&54 LAS 
fchool for Greek and rhetoric. He appears to have taught 
in other cities of Italy, but which they were is not fpe- 
cified. At length, defirous of repofe, he embarked with 
the intention of fettling in fome town of Greece; but, 
having touched at Meffina, he was urged by fuch advan¬ 
tageous offers to make it his relidence, that he complied, 
and palled there the reft of his days. He was treated with 
' great refpeCf, and received the honour of citizenfhip, which 
he merited by his virtues as well as by his learning, and 
by the influx of fcholars which his reputation drew thi¬ 
ther, among whom was the celebrated Bembo. He lived 
to an advanced age, certainly to the year 1495, but how’ 
much longer is not known. He bequeathed his copious 
library to the city of Medina. The Greek Grammar of 
Conftantine Lafcaris was printed in Milan in 1476, and 
was the firft Greek book that ifl’ued from an Italian prefs. 
Aldus Manutius gave a more complete edition of it in 
1494. This work was much applauded by the learned ; 
and Erafmus preferred it to every other Greek grammar, 
except that of Theodore Gaza. He compofed fome other 
works, among which were two trails on the Sicilian and 
Calabrian Greek writers. Hodii Grac, Illujlr. 
LAS'C ARIS (John-Andrew, or Janus), a learned Greek 
of the fame noble family with the former, came over to 
Italy with his father Theodore, on the ruin of his coun¬ 
try, and was kindly received by cardinal Beflarion. He 
was fent to ftudy at Padua, where he acquired a great pro¬ 
ficiency in claflical literature, and a thorough knowledge 
of the two learned languages. Thence he went into the 
fervice of that illuftrious patron of letters, Lorenzo de 
Medici, by whom he was twice fent into Greece with re¬ 
commendatory letters to fultan Bajazet, in order to col¬ 
lect ancient manufcripts. After the expulfion of the Me¬ 
dici family from Florence, in 1494, Lafcaris repaired to 
Charles VIII. king of France, then in Italy, who gave 
him a favourable reception, and carried him to France. 
He was equally patronized by Louis XII. who fent him, 
3 n 1503, as his ambalfador to Venice, in which office he 
remained till 1508. With this public employment he 
joined the purfuit of literature, and held correspondence 
with many learned men, by whom he was highly efteemed. 
He probably remained at Venice for fome years after the 
termination of his embafly, in the capacity of an inftruc- 
tor in the Greek language. On the election of Leo X. 
to the pontificate, in 1513, he fet out for Rome, in the 
certainty of being well received by that great favourer of 
learning, whom he had known in his youth at Florence. 
At the inftigation of Lafcaris, Leo founded a college for 
noble Grecian youths at Rome, at the head of which he 
placed the author of the plan. From this inftitution pro¬ 
ceeded editions of the Greek fcholiafts on Homer and So¬ 
phocles, and other learned works. In 1518, he quitted 
Rome for France, whither he w'as invited by Francis I. 
and finally complied with the urgent invitation of pope 
Paul III. to Rome, in which city he died in 1535, at a 
very advanced age. Janus Lafcaris was greatly efteemed 
and praifed by all the learned of the time, on account of 
the fervices he rendered to letters, although his own writ¬ 
ings were few. He compofed epigrams both in Greek 
and Latin, fome of wdiiclvwere printed at Bafd. He tranf- 
lated into Latin a work extracted from Polybius on the 
military conftitution of the Romans ; and printed at Flo¬ 
rence a magnificent edition of the Greek Anthologia in 
capital letters, to which he prefixed a learned epiftle, ad- 
drefied to Peter de Medici. Hodii Grac. lllujl. 
LASCHE, adj. [Fr.] Unmanly, bafe, cowardly. Not 
u/cd .—Inexorable rigour is worfe than a lafche demiffion of 
Sovereign authority. L'EJlrange. 
LAS'CHE, a town of Bohemia, in Chrudim: eight 
miles eaft of Chrudim. 
LAS'CHEN. See Lassen. 
LASCH'NITZ, or Ladzidza, a town of Silefia, in the 
principality of Oels : two miles fouth-eaft of Trachenberg. 
