Historical Sketch of the Rise Progress and Decline of the Reformation in Poland (Volume 1)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1838. Excerpt: ... The internal state of the clergy in Poland, and its relations with Rome during that period, are very little known. to the holy father and to the apostolical see. The Pope prudently gave way; and indeed a farther resistance on his part would have been not only useless, but even dangerous, in a time when the Protestant doctrines were rapidly spreading over Poland. We have now given our readers such details as we have been able to collect, about the relations which existed in Poland between church and state, or laity and clergy. We should be glad to have it in our power to convey to them some information respecting the internal state of the church in Poland and its relations with Rome, but the sources of such information are very scanty, and the ecclesiastical writers, almost the only authority whence we may derive some knowledge about that subject, are generally devoted to the papal interest. They report the several conflicts which had taken place between the laity and clergy as examples of impiety, carefully to be avoided by the faithful: but to mention instances of the clergy themselves opposing the unconditional supremacy of Rome, would have been to propagate examples of great scandal, and fraught with dangerous consequences. The Protestant authors of the sixteenth century, who have written under the influence of polemical excitement, have been perhaps too prone to exaggerate every circumstance which could corroborate their own views. At all events, we dare not rely on their sole evidence, lest we may incur the reproach of partiality to writers professing our own creed. There are, however, some traces in the papal writers that the Polish church previously to 1100 maintained a state of independence from the Roman see. The papal ordinance which seems to ha...