146 ANTEMURALE
Toleration — Vindiciae pro religionis libertate (Justifications for the Liberty of
Religion, 1639) - should be written by Jan Crell (1590-1633), Rector of the
Rakow Academy. Even so, persecution of the Arians was extremely desultory.
Action against them by the religious authorities led only to their departure to the
estates of some sympathetic nobleman. In 1582, when Budny was solemnly
anathematized by the Calvinist superintendent of Malopolska, he took refuge
with Jan Kiszka at Luck. In 1618, when the most important Arian centre in
Lithuania at Nowogrodek was closed by royal decree, its members were taken
in by Rafael Kos (1590-1633); and even in 1638, when Rakow was closed on
order of the Sejm after some of its students had ill-advisedly demolished a way-
side cross in the vicinity, the Polish Brethren continued their mission elsewhere
in the Republic.
In these circumstances, it was rare indeed that anyone should have paid for
their faith with their life. The young Italian, Francus de Franco (1585-1611),
executed in Wilno in 1611 on a charge of blasphemy was one exception; and
Ivan Tyshkovitch who suffered the same fate in Warsaw in the same year, was
another. Tyshkovitch was a citizen of Bielsk in Podlasie, a town belonging at
that time to the Queen, Constance of Austria. He was an Arian, a Ruthenian by
nationality, and apparently the victim of a local vendetta. He came from a pros-
perous merchant family, and had recently been appointed municipal tax-
collector. The local worthies started an enquiry into his affairs only when they
heard that he planned to build an Arian temple in the town; and they found a
pretext in the fact that his appointment as tax-collector had been made without
the administration of the required oath. According to witnesses present at the
interrogation, Tyshkovitch stated that he did not recognize the Trinity, and did
not know what it was, since it was not mentioned in Holy Scripture, but that
he recognized One God. In the magistrates' record, the clerk reported him as
saying that 'the Trinity is not God' and that 'he did not know what it was, man
or woman'. On appeal to the Crown Tribunal at Lublin, the magistrates' pro-
ceedings were declared improper. But the case was revived by an attack against
the court-house at Bielsk, launched by a band of Tyshkovitch's armed sympa-
thizers, both Catholics and Arians. This time, the attack was referred to the
Queen's private court, where the mayor of Bielsk, using blatantly falsified evid-
ence, turned the verdict against him. In September, the Marshal of the Sejm in
Warsaw gave a personal assurance that Tyshkovitch would obtain satisfaction.
Yet again on 7 October 1611 in the Assessorial Court in Warsaw, he was con-
demned to a 500 groszy fine, and to confiscation and banishment. He preferred
to fight on. Unfortunately, and despite another unfavourable court action in
which he faced the death penalty, he obstinately remained in the capital.
Released on bail, he was arrested at the gates of the Royal Castle when he came
in person to learn the final verdict. By order of the Queen, the death sentence
was confirmed. On Friday, 16 December 1611, in the Old Square, Tyshkovitch
was executed in public. First his tongue was excised, as a mark of blasphemy.
Then his body was sawn in two, as a mark of rebellion. Next, his arms and legs