Wyclif’s influence reached Poland by way of Bohemia through the Masters of the University of Prague, who at the Polish king’s request became the reorganizers of the University of Cracow.[28] Andrew Gałka, a professor in the University of Cracow, an ardent admirer of Wyclif and a diligent student of his works, wrote a poem in which he praised the English reformer, and denounced the priests as servants of the German emperor and his Antichrist, who suppressed the truth and taught the common people falsehoods.[29] For this poem and for having Wyclif’s works in his possession he was expelled from the University and imprisoned. He escaped, however, from his imprisonment, and sought the protection of Boleslaus of Silesia, whence he carried on an extensive correspondence, justifying his position and urging his readers to read Wyclif’s works.[30]
Owing to the existence of close political and intellectual relations[31] between Bohemia and Poland in the fifteenth century, Hussitism found easy access to the latter country, and attracted many followers and sympathizers from among the Poles. Its anti-German, anti-papal, and nationalistic character found a responsive chord in their hearts. Huss and his ideas met with great favor on the part of many of them. At the Council of Constance the Polish lay representatives sided with the Bohemian delegation, and loyally defended Huss and his cause to the last. A number of powerful Polish aristocratic families, like Spytek of Melsztyn, Abraham of Zbonsz, Dersław of Rytwian, and others, became ardent supporters and defenders of Hussitism.[32] Abraham of Zbonsz harbored and protected Hussite preachers in his possessions for years in spite of the fact that he was excommunicated for this offense by the bishop of Posen.[33] Hussitism was spreading in Poland to such an extent as to cause alarm among the church authorities. The archbishop of Gnesen, Nicholas Tromba, called a synod to assemble at Kalisz, at which it was decided to apprehend suspected heretics and to deliver them into the hands of ecclesiastical tribunals.[34] Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki used his influence with the king, and secured from him the Edict of Wieluń (1424). By this edict the new teachings were declared to be deadly errors of heretics, contemptible to God, detrimental to the Christian faith, enervating to the body politic, inflammatory of perverse hearts, and should be repulsed and kept out of the country, if need be, by the sword. Heretics, protectors of heretics, and heretical suspects were to be regarded as traitors, and were to be punished by death. Those coming from Bohemia and entering Poland were to be examined by Inquisitors, and if suspected of heresy, they were to be detained. Polish subjects, whatever their class or condition, visiting or residing in Bohemia, were to return to their country by next Ascension Day; and if they failed to do so, they were to be regarded as heretics, subject to punishment as heretics. Obstinate heretics were to be punished by confiscation of property in favor of the crown treasury,[35] and neither the offenders themselves nor their posterity were to be admitted to any public office or to any official honors. And Polish merchants were forbidden to export anything to the heretics of Bohemia.[36]
In spite of this drastic edict, intended to check the spread of Hussitism in Poland, the Bohemian Hussites sent some of their emissaries to Cracow in 1427 for the purpose of conducting religious discussions. The Polish historian Długosz, who was Cardinal Oleśnicki’s secretary, reports that such a discussion, in which the Hussite representatives and the Roman Catholic doctors of the University of Cracow participated, was actually held in the city of Cracow in 1431, in the presence of the king, and characteristically adds that the heretics were vanquished, but would not admit it.[37]
On January 30, 1433, due again to Cardinal Oleśnicki’s influence, another royal edict was issued against the heretics. Its intention was to lend effectiveness to ecclesiastical excommunications by providing for seizures by the starostas[38] of the property of excommunicated church offenders, who had been under the ban of the church for more than a year without effort to have it lifted.[39]
It seems that even this measure did not materially help to keep the Hussite heresy in check. After the death of Wladislaus Jagiello in 1434 the Hussites were strong enough to offer some opposition to the regency of Cardinal Olesńicki; for he and his party entered into a pact of confederation at Korczyn on April 25, 1438, for the purpose of acting together to subdue any possible political or religious disturbance.[40] To counteract this, the opposition, headed by Spytek of Melsztyn, the acknowledged leader of the Hussites, entered into a similar pact on the third of May of the year following. This step on the part of the Hussites led to a clash between the two confederated parties, resulting in Spytek’s death, confiscation of his property, and in the ruin of the Spytek family.[41]
