Karnkowski, Stanislaus

Karnkowski, Stanislaus, a celebrated Roman Catholic prelate, was born in Bland in 1526. Of his early life nothing is known to us. In 1563 he was made bishop of Wadislaw, aid became coadjutor to the archbishop of Gnesen in 1577, and in 1581 sole occupant of the archbishopric and primate of Poland. In the civil history of Poland Karnkowski played no unimportant part. King Stephen (Betori) was crowned by him (May 1,1576), and on the death of the king Karnkowski himself assumed the reins of government until a royal successor was found in the person of the Swedish crownprince Sigismund, whom he also crowned. It is generally supposed that Karnkowski belonged to the Jesuitical order. In Kalisch he built a college for the Jesuits: he also founded two schools for the theological training of Roman Catholics. Under his protection the celebrated Jesuit Jacob Wujek translated the Bible into Polish, a work which to this day remains the only authentic edition in the Polish (Roman Catholic) Church. Karnkowski died May 26, 1603. He published Constitutiones synodales dioceses cum catechesi: — Sermones ad parochos: — De ecclesia utraque; etc. See Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, 12:632.