(^100) JOGALIA
name. Pagan practices were Christianized. Polish worship of the Madonna
became the Lithuanian festival of St. Mary Perkunatele - the Virgin Mother of
Perkun. At the Church Council of Constance in 1415, at which the dispute
between Poland and the Teutonic Order over missionary methods was fully
aired, the task of converting Lithuania to Catholicism was officially transferred
to the Polish See.
At Constance, also, Jan Hus was burned. His movement spread like a bush-
fire through the Czech lands and into Silesia. It attracted several important
patrons in Polish society from Andrzej Gatka z Dobrzyna, Rector of the
Jagiellonian University, to the powerful Spytek of Metsztyn, Castellan of Belz.
It was condemned by the fierce royal Edict of Wielun (Wehlungen) of 142.4,
which introduced the Inquisition. The Hussite Wars which ravaged Bohemia
and eastern Germany for several decades spread to the east. In Poland, they were
brought to an end on the field of Grotniki in May 1439 when Spytek was killed
by the forces of Bishop Olesnicki of Cracow.
Zbigniew Olesnicki (1389-1455) incarnated all the ideals of a militant but
conservative prelate. He had made his mark at Grunwald where his youthful
courage and speed of mind had saved the King's person from the lance of a
Teutonic hero. He won his mitre at the age of 34, and a cardinal's hat at 50. He
was a lifelong royal secretary, diplomat, and kingmaker. In foreign affairs, he
nourished the traditional Hungarian connection, and at home the supremacy of
the barons. He was eager to extend the power of the Jagieilons in the courts of
Central Europe, by their election to the Hungarian throne, but not to encourage
it in Poland. At the end of his life, he was the leader of the opposition. He was
perhaps the greatest of a long line of great political bishops which included
Mikolaj Traba (1358-1422), Archbishop and Vice-Chancellor; Jan Laski
(1455-1531), Archbishop and Chancellor; and Piotr Tomicki (1469-1535),
Bishop of Przemysl, Poznan, and Cracow, and Vice-Chancellor.
Jagiellonian church affairs were disturbed by continual disputes with the
Papacy. The disputes grew out of the struggle with the Teutonic Order, whom
the Papacy favoured, and were fuelled by the growing power and confidence of
the monarchy. The first exposition of the Polish case had appeared in the work
of Pawel Wlodkowic. But the clearest formulation of a consequential political
programme was made in the Monumentum pro Reipublicae ordinatione con-
gestum (c. 1475) of Jan Ostrorog (1436-1501), the fearless Castellan of Poznan.
Ostrorog waged a lifelong campaign against papal power, demanding the abo-
lition of annates, of juridical appeals to the Court of Rome, and of clerical
exemption from royal taxation. Against this background, all the main religious
developments occurred. In 1417, Archbishop Traba established the title of
Primate of Poland, with its associated responsibilities of papal legate and leader
of the Synod. In 1463, after a long wrangle, the practice was adopted of appoint-
ing all abbots and bishops (of which there were now nineteen) without reference
to the Roman Curia. The king's right to do so was confirmed by Leo X in 1513.
In 1515 Archbishop Laski extracted for himself and his successors the title of
c. jardin
(C. Jardin)
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