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Vol. 83 (1995): Our Past

Articles

Władysław II Jagiełło vs. the Cistercian monasteries in the Kingdom of Poland

  • Jadwiga Krzyżaniakowa
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.1995.83.93-124  [Google Scholar]
Published: 1995-06-30

Abstract

Throughout all the years of his reign, Władysław Jagiełło was interested in religious orders and, it seems, preferred those open to reforms and new trends in the Church. The number of documents issued to Cistercian monasteries on behalf of the king suggests that he was keenly interested in them at a time when the Order was going through a difficult period. Władysław Jagiełło issued 63 documents to 13 monasteries of "gray monks" in the Kingdom of Poland. This constitutes an exceptionally high percentage of the total of 137 royal documents of this type, addressed to 46 monasteries of various orders. Of those addressed to the Cistercians, twenty-two confirm previous grants and exemptions, and as many as forty-one contain new donations and privileges. The content of the royal privileges (which still requires further research) indicates that Władysław Jagiełło supported the Cistercian economic model (large-scale agriculture, organizing fairs, supporting trade and crafts) and tried to help in the resettlement of Cistercian communes to cities. He also supported the initiative to establish a Cistercian study at the University of Krakow and wanted the new college to be under the jurisdiction of the Mogila abbot. The king's interest in the intellectual development of the Cistercians and the desire to join them to an academic center in Poland was undoubtedly related to the plans to organize the Polish province of the Cistercian order and link it with the Polish state and Church. Władysław Jagiełło supported internal reforms in monasteries, especially reformers in Mogila, which became the center of the new movement. The king's interest in Greater Poland monasteries may have resulted from the desire to bind them with the Polish state and open them to the local population, in short, to Polonize them. The process was to be led by Land. She always had close ties with the local nobility and was therefore uniquely qualified to enjoy the protection of Władysław Jagiełło. As the popularity of conciliarism began to wane, the reform movement ceased. The idea of ​​connecting Cistercian monasteries to the state was revived in the 16th century. At that time, however, the State and the Church found themselves in a completely different situation.

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