Marcin Czechowic

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Martin Czechowic (or Marcin Czechowic) (c. 1532, Zbąszyń, Poland – 1613) was a Polish Socinian (Unitarian) priest, theologian and writer.

Born at Zbaszynie on the German border, Czechowic received a humanistic education in Poznan and at the University of Leipzig (1554). He lived at a time when religious unrest was prevalent in Poland. Numerous religious sects arose, varying from the old Catholicism and the new Reformation to sects which rejected the Trinity and denied the divinity of Jesus. The members of the sect which professed disbelief in the Trinity were called Unitarians, and the most radical among them were called by their opponents "Half Jews" or "semi-judaizers". The religious dissension and constant disputes which arose in consequence led to a number of Jews taking part in these disputations.

Martin Czechowic frequently changed his religious views. He was a Roman Catholic priest in Kórnik until 1555, when he became a member of the Bohemian Brotherhood in Vilna. He had gone to Lithuania to work for the Radziwiłł family. Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł sent him on a fruitless mission to Geneva to convert Calvin and the Reformers[1][2] but it was Czechowic who adopted Lutheranism and eventually, Calvinism, himself. Later he would support anabaptist and unitarian views.

Twenty years later he adopted a radical unitarian position, nearly Arianism. He believed that Jesus was human, but because he was born without sin, it was right to worship him. He adopted unconditional pacifism and opposed infant baptism and private property.[3] Together with Szymon Budny he was involved in a Socinian translation of biblical scriptures. He engaged in a controversy over scriptural translation and interpretation with his contemporary Jakub Wujek, a Jesuit and the translator of the first modern Polish version of the Bible, and accused Wujek of plagiarism. See for example his pamphlet Plaster for a publication of the New Testament by Father Jakub Wujek.[4]

He wrote a denunciation of the baptism of infants entitled De paedobaptistarum errorum origine et de ea opinione, qua infantes baptizandos esse in prima nativitatis eorum exortu creditur (Lublin, 1575). He attacked what he saw as fourteen errors of the advocates of infant baptism. He also disputed the Socinian idea that baptism is not necessary for individuals who believe and who have grown up in Christianity.[5]

He wrote a book endeavoring to show that the objections of the Jews to Jesus as Messiah were unfounded. It was published under the title Rozmowy Chrzescijanskie o Tajemnicach Wiaru (Rakow, 1575). In reply to this, Rabbi Jacob Nachman of Belzyc wrote a defense entitled Odpis Jacoba Zyda z Belzyc na Dialogi Marcina Czechowiza (Lublin, 1581). The arguments of Jacob Nachman called forth a reply from Czechowic, entitled Vindiciæ Duorum Dialogorum Contra Jacobum Judæum de Belzyce.

Czechowic died in poverty and obscurity in 1613.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Marcin Czechowic" from Antipas
  2. ^ Darius Petkūnas, Holy Communion Rites in the Polish and Lithuanian Reformed Agendas of the 16th and Early 17th Centuries, University of Helsinki, 2004, p. 133
  3. ^ (Italian) Czechowic, Martin (o Marcin)
  4. ^ Piotr Wilczek, "Catholics and Heretics: Some Aspects of Religious Debates in the Old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth"
  5. ^ "Kiesling, Johann Rudolf" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online

[edit] Bibliography

  • (German) Heinrich Grätz, Geschichte der Juden ix. 456
  • (Polish) Samuel Orgelbrand, Encyklopedja Powszechna, iv., Warsaw, 1899
  • (Polish) Lepszy K. and Arnold S. (editors) Słownik biograficzny historii powszechnej do XVII stulecia, Warsaw, Wiedza Powszechna, 1968
  • Peter Brock, ed. & trans., "A Polish Anabaptist Against War: The Question of Conscientious Objection in Marcin Czechowic's Christian Dialogues of 1575". The Mennonite Quarterly Review, 52 (1978): 279-93
  • Peter Brock, "Dilemmas of a Socinian Pacifist in Seventeenth-Century Poland," Church History, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Jun., 1994), 190-200
  • "Marcin Czechowic in Defense of Nonresistance, 1575, "Conrad Grebel Review 9(3) (1991) 251-7
  • (Polish) Literatura polska. Przewodnik encyklopedyczny. Warsaw, PWN, 1984, ISBN 83-01-01520-9 t. 1-2, ISBN 83-01-05368-2 t.1
  • (Polish) Encyklopedyczny słownik sławnych Polaków, Warsaw, Oficyna Wydawniczo-Poligraficzna "Adam", 1996, ISBN 83-85207-90-2
  • This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article "Czechowic, Martin" by Herman Rosenthal and J.G. Lipman, a publication now in the public domain.
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