Jan Łaski

(Latin form: Johannes a Lasco)

Polish theologian and reformer. Born 1499 in Łask, Poland; died 1560.

Jan Łaski was a Catholic priest, but under the influence of (among others) Erasmus, he broke with Catholicism, becoming a superintendant in Ostfriesland, and later in London (overseeing foreign Protestants living there).

Fleeing from London in 1553, he and his congregation tried in vain to obtain royal permission to settle in Denmark. Łaski wound up back in Poland, where he tried to create an evangelical church on a Calvinist basis, soliciting members from the Calvinist, Lutheran and Moravian communities. He failed in this endeavour, and died not long after.