LASCI'GO, a town of Naples, in Principato Citra; 
eighteen miles weft of Policaftro. 
t A ■$ 
To LASCIV’IATE, v.n. [from the Lat. lafdvio. t 
wanton. Cole. 
LASCIV'IENT, adj. [lafciviens, Lat.J Frolicfome f 
wantoning. 
LASCIV'IOUS, adj. [ lafcivus , Lat.] Lew'd ; luftful.-*- 
Notwithstanding all their talk of reafon and philofophy, 
and thofe unanswerable difficulties which, over their cups, 
they pretend to have againft Chriftianity; perfuade but 
the covetous man not to deify his money, the lajcivious 
man to throw oft’ his lewd amours, and all their giant¬ 
like objections againft Chriftianity fhall presently vanilh. 
South. 
On Eve he caft lajcivious eyes; flie him 
As wantonly repaid ; in luft they burn. Milton v 
Wanton; foft; luxurious: 
Grim-vifag’d war hath fmooth’d his wrinkled front j- 
And now, inftead of mounting barbed deeds. 
To fright the fouls of fearful adverfaries. 
He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber. 
To the lajcivious pleafing of a lute. Shakefpeare. 
LASCIV'IOUSLY, adv. Lewdly; wantonly. — I would 
defire her love lafciviovjly. Beaumont and Fletcher's King and 
no King. 
LASCIV'IOUSNESS, f. Wantonnefs; loofenefs.—The 
reafon pretended by Auguftus was the lafeivioujnefs of his 
Elegies, and his Art of Love. Dryden's Preface to Ovid. 
LAS'CO, or Laski (John a), one of the early orna¬ 
ments and zealous promoters of the reformation, was x 
native of Poland, and of noble defcent. After receiving 
a liberal education in the Polith fchools, he went abroad 
for further improvement; and in the courfe of his travels 
came to Zurich in Swiflerland. Here he formed an inti¬ 
mate acquaintance with the celebrated Zuinglius, by whom 
he was perfuaded to apply himfelf to the ftudy of divini¬ 
ty, and who alfo proved inftrumental in engaging him to 
embrace the reformed religion. Having returned home, he 
was made provoftof Gnefnaand Lencziez; and afterwards 
nominated bifiiop of Vefprim in Hungary. Notwithftand-, 
ing his ecclefiaftical promotions, he openly avowed his 
approbation of the reformed doCtrines; and, by fo doing, 
drew down on his head the vengeance of the catholic bi- 
ffiops, who palled on him the fentence of herefy. Of this- 
he complained to the king of Poland, alleging that he had 
been condemned without a fufficient hearing ; but the 
influence of his enemies prevailed, and he was obliged to 
quit Hungary, in the year 1540. To what place he re¬ 
tired at this time, we are not informed; but, in 1542, we 
find that he had taken refuge in Eaft Frieliand, where he 
was chofen minifter of a church at Embden. In the fol¬ 
lowing year, at the defire of Anne, widow of the count of 
Eaft Frieliand, he went to Oldenburgh, to eftablilh the 
doCtrines and difeipline of the reformation in that diftriCt; 
and in 1644 he was invited into Pruffia, by duke Albert, 
for the fame purpofe. As, however, he had embraced the 
opinion of Zuinglius on the fubjeCt of the Lord’s fupper, 
and could not lubfcribe to the Lutheran tenet, he was 
obliged to relinquilh this million, and to return to Frief- 
land. After he had refided in that country nearly ten 
years, the publication of the Interim by the emperor Charles 
V. compelled him to feek another afylum ; and in this 
exigence, by the advice of archbifhop Cranmer, he was 
invited into England by king Edward VI. At this time 
many of the German proteftants, driven from their own 
country by perfecution, had fettled in London, where 
they were favoured by the EngliIh government. A church 
of them was eftablilhed at Aultin-Friars, in that city, and 
erefted into a corporation under the direction of John a 
Lafco, who was made a luperintendant of all the foreign 
churches in London, with whom were joined four other 
minifters. As a mark of favour, three hundred and eighty 
of the congregation were made denizens of England. It 
is rather an extraordinary circumftance in the eeciefialti- 
eal hiftory pf tins couutry, that while many of the natu- 
