Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski

Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski

Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski ( lat. Andreus Fricius Modrevius ; born September 20, 1503 in Wolbórz ; † autumn 1572 ibid) was a Polish Renaissance scholar, humanist and theologian , known as the "father of Polish democracy ". He was born in Wolbórz near Piotrków Trybunalski .

Life

Modrzewski came from the lower nobility and was Vogt in his hometown Wolbórz. After completing his studies (1517-1522) at the philosophical faculty of the Cracow Academy , he became vicar and from 1523 served the Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland , Jan Łaski the Elder . From 1525 to 1529 he worked as a notary for canon law for the Bishop of Poznan and later Primate of Poland, Jan Latalski. Since 1530 he was in contact with Johannes a Lasco , the nephew of the Polish archbishop and the only reformer of Polish origin of European rank.

He went abroad and stayed in Germany for a while. His journey took him to Wittenberg , where he studied at the Lutheran University from 1531–1535 . There he came into contact with Martin Luther , Philipp Melanchthon and other Protestant representatives of the Reformation movement and informed the younger Łaski (Lasco) about the course of the Reformation. When Erasmus von Rotterdam died in 1536, Modrzewski hurried to Basel to bring his library to the actual owner and heir, Johannes a Lasco.

Modrzewski returned to Poland in 1541, where he became secretary at the court of King Sigismund II August in 1547 . Seven years later he retired to Wolbórz, where he was born, and became its bailiff in 1553. Through his open stand against the grievances of feudal society , for the Reformation, especially Calvinism , as well as Unitarianism (see also Polish Brothers ), he exposed himself to the constant danger of being accused of heresy and of losing all his titles and offices; his relationship with Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius has cooled noticeably since the publication of his critical writings . On December 6, 1556, the king issued a letter of protection to him in the Polish Diet , which spared him further reprisals aimed at himself . Eventually Modrzewski married in 1560; a son arose from this marriage. He spent most of the last years of his life working on theological writings; With regard to his main work he is mentioned in the same breath as the French Jean Bodin .

Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski also took part in the Council of Trent as a member of the Polish delegation, where he advocated Irenik and both democratic and ecumenical elements within the Roman Catholic Church .

Works

His works included:

• The grace or punishment for manslaughter (Lascius sive de poena homicidii); published in Latin, 1543, first printed in Cracow
• The Improvement of the Republic (De Republica emendanda); published in Latin, 1551, first printing in Cracow - without De Schola and De Eccelsia , due to church censorship - complete printing in 1554 and 1559 in Basel by Johannes Oporinus , first translation in Polish in 1557, first printing in German

In The Grace or Punishment for Manslaughter , he criticized the unequal treatment of offenders and victims before the law depending on their social origin. While the penalty in 16th century Poland for murdering a nobleman ranged from 120 hryvnias to the death penalty , for murdering a peasant it was only 10 hryvnias.

Nevertheless, it was his work The Improvement of the Republic that gave him lasting fame and international breakthrough. In it he advocated the strong central power of the monarchy (but not in the style of an absolutist form of government ), in which only the king was able to protect the rights of all imperial citizens. He called for the equality of all citizens before the law , criticized the ban on land acquisition by non-nobles and the incapacitation of the urban population when awarding public office or buying land (in the Kingdom of Poland these rights only applied to the nobility ). He also took the fate of the oppressed peasant class at by awarding her the right to own their own land and to manage them, free from any bondage to lord of the manor in the context of serfdom . He called for the secularization of the school system and the separation of church and state . This script was translated into many European languages, but earned him many enemies within the Church and with Pope Paul IV , who placed his book on the Index of Forbidden Books, Index Librorum Prohibitorum , in 1557 .

Quotes

• There can be no real freedom without laws!
• The farmer is not your slave, he is your neighbor!

literature

• Sigismund Gargas : History of the National Economy in Old Poland . RL Prager, Berlin 1925. (Reprint Detlev Auvermann, Glashütten i. T. 1973)
• Eduard Balakier: Modrzewski, Andrzej Frycz . In: TRE 23 (1994), pp. 138-140, Google Booksearch .
• Aleksander Luczak: The political and legal theory of the Polish renaissance thinker Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (Andreas Fricius Modrevius). Juris, Zurich 1966.
• André Séguenny, Waclaw Urban (ed.): Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (Modrevius) ( Bibliotheca dissidentium , 18). Ed. Koerner, Baden-Baden 1997, ISBN 3-87320-151-8 .
• Wolfgang Heller:  Modrzewski, Andrzej Frycz. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 1576-1578.

Web links

• Photo of a fragment of an old print of his most famous work, The Improvement of the Republic , from 1577, in Polish O poprawie Rzeczypospolitej

Remarks

1. ↑ Kulturpolitische Korrespondenz, issues 131–149, Ostdeutscher Kulturrat, 1972, p. 15; Quote: For Modrzewski, the rule of law is true freedom.