semantic order than its heavenly ‘head’ (Jesus (1536-1612) is the most prominent. He received his edu- Christ). Łaszcz tries to prove that Czechowic’s wife ‘has cation in Kraków and joined the Jesuit order in 1569, at least four heads: the first is you, the second is her head, when he already was a priest and a famous preacher. He the third is Jesus Christ and the fourth is God the Father.’ was the first rector of the Jesuit University in Wilno (to- Then Łaszcz further indulges his imagination: ‘And, day Vilnius in Lithuania). As an officially appointed what’s worse, when you die before she does, she’ll have preacher at the court of King Sigismund Vasa in the years new lovers and will marry a second and third husband 1588-1612, he became one of the king’s most influential and then she will be the most indecent monster, a chi- advisors. His consistently anti-Protestant attitude was a mera with a dozen heads: really an unusual wife. But you direct cause of a gentry uprising against the monarch in are at least equally monstrous: you have one head but 1606. The political pamphlets of that time argued that several lecherous bodies: first of all, your lustful corpse, Skarga was a fanatic enemy of religious and political your first, second or even third wife, as they say, so there freedom. Skarga was an author of several pamphlets is one head but four bodies and you are a monstrosity against the so-called Warsaw Confederacy of 1573, a more monstrous than other lustful monsters.’ This pre- law which guaranteed religious freedom to all denomina- sumably shows that Czechowic’s argument about sev- tions including the Socinians. In works such as On the eral heads of the Church missed the point. Unity of the Church of God under One Pastor, he strongly Thus the polemic is not dispassionate but uses supported the union between the Roman Catholics and fantastic images supposed to rouse in the reader a feeling the Orthodox. His most famous collection of sermons of aversion to the Socinian theologian and also to other was titled Sermons to the Diet; there he presented a pro- Socinians, to their beliefs and family life. The methods of phetic vision of the Polish kingdom exposed to danger persuasion that are particularly noteworthy in this text because of religious anarchy and an excessively liberal include a concentration on the functions of the human political democracy. body, its smells and physical needs, as well as references Hieronim Moskorzowski (c. 1560 - 1625), born to rural life. Thus we have swines in a puddle (not in a to a Protestant gentry family, studied in Leipzig and biblical sea!), dung and latrines, stinking beggars with Wittenberg. In 1590, he translated into Polish the most mouldy beards and heads, and folksy images of hell. Such famous anti-Jesuit pamphlet, Equitis Poloni in Jesuitas methods and images were supposed to demonstrate the actio prima (as mentioned before, the Polish religious evil of the adversary and prove that he is beneath con- polemics were sometimes conducted in Latin). In the tempt. In this respect, Łaszcz’s work is quite extraordi- 1590s, he became a member of the Socinian church and nary. Such an accumulation of invectives and physical one of the most devoted collaborators of Faustus Socinus images meant to rouse a feeling of aversion was unusual himself. He was one of the authors of the famous even in the Polish Jesuit polemic of the period. Other Racovian Catechism ( 1605) which was translated into polemicists used gentler language and more intellectual Latin in 1609, and he wrote a Latin Dedication “To the means of persuasion. Most Serene and Powerful Prince and Lord, LORD Historian Sławomir Radoƒ wrote that the six- JAMES, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, etc., teenth-century theologians-polemicists were endowed etc., My most merciful Lord,” in which he tried to con- with an ‘imagination steered towards the polemic.’ In- vince the English king that the Catechism contained ‘di- deed, the creation of images which have no equivalent in vine truth itself as contained in Scripture.’ The king was the real experience of a writer was an important part of a not at all convinced by ‘his most devoted Jerome Renaissance or Baroque polemic. While in these pam- Moskorzowski of Moskorzów,’ and there is some evidence phlets, the abstract language of theology and philosophy that he was in fact offended. The Catechism was publicly April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 623 burned in London in 1614 by order of Parliament. At that condemn the Socinians are: 1. Jesus Christ himself 2. time, the English Crown supported mainline Protestantims the apostles and disciples of Christ 3. the bishops from rather than the more radical groups. Moskorzowski started all over the world when they gather together for Church his activity as a polemical writer in 1607, when he pub- councils 4. the doctors of the Church 5. the holy martyrs; lished the first of his pamphlets against Skarga. He also 6. the miracles produced by God ‘to expose Arian faults’ wrote Latin pamphlets against another Jesuit, Marcin 7. the spiritual and imperial laws and ‘histories and teach- Âmiglecki, and he took part in public disputes with the ings of all knowledge.’ Carmelites and with the Calvinists. He organized theo- logical debates in Raków after the death of Faustus Socinus In their polemics with the Protestants, the in 1604, and he was a mediator in many conflicts within Roman Catholics introduced the notion of statute the Socinian community. (the Bible) and the notion of judge (the Church). In the years 1604-1610, several polemical pam- They argued that a statute cannot interpret itself; it phlets written by these two authors were published suc- needs a judge to interpret it. cessively, and they present an interesting series of con- troversies. The sequence was as follows: The first polemic in the series already mentions problems impossible to negotiate; these problems reap- 1604: Piotr Skarga, The Reproach of the Arians and a pear in the entire series of the polemics. The problem of Summons of Them to Expiation and to the Christian Faith authority (called here a tribunal) is foremost among them. (the second edition of this treatise was published in 1608 Is Scripture alone a sufficient authority (described here as and is available in the British Library) ‘statute’), or do we need an explanation of Scripture made 1607: Hieronim Moskorzowski, The Removal of the Re- by a man (described here as ‘judge’) who is entitled (has proach, Which Piotr Skarga, the Jesuit, Endeavoured to authority) to produce such an explanation? Bring Unfairly upon the Church of the Lord Jesus the The problem of the authority of Scripture which Nazarene emerged in this dispute has been of crucial importance 1608: Piotr Skarga, The Second Reproach of the Arians for all Christian denominations since the Protestant Ref- against Mr. Jarosz Moskorzowski from Moskorzów (also ormation. The exegetical optimism of the first reformers available in the British Library). was expressed by Heinrich Bullinger who said: ‘Because 1610: Hieronim Moskorzowski, The Removal of the Sec- it is the Word of God, the holy biblical scripture has ad- ond Reproach Which Piotr Skarga, the Jesuit, Endeav- equate standing and credibility in itself and of itself.’ oured to Bring Unfairly upon the Church of the Lord Jesus Martin Luther held similar views; during the famous the Nazarene Leipzig disputation in 1519, his opponent Johann Eck was forced to argue against him that ‘Scripture is not authen- The first text in the series, The Reproach of the tic without the authority of the Church.’ Only the later Arians by Piotr Skarga, deals with the fundamental point generations of reformers realized that the problem is of the polemic between the two authors: the problem of much more complex. One hundred years after Luther’s authority. For the first time in these Catholic-Protestant first public appearance as a reformer of the Church, only polemics, an allegory of a tribunal was used. We can Socinians accepted the biblical optimism of the early recognize two of its functions: first, from the very begin- Reformation. Other Protestant denominations introduced ning this allegory puts the opponent in the position of the restrictions on how Scripture should be interpreted. accused; second, the Jesuit polemicist shows the contrast The next issue of this polemic also has to do with between the multitude of what he considers to be objec- the authority of Scripture and the origin of this authority: tive authorities, and a small group of Socinians who who gives human beings an ability to understand the interpret the sacred texts subjectively and arbitrarily, Holy Writ? The Socinians claimed that Christ himself thereby producing a new theological system discon- gives it and therefore mediation of either the Church or nected from old authority. Skarga says: ‘In the name of the Pope is not necessary. In such a way Scripture be- the Lord I would like to reproach you by the seven Tri- comes - to use the terminology employed by the polemi- bunals to which I will bring you to make you see how cists - both a statute and a judge. On the other hand, Catho- they condemn the Arian teaching which denies the divin- lics claimed that Scripture is only a ‘statute’ and that there ity of Christ, renounces together with Turks and Jews the are a number of judges, primarily St. Peter and his suc- faith in the Holy Trinity and introduces many gods like cessors, i.e. representatives of the hierarchic Church. the pagans did.’ The members of the tribunals which so Skarga said: ‘In the Church Scripture alone is not a tribu- 624 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 nal just as statute alone is not a judge.’ the Holy Ghost? Who entrusted them with the keys to The dispute about ways of understanding the mysteries of the Kingdom of God?.…Let them tell this.’ authority of Scripture has to do with the fundamental ideo- He goes on to say that ‘Because of the weakness of the logical difference between the two camps: the radical in- human mind…God gave us medicine - translators and terpretation of the sola Scriptura principle was set against explainers in order to make us not fond of ourselves and the Roman Catholic rule as explained by the Decretum suspicious about our own understanding, and to make us de canonicis Scripturis issued by the Council of Trent remember about what Our Lord said: If I have told you which gave a warning that ‘nobody who bends the Bible earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if to his opinions is permitted to explain the Scripture [be- I tell you of heavenly things?’ Moskorzowski observes cause he would argue] against its real meaning which was only that ‘The Bible does not show…that God gave us and is explained by the Holy Mother Church. The Church explainers of Scripture because of the weakness of hu- alone has the right to judge the true meaning and interpre- man understanding, but it shows only that our understand- tation of the Holy Scripture.’ ing is dull in earthly things and much more in heavenly The allegory of a tribunal is an axis around which things.’ the polemical statements of Skarga in The Second Re- In this part of the discussion, one can see a fun- proach are arranged. The central chapter of Skarga’s damental difference in attitudes towards human under- pamphlet is titled “The silent Holy Scripture cannot be standing and human reason. According to the approach the tribunal and the main capital of God’s truth by itself accepted by all Socinians, a ‘healthy human reason’ is without human interpretation.” Skarga argues against the the only judge in religious matters. Scripture is a norm subjective exegetical optimism of his opponent, while (‘statute’), and every human being, ‘thanks to the bless- Moskorzowski in his Removal of the Second Reproach ing of healthy [right] reason, can understand Scripture tries to refute Skarga’s arguments. Let us take a look at and make statements about it even before he is enlight- the main points of this discussion. ened by the Holy Spirit.’ (quoted from the Latin treatise Brevis disquisitio... by a seventeenth- century Socinian The Protestants argued that ‘the right rea- writer, Joachim Stegmann). The Jesuit writer discredits son’ is enough to interpret the Bible, that anyone the role of reason calling it ‘a little reason.’ Thus a fun- can do so, and should. damentally different understanding of the limits of hu- man reason makes any agreement or even common ground The Jesuit’s argument begins with the material impossible to achieve. substance of which the copies of the Bible are produced: A few years before the discussion between ‘Scripture is made of paper and printing ink; everybody Skarga and Moskorzowski took place, the Socinian schol- can erase, falsify and burn it and above all can misunder- ars in the Raków Theological School concluded that ‘God stand it using his own reason.’ The Socinian writer re- appointed nobody on earth to an office of a judge com- plies that it is impossible to ‘erase, falsify and burn’ all missioned to give decisions dealing with religious con- copies of the Bible. troversies.’ Consequently, the reason of each individual The next argument deals with the obscurity of is the only judge in these matters. many passages of the Bible: ‘The Holy Scripture is ob- Skarga devoted so much attention to the prob- scure and profound and difficult to understand, so I do lem of the judge for obvious reasons. These reasons, again, not know how everybody is able to judge about some- have to do with authority. Skarga argues that ‘if Scrip- thing that cannot be understood by everybody.’ He ad- ture was a judge in religious matters, all heretics would mits, however, that ‘Certainly, there are other things in it soon settle an agreement.’ He thinks that external au- that are easy and useful for morals and other needs.’ thority is essential for the process of interpretation of the Moskorzowski replies: ‘You can judge a simple man ac- Bible, so he presents another important argument: ‘A stat- cording to what he understands, and a wise man accord- ute is not a judge and a judge is not a statute but he should ing to what he understands, and thus you can pass judg- only pass judgments according to statutes and the law.’ ment on everything in its proper sphere.’ Further on, he remarks that Scripture is silent, so one In order to prove that the Socinians are usurpers should go to the tribunal for an interpretation. Counter- and have no right to explain the Holy Writ, Skarga uses a arguments of the Socinian polemicist are based on his rhetorical figure called congeries containing a series of reliance on reason: ‘Statute will judge a clever man at his amplified rhetorical questions. He says the following: home. And everybody recognizes that a statute is a judge. ‘Who opened the minds of the Arians? .…Who gave them So if a statute can judge him at home, God’s law included April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 625 in the Scripture can do it as well and even much better.’ Socinian held fast to his belief in the power of reason The Jesuit polemicist draws a comparison be- to interpret Scripture. tween a thief and a heretic. ‘When a thief robs me, I The biblical and theological disputes had po- will escort him to a court; when a heretic wants to let litical consequences. Heresy had been legal in Poland me down, leads me to hell and robs me of my truth - since the Warsaw Confederacy of 1573 which allowed am I not allowed to go to a judge with him? I take him all denominations to exist peacefully in the Kingdom. to the Holy Scripture but the Scripture is silent and he In 1578, this law was entered in the book of Polish explains it how he wishes. I must go to the tribunal statutes and laws. This was strongly detested by the which is not silent but speaks; I must go to the genu- Jesuits. In his sermons Skarga warned: ‘The disunity ine truth which will instruct and warn me.’ will bring unto you slavery that will bury your liber- This argument is based on several assumptions: ties and turn them into mockery.…You will become As a Roman Catholic, Skarga knows the only real like an abandoned widow, you who govern other truth (‘he robs me of my truth’), while his opponent peoples; and you will become for your enemies an does not know it, and thus he is a thief that leads the object of ridicule and derision.’ Catholic astray. The Socinian writer replies that theft For the Socinian, however, the freedom to in- and heresy are two different things: ‘Highly simile terpret the Bible and other theological freedoms were the dissimile. There are two very different things: theft key values. Human reason (called ‘a little reason’ by the committed by a thief and the problem of somebody Jesuit polemicist) was claimed to be paramount to these whom Father Skarga called a heretic. Theft is an obvi- studies. For Skarga, the Scripture was a statute and rep- ous evil; attempts to understand the Bible, on the other resentatives of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy were hand, far from being evil, are in fact good, virtuous, judges who interpreted this statute and passed judgments and recommended by the Lord himself in Scripture.’ in agreement with it. According to the Socinian, Scrip- This particular comparison of Skarga’s (one ture was a norm which passed judgments of its own, if a between a thief and a heretic) is very strong. In many person read it with faith and used his/her own right rea- countries at that time, such a metaphor would have son. The authority of the Church was thus pitted against meant tortures and stakes. In the Polish-Lithuanian the authority of a single human being, and pressure used Commonwealth, even in the worst periods of intoler- by the Church was juxtaposed with the assumed free will ance, there were no tortures and stakes for the heretics. of an individual. Skarga’s opinions are further expressed in passages such as this one: ‘If the state is Christian…. However, the mainline Protestants soon [it should] aid its citizens or subjects in achieving eter- curbed their optimism as to the possibility of leav- nal salvation by supporting and causing them to em- ing the Bible entirely open to individual interpreta- brace the true and saving religion….Toleration is at tions. They noted that if such freedom is allowed, best a provisional necessity because of the large num- the foundations and beliefs of Christianity, such as ber of heretics.’ the Trinity, are in danger of being denied. The Socinian disputant tries to impair the ju- ridical kind of arguments used by his antagonist. He Thus it would be an oversimplification to say that claims that Scripture is a very specific norm, and not a the dispute between Skarga and Moskorzowski was a dis- legal one; it cannot be compared to earthly statutes and pute between representatives of the Counter-Reformation its interpretation cannot follow the ways appropriate and the Reformation. At that time, the denominations for the earthly judges: ‘For universal earthly peace an which belonged to the so-called ‘magisterial Reforma- earthly judge is needed, but for the peace of conscience tion,’ i.e. the Calvinists and the Lutherans, were far away we do not need such a judge. Faith comes from listen- from the original ‘exegetical optimism’ represented by ing to the Word of God and not from constraint or the the Socinian and the Anabaptist ‘radicals.’ As Norman judge’s decree.’ Sykes observed in the Cambridge History of the Bible, The whole matter was fated to be irresolvable ‘sola scriptura was... the harbinger not of peace but of a from its very beginning because each of the dispu- sword; and a sword of such a sharpness as to pierce... the tants held assumptions he could not renounce. The joints and marrow of Protestantism. Welcomed at first as Jesuit disputant assumed that the Socinian heresy was a...defense against... Rome... and Trent... it was now suf- an objective evil, a painful blow to the unity of the fering assault from the rear at the hands of Socinus and Church and consequently, unity of the state. The his followers.… Socinian views... offered an obvious and 626 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 tempting target for Roman Catholic polemic against Prot- much more complicated. With great enthusiasm, the estantism in general.… It became evident that “The Bible Socinians introduced new religious concepts which were only” was an insecure basis even for so fundamental te- completely unacceptable to the majority of society and net of orthodoxy as the doctrine of the Trinity.’ were perceived to be dangerous both to Catholics and The Institutes of Christian Religion by Calvin, Protestants, and to the state. Furthermore, the Socinians Luther’s catechisms and other such works had tried to (otherwise called the Polish Brethren) who belonged to shape, control and direct Bible studies towards the needs the gentry wanted to use the privileges of their social class of the established churches. The freedom of Bible stud- without fulfilling their civic duties such as military ser- ies among Protestants was restricted also in Poland by vice. Until the mid-seventeenth century, their leaders systems of rules such as the Consensus Sendomiriensis, scorned the legal order of the Polish-Lithuanian Com- announced as early as in 1570, which - as B. J. Kidd stated monwealth because according to their theology, all laws: in his classical anthology of Documents Illustrative of theological, political, and social, could be interpreted ad the Continental Reformation - ‘effected a union between hoc by whoever cared to interpret them. Such a situation Lutherans, Calvinists and Bohemian Brethren against the was unacceptable within the parameters of a human com- anti-Trinitarians in Poland and so marked out the tradi- munity. The idea that the Socinians excelled in tolerance tional limits of the later evangelical or protestant ortho- while the Polish state eventually became intolerant of them doxy.’ is one of the greatest misunderstandings of European his- It was characteristic of the Socinians that - al- tory. It is true that they allowed free theological discus- though they had their own catechisms and rules of faith sion, but they excluded from their church anybody who established by successive synods - their freedom of theo- did not agree with the theological ideas for which the logical research was immense, with virtually no limits majority of the congregation voted. But the main point of and restrictions, as witnessed by the famous theological contention was that they refused to obey the laws of the seminars in Raków which were presided over by Socinus country while at the same time claiming the protection himself. Theological differences between Socinianism on and privileges which accrued to them as members of a the one hand and other denominations on the other were particular class in a particular country. In other words, enormous and the gap was impossible to fill. A dispute they wanted to eat their pie and to preserve it at the same with a Socinian was a great challenge for a Roman Catho- time. lic theologian because from the very beginning it was In sixteenth-century Poland, there existed a tol- certain to end in conflict. It also presented a challenge for erant environment for discussion but neither side was the ‘mainline’ Protestant denominations such as the willing to abandon its principles. Therefore these polem- Lutherans and the Calvinists of that time. ics can be viewed as a confrontation between two groups of well educated intellectuals and theologians who were The problem with the Socinians, or the Pol- seriously involved in the search for religious identity but ish Brethren, was not just the interpretation of the could not find any common ground. One may call all of Bible, but the fact that they refused to obey the laws them religious fanatics. I think, however, that although of the country while at the same time availing them- we should praise the old Polish Republic for what we selves of the protection which being citizens of that now call ‘toleration’ (in its present meaning, this notion was unknown to sixteenth-century disputants), concepts country entailed. such as ‘toleration’ or ‘fanaticism’ are really projections of our present ideas onto centuries past. They should be What is the significance of these polemics for us used with caution both by cultural historians and by indi- today, when nearly four hundred years have elapsed since viduals who would like to think seriously about history they took place? First, we have to observe that the di- and contemporary events. ∆ verse methods of the polemics - some of them aggressive ______and personal and others, intellectual and theological - The article is a result of my research conducted at the can be found in the works of writers from both sides. Sec- University of Silesia in Poland (1995-1996), at the ond, they clarify for us some misunderstandings about Warburg Institute, University of London (Great Britain) in Polish social history. Some historians have claimed that 1996 and 1998 and at Rice University, Houston, Texas the sixteenth-century tolerant Poland was damaged by il- in 1998. It was presented at the meeting of the Central liberal, dogmatic Counter-Reformation preachers who led Europe Study Group, Rice University on September 18, Polish society into the intolerant and bigoted seventeenth 1998. Some ideas were discussed previously at semi- century. As we can see from the above, the situation was nars at the University of Silesia and the Warburg Insti- April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 627 tute. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Profes- (Reformationsgeschichtliche Studien und Texte, Heft 116). sor Jan Malicki of the University of Silesia, Professor 15.Jerzy Kłoczowski, “Catholic Reform in the Polish- Stanislaw Obirek SJ of the Jesuit College in Kraków and Lithuanian Commonwealth (Poland, Lithuania, the the College of the Holy Cross in Boston, Dr Jacqueline Ukraine and Belorussia).” In John O’Malley SJ, edi- Glomski and Professor Nicholas Mann of the Warburg tor, Reformation: Guides to Research. Vol. 2: Catholi- Institute and Professor Ewa M. Thompson of Rice Uni- cism in Early Modern History: A Guide to Research. versity for their help and encouragement. St Louis: Center for Reformation Research 1988. Socinianism in Poland BIBLIOGRAPHY 16.Stanisław Kot, . Boston 1957. Konfederacja warszawska 1573 1. Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. 17.Janusz T. Maciuszko, roku New York, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press 1950. . Warszawa 1984. Reformation Thought. An Intro- 2. Mihály Balázs, Early Transylvanian Antitrinitarianism 18.Alister E. McGrath, duction (1566-1571). From Servet to Palaeologus. Baden- . Oxford 1988. Chrystologia braci polskich. Okres Baden & Bouxwiller 1996. 19.Jerzy Misiurek, przedsocyniaƒski 3. Richard G. Cole, “The Reformation in Print: German . Lublin 1983. Spory chrystologiczne w Polsce w Pamphlets and Propaganda.” Archiv für 20.Jerzy Misiurek, drugiej polowie XVI wieku Reformationsgeschichte, 66 (1975), pp. 93-102. . Lublin 1984. 4. Maria Czapska, 1928, “Polemika religijna pierwszego 21.Bronisław Natoƒski SJ, “Łaszcz Marcin (1551-1615),” Polski Słownik Biograficzny okresu reformacji w Polsce,” Reformacja w Polsce, 5 , 18 (1973). Luther: Man Between God and the (1928). 22.Heiko Oberman, Devil 5. Norman Davies, God’s Playground: A History of Po- . Translated by Eileen Walliser-Schwarzbart. New land. Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795. Oxford: Oxford Haven: Yale University Press 1989. Jezuici w Rzeczypospolitej University Press 1981. 23.Stanisław Obirek SJ, Obojga Narodów w latach 1564-1668. DziałalnoÊç 6. Mark U. Edwards Jr., “Catholic Controversial Litera- religijna, społeczno-kulturalna i polityczna ture, 1518-1555: Some Statistics,” Archiv für . Kraków Reformationsgeschichte, 79 (1988). 