Author
Krzysztof Warszewicki 1543-1603

He was born in 1543 in Warszewice in Masovia to a wealthy noble family. His father, Jan, was a castellan of Warsaw from 1557, while his stepbrother Stanisław (1530? -1591), a Jesuit, classical Greek scholar, activist, and writer at the time of the Catholic reform, he became famous for his Greek-Latin translations, inter alia, of Aethiopica by Heliodorus and two works by the Spanish mystic Louis of Granada, which had a significant influence on Polish Baroque poetry. He spent his early youth at the court of King Ferdinand, then he studied at the universities in Leipzig, Wittenberg and Bologna in 1557-59. After returning to Poland in 1561, he became the secretary of Poznan’s bishop Adam Konarski, holding this function until 1572, when, during the first interregnum, he dedicated himself to public activity and published his first work – Venecya.... (Venice). Being a supporter of Henri de Valois as a candidate for the throne, he participated in the coronation sejm of 1574; during the second interregnum, he supported the Austrian candidate, and after Stephen Báthory was elected king, he was forced to leave the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Having obtained forgiveness from Báthory in 1577, he soon found himself among the monarch’s advisors, taking part in the expedition against Moscow and participating in the peace talks, following which he carried out a number of diplomatic missions on behalf of the king. During the third interregnum he once again supported the Habsburg faction, and after the defeat in the Battle of Byczyna – which ruined the chances of Maximilian Habsburg to gain the throne – he went to Bohemia, where he stayed until 1593. Thanks to an intercession from church dignitaries, he was once again forgiven by the king, this time Sigismund III Vasa, but after returning to Poland in 1594, he found no place at the royal court. In 1598, he was ordained to the priesthood, and – thanks to the support provided to him by Jerzy Radziwiłł, the Kraków bishop – he was appointed a canon of the Kraków Chapter. As a contemporary historian believes, throughout his life, Warszewicki was closely associated with the Catholic reaction camp, was intolerant towards other faiths and recommended a strong-arm policy towards them. He enjoyed unchangeable trust of the Roman Curia and some members of the Polish episcopate (L. Szczucki, [in:] 700 lat myśli polskiej, tom Filozofia i myśl społeczna XVI wieku (700 years of Polish thought, volume: Philosophy and social thought of the sixteenth century) ed. L. Szczucki, Warszawa, 1978, p. 382. His political treatises (including Paradoxa, (Vilnius 1579), De legato et legatione, 1595, De optimo statu libertatis, (1598) earned Warszewicki the greatest fame, although he also authored a number of historical and theological works, occasional speeches and panegyrics, as well as the collection Reges, sancti, bellatores, scriptores Poloni (Roma 1601), which included biographical and bibliographic information about 29 Polish writers. He died on 10 or 11 September 1603 in Kraków. Publications of Warszewicki’s writings: Rerum polonicarum ab excessu Stephani Regis ad Maximiliani Austriaci captivitatem, ed. and foreword S. Ciampi, Florentiae 1827; Wenecya: poemat historyczno-polityczny z końca XVI wieku, ed. T. Wierzbowski, (Warsaw 1886); excerpt of Paradoksów (The Paradoxes), transl. J. Gajda, [in:] 700 lat myśli polskiej, vol. Filozofia i myśl społeczna XVI wieku, ed. L. Szczucki, Warsaw 1978, pp. 383-405.

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