The Polish Brethren
Among the sects that emerged in Reformation-era Poland to challenge Catholic dominance of religious sympathies the Polish Brethren occupy a notable place. Also known by a cluster of other names - Arians, Racovians and Socinians being the commonest variants - this loose cluster of like-minded radically dissenting thinkers crystallized into a distinctive group following the establishment of an academy in 1570 at Rakow , a minor provincial centre 12km north of Szydlow, under the protection of Michal Sienicki, an aristocratic patron and early disciple. Theologically speaking, what marked the Brethren out from the Calvinists and other Protestant schools developing in Poland at the time was their decisive rejection of the traditional Orthodox doctrines of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. A leading figure in the development of the Brethren's doctrines was Fausto Sozzini (Socinius) who settled in Rakow in 1579. Socinius was particularly successful in the spreading of Arian doctrines among the Polish aristocracy. These doctrines were collected in the Racovian Catechism , published in Polish in 1605, and subsequently translated into Latin, German and eventually English (1652). Such was the notoriety (and popularity) of the catechism by this stage, that Oliver Cromwell ordered local sheriffs to confiscate the entire print run of the first English edition and burn it as soon as it arrived from the Continent. In practical terms, the Brethren espoused a religiously based communism of the kind advocated by the Diggers and other radical sects a century later in Cromwellian-era England. The structure of the settlement at Rakow was determined by a thoroughgoing pacifism, shared manual labour, the complete abolition of social hierarchy and the denial of the authority of the state. From simple beginnings, the Rakow Academy grew into a centre of international repute, with over 1000 students by the beginning of the seventeenth century, and its printing presses churning out a steady stream of tracts and catechisms. The model of the academy proved attractive to many and was duplicated elsewhere in the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, most notably at Nowogrodek in present-day Belarus. For all the religious tolerance exhibited in Poland during the Reformation era -"the land without bonfires" as it was popularly known - the Arians were regarded by many as having gone a theological and political step too far. As the one sect explicitly excluded from the provisions of the Confederation of Warsaw (1573) regarding religious tolerance in the Commonwealth, they remained constantly open to the threat of persecution, though instances of martyrdom actually proved remarkably few and far between. In the end, though, under pressure from all sides, the state authorities decided to act, closing first the academy at Nowogrodek in 1618 and then the centre at Rakow in 1638, following a vote in the Sejm occasioned by news that students had destroyed a roadside crucifix. Deprived of their bases, the Brethren retreated into the countryside, continuing their activities, but never fully regaining the heights of influence and renown they had previously enjoyed. Though Arianism eventually faded as a religious force in Poland, its ideas continued to find resonance in later centuries. In particular, the Polish Brethren are often regarded as precursors of the Unitarianism that flourished (often, but not always, minus the social egalitarianism) among the Presbyterians and other non-conformist churches in England and the United States in the nineteenth century, crystallizing in the formation and development of the modern Unitarian church. As to modern Rakow , there's little left by way of traces of the Brethren or their academy except a couple of distinctively shaped whitewashed houses built as living quarters for students at the academy.
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