S chomann George was born at Ratibor, in Silesia, in the year 1530. The names of his parents were John Stanislaus Lossel, commonly called Schomann, and Ursula, daughter of Christopher Tiachowski, Chancellor of the Duke of Ratibor. Though of good family, his mother had no fortune ; for she was robbed of that by her brother Christopher, who seized upon the property of the whole family.

In his boyhood, Schomann was taught Grammar and Music, and educated in the Romish faith. In 1546, he went to Breslau, where he made some progress in the Arts ; and from an obstinate Papist, was converted to a kind of Lutheranism by his master, John Cyrus, who, after going into Italy, relapsed into Popery, and endeavoured to re-convert his pupil, by forcing upon him a canonry of Breslau. But the attempt was unsuccessful, for Schomann was so far from yielding to his entreaties, that he resigned a canonry, which he already possessed at Ratibor. His master having been foiled in his attempts to procure the bishopric of Breslau, turned Monk, and became Abbot of the Monastery of St. Vincent, at Breslau ; while he himself took charge of the education of Joachim and Frederick Malitzani, in the hope of accompanying them into France. But this hope was frustrated.

In 1552, he went to Cracow, where he made some progress in the study of Polite Literature and Philosophy. In 1554, he became an inmate in the house of Jerome Buzenski, manager of the salt-mines at Wieliczka, who appointed him tutor to his nephews, and some other noble youths ; and he continued to act in that capacity for a period of six years, during which he discharged his duties faithfully and assiduously to his pupils, as well as satisfactorily to their friends. This was a situation, in which he saw much of the world, and was exposed to temptations, from which he escaped, only, as he says, by the special providence of God. In 1558, he accompanied some of his pupils to Pinczow, and others to Wittenberg, where he derived great benefit from his intercourse with Peter Statorius and Philip Melanchthon. On his return from Wittenberg, he put himself under the care of John a Lasco, from whose judicious instruction he expected to receive much advantage ; but the death of that excellent man deprived him, as well as many others, of a faithful guide, and true friend. At this time he was at Pinczow, where he lived upon terms of familiar intercourse with Peter Statorius, John Thenaud, Francis Lismaninus, George Blandrata, and Bernardine Ochinus ; and became convinced that the doctrine of a perfect coequality in the three persons of the Godhead is an error, and forms no part of the religion of the New Testament, which teaches that there is One God the Father, One Son of God, and One Holy Spirit. He confesses, however, that he stood in need of further information on many points pertaining to this subject.

In 1560, he was nominated Minister of the Church at Pinczow, which was under the patronage of Nicholas Olesnicki ; and on the 18th of February, in that year, he married. About this time, Blandrata pointed out to him, and his friends, some objections, to which the doctrine of the Trinity was liable. These objections they submitted to the judgment of Gilowski, who confessed his inability to furnish a satisfactory reply to them.

In the autumn of 1561, Schomann was sent, by the Church and Synod, to exercise the office of the ministry at Xionx, which was within the jurisdiction of John Bonar, Castellan of Biecz, and Grand Procurator of Cracow, who ordered him to be expelled, and spoiled of all his goods, on account of his heterodoxy on the subject of the Trinity.

His first child, Paul, was born January 15th, 1562, and was baptized while an infant, no question having then been raised as to the validity of Infant Baptism.

In 1563, he was sent, by the Church, with Jerome Philipovius, and Stanislaus Lasocki, to the Diet at Petricow ; and while there, was charged with Arianism by Sarnicki and his party, who formally withdrew from the Conference.

On the 22nd of January, 1564, his eldest daughter was born: but her father being now convinced, that Paedobaptism is destitute of scriptural authority, resolved to defer her baptism, till she should have attained to years of maturity. In this same year, he received instructions to accompany Jerome Philipovius to the Diet at Warsaw, to answer a charge of heresy brought against them by Sarnicki, as blasphemers of the Trinity: but through the instrumentality of Prince Nicholas Radzivil, Palatine of Wilna, the machinations of Sarnicki were frustrated, and each party was allowed to profess its own opinions without further molestation. In the year following, Schomann again accompanied Philipovius to the Diet at Petricow, and engaged in a dispute with the Trinitarian party, which lasted a fortnight. But the assembly, as we have already seen in the account of Gregory Pauli, broke up, after a stormy debate, without coming to any decision. In 1566, however, when Schomann was deputed to attend the Diet with Philipovius and Stanislaus Cicovius, the adverse party so prevailed, that the Unitarians were obliged to make a precipitate retreat from the city; yet they obtained from the King, through Nicholas Sienicki, the interlocutor of their party, a promise, that they should not be molested on account of their religious opinions while he lived. From that time they absented themselves from the Diets ; and the orthodox obtained so much influence with the patrons of the Churches, as to induce them to eject those Ministers, who impugned the doctrine of the Trinity.

