142 ANTEMURALE
Constitutions of the Diet of Poland and Lithuania in 1724'; and with the entire
correspondence of the King of Prussia with their Polish, British, Russian,
Danish, Swedish, French, Sardinian, and Imperial Majesties. Most curiously,
they were also treated to a number of 'true and faithful Catholick accounts' of
the affair, nicely calculated to have the opposite effect than that intended by
their supposedly Jesuit authors. To drive the point home, the English editor
added his own gloss:
Who can read without indignation, this abominable Account... without bringing to
mind the impious Doctrines of that Hellish Society.. .? The Letter of His Prussian
Majesty ... is sufficient of itself to destroy the Credit ... of the Jesuits, who are justly
charged to have fomented the Tumult, in order ... to blacken the Conduct of the
Protestants, and to charge them with Horrid Violences.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Tumult itself, there is no doubt that the
Prussians systematically exploited it for nefarious purposes of their own. For
decades past, the Hohenzollerns had tried to suborn the German cities of Royal
Prussia from their allegiance to the Republic. They carefully magnified the
grievances of the Lutheran Protestant community, and broadcast them round
Europe. They constantly prompted the Russians - if prompting was needed - to
take parallel action on behalf of the Orthodox. Their recruiting sergeants were
at work in Thorn and elsewhere. For them, the Tumult of 1724 was a heaven-
sent opportunity. For the nobility of the Republic, it was the last in a series of
provocations which lured them into fatal retaliation. Throughout the Great
Northern War (1700-21), they had seen the country torn apart by domestic fac-
tions and foreign invaders, all of which competed for the patronage of the 'dis-
sidents'. They had seen the manifest intolerance of all these champions of
religious toleration at first hand. In their helplessness, they lashed out in fits of
intemperance which rebounded to their own disadvantage. In 1717, the Sejm
resolved to limit the rights of the dissidents, and in 1718 expelled the sole
remaining non-Catholic envoy, the Calvinist, Andrzej Piotrowski from their
midst. In response, they found that the Lutheran Synod of the Republic, calmly
debating within the privileged walls of Danzig, was openly calling for the inter-
vention of foreign powers to remedy the 'oppression of the dissidents'. Their
exemplary punishment of the Torunians was clearly intended to teach the
Lutherans a lesson. By stressing the civil nature of the Burgomaster's offence, it
sought to underline the need for civil obedience. Of course, it had the contrary
effect. It inflamed the religious passions which it sought to contain, and pro-
vided the Republic's neighbours with a pretext for meddling which was never
relinquished until the Republic itself was destroyed.^18
The Calvinist community became a political issue at a much earlier stage. In
the Korona, it had attracted widespread support from the middling sort of
nobleman, who was trying to preserve his independence from the patronage of
the great families and who resented the wealth and influence of the Bishops. In
the Grand Duchy, it attracted the greatest magnates themselves, as a means of