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In a last desperate attempt to avert exile from Poland, the Polish Brethren proposed that a debate be held with the Catholics. They hoped, it seemed, to impress the secular authorities that their faith was more soundly based on Scripture than that of their powerful adversary. Another purpose was undoubtedly to strengthen the faith of waverers amongst themselves, faced as the whole community was with an uncertain future.

The debate was held in the great hall of Roznow castle. The principal speaker for the Brethren was Andrzej Wiszowaty, and for the Catholics a cunning Jesuit named Cichowski. One of the Brethren, Andrzej Lachowski, took down shorthand notes of the proceedings. These, amazingly, have survived, as has his tomb in Cluj, Romania (Plate 18).

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The debaters never lost their cool through the seven-day Marathon, but at no time was the atmosphere more tense than when Wiszowaty was pressing Cichowski hard on the question of the nature of Christ, as shown by the following brief excerpt from Lachowski's notes.

WISZOWATY: I will press further. God Almighty clearly does not pray to Himself, yet the Son, we are told, prayed to the Father (Matthew 26:39). So the Son cannot be God.

CICHOWSKI. Your point only follows if he did not have the form of a servant. But if he did have that form, then it does not follow.

W. According to you, the Person who prayed is the second Person of the Godhead.

C. He prayed because he was about to terminate his human nature at Gethsemane.

W. But if that Son of God, although having human nature, had within him one divine Person, surely it was not necessary for him to direct prayers to another divine Person.

C. It would not have been necessary if he had not been made in the likeness of men.

W. But in that likeness of men he was, according to you, still Almighty God. Surely he who addressed prayers to Another, having need of His help, could not be God Almighty. Yet Christ did offer prayers. Therefore he could not have been God Almighty.

C. Then he did this when he emptied himself.

W. Either there was need to pray, to ask, or not. If not, why did he ask? If he had need to ask that Another Person should help him, there could not have been in him the Person of God most high, who could have overcome without any prayers.

C. This was done in the state of being emptied, in the human nature he assumed.

W. This does not answer my argument. The Supreme God is not a man, nor the son of man. But Christ is a man and the son of man. Therefore he is not the supreme God.

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C. He would not have been a man, if the living God had not assumed human nature.

W. If the supreme God assumed the nature of men, it would be necessary that the whole Trinity should be incarnated, including God the Father, not just God the Son. But this is absurd.

C. I deny this.

W. If God is one and indivisible and God is incarnate, then all Persons that are God are incarnate.

C. God is one according to essence, but not in respect of Persons.

W. Are there not then in that Essence of God three Persons? How can God be One and Three at one and the same time? (278)