POLONIA

II. CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

### The origins and the Piast dynasty (963-1370).

The true history of Poland begins with Mieszko I (963-92), of the Piast dynasty, which emerged from the Polans tribe (region of Poznań and Gniezno). Mieszko I united the other Polish tribes around the Polans and resisted the advance of the German imperial forces; defeated in 963, he took revenge in 967 and 972. The most significant act of the reign of Mieszko I was the Christianization of Poland (966), in which his wife, the Czech Dombrowka or Dubrawka, played no small part. Thus Poland entered the sphere of Roman Western Christianity. The first Polish bishopric was that of Poznań (968), of a missionary character and directly dependent on Rome. The first Polish national document, the much-debated "Dagome" (from "Dagone") iudez, dates to 985-92, by virtue of which Poland was offered to the Patrimony of St. Peter.

Mieszko I was succeeded by his son Bolesław I (992-1025),

who expanded the borders of Poland to the west as far as the Elbe and the Elster, to the south as far as the Danube, and to the north as far as the Baltic; he occupied Prague (1003), entered Kiev (1018), and reattached Red Ruthenia (region of Lviv), taken from his father (981). Initially at peace with the Empire, Bolesław I met Otto III at Gniezno in 1000, then waged war against Henry II (1002-18), which ended with the victorious Peace of Budziszyn (Bautzen). He supported the mission of St. Adalbert among the Slavs on the southern shores of the Baltic and the Prussians. He founded many monasteries, called monks from Italy (Camaldolese of St. Romuald), Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary; at Gniezno he ensured the foundation of the first Polish ecclesiastical province (1000), with the suffragan dioceses of Wrocław, Kołobrzeg, and Kraków; he also protected the missionary work of St. Bruno on the eastern borders of Poland. In 1024 Bolesław I was crowned king.

The reign of his son, Mieszko II (1025-34), was unhappy. Attacked from all sides (Empire, Bohemia, and Ruthenia), he had to capitulate before Emperor Conrad II (1033); he nevertheless continued his father’s religious work and, it seems, founded the diocese of Kuyavia (Władysławia), with its seat at Kruszwica. During the interregnum, 1034-1038, a violent pagan reaction destroyed the ecclesiastical organization of the first three Piasts. It was the son of Mieszko II, Casimir I (1038-58), who restored it, with the favor of the Empire. For reasons of security, the capital was moved to Kraków. At first only the two dioceses of Kraków and Wrocław were reconstituted, with clergy from Germany.

It seems he also founded the diocese of Kuyavia (Władysławia), with its seat at Kruszwica. During the interregnum, 1034-1038, a violent pagan reaction destroyed the ecclesiastical organization of the first three Piasts. It was the son of Mieszko II, Casimir I (1038-58), who restored it, with the favor of the Empire. For reasons of security, the capital was moved to Kraków. At first only the two dioceses of Kraków and Wrocław were reconstituted, with clergy from Germany.

(From Bolestano Bicral, *Sesssintetni Plan edbudowy Warsowy*, Warsaw 1828, unnumbered plates)

His son, Bolesław II the Bold (1058-79), emulated the deeds of his great-grandfather Bolesław. In the Investiture Controversy he firmly sided with Gregory VII, who in 1076 sent his legates to renew the metropolitan see of Gniezno. To this period probably belongs the foundation of the diocese of Mazovia, with its seat at Płock. On 25 December 1076 Bolesław was crowned king by the new metropolitan Bogumił. But Bolesław had Stanislaus, bishop of Kraków, killed, who had probably reproached him for his cruelty toward his opponents who had taken advantage of a campaign against Kiev to rebel. The violent death of Stanislaus provoked such indignation in Poland that the king had to seek refuge in Hungary. He was succeeded by his brother Władysław Herman (1079-1102). Of a peaceful disposition, he was compliant toward the Empire and fell under German influence.

Bolesław III Krzywousty (1107-38), unlike his father, renewed the deeds of his predecessors by conquering Pomerania between the Vistula, Szczecin, and beyond (1109) and defeating Emperor Henry V (1110). He took great care of the interests of the Church, promoted the foundation of the diocese of Lubusz on the Oder (1124) and the restoration of that of Kuyavia, whose seat was transferred to Włocławek (Władysławia). Around 1104 Bolesław received the papal legate Gwalon, bishop of Beauvais; following this visit a synod was held in Poland that implemented the Gregorian reforms.

