Hieronim Chodkiewicz

Hieronim Chodkiewicz (Lithuanian: Jeronimas Chodkevičius; ca. 1515–1561) was a noble from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who was Elder of Samogitia from 1545 until his death. He was son of Aleksander and brother of Hrehory and Yurii Chodkiewiczs. Due to the political success of Chodkiewicz and his brothers, the Chodkiewicz family became the second wealthiest family in the Grand Duchy after the Radziwiłłs according to a military census of 1567 – a significant increase from the 1528 census when their father Alexander was 11th on the list. Chodkiewicz distanced himself from his Eastern Orthodox roots—he possibly converted to Catholicism around 1530 and to Lutheranism around 1550.

Traditional historiography usually states that Chodkiewicz was born around 1500. However, Lithuanian historian Genutė Kirkienė has noted that in such a case Chodkiewicz would have begun his political career in his mid-forties, when most nobles started in late twenties or early thirties. Kirkienė suggested that his father's marriage and birth of children should be moved from the 1500s to mid-1510s. Kirkienė also argued that Hieronim was born as Ivan and raised as Eastern Orthodox—he converted to Catholicism and was baptized Hieronim (after St. Jerome) around 1530. That would explain his later marriage to a Catholic and appointment to positions in Vilnius and Trakai generally reserved for Catholics. Chodkiewicz corresponded with known Protestant activist Albert, Duke of Prussia since the mid 1530s and send his son Jan Hieronimowicz to be educated there. He was also a sponsor of theologian Friedrich Staphylus, who visited him in Lithuania in spring 1549. The historiography usually provides 1553 as the year when Chodkiewicz fully converted to Lutheranism.