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Szymon Starowolski (1585 – 1650; Simon Starowolski, Simonis Starovolsci) was a writer, scholar and historian in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was born and died near Kraków. Through not among the most famous of the Polish writers of his era, he is nonetheless considered an important scholar of his times.

Life

Szymon Starowolski was born into an impoverished Lithuanian noble family. As a young man he visited the courts of many magnates, including the famous Chancellor Jan Zamoyski (at age 17) and Bishop Jakub Zadzik. After his studies, he traveled in the service of the Ostrogski family through Western Europe (Germany, France, Holland), where he studied at the University of Louvain. On his return, from 1612 to 1619 Starowolski studied and taught at the Kraków Academy (Jagiellonian University), and then at the Cistercian monastery in Wąchock.

Starowolski became secretary to the famous Polish military commander, Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, whom he accompanied at the Battle of Chocim (1621). Later he served as tutor to many young nobles, among them Aleksander Koniecpolski, son of Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski. Connected with many other powerful magnate courts, he often traveled abroad.

In 1639 he was ordained a Catholic priest, and subsequently became a canon of the Jesuit Order, and worked as a preacher, cantor and canon in Kraków and Tarnów. During the Swedish invasion of Poland (the Deluge), he performed the functions of a bishop in place of Piotr Gembicki.

Works

Starowolski is famous for his many writings (in Polish and Latin) in history, geography, law, strategy, theology, literature and politics. His greatest passion was history. He became expert on the Ottoman Empire, which he considered both a great threat to Poland and a fascinating neighbor. In his Latin works, addressed to foreign readers, he defended the good name of Poland, while in his Polish writings he called for thorough reform of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He stressed that every person is responsible for his actions, and that a higher position entails not only more privileges but also more responsibilities. He wrote over seventy books.

Critics point out that Starowolski was no advocate of religious tolerance. He praised the repression of the Hussites. He warned that the Protestants and the Catholic Church would never reach a long-lasting peaceful accord. He called the Statutes of Warsaw a "pact with death and Hell," claiming that Franciszek Krasiński, the sole Catholic bishop to sign them, had done so under the "the threat of the sword."

Starowolski referred to apostates from the Catholic religion as "sons of the Devil" who should be punished according to the Edict of Wieluń for "betraying the state," and averred that dissenters should be considered "infidels" and not Christians and should be classified with Jews and Moslems. He asserted that the Church would never recognize the Statutes of Warsaw and held that the Edict of Wieluń of 1424 was still valid and in force.

He justified the closing of Protestant schools (in 1638 and 1640), and Protestant centers and printing presses (in 1638, the press at Raków), as the "duty of good pastors" and as an act of the King and the Republic. (source)

While he advocated better treatment of peasants (serfs), he wrote that according to God's will there were three social classes: the nobility (the rulers), the priests (the guardians of morality), and the peasants (laborers).

• Lament of the Dying Mother, Poland, over her Undutiful Sons - published soon before his death, an important work in political science.
• Reformacja obyczajów polskich (Reform of Polish customs) - on how Poland should look like according to the God's plan
• Scriptorum Polonicorum Hecatontas seu Centum illustrium Poloniae scriptorium elogia et vitae - a short biography of Polish authors, with the titles of their works
• Wojownicy sarmaccy, czyli pochwały mężów słynących męstwem wojennym w pamięci naszej lub naszych pradziadów - biographies of famous Polish warriors and kings
• The Perfect Knight - the ideal Christian soldier who selflessly serves his country, defends the faith, and strives for moral uprightness
• Setnik pisarzy polskich (A Hundred Polish Writers), 1625,
• O slawnych mowcach Sarmacji ("De claris orationibus oracoribus Sarmatiae", On the Famous Speakers of Sarmatia), 1628.
• The Lord's Sanctuary and The Ark of the Testament - sermons
• Biography of Copernicus (Erna Hilfstein: Starowolski's biographies of Copernicus, Studia Copernicana, 1980, ISBN 8304003368 )
• Monumenta Sarmatorum - about ancient art, collecting information about old tombstones (digital copy)
• Various treaties on moral issues, aiming to reform Polish society

Quotations

• "I wanted to reveal how valued all ancient relics should be, the source of our knowledge about the past, ignorance of which brings shame, and knowledge of which should bring praise". (Pragnąłem odsłonić to, w jakiej cenie powinny być u nas wszelkiego rodzaju pamiątki przeszłości, źródło naszej wiedzy o dziejach, których nieznajomość o ile przynosi wstyd, o tyle przyswojenie sobie zasługuje na pochwałę.) Monumenta Sarmatorum viam universare carnis ingressorum
• "The state should look into this, as other nations do: see to it that nobles do not take the lives of their subjects at will, or burden them with unjust toil - as if they were dumb cattle!"
• "Fortuna mutabilis, Deus mirabilis" (or "fortuna variabilis, Deus immutabilis") - to Swedish King Charles X Gustav, when his forces temporarily occupied Polish capital of Warsaw
• "What the world treasures, God considers trash" ("Co świat drogo szacuje, to Bóg ma za śmieci") - Arka testamentów zamykającej w sobie kazania niedzielne
• "Nature according to God's will created some people to follow, and some to lead" (Natura z woli Bożej jedne ludzie do posłuszeństwa, a drugie do rozkazowania stworzyła)
• "If God had let him live longer, the Poles would have no need to envy the Italians their Palestrina, Lappi, and Vedana" - in the biography of Wacław of Szamotuły
• On Nicolaus Copernicus, listed as No. LXVII in Scriptorum Polonicorum, Frankfurt/Main 1625, Venice 1627
  • "Nicolaus Copernicus, Torunii in Prussia natus; patre Nicolao Copernico: matre verò, quae erat germana soror Lucae à Watzelrod Toruniensis, Episcopi Varmiensis"
  • "... ita ille Joanne Regiomontano populari suo deficiente, motuum coeli doctrinam discipulis suis", translated "... when Johannes Regiomontanus passed away, Copernicus revived the science of heavenly motions."

See also

• Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski
• Piotr Skarga
• Wacław of Szamotuły
• Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki
• List of Poles

Notes

1. Another possible date of birth: 1588.
2. Another possible date of death: 1656.
5. Erna Hilfstein: Starowolski's biographies of Copernicus, Volume 21 of Studia Copernicana. The Polish Academy of Sciences Press, 1980, ISBN 8304003368, 9788304003361 p. 10, 15, quoted by J. L. Heilbron: The sun in the church: cathedrals as solar observatories, Harvard University Press, 2001, ISBN 0674005368, 9780674005365 p. 7

External links

• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Simon Starowolski" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

• 1580s births
• 1650s deaths
• 17th-century Latin writers
• Polish historians
• Polish Jesuits
• Polish nobility
• Canons of Kraków
• Polish writers