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Maciej Janowski, Richard Butterwick. The Polish Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1788–1792: A Political History., The American Historical Review, Volume 118, Issue 2, April 2013, Pages 615–616, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/118.2.615
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The Great Sejm (Diet) of 1788–1792 is a symbolic moment in Polish history. The epoch of the Enlightenment in Poland was one of rapid intellectual and political change, crowned by the Great Sejm passing the Constitution on May 3, 1791. Although the reforms were interrupted by the collapse of the state (1793–1795), they remained an important point of reference for later political programs and ideological debates. Richard Butterwick's excellent book analyzes the debates on ecclesiastical reform that took place during the Sejm. This, one might think, was hardly the most important issue facing participants: in the historiography of the Sejm ecclesiastical matters are overshadowed by constitutional reform, the introduction of the majority vote and of hereditary monarchy, and the establishment of central governmental administrative structures.
Church reform, however, was pivotal. Its main ideas were taxation of the clergy and equalization of bishoprics. Butterwick admirably shows how different interests motivated the reformers. Some pressed for taxation on impeccably Enlightenment rationalist and democratic grounds, while others supported taxation of the clergy because they wanted to defend the privileges of estates and hoped that the monies reaped would satisfy the needs of the state without endangering the tax exemption of the nobility.
