A Lasco, or Lasco, or Laski (John), usually styled the Polish
A Lasco, or Lasco, or Laski (John), usually styled the Polish reformer, a man of high rank, talents, and pious zeal, is said by Fox, the martyrologist, who was his contemporary, to have been uncle to Sigismond, king of Poland. He certainly was of a noble family in Poland, which took its name from Lasco, Latzki, or Latzeo, and subsisted under one of those titles long after his time. He was born, according to Saxius, in 1499, but we have no particulars respecting his family, unless that his brother Jerome was an able politician, and employed by the emperor Ferdinand, as his ambassador to the Turkish government. He had also an uncle, of the same name, who was archbishop of Gnesua, to whom Erasmus dedicated his edition of the works of St. Ambrose, and whom Le Clerc mistakes for our John Alasco. Erasmus in one of his epistles (ep. 862) mentions two others of the same illustrious family, Hieroslaus, and Stanislaus Alasco (usually written à Lasco); and in ep. 1167, he speaks of a John à Lasco (Joannes Lascanus), a young man, who died in Germany.
ility of the Lacys, earls of Lincoln, which forms a part of it, was written in consequence of Albert a Lasco, a noble German, coming to England in 1583, and claiming
, an English antiquary, was the son
of William Feme, of Temple Belwood, in the isle of Axholme, in Lincolnshire, esq. by Anne his wife, daughter
and heir of John Sheffield, of Beltoft; and was sent to Oxford when about seventeen years of age. Here he was
placed, as Wood conceives, either in St. Mary’s-hall, or
University college: but leaving the university without a
degree, he went to the Inner Temple, and studied for some
time the municipal law. In the beginning of the reign of
James I. he received the honour of knighthood, being about
that time secretary, and keeper of the king’s signet of the
council established at York for the north parts of England.
He probably died about 1610, leaving several sons behind
him, of whom Henry, the youngest, was afterwards bishop
of Chester, the subject of our next article. In 1586 sir
John published “The Blazon of Gentry, divided into two
parts, &c.
” 4to. This is written in dialogues, and, though
in a language uncommonly quaint and tedious, contains
critical accounts of arms, principles of precedence, remarks upon the times, &c. which are altogether curious.
The nobility of the Lacys, earls of Lincoln, which forms a
part of it, was written in consequence of Albert a Lasco, a
noble German, coming to England in 1583, and claiming
affinity to this family of Lacy, and from this, Feme says,
he was induced to open their descents, their arms, marriages, and lives. The discourse is curious, and during
the century that elapsed after its publication, before the
appearance of Dugdaie’s Baronage, must have been peculiarly valuable.
rrespondence with him, which he began b\ T recommending to his favour the afterwards well-known John A Lasco. (See Alasco, vol. I. p. 292.) Besides the aid which Pole
Having now acquired perhaps as much learning as his country at that time afforded, he was desirous of visiting the most celebrated universities abroad, to complete his education, and being provided by the king with a pension, in addition to the profits of his preferments, he fixed his residence for some time at Padua, where he hired a house and kept an establishment suitable to his rank. The professors at Padua were at this time men of high reputation, and were not a little pleased with the opportunity of forming the mind of one who was the kinsman ana favourite of a great king, and might hereafter have it in his power amply to reward their labours and some of them even now partook nobly of his bounty, being maintained by him in his house. Here commenced his acquaintance with Bembo, Sadolet, and Longolius, which lasted the remainder of their lives, and here also his acquaintance took its rise with Erasmus, who had received from his friend Lupset a very favourable representation of Pole. He therefore entered into an epistolary correspondence with him, which he began b\ T recommending to his favour the afterwards well-known John A Lasco. (See Alasco, vol. I. p. 292.) Besides the aid which Pole received in his studies from Longolius and Lupset, who is said to have been entertained by him in his own family, he paid much attention to the lectures of Leonicus, an eminent Greek scholar, who taught Pole to relish the writings of Aristotle and Plato in the original. While Pole continued at Padua, Longinus died in 1522, and such was the regard Pole had for him that he wrote his life, which Dr. Neve thinks was not only the first but the best specimen he gave the public of his abilities. It was the production, however, of a young man who could not have known Longolius above two years, and he has therefore fallen into some mistakes. (See Longueil.)