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Hugo Kołłątaj

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Hugo Kołłątaj
Deputy Chancellor of the Crown
Portrait byJózef Peszka
Coat of armsKotwica
Born(1750-04-01)1 April 1750
Dederkały Wielkie,Wołyń
Died28 February 1812(1812-02-28)(aged 61)
Warsaw,Duchy of Warsaw
BuriedPowązki Cemetery
Noble familyKołłątaj
FatherAntoni Kołłątaj
MotherMarianna Mierzeńska
Signature
Philosophy career
Notable workA Few Anonymous Letters[pl]
3rd May Constitution
Proclamation of Połaniec
EraAge of Enlightenment
RegionWestern philosophy
Polish philosophy
SchoolPolish Enlightenment
Kołłątaj's Forge
InstitutionsWarsaw Society of Friends of Learning
Main interests
Pedagogy,history,political philosophy,geology,mineralogy,anthropology

Hugo Stumberg Kołłątaj,also spelledKołłątay(1 April 1750 – 28 February 1812), was a prominent Polish constitutional reformer and educationalist, and one of the most prominent figures of thePolish Enlightenment.[1][2]He served asDeputy Chancellor of the Crownbetween 1791–92. He was aRoman Catholicpriest, social and political activist,politicalthinker,historian,philosopher,andpolymath.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Hugo Kołłątaj was born on 1 April 1750 inDederkały Wielkie(now in Western Ukraine) inVolhyniainto a family of Polish nobility. Soon after, his family moved toNieciesławice,nearSandomierz,where he spent his childhood.[3][4][5][6]He attended school inPińczów.[7][8][9]He began his studies at theKraków Academy,subsequently,Jagiellonian University,where he studied law and gained a doctorate.[1][4]Afterwards, around 1775 he tookholy orders.[10]He studied inViennaand Italy (NaplesandRome), where he would have encounteredEnlightenmentphilosophy.[1][4][6][11]He is thought to have gained two further doctorates abroad in philosophy andtheology.[10]

Returning to Poland, he became acanonofKraków,[11]andparishpriest ofKrzyżanowice DolneandTuczępy.[5]He was active in theCommission of National Educationand theSociety for Elementary Books,where he took a prominent role in the development of the national network of schools.[1][6][12]He spent two years in Warsaw, but returned to Kraków where he reformed the Kraków Academy, on whose board he sat from 1777, and whoserectorhe was between 1783–1786.[1][10][11][12]The reform of the Academy was very substantial. It established innovative standards. Notably, he substitutedPolishforLatinwhich till then was used for lectures. The removal of Latin in favour of a national language in higher education was then still uncommon in Europe.[13]The reform proved so controversial that his political enemies plotted successfully to have him temporarily removed from Kraków in 1781, on grounds of corruption and immorality. Although in 1782 the decision was rescinded.[14]

Reforms of the Great Sejm[edit]

Kołłątaj

Kołłątaj was also active politically. In 1786 he assumed the office of theReferendaryofLithuania,and moved to Warsaw.[1][6]He became prominent in thereform movement,heading an informal group that was on the radical wing of thePatriotic Party,and labelled by their political enemies as "Kołłątaj's Forge".[1][6][10][12]As leader of the Patriotic Party during theGreat Sejm,he set out its programme in hisSeveral Anonymous Letters toStanisław Małachowski(1788–1789) and in his essay,The Political Law of the Polish Nation(1790).[1][6]In his works he advocated a republican-tinged constitutional reform and the need for other social reforms.[1][12]Among the goals he pursued were the strengthening of the king's constitutional position, a larger national army, abolition of theliberum veto,the introduction of universal taxation, and the emancipation of both townspeople and the peasantry.[6]An organizer of the townspeople's movement, he edited a text that demanded reform and which was delivered to thekingduring theBlack Processionof 1789.[1][6]

Kołłątaj co-authored theConstitution of 3 May 1791.[12]He also founded theFriends of the Constitutionto assist in the document's implementation.[1]In 1786 he received theOrder of Saint Stanislausand in 1791, theOrder of the White Eagle.[3]In 1791–92 he served asCrown Vice Chancellor(Podkanclerzy Koronny).[1][12]

During thePolish-Russian warthat broke out over the3 May Constitution,Kołłątaj, along with other royal advisers, persuaded KingStanisław August,himself a co-author of the Constitution, to seek a compromise with their opponents and to join theTargowica Confederationthat had been formed to bring down the Constitution.[12]However, in 1792, when the Confederates' won, Kołłątaj emigrated toLeipzigandDresden,where in 1793 he wrote, withIgnacy Potocki,an essay entitled,On the Adoption and Fall of the Polish May 3 Constitution.[1][6]

Exile and final years[edit]