By the testament of Bolesław III, Poland was divided into four duchies, assigned to his sons; this disintegration of the kingdom lasted from 1138 to 1305 amid violent struggles among the sons of Bolesław III, then among his grandsons, and finally among the various branches of the dynasty, greatly weakening the kingdom.

Evidence of this is the submission of Bolesław IV to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1137), reaffirmed in 1173, and of Casimir the Just in 1184. Pomerania and Gdańsk broke away from Poland. In 1226 Conrad, duke of Mazovia, to defend himself from the Prussians and to carry out missionary work among them, brought the Teutonic Knights into northern Poland. This date marked for Poland the beginning of repeated conflicts with the Order. In 1241 Poland suffered the great Tatar invasion, the first of ninety such invasions up to 1697, both Tatar and Turkish. The external danger made the need to reunify the ancient kingdom felt, which seemed achieved with the election of Przemysł II in 1295. But the following year the king was assassinated. Amid new disturbances, Wenceslaus II of Bohemia occupied the Polish throne (1300-1305). At the death of the latter, Władysław I Łokietek (1305-33) took power, with whom the period of regional division ended.

A politically unhappy but religiously fruitful period: the Church grew in strength and authority; synods extended the Gregorian reforms (notable is the work of the archbishop of Gniezno, Kietlicz). The Mendicant Orders arrived: the Dominicans in 1222 and the Franciscans in 1236, and they established missions even on the eastern borders of Poland. Testimony to the deepening of religious faith is the significant number of blessed and saints of this period (the blessed Vincent Kadłubek and Czesław, St. Hyacinth, the forty Dominican martyrs of Sandomierz, the blessed Bronisława, Salomea, Jolanta, Kinga, and St. Hedwig). The cult of St. Stanislaus firmly took hold, becoming a symbol of national unity and being canonized by Innocent IV at Assisi in 1253. From the end of the 13th century the Catholic hierarchy arose to defend the Polish language and customs against the encroachment of German colonists (Synod of Łęczyca of 1285, Jakub Świnka, archbishop of Gniezno).

Ladislaus, resisting Bohemian claims to the Polish throne, was crowned king at Kraków in 1320. He fought against the Teutonic Knights (Płowce, 1331), who had occupied Pomerania (the massacre of Gdańsk, 1308), Kuyavia, and the land of Dobrzyń, definitively establishing their seat at Malbork (1309); he did not, however, succeed in regaining the lost territory. Ladislaus too was faithful to the Roman Church. With his son, Casimir the Great (1333-70), a period of splendor for Poland begins. A skilled diplomat, Casimir had the Teutonic Knights cede (1343) Kuyavia, the district of Dobrzyń, abandoning Pomerania, and obtained that Bohemia renounce its claims to the Polish throne; he turned Polish expansion toward Red Ruthenia and Podolia. At Halicz (1367) he founded the second Latin metropolitan see, which was later transferred to Lviv (1414). With the help of the clergy, he codified the country’s legislation and, with the approval of Urban V, founded the University of Kraków, modeled on that of Bologna but without a Faculty of Theology (1364).

House of Hungary (1370–86).—With the death of Casimir the Great without heirs, the throne passed to Louis, King of Hungary, his sister’s son. This personal union was not a happy one, for Louis neglected Poland’s interests. To secure the Polish throne for his daughters, contrary to the laws of the land, Louis granted the Polish nobility its first general privileges (Koszyce, 1374). The death of Louis was followed by a turbulent interregnum (1382–84), aggravated by resentment over the secession of Red Ruthenia (1378), which the king had imposed, and by his attempt to place a German pretender, the husband of his daughter Mary, on the throne of Cracow. The crisis was resolved when the Polish dignitaries decided to accept Louis’s youngest daughter, Hedwig. She came to Cracow and was crowned in 1384. Two years later, by decision of the nobility of Little Poland, Hedwig married the ruler of Lithuania, Jogaila.

Jagiellonians. The Age of Greatness (1386–1572).—The Union of Krewo (1385) laid the foundations of the Polish-Lithuanian union. Jogaila arrived in Cracow in 1386, was baptized under the name Ladislaus, and was crowned after his marriage to Hedwig. In 1387 he introduced Christianity first into Lithuania (where the Catholic see of Wilno was established) and a few years later into Samogitia. At the same time Hedwig secured the return of Red Ruthenia. An important event in Ladislaus’s reign was the “Great War” with the Teutonic Knights, which culminated in the victory at Grunwald (1410). The Poles, however, failed to exploit this victory, for the Teutonic Knights renewed hostilities between 1414 and 1424 and again between 1430 and 1433, though without success. At Horodło (1413) the Polish nobility concluded a union with the Lithuanian nobility, and the remarkable introduction to this agreement, composed by scholars from Cracow, stands as a singular document of the nobility’s noble intentions and the deep Christian spirit of the nation. In 1400 the University of Cracow was restored with the addition of a Faculty of Theology, at the explicit wish of the queen, who had died the previous year in a reputation for holiness.

