Jakub Uchański (1502–81), of

Radwan coat of arms Radwan () is a Polish knights' clan (''ród'') and a Polish coat of arms used by the ''szlachta'' (noble families within the clan). Blazon Gules: a Gonfanon or surmounted by a Maltese Cross of the last. Crest – on a crowned helmet – three ...

, was an

archbishop of Gniezno This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.primate of Poland This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.interrex The interrex (plural interreges) was literally a ruler "between kings" (Latin ''inter reges'') during the Roman Kingdom and the Roman Republic. He was in effect a short-term regent. History The office of ''interrex'' was supposedly created follo ...

from 1572 to 1573 and from 1574 to 1575.

Biography

He began his service at the

royal court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be appl ...

as a secretary and administrator of the lands of

Queen of Poland Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16t ...

Bona Sforza Bona Sforza d'Aragona (2 February 1494 – 19 November 1557) was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the second wife of Sigismund I the Old, and Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right. She was a surviving member o ...

. With her support he received the position of the ecclesiastical Crown Referendary, and several canonries. He became the bishop of Chełm in 1551,

bishop of Włocławek A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

in 1561 (chosen in 1557), and

archbishop of Gniezno This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.primate of Poland This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.Sigismund II Augustus Sigismund II Augustus ( pl, Zygmunt II August, lt, Žygimantas Augustas; 1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first rule ...

, and supported many of his plans, including the one to divorce Catherine of Austria. He threw his weight behind the pro-

reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

camp, and was actively involved in bringing about the transformation of the

Polish–Lithuanian union Polish–Lithuanian can refer to: * Polish–Lithuanian union (1385–1569) * Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795) * Polish-Lithuanian identity as used to describe groups, families, or individuals with histories in the Polish–Lithuani ...

into the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ...

. He represented King Sigismund II Augustus in negotiations with Lithuanian

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

s in

Vilna Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional ur ...

, and he took part in the Lithuanian

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

Bielsk Podlaski Bielsk Podlaski ( be, Бельск Падляскі, , yi, ביעלסק, Bielsk) is a town in eastern Poland, within Bielsk County in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 24,883. Geography Bielsk Podlas ...

of 1564. He looked favorably on the idea of creating a Polish

national church A national church is a Christian church associated with a specific ethnic group or nation state. The idea was notably discussed during the 19th century, during the emergence of modern nationalism. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in a draft discussin ...

, though he stopped short at breaking away from Rome. He also supported dialogue with

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

s, advocating

religious tolerance Religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, mistaken, or harmful". ...

. For his liberal religious views he was scorned in Vatican and was briefly

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

in 1558 by Pope Paul IV

who suspected him of

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

. Uchański was even summoned before the

Roman Inquisition The Roman Inquisition, formally the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, respon ...

; however, he refused the summons to Rome and the conflict was solved via diplomacy. Uchański, while supportive of the Protestants and tolerance, never abandoned Catholic faith and during the dynasty change the 1570s insisted on the election of the monarchs. Even though his stance towards Protestants was quite liberal, he was a political opponent of

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

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

) from the decision making processes and rely solely on the

Senate of Poland The Senate ( pl, Senat) is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate stretches back over 500 years; it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europ ...

(Firlej also wanted to elect a Protestant king to the Polish throne). After the death of Sigismund II Augustus, last of the

Jagiellon dynasty The Jagiellonian dynasty (, pl, dynastia jagiellońska), otherwise the Jagiellon dynasty ( pl, dynastia Jagiellonów), the House of Jagiellon ( pl, Dom Jagiellonów), or simply the Jagiellons ( pl, Jagiellonowie), was the name assumed by a cad ...

, he became the

interrex The interrex (plural interreges) was literally a ruler "between kings" (Latin ''inter reges'') during the Roman Kingdom and the Roman Republic. He was in effect a short-term regent. History The office of ''interrex'' was supposedly created follo ...

until Henry of Valois was elected as the first king of the new

. After Henry's sudden return to France, Uchański once again took the position of the interrex, until

Anna Jagiellon Anna Jagiellon ( pl, Anna Jagiellonka, lt, Ona Jogailaitė; 18 October 1523 – 9 September 1596) was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania from 1575 to 1587. Daughter of Polish King Sigismund I the Old and Italian duchess B ...

became the queen of Poland. In 1575 he joined the pro- Habsburg camp and together with some other Polish senators he proclaimed Emperor Maximilian II to be the king of Poland, however due to opposition from many other Polish nobles (''

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in ...

'') Maximilian lost, and

Stephen Báthory Stephen Báthory ( hu, Báthory István; pl, Stefan Batory; ; 27 September 1533 – 12 December 1586) was Voivode of Transylvania (1571–1576), Prince of Transylvania (1576–1586), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1576–1 ...

was eventually to become the king of Poland. Jan Michałowicz z Urzędowa Uchański

He was also a translator and a protector of many liberal thinkers of the Polish renaissance, including

Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski ( la, Andreas Fricius Modrevius) (ca.1503 – autumn 1572) was a Polish Renaissance scholar, humanist and theologian, called "the father of Polish democracy". His book ''De Republica emendanda'' (''O poprawie Rzeczypospol ...

and Jakub Wujek.

Uchański lineage

Since his consecrator is unknown and some of the bishops alive today traced (erroneously as it could be shown later) their

episcopal lineage The historic or historical episcopate comprises all episcopates, that is, it is the collective body of all the bishops of a church who are in valid apostolic succession. This succession is transmitted from each bishop to their successors by the r ...

back to him, the person of Jakub Uchański was very important for the history of the Catholic Church. This so-called Uchański lineage includes many members of the Polish episcopate and

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of ...

. In 2007, it became clear that Uchanski was never part of this succession line. Its roots can be traced back to bishop Claudio Rangoni, who was bishop of

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

between 1592 and 1621. He worked as

Apostolic Nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...

to Poland from 1598 to 1607.Prokop, Krzysztof Rafał: Sukcesja święceń biskupich pastrzy Kościoła Legnickiego. Szkice Legnickie, XXVIII (2007), 317-28 Claudio Rangoni belongs to the Rebiba lineage, so the part of Uchański-lineage up of Claudio Rangoni is a branch of the Rebiba lineage.

References

External links

Virtual tour Gniezno Cathedral List of Primates of Poland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uchanski, Jakub Ecclesiastical senators of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Archbishops of Gniezno Polish interreges 16th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 1502 births 1581 deaths People temporarily excommunicated by the Catholic Church Apostolic Nuncios to Poland