political theory and treatises 589the same time he became king of Poland (r. 1386–1433).
This Polish Lithuanian Union of 1385 lasted for cen-
turies, despite differences between the Catholic kingdom
of Poland and the pagan and Orthodox Lithuanian-
Ruthenian grand duchy. The Lithuanian nobility, how-
ever, converted to Roman Catholicism. A Polish victory
over the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald or
Tannenberg on July 15, 1410; gravely weakened the Teu-
tonic Knights, who later piecemeal joined themselves to
Poland in the 1460s. The Jagiellonian dynasty made sev-
eral attempts to take over BOHEMIAand Hungary, winning
battles but ultimately failing. At the same time the realm
suffered territorial losses in the northeast as a result of
the expansion of MOSCOW.
PROSPERITY AND NOBLE
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONSThis period of rule by Casimir and the later Jagiellonians
was marked by peace, cultural development, and eco-
nomic prosperity. The nobility gained a series of privi-
leges and followed the principle of equality of rights for
all its members, regardless of their real social and eco-
nomic position in a hierarchy. In the 15th century, a “lit-
tle diet” of nobles became an important organ of
territorial autonomy. In the late 15th century, the nobles
of the little diets even created a body called the “cham-
ber of deputies.” The old royal council was transformed
into a senate of high dignitaries and bishops. The later
Polish parliament has its origins in these diets and
councils. These bodies were primarily representative of
the nobility, and limited the rights and opportunities of
an urban middle class and the PEASANTRY. There were a
few major towns such as Gdanˇ sk, Cracow, Toruri, and
Elblag or Elbing.
CULTURE AND TOLERANCEGOTHIC architecture was important in the towns,
especially Cracow. The University of Cracow had great
prestige in Eastern Europe, and in fact all Europe. By
1500 there were small SCHOOLSin nearly every parish,
town, and village. The rate of literacy was high and
literature in the Polish language grew. From the 14th
century, the Catholic Church coexisted well with the
Orthodox Church. Jewish communities grew and
enjoyed wide autonomy, as the Jagiellonians, including
Gediminas (r. 1316–42), in Lithuania, Ladislas II Jagiello,
and Casimir IV (1440–92) in Poland, favored religious
toleration.
Further reading:Aleksander Gieysztor, “The King-
dom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,” in
The New Cambridge Medieval History.Vol. 7, c. 1415–c.
1500,ed. Christopher Allmand (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998), 727–747; Paul W. Knoll, The Rise
of the Polish Monarchy: Piast Poland in East Central
Europe, 1320–1370 (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1972); Jacob Litman, The Economic Role of Jews in
Medieval Poland: The Contribution of Yitzhak Schipper
(Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1984);
Tadeusz Manteuffel, The Formation of the Polish State:
The Period of Ducal Rule, 963–1194, trans. Andrew
Gorski (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1982);
Michael J. Mikos, trans., Medieval Literature of Poland:
An Anthology(New York: Garland, 1992); W. F. Red-
daway, ed. The Cambridge History of Poland(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1941); H. B. Segel, Renais-
sance Culture in Poland: The Rise of Humanism,
1470–1543 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
1989).political structure SeeCALIPHATE AND CALIPH; KINGS
AND KINGSHIP, RITUALS AND THEORIES OF; LAW, CANON AND
ECCLESIASTICAL; PAPACY;PODESTÀ;POLITICAL THEORY AND
TREATISES; SOCIALSTATUS AND STRUCTURE.political theory and treatises For medieval
authors, politics was an important aspect of theological
and philosophical reflection. The nature of society and
of the practice of public affairs were two of the essential
ethical dimensions of a person. The political commu-
nity and the religious community were not thought of
as separate or opposed. There was, however, through-
out most of the Middle Ages and early RENAISSANCE,
much conflict over the relationship between the power
of the church and the power of temporal or secular
realms or states. GOD delegated power on earth to
Christ, who according to the church delegated it to the
pope, who delegated it to bishops and lay rulers,
according to the idea of the Two Swords, one held by
the church and the other held by the state. Yet all was
to be controlled by the pope in the minds of some. The
question was whether God intended the emperor, or a
monarch, or the state to wield the temporal sword,
independent of the pope but as part of a rightly ordered
Christian society.
Politics and political power existed to protect order
and virtue from the consequences of the naturally sinful
human condition. The introduction of Roman LAWand
Aristotelian thought in the Ethicsand Politicscompli-
cated these matters in the 12th and 13th centuries. The
later development of NOMINALISMencouraged the idea
that only the individual was fundamental and the state
existed for the protection of individual liberty. This was
countered by the early development of the idea of abso-
lutism of either a monarch or a pope. The addition of
such new entities as the city-states of ITALYcomplicated
the issues of this scheme. The new cities, much influ-
enced by Ciceronian republicanism at least in theory,
wanted to pay as little attention to an emperor as possi-
ble. From the political thought and practice of the Mid-
dle Ages and Renaissance, historians have discerned,
perhaps to an exaggerated degree, the beginnings of the