Ladislaus was succeeded by his ten-year-old son, Ladislaus surnamed the Posthumous (1434–44), under the guardianship of the great bishop of Cracow, Zbigniew Oleśnicki. Oleśnicki was a declared enemy of the Hussites (for which reason the Bohemian crown was refused by Ladislaus Jagiellon in 1420 and by the Posthumous in 1437) and devised a crusade against the Turks in the Balkans. When Ladislaus the Posthumous accepted the Hungarian crown in 1440, the struggle against the Turks began; after some initial successes, it ended in the tragic battle of Varna, where the twenty-year-old king and the core of the Polish and Hungarian armies perished. Casimir, Ladislaus’s brother, then ascended the throne. During his long reign (1444–92) he pursued a policy of opposition to the magnates in favor of the lesser and middle nobility; thus at the Diet of Nieszawa (1454) it was decreed that every law must be approved by the local diets, the “sejmiki,” which by natural evolution progressed to form a first general Diet, the “sejm walny,” or Parliament.

Casimir waged a thirteen-year war against the Teutonic Order (1454–66), which ended with the Peace of Thorn, by which the Grand Master became a vassal of Poland, which in turn recovered Pomerania with Danzig, Culm Land, Miechów, Warmia, and the region of Marienburg. Casimir’s son later also obtained the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary.

Casimir was succeeded by his three sons: John Albert (1492–1501), Alexander (1501–1506), and Sigismund I the Old (1506–48), elected kings of Poland and hereditary grand dukes of Lithuania. The dynasty ended with Sigismund Augustus (1548–72), son of Sigismund I. The constitution “Nihil novi” (1505), signed by Alexander, confirmed all the privileges of the nobility and definitively established the principle that no law or military measure could be enacted without the consent of the Diet (Sejm), composed of the king, the Senate (the king’s council), and the Chamber of Deputies elected by the sejmiki.

Under Sigismund the Old there was war with the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which sought an alliance with the Empire. To counter this threat the king consented to the engagement of his nephews, kings of Bohemia and Hungary, with the Habsburgs. During this period the Teutonic Order underwent reform, but Sigismund was unable or unwilling to take advantage of the favorable opportunity to occupy Prussia. The Muscovite threat induced Livonia to place itself under Sigismund’s protection (Treaty of Wilno, 1561). The Union of Lublin (1569) definitively established the union between Poles and Lithuanians, creating the “Rzeczpospolita”: a true community of peoples (Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenians) with full equality of rights and duties, governed by a common Polish-Lithuanian diet; it was also stipulated that future kings should be elected by the nobility.

Under the Jagiellonians, Poland reached its zenith in all fields. Especially remarkable was the splendid flowering of science, art, and literature, which made the Polish sixteenth century the “golden age” of national culture. After overcoming Hussite influences, the Church in Poland produced a new host of saints, such as St. John Cantius, Bl. Ladislaus of Gielniów, Bl. Simon of Lipnica, St. Casimir, son of King Casimir Jagiellon, and others. The Church, however, proved unprepared after 1518, when Lutheran ideas reached Poland. Soon various sects began to proliferate, including Socinianism, and much of the nobility adhered to Calvinism; demands were even made for the establishment of a national Polish church with the king at its head. Lutheranism found particular favor in the towns. The credit for saving Poland belongs essentially to Stanislaus Hosius (IV. 1504–79), who was aided by the nuncio Commendone and the best elements of the Polish clergy, among whom Karnkowski, Herburt, and Solikowski stood out. In 1564 the king accepted the decrees and reforms of the Council of Trent, brought to him by Hosius, who the following year invited the Jesuits into the kingdom. Thus the Catholic cause in Poland was saved.

The Age of the Elective Kings (1572–1795).—With the extinction of the Jagiellonian house, Poland adopted certain constitutional norms for the election of new kings, by which, during a vacancy, the first authority of the state (interrex) was the archbishop of Gniezno, to whom the Council of Constance had granted the primatial title; and it was decided that the nobility (viritim) should have the right to choose the new sovereign. Warsaw was designated as the place of election (the capital having been transferred from Cracow to Warsaw in 1596). The first elected king was Henry of Valois (1573–74), who, like his successors, had to swear the “pacta conventa,” which fixed the limits of royal power.

