Pauli Grégory (1525-1591)

Pauli Gregory of Brzeziny, though of Italian extraction, was born in Poland. He is often called, by Stancarus and others, the Massovite. In 1552, Justus Decius, Secretary to the King, established a Reformed Church on his estate, called Vola, in the immediate vicinity of Cracow ; and of this Church Pauli was appointed Minister. In the Synodical Acts for 1556, he is styled the Pastor of Pelsnick, which was also in the neighbourhood of Cracow.

"It was by slow and wary steps," says the Rev. Robert Robinson, "that the Reformed approached Cracow, the metropolis of the whole kingdom, and the residence of the fierce Bishop Zebridowsky. They first procured two parish Churches in villages near the city, and placed the pious and learned Gregory Pauli to preach there, and the citizens went in crowds to hear him. Soon after Lasocki, Stradnizki, and other Noblemen, brought Reformed Ministers to preach in their houses, and the Castellan Bonar, Governour of the castle of Cracow, not only caused sermons to be preached in his own house, but in a spacious area of his garden near the walls of the city. Here Pauli often preached, and multitudes resorted thither to hear him. The clergy revenged themselves by refusing to sit down with them while they were alive, or to bury them after they were dead. This did not much affect them, for the Lord of Chelmski gave them a piece of ground three miles from the city to bury in, that they might not be obliged to submit to the papal service on that occasion. The Catholicks called this 'Dogs'-Hill,' for they thought to be buried without the ceremonies of the Church was to be buried like a dog : but the Protestants persevered in their practice."

Gregory Pauli was no less celebrated for his great talents, than his varied and extensive learning ; and became a bold defender of the Unity and Supremacy of the Father. He appears to have cherished sentiments at variance with the orthodox creed, some time before he openly asserted and maintained them; but, on the conversion of Francis Lismaninus, he threw off the disguise which he had previously assumed, and united with him in attacking the common opinions, respecting the nature of God, and the person and offices of Christ. He first avowed his Antitrinitarian sentiments at the Synod of Secemin, held January 24th, 1556. On this account he was charged with heresy at the Synod of Pinczow: but this did not intimidate, or silence him. He made no secret of his Unitarianism ; and openly avowed it from the pulpit.

He rejected the doctrine of the Nicene Creed, and that of the first five Oecumenical Councils. He condemned the baptism of infants ; advocated a community of goods; contended that a Christian should neither accept civil offices, nor bear arms ; and believed in a millennium, of which he expected to see the speedy arrival. It is said that he was first instructed in the principles of Arianism by Peter Gonesius: but if it were so, he soon abandoned the doctrine of Christ's preexistence, and publicly maintained, that his existence commenced with his birth into this world.

These opinions were strenuously combated by the orthodox party, and especially by Stanislaus Sarnicki, a violent Calvinistic Minister, and one of the most dangerous men in Poland. But they met with zealous and powerful advocates in other quarters;  and Pauli himself found a munificent patron in Stanislaus Cichovius, Arch-chamberlain of Cracow, and afterwards Castellan of Biecz, and a General in the army.

A vacancy occurring in Trinity Church, at Cracow, Cichovius, the patron of that Church, placed Pauli there ; and the citizens crowded to hear his sermons. Sarnicki had expected this preferment for himself ; and when he found that it was given to another, and particularly to an Antitrinitarian, his resentment knew no bounds, and he became a more violent adversary of the liberal party than ever.

Sandius states, that, while Pauli was preaching against the doctrine of the Trinity, about mid-day on Trinity Sunday, 1562, the ball at the top of Trinity Church was struck with lightning, and thrown to the ground. This was construed, by the more zealous Antitrinitarians, into a favourable omen ; while many of the other party regarded it as a token of the divine displeasure. Some said, that the blow was meant to strike terror to the heart of the Preacher ; but others said, that it was intended to impart new courage to him. The wiser and more reflecting portion of the community were silent.

During the controversy respecting the Trinity, which raged with unabated violence in Poland soon after the open declaration of his opinions by Gregory Pauli, he, with the approbation of several persons of rank and dignity, attempted to restore the peace of the Church, by a friendly Conference between the heads of the contending parties ; but the dispute was conducted with so much violence by the orthodox, that the assembly was abruptly dissolved, and a resolution was passed by the Trinitarians, that no future Conference should be held with their Unitarian opponents on these subjects. This event led to a separation ; and the Reformed Church was, from that time, divided into two parties, called the Greater and the Lesser Church, the former adhering to the prevailing sentiments respecting the Trinity, and the latter contending for the sole and undivided Supremacy of the Father.

