Modrzewski was born in Wolbórz, near Piotrków Trybunalski, the son of Jakub Modrzewski. Modrzewski family belonged to the gentry, bore Jastrzębiec coat of arms, and held the hereditary title of mayor of Wolbórz. After graduating from the Kraków Academy, he was ordained a vicar and served under Archbishop Jan Łaski, and later under the Bishop of Poznań, Jan Latalski. From 1530 he was connected to the court of Jan Łaski the Younger, the Primate of Poland and nephew of the elder Łaski. Having lived for a time in Germany, where he studied at the Lutheran University he met Martin Luther and other early Protestant reformers in Wittenberg. He also took care of the library of Erasmus bought by Łaski. From 1540 onwards, he served as the titular parish priest in Brzeziny and Skoszewy. In 1541, during his stay in the capital, he met with Mikołaj Rej. Modrzewski advocated sending a mixed ecclesiastical and secular delegation to the 1545 EcumenicalCouncil of Trent. He supported Irenicism and the democratic and ecumenical element in the Church. He became an official at the court of Sigismund II Augustus in 1547. Since he was leaning strongly towards the reformist circles, he became in danger of being accused of heresy and was ultimately stripped of his ecclesiastical titles and offices. The king, however, issued a letter of protection for him. In 1553 he retired to his native Wolbórz. Modrzewski debuted as a writer in 1543 with the work called Lascius, sive de poena homicidii. In it, Modrzewski criticized the inequality prescribed by the law for different social classes: for example, while the penalty for killing a nobleman ranged from 120 grzywna – through life imprisonment – to death, the penalty for killing a peasant was only 10 grzywna. Yet it was On the Improvement of the Commonwealth that brought him eternal and international fame. In it, he advocated a strong monarchy that would protect the rights of all citizens. He postulated equality of all before the law, and criticized the 1565 ban on land-owning by non-nobles. He wrote that peasants should own the soil which they work, and that townsfolk should be able to buy land and be elected to offices, demanded the reformof education, and division between state and church. This treatise was translated into many European languages and earned him many enemies in the Church. Pope Paul V placed the book on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
De Republica emendanda
Modrzewski's crowning achievement printed in 1551 was: Commentariorum De Republica emendanda libri quinque published in the printing house of Łazarz Andrysowic. Originally it was to include all five manuscripts: 1. De Moribus ; 2. De Legibus ; 3. De Bello ; 4. De Ecclesia, and 5. De Schola. However, as some of Modrevius' theses were considered unorthodox by the Church and opposed, only the three first books were included in the original publication. The first complete edition – consisting of all five beforementioned books, and dialogues entitled: De utraque specie Coenae Domini – was published in 1554 in Basel by Johannes Oporinus, after which Modrzewski was forced to leave the capital. The first Polish translation by Cyprian Bazylik was published in Łosk in 1577. The book was widely read and praised across Renaissance Europe. It was translated into German, French, Spanish, and Russian in the 17th century.
Other works
1543: Lascius sive de poena homicidii
1545: Oratio Philatelis Peripatetici in senatulo hominum scholasticorum de decreto conventus, quo pagi civibus adimi permittuntur, habita...
1561: Narratio simplex rei novae et eiusdem pessimi exempli...
1590: Silvae, including Modrevius' four theological discourses ''