After Henry’s brief reign, Stephen Báthory (1575–86), described as the greatest of Polish kings, ascended the throne of Cracow. Báthory pursued a far-sighted and steadfast policy, aided by the excellent Polish statesman Jan Zamoyski. The king carried out internal reforms and gave full support to Catholicism, which, thanks especially to the efforts of the Jesuits, definitively overcame Protestantism. In 1578 the king transformed the Jesuit College of Wilno into an academy. He waged a victorious war against Moscow (1579–81) and died while preparing an expedition against the Turks.

Subsequently, the throne passed to the Vasa dynasty with Sigismund III (1587–1632) and his two sons: Władysław IV (1632–48) and John Casimir (1648–68). During this period, despite the exploits of the Polish people, the signs of the incipient state disintegration became more severe. Sigismund, a good Catholic, wishing to strengthen his power, provoked the Zebrzydowski rebellion (1606). In his attempt to occupy the Swedish throne, he brought upon Poland the sterile war with that power. Victorious in the war with Moscow, which was occupied by his army, he failed to exploit the success. In 1596 at Brest-Litovsk, the union of the separated Polish Church with Rome was effected, of which the Polish Jesuit Piotr Skarga (1536–1612) was a promoter; however, there were notable victims, such as St. John of Kęty, Archbishop of Polotsk (d. 1623), and the Jesuit St. Andrew Bobola (d. 1657). Władysław, more prudent than his father, managed to conclude peace with Turkey and Sweden. He dreamed of conquering the shores of the Black Sea, but the nobility did not support him. In the year of his death, he witnessed the sudden outbreak of the Cossack rebellion under the leadership of Chmielnicki. The reign of John Casimir was tragically stormy: assailed on all sides (Cossacks, Moscow), with the territory occupied by the Swedes, the king sought refuge in Silesia; yet he managed to overcome adverse fate. In 1660, peace was concluded at Oliva with Sweden (emancipation of Prussia), and in 1667 at Andrusovo with Moscow (Ukraine to the left of the Dnieper passed under the dominion of the Tsar). Under John Casimir, the so-called liberum veto was exercised for the first time (1652), that is, the breaking off of parliamentary debate due to the opposition of even a single deputy.

After the abdication of John Casimir, the nobility elected two "Piast" kings, that is, Polish kings: Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki (1669–73) and John III Sobieski (1674–1696), the hero of the great victories at Vienna and at Parkány in Hungary (1683), which contributed to delivering a mortal blow to Turkish power. After him, foreigners began to dominate. Indeed, the last Polish kings, Augustus II of Saxony (1696–1733), his son Augustus III (1733–63), and finally Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (1764–95), were placed on the throne with the intervention of other European powers.

During this period, Poland reached the nadir of its decline. After the Battle of Poltava (1709), in the face of the unchallenged dominance of Russia and the intrigues of Prussia, the Bar Confederation (1768) sought to resist, a religious-national alliance animated by the Carmelite Marek Jandłowicz. Russia, Prussia, and later Austria responded with the first partition of Poland (1772). And when, in the Four-Year Diet (1788–1792), the renewed Polish ruling class drafted the famous Constitution of May 3 (1791), judged by Herzberg, minister of Frederick William of Prussia, to be better than the English one, Russia and Prussia again opposed it and carried out the second partition (1793). Finally, when the exasperated nation rose up under Kościuszko (1794), appealing to the peasant masses, Russia, Prussia, and Austria sought to erase Poland definitively from the political map of Europe with the third partition (1795).

Century of servitude (1795–1918). — In the twenty-year period from 1795 to 1815, the Poles looked with confidence to revolutionary France and then to Napoleon. But he did not fully satisfy their national aspirations. The Peace of Tilsit created only a substitute for the ancient kingdom in the Duchy of Warsaw, formed from territories taken from Prussia and later expanded (1809) with some Polish regions wrested from Austria. This state lasted until the fall of the emperor. From the Congress of Vienna (1815) to the First World War, the Polish geopolitical framework remained substantially unchanged, with the exception only of the annexation of the Free City of Cracow by Austria in 1846 and the two anti-Russian uprisings. The Poles lived incorporated within the borders of the three neighboring powers under differing political conditions.

