(^80) PIAST
the Dominican, the Franciscan, and the fortified church of St. Andrew - must
have looked woefully small. Here, in the space of a few months, three memo-
rable events were to be celebrated. Casimir the Great, at the height of his fame,
presided over the marriage of a future Empress; over the founding of Poland's
first university; and over an international congress of kings.
The marriage was that of the King's granddaughter Elizabeth of Slupsk. The
bride was a remarkable girl, reputed to be able to break horseshoes in her hand,
and to crush suits of armour. The bridegroom was Charles IV of Luxembourg,
King of the Romans by election, King of Bohemia in succession to his father. After
the wedding, celebrated in the renovated cathedral in May 1363, the happy
couple travelled to Prague and then to Rome for their royal and imperial corona-
tions.
The founding of the University of Cracow occurred almost exactly twelve
months later. It came at the end of long negotiations in Avignon where Pope
Urban had been reluctant to grant Casimir's petition. The royal Charter of
Foundation was issued on 12 May 1364. In it the King provided for the creation
of one chair in the liberal arts, two chairs in Medicine, three in Canon Law, and
five in Roman Law. He endowed them with a guaranteed income payable quar-
terly from the royal salt monopoly at "Wieliczka. Exceptionally, for the practice
of the day, he gave control not to the Bishop of Cracow but to the royal
Chancellor, Janusz Suchywilk. On that same day, the city of Cracow issued a
charter listing the rights and privileges which it was extending to the
University's 'masters, doctors, scholars, clerks, guards, beadles, and their fami-
lies'. The charter further explained why the University was being founded:
'... ut ex congregatione dictorum, magistrorum, doctorum, et scolarium, pro conver-
sione infidelium paganorum et scismaticorum, dicto regno confinancium, maior devocio
predicationis et instructio fidei catholicae ad laudem et gloriam omnipotentis dei et
genetricis eius gloriosae Virginis Mariae crescat et augeatur.*
Although the Piast's 'Studium Generale' did not outlive its founder, and did not
begin its continuous existence until 1400 when it was refounded by a
Jagiellonian monarch, the University of Cracow can fairly claim to take second
place only to Prague in the seniority of Central Europe's seats of learning.
The Congress of Cracow, too, was less memorable for what actually happened,
than for what it signified for the future. It was occasioned by the visit of Pierre de
Lusignan (1329-69), King of Cyprus, who was touring the courts of Europe in
efforts to raise a new Crusade. He had attended the coronation of the French
King, Charles le Sage at Rheims in May, and had called at Prague to collect the
Emperor-elect, Charles of Luxembourg, and bring him along, together with his
son, Vaclav of Bohemia, to Cracow. There he was met by the host, Casimir of
- '... so that, from the assembly of the said masters, doctors, and scholars, and for the con-
version of the pagans and schismatics adjoining the said kingdom, a greater love of prayer
and a more effective ordering of the Catholic faith may grow and increase, to the praise and
glory of Almighty god and of his glorious mother, the Virgin Mary.'^11