View source for Rakóv (Województwo Małopolskie, Poland)

Rakóv (Rackau), a town in Poland, near Cracow, was in the early 17th century the center of [[Socinianism|Socinianism]], a unitarian movement. Here the annual synod of the Socinians was held 1603-37. In Rakóv they had their seminary, where Lutherans, Reformed, Mennonites, and even some Catholics attended the lectures of their learned professors. In Rakóv too was the printing and publishing house of these "Polish Brethren," which printed many theological books, including their catechism, drawn up by Fausto Sozzini (Faustus Socinus). The first edition in the Polish language appeared in 1605, followed by a German edition in 1608 and a Latin edition in 1609 (the Latin edition was reprinted at [[Amsterdam (Noord-Holland, Netherlands)|Amsterdam]], Holland, in 1665, 1680, and 1684). A Dutch edition was published at Amsterdam in 1659.

After some students of the seminary had wantonly damaged a Catholic crucifix, the Polish diet on 1 May 1638 resolved to put an end to "this blasphemous anti-Trinitarian heresy." The printing shop at Rakóv was closed, the school was destroyed, and the church was confiscated and given to the Catholics. This was the end of Socinian activity in Rakóv and soon in all of Poland; it continued for some time in the Netherlands.
= Bibliography =
Kühler, W. J. <em>Het Socinianisme in Nederland</em>. Leiden, 1912: 9, 135 f., 139 f.

Wilbur, E. M. <em>A History of Unitarianism: Socinianism and Its Antecedents</em>. Cambridge, 1946.
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