The Testament of the Enlightenment: The Constitution of 3rd May

oryginal_konstytucji_3_maja_pap.jpg, default, The original of the Constitution of 3rd May exhibited in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship Office in Szczecin, photo: Marcin Bielecki / PAP, center, #000000

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Why is the testament of the Enlightenment constituted by a government act and not a literary piece or a theatrical play? Perhaps because legislation is a type of document with a real power to affect political reality. And not only the 18th-century one but also, as it turns out, that of the 19th and the 20th centuries.

The Catholic Enlightenment

The peculiar character of the Polish Enlightenment undoubtedly stems from the fact that it became, as Maurycy Mochnacki wrote in the 19th century, ‘a third-hand gift’.

This exaggeration was meant to suggest that during the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski, Polish art was a copy of a copy: the literature of ancient Greece was copied by the Romans who, in turn, were imitated by the French – and French literature was replicated by the Polish writers of the Enlightenment. This unfair reckoning – originating from the assumption that France constituted the cultural centre of the European Enlightenment – is far from what contemporary research on the 18th century has established.

Nowadays, researchers reach for the concept of cultural specificity with regard to historical cultures sometimes described as peripheral (in the positive meaning of the word only). Thanks to their peculiar circumstances, peripheral cultures can generate larger cultural and literary diversity that eludes artificial theoretical labels while at the same time remaining within the major cultural centres’ sphere of influence. Such uniqueness characterises the culture of the Polish Enlightenment, one of whose most significant determinants was the phenomenon of the Catholic Enlightenment.

Thumbnail — Per Krafft, 'Portrait of Ignacy Krasicki', 1767, photo: The National Museum in Warsaw

Considering that the educational systems of past ages heavily supported the education of men intending to enter the priesthood (a fact which can be applied to the entirety of contemporaneous Europe), most readers of literary works and certainly the most educated readers belonged to the clergy. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was no different in that regard from the rest of Europe. The peculiarity of Polish Enlightenment lies in the forgotten fact that the period, stereotypically considered hyperrational, anticlerical and revolutionary, was initiated by the clergy, and that its key figures happened to be clergymen.

To start with those who contributed to the development of the Enlightenment’s philosophy, it’s worth remembering the Piarist Stanisław Konarski and the Jesuit Franciszek Bohomulec. It’s impossible not to mention Ignacy Krasicki, who became the Bishop of Warmia and then the Archbishop of Gniezno, or Adam Naruszewicz – the Bishop of Smoleńsk, then of Łuck. The galaxy of contemporaneous Catholic clergymen involved in popularising the Enlightenment doesn’t end with them, though. It also includes, for instance, Hugo Kołłątaj (a coadjutor and successor of a diocesan bishop), Franciszek Zabłocki (who achieved the position of a parish priest), Grzegorz Piramowicz (a Jesuit preacher) and Franciszek Salezy Jezierski (the cathedral preacher of Kraków).

Admittedly, it’s impossible to say much about these writers’ involvement in the life of the Roman Catholic Church on the basis of their clerical titles only. After all, ecclesiastical dress presented no obstacle for some of them to join Freemason lodges or to endorse catchwords of the French Revolution which directly attacked the hierarchical structure of the Church. However, solicitude for the local Catholic tradition remained the dominant cultural mode of the Polish Enlightenment, also within the circles now described as reformatory. The proof of that is constituted by the most important document of the period and the testament of its key values: the Constitution of 3rd May 1791.

Remembering the Catholic character of Polish Enlightenment, it’s easier to understand why the initial words of the reformatory and progressive Constitution were: ‘In the name of God, one in the Holy Trinity’, followed by Article I, ‘The National Dominant Religion’:

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The Holy Roman-Catholic Faith, with all its privileges and immunities, shall be the dominant national religion. The changing of it for any other persuasion is forbidden under the penalties of apostasy: but as the same holy religion commands us to love our neighbours, we therefore owe to all people of whatever persuasion, peace in matters of faith, and the protection of government; consequently we assure, to all persuasions and religions, freedom and liberty, according to the laws of the country, and in all dominions of the Republic.
Trans. Franciszek Bohomulec

The Constitution of 3rd May, with all its progressiveness, promised all citizens full freedom of religion, although it also threatened the followers of Catholicism with apostasy should they abandon the faith. Nowadays, the punishment tells us a lot about the significance of the continuity of the Polish Catholic community back then. It means that, despite its revolutionary quality, the fundamental values underlying the Constitution were atypical for the Enlightenment – the Catholic faith and religious tolerance for all other faiths. The Enlightenment, so often called progressive, undoubtedly also took care of native values, including religion.

A mysterious document

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Kazimierz Wojniakowski, ‘Passing of the 3rd of May Constitution’, 1806, photo: The National Museum in Warsaw

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The original of the Constitution of the United States – drafted in 1787, ratified in 1788 – is kept in the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC. In fact, that’s also where the original of the Declaration of Independence from 1776 can be found. The protagonist of the 2004 American film National Treasure, Ben Gates (played by Nicolas Cage), knew where to go when he was looking for the original of the Declaration of Independence – with the goal of obtaining a map, supposedly drawn on the back of it, showing the way to the treasure of Knights Templars. The question of where the original Constitution of 3rd May is kept may be important for those who would like to take a closer look at the historical document.

In 2018, Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz edited and published a text titled Konstytucja 3 Maja 1791: Na Podstawie Tekstu Ustawy Rządowej z Archiwum Sejmu Czteroletniego Przechowywanego w Archiwum Akt Dawnych w Warszawie (The Constitution of 3 May 1791: on the Basis of the Text of the Government Act from the Archives of the Four Year Sejm Kept in the Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw). In it, she posed a question about where the original of the act, signed in the Royal Castle precisely on 3rd May, can be found. As it turns out, up until now all of the researchers have agreed that two copies of the Constitution were preserved – and this fact itself has encouraged the emergence of conspiracy theories.

Both documents are currently found in the Central Archives of Historical Records on Długa Street 7 in Warsaw. Except that – surprise! – none of them is the exact one that was read out in the Royal Castle’s Senator Hall on 3 May 1791. They’re both copies, meticulously prepared, most likely on 4th May by royal clerks. This is where an almost film-worthy plot twist happens: one more copy of the Government Act is kept in the same national archive.

This copy was placed within a collection of documents under the name of the Archiwum Sejmu Czteroletniego (Archives of the Four Year Sejm). It comprises 25 huge volumes containing materials from the Sejm’s proceedings. In volume number 20, on pages 91 to 101, we can find the entire text of the Constitution of 3rd May. How can we be sure that it’s the original document that was read and put to the vote? Because it’s the only one with the characteristics of an officially approved legislation. At the end of the text, there are signatures necessary for it to be sanctioned: those of Stanisław Małachowski, the Marshal of the Sejm and the marshal of the Confederation of the Polish Crown, and Kazimierz Nestor Sapieha, the marshal of the Confederacy of Lithuania. As Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz writes:

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There’s basically no doubt that these are the exact pages Antoni Siarczyński held in his hands while reading out, at the king’s request, the new law to the three estates. These are the pages that were lain on the table during the heated discussion of the project and when Stanisław August swore ‘on the Constitution’, finishing with words ‘Juravi Domino, non me paenitebit. I swore to God, I will not regret it’.
Trans. AP

Interestingly, this version, on top of the 11 articles of the Governmental Act, includes the Declaration of the Assembled Estates, thereby proving that they comprise one act, which hasn’t been clear to the historians so far.

We know that the ratification of the Constitution of 3rd May was celebrated, but how? As the third day of May 1791 was a Tuesday, the ordinance ordered that celebrations take place on the next Sunday, 8th May, in all the churches in the Commonwealth. A thanksgiving mass – that’s how the Enlightenment reformers decided to celebrate the peaceful national revolution.

That was the reality. The collective imagination, however, has been mostly shaped by Jan Matejko and his painting titled Constitution of 3rd May 1791, which he created throughout 10 months in the year 1891. The artist didn’t manage to finish his work in time for the 100th anniversary of the Constitution – it was only ready in October. Still, the painting is as large as 2,47 by 4,46 metres, which might make Matejko’s delay quite understandable. The painting is currently kept in the collections of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Criticism & creation

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An independent solidarity demonstration in the Old Town during anniversary celebrations of the passing of the Constitution of 3rd May, 1982, photo: Teodor Walczak / PAP

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The Constitution of 3rd May was in force for 14 months. Its spirit, however, survived throughout the following centuries. When the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth disappeared from the map of Europe in 1785, the third day of May became an unwritten national holiday. After Polish independence was regained in 1918, the holiday was restored quite quickly – as soon as in 1919. After World War II, the celebrations on 3rd May led to bloody patriotic revolts, which served as an excuse for the communist authorities to exclude the day from the calendar of national holidays. It was officially made illegal in 1951.

It was only 30 years later, in 1981, that May 3 was celebrated once again. With the Solidarity movement on a tear, references emerged to the ‘living tradition’ of the Constitution of 3rd May. Precisely on the 190th anniversary of its ratification, during a field mass in Wawel Castle, Father Józef Tischner delivered a sermon titled Z Ducha Konstytucji (From the Spirit of the Constitution), in which he noted that the Polish Enlightenment ‘combined criticism and creation’. He added:

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In our imagination, we travel to a distant, although still relevant past. The ‘Constitution of 3rd May’ originated in times of collapse, defeat, national misery. […] [O]ne needed only to get up the courage to think. The Constitution was created by people of whom will be said: they are those who dared to think. Hence for us, the Constitution is mostly a symbol of thinking – Polish heroic thinking. The strength of the Constitution lies, above all, in the power of the thought that created it. Sapere auso – they dared to think.

Józef Tischner in ‘Tygodnik Powszechny’, 1981, no. 19, trans. AP

The value of the legacy of May 3 became a permanent point of reference, the essence of the patriotic spirit – thus described by Father Tischner in the anniversary sermon:

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The Constitution holds incredible power. Whoever in this Country will henceforth be against this Constitution will not be of the spirit of this country. And anyone willing to remain faithful to this Country will need to accept into his or her heart the boundary between faithfulness and betrayal as set by this Constitution.
Trans. AP

Why is the testament of the Enlightenment constituted by a government act and not a literary piece or a theatrical play, as would seem appropriate for the period when the National Theatre was established? Why wasn’t the contemporaneous value system conveyed through a philosophical novella or a biblical parable? The legislative form endows this ‘last will’ with a focus on real action. A legislation is a type of document with a real power to affect political reality. That’s why the Government Act – in accordance with the Enlightenment faith in the possibility to attain societal happiness – could induce positive changes in the Polish sociopolitical reality. And not only the 18th-century one but also, as it turns out, that of the 19th and the 20th centuries.

The uniqueness of the Polish Enlightenment, then, springs from its complexity. Secular tendencies (exemplified by the emergence of secular education and the establishment of the Commission of National Education) intertwined with the trend towards preserving the religious character of Polish national tradition. The Constitution of 3rd May was a document meant to peacefully revolutionise Polish society. The analogous intertwining of secularism and religion was meant to co-create modern religiosity: a society rooted in its Catholic identity but also open to the secular side of the sociopolitical reality; a strong society conscious of its own worth.

The complexity and uniqueness of the Polish Government Act of 1791 was appreciated as a significant element of European history. As the Constitution of 3rd May was the first legislation of its kind in Europe and the second one in the world (preceded only by the Constitution of the United States), the European Commission distinguished it in 2015 with the European Heritage Label.

Originally written in Polish, 28 Apr 2021, translated by Anna Potoczny, Apr 2021

Language English

Constitution of 3rd May

enlightenment

józef tischner

stanisław august poniatowski

Spirituality