THE BULWARK OF CHRISTENDOM 143
bypassing the influence of Catholic and Orthodox clergy. Soon after its appear-
ance in the mid-sixteenth century, it obtained a number of secure bases on the
estates of the Leszczynski at Leszno, of the Olesnicki at Pinczow, and of the
Radziwills at Wilno, Kejdany, and Stuck. As a result, the royal edict against
heresy of 12 December 1550 remained a dead letter. Thereafter, Calvinism
advanced swiftly. In 1554, the first Calvinist Synod of the Kingdom at Slomniki
empowered noblemen to divert the payment of tithes from the Roman Church
to their own pockets. In 1555, at the Sejm of Piotrkow, Rafal Leszczynski and
Hieronim Ossolinski mooted the possibility of creating a national church under
Zygmunt-August. In 1556, the first united Synod of Poland and Lithuania met
at Pinczow. In 1558, the Calvinists in the Sejm felt strong enough to challenge
the right of the Bishops to participate in the Senate. For the next two decades,
they constituted one of the most powerful groupings in political life, command-
ing the allegiance of an estimated 20 per cent of the nobility together with an
absolute majority among the lay members of the Senate. They were particularly
active in the Executionist Movement. By the inspiration of Jan Laski
(1499—1560), nephew of the late Primate of the same name, the Calvinists actu-
ally aimed to win a position of supremacy in the state. Their moments of suc-
cess came in 1565, when the King formally forbade his Starostas to enforce the
decisions of ecclesiastical courts against the nobility in matters of faith, and in
1573, at the Confederation of Warsaw, which was largely of their making.
Already, however, they were beginning to moderate their pretensions. Deeply
divided among themselves on issues of doctrine and discipline, they resigned
themselves, like the Catholic reformers, to defending their established position
and to propagating their views through education and publishing.
The divisions in the Calvinist camp were present from the start, and were
fuelled by the variegated origins of its members. Repeated attempts to devise a
form of Confession acceptable to all, failed repeatedly. In 1555, the declaration
of intercommunion with the Czech Brothers displeased as many as it satisfied.
In the following year, at Pinczow, Laski's interim motion to introduce a varia-
tion of Melanchthon's 'Augsburg Confession' was clearly designed to reconcile
the irreconcilable. In 1562, at the second united Synod of Pinczow, the proposi-
tions of the radicals proved repugnant to the majority. The minority then with-
drew to found their own separate sects. Formally condemned from Geneva, they
never returned to the fold. The solidarity of Polish Calvinism was broken for
good.
Calvinist cultural enterprises scored some notable achievements. Although
the New Testament had already been translated into both Polish and Lithuanian
at Konigsberg, the 'Brest Bible' published in 1565 by Mikolaj Radziwill marked
an important milestone in the progress of the Polish vernacular. In the works of
Mikolaj Rej (1505-69) and of Cyprian Bazylik (1535-1592), translator and hym-
nologist, the Calvinists made important contributions to the literature of the
'Golden Age'. Their printing presses and schools were in no way confined to
denominational activities. The original Calvinist Academy at Pinczow, known