He looked favorably on the idea of creating a Polish national church,[3][4] though he stopped short at breaking away from Rome. He also supported dialogue with Protestants, advocating religious tolerance. For his liberal religious views he was scorned in Vatican and was briefly excommunicated in 1558 by Pope Paul IV[1], who suspected him of heresy.[5] Uchański was even summoned before the Roman Inquisition;[6] however, he refused the summons to Rome and the conflict was solved via diplomacy. Uchański, while supportive of the Protestants and tolerance, never abandoned Catholic faith and during the dynasty change the 1570s insisted on the election of the monarchs. Even though his stance towards Protestants was quite liberal, he was a political opponent of Calvinist Marshal of the Crown Jan Firlej, especially during the political crises of the 1570s, when Uchański tried to exclude the lesser nobles (members of the Sejm) from the decision-making processes and rely solely on the Senate of Poland[7] (Firlej also wanted to elect a Protestant king to the Polish throne).
Since his consecrator is unknown and some of the bishops alive today traced (erroneously as it could be shown later) their episcopal lineage back to him, the person of Jakub Uchański was very important for the history of the Catholic Church. This so-called Uchański lineage includes many members of the Polish episcopate and Pope Pius X.
In 2007, it became clear that Uchanski was never part of this succession line. Its roots can be traced back to bishop Claudio Rangoni, who was bishop of Reggio Emilia between 1592 and 1621. He worked as Apostolic Nuncio to Poland from 1598 to 1607.[11] Claudio Rangoni belongs to the Rebiba lineage, so the part of Uchański-lineage up of Claudio Rangoni is a branch of the Rebiba lineage.
References
^"J", Poland Information, University of Buffalo, archived from the original on 2006-05-05
