A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 2 of 2 by J. M. Robertson

considerably in the sixteenth century, positive atheism is heard of in 1688-89, when Count Liszinski (or Lyszczynski), among whose papers, it was said, had been found the written statement that there is no God, or that man had made God out of nothing, was denounced by the bishops of Posen and Kioff, tried, and found guilty of denying not only the existence of God but the doctrine of the Trinity and the Virgin Birth. After being tortured, beheaded, and burned, his ashes were scattered from a cannon. [1551] The first step was to tear out his tongue, "with which he had been cruel towards God"; the next to burn his hands at a slow fire. It is all told by Zulaski, the leading Inquisitionist. [1552] But even had a less murderous treatment been meted out to such heresy, anarchic Poland, ridden by Jesuits, was in no state to develop a rationalistic literature. The old king, John Sobieski, made no attempt to stop the execution, though he is credited with a philosophical habit of mind, and with reprimanding the clergy for not admitting modern philosophy in the universities and schools. [1553]