120 JOGALIA
each complementing the others. Its intellecual life centred on the famous
Academy, or Hippeum, which briefly constituted one of the foremost seats of
learning in Eastern Europe. In this private microcosm, Zamoyski successfully
organized the Renaissance life-style and encouraged the virtues which in the
world at large were beyond his grasp.^10
Despite their different careers, Copernicus, Kochanowski, and Zamoyski had
much in common. Firstly, they all received a formal education of very high qual-
ity. They were all graduates of Cracow and of Padua, the leading university in
Europe, where in 1563 Zamoyski had served as Rector. Secondly, they were all
deeply interested in Antiquity, and fully conversant with the classics. As a self-
appointed task, Copernicus translated the letters of Theophilactus Simokata
(1509). Kochanowski, a pupil of the Hellenist Robortello, specialized in Cicero,
and for the first thirty years of his life was a Latin poet in his own right.
Zamoyski harangued the Sejm and Senate on the history of the Roman
Republic. Thirdly, they all consciously schooled themselves in the full range of
accomplishments which their individual abilities permitted. Copernicus, the
astronomer, was also a qualified doctor of medicine and of canon law;
Kochanowski, the poet, studied politics; Zamoyski, the politician, studied
poetry. Fourthly, they were all public figures, with a strong sense of civic duty.
Copernicus took an active part in the defence of Royal Prussia against the
Teutonic Order, and in 1526 in the reform of the coinage. As a secular canon, he
regularly acted as bailiff, tax-collector, judge, and physician. Both
Kochanowski and Zamoyski started their careers as royal secretaries. When the
one retired to his estate at Czarnolas the other rose to lifelong tenure of the
Republic's highest offices - Grand Chancellor and Grand Hetman of
the Crown. Finally, they all professed a high moral tone. They were all striving
towards conscious ideals of beauty and harmony. Copernicus was most con-
cerned with the theoretical order of the universe, Kochanowski with the practi-
cal ordering of human emotions and belief, Zamoyski with political order.
Humanist learning, reverence for antiquity, individualism and the quest for
complete knowledge, an interest in public affairs and in the harmonious pur-
pose of human life - these they shared in full measure. They happen to be the
very things which are generally understood to have constituted 'Renaissance
Man' -l'uomo universale.
The Sejm which assembled in Lublin three days before Christmas in 1568 had
been convoked by the King for the express purpose of forging a constitutional
union between the Korona and the Grand Duchy. It was the fourth Sejm in five
years to discuss the matter, and was attended both by Lithuanian and Polish
representatives. By this time, Sigismund-August was in a hurry. All the old argu-
ments still held good. The growth of a common Polish culture in the ruling class
of both states; the common danger from Muscovy; the exposure of the south-