Timeline of Protestant Christianity in Poland

As many of you will know, Polish is one of the most spoken languages in Britain at the present time. In Scotland, after the indigenous languages, English, Scots and Gaelic, it represents a community of over 50 thousand and in terms of the number of speakers is surpassed only by Urdu (see graph from 2011 census).

Besides Urdu Christians in Scotland, I am delighted that there are now a number of Polish believers in evangelical churches, as well as at least one fellowship group at a church and even a Polish church.

For the benefit of my Polish brethren, here is a timeline of some events in the history of Poland since the Reformation. (I will update this as I find more information.)

1499 Birth of Jan Łaski, the Polish reformer (depicted here at an audience with King Edward of England).

1530s Mennonite Christians from the Netherlands move to Gdansk area (Vistula delta).

1549 Menno Simmons visits Mennonite Christians

1569 Dirk Philips founded the first Mennonite Church in Danzig. Soon there would be 1000 Mennonite Christians in Gdansk.

1556 Jan Łaski recalled to Poland, where he became secretary to King Sigismund II and was a leader in the Reformed church.

1560 Death of Jan Łaski

1563 Bible translated into Polish (Brest Bible)

1563 Polish Reformed Church (Ecclesia Major) loses non-Trinitarians, who break away to form Ecclesia Minor

1570 Consensus Sandomiensis unites Lutheran, Reformed and Czech Brethren in Poland around the Confession of Sandomir (Konfesja Sandomierska), a Polish rendering of the Second Helvetic Confession. The map to the right shows the spread of different Christian confessions in 1570.

1573 Warsaw Confederation, guaranteeing the right for Polish nobles to be Protestant or Roman Catholic

1588  Change of leadership in Mennonite church; Quirin Vermeulen deposed; church splits into Frisian and Flemish factions, reflecting divisions in Dutch church.

1595 Reformed–Lutheran Union in Poland fell apart.

1598  Dutch language Bible published by Polish Mennonites

1632 Gdansk Bible translated. This was the translation used by Polish Protestants up until the Warsaw Bible in 1975.

1638  Frisian faction of Mennonites in Poland purchase a building for church meetings and poor house.

1648 Flemish faction of Mennonites in Poland purchase a building for church meetings and poor house.

1656 Provisions of Warsaw Confederation annulled, ending toleration for Protestants

1658 Polish brethren, including the Vistula delta Mennonites are expelled from Poland

1668 Conversion from Roman Catholicism punishable by death

1671 Mennonite confession of faith by Georg Hansen

1717 Protestant nobility were stripped of all their political rights, public worship banned.

1724 Execution of Protestants, including two Protestant mayors.

1768  Flemish Mennonites complete German catechism

1764 Under enlightened king Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764–95), the Reformed quickly began to rebuild themselves from ruins.

1768 Political rights of Protestants reinstated

1786 Mennonite Christians start to emigrate from Poland to Russia

1808 Flemish and Frisian Mennonites in Poland reunited.

Some links to internet resources in Polish: 

https://omniglot.com/babel/polish.htm

https://baptysci.pl/kosciol/historia

http://www.kech.pl/historia/

https://przeglad.olkuski.pl/narodziny-rozkwit-i-upadek-reformacji-w-polsce/

My thanks go to Krzysztof Rutkowski of Legatio for his help, updating this page and providing internet resources.