Jakub Uchański (1502–81), of Radwan coat of arms, was a Polish clergyman and statesman, archbishop of Gniezno and primate of Poland from 1562 to 1581, interrex from 1572 to 1573 and from 1574 to 1575.

For his liberal religious views he was scorned in Vatican and was briefly excommunicated in 1558 by Pope Paul IV[1], who suspected him of heresy.

Even though his stance towards Protestants was quite liberal, he was a political opponent of Calvinist Marshal of the Crown Jan Firlej, especially during the political crises of the 1570s, when Uchański tried to exclude the lesser nobles (members of the Sejm) from the decision-making processes and rely solely on the Senate of Poland[7] (Firlej also wanted to elect a Protestant king to the Polish throne).

He was also a translator[8] and a protector of many liberal thinkers of the Polish renaissance, including Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski[4] and Jakub Wujek.

[9][10] Since his consecrator is unknown and some of the bishops alive today traced (erroneously as it could be shown later) their episcopal lineage back to him, the person of Jakub Uchański was very important for the history of the Catholic Church.