Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski
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Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (Andreas Fricius Modrevius) (c. September 20, 1503 – 1572) was a Polish Renaissance scholar, humanist and theologian, called "the father of Polish democracy."
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[edit] Life
Modrzewski was born in Wolbórz (also known as Woybor, Voibor, Woibor, Wojbor, Woyborz and Wolborz), near Piotrków Trybunalski, the son of Jakub Modrzewski (1477–1529).
Modrzewski was of the gentry (though some authors say he came from impoverished nobility) and held the hereditary title of mayor (wójt/vogt/advocatus) of Wolbórz. After graduating from the Kraków Academy, he was ordained a vicar and served under Archbishop Jan Łaski (the Elder), and later under the Bishop of Poznań, Jan Latalski. From 1530 he was connected to the court of Jan Łaski the Younger, the Polish Primate and nephew of the elder Łaski. Having lived for a time in Germany, where he studied at the Lutheran University he met Martin Luther and other early Protestant reformers in Wittenberg. He 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/Polish brethren) 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,Lascius sive de poena homicidii in Latin, Polish title Łaski albo o karze za mężobójstwo); The Discourse Of A Truthful Peripatethic (1545); On the Improvement of the Commonwealth (1554, in Latin De Republica emendanda, first printed in Basel, Polish title O poprawie Rzeczpospolitej); Silve Quator (1590, posthumously).
In Lascius, Or on The Penalty for Manslaughter he criticized the inequality in terms of law faced by various social classes: while the penalty for killing a nobleman ranged from 120 grzywna through life imprisonment to death, the penalty for killing a peasant was only 10 grzywna.
Yet it was On the Improvement of the Commonwealth that brought him eternal and international fame. He advocated a strong monarchy that would protect the rights of all. He postulated equality of all citizens before the law, criticized the 1565 ban 1565 on land-owning by non-nobles, and wrote that peasants should own the soil they work and that townsfolk should be able to buy land and be elected to offices (those rights then being reserved only for the nobility), demanded the reform (secularization) of education, division between state and church. This treatise was translated into many European languages and earned him many enemies in the Church. Pope Paul V placed the book on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (list of prohibited books).
Modrzewski favored sending a mixed ecclesiastical and secular delegation to the Tridentine Council (where he would be sent as a Polish delegate).
He supported irenism and the democratic and ecumenical element in the Church.
[edit] Heritage
Descendants of his daughter[1] include Polish President Lech Kaczyński[2] and Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant.[3]
[edit] Quotes
- "Without laws there can be no true freedom." (Bez praw nie może być prawdziwej wolności.)
- "The peasant is not your slave, he is your neighbor."
