184 SZLACHTA
were plenty of Germans, and a steady stream of Irish and Scots. The latter, like
Jakub Butler (1617), 'Henry de Gordon' (1658), 'Hugo O'Kelly' (1673),
Archibald Patrick Middleton (1768), or Joseph Foresyth (1793), were mainly
soldiers. An occasional Englishman appears from time to time, like Mr Corry
Frevort, Consul at Danzig (1773), and a single solitary American, Stanislaw-
August's secretary, Littlepage. The ceremonies of indygenat often took place
during the Coronation Sejm at the beginning of the reign, where one of the can-
didates would be chosen as eques aureatus or 'Golden Knight' to lead the band
of fortunates. In the eighteenth century, they were enlivened with the whiff of
an auction. In 1764, Pierre Raucour, a Jewish banker from Paris, long estab-
lished in Warsaw, paid 126,666 zl., 20 groszy, for the elevation of himself and
his three sons.^28
The concern of the Nobility for their status vis-a-vis the rest of society was
matched by their mania for equality among themselves. In a land where such
extremes of fortune prevailed, it may seem odd that anyone should even have
talked of equality. In fact, from the psychological point of view, the pursuit of
equality was an essential antidote to the real state of affairs. It was a defence
mechanism, a social lubricant, which enabled the szlachta to stand together and
face the world outside. It was a beautiful fiction, a cult — which provided the
basic rules of political and social life for at least three centuries. From the very
earliest days of the Republic, and before, all attempts at differentiating between
the high and the low were fiercely resisted. In 1537, in the so-called Wojna
Kokosza or 'War of the Chickens' - so called, because the soldiery consumed all
the poultry of Red Ruthenia - the mutinous feudal host rejected proposals to
create an upper caste as in neighbouring Bohemia, or in Germany. In 1569, in
the Act of Union itself, the titles of the Lithuanian princes had to be confirmed,
for without it the Union would not have been agreed; but it was ruled that
henceforth no one should adopt new titles or use a foreign title within the fron-
tiers of the Republic. In 1638, in view of numerous contraventions, and again in
1641, 1673, and 1678, the Sejm banned titulation on pain of infamy. In 1699,
when the noble deputies realized that phrases such as szlachta mniejsza (the
lesser nobility) and szlachta wieksza (the greater nobility) had crept into the
minutes of the Sejm, they ordered them to be struck from the record as words
contra aequalitatem (contrary to the principle of equality).^29
Elaborate social manners were designed to reinforce egalitarian ideas. In pub-
lic, Polish noblemen were used to address each other as 'Panie Bracie' ('My Lord
Brother'). In the army, everyone was Towarzysz'('Comrade'). Among acquaint-
ances, people talked in the third person, using 'Wasza Milosc' or 'Wasc' ('Your
Love'), or 'Wacpan' (Wasza Milosc, Panie), in the way that Spaniards use
'listed' or the Italians 'Lei'. Even in the family, parents were accustomed 'to
Waszmosc their children, and children their parents. Only at a public execution
was a nobleman addressed as 'Ty' ('Thou'), and that as a sign of equality with
the hangman. Noblemen customarily greeted each other with kisses on the
cheeks, on the hands, on the shoulder, or even on the belly. This was a sign of