Marcin Kromer
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Marcin Kromer (sometimes Germanised into Martin Kromer or Cromer) (1512-1589) was a 16th century Prince-Bishop of Warmia, cartographer, diplomat, and historian in Poland and later in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was the personal secretary of Kings of Poland Zygmunt I Stary and Zygmunt II August.
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[edit] Biography
Kromer was born in 1512 to a notable burgher family of Biecz in Lesser Poland. There he finished his education in a church-run school. In 1528 he moved to Cracow, where he graduated as a bachelor of the Cracow Academy in 1530. Between 1533 and 1537 he worked in the Royal Chancellery. After that he moved to Italy, where he studied law for two years. He returned to Poland in 1540 and became the secretary of archbishop Peter Gamrat. As his personal advisor, he was also his envoy and representative in Rome, where he spent two years until 1544. Then he became the canon of the Catholic canonry of Cracow.
In 1545, after the death of his promoter and tutor he took his post as the personal secretary of King of Poland Sigismund the Old. He was also one of the associates of Samuel Maciejowski, who later became the chancellor of the Crown. As a specialist in the matters of Prussia and Warmia, in 1551 he became the head of the Warmia canonry. However, his church career did not proceed as planned, since he was seen as one of the best Polish diplomats of the epoch and the court frequently made him abandon his post to serve as an envoy in various diplomatic missions. For his service to the Polish king in 1552 he was ennobled and granted a coat of arms.
Between 1558 and 1564, he served as the Polish envoy to the Emperor Ferdinand I, who also added the coat of arms of his family to Kromer's emblem in recognition for his services. Among his duties was the promotion of King Sigismund's claims to the inheritance of the late queen-consort Bona Sforza, which was also claimed by the king of Spain, who, however, based his claims on a forged testament.
In 1564, Kromer was recalled to Poland, where he was promoted within the church hierarchy and took the post of a coadiutor (de facto bishop) of the Warmian diocese, to succeed following the demise of the then Prince-Bishop Stanislaus Hosius. After 9 years at that post, he was officially promoted to Prince-Bishop. He spent the rest of his days in Warmia, writing several books on the history of Poland and diaries. He died March 23, 1589, in Lidzbark Warmiński (Heilsberg).
In his works Kromer promoted the idea of reforms of Poland's scientific and cultural life. One of his most notable demands was providing the Cracow Academy with new privileges to restore its position as one of the most renowned universities in Central Europe. He also promoted the active defence of the Roman Roman Catholic Church against the growing Reformation.
Marcin Kromer and Stanislaus Hosius (Stanisław Hozjusz) are the two bishops most instrumental in causing Warmian diocese to remain Catholic during a time of major conversions to Protestantism.
Both Kromer and Hosius left many German language records of their speeches and sermons from their episcopacies in Warmia.
[edit] Bibliography
- Martini Cromeri de origine et rebus gestis Polonorum libri XXX [1] of 1555 (About origins and history of Poles in thirty tomes) in Latin, (Polish translation O sprawach, dziejach i wszystkich innych potocznościach koronnych polskich in 1611)
- Polonia sive de situ, populis, moribus, magistratibus et Republica regni Polonici libri duo published in Cologne in 1577 (Poland, about location, culture and offices) in Latin, (Polish translation Polska, czyli o położeniu, obyczajach, urzędach Rzeczypospolitej Królestwa Polskiego in 1853)
- Rozmowa dworzanina z mnichem of 1551-1554 (in Polish: "Discourse between a courtier and a monk")
- Historyja prawdziwa o przygodzie żałosnej książęcia finlandzkiego Jana i królewny polskiej Katarzyny from 1570, "true history of sad adventure of Finnish prince Jan and Polish princess Katarzyna", a prose telling of love between Jan Waza and Katarzyna Jagiellonka, parents to Sigismund III Vasa
