learned Scots in Poland (from the mid-sixteenth to the close of the eighteenth century), The

Canadian Slavonic Papers, Mar 2001 by Anna Bieganska

The above-mentioned John Hay, who was born in Dalgety, studied in Paris, Louvain and in the years 1565-1566 in Rome. He knew five languages and was well-learned. In July 1570, after arriving in Poland, he was appointed preceptor in Vilnius. In the first two years Hay lectured in rhetoric and dialectics; later on, he became the sole professor of philosophy. He elaborated the Assertationes Theologicae et Philosophicae in Collegio Vilnensi A[nno] D[omini] 1574 (Cracow, 1574), which cover nineteen theses pertaining to logic, physics, psychology and metaphysics, as well as two others on Aristotle (384-322 B. C.), whom he interpreted according to John Duns Scotus (c. 1266-1308). This point of view differed from that of St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) and his followers; thus, various discrepancies brought about bitter disputes between one Thomist and Hay. As the latter was also engaged in controversies with the religious "dissenters" and, moreover, since the severe climate badly affected his health, the superiors decided to send him in 1575 to France, where he was ordained in the following year. In Strasbourg he defended the teaching relating to the transubstantiation against the Lutheran attacks. In 1579 he went on a mission to Scotland but, for various reasons, was obliged to leave in the same year. Once back in France, he worked on translations and left twelve polemic works against the Scottish and French followers of Calvin. Hay died at Pont-a-- Mousson in 1608.

There were also clergymen born in Poland of Scottish parents, such as the Jesuits Adrian Young (1550/51-1607), John Aland (c. 1559-1641) and Albert Innes (1619-1658). Young published the outlines of ethics and four polemical treatises.16 Aland, ordained in 1590, became principal of the Gniezno school, then lectured rhetoric in Jaroslaw and from 1600 moved to Niegwiez-at present Niasvizh in Belarus-where he acted as school prefect, court missionary to Mikolaj Radziwill (1549-1616), who was known as "Sierotka," and tutor to his sons. Here Aland busied himself with translations of five treatises from the Middle Ages and was the author of two works: one, panegyrical; the other, religious.17 Innes, on completing his studies in 1640, lectured in Sandomierz and Lublin, and then became a preacher, first in Jaroslaw and finally in Cracow. He wrote poetry in Latin, both sacral and laic. As to the former, the majority of the odes are in honour of Virgin Mary. The latter presents contemporary events in Poland and England with slightly satirical but sober judgment on them. His epigrams and narratives on Polish rulers were designed as training texts for youth.18

Not only priests, but also lay people, worked on religious problems. The best example of the latter is George Joseph Davidson (1702-1793). The religious-didactic works of this zealous convert differed greatly from the heated disputations and contests so characteristic of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; thus, his wording was no longer trenchant and sharp. Davidson endeavoured to induce the religious attitude by reiterating the fundamental truths of the Catholic Church commemorated during the celebration of holy feast days.19