certificates as evidence of their services to Sweden during the siege of Brest».
Andrej Kotljarchuk, In the shadows of Poland and Russia: The Grand Duchy of
Lithuania and Sweeden in the European crisis of the mid- 17th century, Stockholm,
2006.
[72] «1 квітня 1657 року Карл Густав Х приєднався до Ракоці та українських
козаків у селі Смєлов, неподалік колишнього арійського центру Раков. Ракоці
керував армією з 24 000 трансильванців. Генерали Ференк Іспан, Петер Гужар, та
Янос Кемельни керували дивізіями. Полковники Антон Жданович та Іван Федорович
Богун керували українським військом, що складалося із 6 000 козацької кавалерії».
«Нарешті 6 жовтня 1657 р. в Корсуні було підписано угоду між шведами
та козаками. Серед трьох українських комісарів, що підписали угоду, були два
командири, Немирич та Богун. Вони очолювали прошведську сторону та мали
особисті свідоцтва як доказ їхньої служби Швеції під час облоги Бреста».
Котлярчук Андрій. В тінях Польші та Росiї: Велике Литовське Королівство
та Швеція в Європейській кризі середини 17 століття. – Стокгольм, 2006.
[73] http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/jerzyniemirycz2.html
JERZY NIEMIRYCZ
Polish-Lithuanian Soldiers
Jerzy (George) Niemirycz (1612–1659) was an ambitious Arian nobleman and
statesman in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During his later life the Commonwealth,
which included the Ukraine, was nearly destroyed by Cossack revolt and Russian
and Swedish invasion (a disastrous period in Polish history known as «The Deluge»).
Niemirycz struggled in vain to protect religious liberties within the Commonwealth and
to prevent the loss of the Ukraine to Russia. He designed a new Polish union that he
hoped might withstand pressure from surrounding states. Because he changed national
allegiances several times to further his goals and, in his last year, changed his religious
faith for political advantage, he has an equivocal reputation in both Polish and Unitarian
history. He is probably the most influential Unitarian in Polish history.
Jerzy was the eldest son of Stefan Niemirycz (d.1630) and Maria Wojnarowska
(d.1632), devout Arian nobles living in the southeast region of Poland (now Ukraine). After
receiving home tutoring he was enrolled at the Arian Academy of Rakуw (Racovia). Such
was his talent for mathematics that one of his tutors, Joachim Stegmann, encouraged him
to pursue it further. As the eldest son of a nobleman, however, his future lay in politics.
After completing his studies at the Rakуw Academy, in 1630 he left with a group
of Arian nobles to be educated in Western Europe. He first studied at the University of
Leiden in the Netherlands. There he met Krzysztof Arciszewski, a fellow Pole employed
as a Dutch commander of the West India Company. Arciszewski had grown up Arian
but had joined the Reformed Church in the Netherlands, reserving the right to his own
opinion on the doctrine of the Trinity. He tried unsuccessfully to persuade Niemirycz and
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other Poles to start an Arian colony in Brazil. Niemirycz toured in France, England, Italy
and Switzerland, 1632-33, before returning to Leiden. During his stay abroad he showed
a keen interest in global politics, as evidenced by his Discursus de bello Moscovitico
(Discourse on the Muscovite War), 1632, dedicated to his uncle Roman Hojski. In this he
described the geopolitical situation of the current Polish-Muscovy War, 1632-34, fought
over possession of the Russian city of Smolensk.
On his return to Poland in 1634, Niemirycz fought in the victorious campaigns against
the Russians and, in 1635, against the Swedes, whose military power had been eroded by
the Thirty Years’ War. Favorable treaties having been signed with Russia and Sweden, the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth entered a short period of peace and prosperity.
With a political career in mind, Niemirycz started to look for a wife. He considered
marriage to a Roman Catholic, but in 1635/36, to the delight of Polish Brethren officials,
he married the Calvinist Elzbieta Slupecka, who gave him valuable family connections to
Protestant magnate families such as the Leszczynskis, Firleys and Potockis. In 1636 the
Kijуw nobility elected him a deputy judge to the Polish Supreme Court (Trybunal Koronny)
in Lublin, where he presided over an Arian-Roman Catholic theological disputation
between Krzysztof Lubieniecki and the Jesuit Kasper Druzbicki. His performance as judge
must have pleased the nobility, for in 1637 they elected him member of parliament from
that region, a post to which they returned him for many years.
During the first decade of his political career Niemirycz concentrated on defending
the Polish Brethren from growing Catholic intolerance. In 1638 he tried in vain to stop
Parliamentary proceedings against the Rakуw Academy. When it was ordered closed he
signed a legal protest against the judgment. He was also one of the petitioners of the 1638
Kisielin gathering which wrote to the Calvinist duke Krzysztof II Radziwill, requesting aid
and protection for the Polish Brethren.
Polish-Lithuanian Territory in 1648
Niemirycz maintained the Arian church in Czernichуw founded by his father and
grandmother, where the ministers were Piotr Stoinski (1610-1649) and Jerzy Ciachowski
(1652-1661/62). He also established and supported an Arian church in Uszomir, where he
founded a school and put the Dutch refugee Izaac Volger in charge. In 1643, after acquiring
extensive lands south of Kyiv on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, he installed Andrzej
Wiszowaty as minister there, that he «might preach the Gospel to Scythians and other
peoples, following Saint Andrew». Niemirycz employed many Unitarians, encouraged
them to settle on his estates, and recommended them to other magnates, including tolerant
Roman Catholics. His wealth allowed him to become a patron of the denomination.
Numerous books and tracts were dedicated to him. He also enjoyed holding theological
disputations among Arians, Catholics, and even the Orthodox.
In the late 1630s and 1640s Niemirycz enhanced his family fortune, which had the effect
of supporting the Polish Brethren. He managed all of the family estates until 1648 when
his brothers received their portions. Jerzy chose Horoszki as his seat. Through acquisitions