hesitation, Lasko was induced in 1543 to accept the charge, and in the following year was nominated super- intendent of all the churches of Friesland. He had al- ready declined the invitation to return to Poland, where he was assured that his marriage should not stand in the way of the bestowment of a bishopric. He longed, indeed, to return, but onl}' that he might labor as an evangelist, unencumbered with any connection with Rome. He accepted his present post — as he did others to which he was subsequently called — with the express proviso that if duty and the prospect of useful service called him back to his native land he might be free to go. He made it also a condition of his acceptance that no obligation should be imposed upon him in his office inconsistent with the word and will of God. In neigh- boring lands his proceedings were jealously watched. The duke of East Courland, who had married a daugh- ter of Maximilian, as well as the duke of Brabant, felt that his influence and innovations threatened their states. Lasko pushed on the cause of reform by assail- ing the monasteries and the pictures in the churches. A formidable opposition was provoked, but he manfully defended himself, and was sustained by the countess. Opposition gradually yielded, and Romish rites and cer- emonies disappeared from all the churches. An im- proved order of Church organization and discipline was introduced and estabUshed, substantially Presbyterian. He employed the eldership to enforce discipline. He sought to promote pastoral culture and improvement, as well as confessional unity of doctrine. Preaching him- self, he habitually insisted on the sole and supreme au- thority of the Word of God. In correspondence with Melancthon, Bucer, Bullinger, Pellican, and Hardenberg, he drew up a confession of faith, which yet proved un- satisfactory to the Lutherans, leaning as it did to the views of the Swiss and AngUcan reformers, although by no means in full correspondence with those of Calvin.
Lasko's reputation as the foimder of the Protestant Church in Friesland now spread rapidly, and he was re- peatedljr consulted by foreign riders and divines on questions of Church polity and order. The duke of Prussia invited him to accept the superintendence of the churches of his dominions, but the project was de- feated by the condition on which Lasko insisted that the Church should be independent of the state, and that Lutheran rites, kindred to those of the Roman Catholic Church, should be abolished (Krasinski, i, 253). During his residence at Emden Lasko was forced to engage in controversy. Persecuted elsewhere, religious enthusi- asts found shelter in the Netherlands, and intruded with- in his sphere. Menno Simon and David George were his principal antagonists. He sought to convince them by argument, but failed. His constant difficulties and the pressing burden of his duties induced him to listen to an invitation that reached him from England. Arch- bishop Cranmer, to whom Lasko had been recommended by some of his brother reformers, Peter ]Martyr and Wil- liam Turner, pressed him to come and assist in the task of completing the reformation of the Church. Early in Sept. 1548, parting from the countess, who reluctantly consented to his withdraw.al, Lasko set out for England. Three days betbrc he left the celebrated interim of the emperor was publishe<l, threatening to arrest and put back the cause of Church reform in all his states. Las- ko wrote back to his friends in Emden to abide firm, as- suring them that it was better to fall into the hands of God than into those of men. His first visit to England was designedly temporary. For six months he resided with Cranmer at Lambeth. The views of the two men were coincident in doctrine, and apparently not greatly divergent in matters of order and discipline. The im- pression which he made in England \vas favorable, and in a sermon i^rcached before the king Latimer extolled him witli high i)raise. Iteturuing to Emden, Lasko en- couraged liis fellow-religionists in their opposition to the interim, and incurred the hostility of those — and among them of the chancellor Ter West — who were disposed to
LASKO
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LAST DAY
faror a compromise with the emperor. There was some danger that Lasko himself would be sacrificed to their policy. Leaving Eraden, therefore, he resided for a time at Bremen and Hamburg, and at length directed his course back to England, in May, looO, to which he had been reinvitcd. Here, imder the protection of a Prot- estant monarch (Henry VI), refugees from persecution on the Continent were collected in considerable num- bers. The foreign Protestant congregation in London was composed of French, Germans, and Italians. Of this, in all about 3000 members, Lasko, by the king's nomination (July 24, 1550), was made superintendent. He seems, however, to have had supervisory charge over aU the other foreign churches of the city, while their schools were subject to his mspection. The wis- dom of his measures is attested by a letter of Melanc- thon, who speaks (September, 1551) of the purity of doc- trine of his churches. He differed with Cranmer on some points, as in reference to sacramental doctrine and the use of priestly habits, but his scruples were respect- ed, and his intervention secured the foreign chiurches from molestation. In London he introduced the same system of Church order wliich he had established at Emdcn. He brought out an edition of liis Catechism for the instruction of the people, and to this the authors of the Heidelberg Catechism are said to have been man- ifestly indebted. The English liturgy he discarded. His views on the sacraments may be inferred from his repuljlication in England of the work of Bullinger, to which he furnished an introduction. This was followed, h(jwever,by his Brevis et delucida de Sacramentis Eccle- sia Cliristi Traciatio (Lond. 1552, 8vo), in which he ap- proximated to the views of Zwingle and Calvin. On the doctrines peculiar to Calvin Lasko was not disposed to stand. He uses language that would seem to indi- cate an acceptance of the belief in a general atonement. While insisting on the insufficiency and inability of hu- man effort without the grace of God, he emphasizes the freencss and rich provisions of the Gospel of Christ. It was during his residence in England that Lasko's wife died, and his second marriage took place. The death of the young king suddenly wrought an entire change in the prospects of the exiles, and on the accession of queen Mary they prepared to return to the Continent. On the 17th of September, 1553. the first band of them, more than 170 in number, embarked for Denmark, where they had been assured of a welcome reception from a Protestant monarch. But a bigoted Lutheranism re- pelled them from the Danish shores. Lasko hastened back to Emden, while his fellow - pilgrims, called by Westphal, a Lutheran divine, "martyrs of the devil," and repulsed at Hamburg, Lubeck, and Kostock, finally found a hospitable reception at Dantzic. At Emden Lasko found his position uncomfortable. His vicinity to Brabant gave occasion for those who feared his influ- ence to intrigue against him. (iustavus Yasa invited him and his friends to Sweden, assuring him of entire religious liberty. But he longed to return to his native land. His views concerning the sacrament, however, were rejiresented to the liing as objectionable, and it seemed essential that he should first seek to harmonize them with the Augsburg Confession. His opponents in controversy, Westphal especially, had spoken of him in reproachful terms. He determined to considt with Me- lanctlion, and in April, 1555, he left Emden, and for many months, passing from city to city in Germany, and conferring with leading theologians, he awaited the long-desired opportunity of returning, with the hope of useful service, to his native land. We find him at Frank- fort almost at the very time when the English exiles had transferred their altercations with reference to the habits to that city, and involved there to some extent in tlie Lutheran controversy. He was complained of as a dissenter from the Augsburg Confession, but in repl}' he asserted that he accepted its very language in regard to Christ's presence in the sacrament. At Stuttgard (May 22, 1556) he entered with Brentz upon a disputa-