KROMER, MARTIN. - Polish bishop and historian, born at Biecz (near Cracovia) in 1512, died at Heilsberg on 23 March 1589. Having completed his studies at Cracovia and Bologna, he became secretary to the bishop of Cracovia, Gamrat, and then, in 1544, to the King of Poland. From 1557 to 1564 he was ambassador at the imperial court, where he became a friend of Card. Osio, bishop of Varmia, whose coadjutor he became (1569) and, upon his death, successor (1579). Together with Osio, K. carried out with great zeal a notable activity for the reform of clergy and people, through pastoral visitations, new foundations, preaching, and catechetical writings.
A student of national history and a careful investigator of the national archives, he composed a history of Poland down to 1509, in 30 books, De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum (Basel 1555), in which he reveals himself to be a keen critic and an elegant Latinist. He also concerned himself with music (De musica figurata, Cracovia 1534), and published a major geographical-descriptive work, Polonia sive de situ, populis, moribus, magistratibus (Colonia 1577).