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Johannes a Lasco

Philips Galle (1537-1612): Joannes Alasco, 1567. Copperplate engraving, 17.7 x 12.5 cm, from a series of 36 copperplate engravings entitled “Virorum doctorum de disciplines benemerenium effigies” (Sellink 1997, II, 2E/76)
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Born into a Polish magnate family in 1499, Jan Łaski, Latin name Johannes à Lasco, anglicised form John à Lasco, was predestined for a distinguished political and theological career. His uncle was the Grand Chancellor of Poland and Archbishop of Gniezon, Primate of the Polish church. Later a Dean and Royal Secretary himself, à Lasco was in close contact with the most prominent humanists of his time and occupied himself with the writings of the Reformers. His family’s political problems but also his interest in the Reformation saw him travelling to Wittenberg, and then to Leuven, where he joined the Reformist theologians. Following a marriage that constituted a transgression of the celibacy of the Catholic church, he had to flee Leuven and went to Emden in East Frisia, where, as Superintendent, he laid the foundations for the structures of the Reformed Church that still apply today.

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  • Fig. 1: Defence against Menno Simons, 1545 - John à Lasco/Jan Łaski: Defensio Verae semperque In Ecclesia Receptae Doctrinæ De Christi Domini incarnatione, Adversus Mennonem Simonis Anabaptistarum Doctorem, Bonn 1545
  • Fig. 2a: Church order for London, 1555 - John à Lasco/Jan Łaski: Forma ac ratio tota ecclesiastici Ministerii, in peregrinorum, potissimorum vero Germanorum Ecclesia instituta Londini in Anglia, Frankfurt am Main 1555, Title page
  • Fig. 2b: Dedication to the Polish king, 1555 - John à Lasco/Jan Łaski: Forma ac ratio tota ecclesiastici Ministerii, in peregrinorum, potissimorum vero Germanorum Ecclesia instituta Londini in Anglia, Frankfurt am Main 1555, page 2 with a dedication to the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus/Zygmunt II
  • Fig. 3: Purgation epistle, 1556 - John à Lasco/Jan Łaski: Purgatio ministrorum in ecclesiis peregrinorum Francofurti eorum calumnias, qui ipsorum doctrinam, de Christi Domini in Coena sua praesentia, dissensionis accusant ab Augustana confessione, Basel 1556
  • Fig. 4: Response to Joachim Westphal, 1560 - John à Lasco/Jan Łaski: Responsio ad uirule[n]tam, calumniisque Ac Mendaciis Consarcinatam hominis furiosi Ioachimi VVestphali Epistola[m] quandam, qua purgationem Ecclesiaru[m] Peregrinarum Francoforti conuellere conatur, Basel 1560
  • Fig. 5: Three letters, 1556 - John à Lasco/Jan Łaski: Epistolae tres lectu dignissimae, de recta et legitima ecclesiarum benè instituendarum ratione ac modo: ad Potentiss. Regem Poloniae, Senatum, reliquos[que] Ordines, Basel 1556
  • Fig. 6: Johannes a Lasco Library - Johannes a Lasco Library, Grand Church, Emden (2017)
  • Fig. 7: Johannes a Lasco Library - Johannes a Lasco Library, lettering, Emden (2017)
  • Fig. 8: Johannes a Lasco Library - Johannes a Lasco Library, side view, Emden (2017)
  • Fig. 9: Von dem Schicksale des Johann a Lasco, 1758 - Ludvig Harboe/Christian Gottlob Mengel: Ludwig Harboe hochverordneten Bischoffs in Seeland Zuverläßige Nachrichten von dem Schicksale des Johann a Lasco und seiner aus England vertriebenen reformirten Gemeinde in Dänemark, Kopenhagen 1758

Johannes a Lasco
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Philips Galle (1537-1612): Joannes Alasco, 1567.
Philips Galle (1537-1612): Joannes Alasco, 1567. Copperplate engraving, 17.7 x 12.5 cm, from a series of 36 copperplate engravings entitled “Virorum doctorum de disciplines benemerenium effigies” (Sellink 1997, II, 2E/76)
©
Public Domain

Today, the Johannes à Lasco Library in Emden commemorates the Polish Reformer in Germany. Since 1995, the library has been housed in what was à Lasco’s domain, the Grand Church in Emden. The modern new building has been integrated into the ruins of the “Moederkerk” of Reformist Protestantism which was destroyed in the Second World War (Fig. 6). The collections date back to à Lasco’s time. In 1559, the church Elder of the Reformed congregation, Gerhard tom Camp, left his books to the pastors for theological study. Originally housed in a private house and decimated significantly in a storm surge in 1570, they have since been stored in the consistory chamber of the Grand Church. In 1574, Albert Hardenberg’s library was added. Hardenberg was appointed Reformed pastor of the Grand Church in 1567, seven years after à Lasco's death. Continually expanded over the centuries by bequests from theologians, the library was relocated before the bombing of the Grand Church in 1943. Today it comprises a special library dedicated to Reformed Protestantism and to the history of the confession of the early modern period, 160,000 books, extensive archives and manuscripts.[27] Among these are also handwritten documents and first editions of books by John à Lasco as well as a portrait painted after 1555 that possibly served as the template for the copperplate engraving by Philips Galle (cover picture) a decade later.[28]
(to be continued)

 

Axel Feuß, November 2017

 

Literature:

1. Henning P. Jürgens: Johannes à Lasco, 1499-1560 – ein Europäer des Reformationszeitalters = Publications of the Johannes à Lasco Library, Grand Church Emden, 2, Wuppertal 1999

2. Henning P. Jürgens: Johannes à Lasco. Ein Leben in Büchern und Briefen. An exhibition at the Johannes à Lasco Library, Emden, Wuppertal 1999

3. Henning P. Jürgens: Johannes à Lasco in Ostfriesland. Der Werdegang eines europäischen Reformators = Spätmittelalter und Reformation, Neue Reihe 18, Tübingen 2002

4. Christoph Strohm (Publisher): Johannes à Lasco (1499-1560). Polnischer Baron, Humanist und europäischer Reformator. Contributions to the international symposium of 14-17 October 1999 in the Johannes à Lasco Library Emden, Tübingen 2000

5. Emden = Orte der Reformation, 13, published by J. Marius J. Lange van Ravenswaay, Klaas-Dieter Voß and Wolfgang Jahn, Leipzig 2014

6. J. Marius J. Lange van Ravenwaay: Testimonies of the great past, in: Die fantastischen Vier = Politik und Kultur. Dossier Reformationsjubiläum No. 2, Berlin 2017, page 48 f.

 

[27] Klaas Dieter Voß: Doktor Alberts Staub und Schatten. Aus der Geschichte der ältesten Bibliothek Ostfrieslands, in: Emden = Orte der Reformation 2014 (see Bibliography 5.), p. 74-78; J. Marius J. Lange van Ravenwaay 2017 (see Bibliography 6.)

[28] Manfred Sellink: Philips Galle (1537-1612). Engraver and print publisher in Haarlem and Antwerp, II: Notes/Appendices, Dissertation Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1997, p. 267

Philips Galle (1537-1612): Joannes Alasco, 1567. Copperplate engraving, 17.7 x 12.5 cm, from a series of 36 copperplate engravings entitled “Virorum doctorum de disciplines benemerenium effigies” (Sellink 1997, II, 2E/76)
©
Public Domain
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