Laski

Laski, or A Lasco, John (1499-1560), one of the reformers, was born in Poland. He was educated, with his brothers, by the Primate of Poland. He studied at Bologna, and in 1521 was ordained and made Dean of Gnesen. He stayed at Basle with Erasmus in 1524-25, and met some of the reformers there. On his return to Poland he received fresh benefices, and in 1538 became Archdeacon of Warsaw. In the same year he went to Frankfort, and thence to Mainz and the Netherlands. In 1542 he became pastor at Emden, where he set up a kind of Presbyterianism and met Hooper. In 1548 he arrived, by Cranmer's invitation, in England, and spent the winter at Lambeth. He was again in London in 1550, and became superintendent of the London church of foreign Protestants. He had great influence at the Court of Edward VI., and held extreme Protestant views. In 1553 he left England, and, after a short stay in Denmark, was again in Emden. His last years were spent in promoting the union of the reformed churches in Poland, and in helping to translate the Bible into Polish.