Baptistic Theologies, 2009

the Roman Catholic Church and its particular role. It specifically stated that the Roman Catholic Church held the primary place among the legally equal religions and n affirmed that it governed itself by its own laws. The constitutional position helped to maintain such catchphrases as ‘Catholic Poland’ and ‘the Catholic Pole’, which were in operation with o varying degrees of intensity throughout the entire interwar period. The Roman Catholic Church’s influence was reinforced. 9 Very often in Roman Catholic newspapers negative articles were published about ‘new sects’, with Baptists being portrayed as one of the greatest threats to the nation. 10 Baptists were described as strange, immoral, friends of the Soviets, anti- papal and anti-Church. They were often seen as dangerous to church and state - holding the heretical ideas of the Arians and marked by the revolutionary spirit of the Anabaptists of Munster. 11 From time to time religious conflicts between Protestants and Catholics developed into almost full scale war. Germans profaned Catholic churches and stole religious artefacts. These acts of violence, not surprisingly, evoked aggressive feelings. There was a widespread aversion to ‘foreigners’, with people from Prussia and Russia shouted down as 4 Davies, God's Play Ground, p. 300. 5 Davies, God's Play Ground, p. 298. 6 Michal Staszewski, Wolnosc Sumienia przed Trybunalem II Rzeczypospolitej (Warszawa: Ksiazka i Wiedza, 1970). 7 ‘such canon law as may be in force at any time is thus recognized by the State in advance as the basis of Church autonomy and self-rule ... The laws of the Roman Catholic Church are recognized, under the terms of the Constitution itself, as laws pertaining to the domain of the State as well. Such is not the case with the laws by which other Churches and religious associations govern themselves.’ Jakub Sawicki, Historia Stosunku Kosciola do Pahstwa (Warszawa, PWN, 1951). 8 Adam Piekarski. The Church in Poland (Warszawa: Interpress, 1978), p. 62. 9 Davies, God's Play Ground, p. 310. 10 Jerzy Juglarz, Troche cyfr, Gazeta Koscielna, 1939, No. 22, pp. 338-339. 11 Jozef Dajczak, Sekty chiljastyczno-judaistyczne, Gazeta Koscielna, 1932, No. 4, p. 39. 88 Baptistic Theologies infidels. Non-Catholics were seen as non-Polish and were treated as treacherous groups. The partitioning of Poland into Protestant and Orthodox parts only lent support to religious disunity. 12 There were over a dozen Protestant denominations in interwar Poland and in total these 1 T represented ‘a substantial number of believers, Baptists among them’. Thus Poland was faced with very difficult challenges after the First World War. It had to establish the fundamental framework for a new socio- governmental system and had to unify a multi-ethnic society with its varied traditions and culture. The complexity of the situation was fuelled by the threat of outside geo-political interferenc