John a Lasco

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John a Lasco

Johannes a Lasco (Polish Jan Łaski; * 1499 in Łask ; † January 8, 1560 in Pinczów ) was an important theologian and reformer with a large sphere of activity.

Live and act

Lasco was born in 1499 as the second son, probably in Łask near Warsaw , the ancestral home of his family. As the Voivode of Sieradz , his father was represented in the Polish Senate and the family belonged to the high nobility . His uncle Jan (1456–1531) became royal chancellor in 1503 and archbishop of Gniezno in 1510 and as such a Polish primate . It was this uncle who promoted Johannes and his older brother Hieronymus and who also took the brothers to Rome in 1513-14 , where they studied while the uncle took part in the 5th Lateran Council .

After visiting Rome, a Lasco studied in Bologna and in 1518/19 in Padua . He returned to his homeland, was ordained a priest in 1521 and, provided with further spiritual income, began a career in the church and at the same time as royal secretary at court. In the spring of 1524 Johannes a Lasco set out with his brothers Hieronymus and Stanislaw on a diplomatic trip to the French royal court in Blois and Paris . In Basel, a Lasco first met Erasmus from Rotterdam . After the planned stay in Paris, a Lasco traveled back to Basel to live with Erasmus for a time. He was one of Erasmus' favorite students and bought his library, which he received after his death. In 1525 his uncle Jan sent him on a diplomatic mission to Italy, after his return to Poland in 1525/26, a Lasco had a strong influence on the Polish reception of Erasmus.

Soon afterwards, the older brother Hieronymus intervened in the long-standing turmoil surrounding the Hungarian succession to the throne on the side of the Prince of Transylvania Johann Zápolya . In 1534 he came into conflict with Zapolya and was imprisoned by him. During these activities Johannes a Lasco was temporarily at the brother's side. He hoped to be called as bishop several times in various dioceses, but was never considered - primarily because of his brother's unpopular policy for the Polish king.

In April 1537 a Lasco met in Leipzig with Philipp Melanchthon together. On the onward journey he met the Melanchthon student Albert Ritzaeus Hardenberg - probably in Frankfurt am Main - and accompanied him to Mainz and the Flemish Löwen , where Hardenberg taught theology.

At the beginning of 1540 a married Lasco Barbara, a Flemin from a very humble background. He became the first Polish clergyman to openly break celibacy . To avoid the Inquisition , he fled to East Frisia around mid-1540. Count Enno II. Cirksena offered him the post of superintendent . A Lasco initially refused. In East Friesland at that time old believers competed with Lutheran and, above all, with strong Anabaptist tendencies, until then largely without political guidance.

It was not until mid-1542 - after the final break with the Polish Church after a trip to Krakow - that he accepted the position of the widow Ennos II, the regent Anna von Oldenburg , as superintendent and moved to Emden . During this time, Johannes a Lasco wrote to his friend Hardenberg in Bremen : “We are all so welcomed here that it couldn't have been more loving with the closest relatives. All the respected men in the country are so concerned about the Church that I cannot praise their zeal, their kindness, and even their generosity enough. We have come to a common fatherland . "

A Lasco's activity led to confrontations with monks, who adhered to their monastic way of life, and with the Anabaptists . In particular, he fought for the removal of images in churches. This shows that he was more strongly influenced by the Swiss and here probably the Basel Reformation than by the Wittenberg Reformation.

In the course of the controversy with the baptized (especially David Joris and Menno Simons ), a Lasco published his first work in Bonn in 1545 : Defensio adversus Mennonem Simonis .

In 1546, a Lasco acquired the former Abbingwehr Abbey near Loppersum from the Countess for 4,500 Reichstaler and settled there with his growing family.

Johannes a Lasco was largely responsible for the restructuring of the East Frisian church system, in particular the introduction of church councils and church discipline. He was also the initiator of the Coetus of the Reformed preachers of East Frisia, which still exists today .

The institutional reforms were accompanied by the typical characteristics of regional “confessional formation” in that Lasco worked intensively on the formation of the Emden theology, which found expression in the “Moderatio doctrinae”, in the Lord's Supper and catechisms.

When East Frisia, which remained neutral in the Schmalkaldic War , bowed to the East Frisian Interim of July 16, 1549, a Lasco, who dogmatically showed no willingness to give in, was no longer tenable as superintendent. He was released and at the end of September followed an appointment from Thomas Cranmer , Reform Archbishop of Canterbury , to London , where he led the Protestant refugee community. A Lasco also drafted a parish order and a catechism and participated in the reform of the English Church .

After the death of the young King Edward VI. his half-sister Maria , "the Catholic", came to the English throne. A bloody recatholization of the country began under their rule. The privileges granted until then were withdrawn from the refugee communities a Lascos. In November 1553 a Lasco decided to flee to Denmark with 175 members of his community . In Copenhagen, however, the church was not allowed to adhere to its Reformed sacrament theology. After an odyssey through various port cities on the Baltic coast, the refugee group finally arrived in Emden, where a Lasco has since been able to return.

The admission of religious refugees - mostly from the Netherlands - marks the beginning of a broad stream of exiles who sought asylum in Emden and East Frisia from the persecution in the Habsburg Netherlands . At the same time, it laid the foundation for the special role of the Emden church as the “Moederkerk” of Dutch Protestantism.

In association with Pierre du Val , the preacher of the Walloon (French) congregation in Emden, and Jan Utenhove , a Lasco recommended in 1554 the emerging Walloon congregation in Wesel to show firmness to the demands of the Wesel Lutherans . John Calvin, on the other hand, had advised them to give in.

After controversies about a revision of his catechism and about the attitude in the emerging conflict over the Lord's Supper, Johannes a Lasco left Emden for good in 1555. For a short time he worked as superintendent of the refugee community in Frankfurt. An attempt to reach a compromise in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper in a conversation with Johannes Brenz had no consequences.

Since King Zygmunt II came to power in Poland in 1548, Protestantism had also gained ground there. Friends a Lascos achieved that he could return to his homeland without risk. From 1557, Johannes a Lasco, as superintendent of the reformed communities in Poland, tried to unite the various Protestant currents in the country and to win the Polish nobility for the Reformation. The number of Protestants increased strongly in these years, but a Lasco did not succeed in winning the king over to his cause.

Johannes a Lasco died after a long illness on January 8, 1560 in Pińczów .

The Johannes a Lasco Library in Emden today bears his name.

Works

  • Joannis a Lasco opera tam edita quam inedita duobus voluminibus comprehensa , ed.Abraham Kuyper, Amsterdam 1866.

Remembrance day

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes a Lasco in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lasco, Johannes a
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Łaski, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Theologian and reformer
DATE OF BIRTH 1499
PLACE OF BIRTH Łask near Warsaw , Poland
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1560
Place of death Pinczów , Poland