Gra o chrzest. Zabiegi wokół sekciarzy żydowskich (frankistów) po śmierci biskupa Dębowskiego
The Baptism Gamble. Schemings Surrounding Jewish Sectarians (Frankists) after Bishop Dębowski’s Death

Summary/Abstract: The history of Frankism is typically presented as the history of a charismatic messianic usurper and his followers, rather than the history of a movement of Jewish messianists that emerged in the mid-18th century in the southeastern corners of the Commonwealth from the Sabbatean underegrround. This treatment of Frankism can be attributed to some extent by the state of source materials, focused as they are on Frank himself, a colourful and charismaticc figure, attracting the attention of both the Jewish and the Christian circles. Other participants and leaders of the messianic surge, Frank’s comrades and rivals, practically disappeared from history books. I would now like to rectify that picture at the key moment in the Frankist history, the time of baptism of hundreds of Podolya sectarians.Immediately after the Kamieniec dispute (1757), in which the consistory court proclaimed the Frankists the winner, their patron, Kamieniec bishop Mikołaj Dębowski died. Until that time nobody was interested in a conversion by the sectarians, who rose in Kamieniec against the rabbinical orthodoxy: neither the bishop of Kamieniec, nor the Frankists themselves, who sought to form a separate synagogue, and it looked as though their goal was at hand, but the bishop’s death completely overturned the situation. The Sabbateans, who came out of hiding as they sought to legalize their sect, lost the bishop who had a plan of working with them and sufficient clout to carry out the plan. They did not repent however, and did not return to the fold of rabbinical Judaism. Neither did they disappear from the spectrum of interest of Church and Jewish leaders. Then new players joined the fray on the sectarian side, in particular Jehuda ben Lejb Krysa, and, on the part of the Episcopate, part of the Church elders who had other plans regarding the sect than Dębowski. The prolonged vacancies in the seats of Kamieniec bishop and Lvov Archbishop, central to the handling of the sectarians’ matters, prove that tough negotiations were taking place with regard to the manning of these offices.The gamble which began with Dębowski’s death led to massive baptizing of the sectarians, which at first nobody wanted and of which there were no harbingers as late as during the Kamieniec dispute or the consistory court ruling. Neither the Sabbateans nor Frank nor the Kamieniec curia led by Bishop Dębowski desired the baptism. In the article I described at length the developments and scheming which ultimately led to the Sabbateans receiving their baptism.

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