Wawrzyniec Grzymala Goslicki
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Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki, (Latin: Laurentius Grimaldius Gosliscius), 1530-1607, was Polish bishop, political thinker and philosopher most known from the book De optimo senatore, 1568 (The Accomplished senator, English translation 1598).
After studies at Cracow Jagiellonian University and in Padua, he entered the Roman Catholic Church. In 1569 he also joined the royal chancery and served two Polish kings (Sigismund II Augustus and Stephen Báthory) and was successively appointed bishop of Kamieniec Podolski (1586), Chelm (1590), Przemysl (1591), and Poznan (1601). Goslicki was an active man of business, was held in high estimation by his contemporaries and was frequently engaged in political affairs. He was also a staunch advocate of religious tolerance in Poland. Due to his influence and the letter he wrote to the pope against the Jesuits, that they were prevented from establishing their schools at Cracow during his reign. He was the only prelate who, in 1587, signed the Compact of Warsaw.
In his book De optimo senatore (Venice, 1568) (witht two English translations published respectively under the titles A commonwealth of good counsaile, &c. (1607), and The Accomplished Senmor, done into English by Mr Oldiswvrth (1733)) he advocated that law is above the ruler, and that it is illegal to rule over people against their will. Many of the ideas in the book were actually the foundations of Polish Nobles' Democracy (1505-1795) based on earlier 14th century works of Stanislaw of Skarbimierz. Yet for example in England the idea of responsibility of the king was so revolutionary that for some time the book was forbidden there. Goslicki's ideas became important fundations of the future constitutions. It was read by Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States Constitution, and was also an important influence on the second modern codified European constitution, the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791.