126 ANTEMURALEas the 'Haven of Toleration'. In this way, Roman apologists have created the
impression that Poland was able to hold the barbarians at bay firstly because it
was solidly Catholic, secondly because its marvellous toleration gave no cause
for religious strife or for foreign interference. Certainly, the wording and sub-
stance of the declaration of the Confederation of Warsaw of 28 January 1573
were extraordinary with regard to prevailing conditions elsewhere in Europe;
and they governed the principles of religious life in the Republic for over two
hundred years:
Whereas there is a great dissidence in the affairs of the Christian Religion in our country,
and to prevent any sedition for this reason among the people such as we clearly perceive
in other realms - we swear to each other, on behalf of ourselves and our descendants, in
perpetuity, under oath and pledging our faith, honour and consciences, that we who dif-
fer in matters of religion will keep the peace among ourselves, and neither shed blood on
account of differences of Faith, or kinds of church, nor punish one another by confisca-
tion of goods, deprivation of honour, imprisonment, or exile...^3
Yet the declaration contained the proof of a nice contradiction. If the Catholic
Republic were truly the Haven of Toleration, it could only have been so by
virtue of the presence of numerous dissenters; but if the dissenting community
was really so numerous that it had to be tolerated, then the Republic could not
have been solidly Catholic. The exact measure of Poland's Catholicity, and of
her Toleration, is not easily calculated.^4
A short tour of exploration round Poland's religious past is full of surprises,
therefore. On the one hand, there is the unbroken presence of the Roman
Catholic Church, whose establishment reached back to the very beginnings of
recorded history, and whose supremacy was only briefly threatened. On the
other hand, there is constant evidence for numerous varieties of religious non-
conformity, sectarianism, schism, and heterodoxy. (See Diagram G.)
Undoubtedly, fervent Catholicism radiates from the earliest known composi-
tion in the Polish language. The hymn of the Bogurodzica (Mother of God) was
probably composed in the thirteenth century, and survives in a fifteenth-century
manuscript. In the Jagiellonian period, it was adopted as the battle-song of the
feudal host; and it was sung in chorus by the knights of the Polish—Lithuanian
Army before the Battle of Grunwald:
Bogu rodzica dzewica Virgin, Mother of God,
Bogem slawena maria! Maria, honoured by God,
Utwego syna gospodzina, Your son's patroness,
Matko swolena maria, Maria, chosen Mother!
Sziszci nam, Kyrieleyson! Assist us. Kyrie Eleison!^5
Indeed, the scene at Grunwald, where both armies appealed to the patronage of
the Virgin Mary, might suggest that the Poles, no less than the Teutonic