Moreover, in addition to these large estates and the income derived from them, the Polish clergy were entitled to one-tenth of the gross receipts which the nobility derived from their estates, to one-tenth from the peasantry, jura stolae, free gifts of the pious, and, as a specially privileged class, to exemption from practically all public burdens, although the Greek Orthodox clergy were placed on the same footing with the peasants as regards taxation.[329] The tithes paid to the clergy by the nobility were voluntary at first, but by the middle of the fifteenth century they were made compulsory;[330] and in consequence became very obnoxious to the nobility, for they were the only tax the nobility paid.[331] Before the thirteenth century the prince called upon the population of ecclesiastical estates as well as on that of the estates of the knighthood to participate in the building of new or in the rebuilding of old strongholds, but in the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, owing to the immunities granted the clergy, the princely right to summon the population of ecclesiastical estates to perform any work on defenses was either very much curtailed or altogether abolished.[332] Also, the mayors of ecclesiastical villages were largely exempt from participation in the country’s defense prior to the reign of Casimir the Great (1333-1370). In Casimir’s time a law was passed, making these mayors liable to military service.[333] The clergy, however, disregarded and evaded the provisions of this law after Casimir’s death. It was not until in the second half of the sixteenth century that the nobility brought the clergy to terms in this regard. Taking their actual receipts plus the value of their exemptions into account, Dr. Kubala estimates that the Polish clergy of the sixteenth century were recipients of one-half of the national income.[334]
It was this enormous wealth of the Polish church and its clergy, actual and potential, that made the Polish nobility very restless, and gradually led it as a class to an open revolt from the Roman Catholic Church and to a determined opposition to the Roman clergy, its pretensions, its greed, and its exactions. This all the more so, since owing to its great wealth, the Polish clergy had lost its religion and its moral authority. It was far more concerned about its social position, its political influence, and its tithes than about religion and morals. Monastic discipline was loose. The ignorance of the lower clergy was proverbial. Simony was the order of the day, paving the way to higher ecclesiastical appointments. The higher clergy were wholly indifferent to religion, and cared far more for comfort, luxury, and the enjoyment of life than for the things of the spirit. Bishop Zebrzydowski of Cracow used to say: “Believe in a goat, if you wish, only pay me your tithes.”[335] John Drohojowski, learned, prominent, and influential, for years bishop of Kuyavia, preached only twice in his church during that time.[336]
Indifferent as the Polish clergy were in matters of religion and morals, they were never found napping in matters of property and the exaction of tithes. It was this greed, this completely materialistic character of the Polish clergy, together with their immense wealth resulting in great influence and unscrupulous power, that chiefly paved the way in Poland for Hussitism in the fifteenth century and for the Reformation in the sixteenth century. As early as 1406 and 1407 the Polish nobility in conventions at Piotrków assembled deliberated regarding measures to safeguard itself against the exploitation of the clergy.[337] In 1432, owing to a war with the Teutonic Knights and the need of large sums of money, regular taxation of the clergy was being considered.[338] In the course of the first half of the fifteenth century, due very likely to the unprecedented grants of Wladislaus Jagiello to the church, the nobility proposed a confiscation of ecclesiastical estates.[339] This proposal, as we shall see later, was repeated again several times in the sixteenth century. At that time the nobility protested also against the concentration of prebendaries and benefices in the hands of a few specially favored and privileged ecclesiastics, and against the exportation of annates to Rome.[340] These protests, too, were renewed in the sixteenth century. In 1544 the Diet voted that the king take steps to secure the Pope’s consent to the retention of the papal tax within the country for purposes of defense.[341] The desired papal consent had evidently not been given, for the Diet of 1567 voted the retention of the annates, with the king’s consent, even though against the wishes of the Pope.[342] These annates amounted to 21,266 florins annually,[343] and were to strengthen the national treasury (Skarb rawski). But according to the treasury registers these annates were not being paid in. In every annual summary report of the Treasury a note is found, stating that the higher clergy, from whom these annates were due, had not paid them in, with the exception of Krasiński, bishop of Cracow, and his successor, Peter Myszkowski.[344] So stubborn were the bishops that the Diet of 1569 threatened them with collecting double the amount from all the delinquent payers, and the Diet of 1576 had to call upon them again to comply with the law regarding annates.[345]
By a law of 1496 and 1505 the nobility, with its eye on the wealth of the church, restricted all the higher ecclesiastical offices and preferments to itself and its sons, excluding from them the townspeople and all plebeians.[346] In 1510 and again in 1527, as the needs of the country were steadily growing, it was proposed that the clergy share in carrying the burdens of the country’s defense along with the nobility. In all proposed measures of treasury reform in the sixteenth century the clergy were singled out as the wealthiest estate in the land and placed at the head of the lists of those best able to help bear public burdens. In some of the proposals they were asked to give up their tithes to the needs of the country, and bishops and abbots were urged to contribute the annates to the national treasury.[347] The clergy, however, protested vigorously. They were opposed to any taxation of their property; at the same time they were also reluctant to make voluntary contributions.[348] The collection of the “subsidium charitativum” was always a very difficult matter. Out of the 40,000 florins, which the clergy agreed in 1510 to contribute toward the country’s needs, only 7,000 florins actually came into the national treasury.[349] At the synod of 1577 the clergy manifested the greatest reluctance to make any contribution,[350] and the same thing was true in every case until the end of Poland’s national existence toward the close of the eighteenth century.[351] Yet in justice to the clergy it must be said that once in a while they did manifest unusual liberality. Inspired by the new religious reform movement of the century, the nobility went so far in 1536 and 1537 as to propose confiscation and a sale of all ecclesiastical estates, which were tax-free, and on account of which the nobility had to bear all the heavier public burdens.[352] In 1563 it at last succeeded in securing actual taxation of ecclesiastical property.[353] In 1576 it again protested against the great wealth of the church.[354] And so practically throughout the sixteenth century it struggled under the inspiration and with the help of the religious reform movement against the social and economic oppression and exactions of the Roman clergy.
[267] A Polish łan kmiecy (laneus agricolae) was of two sizes, large and small. The large łan called Frankish, was used as a land measure chiefly in Little Poland, and equalled 43.2 morgi, or about 57 acres. The small łan, known also as Flemish, used in Great Poland and Mazovia almost exclusively, equalled 30 morgi, 16 hectares, or approximately 40 acres.
[268] Historical Sources (Źródła dziejowe), Warsaw, 1883-1909, vol. xii, p. 135; cf. p. 72.
[269] Ibid., vol. xii, p. 135.
[270] Ibid., vol. xiv, pp. 72-73; cf. table to p. 71.
[271] 772 villages plus one-half of 83 sections = 814 villages. This divided by 5,455, total number of villages, = approximately 15 per cent. Or on the basis of 5.3 villages to a square mile: 814 divided by 5.3 = 153.5 square miles. This gives us 15.5 per cent. of total land area of 1013 square miles.
[272] Źr. dz. vol. xiv, pp. 72-73.