That all these measures were ineffective to check the spread of Hussitism in Poland is further evident from the fact that Casimir Jagiello (1447-1492), the king who restored to the Polish crown the right of investiture, lost to the Pope in 1206, issued in 1454 an order to the civil authorities in the dioceses of Gnesen, Posen, Włocław, and Płock to the effect that they cooperate with the appointed inquisitors in running down heretics.[42] It must not be supposed, however, that Casimir Jagiello was a zealous defender of the Roman Church and a determined opponent of Hussitism. In 1462 he entered into an alliance with the excommunicated Hussite king, George Podjebrad of Bohemia, and maintained the alliance in the face of strong inducements as well as threats from the Catholic party to break it. When the Pope in his opposition to Podjebrad had gone so far as to attempt a crusade against the Hussites in Poland, Casimir sternly prohibited the proclamation of it.[43] In the western parts of Poland the traces of Hussitism were so deep that as late as 1500 the nobility of Great Poland demanded the cup at communion.[44] The work of the Hussites was reenforced by demands for reform, made by loyal sons of the Church of Rome, who had caught the spirit of Hussitism. Two men, both professors of theology at the University of Cracow, though at different times, Matthew of Cracow and James of Paradyż, became especially conspicuous within the Polish Roman Catholic Church in the fifteenth century for their advocacy of reform. Matthew of Cracow was born in 1330 of a family of town clerks (Stadtschreiber). Having received his preparatory education in his home town, he went to study theology at the University of Prague, where he took all the University degrees one after another, and finally in 1387 became professor of theology. In 1394 he went as professor of theology to the University of Heidelberg, and in 1396 he was made rector of that University. In 1397 he was called to Cracow for the purpose of reorganizing the University, founded in 1364 by Casimir the Great.
The University of Prague made an indelible impression upon him, and to its influence he felt that he owed everything. His conception of the church and his views of church matters were likewise the product of the University of Prague. And Matthew became not only a theologian, but also a reformer. While at the University of Cracow, he published in 1404 a pamphlet under the title, “De squaloribus curiae Romanae.” In it, as well as in his sermons, lectures, and other writings, he condemned simony, defended the superiority of church councils over the Pope, severely criticized the existing form of religion as a mere semblance of Christianity, held the stupidity of church theologians responsible for the decline of scriptural religious faith, and demanded reforms.[45]
As the spirit of the University of Prague made Matthew of Cracow, so the spirit of Matthew’s theology made James of Paradyż. Born about 1380, James entered the monastic Order of the Cistercians at Paradyż at the age of twenty. In 1420 he was studying at the University of Cracow, from which in 1432 he received its highest degree, namely that of Doctor of Decretals, or of Theology. In 1431 he participated in the famous public discussion with the Hussites in the king’s presence. Though loyal to the Church of Rome, James nevertheless became an ardent advocate of church reform, particularly of the monastic life. He went so far as to propose the confiscation of monastic property of all monastic orders which had become too worldly. In consequence of this revolutionary proposal, he was forced to leave his Order at Mogila and his chair of theology at the University of Cracow. Accustomed to the discipline of the monastic life, however, he entered the Order of the Carthusians at Erfurt, and continued his labors along the line of church reform both by preaching and by writing until his death in 1464.[46]
That by the beginning of the sixteenth century the ground in Poland was fairly well prepared for the spread of the coming Reformation is made further evident by the character of some of the books published and the opinions circulated in the country at that time. In 1504, for instance, there appeared from the press in Cracow two significant books, “De vero cultu Dei,” and “De matrimonio sacerdotum.” These books contained views decidedly unfavorable to the church, and, as it was to be expected, were condemned by it. In 1515, Bernard of Lublin, writing to Simon of Cracow, expressed the opinion that the Gospel was all-sufficient for faith and practice and that all other precepts of men could be dispensed with.[47]
The Spread of the Reformation in Poland. First Period, 1518-1540: Early Beginnings and Struggles.—The Reformation reached Poland soon after its outbreak in Germany, and spread rapidly. Following lines of least resistance, it penetrated through the established channels of trade and commerce and education into the larger commercial centres, where there was a considerable German element, and into the life of the country aristocracy, which sought knowledge and culture in the universities of Germany.