- Jan Łaski
Jan Łaski, "John Laski", "Johannes Alasco," "John a Lasco" (
1499 -January 8 1560 ), was a Polish Protestant evangelical reformer.Life
He was born in
Łask , the son ofJaroslaw Łaski , the Palatine ofSieradz Voivodship and Susanna Bak, the daughter ofZbigniew Bak de Bąkowa Góra. His uncle, also Jan Łaski, was by turns royal secretary,Archbishop ofGniezno , Primate of Poland andGrand Chancellor of the Crown . He was the uncle ofSigismund ,King of Poland . His Coat of Arms was that of Clan Korab from which his de Lask ancestors descended.After his family's fall from political power and prestige, Łaski, a learned priest, went in 1523 to
Basel , where he was a close friend ofErasmus andZwingli . He became pastor of a Protestant church atEmden in 1542 and shortly after went toEngland , where in 1550 he was superintendent of the Strangers' Church of London and had some influence on ecclesiastical affairs in the reign of Edward VI. Under Bloody Mary's persecution, Laski took a shipload of refugees from the Strangers' Church to Copenhagen, but they were refused a place of refuge because they would not accept the Augsburg Confession of Faith. They were re-settled in Brandenburg.Łaski was a correspondent of
John Hooper whom Łaski supported in thevestments controversy .On the accession of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary he fled to the Continent. In 1556 he was recalled to
Poland , where he was secretary to KingSigismund II and was a leader in the Calvinist Reformation.His contributions to the Reformed churches were the establishment of church government in theory and practice, a denial of any distinction between ministers and elders except in terms of who could teach and administer the sacraments, and an understanding of the
eucharist that was more Zwinglian than Calvinistic. Łaski tried to reorient the debate by focusing on the entire ceremony, participation in which "seals" Christians in communion with Christ.He died in
Pinczów ,Poland .Works
* "Forma ac ratio" (1555) -- A "Form and Rationale" for the liturgy of the
Stranger churches in London. Possibly influenced the 1552Book of Common Prayer ,John Knox 's Scottish order, theMiddleburg ordinal , the 1563 German Palatinate order, and the "forms and prayers" in Pieter Dathenus' psalter, which was influential in Dutch Calvinist churches.* Johannes a Lasco, "Opera", ed.
Abraham Kuyper (Amsterdam: F. Muller, 1866).tudies
* Henning P. Juergens, "Johannes a Lasco in Ostfriesland: Der Werdegang eines europaeischen Reformators" (Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002), viii + 428 pp. (Spaetmittelalter und Reformation, Neue Reihe, 18).
* Judith Becker, "Gemeindeordnung und Kirchenzucht. Johannes a Lascos Kirchenordnung für London (1555) und die reformierte Konfessionsbildung" (Leiden: Brill, 2007), xvi, 592 pp. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 122).
ee also
*
Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski
*Wacław z Szamotuł External links
* http://www.go-newfocus.co.uk/articles/jan_laski.htm
* [http://www.jalb.de John a Lasco Library, Emden]
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