laity 433and Technology in Medieval Culture(New Brunswick, N.J.:
Rutgers University Press, 1987); Maya Shatzmiller,
Labour in the Medieval Islamic World(Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1994).
Ladislas II Jagiello(Vladislav, Wladyslav, Jogaila)
(ca. 1351–1434)king of Lithuania and Poland
Ladislas was born about 1351. With the support of his
nephew, Vytantas (Vitold, Vitout) (1392–1430), he exer-
cised joint control of LITHUANIA, which was essential to
the success of his political ambitions. He married the
heir to the Crown of POLANDand its queen, Jadwiga or
Hedwig of Anjou (ca. 1373–99), to give him the prestige
necessary to secure his position as the grand duke of
Lithuania from 1377 and to confirm his rights in Poland.
He became king of Poland, again almost jointly with
Vytantas, in 1386 and became the sole recognized
monarch after Jadwiga’s death in 1399. With the political
union of the two states and the cooperation of his
nephew, he was better able to face the TARTARSand Turks
in the East and the rising power of the princes of
MOSCOW. In the West he suffered the hostility and suspi-
cion of his brother-in-law, the emperor SIGISMUNDof Lux-
embourg, who was anxious to maintain and solidify his
own position in Hungary and BOHEMIA. Ladislas also had
to steer a careful path through the religious complications
of the Hussite Wars but gained little by his meddling.
Within Poland he relied heavily on the support of the
great nobles. He inflicted a devastating defeat on the TEU-
TONICKnights in 1410/11 at Grunwald. During his long
reign, the hold of the Jagiello dynasty was given a sound
foundation, despite the elective equality of the monarchy,
which usually worked in the longer run to weaken the
authority of any elected prince. He also established tradi-
tions of tolerance and freedom in Poland during his long
and successful reign. This protection to minorities and to
merchants contributed greatly to the economic prosperity
of his reign in Poland. He died in 1434.
Further reading:Norman Davies, God’s Playground: A
History of Poland,Vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1984); Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki, A
Concise History of Poland(Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 2001).
laity The word lay,in Latin laicus,was derived from
the Greek word laios.In the Greek translations of the
BIBLEmade at ALEXANDRIAin the second century B.C.E.
the word designated the part of the Jewish people who
were not priestly and thus consecrated completely to the
service to God. Similarly for Christian authors it desig-
nated those members of the church not engaged in the
activities of the priesthood. However, at the same time in
early Christianity there remained the idea that actually
the whole community of the baptized was holy and con-
stituted a sort of priesthood who participated actively in
the liturgy and life of the church through the ministry of
bishops and priests.
The emergence of monasticism between the fourth
and the eighth centuries led to a devaluation of lay life.
This evangelical ideal mixed an exaltation of VIRGINITY
and CELIBACYwith a depreciation of MARRIAGEand life in
the world. Monasteries and cathedral schools became the
main centers of learned culture. Only literate CLERICS
were able to access the Word of God and clarify its mean-
ing. The overwhelmingly illiterate laity were reduced to
passive spectators and marginal participants at liturgical
ceremonies.
The conditions of life, such as property, fighting,
marriage, and LABOR, for the laity were deemed mere
necessary concessions to a human condition shaped by
original sin. Clerical authors used the image of a pyra-
mid or a body, whose base or lowers were formed by the
laity who were devoted to temporal tasks, who should be
led, and the “spiritual” men of the clerical orders. Along
with the liturgy, theologians and moralists legitimized
the subordination of the laity to the clergy within CHRIS-
TENDOM, and their complete and permanent exclusion
from priest roles. Salvation and REDEMPTION, however,
remained open to all.
The church of the GREGORIANREFORMstressed the
unity and complementary aspects of the two orders, the
clerics led by the pope and the subordinate laity led by
the emperor. All were to be within a single church that
was identified with Christian society. The laity were con-
fined to purely terrestrial tasks and the objects of the pas-
toral ministry of the clerics. Around 1140, the monk
GRATIAN, a spokesman for Gregorian ideas, acknowl-
edged in his Decretumthat the laity were in the church
but must behave as passive and obedient subjects.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, objections to this
were called HERESYby the clergy, because they rejected
the image of a church dominated and controlled by the
clergy and tried to substitute a church and society of
brothers and sisters striving for salvation with the clergy
and the laity on an equal footing. The majority of the
faithful, however, preferred to explore these new paths
without entering into conflict with the clergy. The church
began to recognize that a moral and apostolic life might
be led by a layperson by starting to admit a few of the
laity to sainthood. The church also began to reach out to
more of the laity as they were increasingly perceived as
more capable of actually gaining salvation even though
they lived in the world. This attitude was not completely
successful. The later Middle Ages was marked by the
growth of groups with quite different ideas about the role
of the laity in the church, especially the heretical LOL-
LARDSand Hussites.
See also BOOKS OF HOURS; CONFRATERNITIES; HUS,
JOHN; PREACHING; UTRAQUISTS; WYCLIFFE, JOHN.
Further reading:Susan Reynolds, Ideas and Solidari-
ties of the Medieval Laity: England and Western Europe