28
January 1560 A.D. John
Laski Dies—Intinerating Polish Reformer
Hilston,
David. “Jan Laski (John a Lasco)
1499-1560.” Church Society. Summer 2010. http://archive.churchsociety.org/crossway/documents/Cway_117_HiltonLaski.pdf. Accessed 11 Jul 2014.
JAN LASKI (John à Lasco) 1499-1560 – Polish Migrant
Reformer
By
David Hilton
Early Life
Jan
Laski (1456-1531) was both Chancellor and Primate of Poland. He saw that his
three nephews, Jaroslav, Jan and Stanislas, had the best education for
diplomatic careers. Jan was intended for a career as a clergyman in Poland’s
Roman Catholic Church. In 1524 young Jan visited Basle, where he spent some
months as a guest of Erasmus (1466-1536). bWhile in Basle, Laski also
befriended Protestant scholars, Conrad Pellikan, Beatus Rhenanus and especially
Johannes Oecolampadius (1482-1531), the city’s leading reformer. Laski accepted
Oecolampadius’s spiritual interpretation of Christ’s presence in the eucharist.
Laski left Basle and returned to Poland, a land then willing to accept a
follower of Erasmus, but not of Luther or Zwingli. His appointment in 1538 as
Archdeacon of Warsaw, seems to have caused
Laski
to re-assess his spiritual allegiance.
Decision Time
In
1539 Laski visited Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) in Leipzig. Because of his
moderation, Laski felt a greater affinity for Melanchthon than he did with the
more belligerent Luther. Laski then obtained King Sigismund’s permission to
leave Poland, and go to Frankfurt, which had recently accepted the Reformation.
In
1540 Laski went to Louvain, lodging with a widow, Antoinette van Rosmers, in
whose home a small company of people gathered for Bible studies. In this group,
Jan found a wife. Marriage was virtually a declaration of Protestantism when
publicly entered into by a Catholic priest such as Laski. News of the marriage reaching
Poland led to the offer of a bishopric being withdrawn and Laski being
denounced as a ‘heretic.’
Reformer in Emden
Laski
and his new wife moved to Emden, in Frisia, which had recently become
Protestant. Laski spent some time in private studying the writings of the
Reformers. Being a trained, experienced diplomat, Laski believed that he had a
special talent for church organisation and administration. Laski had the
difficult task of bringing harmony between Reformed, Lutheran and Anabaptist preachers,
practising a toleration unusual in that age. Laski’s church leadership as
Superintendant of
Emden
made his reputation with other Reformers. The English botanist, William Turner,
from Morpeth in Northumberland, spent some time in Emden. Turner, would later
become Dean of Wells. He spoke highly of Laski to Thomas Cranmer
(1489-1556),
on his return to England.
Laski’s contribution to the English Reformation
Cranmer
wrote to Laski: ‘We are desirous of setting forth
in our churches the true doctrine of God.’
Charles
V’s ‘Interim’ was about to be enforced in Emden, so evading imperial officials
who were looking for him, Laski, in disguise, crossed to England from Calais.
Laski enjoyed Cranmer’s hospitality at Lambeth Palace, where he became friends
with William Cecil and with Sir John Cheke, one of Edward VI’s tutors.
In
May 1550 Laski’s family joined him in England. Edward VI granted then the right
of residence and citizenship in England. In July 1550 Laski was granted the use
of the church of the Austin Friars in London for a congregation of Protestant
refugees from Germany, Holland, Belgium and France. Laski became ‘Superintendent’
of this Church of the ‘Strangers.’ Laski was given a free hand in preaching,
teaching, worship and discipline, and was not accountable to the Bishop of
London, Nicholas Ridley (1500-1555). The refugees chose their own ministers, a
liberty not always granted to refugee congregations elsewhere in Europe. Ridley
believed the refugee congregations’ different from of worship and church
government from that of the Church of England was subversive to Anglican
interests, since it would attract discontented English people who might prefer
the refugee pattern of worship to the Prayer Book
service.
The King’s Council prevented the bishops from imposing the Book of Common
Prayer on Laski’s congregations. The later Elizabethan Presbyterian movement
did not view Laski’s order as a precedent for their own Presbyterianism. They
were more influenced by Theodore Beza (1519-1605) in Geneva. Laski’s
Superintendancy role and the Congregational pattern of his churches would not
have been acceptable to them.Laski was the only Continental exile in England
who supported Bishops Hooper’s unavailing opposition to vestments and some
Prayer Book ceremonies. Bucer and Peter Martyr Vermigli supported Cranmer. Laski’s
writings do resemble later Puritanism in their stress on the law as the basis
for Christian ethics. Laski stressed the need of the ‘indwelling spirit’ to
enlighten us.
Laski’s
first wife died towards the end of 1552. Some months later he married an
English girl to look after his children and to care for him, since his health
was now in decline.
Final Days
In
July 1553 when Mary Tudor became queen, Laski, now 54, left England with his
family, and the majority from his congregation. Due to earlier clashes between
Laski and Lutherans such as Westphal over the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper,
Laski and his party were not welcomed in Lutheran territories.
Encouraged
by a letter from the King of Poland, Laski returned there with his family in
April 1556. Laski helped the Reformed church in southern Poland under its
superintendant, Felix Cruciger.
Laski
died in January 1560.
Laski
was not a major Reformed theologian like Bucer, Bullinger and Calvin. He was a
gifted leader and organizer of churches, combining the best elements of
Episcopacy, Presbyterianism and Congregationalism.
David Hilton is a Lay Preacher and retired civil
servant living in Wellingborough, Northants.
Further Reading:
Basil
Hall: ‘John à Lasco 1499-1560’ – A Pole in Reformation England.’ Dr Williams’s
Library Lecture 1971.
Basil Hall: pages
171-207 of ‘Humanists and Protestants.’ T & T Clarke 199028
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