Marcin Dunin Sulgostowski of

Łabędź coat of arms Łabędź ( Polish for "Swan") is a Polish coat of arms. It was used by many noble families known as ''szlachta'' in Polish in medieval Poland and later under the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, branches of the original medieval Duninowie ( ...

(; 11 November 1774, in Wał – 26 December 1842, in

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

) was archbishop of Poznań and Gniezno, primate of Poland. He was the oldest son of common land owners, Felicjan and Brygida née Szczakowska, and grew up under the protection of his uncle, Wacław Szczakowski. His education began in the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

school in

Rawa Mazowiecka Rawa Mazowiecka is a town in central Poland, with 16,090 inhabitants (2022). It lies in the Łódź Voivodeship and is the capital of the Rawa County. From 1562 the city hosted the ''Rawa Treasury'' for the Military of the Polish–Lithuanian Com ...

, which was at that time a community in

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

. He passed

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

on the German-language gymnasium in

Bromberg Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its left-bank tributary, the Brda, the strategic location of Bydgoszcz has made it an inland ...

(now Bydgoszcz), the historic capital of the Royal

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n Bromberg district. Between 1793 and 1797, he studied theology in Rome (Polish Rzym) at the '' Collegium Germanicum''. Upon graduation he was ordained a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. After his return to Prussia, he started his ecclesiastical career by serving as a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

in the Prussian communities of Wiślica (Wislitz) and

Włocławek Włocławek (; or ''Alt Lesle'', Yiddish: וולאָצלאַוועק, romanized: ''Vlatzlavek'') is a city in the Kuyavian–Pomeranian Voivodeship in central Poland along the Vistula River, bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park ...

. In 1815, he became chancellor of the Gniezno (Gnesen)

Curia Curia (: curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally probably had wider powers, they came to meet ...

. He also held some secular offices – in 1817 he became the royal Prussian counselor for education in Posen District. Prussian authorities, considering Dunin's loyalty to the King of

, recommended him as a candidate for the sees of archbishops of Poznań and Gniezno. He was appointed to those offices in 1830 and became bishop one year later. As proof of his loyalty and on demand of the president of

Grand Duchy of Posen The Grand Duchy of Posen (; ) was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from Prussian Partition, territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On 9 February 1 ...

, Eduard Flottwell, Dunin wrote a pastoral letter condemning the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

. On the other hand, Dunin got permission for Polish priests to communicate in Polish rather than German. In 1837, the conflict between Prussian authorities and the archbishop began. Dunin, according to the

breve A breve ( , less often , grammatical gender, neuter form of the Latin "short, brief") is the diacritic mark , shaped like the bottom half of a circle. As used in Ancient Greek, it is also called , . It resembles the caron (, the wedge or in ...

Pius VIII Pope Pius VIII (; born Francesco Saverio Maria Felice Castiglioni; 20 November 1761 – 30 November 1830) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 31 March 1829 to his death in November 1830. Pius VIII's pontificate wa ...

(1830), announced that all mixed marriages between Catholics and Protestants had to take an oath that all their offspring would be raised as Catholics. The Prussian authorities sentenced Dunin to six months of

internment Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

and the loss of his archbishopric thrones. His penalty started on April 3, 1839 in Berlin. The archbishop considered the sentence to be an unjustified intervention of secular authority into ecclesiastical law. He left Berlin and went to Poznań, where he was arrested. He was later sent to prison in the stronghold at Kolberg (Kołobrzeg). After ten months of penalty, the new king

Frederick William IV Frederick William IV (; 15 October 1795 – 2 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, was King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 until his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to as the " romanticist on the t ...

granted his freedom. The monarch, to prevent a possible uprising of the partial Polish majority of the Grand Duchy, decided the dismissal of Flottwell. This was a foretaste of the

Kulturkampf In the history of Germany, the ''Kulturkampf'' (Cultural Struggle) was the seven-year political conflict (1871–1878) between the Catholic Church in Germany led by Pope Pius IX and the Kingdom of Prussia led by chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Th ...

. Dunin held the

Order of the Black Eagle The Order of the Black Eagle () was the highest order of chivalry in the Kingdom of Prussia. The order was founded on 17 January 1701 by Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg (who became Friedrich I of Prussia, Friedrich I, King in Prussia, the ...

. After his return to Poznań, Dunin swore loyalty to the new king, but he continued his anti-Prussian politics in church until his death. He was buried in the archcathedral of Poznań.

