page_title: Walerian Protasewicz
section_title: Bishop
hierarchical_section_title: Walerian Protasewicz / Bishop
caption_attribution_description: Walerian Protasewicz bishop of Vilnius
context_page_description: Walerian Protasewicz was bishop of Lutsk and Vilnius. Born to a family of petty Ruthenian nobles, Protasewicz worked as a scribe, notary, and secretary at the chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until his appointment of bishop. He was politically active and was one of the lead Lithuanian negotiators for the Union of Lublin in 1569. He neglected religious matters and allowed the Reformation to spread. In the last decade of his life, he invited the Jesuits to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and funded the Jesuit college in Vilnius. He obtained papal and royal privileges to convert the college into Vilnius University in 1579. He donated his personal library to what became the Vilnius University Library. The university soon became a spiritual and cultural center of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as well as the major center of the Counter-Reformation.
context_section_description: Protasewicz was appointed as bishop of Lutsk by Pope Paul III on 27 May 1549 and as bishop of Vilnius by Pope Paul IV on 10 April 1556. At first, he was more interested in political affairs, participating in the Seimas and advising the Grand Duke. Generally, Protasewicz supported judicial independence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and opposed a closer union between Poland and Lithuania. In 1568, Protasewicz joined a commission preparing the third Statute of Lithuania and headed it until his death. He was a leading member of the Lithuanian delegations sent to the Polish Great Sejm to negotiate the Union of Lublin.
  In 1554, Protasewicz excommunicated the first clergymen who converted to Protestantism but was overall passive and indecisive when it came to combating the Reformation. He was criticized by his contemporaries, including Augustinus Rotundus and Stanislaus Hosius, for neglecting religious matters and allowing the Reformation to spread. Protasewicz soon began to combat the Protestantism by calling two diocesan synods, disciplining priests, and improving the Cathedral School of Vilnius. He constructed churches in Šešuoliai and Kiaukliai. In 1573, Protasewicz reburied remains of Grand Duke Vytautas (died in 1430) by the altar of the Holy Cross in Vilnius Cathedral and built a tomb sponsored by Queen Bona Sforza. His most important contribution to the Counter-Reformation was the establishment of Vilnius Academy in 1570. He obtained privileges to convert the academy into a university in 1579. Protasewicz also laid the groundwork for the Vilnius Theological Seminary, established in 1582.
  In 1574, after death of Samogitian bishop Jurgis Petkūnas, Archbishop of Gniezno Jakub Uchański attempted to promote his nephew. Protasewicz protested such nepotism and instead managed to persuade the Pope to install Merkelis Giedraitis. At the same time he selected Paweł Holszański as his successor and appointed him as coadjutor bishop. Protasewicz died in 1579 and was buried at Vilnius Cathedral.
caption: Protasewicz in Jan Matejko's painting of the Union of Lublin
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