336 VASA
the time being, calm prevailed. Jewish learning and scholarship reached a peak
of profundity. The work of 'halakhic giants' such as Solomon Luria (1510-73),
Moses Isserles (1510-72), or Mordecai Yaphe, inspired a rich tradition of
Talmudic, cabbalistic, and popular Yiddish literature. Jewish education and lit-
eracy attained levels far superior to those of the noble and urban classes as a
whole.
Constitutional development ground to a halt. The extreme libertarian posi-
tion of the nobility was not redressed. The great Rokosz of 1606-9 ended in a
stalemate. The King could do nothing to enlarge his powers. The problem of the
succession was not resolved. Although Zamoyski failed to limit the succession
to certain named candidates, so, too, did all subsequent attempts to arrange it
vivente rege. The elections of 1632 and 1648 were unmemorable. The great
officers of state were awarded lifelong tenure. Finance remained firmly in the
purview of the nobility.
Some changes were made in military organization. Although the traditional
use of massed cavalry brought some success, particularly at Kirchholm in 1605
and at Klushino in 1610, the prestige of the Swedish example led to important
modifications designed to increase the army's fire-power. In 1618, the kwarta
tax was doubled in order to support improved gunnery, which in 1637 was orga-
nized in a separate Corps of Artillery with its own General. The army was
divided into two separate formations. One, the so-called 'National Contingent',
included regiments of Hussars, Cossacks, and Tartars, and was drawn from pri-
vate retinues and from the noble 'comrades-in-arms'. The other, the Foreign
Contingent, included the regiments of infantry, dragoons, and rajtars, and was
freely recruited 'by the drum', that is, by colonels who paid and equipped the
men themselves. The over-all size of the infantry was much increased, the tradi-
tional 'Hungarian-style' regiments armed with muskets and halberds being sup-
plemented with new and larger 'German' regiments of musketeers and pikemen.
In peacetime, the standing army made up of the Royal Guard, the Registered
Cossacks, and the Kwarciane numbered some 12,000 men. In wartime, it could
be quadrupled without difficulty. Much work was done on fortresses especially
at Zamosc in the Italian style, at Danzig, Brody, and Wisnicz in the Dutch style,
and at Kudak on the Dnieper by the French engineer, Beauplan. A school of the-
oretical writing flourished, associated with the names dell'Aqua, Freytag, and
Siemienowicz. In Stanistaw Zolkiewski (1547-1620), Crown-Hetman from
1613, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (1560-1621), Lithuanian Hetman from 1605, and
Stanislaw Koniecpolski (1593-1646), Field Hetman of the Crown from 1618 and
Grand Hetman from 1632, and Stefan Czarniecki (1599-1665), the Republic
saw its most brilliant generation of field commanders.^6 The Royal Fleet, never
of much significance, was liquidated in 1641.^7
The Dnieper Cossacks were not tamed. On the contrary, they grew and mul-
tiplied. Despite Bathory's establishment of the Register, they continued to live
off the land, not only in the Ukraine but also deep into the Balkans and the
Danube valley. In 1589, they crossed the Black Sea in their boats, and looted a