TOWIANSKI, ANDRZEJ. – Polish heterodox reformer, born on 1 January 1799 at Antoszavince (Vilna), died in Switzerland on 13 May 1878. He pursued «mystical» doctrinal-moral activity, first in his homeland, then, from 1840, in Belgium (where he published the fundamental metaphysical work: Biesiada [«Banquet»], placed on the Index by Pius IX), in France (where he founded the «Circle of Paris» and exerted influence on A. Mickiewicz), and in Switzerland (where he engaged in educational activity).
He had followers chiefly in France, Poland, and Italy; in Turin a circle of T.’s admirers flourished, headed by Tancredi Canonico. A. T. also adhered to his ideas in part. A. Fogazzaro. He still has followers today. T. called the moral-social reform he promoted the «Work of God». His metaphysical and moral system, antirationalistic and antiauthoritarian, was influenced by St-Martin, Swedenborg, and T. Grabianka. T.’s metaphysics, the speculative foundation of the «Work of God», was heteronomous and progressive. Pre-existing and migratory spirits, in the form of homogeneous strata («columns»), surround the earth. The starting point of the conversion of the soul, imprisoned in matter, is «the right of the abyss» (consciousness of evil); from this arises «the groaning of the soul», and through the «columns» of spirits one reaches God and Grace. Peoples too, rising from the abyss of evil through their desire for the great renewal, pass through successive stages of progress, of which there will be seven after Christ. The second epoch is inaugurated by T. himself. Once the cycle of perfection has ended, hell will no longer exist. In T.’s ethical system, alongside heroism, human solidarity and an antiascetic tendency toward harmony predominate, together with the doctrine of the «triple sacrifice». T.’s works, in French and Polish (Pisma A. T.), were published in 3 vols. (Turin 1884).