Alasco, although he spoke of remaining in the Catholic Church, had not become a superstitious papist. He kept up the most intimate association with Erasmus. Even after his oath, and although the Rotterdam scholar was an object of hatred to many in Poland, Alasco boldly avowed himself his disciple.[[665]] He even cherished the hope that his illustrious friend would deliver him from the servitude which he was enduring. One notion haunted him. He believed that, if Erasmus wrote to the King of Poland,[[666]] the prince, who was of a noble character and had an enlightened understanding, could not fail to deliver his country from Romish superstition. Alasco therefore urged him to write to Sigismund. ‘He shows so much earnestness about this matter,’ thought Erasmus, ‘that there must be some reasons for doing it.’ He therefore wrote to the king, June 1, 1527, but so far as appears without any great result.[[667]]
Honors.
The primate, satisfied with his nephew’s declaration, made him provost or head of the chapter of his cathedral church, præpositus Gnesnensis. This was a first step towards the primacy;[[668]] and it was not long before he was invested with other dignities. But these very dignities, which placed him in habitual contact with the Roman clergy and Roman superstitions, made him all the more sensible of the need of reformation, and he was grieved to see that no one thought of such a thing. The more he saw of the indifference and even hostility of his uncle and of the king himself to the pure Gospel, the more he felt the worth of it. The pomps and excitements of the court, the honor and the burden of dignities, appeared to have stifled the new life within him. But no plant which the heavenly Father has planted can be rooted up. On the contrary, the divine plant, under the vivifying influence of the Sun of righteousness, was now growing up in Alasco’s heart. He read the writings of Melanchthon, and particularly his beautiful Apology for the Confession of Augsburg. He entered afterwards into correspondence with that amiable and learned doctor. He also sent some young Poles to study under him at Wittenberg. The discussion on freewill between Erasmus and Luther, the beginning of which he had seen at Basel, interested him deeply. He wrote to Breslau asking that every work on the subject, written either by Luther or by Erasmus, should be sent him.[[669]] One fact marks a secret advance in Alasco,—that, whereas he had at first been on the side of Erasmus, he now leaned to Luther’s side. The more progress he made in the knowledge of his own heart and of the Holy Scriptures, the more clearly he saw the abyss which lies between a man’s own righteousness, even in the case of the most moral man, and the perfect holiness of God. He felt that he was incapable of obtaining by his own strength the joy of salvation, or even of going to meet the grace which is given by Jesus Christ. God who had called did not abandon him. In the midst of all the seductions which surrounded him, he was brought to place all his hopes and to seek all his strength in the mercy of the Saviour. ‘The grace of God alone has kept me,’ he said; ‘but for that, I should have fallen into all kinds of evil, and no human wisdom would have saved me from it. I should have been the most wretched of men if the divine mercy had not saved me!‘[[670]]
In proportion as Alasco attached himself by the strongest ties to the Gospel, the artificial ties which had drawn him back to the Church, and those which had united him to Erasmus, were loosened. He was shocked by this saying of the illustrious writer, ‘that the Gospel in Germany and in Switzerland rested on bad foundations.’ Even in 1527 Erasmus wrote to an Englishman, Cox, that the daily experience which he had had of the character of John Alasco was sufficient to make him happy even though he should have no other friend.[[671]] Nevertheless, the continually increasing decision of Alasco chilled the heart of the scholar. The recurrence of the name of the young Pole gradually becomes less frequent in the letters of Erasmus. This coolness must have been painful but useful to Alasco.
Another circumstance contributed to make him stronger and freer in his progress and in the development of his faith. His uncle died in 1531. The primate had exercised over him the authority not only of an official superior but of a father; and the prolongation of his life might have delayed the definitive enfranchisement of his nephew. Nothing was said about making Alasco primate in his stead. He was too young for such an office, and there were too many prejudices against him.
Growth Of Spiritual Insight.
Alasco does not stand in the first rank of the men of the Reformation. But in one respect he surpassed them all, and this by reason of the state of life in which it pleased God that he should be born. He knew better than any one what it was to sacrifice for Jesus Christ the world with its dignities and its favors; and he did this with a noble courage. No sooner was the bandage, which for some time had been placed over his eyes, removed, than he felt abhorrence of bondage. Nothing in the world could make him bow his head under the yoke; and he became one of the most beautiful examples of moral freedom presented in the sixteenth century. It was evident to him that he must give up the thought of reforming Poland. He saw obstacles increasing, and henceforth acknowledged ‘that wherever the kingdom of Christ begins to appear, it is impossible for Satan to slumber or fail to display immediately his craft and his rage.’[[672]] He would fain have conquered his native land for Jesus Christ; but he saw the way barred by fortresses and armies. His position became intolerable. To be surrounded by abuses which dishonor the moral teachings of Jesus Christ and to tolerate them was in his view blasphemy. He would have liked to assail them straightway one after the other, ‘to seize a powerful hammer and crush those stones.’[[673]] The office of the true teacher, he thought, was to admonish each one of the duty which he was bound to discharge. But, said he, if the man whom you wish to admonish will not allow you to do so; if he enjoins deference to his own will, is this fulfilling one’s ministry with freedom?[[674]] In Poland, he who gave such commands was the king. Now, the motto of Alasco was ‘Liberty.’
But the greatest temptations were still to come. John Alasco, we have said, had a brother, Yaroslav, who played an important part in the affairs of Hungary. Aware of the obstacles which his brother had to encounter in Poland, and desirous no doubt of keeping him in the church, Yaroslav conceived the project of settling him on the freer soil of Hungary, and he got him appointed, in 1536, bishop of Wesprim.[[675]] But Sigismund, on hearing this news, stood upon the point of honor. He had a mind too lofty not to appreciate the fine qualities of Alasco, and he was not willing that such a man should be lost to his kingdom. As he had no doubt that episcopal honors would be a bond to attach him to Rome, he named him bishop of Cujavia. Dignities were showered upon the head of the young disciple of Jesus Christ. Will he yield, like Roussel accepting the bishopric of Oléron? Will he bend the knee before the idol of honor and of power?
The position was a dangerous one. This collation to two bishoprics was a way opened for arriving at the highest dignities. Called by two kings, he might easily rise higher. The influence of kings was powerful in the church. John Alasco was at this time enlightened, and it appears that some extraordinary grace had been given him from on high. The work formerly begun in him had been resumed and even accomplished. ‘God in His goodness,’ said he, ‘has again brought me to myself; and from the midst of the pharisaism in which I was lost, He has recalled me in a marvellous way to His true knowledge. To Him be the glory!‘[[676]] He did not hesitate. ‘Brought to my right mind by the goodness of God,’ he says, ‘I will now serve, with what little strength I possess, that church of Christ which I hated in the time of my ignorance and my pharisaism.’ He was convinced that he could not serve God while remaining in union with Rome, and was determined to follow the voice of his conscience alone. In the same year, 1536, in which Calvin, at Ferrara, wrote to his old friend Roussel his beautiful letter[[677]] pointing out to him the duty of a Christian man and calling upon him to refuse the favors of the pope, Alasco, at Cracow, was about to take practically the step which the reformer extolled in theory, and not only to refuse the episcopal mitres which were offered him, but also to resign the advantageous and honorable ecclesiastical functions with which he was already invested.
Departure From Poland.