Works

* Wilhelm von Schütz; Martin von Dunin: ''Ueber die preussische Rechtsansicht wegen der gemischten Ehen''. Beigefügtes Werk: ''Nebst Rechtfertigung des Herrn v. Dunin auf die von der königl. Regierung in Berlin durch die Staatszeitung vom 31. Dezember 1838 veröffentlichte Erklärung''. Regensburg: Manz, 1839. * Martin von Dunin und Franz Pohl: ''Erzbischof von Gnesen und Posen: eine biographische und kirchenhistorische Skizze''. Marienburg: Dormann 1843. Posen: W. Stefański, 1850. * Marcin Dunin: ''Książka do nabożeństwa z polecenia najprzewielebniejszego śp. arcybiskupa Dunina dla wszystkich katolików szczególniej zaś dla wygody katolików Archidiecezyi Poznańskiéj i Gnieźnieńskiéj''. 2. ed. 1850. * Marcin Dunin: ''Książka do nabożeństwa dla wszystkich katolików, szczególniéj zaś dla wygody katolików archidyecezyi gnieźnieńskiéj i poznańskiéj / z polecenia najprzewielebniejszego arcybiskupa Dunin ułożone''. Leszno: E. Günther, 1853. * Marcin Dunin: ''Książka do nabożeństwa dla wszystkich katolików, szczególniéj zaś dla wygody katolików archidyecezyi gnieźnieńskiéj i poznańskiéj z polecenia najprzewielebniejszego X. arcy-biskupa Dunina ułożona, na nowo z rozkazu najprzewielebniejszego arcy-biskupa X. Leona Przyłuskiego przejrzana''. Gnesen: J. B. Lange, 1861. * Marcin Dunin: ''Książka do nabożeństwa dla wszystkich katolików, szczególniéj zaś dla wygody katolików archidyecezyi gnieźnieńskiéj i poznańskiéj / z polecenia najprzewielebniejszego X. arcy-biskupa Dunina ułożona, na nowo z rozkazu najprzewielebniejszego arcy-biskupa X. Leona Przyłuskiego przejrzana''. Gnesen: J. B. Lange, 1864. * Marcin Dunin: ''Książka do nabożeństwa dla wszystkich katolików / ułożona podług książki wydanéj z polecenia Najprzewielbniejszego Arcy-biskupa Dunina''. Tschenstochau: Kohn und Oderfeld, 1887. * Marcin Dunin: ''Nowy pana naszego Jezusa Chrystusa Testament z łacińskiego na język kpolski prezełożony przez Jakóba Wujka''. Posen: Nakł. Ksiegarni Katolickiej, 1888.

References

Antoni Gąsiorowski Antoni Gąsiorowski (born 24 November 1932 in Poznań) is a Polish medievalist historian, professor of humanities, member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. He graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (1953) with a degree in ...

, Jerzy Topolski (red.): ''Wielkopolski Słownik Biograficzny''. Warszawa-Poznań,1983. PWN * Anton Graf: ''Die Erzbischöfe von Cölln und Posen. Darstellung der welthistorischen Bedeutung der katholischen Frage in Preussen''. Leipzig, Müller 1838. * Martin von Dunin und Franz Pohl: ''Erzbischof von Gnesen und Posen: eine biographische und kirchenhistorische Skizze''. Marienburg: Dormann 1843. Posen: W. Stefański, 1850. * Józef Knjaź Walkowski: ''Ważne źródło do historyi arcybiskupa Dunina; Ks. Józefa Walkowskiego Pamiętniki pisane w niewoli kołobrzeskiej''. Wyd. i wstępem poprzedził Ks. Tadeusz Trzcíński. Poznań: Księgarnia Św. Wojciecha, 1908. * Manfred Laubert: ''Die Wahl Martin von Dunin zum Erzbischof von Gnesen und Posen''. Aus: Jahrbücher für Kultur und Geschichte der Slaven; 2.1926, S. 35 - 45. * Bernhard Stasiewski: ''Martin von Dunin''. In:

Neue Deutsche Biographie (''NDB''; Literal translation, literally ''New German Biography'') is a Biography, biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 27 volumes published thus far co ...

, Bd. 4, 1959, S. 197 f.

External links

* *
Biography at Radio Berlin-Brandenburg: German and Poles

List of Primates of Poland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunin, Marcin 1774 births 1842 deaths People from Grójec County Marcin Archbishops of Gniezno Bishops of Poznań 19th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Prussia People from the Grand Duchy of Posen Burials at Poznań Cathedral Catholic clergy of the Prussian partition