Jan Łaski

[2][3] Following Hermann Dalton's claims in his nineteenth-century biography of Łaski,[4] a number of historians have identified the Łaski family's castle in Łask as his place of birth,[5] although recent Polish scholarship concludes that the exact location cannot be ascertained.

[6] His uncle, also Jan Łaski, was the Archbishop of Gniezno, Primate of Poland and Grand Chancellor of the Crown,[1] and he was instrumental in forwarding the early career of his nephew.

[8] After his family's fall from political power and prestige, Łaski, a learned priest, went in 1523 to Basel, where he became a close friend of Erasmus and Zwingli.

Shortly after his stay in Emden he went to England, where in 1550 he was superintendent of the Strangers' Church of London and had some influence on ecclesiastical affairs in the reign of Edward VI.

[9] Upon the accession of Catholic Queen Mary in July 1553, he fled to Copenhagen with a shipload of refugees from the Strangers' Church.

Jan Łaski (John à Lasco), portrait from the 16th century
Korab coat-of-arms
Edward VI Granting Permission to John à Lasco to Set Up a Congregation for European Protestants in London in 1550 , painting by Johann Valentin Haidt , circa 1750