The part subjected to Austria, called "Galicia," after an initial process of intense Germanization and subtle divisions within society (peasants incited against the nobility, "Galician slaughter," 1846), enjoyed, after 1866, a certain autonomy, becoming, with its cities of Cracow and Lviv and their universities, the driving center of the nation's cultural life. The Prussian part, known as the "Grand Duchy of Posen," experienced the fluctuations of Prussian policy, openly contested by only one armed uprising led by Mierosławski (1848), and after 1840 became the scene of the most ruthless Germanization, intensified under Bismarck. In the Russian part, the largest of all, Lithuania, Poland, Podolia, with Ukraine, remained under Russian control, while the rest formed the Kingdom of Poland (often called the "Congress Kingdom") with its own parliament and army, united to the Russian imperial crown. It was precisely here that the two successive uprisings (1830–31 and 1863–1864) brought profound changes. After 1831, the Statute of the Kingdom disappeared, and after 1864, the remnants of limited autonomy also ceased to exist. Yet precisely in these desolate conditions, the Polish nation demonstrated a surprising vitality. The Church and clergy were inspirers and animators of its resistance. When Prussia attempted to transfer the primatial see of Gniezno, uniting it personally with the diocese of Poznań (elevated to archiepiscopal dignity in 1821 for this purpose), the clergy opposed it with extreme resolve. During the period of the Kulturkampf, Archbishop Ledóchowski distinguished himself, later to become a cardinal of Propaganda Fide (d. 1902). Similarly, in Austrian territory, Catholic initiatives flourished, intended to rally the people around their clergy in a courageous resistance against the intensified Josephinism of the Habsburgs. The journal *Przegląd powszechny* was founded, still in existence today; the faculties of theology in Cracow and Lviv grew in prestige and authority. Russia attempted to separate the Polish Greek-Catholic Church from the Catholic Church, but found itself facing resolute resistance, of which the Basilians were the animators. The government showed a certain tolerance toward Catholics until the first revolution, after which the situation worsened and became tragic after 1863. Archbishop Feliński of Warsaw was deported, and other bishops, such as Krasiński, Popiel, and Lubieński, suffered the same fate. Religious congregations were suppressed, and the ecclesiastical academy of Warsaw was transferred to St. Petersburg in 1867. All these persecutions failed to shatter the religious unity of Poland. The exiles, supported by the great poet Mickiewicz, gave life to the new religious order of the Resurrectionists, which took upon itself the task of keeping the religious consciousness of their compatriots alive. In this sense, the Capuchins also worked in the territory of the "Congress Kingdom," carrying out intense grassroots penetration.

Period from Independence (from 1918 onwards). — The outcome of the First World War enabled Poland to regain its independence. Before and during the conflict, prominent figures such as Dmowski and Piłsudski had fought for this goal. The Central Powers, weakened, sought to win Polish sympathies by creating on 5 November 1916 the Kingdom of Poland, with a Regency Council composed of the Archbishop of Warsaw, Monsignor Kakowski, and the princes Lubomirski and Ostrowski. The Soviet Russian government also declared itself in favour of Polish independence (1917), which was made effective with the collapse of the Central Empires in 1918. The Treaty of Versailles established Poland’s western frontiers, which were later adjusted by the uprisings and plebiscite in Silesia, though these did not secure the country’s desired access to the Baltic. The eastern frontiers were determined by the war with Russia (1918–20), which ended in Polish victory in 1920, sealed by the Treaty of Riga (1921). The eastern frontiers were subsequently recognized by the Western powers in 1923. The early life of the Polish Republic was not easy, but in a short time the most serious wounds of war were healed. In 1921, the first Constitution of the new Poland was adopted. The year 1924 saw the great monetary reform. In May 1926, Piłsudski took power through a coup d’état. The second Constitution was drafted in 1935.

There was also great fervour in the religious revival: in 1920 a Catholic university was founded in Lublin, and in 1925 a concordat was concluded with the Holy See. The architects of this awakening, under the guidance of the Visitor and later first Apostolic Nuncio, Achille Ratti (v. PIO XI, PAPA), were the leading figures of the Polish episcopate, from Biliński, Latin-rite Archbishop of Lviv, to Monsignor Teodorowicz, Armenian-rite Archbishop of the same city, and Cardinals Hlond, Primate of Poland, and Sapieha, Archbishop of Kraków.

