Otvinovius Erasmus

Otvinovius Erasmus , (Polon. Otwinowski,) was a Polish Knight, who, with eight of his brothers, embraced the Socinian doctrines. He flourished as early as the year 1564, at which time he must already have nearly attained the age of forty. The exact date of his birth is not known ; but Sandius vouches for the facts, that he was living in 1608, and was upwards of ninety years of age at the time of his death. Christopher Lubieniecius, the elder, married his daughter, Anne. He was doubtless the same individual, of whom Smalcius relates, that he died about the end of May, 1614 ; and who, fifty years before, had snatched the wafer from the hand of the officiating Priest at Lublin, and trampled it in the mud. (Smalcius, apud Zeltneri Hist. Crypto-Socinismi, Suppl. p. 1202.) Lubieniecius, in his "History of the Polish Reformation," (L. iii. C. i.) gives a particular account of this transaction, and of the consequences to which it led; and Count Krasinski, in his "Historical Sketch of the Rise, Progress and Decline of the Reformation in Poland," (Vol. I. pp. 327—329,) mentions it, and details the circumstances connected with it, for the purpose of shewing the weakness of the authority of the Romish Church in the middle of the sixteenth century ; and the contempt into which it had fallen at that time in Poland. "Erasmus Otwinowski," says he, "who afterwards became conspicuous as an adherent of the antiTrinitarian sect, and as Head Master of their celebrated School at Racow, succeeded in convincing by his arguments a Roman Catholic Priest of the absurdity of the real presence in the Eucharist, so that the Priest promised to him never to expose it to the adoration of the people. The Priest did not, however, keep his promise, and carried the host in the usual manner at the solemn procession in the streets of Lublin. Otwinowski stopped the Priest in the midst of a large crowd of people, and loudly reproached him for performing a ceremony, the absurdity of which he had himself acknowledged. He demanded of the Priest to say the Lord's Prayer, and when the Clergyman said, 'Our Father, which art in heaven,' Otwinowski exclaimed, 'God is then in heaven, and not in the bread;' and saying this, he snatched from the hands of the Priest the box, containing the consecrated wafer, which he threw on the ground, and trampled under his feet. The assembled crowd murmured at the profanation of the established worship, but offered no violence to Otwinowski. The Priest sent for an armed force to arrest him, but he took shelter in the house of a Protestant Noble of the name of Suchodolski. This daring act, which was certainly reprehensible for its violence, but which may be excused by the zeal of Otwinowski, who was risking his life rather than suffer what he justly considered as an impious idolatry, produced, as it may be supposed, the greatest scandal among the Roman Catholics ; and it could not but injure the belief in the transubstantiation, as no signs of heavenly wrath appeared to punish such a daring act of profanation of an object which was considered so sacred in the eyes of the Roman Catholics. He was accused before the tribunal of the Diet, and was in great danger of being condemned to a severe penalty; but his advocate, the celebrated Rey of Naglovice, who was at that time Member for Cracow, succeeded in giving a favourable turn to this affair. He defended him on the plea that there was no law that provided against a similar trespass, and that he could only be condemned to indemnify the Priest for the broken box, and the flour expended in making the wafer. Otwinowski was therefore acquitted ; but a new law was enacted, which severely prohibited the disturbance of any religious worship, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant."

He translated all the parables of our Lord, which he dedicated to the Duke Ostrorog, Palatine of Kiof ; and wrote the lives of all the women mentioned in the Old and New Testament. Both these were in Polish verse. He likewise composed a work, entitled "Christian Heroes," containing short sketches of the lives of illustrious Christians, who distinguished themselves during the Reformation in Poland and Lithuania. This also was in Polish verse, but was never printed, though it is frequently referred to by writers, who have interested themselves in the history of modern Unitarianism. A catalogue of the names of those, of whom an account is given in this work, together with other things, which appeared most worthy of preservation, was rendered into Latin by Benedict Wissowatius, and subjoined to Andrew Wengerscius's "History of the Slavonian Reformation," printed at Amsterdam in 1679, 4to. Erasmus Otvinovius wrote another little work in Polish verse, entitled, " A Contest between a Baker and a Painter concerning their Gods, which was the more excellent ?" The question is decided in favour of the Painter, because his God remains ; whereas that of the Baker is obnoxious to many changes. In Polish literature, Erasmus Otvinovius is known as the translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

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