Jonasz Szlichtyng

Who was Jonasz Szlichtyng?

Jonasz Szlichtyng was a Polish nobleman, theologian of the Socinian Polish Brethren and father of Krzysztof Szlichtyng.

He studied in Germany, from where he returned to teach in Raków, Kielce County at the Racovian Academy, and then in Lusławice, Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Following the 1639 ban on Socinianism he was convicted by the Warsaw parliament in 1647 for spreading "godless" dogma and exiled. He hid for several months in the homes of sympathetic nobles but finally departed for the safety and freedom of the Netherlands, where he was science tutor to Zbigniew Sieniński. During the Swedish invasion 1655 he returned temporarily to Kraków, but after their withdrawal he was forced to leave the country again but never made it back to Amsterdam. He died in Sulechów on the border of Silesia.

His writings, like those of Samuel Crell and Marcin Ruar, had influence on English Unitarians.