In July, 1562, a Synod was held at Rogow, for the purpose of reconciling the two parties ; and in the month of August another was held at Pinczow, having the same object in view. At the former there was a manifest leaning towards the doctrines of Pauli, and at the latter his adherents were in an actual majority; but the inflexible Sarnicki refused to bow to its decisions. Another was afterwards summoned for the 4th of November, at which it was proposed, that the Helvetic Confession should be signed ; but that every one should be at liberty to interpret it in his own way. The proposition, however, was rejected ; and at the Conference of Petricow, held in the same year, the Antitrinitarian party solemnly rejected, as unscriptural, the doctrine of the Trinity, under the guidance of their Ministers, Gregory Pauli, Stanislaus Lutomirscius, Martin Crovicius, Stanislaus Paclesius, and George Schomann, and of several Nobles, among whom were John Niemojevius, Jerome Philipovius and John Cazanovius.

On the 14th of May, 1563, at the suggestion of Sarnicki, a Synod was convened, consisting exclusively of the Calvinistic party, and supported by Bonar, Castellan of Biecz ; Myscovius, or Myskowsky, Palatine of Cracow ; Firley, Palatine of Lublin ; and other patrons. This Synod condemned the doctrines of the Antitrinitarians in the most unqualified terms, and compelled Pauli to resign his office, as Minister of Cracow. A few days afterwards, the defeated Antitrinitarian party convoked a Synod of its own at Cracow, over which Lutomirscius presided. It consisted of twenty Ministers, and three lay patrons, who passed resolutions, declaring the proceedings of the former Synod null and void. The Antitrinitarians were now generally known by the name of Pinczovians ; and their doctrines spread rapidly among persons of all classes, particularly those of the higher ranks, including Magistrates, Nobles, Knights, Governors, Palatines, Officers of the Crown, Ministers, and Rectors of the Schools in Great and Little Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Podolia, Volhynia, Prussia, Silesia and Transylvania.

The King of Poland, desirous of seeing his subjects live in harmony with each other, acceded to a proposal, made to him by Philipovius, to call a Synod at Petricow, where both sides might be heard by Judges, chosen indifferently from the two parties, and their disputes might be finally adjusted. Accordingly, on the opening of the Diet of 1565, he issued an ordinance, that such a Conference should take place ; and it was held at Petricow in the year following. Of this memorable Conference the Rev. Robert Robinson, in his Ecclesiastical Researches, gives the annexed description.

"On the appointed day the delegates of both parties met. On the side of the Pinckzovians were Nicholas Sienicki, President of the Lower House of the Diet, usually called the Demosthenes of Poland ; the Castellan John Lutomirski, a member of the Upper House ; Philipowski, the Receiver-General of the district of Cracow ; and John Niemojevius, member for Inovladislaus. This last gentleman had been of the long robe, and Judge of that district which he now represented in the Diet. When he became a Dissenter, he embraced the Arian doctrine, was baptized by Czechovicius, and as he thought it not right for a Christian to take or exact oaths, he resigned his office. He published many books in favour of his sentiments, and one with this singular title. 'A Demonstration that the Papal Church is neither Apostolical, nor Holy, nor One, nor Catholick.' The Ministers on the same side were Pauli, Schomann, Lutomirski, and Paclesius. On the Calvinist side the Ministers were Sarnicki, Sylvius, Rokyta, one of the Bohemian Ministers, and Trecius, Rector of a School at Cracow. The Nobility on the same side were Marshal Palatine Firley, a zealous Calvinist, the Castellan Tornicius, and Count Ostrorog, a Nobleman who a few years before, being then Castellan of Posnania, had gone to a meeting of the Bohemian Brethren, intending to drive his lady out with a whip, but happened luckily to be converted on the spot, and joined the Church in the very hour. To these was added Myskowski, Castellan of Sendomir, one of a family who had hoped to ingross the large fortune of a brother's widow, and had been disappointed by Philipowski, who had married the lady. The Noblemen were Presidents by turns. The Synod sat fourteen days. Firley, being President the first day, opened the session with a short speech, in which he advised the parties to be at peace, and closed by saying, 'Let us begin the debate in the name of God the Holy Trinity.' Pauli exclaimed, 'We are not acquainted with the Trinity, we will not therefore say, Amen.' 'Begin then,' said the President. Pauli made a speech on the subject: but Sarnicki proposed, before they proceeded any further, to lay down a general rule to be agreed to by both sides, which was, that both should admit the authority of the Councils and primitive Fathers, and by them settle the difference. The Pinckzovians replied, that Luther, Zuinglius, and Calvin had rejected traditions in general, and Councils and Fathers, and established Churches in particular ; that they had taken Scripture, without any gloss or comment, for the ground of reformation ; and that their opponents being Protestants, had in effect renounced all rules of faith and practice except the Scripture, and consequently, unless they abode by that rule in the present case, the Catholics would obtain great advantages over them. The Calvinists could not answer this ; and after they had made use of many invectives in the Synod, they caballed out of it, and told the Calvinist Judges that it was a shame such blasphemy should be uttered ; that the Bishops would blame them for suffering it; that Hosius and all the Church of Rome had allowed the Trinity and Infant Baptism could not be proved by Scripture ; that they could not do impossibilities ; and that the Pinckzovians would certainly publish the conference, and give the common people great occasion of triumph. It was necessary therefore to get rid of the affair as well as they could, and it was done artfully enough. They desired a copy of what Pauli had delivered, as it should seem with an intention to answer it on a future day : but, says the impartial Fleury, the Calvinists, who had abundance of proofs taken from Councils and Fathers and Traditions, durst not make use of them ; and as they could urge nothing from Scripture, which the opposite party could not answer, they set up chanting in full synod, with all their might, 'Gloria Patri ; Glory be to God the Father, glory be to God the Son, glory be to God the Holy Ghost,' and so on. This procedure, adds the same writer, which ought to have been taken for a proof of their ignorance, and the loss of their cause, was considered by the Pinckzovians an insult to the majesty of Almighty God, and they withdrew extremely offended. After their departure, the remainder obtained a promise of the Marshal, who was President that day, that he would make a favourable report to the King ; and they agreed to hold no more Conferences with the Pinckzovians, whom they denominated Arians, and to oblige all their own Churches to adhere to the doctrine of one God in three coequal, coessential persons. The Arians protested against the injustice of all this ; but it did not signify: the die was cast." Firley made his report to the King ; and Sienicki, on the part of the Pinczovians, made his to the chamber of Nuncios. The only practical result of the Conference was, that the two parties, from that time, acted on all occasions independently of each other ; and that the Antitrinitarian Church, which had before received a distinct constitution of its own, thenceforward disclaimed all connexion with the orthodox party, having its own Synods, Ministers and Schools, and its own system of Church Government.

