Polish political writer and theologian who was the most eminent Polish writer in Latin of the 16th century.

Modrzewski studied at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and later in Wittenberg and Nürnberg (Germany). Returning to Poland, he wrote Lascius, sive de Poena homicidii (1543; “Lascius, or The Punishment for Homicide”), a treatise in the form of a speech on social inequalities in punishment for homicide, allegedly delivered by a Polish diplomat, Hieronim Łaski. In a pamphlet of 1545 he sided with the burghers against the gentry, who were monopolizing agriculture. In his most important work, Commentariorum de republica emendanda libri quinque (1551–54; “Commentary on Reforming the Republic in Five Books”), he elaborated his bold utopian ideals. He also urged a religious reformation uniting the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, with mass to be said in Polish and priests allowed to marry. His ideas antagonized both the church and the gentry, who attacked him bitterly and persecuted him, occasionally driving him into hiding.