162 KOSCIOL
French press.^10 In 1868, Bishop Wincenty Popiel of Plock (1825-1913) was
deported for resisting the imposition of lay delegates to the Sacred College. In
1869, Bishop Konstanty Lubienski (1825-69) of Augustow died from maltreat-
ment during his transportation to Russia. During the Russian Revolution, the
Polish hierarchy in the eastern provinces suffered still more severely.
Archbishop Jan Cieplak (1857-1926), the last Catholic metropolitan of
Mogilev, was arrested by the Bolsheviks, and died soon after his return from a
Soviet prison. Monsignor Konstanty Romuald Budkiewicz (1867-1923) of
Wilno, like many anonymous victims among the lesser clergy, was shot.^11
In the later nineteenth century, whilst upholding its conservative social philo-
sophy, the Catholic Church was-drawn increasingly into all manner of social
and cultural enterprises, and eventually into party politics. Traditional charita-
ble activities among the sick, the poor, and the young were extended into the
factories, trade unions, publishing and intellectual circles. The Chadecja
(Christian Democratic Movement) was founded in 1902 to counter the popu-
larity of Socialism, and to moderate the influence of Dmowski's National
Democracy. Originating in Poznania as a by-product of the conflict over the lan-
guage issue in schools, it gave rise in 1905 to a similar movement in Russian
Poland, the 'Association of Christian Workers' (SRC), and in 1908 in Galicia to
the 'Christian Social Movement' (SCS). In terms of numbers, it soon gained a
dominant position in the Polish working class, especially in Poznania and
Silesia. Its leading figures included Wladyslaw Korfanty, Karol Popiel, and
Bishop Stanislaw Adamski (1875—1926). Its main press organs included Polonia,
Rzeczpospolita, and Gios Narodu (The Voice of the Nation). A veritable renais-
sance of Polish Catholicism ensued. Thrown into the thick of social conflict,
young Catholic activists were obliged to rethink the intellectual foundations of
their Faith, and to redefine their goals. In the population at large, the cult of St.
Francis of Assisi whose Fioretti has appeared in a Polish translation by Leopold
Staff, answered a strong need for simple, humble Christian virtues in a compli-
cated, arrogant, pagan world. In the seminaries, especially of the Polish
Dominicans, Thomist philosophy enjoyed a marked revival, which led in the
first months of Independence in 1918 to the foundation of the Catholic
University of Lublin (KUL).^12
The assertion of specifically Catholic values added a new dimension to Polish
intellectual life. Journals such as Prad (Trend) and the Jesuit Przeglqd
Powszechny (General Review) in Cracow, and writers and theologians such as
Walery Gostomski (1854-1915) or Jacek Woroniecki (died 1949), dissociated
themselves from clerical conservatism no less than from 'godless socialism' or
'loveless nationalism'. The new generation of Catholic intellectuals who first
made their appearance before the First World War took a neutral position in the
current debate between Socialists and Nationalists, between Pilsudski and
Dmowski, between Left and Right. They were offended by the blasphemous
messianic metaphors of the insurrectionaries with their visions of 'Poland -
the Christ of Nations' and embarrassed by the xenophobic, and frequently