Pauli, after his ejectment from Trinity Church, remained for some time in Cracow, at the head of a separate congregation, which had embraced his opinions. He then retired to Pinczow, and after that to Racow, where he died, a very old man, in the year 1591, about a month after his friend and contemporary, George Schomann. Faust Socin, speaking of him about ten years before this, describes him as a discreet and learned man, who had laboured much and diligently in the Church of God, but was then laid aside by the infirmities of age, and incapacitated for any literary employment, by the weakness of his sight. (F. Socini Opera, Tom. II. p. 1.)

The number of writings, printed or in manuscript, which have been attributed to Gregory Pauli, is twenty-seven, of which little more than the titles, and those imperfectly, can be given in this place. They are as follow.

1. A Picture of the Trinity. This was anonymous, and without date, printer's name, or place of publication ; but various circumstances combine to shew, that Gregory Pauli was the author of it. Lauterbach says, that he saw and read this Picture in Poland with horror ; and Calvin, in the year 1563, a little before his death, mentions it in his "Brief Admonition to the Polish Brethren," and says that it was not without the bitterest sorrow that he looked upon it.

2. Antihymn: a kind of Appendix to the preceding, in Polish verse, written in reply to a "Hymn" in the same language, in which the Antitrinitarians were compared to Judas Iscariot. Matthias Strikowski is supposed to have been the author of the " Hymn."

3. The Tower of Babel. 8vo. Frankf. on the Oder. Stanislaus Sarnicki, about the year 1563, published a reply to "The Tower of Babel" and "Picture of the Trinity," entitled, "A Comparison, in which the Blasphemy of Gregory of Brzeziny, formerly Minister of Cracow, is openly demonstrated." 4to. pp. 66. The Comparison instituted in this work is that of the ancient and modern Arians.

4. An Antidote to the Articles of a New Faith, exhibited , by Sarnicki at Warsaw, in the Character of a New Pope: or, an Antidote to the decretal Canons of Sarnicki. Nieswiez, 8vo. [1563].

5. A monitory Epistle to the Ministers of Zurich. 8vo. [1563]. This refers in part to Calvin's "Brief Admonition to the Polish Brethren," mentioned above.

6. A Poem addressed to John Calvin, and his pious Brethren. 8vo. [1563]. This Poem, consisting of two hundred and eighteen verses, is given entire in the Appendix to Trechsel's "Die Protestantischen Antitrinitarier vor Faustus Socin," iites Buch. Sandius had previously inserted the first four verses in his B. A. (p. 44) ; and these, excepting a slight error of the press, agree word for word with the manuscript copy still preserved in the Library at Bern, from which Trechsel printed. The poem commences as follows.

