Morstinius Christopher , (Polon. Morsztyn,) of Raciborsk, was Lord of Paulikovice, and Starost of Philipovia. In his jurisdiction the authority of the Socinians was as great as in any part of Poland. He was a person of considerable celebrity among his countrymen, and preeminently distinguished by the royal favour. His very enemies bear testimony to the excellence of his character ; and the Churches which he erected evince a zeal for the promotion of the divine glory. He was the founder of the Church at Philipovia, which nourished under his auspices, and numbered among its Pastors the celebrated John Volkelius. Andrew Wissowatius used to call Morstinius "the Senator of the Church of God." His family was a very old one, being derived from the Montsternii of Germany, who were distinguished for their long line of nobility, and settled in the Palatinate of Cracow. Paul Crellius drew out a genealogical table of this family, which came into the hands of Bock.

When Faust Socin was obliged to leave Cracow, on account of the excitement which his disputations and writings had produced, Christopher Morstinius took him under his protection, and kindly supported him, for more than three years, at his own seat, which was only a few miles from Cracow. Here he found a safe asylum ; and his kind and generous benefactor afterwards gave him his daughter, Elizabeth, in marriage. In the correspondence of Socin, there are five letters addressed to Christopher Morstinius, which, as Bock says, deserve to be read. The first was written during a Synod at Lublin, and is dated June 5th, 1593. In this Socin tells Morstinius, that the whole of the preceding day had been occupied in discussing the End and Use of the Lord's Supper ; and that the Synod, with only one dissentient voice, had come to the conclusion, that the sole object of this rite is the commemoration and preaching of the death of Christ. In the second, Socin alludes to some ill usage which he had received from a person under the influence of intoxication, and gives a list of his own writings. In the third he endeavours to prove, that the command about not Eating Blood has no force in our time. In the fourth he treats on the subject of Usury, and shews that it is not prohibited in the Old or the New Testament, but allowed under certain restrictions. In the fifth he resumes the subject of the third, and dwells more particularly upon the reason assigned by God for the prohibition respecting the Eating of Blood, Gen. ix. 4. The last four were written from Cracow, between the years 1595 and 1597.

After an interval of more than forty years, we find Morstinius taking as lively an interest as ever in the success of the Unitarian cause, and using his influence to shield its advocates from persecution. On the 1st of March, 1639, he addressed a letter to the Senate of Dantzic, interceding on behalf of Martin Ruarus, who had been threatened with banishment from that city, on account of his religion. This letter was signed by eleven Polish Nobles and Magnates besides himself, whose names are given by Sandius in his brief Memoir of Christopher Morstinius. The letter itself was inserted in the second Century of the Epistles of Ruarus, printed at Amsterdam, 1681, of which it forms the fifty-first.

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