Martin Kromer

Marcin Kromer
Bishop of Warmia
Installed	1579
Term ended	1589
Predecessor	Stanislaus Hosius
Successor	Andrew Báthory
Personal details
Born	November 11, 1512 Biecz, Kingdom of Poland
Died	March 23, 1589 Lidzbark Warmiński, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Coat of arms

Marcin Kromer (Latin: Martinus Cromerus; 11 November 1512 – 23 March 1589) was Prince-Bishop of Warmia (Ermland), a Polish cartographer, diplomat and historian in the Kingdom of Poland and later in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was a personal secretary to two Kings of Poland, Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus.

Kromer was born in 1512 into a prominent burgher family in Biecz, in Lesser Poland. He completed his basic education in a local church-run school. In 1528 he transferred to Kraków, where in 1530 he graduated as a bachelor at the Cracow Academy. In 1533–37 he worked at the Royal Chancellery in Kraków. Thereafter he went to Italy, where he studied law for two years. Returning to Poland in 1540, he became secretary to Archbishop Piotr Gamrat. As the latter's personal advisor, he was also his envoy and representative to Rome, where he spent two years until 1544. He then became a canon in Kraków.

In 1545, upon the death of his mentor, Kromer accepted the latter's post as personal secretary to Poland's King Sigismund I the Old. He was also an associate of Samuel Maciejowski, who later became Chancellor of the Crown. A specialist on Royal Prussia and Warmia, in 1551 Kromer became head of the Warmian canonry. However, his church career did not proceed as planned, since he was seen as one of the best Polish diplomats of the age and was frequently required by the court to leave his post to serve as envoy on various diplomatic missions. In 1552, for his services to the King, he was ennobled and granted a coat of arms.

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