Marcin Kromer
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Marcin Kromer (German: Martin Cromer or Kromer, 1512-89) was a Prince-Bishop of Warmia, cartographer, diplomat and historian in Poland and later in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was personal secretary to two Kings of Poland: Zygmunt I Stary and Zygmunt II August.
[edit] Life
Kromer was born in 1512 into a prominent burgher family in Biecz, in Lesser Poland. He completed his basic education in a local church-run school. In 1528 he transferred to Kraków, where in 1530 he graduated as a bachelor at the Kraków Academy. In 1533-37 he worked at the Royal Chancellery in Kraków. Thereafter he went to Italy, where he studied law for two years. Returning to Poland in 1540, he became secretary to Archbishop Peter Gamrat. As the latter's personal advisor, he was also his envoy and representative to Rome, where he spent two years until 1544. He then became a canon in Kraków.
In 1545, upon the death of his mentor, Kromer accepted the latter's post as personal secretary to Poland's King Sigismund the Old. He was also an associate of Samuel Maciejowski, who later became Chancellor of the Crown. A specialist on Prussia and Warmia, in 1551 Kromer became 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 age and was frequently required by the court to leave his post to serve as envoy on various diplomatic missions. In 1552, for his services to the King, he was ennobled and granted a coat of arms.
In 1558-64 Kromer served as Polish envoy to Emperor Ferdinand I, who in recognition of Kromer's services added his own family coat-of-arms to Kromer's. The latter's tasks included advocacy 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 coadjutor (de facto bishop) of the Warmian diocese, to succeed on the demise of Prince-Bishop Stanislaus Hosius. After 9 years at that post, Kromer was officially promoted to Prince-Bishop. He spent the rest of his days in Warmia, keeping diaries and writing several books on the history of Poland. He died March 23, 1589, in Heilsberg (Lidzbark Warmiński).
In his works, Kromer advocated the reform of Poland's scientific and cultural life. One of his notable demands was providing the Kraków Academy with new privileges to restore its position as one of the renowned universities in Central Europe. He also promoted the active defence of the Roman Catholic Church against the growing Reformation.
Martin Kromer and Stanislaus Hosius (Stanisław Hozjusz) were the two bishops most instrumental in causing Prussia's diocese of Warmia to return to or remain Catholic during a time of major conversions to Protestantism.
Kromer and Hosius left many German-language records of their speeches and sermons in 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
