Gregorius Pauli
Gregorius Pauli [1]
a Unitarian divine of Italian descent, flourished at Brzeziny in Poland near the middle of the 16th century. In 1556 he attended the Synod of Secemin, and favored Gonesius (q.v.), who there proclaimed his anti-Trinitarian opinions. Being accused at the Synod of Pinczow on that account, he threw off every restraint, and proclaimed from the pulpit his opinions respecting the mystery of the Trinity. He rejected the Nicene Creed and the doctrine of the first five oecumenical councils. He went even much farther than Gonesius and Arius, maintaining that Christ did not exist before his birth, and consequently reduced him to the condition of man. He condemned the baptism of infants, and maintained that Christ had abolished the temporal powers, that death did not separate the soul from the body, and that the body did not in reality die; that the Holy Scriptures do not establish any difference between the resurrection of the soul and of the body, but that they will both have a common resurrection; that the spirit formed not a separate and independent substance; that God raised from the dead the body of Christ, which entered heaven; that the doctrine about the death of the body was introduced by the antichrist, who established by it purgatory and the invocation of the saints. Pauli was also inclined to a community of goods. These daring propositions were strenuously opposed by Sarnicki and the orthodox party, which was strong at that synod.
They boldly denounced the doctrine of Pauli as dangerous, and subversive of Christianity itself. The synod separated, however, without giving any final decision, but a war from the pulpit was begun on the subject. The Synod of Rogow, in July, 1562, convened for the purpose of conciliating the parties, evinced a leaning to the doctrines of Pauli, and that of Pinczow (August, 1562) was composed of a majority of his adherents; but Sarnicki refused to acknowledge its authority. Another synod, which met at the same place (Nov. 4, 1562), tried to preserve a union by a proposition that the confession of the Helvetian Church should be signed, but that all should be permitted to examine and to explain it without limitation. This proposition was rejected by the orthodox party. But the conference of Piotikow, which was held the same year, established a final separation, as the anti- Trinitarian party, guided by the ministers Pauli, Stanislav, Ludomirski, Martinus KIrowicki, George Shoman, and the nobles John Niemojowski, Hieronymus Filipowski, and John Kazanowski, solemnly declared their rejection of the mystery of the Trinity. Sarnicki, supported by the influence of Boucer, castellan of Biecz, and by Myrzkowski, palatine of Cracow, assembled on May 14, 156:, at the last-named capital, a synod of the stanch adherents of the Helvetian Church. It condemned in an unqualified manner the anti-Trinitarian doctrines, and summoned Pauli, who was minister of the congregation of Cracow, to resign his office. He was obliged to comply with this injunction, but remained for some time at the head of a separate congregation which had embraced his opinions. He retired to Pinczow, whence he passed to Racow, and presided over the congregation of that place until his death in 1591. He advocated all his life the doctrine that a Christian should neither accept civil offices nor bear arms. See Krasinski, Hist. of the Ref. in Poland, 1:357 sq.
