Georg Schomann (Polish ''Jerzy Szoman'') ( Racibórz 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, 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 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 by invitation at the house of salt mine owner

Prospero Provana Prospero ( ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of William Shakespeare's play '' The Tempest''. Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan The following is a list of rulers of Milan from the 13th century to 1814, after which it was in ...

in Kraków. The debate played host to the leading Italian Antitrinitarian exiles, including Giorgio Biandrata,

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.

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

catechism (1574) of the Polish Brethren. It was followed by that of Faustus Socinus 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