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and protection at the Transylvanian court. He took part in warfare against the Cossacks,

but advised moderation and tried to explore settlement with them.

Niemirycz returned to his estates in the Ukraine in 1649, but after the Cossacks

defeated the Polish army at Batik in 1652, he was forced to resettle in Wolyn (Volhynia).

He became disillusioned with the new Polish king, who in 1654 failed to prevent the loss

of the Ukraine to Russia. Thus, in 1655, when the Swedes invaded Poland, Niemirycz

threw himself wholeheartedly into the Swedish camp. He led the delegation that petitioned

Swedish king Charles X to restore civic and religious liberties to Polish Protestants,

including the Polish Brethren. While the king expressed sympathy, he declined to officially

endorse toleration for fear of offending the majority Catholic population. This did not

dampen Niemirycz’s pro-Swedish enthusiasm. He served in the Swedish army and wrote

letters to dignitaries urging them to submit to the Swedish King. These letters, widely

circulated in Poland, not only harmed Niemirycz’s reputation, but also incited resentment

and retaliation against the Polish Brethren. Catholic resistance to the Swedes made an

especial target of Arian nobles and congregations, whose populations were decimated and

scattered. The embattled King Jan II Kazimierz, rallying popular support, vowed to banish

the Arians from the Commonwealth. In 1657 Niemirycz, hoping to restore his fortunes and

perhaps those of the Brethren, negotiated a treaty to partition Poland among the Cossacks

under Chmielnicki, Sweden, and Transylvania. This was regarded as plain treason.

When the Swedish invasion receded, Niemirycz returned to his estates in the Ukraine,

which had been restored to him by Khmelnytsky, and sided there with a Cossack faction

opposed to Moscow. He worked tirelessly to design and promote the Union of Hadziacz,

1658. Under the terms of this treaty, the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania was to

be joined by a third entity, the proposed Duchy of Ruthenia (Ukraine and Volhynia). They

would have in common a king, a parliament, and a foreign policy. The Duchy would retain

its own treasury, courts, and system of education. Its lay senators and Orthodox clergy

would sit in the Polish Senate. The Uniate Church (which put Orthodox believers under

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the Roman Catholic hierarchy) would be dissolved. In the new duchy, freedom of religion

was explicitly granted only to the Orthodox and Catholics.

Since Niemirycz intended to be the grand chancellor of the new duchy and the

position of the Arian community in the Commonwealth was no longer tenable, he

officially converted to Orthodoxy that year. In a tract (Skrypt), Exhortation to all

Dissidents from the Romish Religion to Take Refuge in the Bosom of the Greek Church,

he entreated the Polish Brethren and other Protestants to convert to Orthodoxy. This,

he claimed, was the truly apostolic church, whose dogmas are based on the Scripture.

He rejected the idea that faith can be based on reason alone, pointing out the internal

discords among Polish Arians. He stressed the advantages of belonging to a larger

church body. Although no copy of Skrypt survives, its content is preserved in the Latin

Responsio ad scriptum (Answer to the Skrypt) of Samuel Przypkowski. Niemirycz’s

conversion shocked the Polish Brethren. None of them followed his lead; most were

utterly appalled by it. The conversion was treated with universal skepticism: the

papal nuncio said sardonically that for a cardinal’s hat Niemirycz would have become

a Catholic. Since he did not close the Arian churches on his estates, the Russians

considered Niemirycz a secret Unitarian.

In 1659 Niemirycz made a famous speech before the Polish Diet in support of the

Hadziacz Union, which the Diet reluctantly ratified. With the prospect of a new and

glorious career ahead of him, he returned to his Ukrainian estates, where he tried to

crush the Cossacks allied with Moscow. After an initial military success, he was defeated

and killed while trying to flee. Reportedly he received over 70 stab wounds in the chest

and, just before dying, cried out «Lord Jesus, save me now!» His death exposed a nearly

universal hatred of him. At the news Orthodox, Catholics, and Arians all expressed joy.

Katarzyna Lubieniecka, mother of the theologian Stanislaw, who might have known

Niemirycz personally, wrote, not without some satisfaction, «The Lord has made quick

justice through a peasant’s hand… It did not help him, though be became Ruthenian».

The provisions of the Hadziacz Union, of which he was the principal architect, were

never implemented, and Ukraine was eventually divided by Poland and Russia.

Niemirycz’s negative reputation remained unchanged for three centuries. When the

Soviet Union subjugated Poland and Ukraine in the second half of the 20th century, he was

rediscovered by Polish and Ukrainian dissidents, who portrayed him as an early proponent

of Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in response to the growing threat of Russia. To this day,

however, he remains a controversial figure. Perhaps because of his apostasy, his Arian

religious affiliation and protection of the Polish Brethren have been largely forgotten.

Jerzy Niemirycz and his wife, Lady Elzbieta Slupecka (d.1660), had three children.

Their son Thomas, while studying in Kisielin, broke his neck and died young. Their

daughter Barbara married an Arian nobleman and patron of the Czarkуw church, Hieronim

Gratus Moskorzowski (c.1627-c.1660). After his death, she remarried Marcjan Czaplic,