Georg Schomann (Polish ''Jerzy Szoman'') (
Racibórz
Racibórz (german: Ratibor, cz, Ratiboř, szl, Racibōrz) is a city in Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland. It is the administrative seat of Racibórz County.
With Opole, Racibórz is one of the historic capitals of Upper Silesia, being t ...
1530 -
Chmielnik 1591) was a
Socinian
Socinianism () is a nontrinitarian belief system deemed heretical by the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. Named after the Italian theologians Lelio Sozzini (Latin: Laelius Socinus) and Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus), uncle ...
(
Unitarian) theologian.
In his youth, was distinguished by a deep Catholic religiosity. In the years 1552-1554 he studied at the Kraków Academy and then at
Wittenberg
Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon language, Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the Ri ...
, where he was Lutheran. He soon converted to Calvinism, and moved to
Pińczów
Pińczów is a town in southern Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, about 40 km south of Kielce. It is the capital of Pińczów County. Population is 12,304 (2005). Pińczów belongs to the historic Polish province of Lesser Poland, an ...
, where from 1558-1561 he taught at the local school and was a Protestant minister in churches in Pińczów and
Książ. He was one of the authors of the Polish
Brest Bible
The Brest Bible ( pl, Biblia Brzeska) was the first complete Protestant Bible translation into Polish, published by Bernard Wojewodka in 1563 in Brest and dedicated to King Sigismund II Augustus.
Polish full original title: ''Biblia święta, T ...
(1563). In Pińczów he funded and founded a library, mainly the work of the Swiss reformers, for the sum of 40 ducats. Here, too, he married.
His interest in
anabaptist
Anabaptism (from New Latin language, Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re- ...
doctrine, led him in 1569 to travel to
Hutterite
Hutterites (german: link=no, Hutterer), also called Hutterian Brethren (German: ), are a communal ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptism, Anabaptists, who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Refor ...
communities, and he was baptized in 1572 among the
Polish Brethren
The Polish Brethren (Polish: ''Bracia Polscy'') were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658. By those on the outside, they were called "Arians" or "Socinians" (, ' ...
and in 1573 started to operate as an
Arian
Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God t ...
preacher in
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
, then Lutosławice 1586-1588, and finally
Chmielnik 1589-1591.
Schomann presented radical religious and social views in polemical writings, and in many disputes, diets and synods, including a famous debate with the
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
Piotr Skarga
Piotr Skarga (less often Piotr Powęski; 2 February 1536 – 27 September 1612) was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Due to his oratorica ...
by invitation at the house of salt mine owner
Prospero Provana in Kraków. The debate played host to the leading Italian Antitrinitarian exiles, including
Giorgio Biandrata
Giorgio Biandrata or Blandrata (15155 May 1588) was an Italian-born Transylvanian physician and polemicist, who came of the De Biandrate family, powerful from the early part of the 13th century. He was a Unitarian.
Biandrata was born at Saluzzo, ...
,
Bernardino Ochino
Bernardino Ochino (1487–1564) was an Italian, who was raised a Roman Catholic and later turned to Protestantism and became a Protestant reformer.
Biography
Bernardino Ochino was born in Siena, the son of the barber Domenico Ochino, and at the ...
, Giovanni Alciato and
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile (; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian neo-Hegelian idealist philosopher, educator, and fascist politician. The self-styled "philosopher of Fascism", he was influential in providing an intellectual foundation for I ...
. Schomann debated also with
Faustus Socinus
Fausto Paolo Sozzini, also known as Faustus Socinus ( pl, Faust Socyn; 5 December 1539 – 4 March 1604), was an Italian theologian and, alongside his uncle Lelio Sozzini, founder of the Non-trinitarian Christian belief system known as Sociniani ...
.
Works
* Autobiographical ''Testamentum ultimae voluntatis'' (1684 in Amsterdam in "
Bibliotheca antitrinitariorum
The ''Bibliotheca antitrinitariorum'', or ''Antitrinitarian Library'', first published in 1684, is a posthumously published work of Christopher Sandius (English: Christopher Sand), an exiled Prussian Antitrinitarian in Amsterdam, who chronologicall ...
" of
Christopher Sandius Christopher Sandius Jr. (Königsberg, October 12, 1644 – Amsterdam, November 30, 1680) was an Arian writer and publisher of Socinian works without himself being a Socinian.
His name was Latinized as Christophorus Sandius, though his German name a ...
Schomann drew up the first
Socinian
Socinianism () is a nontrinitarian belief system deemed heretical by the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. Named after the Italian theologians Lelio Sozzini (Latin: Laelius Socinus) and Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus), uncle ...
catechism (1574) of the
Polish Brethren
The Polish Brethren (Polish: ''Bracia Polscy'') were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658. By those on the outside, they were called "Arians" or "Socinians" (, ' ...
. It was followed by that of
Faustus Socinus
Fausto Paolo Sozzini, also known as Faustus Socinus ( pl, Faust Socyn; 5 December 1539 – 4 March 1604), was an Italian theologian and, alongside his uncle Lelio Sozzini, founder of the Non-trinitarian Christian belief system known as Sociniani ...
himself.
Like another Polish Brethren writer
Andrzej Wiszowaty Andrzej Wiszowaty Sr. (Latin ''Andreas Wissowatius'') ( Filipów 1608 - Amsterdam, 1678) was a Socinian theologian who worked with Joachim Stegmann (1595–1633) on the Racovian Catechism of 1605, and taught at the Racovian Academy of the Polish Bre ...
he was cited by
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
[R. E. Florida Voltaire and the Socinians - Page 54 1974]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schomann, Georg
1539 births
1591 deaths
Jagiellonian University alumni
Converts to Calvinism from Roman Catholicism
Polish Unitarian theologians
Translators of the Bible into Polish