1996. MyÊl ariaƒska w Polsce 7. David A. Frick, Polish Sacred Philology in the Refor- 24.Zbigniew Ogonowski, editor, mation and the Counter-Reformation: Chapters in the XVII wieku. Antologia tekstów. Wrocław 1991. Z dziejów polemiki antyariaƒskiej History of the Controversies (1551-1632). Berkeley: 25.Sławomir Radoƒ, w Polsce XVI-XVII wieku. University of California Press 1989. Kraków 1993. Shapers of Religious Traditions in 8. Ludwik Grzebieƒ SJ, editor, Encyklopedia wiedzy o 26.Jill Raitt, editor, Germany, Switzerland, and Poland, 1560-1600 jezuitach na ziemiach Polski i Litwy 1564-1995. . Ed- Kraków 1996. ited, with an Introduction by Jill Rait. Foreword by 9. Konrad Górski, Studia nad dziejami polskiej literatury Robert M. Kingdom. New Haven and London, Yale antytrynitarskiej XVI wieku. Kraków 1949. University Press 1981. 10.Mark Greengrass, The European Reformation, c. 1500- 27.Robert W. Richgels, “The Pattern of Controversy In a Controversies 1618. London and New York, Longman 1998. Counter-Reformation Classic: The of Sixteenth Century Journal 11.S.L. Greenslade, editor, The Cambridge History of the Robert Bellarmine,” , 11, 2 Bible. Vol. 3: The West from the Reformation to the (1980). Literacki kształt polskich polemik Present Day. Cambridge 1963. 28.Wiesław Stec, antyjezuickich z lat 1578-1625 12.Ambroise Jobert, De Luther a Mohila: la Pologne dans . Białystok 1988. Âwi∏ci, kacerze i grzesznicy. Z dziejów la crise de la chrétienté, 1517-1648. Paris: Institute 29.Janusz Tazbir, polskiej kontrreformacji d’études slaves 1974. . Warszawa 1959. Piotr Skarga - szermierz 13. Beresford James Kidd, Documents Illustrative of the 30.Janusz Tazbir, kontrreformacji. Continental Reformation. Oxford: The Clarendon Second edition. Warszawa 1983. Âwiat panów Pasków. Eseje i studia Press 1911. 31.Janusz Tazbir, . 14.Wilbirgis Klaiber, editor, Katholische Łódê 1986. Kontroverstheologen und Reformer des 16. 32.Wacław Urban, “Moskorzowski Hieronim” (ok. 1560- Polski Słownik Biograficzny Jahrhunderts. Ein Werkverzeichnis. Herausgegeben 1625), , 22, 1 (1977). von Wilbirgis Klaiber. Mit einer Einführung von 33.Piotr Wilczek, “Jesuits in Poland according to A.F. The Sarmatian Review, Remigius Bäumer. Münster: Aschendorffsche Pollard,” XIX:1 (January Verlagsbuchhandlung 1978 1999). 628 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 34.Maurice Wiles, Archetypal Heresy: Arianism through Polish. the Centuries. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1996. The history of Russia’s relations with its western colo- 35.George Huntston Williams, The Polish Brethren: nies will have to be be rewritten on the basis of materials such Documentation of the History and Thought of Uni- as those provided in this series of books. The present volume is tarianism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth a bibliography of archival materials from the College for Ro- and in the Diaspora, 1601- 1685. Missoula, Montana: man and Greek Catholicism established in 1801 by the tsarist government within its Justice Department, in order to control Scholars Press 1978. the Catholic majority (or plurality, in some areas) in the west- 36.George Huntston Williams, The Radical Reforma- ern provinces of the empire. Half of the College consisted of tion. Third edition revised and expanded. Sixteenth Catholic bishops and the other half, of officials appointed by Century Journal Publishers, Kirksville, Missouri 1992. the government. The College was supposed to adjudicate and administer Catholic churches, monasteries and convents, Catho- lic properties, schools and other institutions. Its status as a BOOKS BOOKS state institution was at odds with the canon law, and therefore its existence was a point of contention between the tsarist gov- AND PERIODICALS RECEIVED ernment and the Vatican. Until the 1850s, the materials were drafted in Polish, Christianitas et cultura Europae. Ksi∏ga later, in Russian. The dioceses involved give an indication of the extent of Catholic presence on Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Jubileuszowa Profesora Jerzego Kłoczowskiego, Belarusian territory, and of the many-generational and sys- Part. I. Edited by Henryk Gapski. Lublin. Instytut tematic elimination of that presence. The materials deal with Europy Ârodkowo-Wschodniej. 1998. 826 pages. the following dioceses: Zhytomyr (Îytomierz), Mohyliv Hardcover. Multilingual. (Mohylew), Kamenets (Kamieniec), Vilnius (Wilno), Minsk, Historiae Peritus. Ksi∏ga Jubileuszowa Tiraspol, Kaunas (Îmudê). The College was dissolved after the October Revolu- Profesora Jerzego Kłoczowskiego, Part. II. Edited tion. Its huge archives became available to scholars only re- by Henryk Gapski. Lublin. Instytut Europy cently. The collection consists of 3,767 archives ranging in size Ârodkowo-Wschodniej. 1998. 301 pages. Hardcover. from a few to several hundred documents each. This biblio- Multilingual. graphical survey with terse notes adumbrates the extent of This Festschrift to which 184 persons have contrib- harrassment, if not outright persecution, which the Catholic uted honors Jerzy Kłoczowski, arguably the best Polish histo- Church and its institutions endured under the rule of the tsars. rian of the older generation. Part I contains scholarly essays, To return to the the point made at the beginning of Part II is a collection of personal remembrances and comments. this review. The history of the Russian empire will be rewritten Part I is a real treasure trove of works on a broad variety of only if there appear able and dedicated scholars who would be topics, from Christianity in Poland and elsewhere to the Con- willing to undertake journeys along the hundreds of trails cept of Europe, Nations and Nationalism, City and Country, sketched out by the four volumes of these Materials. If such the Middle Ages, History, Sociology, Philosophy. Scholars from scholars do not appear, the misreadings of history will con- many countries contributed to these volumes. We spotted es- tinue. says by Hanna Suchocka, Krzysztof Skubiszewski, Bohdan Kronika Polski. Wydanie specjalne z okazji Osadczuk, Józef Gierowski, Jan Kułakowski… how can one 80 rocznicy odzyskania przez Polsk∏ niepodległoÊci. ennumerate all those whom Professor Kłoczowski has thus (chronicle of Poland: a special edition on occasion of united? Your reviewer learned a great deal from this book and the 80th anniversary of regaining independence), retained it as a reference work. The languages used include Polish, French, English, Belarusian, Ukrainian. This work sug- edited by Andrzej Nowak. Introduction by Zdzisław gests that scholarship in Poland remains vigorous, open-minded Îygulski, Jr. Kraków. Kluszczyƒski Publishers (30- and in tune with the great traditions of Europe. 110 Kraków, ul. Kraszewskiego 36, email: Repertorium wizytacji koÊciołów i [email protected]). 1998. 935 pages. Hard- klasztorów w archiwach Petersburskiego Kolegium cover. Numerous illustrations, photographs, graphs. Duchownego, 1797-1914 [Volume IV of the Inven- Index. No price given. In Polish. tory of Materials pertaining to the history of the Catho- A rare volume that combines the charms of a coffee lic Church in the Polish Res Publica and in Russia], table book with a scholarly narrative of Polish history. The edited by Marian Radwan. Lublin. Instytut Europy historical text begins with a prehistory of Poland and ends with the 1989-1997 period. Ârodkowo-Wschodniej (sponsored by the John Paul Druga twarz portretu (the other side of the II Foundation). 1998. 231 pages. Index. Paper. In portrait), by Jerzy Narbutt. Kraków. Wydawnictwo April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 629 Literackie. 1982. 91 pages. Paper. In Polish. ing many such anthologies available to them. In the postcommunist period, many Polish writers who One recalls the time when one-volume selections of would have otherwise made their début in their twenties or Pushkin’s verse became available in English: there was no talk early thirties, surfaced to present their works at the age of fifty then of comparing and savoring translations. In a 1998 issue of or sixty. They were deprived of that give-and-take of criticism The New York Review of Books, an American writer compared and interaction which accompanies the publication of consecu- four translations of Eugene Onegin the way gourmets com- tive volumes over a writer’s lifetime. Narbutt belongs in that pare restaurants. Alas, no such range of possibilities is avail- category. Chalk it off as another loss incurred by the Poles owing able in regard to Polish literature. One can only hope that schol- to the Soviet occupation of their country. While Jerzy Narbutt ars and translators will follow Professor MikoÊ’s example and is not a débutant, strictly speaking (he published his first works create a repertoire of complete translations of the longer works in Tygodnik Powszechny in 1957), his ability to publish was of Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Zygmunt Krasiƒski and seriously impaired by the rigidity of the Soviet-imposed cul- Cyprian Norwid, to suit a range of tastes and preferences. In tural atmosphere in his country. The volume contains thirteen the meantime, MikoÊ’s volume will serve nicely. short stories permeated with a deeply Catholic (and Polish) Sharing Secrets with Stalin: How the Allies Weltanschauung. They make a lovely read. Traded Intelligence, 1941-1945, by Bradley F. Troch∏ wierszy (a few poems), by Jerzy Smith. