Valentinus Smalcius (german: Valentin Schmalz or ''Schmaltz''; pl, Walenty Smalc) (

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the Gotha (district), district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine House of Wet ...

, 1572 –

Raków, Kielce county Raków is a village in Kielce County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Raków. It lies in historic Lesser Poland, approximately south-east of the regional ...

1622) was a German

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 ...

theologian. He is known for his German translation of the

Racovian Catechism The Racovian Catechism ('' Pol.'': Katechizm Rakowski) is a nontrinitarian statement of faith from the 16th century. The title ''Racovian'' comes from the publishers, the Polish Brethren, who had founded a sizeable town in Raków, Kielce County, ...

, and

Racovian New Testament The Racovian New Testament refers to two separate translations produced by the Unitarian Polish Brethren at the printing presses of the Racovian Academy, Raków, Poland. Enyedi's "Preface to the Racovian New Testament" Christopher Sandius in his ...

(1606) translated from Greek into Polish. A migrant to Poland, he became largely Polonised towards the end of his life. Schmalz was converted by Andrzej Wojdowski while at Strassburg University around 1592, and emigrated to Poland on graduation, after which he taught at Smigiel, Lublin, and t. Stanislaw Kot records that Schmalz became "a noteworthy example of the assimilative power of Raków". Like many of the emigrant Germans, French and Italians who came to Poland he married a Pole and brought up his children as Poles. Schmalz became so thorough Polonised that in addition to the Polish New Testament he composed Polish hymns, and kept his personal diary in Polish. He was a preacher 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" ( ...

Raków, Kielce County Raków is a village in Kielce County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Raków. It lies in historic Lesser Poland, approximately south-east of the regional ...

. The origins of the Racovian Catechism are not quite clear. A traditional view is that Smalcius put it together, perhaps with collaborators, from literary remains 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 ...

. Another is that it was developed by Smalcius and Hieronim Moskorzowski (Moscorovius) in 1605; others say Moskorzowski wrote it with

Piotr Stoiński Jr. Piotr Stoiński Jr. (1565-1605) was a Polish Socinian Unitarianism, Unitarian writer. Piotr was the son of Pierre Statorius (in Polish also Piotr Stoiński) the French Unitarian grammarian who emigrated to Poland wrote the first grammar of Polish. ...

(son of Pierre Statorius) and

Johannes Völkel Johannes Völkel ( la, Volkelius; c. 1565–1616) was a German Socinian writer. Völkel was probably born around 1565-1570, in Grimma, and probably converted during his studies at the University of Wittenberg, just as Valentin Schmalz had been con ...

, and Smalcius was the translator into German for publication in 1608. In any case the Catechism was constructed by disciples of Socinus, and Smalcius probably had a leading role. Moskorzowski exchanged pamphlets with the Jesuit

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 oratoric ...

, and Smalcius supported him. He later supported Völkel in a long controversy with the Jesuit

Martinus Smiglecius Martinus Smiglecius (another Latin variant: ''Martinus Leopolitanus'', also pl, Marcin Śmiglecki, lt, Martynas Smigleckis; 11 November 1564 – 26 or 28 July 1618) was a Polish Jesuit philosopher and logician, known for his erudite scholast ...

. He also attacked the views of the

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

Frantzius ( Wolfgang Franz).Peter Brock, ''Against the Draft: Essays on Conscientious Objection from the Radical Reformation to the Second World War'' (2006), p. 32 note 32.

Notes

External links

''Christian Cyclopedia''

* :de:s:ADB:Smalcius, Valentin {{DEFAULTSORT:Smalcius, Valentinus 1572 births 1622 deaths German Protestants German translators Polish translators Polish Unitarians Polish male writers Translators of the Bible into Polish German male non-fiction writers