Symon Budny
Encyclopedia
Budne, Podlaskie Voivodeship
Budne is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Goniądz, within Mońki County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Goniądz, north-west of Mońki, and north-west of the regional capital Białystok....
– 13 January 1593, Wiszniów
Wiszniów
Wiszniów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Mircze, within Hrubieszów County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland, close to the border with Ukraine. It lies approximately south of Mircze, south of Hrubieszów, and south-east of the regional capital Lublin.-References:...
) was a Belarusian
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
and Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
humanist, educator, hebraist, Bible translator, Church reformator, philosopher, sociologist and historian.
Christology
Symon Budny was an early figure in the party in the Radical ReformationRadical Reformation
The Radical Reformation was a 16th century response to what was believed to be both the corruption in the Roman Catholic Church and the expanding Magisterial Protestant movement led by Martin Luther and many others. Beginning in Germany and Switzerland, the Radical Reformation birthed many radical...
which utterly denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Budny, along with the Greek Unitarian Jacobus Palaeologus, and the Hungarian Ferenc David
Ferenc Dávid
Ferenc Dávid was a Transylvanian Nontrinitarian and Unitarian preacher, the founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania.-Life:Born in Kolozsvár to a Hungarian family, he studied in Wittenberg and Frankfurt...
, denied not just the pre-existence of Christ
Pre-existence of Christ
The pre-existence of Christ refers to the doctrine of the ontological or personal existence of Christ before his conception. One of the relevant Bible passages is where, in the Trinitarian view, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis called the Logos or Word...
, which is what distinguished "Socinian" from "Arian
Arian
Arian may refer to:* Arius, a Christian presbyter in the 3rd and 4th century* a given name in different cultures: Aria, Aryan or Arian...
" belief, but Budny, Paleologus and David went further and also denied invocation of Christ. Among these three Budny also denied the virgin birth. According to Wilbur (1947) it was his strong stance against the worship of and prayer to Christ that brought a separation with those like Marcin Czechowic
Marcin Czechowic
Martin Czechowic was a Polish Socinian minister, theologian and writer.-Life:...
who considered the views of Budny, Paleologus, and David as a revival of the Ebionite position and a form of Judaizing, and resulted in Budny's excommunication from the Minor Reformed Church of Poland
Polish Brethren
The Polish Brethren were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658...
., though subsequent Eastern European historians consider that in Budny's case it may have been on account of his note in the Byelorussian New Testament stating that Jesus was Joseph's son, as much as the better known in the West letter to Fausto Sozzini (1581) to which Fausto Sozzini's answer is preserved in Volume II of the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum printed by Sozzini's grandson in Amsterdam, 1668.
Budney and rabbinical commentary
For all that Budny was accused of "Judaizing" by Czechowic and Sozzini, and excommunicated from the Polish-Lithuanian-Byelorussian Unitarian community, Budny was still regarded as a Christian adversary in the polemical work Chizzuk Emunah (“Strengthened Faith”) of Isaac Troky, who made counter-use of Budny's historical-critical biblical exegesis.Political views
Budny supported the limited educated monarchy concept of the state (with Andrzej Frycz ModrzewskiAndrzej Frycz Modrzewski
Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski was a Polish Renaissance scholar, humanist and theologian, called "the father of Polish democracy." His book De Republica emendanda was widely read and praised across most of Renaissance Europe.-Life:Modrzewski was born in Wolbórz Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (ca....
), which would enable the development of the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
.
Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin
Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin
Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin , Latin: Gregorius Paulus Brzezinensis) , was a Socinian writer and theologian, one of the principal creators and propagators of radical wing of the Polish Brethren, and author of several of the first theological works in Polish, which helped to the development of literary...
(Gregorius Paulus) and Palaeologus had been involved in a long heated exchange over the role of the Christian in the state since 1572, which had been kept unpublished. Though Marcin Czechowic in Dialogue XII of his Christian Colloquies, took Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin's non-violent position. In 1580 Budny, then the leading minister among the socially conservative Lithuanian Brethren, published the whole correspondence, including Palaeologus' taunts of the pacifist position of the Ecclesia Minor Polish Brethren in his Defensio. The Polish brethren then asked Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin to write a reply but he excused himself on the grounds of ill health, and the task fell to the then 41 year old Fausto Sozzini, which he did and published a defence of conscientious objection and separation from the state in 1581.
Belarusian language
- "So that his Ducal Highness should not only enjoy foreign languages, but also would fall in love with the ancient Slavic language and enjoy it too... And so that all others would follow this good example and the Fatherland and its native language would have future and hope".
Polish language
However subsequently Budny surrendered and started to write in Polish. He tried to justify it by saying:- "Głupstwo to jest mówa jednej krainy gardzić, a drugej słówka pod niebiosa wynosić". - "It is folly to scorn the language of one country, and praise the tongue of another up to the heavens".
He translated the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
into Polish, known in Poland today as the Biblia Nieświeska (Nesvizh
Nesvizh
Nesvizh is a city in Belarus. It is the administrative center of the Nesvizh District of Minsk Province and location of the Nesvizh Castle World Heritage Site. Its 2009 population is 14,300 .-History:...
Bible), since it was translated 1568-1572 at Nesvizh
Nesvizh
Nesvizh is a city in Belarus. It is the administrative center of the Nesvizh District of Minsk Province and location of the Nesvizh Castle World Heritage Site. Its 2009 population is 14,300 .-History:...
(pol. Nieśwież). As changes were introduced in the printing a second edition of New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
appeared in 1574. His former colleague Marcin Czechowic
Marcin Czechowic
Martin Czechowic was a Polish Socinian minister, theologian and writer.-Life:...
produced his own Polish New Testament in Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
in 1577.
Works
- He published the Old TestamentOld TestamentThe Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
and New TestamentNew TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
(Biblia Nieświeska) with commentaries and notes in PolishPolish languagePolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
(Zasłaŭje, Belarus 1572), which contained an early radical rationalist critique of the Gospels, and showed some knowledge of the TalmudTalmudThe Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
.
- Catechism The work is written in the then common form of questions and answers, and consists of four sections: on 10 Amendments, on the symbol of belief, about praying to God and on the rituals.
- O opravdanii greshnogo cheloveka pred Bogom ("On the justification of sinful men in front of God"). Budny is developing protestant ideas, but also some of his Socinian(ArianArianArian may refer to:* Arius, a Christian presbyter in the 3rd and 4th century* a given name in different cultures: Aria, Aryan or Arian...
) preferences. He criticizes the conscientious objectorConscientious objectorA conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
wing of the Polish brethrenPolish BrethrenThe Polish Brethren were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658...
such as Marcin CzechowicMarcin CzechowicMartin Czechowic was a Polish Socinian minister, theologian and writer.-Life:...
who considered that a Christian cannot take part in earthly power, has no rights of ownership of land and people in his property, and can not participate in war and use sword.
Note: proper names and places’ names are rendered in BGN/PCGN
BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian
The BGN/PCGN romanization system for Belarusian is a method for romanization of Cyrillic Belarusian texts, that is, their transliteration into the Latin alphabet....
.
See also
- Johann Gutenberg
- Ivan Fedorov
- Spiridon SobolSpiridon SobolSpiridon Sobol ), was a printer, educator and writer. Based by him in 1630 under Orsha the printing house became the center of the Belarus Cyrillic publishing...
- Spread of the printing press