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas Narbutt. Warszawa-Tarnów. Klub Przyjaciół KsiàÏki (Lawrence, KS 66049). 1996. xix + 305 pages. In- Harcerskiej w Tarnowie. 1997. 78 pages. Paper. dex, bibliography. Hardcover. ISBN 83-86744. Price not given. In Polish. Bradley F. Smith specializes in books on political A volume of poetry written by a mature person who issues related to World War II. He points out that the East-West experienced many disappointments in life. There is a lot of cooperation was almost nonexistent during the first two years noble remembrance in this volume, and quite a bit of bitter- of World War II, when the Nazi-Soviet friendship traumatized ness over the way the world is run. The author’s deep and wise and nearly destroyed Poland and the Baltic countries. The co- religious belief saves him from merely complaining. operation reached its peak in 1944, when the Soviets were Full Circle: A Homecoming to Free Poland, poised to grab Eastern and Central Europe for their empire. To by Radek Sikorski. New York. Simon & Schuster. dot the i’s, Western cooperation legitimized and strengthened 1997. 277 pages. Photographs, index. Hardcover. Stalin’s Russia. However, far from condemning it, Smith’s book sets out to explain and exonerate such cooperation, blam- $24.00. ing it on the exigencies of war. Radek Sikorski was a deputy minister of defense in That the Nightingale Return: Memoir of the the Olszewski government. In 1998, he was deputy minister of Polish Resistance, the Warsaw Uprising and Ger- interior in the Buzek government. He is also a prolific writer and traveler. For years, he has been rebuilding a manor near man P.O.W. Camps, by Leokadia Rowinski. the Polish town of Nakło; it is now complete, and he resides Jefferson, NC. McFarland & Company, Inc. (Box 611 there with his spouse Anne Applebaum of the London Daily Jefferson, NC 28640. Order line 1-800-253-2187). Telegraph, and their child. Sikorski has an engaging style. 1999. 172 pages. Index, photographs. Hardcover. The book details his efforts to become a normal person in Po- $36.50 postpaid. land, and by doing so to enable other people to begin to live in a normal country. Sikorski very much wants Poland to be given Ms. Rowinski’s volume adds to the growing number a chance to be a normal country. We cannot but applaud him of books that detail, bit by bit, the Polish story in World War II. for it. Rowinski was 16 when the war started. She participated in the The Sun of Liberty: Bicentenary Anthology 1944 Warsaw Uprising as a communications officer, dodging German snipers and artillery fire. She was subsequently in- of Adam Mickiewicz’s Poetry, translated and ed- terned in a German POW camp. The camp was liberated by ited by Michael J. MikoÊ. Introduction by Zygmunt the First Polish Armed Division under British command. Like Kubiak. Warsaw. Energeia. 1998. 223 pages. Illus- Jan Mieczysław Komski whom we featured in the April 1998 trations, bibliography. Hardcover. Bilingual in Pol- issue of SR, Rowinski thus avoided the fifty years of Soviet ish and English. No price given. occupation which destroyed life’s prospects for millions of Poles of her generation trapped in their own country. She emigrated A most useful collection of the best known poems to the United States in 1951 and now she is retired. Hers is a by Mickiewicz: “Ode to Youth,” The Crimean Sonnets, selec- moving story, with family photographs showing six genera- tions from Ballads and Romances, Konrad Wallenrod, Master tions of the author’s kin, the kind of story one hears from the Thaddeus, Mickiewicz’s late poems and, last but not least, Part Holocaust survivors. Three of Forefathers’ Eve with Konrad’s famous speech. In Kongres krakowski w roku 1364 (the 1364 Polish literature classes, such collections are invaluable, given the dearth of English translations of the Polish Romantic po- Kraków congress), by Roman Grodecki. ISBN 83- ets. Polish scholars are indebted to Professor MikoÊ for mak- 7052-334-x. Kraków. Universitas. 1995. 107 pages. 630 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 Paper. In Polish. Polish Traditional Folklore: the Magic of This book has an interesting history. It was first pub- Time, by Anna Brzozowska-Krajka. Translated by lished in 1939, just before World War II, and the entire first Wiesław Krajka. New York. Columbia University printing except for twenty copies delivered to the author was Press (distributor). 1998. 259 pages. Index, destroyed during the German attack on Warsaw in September 1939. The essay details the 1364 meeting in Kraków of the bilbiography. Hardcover. King Ludwig of Hungary; King Sigismund of Denmark; Prince A sophisticated study of Polish folklore that goes far Otto of Bavaria; Prince Ziemowi t of Mazovia; Prince Bolesław beyond the usual sugary summaries. It considers the presenta- of Âwidnica, Prince Władysław of Opole and other Polish tion of time and order in folkloric texts, the cosmogonic myth princes — and Charles, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. and the folkloric opposition of Night-Day, the mediating struc- The political events and concerns of the time are attractively ture of nightfall, Civitas Dei and Civitas Diaboli as elements presented in this fine essay. of folkloric presentations. Watykan wobec powstania listopadowego The Story of Two Shtetls: Braƒsk and (the Vatican and the November 1830 rising), by Ejszyszki, Part Two, by Mark Paul et al. Toronto- Mieczysław Žywczyƒski. Kraków. Universitas. Chicago. The Polish Educatnional Foundation in 1995. 139 pages. Paper. In Polish. North America. 1998. 244 pages. Paper. The book deals with the relations between Poles and A continuation of the attempt by some Polish-Ameri- the Vatican concerning the Polish aspirations to liberty and the can authors to counter the authority of The New York Times Realpolitik as conducted by Pope Gregory XVI. It is well and other powerful disseminators of interpretations about Pol- known among Poles (due to Adam Mickiewicz’s rendition) ish behavior in World War II. The results are predictable. In a that Pope Gregory displayed more sympathy toward the anti- recent related article, Iwo Pogonowski noted that allegations Catholic autocrat Nicholas I of Russia than toward the leader- about insufficient help to Jews on the part of Poles began to ship of the Polish rising against tsarist autocracy. This episode massively surface at about the time of mass emigration to Is- raises the broader problem of brutality of the Vatican politi- rael of the surviving Jews from Eastern and Central Europe. cians toward Poles whose loyalty to Catholicism has been re- Israeli citizens greeted these Jews with condescension and ac- markable throughout history. While most Poles are quite in- cused them of not standing up for themselves during the Holo- dignant about it, they do distinguish between this unquestion- caust. Israelis felt amazed that Jewish policemen personally able outrage and the spiritual claims of the papacy. herded hundreds of thousands of Jews into trains heading for Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1974): the extermination camps. In that situation, it was expedient to Pisma wybrane, translated by Hanna Malewska find some scapegoats other than the Jewish policemen, and the focus was shifted from Jewish policemen to Polish Christians. et al. Selection and Introduction by Przemysław Like the earlier volume, this one would have profited from Mroczkowski. Kraków. Znak. 1974. 299 pages. In copyediting. As it stands, editorial mistakes detract consider- Polish. ably from its credibility. The volume contains several essays Professor Mroczkowski calls Chesterton (paraphras- by Zbigniew Romaniuk, a guardian of Jewish memorabilia in ing the writer himself) ‘a man with the golden key.’ His com- Braƒsk, as well as essays by Tamara Trojanowska, Mark Paul, ment refers to Chesterton’s happy ability to find le mot juste Sophia Miskiewicz, John Radzilowski and others. for just about everything, from theology to social trivia. This Holding One’s Time in Thought: The Po- collection includes Chesterton’s most important philosophical litical Philosophy of W.J. Stankiewicz, edited by and social essays, as well as his powerful speech delivered in Bogdan Czaykowski and Samuel V. LaSelva. Poland in 1927. It deals with Poland’s role in Europe’s Chris- Vancouver, B.C. Ronsdale Press (3350 West 21st Av- tian history. The book also contains an essay on chivalry in which, again, Poland is a prominent example, and the poem enue, Vancouver, BC V6S 1G7). 1997. xii + 407 “Poland” ably translated by Jerzy Pietrkiewicz. Significantly, pages. Index, illustrations. Paper. the book was published in 7,000 copies only, a sign that in Papers from a 1995 conference at the University of Soviet-occupied Poland, Chesterton was a persona non grata. British Columbia on the thought of Stankiewicz, a political Lewiatan i jego wrogowie: szkice philosopher and professor emeritus at UBC. He has engen- postkonserwatywne (Leviathan and its enemies: dered an impressive set of reflections authored among others postconservative essays), by Jaroslaw Zadencki. by the two editors and Jean Bethke Elshtain, Arpad Kadarkay, Peter Petro, and Robert H. Jackson. The book also contains Kraków. Arcana. 1998. 