Jan Łaski (Archbishop)

Jan Łaski, Primate of Poland

Jan Łaski (born March 1456 in Łask ; † 19 May 1531 in Kalisz ) was a Polish nobleman, politician, the Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland . He belonged to the Korab heraldic community .

Life

Łaski seemed to have acquired knowledge and education on a large scale. Much of his career seemed to have owed to his remarkable intellectual acumen, which appeared to have been widespread in his family.

Secretary to the Grand Chancellor

He occupied state offices at an early stage and in 1495 became secretary to the Polish Chancellor Zawisza Kurozwęcki , a position in which he could gain both experience and influence. The older chancellor entrusted the astute young clergyman with the performance of numerous important missions. He was sent to Rome twice, in 1495 and again in 1500. He also traveled to Flanders as part of an embassy , about which he left notes. During these trips he had the opportunity to prove his great diplomatic skills.

Secretary to the King

At the accession to the throne of King Alexander , who had little knowledge of Polish state affairs and mainly resided in Lithuania, Łaski was appointed royal secretary. With his new competencies he succeeded in countering the separatist tendencies of the Grand Duchy to work and to preserve the predominance of Catholicism, which was threatened by the influence of the Grand Duchy of Moscow .

Grand Chancellor of Poland

King Alexander was so impressed by Łaski's abilities that after the Grand Chancellor's death in 1503 he entrusted him with the great seal and simply passed the vice-chancellor Macics Dzewicki over. As Grand Chancellor he was a supporter of the Szlachta against lower classes and went so far as to exclude all members of the common people from higher church offices. Nevertheless, he proved himself to be so excellent in his offices that he became one of his most important advisers to the subsequent king, Sigismund I.

Primate of Poland

In 1511 Łaski, who was ecclesiastically still only canon of Kraków, received the archbishopric of Gniezno and thus also became Primate of Poland . In the long negotiations with the stubborn and sometimes rebellious Teutonic Order, he rendered Sigismund I extremely important political services. So he proposed a solution to the conflict between the Teutonic Order and Poland-Lithuania, which provided that Sigismund I would be appointed Grand Master of the order, while Łaski would give up his primate office and leave the favored candidate of the order, Albrecht von Brandenburg . This would have been a solution that would have been far more beneficial to Poland than the 1525 agreement.

In 1513 Łaski was sent to the Lateran Council held by Pope Julius II to bring the case of Poland against the Teutonic Order forward and knew how to present himself brilliantly both as a speaker and as a diplomat. This mission was equally profitable for his country and for himself, as he received the title legati nati from the Pope .

In old age, his disaffection with his nephew Hieronymus led him to so vehemently support the candidacy of Johann Zápolyas , the Turkish favorite for the Hungarian throne against the Habsburgs that Clement VII excommunicated him. The shock of this degradation was so great that he died in 1531.

Łaski was the uncle of his namesake, the Protestant reformer Jan Łaski .

Works

• Commune incliti Poloniae regni privilegium (1506; in Polish)

Collection of synodic statutes

• Statuta provincialia (1512)
• Sanctiones ecclesiasticae tam expontificum decretis quam ex constitutionibus synodorum provinciae excerptae, in primis autem statuta in diversis provincialibus synodis a se sancita (1525)
• Statuta provinciae Gnesnensis (Krakow, 1527)
• De Ruthenorum nationibus eorumque erroribus (Nuremberg)

Individual evidence

1. ^ New Advent (Catholic Enzyclopedia, Engl.)

swell

• Heinrich R. von Zeissberg, Joh.Laski, Archbishop in Gnesen (Vienna, 1874)
• Jan Korytkowski, Jan Laski, Archbishop of Gniezno (Gnesen, 1880)

Web links

• Entry on Jan Łaski on catholic-hierarchy.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Andrzej Boryszewski	Archbishop of Gniezno 1510–1531	Maciej Drzewicki