Author
Stanisław Karnkowski 1520-1603

Stanisław Karnkowski (1520-1603), born in Karnków on the 10th of May, 1520, he studied at the Kraków Academy, as well as in Padua and Wittenberg. In 1555 he became the secretary of King Sigismund II Augustus. Three years later he assumed the office of the Great Referendary of the Crown, and in 1563 was appointed the Great Secretary of the Crown. In 1567 he became the bishop of Włocławek. He was involved in the Counter-Reformation works, collaborating, among others, with Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius. He came out against Protestants; for instance, he had Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski removed from Wolbórz. In 1569 he founded in Włocławek the first theological seminary in Poland. In the following year he worked out a programme for fighting against the dissenters. As the head of the Maritime Commission he took up works aimed at settling the rights of Polish Kings to Gdańsk and their maritime law. His efforts resulted in the so-called Karnkowski’s Statutes (Statuta seu Constitutiones Carncovianae; or, Gdańsk Constitutions). He actively participated in the preparations to the first free royal election in Poland and in 1573 he confirmed the choice of Henry III of France as King of Poland. In his 1573 treatise called De modo et ordine electionis novi Regis he pointed out the proper way of electing kings. In 1576 he crowned Stephen Báthory King of Poland. After Báthory’s death, he was the interrex as the Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland (he had assumed the latter office in 1581). In 1587 Karnkowski also crowned Báthory’s successor, Sigismund III Vasa, and took control of the affairs of the State whenever the new ruler was abroad. In his work entitled De prymatu senatorio Regni Poloniae he conducted a line of argument to prove that the primate was the most important senator in a state. He died in Łowicz on the 8th of June 1603. Apart from the above-mentioned works, he was also the author of, among others, Napominania potrzebne i zbawienne, których wszyscy plebani... używać mają (1569), Ad Henricum Valesium... panegyricus (1574), Ad... Principem Henricum... de tuenda unitate fidei oratio (1574), Kazanie... o dwojakim kościele chrześcijańskim (1596), and Messjasz albo kazania o upadku i naprawie rodzaju ludzkiego (1597).

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