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Modrzewski was surrounded by a whole generation which shared his critical
temper. Mikolaj Rey (1505—69) displayed an acute social conscience. The Polish
Brothers had an impact of continental scope in political as well as in religious
affairs. Grzegorz Pawel z Brzezin (1525—91), a leveller of the most militant
stamp, who condemned the existence of social estates, of private property, and
of all state power as the source of wars and conflict, holds an honoured place in
the prehistory of the Far Left.
Another voice of warning that was heard and remembered throughout the life
of the Republic was that of Piotr Skarga (1536-1612). Skarga, sometime Rector
of the Jesuit College and Academy at Wilno, became Chaplain and Prelector at
the court of Zygmunt III. In 1597, he preached a series of eight sermons before
the Sejm of that year in Warsaw, which as Kazania sejmowe or 'Sermons of the
Sejm' ran into seven editions, and were constantly read and quoted. Skarga's
standpoint was a conservative one. He was counted a pillar of the Regalist party,
and favoured the contemporary theories of the Counter-Reformation on the
Divine Right of Kings and the prerogatives of the Church. His supposed rejection
of Absolutism amounted to little more than a preference for 'Christian
Monarchy' of the Spanish type over the 'barbarian tyranny' of Moscow. It is not
surprising that Zebrzydowski's rebels considered him the 'praecipius turbator
Reipublicae', the 'principal troublemaker of the Republic' Yet the power of his
language, the force of his commitment, the detailed nature of his criticism, and
his ringing prophecies of the retribution to come, must strike the modern reader
as solidly as they shook the senators and envoys in the pews of St. John's
Cathedral. 'We are gathered today in the Name of the Lord for the ordering of
affairs of state,' he began; 'but everywhere there is discord, treason, and rebel-
lion.' 'Discipline and self-restraint have perished in this kingdom,' he declared;
'No one fears the laws or institutions, no one even thinks of punishment. But
there where the Fear of God shall die, and shame decline... there, too, the
Republic shall die. Everyone defends our noble freedom, whilst honest liberty is
turned to disobedience and harlotry. All behave as Sons of Belial, without a yoke,
without reins.. .' In the second Sermon, he moved to the subject of Patriotism,
the Love of One's Country. Contrary to the later concept of Ojczyzna
(Fatherland), he talked mainly in biblical and metaphorical terms of 'Our own
Jerusalem', and ta mila Matka, 'our sweet Mother'. Yet his message was harsh.
He quoted the words of Solomon: 'Kingdoms come, and kingdoms go, and
nation succeeds unto nation.' The Republic, too, was not eternal; in a state of sin,
it, too, would pass away. In the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Sermons, he
was concerned with the prevalence of Heresy, which he saw as the source of
domestic unrest and of unjust laws. He obviously approved of those bishops who
in the Senate had condemned toleration as an offence against God's Majesty; and
he called for an end to the 'iniquitous' legislation of the Confederation of
Warsaw. There were plenty of Calvinists and oppositionists in the congregation,
and one can well imagine how their nostrils quivered. In the Sixth Sermon, he
turned to constitutional theory, taking his text from I Samuel 8:5, 'Give us a King