Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski
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Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (Andreus Fricius Modrevius) (ca. 1503-1572) was a Polish Renaissance scholar, humanist and theologian.
He was of the lower gentry and held a heritable title as the village head of Wolbórz. After graduating from the Jagiellonian University he was ordained as a vicar and served under archbishop Jan Łaski (the Elder), and later under the bishop of Poznan, Jan Latalski. From 1530 he was connected to the court of Jan Łaski the Younger, the Polish Primate and nephew of the elder Laski. Having lived for a time in Germany, he met Martin Luther and other early Protestant reformers, and also took care of the library of Erasmus.
He returned to Poland in 1541, and became an official at the court of Sigmundus Augustus in 1547. Since 1553 he retired to his native Wolbórz, but since he was leaning strongly towards the reformist (especially Calvinian and Arian) circles he was in danger of being accused of heresy and stripped of his ecclesiastical titles and offices. The king, however, issued a letter of protection for him.
His works: Lascius, Or On The Penalty For Manslaughter (1543, in Latin); The Discourse Of A Truthful Peripatethic (1545); On The Improvement Of The Commonwealth (1554, in Latin, first printed in Basel); Silve Quator (1590, posthumously).
He criticized the ban on land-owning by non-nobles, was in favour of sending a mixed (ecclesiatical and secular) delegation to the Tridentine Council, postulated equality of all citizens before law, a strong central monarchy, secularizing education and improving the lot of the peasant class.
He was a supporter of irenism and the democratical and ecumenical element in the Church.pl:Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski