Polish Protestants

Any thoughts about these Poles?

I have no thoughts of importance. Each to their own.

In Wroclaw, like anywhere else, we have various types/forms of worship. All get along fine.

Any more comments form ours valuable Polish Forums contributors?

Yes. Why is there no Wikipedia article on them like there is for the following:

Eastern Orthodoxy in Poland
Islam in Poland
Buddhism in Poland
Hinduism in Poland

Okay, so how did Protestantism get there and stay there, and are they mostly Lutheran (as I'd imagine)?

Del what are your thoughts?

The only thing I think I know is that a lot of the aristocracy who invited Jews to settle were Protestant. I think they were originally German or of German extraction. I may be wrong.

We have many types, including Lutheran. I have no idea as to their roots.

I imagine they don't pose a threat, due to their relatively small numbers.

I just found a 49 page pdf document all about the introduction of Protestantism to Poland and Bohemia. I skimmed through a few bits of it. That particular story starts in the year 1411 and ends in the early 17th century with persecution and stuff. It doesn't seem to be easy to find anything about this subject.

A search of Wroclaw (protestant churches in Wroclaw) only brings up sites that won't load.

I'll have to come back to this one.

A very interesting article

query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9407E5D8113BE733A25753C2A96 19C946397D6CF - Campaign against Prussian Poland

I know only that Jerzy Buzek (prime minister 1997-2001) is a Lutheran.
Adam Małysz (Olympic medalist in ski jumping, 4 times World Champion, 4 times winner of the World Cup, 4 times winner of the voting for the best polish athlete, a cult figure in Poland) is Lutheran too.

Józef Piłsudski, "father" of the Polish State (that re-gained the independence in 1918) was born Catholic, but change his religion (in 1899) to marry a Protestant woman.

Mikołaj Rej (or Rey) (1505-1569) - Renaissance poet and writer, "father" of the Polish literature, one of the very first that chose to write in Polish instead of Latin, "co-founder" of Polish literary language (famous for his words "A niechaj narodowie wżdy postronni znają, iż Polacy nie gęsi, iż swój język mają.", translated in Wikipedia as "Let it by all and sundry foreign nations be known that Poles speak not Anserine but a tongue of their own.").

And now searching in Wiki, I found out that one of the most important military figures in Polish Army during the WWII, Gen. Władysław Anders was born Lutheran, but later converted to Catholicism.

Other interesting results from Wikipedia:
Krystyna Janda, one of A. Wajda's favorite actresses (leading role in Man of Iron).
Jerzy Pilch, a popular contemporary writer.

This is one hell of an area.

To stay on topic the whole religious war thing happened. At one stage Lutheran Sweden had a Catholic Polish King. The Polish Nobility were Lutheran, The middle classes were Jewish and no one cared about the rural poor. Loads of other stuff happened but the story (from a very brief reading) is not dissimilar to elsewhere.

It seems indeed that the nobility who encouraged the Jews to settle were protestant when they did so. (Jews had been there for centuries) It then gets just as complicated as it was before.

I can give URL's if anyone is interested. But (unsurprisingly) nothing concise.

Del do you not know this stuff? and why do you ask?

When Jews were first invited to Poland there was no such thing as protestants.

As for Protestants though, Poland was fairly unique in Europe at in the first decades of the protestant movement. The country was very tolernat of other cultures and religions. Those who found no freedom of thought or faith in other European countries came to Poland, a country with the first ever official charter forbidding religious persecution (introduced in 1573)

Mistake were made later, when Polish quasi-constitution suggested that Poland's kings should be Catholic (so that the king would still have someone above - the pope). That lead to the de facto rule of the RC and we know how the religion of love dealt with those who rejected the pope's rule.

here you have something about the subject: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Brethren

Nice of you to point that out.

You however missed this bit

"I may be wrong."

And this bit

"It seems indeed that the nobility who encouraged the Jews to settle were protestant when they did so. (Jews had been there for centuries)"

I read a lot of these last night plus other stuff regarding religion and wars and nobility etc. paying attention to dates, names and what I already know.

I'm no expert in this area but I know how to research my pub quiz knowledge.

I'm now going to read allthe words of other posts

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulturkampf



False. It was King Kazimierz long before protestants.

By the way it is strange to talk about protestants and catholics with people from country durring religous war. Look on Northern Irleand.

Adam Malysz is from Wisla, which, as far as I know, is the only town in Poland to be majority protestant. There is also a plethora of protestant churches round Lodz, and quite a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses (8000 in Warsaw)

One of the more unusual homegrown protestant churches is the Mariavites (Kosciol Mariawicki) who have very specific beliefs. I think their Cathedral is in Plock, but they have a rather nice new church in Warsaw.

I recently read a statistic, in a source which I cannot cite right now, that Poland was 70% Catholic and 30% other. I am a Lutheran, and I can say with a great degree of certainty that there are not too many of us Polack-Lutherans in America.

If you read my post again you will notice I missed nothing.
Oh, you need to read about Statute of Kalisz (1264) first.

Will do thanks

I'd love to hear from some Polish Protestants. Us Scots are more aware of the Catholic/Protestant divide. Students here learn the Catechisms but that shouldn't preclude the teaching of Sola Scriptura and other Protestant Reformation texts.

There is a small Czech Brothers community still living in Zelow, not far from Lodz

I think the problem with this thread is that Polish people likely think it means protesters and not Protestants ;) ;)

Polish Protestants, wow, you are targetting less than 5% of the population here on a forum. Good luck :)