The outbreak of the Second World War found Poland united and cohesive. Attacked on 19 September 1939 by Germany and struck from behind by the USSR, Poland fell. Millions of citizens perished in German concentration camps, while hundreds of thousands more were deported by the Russians. The supreme page of glory was written in the tragic Warsaw Uprising of 1944. It is therefore no surprise that at Yalta and Tehran, in yet another attempt to partition Poland, the nation responded with a solemn protest.

III. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION

IV. LEGAL STATUS OF THE CHURCH IN POLAND. The legal status of the Church in Poland is characterized by two significant facts: the denunciation of the Concordat by the provisional government in 1945 and the so-called *agreement* with the episcopate in 1950.

The Concordat with Poland (AAS, 17 [1925], pp. 273 ff.) dated from 1925 (signed on 10 February, entered into force on 2 April) and ensured the Church broad freedom of action within its sphere of competence, regulating, among other matters, issues of particular national interest, such as ecclesiastical circumscriptions for the various rites (art. 9), the question of Church property (art. 24), and the State’s economic provision for the clergy and ecclesiastical institutions, set out in a separate annex. The denunciation followed a decision of the Council of Ministers on 12 September 1945, alleging violations by the Holy See, including the appointment of an Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Chełmno in the person of the Bishop of Gdańsk and an Administrator (not Archbishop) of Gniezno and Poznań in the person of the German Breitinger for the German inhabitants of the dioceses of Gniezno and Poznań—practices that are common in concordatory practice, especially in fluid situations such as Poland in 1939–44.

At present, as far as can be ascertained, the Church’s status is governed by an *agreement* signed on 14 April 1950 by a joint commission of government representatives and the episcopate. In reality, this is neither a true agreement nor a *modus vivendi*, still less a concordat. It is well known, in fact, that in the Church’s constant practice and law, defining relations between hierarchy and State within a nation falls under the *causae maiores*, which are the exclusive competence of the Roman Pontiff in virtue of the primacy he exercises over the entire Church.

The Polish bishops, in designating the document they signed, used the term *common declaration*, which is perhaps the most appropriate.

It consists of 19 articles, some of which—specifically articles 10 (religious practices for pupils outside schools), 17 (religious assistance in prisons), and 18 (religious assistance in hospitals)—have explanatory annexes. A Protocol is appended, containing 4 articles, with two explanatory and supplementary annexes to articles 1 and 2.

The first nine articles contain the government's demands. They are couched in harsh terms (there is even talk of *ragion di Stato*, art. 5) and attempt to compromise the Church with political (arts. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8) and territorial commitments (arts. 3 and 4), alien to its mission and tendentious in their formulation.

The remaining ten represent the episcopate's demands, all and exclusively directed to the good of souls (saving what could be saved regarding religious instruction in schools, Catholic associations, works of charity and beneficence, Catholic press and publications, public worship, religious assistance to the army, in prisons and hospitals, and freedom of action for religious Orders and Congregations).

The appended Protocol contains provisions relating to the transformation of *Caritas* into an association for aiding the indigent, possible economic aid from the government to the clergy and religious institutions, and military service for seminarians and priests and religious after their vows. Pietro Palazzini

V. LITERATURE

In the 14th century, Polish student migrations to the University of Padua intensified; in 1364 King Casimir founded the Studium Generale in Cracow, which became an important cultural center. Among its pupils was Johannes Długosz (Longinus), author of the monumental *Historia Polonica*. The introduction of Humanism into Poland occurred not only through students returning from Italy, but particularly through the work of Filippo Buonaccorsi (Callimachus Experiens), a humanist at the court of Cracow; while the taste for Italian art was brought by a legion of Italian artists in the retinue of Queen Bona Sforza.

2. *The Golden Century*. — The magnificent flowering of literature in the 16th century harmoniously reflects in a dual Latin and Polish expression a single spirit. The influence of Humanism merges with the awareness that the nation takes of itself at the moment of its greatest prosperity. Of classical elegance are the Latin poems of Krzycki (Cricius), Dantyszek (Dantiscus), Hussowski (Hussovianus), and Clemens Janicki (Ianicius), crowned with the laurel of poets. Janicki studied at the University of Padua, and among his works is remembered a fine *Ode to Italy*. Polish poetry reaches its greatest heights with Jan Kochanowski ([v.] 1530–84): *Piesni* («Songs»), *Fraszki* («Trifles»), various poems, of which *Proporzec* («The Standard») is the finest, as well as some dramatic works. A perfect Hellenist, he drew inspiration from antiquity in *The Rejection of the Greek Ambassadors*, from the people in *Song of St. John at Sobótka* (a traditional festival), and from his paternal grief in the subject of his masterpiece,