Jan Łaski (1456–1531)

Jan Laski (* March 1456 in Lask, † May 19 1531 in Kalisz ) was a Polish nobleman, politician, the Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland. He belonged to the Crest Community Korab.

• 2.1 synodic collection statutes

Life

Łaski seemed to be on a large scale even to have acquired knowledge and education. A large part of his career he seemed to owe its remarkable intellectual grasp, seemed to have been used in his family.

Secretary of the Grand Chancellor

He occupied early State offices and in 1495 secretary of the Polish Chancellor Zawisza Kurozwęcki, a position in which he could collect both experience and influence. The older Registrar entrusted the astute, young clergyman with the implementation of many important missions. Twice, in 1495 and again in 1500, he was sent to Rome. He also traveled as part of an embassy to Flanders and what he left behind records. In these travels he had the opportunity to prove his great diplomatic skills.

Secretary of the King

On the accession of King Alexander, who had little knowledge of Polish affairs of state and mainly resided in Lithuania, Laski was appointed royal secretary. With his new skills, he managed successfully against the separatist tendencies of the Grand Duchy to work and to maintain dominance of Catholicism, which was threatened by the influence of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Grand Chancellor of Poland

King Alexander was so impressed by Laski's abilities that in 1503 he confided to him after the death of the Grand Chancellor and the Great Seal of the Vice-Chancellor Macics Dzewicki just passed. As Lord Chancellor he was a supporter of the szlachta against lower levels and went so far as to henceforth exclude all members of the common people of higher church offices. Nevertheless, he proved to be so excellent in his posts that he was for the succeeding king, Sigismund I to one of his chief advisers.

Primate of Poland

1511 became Łaski, the church was still considered merely a canon of Cracow, the Archbishop of Gniezno and dignity was thus Primate of Poland. During the long negotiations with the unruly and sometimes rebellious Teutonic Order, he rendered Sigismund I. very important political services. So he proposed a solution to the conflict between the German Order and Poland - Lithuania before the envisaged that Sigismund I would be appointed Grand Master of the Order, while Łaski gave up his Prima Office and the favored candidate of the Order, Albert of Brandenburg would leave. This would have been a solution that would be more advantageous designed for Poland as the Agreement of 1525.

1513 Łaski was sent to the held by Pope Julius II Lateran Council to put forward the case of Poland against the Teutonic Order, and understood it, both as a speaker and as a diplomat brilliant display. This mission was equally profitable, as it the title legati nati received by the Pope for his country as well as for himself.

At the age led his obtuseness of his nephew Jerome to the fact that he so vehemently supported the candidacy Johann Zápolyas, Turkish favorites to win the throne of Hungary against the Habsburgs that Clement VII excommunicated him. The shock of this disgrace was so great for him that he subsequently died in 1531.

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

Works

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

Collection 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 (Cracow, 1527)
• De Ruthenorum nationibus eorumque erroribus (Nuremberg)