154 pages. Paper. In Polish. some essays by Stankiewicz. A collection of essays and one-liners on topics of power and the state, soul, wisdom and the like, much of it Other Books Received: warmed over, with echoes of such philosophers as Nietzsche, KoÊcioły wschodnie w Rzeczypospolitej okolo 1772 JŠnger, Cortes. The essays provide aphorisms and counsels roku (eastern churches in Poland around 1772), by Witold for undergraduate readers. April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 631 Kołbuk. ISBN 83-85854-30-4. Lublin. Instytut Europy Uzaležnienie Polski od papiestwa a kanonizacja Êw. Ârodkowo-Wschodniej. 1998. 456 pages. Lengthy indices, Stanisława (the canonization of St. Stanislaus and the Polish maps. Paper. In Polish. dependence on the Papacy), by Marian Witold Łodyƒski. Probably the most detailed and authoritative volume Kraków. Universitas. 1995. 53 pages. Paper. In Polish. on a variety of denominations in Eastern Christianity in the Shooting Stardust, by Frrich Lewandowski. Illus- pre-partition Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The introduc- trations by Kathryn H. Delisle. Worcester, MA. Ambassador tory essay is 76 pages long; the rest consists of indices and Books (71 Elm Street, Worcester, MA 01609). 1998. 20 pages. sources. Hardcover. Paradise in a Concrete Case, by Leszek Dzi∏giel. This warm and consoling story for elementary school Kraków. Arcana (31-133 Kraków, Dunajewskiego 8). 1998. children deals with death. It teaches children how to cope with Bibliography. 307 pages. In Polish. a loss. Much recommended to parents of all children; hope- The subtitle of the book says: ‘Daily Life in Commu- fully, the book can finds its way to Central Europe as well. nist Poland: An Ethnologist’s View.’ It seems to be the genre Frrich Lewandowski, a Catholic priest, specializes in children’s which Leopold Tyrmand used in his Rosa Luxemburg Contra- stories. He is also chaplain of the Newman Center at Fitchburg ceptive Cooperative. A review to follow. The author is a pro- State College, MA. We reviewed his books before. fessor of humanities at Jagiellonian University. Treasury of Love Poems by Adam Mickiewicz in Pol- Powrót człowieka bez właÊciwoÊci (return of a man ish and English, edited by Krystyna Olszer. New York. without qualities), by Cezary Michalski. Warsaw. Casablanca Hippocrene. 1998. 137 pages. Hardcover. Studio Spółka z o.o. 1997. 355 pages. ISBN 83-907190-0-2. By various translators. Paper. In Polish. A collection of essays by one of the most renowned social and political essayists of the younger generation. A re- Bitter Glory view to follow. DoskonałoÊç i n∏dza (perfection and misery), by Poland and Its Fate, 1918-1939 Pawel Lisicki. Warsaw. Casablanca Studio Spółka z o.o. 1997. ISBN 83-907190-0-3. 275 pages. Paper. In Polish. By Richard M. Watt, New York. Hippocrene A collection of essays by an essayist of the younger Books. 1998. 511 pages. Index, photographs. generation who publishes both in Znak and in Fronda. Paperback. $16.95. The Decomposition of Sociology, by Irving Louis Horowitz. Oxford. Oxford University Press (200 Madison Avenue, New York 10016). 1993. 282 pages. Hardcover. $35.00 John J. Kulczycki Among others, the author points out that American universities produce far too many PhDs in sociology. In order Hippocrene Books deserves the gratitude of spe- to find jobs for the graduates, unnecessary posts are created, cialists in Polish studies for providing materials in En- urging people to submit to ‘professional’ counseling in situa- glish that we can use in our classes. Richard Watt’s Bitter tions that do not call for such intervention. We have long known Glory is only the latest example of Hippocrene’s helpful- that some sociologists have taken weird paths, and this book ness in that regard. Although this edition is simply a re- confirms academe’s inability to supervise itself. print of the 1982 edition, without any updating of the bib- Polacy, Rosjanie i biesy, by Andrzej Nowak. liography and references or of the interpretation, I wel- Kraków. Arcana. 1998. 269 pages. Paper. In Polish. Essays dealing with Polish-Russian relations. come this book back into print. I began to use it in my The Haunted Land: Facing Europe’s Ghosts after courses in Polish history shortly after it first appeared in Communism, by Tina Rosenberg. New York. Random House. 1979 and continued to do so until it went out of print. At 1995. xxiv + 437 pages. Hardcover. $25.00. the time that it appeared, it was the only history of inter- This book by a well-connected journalist repeats ev- war Poland in English, in print, and within financial reach ery cliché we have recently heard about Central and Eastern of students. In addition to these extraneous merits, its Europe. The area is treated as if it had not been subject to colo- greatest virtue is perhaps that it reads extremely well. This nialism, as if it had generated its own problems, and as if com- is of crucial importance if one is going to try to explain to munism were not the most destructive system ever imposed on students what Polish studies is all about. The old cliché it. And now the area is said to face the ‘ghosts’ of the past. about journalists writing more readable histories than his- What ghosts? They mostly inhabit the author’s imagination. The area is now returning to normalcy thanks to the debacle of torians seems to apply in this case. Of course, from the communism and the weakening of colonialism. The book is a historian’s point a view, the book is not without faults, truly dreadful example of a reliance on received ideas and on and I outline some of them below. From a pedagogical politically correct views. How sad that books like this shape point of view, the most obvious problem is the book’s the American public opinion about that part of the world. length: it is difficult to fit some 460 pages of text cover- 632 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 ing only the interwar period in the required readings of an War I and the peace treaties, the Polish-Soviet War, and undergraduate course in Polish history. the stabilization of Poland’s frontiers, we have read more In a letter inserted in the Hippocrene edition, the than a third of the text to have arrived only at the very author responds to a request of his editors for an explana- beginnings of the Polish state’s history, roughly 1921. The tion of how he came to write a study of Polish history. next six chapters covering domestic politics and economic His response as to what attracted him to the subject well difficulties, Piłsudski’s coup d’état and its aftermath, and illustrates the themes that dominate the book: Marshal foreign relations in the 1920s, bring us to 1930. The re- Józef Piłsudski and ‘the authentic drama of Polish events maining chapters, somewhat less than a third of the text, of the period,’ which means above all the conflicts, for- cover domestic politics before and after Piłsudski’s death, eign and domestic, and crises, particularly those of a po- foreign relations in the 1930s, and the German and Soviet litical and diplomatic nature. invasions of Poland in September 1939. An Afterword briefly recounts developments affecting Poland during This careless attitude toward its own image World War II and gives an over-all assessment of the in- [maintained by Poland under the Piłsudskiyte govern- terwar period. Reproduced photographs enrich the text. ment, Ed.] is responsible for a good many of the critical The overwhelming focus on Piłsudski does not misconceptions regarding interwar Poland which exist mean that Watt is uncritical of his role in Polish history. to this day. Yet, he is on the whole more positive than Piłsudski’s enemies would have allowed. Watt goes so far as to con- Some years ago, a visiting Polish follower of clude that, ‘It is difficult to believe that independent Po- Roman Dmowski who was also a political activist in the land without Piłsudski could have continued to exist for Polish emigré community in England gave in my class a any period of time. For a politically immature, newly guest lecture on the rebirth of Poland following World established nation like Poland, a figure like Piłsudski was War I. In his hour-long presentation, he never once men- absolutely indispensable. . . . His coup of May 1926 can tioned Piłsudski. People of this point of view will not be be defended on the grounds that Poland was drifting into happy with Watt’s overwhelming attention to this major a chaotic state. No one else could have saved the repub- figure. Whereas one historian of interwar Poland sug- lic.’ (460) gested that its history could be written in terms of the Watt’s final criticism of interwar Poland poses a conflict between Dmowski and Piłsudski, Watt writes it challenge still relevant two decades after he wrote it. In mainly in terms of the latter alone. Indeed, the introduc- noting that the world frequently viewed the state less than tory chapter bears his name, and he figures in the title of sympathetically, Watt faults the successive Polish gov- four of the following seventeen chapters. ernments of the period for their indifference to world opin- The focus on Piłsudski means that the first ion. ‘This careless attitude toward its own image is re- chapter’s survey of nineteenth-century Polish history con- sponsible for a good many of the critical misconceptions centrates on that part of Poland which was under Russian regarding interwar Poland which exist to this day. And, occupation. A brief mention of the rising of 1846 is made of course, there are not now many persons interested in or in the paragraphs on that part of Poland and not in a sec- capable of correcting the record.’ (462) ∆ tion on the part of Poland which was under Austrian oc- cupation, even though the rising occurred there. Or- ganic work, which flourished in ‘Prussian’ Poland, goes A Life of Solitude unnoted. A Biographical Study with Selected Letters of When Dmowski finally makes his appearance in the last few pages of the chapter, he and his National Stanisława Przybyszewska Democratic party do not receive their due. The reader is given no clue how this party, which we are told followed By Jadwiga Kosicka and Daniel Gerould. a policy of ‘superconciliationism,’ succeeded in winning Evanston, IL. Northwestern University Press. 1989. the support of some of the Polish population of ‘Russian’ xvii + 247 pages. Hardcover. Index, maps, illustra- Poland. That the National Democrats were tions. $12.95. ‘superconfrontationists’ in ‘Prussian’ Poland is not even alluded to. Janet G. Tucker Watt’s interest in war and diplomacy mean that by the time we get through the following chapters on World Jadwiga Kosicka’s and Daniel Gerould’s biog- April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 633 raphy of twentieth-century Polish dramatist Stanisława for emotional and physical sustenance, Przybyszewska Przybyszewska is a welcome treatment of a long neglected immersed herself in her principal interest: the French literary figure. Enhanced by maps of Poland, a chronol- Revolution. She would devote her remaining years to ogy of Przybyszewska’s life, and a Przybyszewski fam- two dramas, Thermidor (initially written in German in ily tree, approximately one-fourth of the book is devoted 1925) and The Danton Case, begun in 1928. The latter to Przybyszewska’s (short) life, with the remainder con- enjoyed a degree of success and popularity on stage in taining her selected letters. the decades following her death. So deeply was she im- Kosicka and Gerould provide the reader with mersed in this theme that she even dated many of her background information, tracing Przybyszewska’s aes- personal letters according to the revolutionary calendar. thetic gifts to her artist mother Aniela Pajàk and her fa- Her most significant contribution may well have mous and talented father, the writer Stanisław been her correspondence, which Kosicka and Gerould Przybyszewski, an important figure in Polish modernism have translated as illustrative material to inform her biog- who was one of the founders of the Młoda Polska move- raphy and for intrinsic aesthetic worth. There is a helpful ment. Przybyszewski had a European reputation; he led list of all addressees. The letters date from 1914 to her a dissolute life in Berlin in a circle that met at the Black last one, written shortly before her death. Many were Piglet and included Edvard Munch, August Strindberg, never sent. They constitute a journal tracing her precipi- and the poet Richard Dehmel. He was a ‘committed tous descent from typical adolescent concerns to her final Satanist’ noted for his wild drinking, two marriages, and decline. liaisons resulting in illegitimate children to accompany The letters were addressed to relatives, friends, the legitimate ones. Przybyszewska, whom her father rec- and public figures in Poland and to such renowned West- ognized only belatedly, was one of the former. ern figures as Georges Bernanos and Thomas Mann, to Their relationship was always complex and whom she directed the last two notes of the present col- troubled. All her life, her father represented the sounding lection. Przybyszewska frequently laments her extreme board against which Przybyszewska always felt compelled poverty and petitions for assistance, exults in her brilliance, to measure herself and not come up wanting. It was after and resents her lack of literary recognition. She wrote a seeing her father when she was eighteen that hefty portion of her letters to Helena Barliƒska, her Przybyszewska made her final decision to become a writer mother’s sister, recounting her reading (Maeterlinck, (24). Nothing more poignantly and aptly underscores Nusbaum’s book on Darwinian zoology, Ovid), intellec- Przybyszewska’s attempts to relate to her neglectful fa- tual achievements in mathematics, and physical accom- ther than Kosicka’s and Gerould’s allusions to a possible plishments. Youthful enthusiasm gave way early on to incestuous relationship between the two and to the fact depression, as in the letter of 6 January 1924, when that it was her own father who introduced Przybyszewska, Przybyszewska confesses that she lives ‘in a permanent when in her early twenties, to the morphine that would state of depression and apathy.’ (80) kill her by the time she was thirty-four. Devoted to her writing and unable, even unwill- She spent her early years in Lwów [Lviv in Ukrai- ing, to settle for any kind of job she would have consid- nian] and later Paris with a devoted mother, who died ered beneath her, Przybyszewska struggled against pov- when Przybyszewska was only eleven. Przybyszewska erty from her twenties on. Quite naturally, she ended up moved to Zurich, Vienna, and finally Cracow, where she begging for money, and the person to whom she typically studied in the Teachers’ Institute and made one friend with sent pleading letters was her devoted aunt. Already by whom she would later correspond, Julia Baranowska. In 1924 we can see the ring of her oncoming destruction 1919 she renewed her ties with the father she had not starting to tighten around her. She is not only depressed seen since 1907. Well aware of his considerable if am- and lonely, but desperate. ‘Save me if you can,’ she im- bivalent fame in Poland, Przybyszewska was determined plores Helena Barliƒska, ‘I have no other way out but to to make a name for herself as well. appeal to you.’ (85) Early on, she exhibited tendencies to emotional Two letters that she addressed to her father in instability and a preference for isolation that would domi- 1927 contain no such request but instead focus on her nate for the remainder of her life. Her one significant interests. She discusses the international scene and lit- attempt to connect to the outside was her marriage to a erature—from Bernanos and Huysmans to Ilya fellow morphine addict, the artist Jan Panieƒski, which Ehrenburg—and concludes with her entreaty that he read ended with his death from an overdose in 1925. Now on and comment on her work. In her missives to Antoni her own but still turning to others—relatives and friends— Słonimski, both dated 10 September 1927, Przybyszewska 634 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 once again decries the evil of international events (‘[we] Letters live in a monstrous century, in a monstrous world, and we are monsters ourselves,’ ( 90) but seems to conflate them On the Jesuits with the Great Terror that ensued in the wake of the French I read the January issue of The Sarmatian Review Revolution. Along with her depression and sense of alien- with great interest; I found the review article by Piotr ation, Przybyszewska’s immersion in and identification Wilczek to be particularly notable, as it corrected a great with the atmosphere of the French Revolution strongly deal of misinformation about the history of the Jesuits in suggests that morphine and mental illness had begun to Poland supplied by Pollard’s book. take their toll. She focuses especially on Robespierre, I have occasionally published in the Jesuit monthly her hero. ‘...I have the calm certainty,’ she states to Hel- Przeglàd Powszechny (established in 1884), and I also ena Barliƒska, ‘that I understand Robespierre better than read their new magazine, Jezuici przyjaciołom. The Oc- anyone whose works are known to me.’ (142) He is ‘a tober 1998 issue of this second magazine contains the leader of genius.’ (142) ‘Today,’ she notes on 6 April, following data about the Jesuit presence in contempo- 1929, ‘is the 17th of Germinal; yesterday was the anni- rary Poland: versary of Danton’s execution....I remember like yester- The Jesuit Order now has 381 members, including day the day on which Danton and his followers were ex- 264 priests, 29 brothers and 88 seminarians ecuted.’ (144) The Papal Theological Institute “Bobolanum” has over Przybyszewska’s pride at seeing her masterpiece 400 students, including 42 seminarians and 358 others completed gave way to anxiety and depression, which including secular students, Catholic Sisters and religious found an outlet in her letters. In a note to Leon Schiller of other denominations dated 22 November, 1929, Przybyszewska takes him to The Jesuits run nine parishes and seven non-parish task for not having commented on The Danton Case, churches where total Sunday attendance equals 35,000 which she had sent him some eight months earlier (177). As religious instructors, they teach over 20,000 children By 1930, she had deteriorated markedly. ‘...I really can- and 8,000 adults per year not be sure whether my letter has reached you,’ she wrote Their ministry includes chaplaincies in two prisons and to Joseph Heinz Mischel, with whom she had earlier dis- in five hospitals, as well as round-the-clock confessions cussed translation rights. ‘It was written in a state of mental in two churches: one in Warsaw on Âwi∏tojaƒska Street, blackout.’ (192) ‘My absolute loneliness resembles the and the other in Toruƒ loneliness of a criminal...[if] such loneliness is not respon- They run religious programs on Polish television, the sible for causing my nervous state,’ she protests to Paul Polish Radio and the Polish Section of Radio Vatican, Ehmke in a letter dated 16 November 1930, ‘then at least and they make themselves available to journalists it appreciably intensifies it. (198) ‘Master!’ she pleads In addition to the periodicals mentioned above, they pub- with Thomas Mann on 9 December 1932, ‘I am turning lish the following: Roczniki Teologiczne “Bobolanum”, to you for help....I am alone. Truly alone....financial strain Szum z nieba, Wokół WspółczesnoÊci and a dozen or so has been holding me back...and now it’s starting to kill smaller periodicals me.’ (216) Her last letter (in this collection) from 21 No- They publish between ten and twenty books per year vember 1934, is directed once more at Mann: ‘I’ve run They own and operate a high school and a Center for out of bread....The cold is torturing me...I can’t go on.’ Leadership (239) She would die the following August. They support and operate renewal projects in Poland The selected letters thus provide a far more poi- (some 30-50 such projects) gnant account of Przybyszewska’s life from early confi- They inspire and give support to such Catholic groups as dence and optimism to her final descent into imbalance Apostolstwo Modlitwy Wspólnota Îycia and death than could be obtained from a conventional ChrzeÊcijaƒskiego, Przymierze Rodzin, and others biography. The only mistake in the collection is one mi- They teach six seminars for college students, one of them nor typing error on p. 87 (‘embarassed’ instead of ‘em- at the Catholic University of Lublin barrassed’) that in no way detracts from the overall excel- They run the Catholic Information Center and the Euro- lence of this work, a fine treatment of a writer who per- pean Initiative (OCIPE) in Warsaw (this last institution is haps now, at the end of the twentieth century, will receive associated with the European Union). her due as an important literary figure in European letters I think the above is quite impressive. as well as in her native Poland. ∆ Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm, Ph.D., Wilmington,
1234567890123456 1234567890123456SR Delaware The author’s most recent book is Amerykanie z wyboru (1998). April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 635 On collective historical guilt or merit, or lack thereof Perhaps, if this were recognized more generally, I have been reading The Sarmatian Review for it would be easier to establish Polish-Jewish relations on quite some time with considerable interest and want to a better footing. Yes, as Mr. Peck puts it, ‘we must speak congratulate you on the intellectual courage with which fully and openly about our own histories,’ with this quali- the periodical addresses controversial and often painful fication, that by ‘our own’ we must mean our own, per- issues. I am in sympathy with those who desire to defend sonal, individual histories and not the histories of the na- Polish interests against ignorance, disinformation, bigotry tional communities into which we happen to have been and sometimes obvious ill-will. Indeed, nothing evokes born. We must speak openly of those histories, too, not as much irrational and stereotyped collective responses with personal guilt or shame but in perspective, with un- among members of a national or ethnic community as derstanding and judgment. being subjected collectively and indiscriminately to moral Bogdan Czaykowski, Professor Emeritus strictures, ridicule, disdain or slander. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada It is this question of imputed collective guilt, and especially of collective historical guilt that I want to deal with Announcements and Notes briefly in this letter. In the January 1999 issue of the SR, you Paul Saydak in Executive Office print the text of a fine address by Abraham J. Peck, in which Rice University graduate Paul Saydak was appointed Ex- he says to an audience of contemporary Polish Americans ecutive Assistant for Economic Affairs in the office of the with obvious gratitude: ‘You, Polonia, gave us the opportu- Secretary of the State of Connecticut, Ms. Susan Bysiewicz. nity to be the largest and greatest Jewry the world had ever In addition to the BA from Rice, Mr. Saydak holds master’s seen….You gave us decades, no centuries, of a freedom and degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Yale Univer- a sense of belonging we found nowhere else.’ These words, I sity. He has studied and lived in Russia and Poland. And yes, am sure, were deeply appreciated by many of the listeners of he is a Sarmatian Review subscriber! Polish origin; for once there was praise instead of denigration MikoÊ receives the Turzaƒski Award and accusation. Yet had I been in that audience I would have Professor Michael MikoÊ, whose books have been reviewed had to protest. I would have pointed out that personally I had in SR, received the 1996-97 Award for Scholarly Achieve- nothing to do with these centuries of comparatively tolerable ments from the Władysław and Nelli Turzaƒski Foundation (if not better) conditions of life that the old Polish Kingdom, in Toronto, Canada. and then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth provided to Corrections the Jewish community. And since I personally had nothing to In the January 1999 issue of SR, Professor Piotr Wilczek’s do with this, no gratitude was due to me, no pride would have academic association was incorrectly stated. Professor been justified on my part. But, by the same token, had the Wilczek teaches at the University of Silesia in Katowice, rather audience been addressed in a different vein, with accusations than in Gliwice. of inveterate Polish anti-Semitism across the centuries, I per- In Professor Anna Cienciala’s “On Interpreting ‘East Euro- sonally would not have felt guilty, or even offended. For I pean’ History,” two words in footnotes 6 and 11 were mis- have had nothing to do with that either. spelled. Footnote 11 should read Geroid T. Robinson, not In more abstract terms, collective historical guilt and Gerald T. Robinson, while footnote 6 should read Samuel collective historical pride are both, and equally so, absurd Fiszman, and not Samuel Fishman. sentiments. No one is responsible for the deeds of his or her grandparents, and even, usually, for the deeds of parents, not About the Authors to speak of progenitors living in a more distant past. It is high Maria Dàbrowska (1889-1965) is a Polish novelist. Among time to move the discussion about Polish-Jewish relations, or others, she wrote Nights and Days [1932-34], a two-volume Polish-Russian, or Polish-Ukrainian, or Polish-German rela- novel about Polish life between 1863-1914, portions of which tions away from this logical and moral monstrosity. For that have been translated for The Sarmatian Review. matter I am not responsible, living in far-away Vancouver, for John J. Kulczycki is Professor of History at the University of the planters of crosses near Auschwitz, and I am sure Mr. Illinois-Chicago. Abraham J. Peck is not responsible for the Pole-baiting prac- Janet G. Tucker is Associate Professor of Russian at the Uni- tised by some contemporary American Jews. versity of Arkansas. What is incumbent upon me is to have the most ac- Piotr Wilczek is Associate Professor of Polish at the curate knowledge possible of the past and not to falsify it; and University of Silesia in Katowice and the 1998/99 second, not to use that knowledge to impute collective his- Kosciuszko Teaching Fellow at Rice University. torical guilt to those who were not a part of that past. 636 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 Thank You Note The Sarmatian Review would like to thank the fol- Central Europe Study Group lowing individuals and institutions for their donations to the Rice University Sarmatian Review Publication Fund: presents Mr. Donald Banas; Ms. Rose Mary Bryant; Profes- sor Donald Bushaw; Mr. & Mrs. Carl & Katherine Evans; Edward Keenan Professor & Mrs. Ralph Frankowski; Mr. Stefan Ginilewicz; Harvard University and Ms. G. Gasiorowski, ROMIC CYCLE COMPANY; Ms. Iga Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC Henderson; Mr. & Mrs. Joseph & Halina Kallaby of TAG TRAVEL; Mr. Jonathan M. Keyes, D.D.S.; Mr. & Mrs. Ryszard & Janina Kowalczuk; Professor Bogna W. Lorence- Kot; Mr. & Mrs. Chester & Krystyna Kurk; Professor & Mrs. The Lost Continent Witold & Alicia Lukaszewski; Mr. & Mrs. Bogdan & Kinga Perzynski; Mr. & Mrs. Casimir & Mira Pieniazek; Ms. of Dnieprovia Beatrice Shube; Ms. Anya Tish of ANYA TISH CONTEM- PORARY ART. April 23, 1999 (Friday) Thank you--we really need your support. 7:30 PM 110 Rayzor Hall RADIO COURIER Refreshments will be served. Polish American Radio Network P.O. Box 130146, Houston, Texas 77219 Forum Polonia Page Polish Language Program http://www.forum-polonia-houston.com/ Saturday 11:00 AM, 1520 KYND Visit the Page to learn about Polish-related organizations and tel./fax: (281) 872-1062 institutions in the Houston area: email: [email protected] Polish American Congress - Houston Chapter Our Lady of Czestochowa Roman Catholic Parish in Houston The Sarmatian Review A and M Technical Services Inc. 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