Lord Mikołaj Oleśnicki the elder (d. 1556) was a Polish Calvinist nobleman who established the first Protestant academy in Poland. His wife
Zofia Oleśnicka (d. c.1567) was the first notable Polish woman poet.
The ex-priest
Francesco Stancaro Francesco Stancaro (also Latin: Franciscus Stancarus) (1501 in Mantua – 1574 in Stopnica) was an Italian Catholic priest, theologian, Protestant convert, and Protestant reformer who became professor of Hebrew at the University of Königsberg ...
prevailed on Oleśnicki to drive the monks out of his settlement at
Pińczów
Pińczów is a town in southern Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, about 40 km south of Kielce. It is the capital of Pińczów County. Population is 12,304 (2005). Pińczów belongs to the historic Polish province of Lesser Poland, a ...
in 1550 and establish it as a Calvinist centre, the
Pińczów Academy.
[MW Anderson ''Vista Tigurina: Peter Martyr and European Reform (1556-1562)'' 1990] He corresponded with Melanchthon in 1560.
His nephew was
Mikołaj Oleśnicki the younger
Mikołaj Oleśnicki the younger (30 April 1558 - 13 December 1629) was a Polish nobleman and latterly voivode of Lublin.
He was son of Jan Oleśnicki, lord of Chmielnik in the voivodie of SandomirAdam A. WITUSIK, in PSB, t.23, p.771 His uncle ...
(30 April 1558 - 13 Dec 1629), initially a Calvinist, he converted in 1598 to Roman Catholicism to gain royal favor.
References
Polish Calvinist and Reformed Christians
16th-century Polish nobility
Mikolaj
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