THE NOBLE DEMOCRACY 277Vatican's Office for the Propagation of the Faith, were based on personal and
extremely shrewd observation. In France, Poland was little known until the
publication of Kromer's Chronicle in Paris in 1566; but great publicity was
aroused by the election of Henry Valois in 1573. In Germany, Polish affairs were
mainly publicized by German subjects of the Republic who objected to ill-
informed attacks on their homeland. The Encomium Regni Poloniae (1621) by
Jakub Gadebusch of Danzig, and the De scopo reipublicae Polonicae (1665) by
Johann Sachs of Thorn (Marinius Polonius), were both published from motives
of wounded patriotism. In England, a certain limited information was contained
in the Itinerary (1617) of Fynes Morison. Full-scale treatment had to await the
attention of Dr Bernard O'Connor, sometime physician at the court of John
Sobieski, who published his two-volume History of Poland in 1698. In Sweden,
the jurist and historiographer Samuel Pufendorf was able to draw on Swedish
involvement in Polish affairs to paint a sceptical, if not pessimistic, assessment.
Throughout Europe, however, Polish authors were known and read.
Poland-Lithuania belonged to the international 'Republic of (Latin) Letters'.
The works of Modrevicuis, Goslicki, Bielski, Kromer, Varsevicius, Opalinski,
were accessible to all who cared to inquire.
Western analysts found great difficulty in classifying a constitution, which
could not be easily fitted into the traditional Ciceronian categories of monarchy,
aristocracy, or democracy. Everyone agreed that the Republic could not be
regarded as a 'true monarchy', like most European kingdoms. Botero said it was
'more republican than monarchical'; Bodin called it a monarchia libera, or
'loose monarchy'; Guillaume Barclay, Professor of Law at Paris, declared: 'The
Poles have neither King nor Kingdom, but a sort of oligarchy concealed beneath
the royal title.' A wide variety of terms were used to describe the status of the
Polish King. Bodin called him 'capitaine en chef. Others called him 'a first mag-
istrate', 'a curator', or 'a chairman'. At all events, he was not a sovereign. Botero
added most shrewdly, no doubt with Bathory in mind, that 'the King has as
much power as his skill and understanding can give him.' In so far as Monarchy
was generally held to be a divine institution, instituted by God, there was a
widespread acceptance of the myth that Poland's Royal elections represented
the survival of a prehistoric, pagan custom, variously ascribed to the Goths, the
Celts, the Vandals, or the ancient Sarmatians.
The Republic's detractors were naturally to be found amongst those who set
greatest store on the virtues of Monarchy; yet their criticisms were usually mild
and constructive. Jean Bodin, for one, studied the question with great care and
precision. As orator to the Polish embassy which came to Paris in 1573, he had
debated the issues with the Polish senators at first hand. His Six livres de la
Republique (1576) revealed a close knowledge of Kallimach, Miechowit,
Kromer, and especially of Modrzewski, whose propositions he reviewed in
detail. Bodin classified the Poles, together with the British and the Scandinavians,
as 'northerners' who are instinctive haters of tyranny. Whilst criticizing the
elective nature of Polish kingship, he declared that its uncertainties presented a