"Maximus errorum, quot sunt, quotque ante fuerunt,
Quot vel erunt, Calvine, tuus deprenditur error:
Qui tam praecipiti calamo, describis, in uno
Tres residere Deo[s], Patrem, Verbum et Paracletum," &c.

7. A brief Demonstration concerning the God of Antichrist, &c. 8vo.

8. An Explanation of certain Passages of the Old and New Testament, which Antichrist has obscured, by feigning a Triune God, and a Christ which existed before Jesus, &c. 4to. This work, which is in the Polish language, is without either date, or author's name: but it was printed at Pinczow in the reign of Sigismund Augustus, who died A. D. 1572.

9. A Letter to Bullinger. MS. 1562. In this Letter the author sets forth his own opinion respecting the Supremacy of the Father, in opposition to Stancarus.

10. A Polish Version of Faust Socin's Explanation of the Proem of John's Gospel. 4to. This is without translator's and author's name ; or time and place of publication.

11. A Speech on the Origin of the Doctrine of the Trinity, delivered at the Conference of Petricow, A.D. 1565. This Speech is given by Lubieniecius in his "Hist. Ref. Pol." L. iii. C. v. pp. 202—205.

12. The first Racovian Catechism. On this subject more will be said in the account of George Schomann. (Vide Art. 49.

13. A Letter to Stanislaus Budzinius on the Question of Magistracy, and the Use of Arms. 1574. MS.

14. A Reply to those who defend the Preexistence of the Son of God. [1578.]

15. On the Invocation of Christ ; written about the year 1579.

16. A Reply, in the name of the Racovian Church, to a Treatise of James Palaeologus, in which he teaches, that Christ did not abolish the political Magistracy. 1573,1581.

17. A Treatise on the Millennium. [1590.

18. An Interpretation of the Words of Paul, 1 Cor. viii. 6. This was written in the Polish language, and is alluded to by Modrevius in his first " Sylva," C. i. Tract, i

19. Twenty Theses (concerning the Trinity, &c.) proposed at Racow, A.D. 1598, though not by the author himself, he having been dead seven years before that time

20. Equivalent and synonymous Scriptural Expressions concerning Jesus the Messiah, or concerning the Son of God born of Mary, &c. This is a Polish translation of Blandrata's little work on the same subject. Bock conjectures that it was printed at Pinczow

21. The Difference between the Old and New Testament, or Judaism and Christianity, from which may be seen nearly the whole Difference in Matters of Faith. 1568. This seems to have been borrowed from the "Christianismi Restitutio " of Servet, and is in the Polish language

22. A Description of Antichrist and his Kingdom, from his own Characters, as set forth in the Word of God, of which sixty are found in this Work. 4to. This also is a Polish translation from the "Christianismi Restitutio" of Servet

23. Some Brief Arguments against Paedobaptism: in the Polish Language

24t. On the true Death, Resurrection and eternal Life of Jesus Christ our Lord, and by consequence of all the Faithful, &c.: in the same language

25. Theses mentioned by John Meisner. Cracow, 1568. Bock thinks that this may be the same as No. 19.

26. Some writers have said, that Gregory Pauli published pictorial representations of a temple, of which Luther stripped off the roof, Calvin threw down the walls, and he himself dug up the foundations.

27. Stanislaus Sarnicki attributes to G. P. a work, entitled, " Revelationes Nieswiezenses," and another which he calls " Propositiones ob Spem Concordiae exhibitae," from both of which he quotes. These must have been in Polish, because the quotations are in that language.

(Vidend. Sandii B. A. pp. 31.43—45. Bock, Hist. Ant. T. I. pp. 597 —628. Lubieniecii Hist. Ref. Polon. L. ii. C. \ii. viii. ; L. iii. C. i. v. Stoinii Epitome, passim. And. Wissoivatii'Naxxa.tio Compend. pp. 211, 212. Muari Epist. N. 46. Robinson's Ecclesiastical Researches, Chap. xv. pp. 569. 586, 587. Fausti Socini Opera, 1. c. Krasinskfs Hist. Sketch of the Ref. in Poland, Vol. I . Pt. ii. Chap. vii. p. 335; Chap. viii. pp. 357—365. Trechsel, Lel. Sozini und die Antitrinitarier seiner Zeit. Beilage xx. S. 492—494. Moreri, Diet. Hist. Art. (Gregoire) Pauli.)

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