About this time, some of the brethren learned, from Lelio Socin's "Rhapsodies on the Prophet Isaiah," that the Son of God is not the second person of the Trinity, coessential and coequal with the Father, but the man Christ Jesus, conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, and raised from the dead. Schomann and his friends were now induced to search the Scriptures with redoubled diligence. Before this time, indeed, his views had ceased to be Trinitarian: but he had not seen his way so clearly as he now did, through the intricacies, by which the orthodox creed is surrounded. Mosheim says, that Schomann and his Pinczovian flock were not Socinians before the year 1566, which is perfectly true; because the Socinian doctrine, as taught in the "Rhapsodies" of Lelio, was unknown to them till that time, and was not fully developed, till his nephew Faust came to reside among them some ten or twelve years later.

Schomann left Pinczow in 1567, and went to Chmielnik, where he took up his abode with John Olesnicki. On the 20th of August, 1569, while he was still at Chmielnik, his daughter Martha was born. About this time, he went with Philipovius, Simon Ronemberg, and some others, into Moravia, to hold a consultation on the practicability of forming a union with the Anabaptists of that country. But the mission proved unsuccessful ; for their difference on doctrinal points was found to be so great, as to present an insuperable barrier to the union which was sought. "When they arrived," says Robinson, "they conversed with these brethren, and were extremely pleased with the regularity of their lives, and the simple discipline of their Churches: but when they came to speak of the doctrine of the nature of God, and affirm that they did not believe the Supreme Being existed in three persons, the Moravians considered them as little better than Atheists, and contended so sharply for a triune God, as to convince the Poles, that they could not admit Arians into their communion. Back they went solitary and sad, and their report was so affecting to the rest, that, adding to it the dismal state of affairs at home, they thought of throwing all up, and resigning themselves to a fate which seemed to forbid them to strive any longer for peace, against a world gone mad with errour, and vice, and intolerance. For a few weeks most of them left off preaching : only Czechovicius and Schomann persevered."

About three years after this unsuccessful attempt to form a union with the Anabaptists of Moravia, Schomann was baptized by immersion at Chmielnik; and in 1573, he was sent to the ministry of the Minor Church at Cracow, as the assistant of Gregory Pauli. Here his wife also was baptized, in the garden of Konarski, Castellan of Cracow. On the 1st of August, 1574, his wife's mother followed her daughter's example, and was baptized at Chmielnik ; and on the last day of the same month his younger son, Peter, was born. But the baptism of this second son, like that of the daughters, was deferred till he had arrived at years of responsibility.

Some of the Anabaptist party, among whom was George Schomann, held a Conference with Faust Socin, on the subject of Baptism, in the year 1577. Socin approved of Baptism by immersion, but said that it was not necessary in his own case, as he had not learnt his religion from them.

At the beginning of the year 1586, Schomann was sent from Cracow to the ministry of the Church at Luclavice ; and in the year following he returned to Chmielnik, where he died in 1591, about a year before Gregory Pauli, his friend and former colleague.

It is asserted by Mosheim, (vide Art. 52,) that Schomann was the original author of the celebrated Racovian Catechism ; and John Adam Müller has also ascribed it to him, in his Dissertation, "De Unitariorum Catechesi et Confessione Fidei omnium prima," inserted in a collection of writings, published by Bartholomaeus, under the title, "Fortgesezten nutzlichen Ammerckungen von allerhand Materien." (P. xxi. p. 758; apud Moshemii Institut. Hist. Eccles. Saec. xvi. Sect. iii. Pars. ii. C. iv. § x. p. 715, Not. p.) Towards the conclusion of Schomann's Will, there is an address to his children and grandchildren, which seems to confirm this opinion of Mosheim and Müller. In this address he says, " If I could have seen a purer Church in my age, or heard of one, I should certainly have joined its communion: but here, as you know, I have worshiped God the Father Most High, and the man Christ Jesus, his only-begotten Son, our Lord, in spirit and in truth, according to our Catechism, which I had specially collected for you out of the sacred writings." (Test. p. 196.) Sandius, therefore, appears to be mistaken in supposing, that Gregory Pauli was the original compiler of this work. Nor is there more probability in the opinion of those, who have attributed it to Faust Socin ; for he, in writing to Smalcius, Feb. 14th, 1595, speaks of his "Catechism begun scarcely three years ago," from which it manifestly appears, that it must have been undertaken after the death of Schomann. In a subsequent letter to Valentine Radecius, Nov. 23rd, 1603, Socinus says, "Statorius, after much reflection, and consultation on the subject with other brethren, has at length determined, as regards my labours, that, except the remodelling of the Catechism which is to be published, and to which I ought to apply along with him, I shall do nothing else than finish my reply to the Posnanians." The reason of this caution appears to have been the growing infirmity of Socin. We shall hereafter find Statorius associated with Smalcius and others, in the preparation of a Catechism for the press, which was probably no other than that of George Schomann, enlarged and revised, from time to time, after the period of the author's death.