Kołłątaj, by Jan Pfeiffer, 1810

In exile, his political views became more radical and he became involved with the preparation for an insurrection.[1]In 1794 he took part in theKościuszko Uprising,contributing to itsUprising Acton 24 March 1794 and to thePołaniec Manifestoon 7 May 1794. He headed theSupreme National Council'sTreasuryDepartment, and backing the Uprising's wing ofPolish Jacobins.[1][6]After the suppression of the Uprising in the same year, Kołłątaj was imprisoned by the Austrians until 1802.[12]In 1805, withTadeusz Czacki,he organized theKrzemieniec Lyceumin Volhynia.[1][6]In 1807, after the creation of theDuchy of Warsaw,he was initially involved in its government,[10]but was soon excluded from it through the intrigues of political opponents, and soon afterwards, was interned and imprisoned by the Russian authorities until 1808.[1][6]On his release he found himself barred from public office. Despite that he sought to present a programme for rebuilding and developing Poland in his "Remarks on the Present Position of That Part of the Polish Lands that, since the Treaty of Tilsit, have come to be called the Duchy of Warsaw", (1809).[1]In 1809 he became a member of theWarsaw Society of Friends of Learning.In the years 1809–1810 he was once again involved with the Kraków Academy, bringing it back from its temporarilyGermanizedform.[11][12]

Kołłątaj,Jordan Park,Kraków

In hisThe Physico-Moral Order(1811), Kołłątaj sought to create a socio-ethical system emphasizing theequalityof all people, based on thephysiocraticidea of a "physico-moral order".[15]Steeped in thenatural sciences,geologyandmineralogyin particular, he went on to writeA Critical Analysis of Historical Principles regarding the Origins of Humankind,published posthumously in 1842.[16]In this work he put forward the first Polish presentation of ideas of socialevolutionbased ongeologicalconcepts. This work is also seen as an important contribution tocultural anthropology.[15]InThe State of Education in Poland in the Final Years of the Reign of Augustus III,published posthumously in 1841, he argued against theJesuitdomination of education and presented a study of thehistory of education.[15]

He died on 28 February 1812, "forgotten and abandoned" by his contemporaries.[1][10]He was buried in thePowązki Cemetery.[10]

Remembrance[edit]

Part ofa serieson
Catholic philosophy
Aquinas,Scotus,andOckham
Ethics
Metaphysics
Schools
Philosophers
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Despite his lonely death, Kołłątaj became an influence on many subsequent reformers and is now recognized as one of the key figures of theEnlightenment in Poland,and "one of the greatest minds of his epoch".[1][6]He is one of the figures immortalized inJan Matejko's 1891 painting,Constitution of May 3, 1791.

Several learned institutions in Poland are named in Hugo Kołłątaj's honour, including theAgricultural University of Cracowof which he was co-founder and patron.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrst(in Polish)Kołłątaj HugoArchived2016-03-04 at theWayback Machine,WIEM Encyklopedia
  2. ^"The Year of Hugo Kołłątaj".Jagiellonian University.pp. 12–14.Retrieved14 May2014.
  3. ^ab(in Polish)M.J. Minakowski,Hugo Kołątaj ze Sztumbergu h. wł.,Wielka Genealogia Minakowskiego
  4. ^abcKrzysztof Bauer (1991).Uchwalenie i obrona Konstytucji 3 Maja.Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne. p. 40.ISBN978-8302046155.Retrieved2 January2012.
  5. ^ab(in Polish)Historia,Urząd Gminy w Tuczępach
  6. ^abcdefghijklmHalina Lerski; Harcourt Education (1996).Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966–1945.ABC-CLIO. pp. 259–260.ISBN978-0313034565.Retrieved2 December2011.
  7. ^Dembowski, Edward (1845).Piśmiennictwo polski w zarysie(in Polish). Poznań: N. Kamieński. p. 312.
  8. ^Kołłątaj, Hugo (1912)."O księdzu Hugonie Kołłątaju".In Rymar, Stanisław (ed.).Wybór pism(in Polish). Krakowska drukarnia nakladowa. p. 10.
  9. ^Przyrowski, Zbigniew (1996).Kto to był?: popularny słownik biograficzny(in Polish). Wiedza Powszechna. p. 287.ISBN978-83-214-1083-8.
  10. ^abcdefg(in Polish)Hugo Kołłątaj,Katolicka Agencja Informacyjna
  11. ^abcd(in Polish)Halina Zwolska,Towarzysze Szkoły Głównej KoronnejArchived2012-04-15 at theWayback Machine,Alma Mater, wiosna 1997, nr 4
  12. ^abcdefghiJacek Jędruch(1998).Constitutions, elections, and legislatures of Poland, 1493–1977: a guide to their history.EJJ Books. p. 194.ISBN978-0781806374.Retrieved13 August2011.
  13. ^Krzysztof Bauer (1991).Uchwalenie i obrona Konstytucji 3 Maja.Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne. p. 41.ISBN978-8302046155.Retrieved2 January2012.
  14. ^Krzysztof Bauer (1991).Uchwalenie i obrona Konstytucji 3 Maja.Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne. p. 42.ISBN978-8302046155.Retrieved2 January2012.
  15. ^abc(in Polish)Kołłątaj Hugo (1750–1812),Encyklopedia Interia
  16. ^Stanley S. Sokol; Sharon F. Mrotek Kissane; Alfred L. Abramowicz (1992).The Polish biographical dictionary: profiles of nearly 900 Poles who have made lasting contributions to world civilization.Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. p.194.ISBN978-0865162457.Retrieved2 December2011.

Further reading[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHugo Kołłątaj.

External links[edit]

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