Kajetan Ignacy Sołtyk (12 November 1715 – 30 July 1788) was a Polish
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
bishop of Kraków
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...
from 13 March 1759.
Biography
Kajetan Sołtyk was the son of Józef Sołtyk, castellan of
Lublin
Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
), scion of the great Saltykov family of Russia, he was educated by
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
and took
Holy Orders
In certain Christian denominations, holy orders are the ordination, ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders inclu ...
in 1732. From 1735 to 1738 he studied in Rome (
University of Rome La Sapienza
The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...
).
After his father died, saddling the family with debt, Kajetan was unable to afford to return to Poland until 1740, when he attached himself to the court of bishop of
Kraków
, officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
Jan Lipski. Since then he started becoming more and more active on the political scene. In 1753 he was involved in a
blood libel
Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mu ...
process against
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
, which resulted in 13 of them being sentenced to death. As a politician he was known to use unethical means - from
nepotism
Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...
through
forgery
Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally consists of the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific mens rea, intent to wikt:defraud#English, defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be fo ...
of documents to bribing the local
szlachta
The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...
(Polish nobility) at
sejmik
A sejmik (, diminutive of ''sejm'', occasionally translated as a ''dietine''; ) was one of various local parliaments in the history of Poland and history of Lithuania. The first sejmiks were regional assemblies in the Kingdom of Poland (before ...
s (local parliaments). During the reign of
Augustus III of Poland
Augustus III (; – "the Saxon"; ; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as List of rulers of Saxony, Elector of Saxony i ...
, known to be the height of political corruption and anarchy in the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
, he became one of the most important politicians at the royal court, working closely with the ''de facto'' ruler of Poland, Count
Heinrich von Brühl
Heinrich, Count von Brühl (, 13 August 170028 October 1763), was a Polish-Saxon statesman at the court of Electorate of Saxony, Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and a member of the powerful German von Brühl family. The incumbenc ...
. In 1756 he became the bishop of Kiev. However, from the early 1760s due to various conflicts he distanced himself from Brühl.
After the death of Augustus III, Kajetan Sołtyk initially opposed the election of
Stanisław August Poniatowski
Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski (), was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuani ...
, although later, partially due to his worsening health, Soltyk somewhat distanced himself from politics. He became deeply involved in politics again as the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
ambassador Nicholas Repnin started fomenting unrest in the Commonwealth by encouraging the
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
s, the Eastern Catholics and the Orthodox to demand all state positions equal to that of the Roman Catholics including a royal one. One of Sołtyk's main goals then became to dethrone King Poniatowski. In the shifting world of political alliances, for a time he worked with pro-Russian factions, but eventually became an opponent of Repnin.
During the
Repnin Sejm
The Repnin Sejm () was a Sejm (session of the parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1767 and 1768 in Warsaw. This session followed the Sejms of 1764 to 1766, where the newly elected King of Poland, Stanisła ...
in 1767, Sołtyk opposed the practical dictatorship of Repnin, and for this opposition he was arrested and imprisoned in
Kaluga
Kaluga (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Its population was 337,058 at the 2021 census.
Kaluga's most famous residen ...
, along with three other Polish
senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
Seweryn Rzewuski
Seweryn Rzewuski (; 13 March 1743 in Podhorce – 11 December 1811 in Vienna) was a Polish nobleman, writer, poet, general of the Royal Army, Field Hetman of the Crown, Voivode of Podolian Voivodeship and one of the leaders of the Targowi ...
). Sołtyk was a vocal opponent of giving non-Catholics equality with Catholics, and he issued a manifest calling for prayers for preservation of the faith and national freedoms which initiated the
Bar confederation
The Bar Confederation (; 1768–1772) was an association of Polish nobles (''szlachta'') formed at the fortress of Bar, Ukraine, Bar in Podolia (now Ukraine), in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian C ...
.
Sołtyk returned from his imprisonment in 1773. He protested the
First partition of Poland
The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...
in the Senate. His increasingly erratic behavior allowed his opponents, in 1781, to declare him insane by the Permanent Council and King Stanisław August. A special commission was tasked with investigating his situation. The problem caused much controversy, as it was alleged that the investigators were influenced by various political motivations. The
Sejm
The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...
of 1782 was heavily preoccupied with this case. One of the primary issues was the relevance of the neminem captivabimus law, which had no provisions for mentally ill persons, and which guaranteed wide personal freedoms to Polish nobility. Amendment bills were submitted, but were met with opposition and filibusterer, preventing the Sejm from making much progress on any issues. Eventually, Sołtyk failed to reclaim his bishopric from the substitutes who administered it in his absence. Thus for the last years of his life his political influence and power significantly waned.
Notes
References
*
Polski Słownik Biograficzny
''Polski Słownik Biograficzny'' (''PSB''; Polish Biographical Dictionary) is a Polish-language biographical dictionary, comprising an alphabetically arranged compilation of authoritative biographies of some 25,000 notable Poles and of foreigner ...