Valentinus Smalcius ( or ''Schmaltz''; ) (

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

, 1572 –

Raków, Kielce county Raków is a village in Kielce County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Raków. It lies in historic Lesser Poland, approximately south-east of the regional c ...

1622) was a German

Socinian Socinianism ( ) is a Nontrinitarian Christian belief system developed and co-founded during the Protestant Reformation by the Italian Renaissance humanists and theologians Lelio Sozzini and Fausto Sozzini, uncle and nephew, respectively. I ...

theologian. He is known for his German translation of the

Racovian Catechism The Racovian Catechism ('' Pol.'': Katechizm Rakowski) is a nontrinitarian statement of faith from the 16th century. The title ''Racovian'' comes from the publishers, the Polish Brethren, who had founded a sizeable town in Raków, Kielce County, w ...

, and

Racovian New Testament The Racovian New Testament refers to two separate translations produced by the Unitarian Polish Brethren at the printing presses of the Racovian Academy, Raków, Poland. Enyedi's "Preface to the Racovian New Testament" Christopher Sandius in his ...

(1606) translated from Greek into Polish. A migrant to Poland, he became largely Polonised towards the end of his life. Schmalz was converted by

Andrzej Wojdowski Andrzej Wojdowski (Latin Voivodius) ( Chmielnik, 1565 – 1622) was a Polish Unitarian scholar.Biography in Article 126 ''Antitrinitarian Biography: or sketches of the lives and writings ...'' (1850), Volume 2 by Robert Wallace, p. 402- In 1598 ...

while at

Strassburg University The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during t ...

around 1592, and emigrated to Poland on graduation, after which he taught at Smigiel, Lublin, and t.

Stanislaw Kot Stanislav and variants may refer to: People *Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.) Places * Stanislav, Kherson Oblast, a coastal village in Ukraine * Stanislaus County, ...

records that Schmalz became "a noteworthy example of the assimilative power of Raków". Like many of the emigrant Germans, French and Italians who came to Poland he married a Pole and brought up his children as Poles. Schmalz became so thorough Polonised that in addition to the Polish New Testament he composed Polish hymns, and kept his personal diary in Polish. He was a preacher of the Polish Brethren at

Raków, Kielce County Raków is a village in Kielce County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Raków. It lies in historic Lesser Poland, approximately south-east of the regional c ...

. The origins of the Racovian Catechism are not quite clear. A traditional view is that Smalcius put it together, perhaps with collaborators, from literary remains of

Faustus Socinus Fausto Paolo Sozzini (; ; 5 December 1539 – 4 March 1604), often known in English by his Latinized name Faustus Socinus ( ), was an Italian Renaissance humanist and theologian, and, alongside his uncle Lelio Sozzini, founder of the Nontrinit ...

. Another is that it was developed by Smalcius and

Hieronim Moskorzowski Hieronim Moskorzowski or Moskorzewski, also known as Moscorovius, Jarosz Moskorzowski, pseudonymy: Eusebius, Medicus, Nobilis, Subditus Fidelis (c. 1560 in Moskorzew – 1625 in Raków, Kielce County) was an administrator of the Racovian Academy, ...

(Moscorovius) in 1605; others say Moskorzowski wrote it with Piotr Stoiński Jr. (son of

Pierre Statorius __NOTOC__ Pierre Statorius, (Tonneville, Seine-Maritime, 1530 – Pińczów, or Kraków 1591) was a French grammarian and theologian, who settled among the Polish Brethren, becoming rector of a Calvinist Academy in Pińczów at the invitation of ...

) and Johannes Völkel, and Smalcius was the translator into German for publication in 1608. In any case the Catechism was constructed by disciples of Socinus, and Smalcius probably had a leading role. Moskorzowski exchanged pamphlets with the

Jesuit 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 ...

Piotr Skarga Piotr Skarga (less often Piotr Powęski, incorrectly: Pawęski; 2 February 1536 – 27 September 1612) was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealt ...

, and Smalcius supported him. He later supported Völkel in a long controversy with the Jesuit

Martinus Smiglecius Martinus is a given name or surname. It comes from the Latin name ''Martinus'', which is a late derived form of the name of the Roman god Mars, protective godhead of the Latins and, therefore, god of war. New completed edition by Marie-Thérèse Mo ...

. He also attacked the views of the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Frantzius ( Wolfgang Franz).Peter Brock, ''Against the Draft: Essays on Conscientious Objection from the Radical Reformation to the Second World War'' (2006), p. 32 note 32.

Notes

External links

''Christian Cyclopedia''

* :de:s:ADB:Smalcius, Valentin {{DEFAULTSORT:Smalcius, Valentinus 1572 births 1622 deaths German Protestants German translators Polish translators Polish Unitarians Polish male writers Translators of the Bible into Polish German male non-fiction writers