(^148) ANTEMURALE
tombstones and memorials can be seen to this day; the Protestants made either for
Danzig or Thorn, or for Calvinist centres such as Stuck or Kejdany in Lithuania.
One Scottish immigrant, John Johnstone (1603-75), born at Samter (Samotuly) in
Wielkopolska, was educated at Leszno before proceeding to further medical stu-
dies at Leyden, St. Andrews, and Cambridge. In that same period, there were
English pupils, such as Thomas Segeth, at Rakow. In the words of Professor Kot,
'Anglo-Polish cultural relations were neither numerous nor lasting, but they did
have their curious and important moments.'^23
The German cities of the Republic harboured a number of specifically
German sects. There were Anabaptists from Munster who settled in Danzig,
Elbing, Braunsberg, and Marienwerder; and there was a smattering of
Schwenkfeldians - the Quakerish followers of Caspar von Schwenkfeld
(1490-1561) of Ossig in Silesia - who took refuge in Wielkopolska.
The Armenians were largely confined to the district of Red Ruthenia, descen-
dants of an ancient commercial community. Their Armenian Catholic cathedral
in Lwow dated from the fifteenth century.^24
The Muslims of the Republic derived mainly from Tartar settlements on the
western confines of the Grand Duchy. The first waves of immigration occurred
in Jagiellonian times, and another in 1658 after the campaigns against Prussia.
Although the Muslims did not attend the Sejm, they enjoyed the full military
rights of the szlachta and continued to serve in the ranks of all Polish armies
until the Second World War. In 16x6, when there were over one hundred
mosques in the Republic, an attempt was made by the Catholic bishops to
catholicize the children of mixed marriages; but in general they were left to their
own devices. In 1939, there were sixteen mosques in Poland. A residual element
still lives to this day in the area of Bialystok.^25
Compared to the Orthodox and the Protestants, the Jewish community lived
in relative peace and quiet. The Jews were protected by the most ancient char-
ters of religious liberty; and, so long as they observed strict religious segrega-
tion, they were not disturbed by attempts to convert them. The Roman
authorities were happy enough to receive Jewish converts to Catholicism, of
course; but the profession of Judaism was never an offence in itself, except for
Christian apostates. One of the very few cases in which a woman, Barbara
Weiglowa, in 1539, was burned at the stake in Cracow for heresy, seems to have
been occasioned not, as was once supposed, by her attachment to witchcraft or
to Lutheranism, but by her return to Judaism in rejection of her earlier conver-
sion to Christianity. There were occasional riots against the Jews, provoked by
the time-honoured blood-libel. In the worst such incident, in Cracow in 1637,
some eight Jews lost their lives. In 1667, a Jewish pharmacist, R. Matathia, was
burned in Cracow for blasphemy. In general, however, the Jews stayed aloof
from the squabbles of the Gentiles, having plenty of rich religious arguments,
sects, and squabbles of their own.^26
Of all the Jewish sects of the Republic, the Karaites possessed the longest
ancestry. Established in the eighth century among the Jews of the Orient, they
c. jardin
(C. Jardin)
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