Dobrowska Foundation
Dobrowska Foundation, also known as the Dobrowszczyzna, was an anonymous or undocumented[1] grant of part of private landed estates in Greater Poland to the Cistercian Order and its missionary efforts among the pagan Prussians.
The name of the foundation comes from the village of Dobrów in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, Koło County, Gmina Kościelec, near the confluence of the Ner river with the Warta.
[5] In the latest studies, the prevailing opinion accepts his connection to this foundation and assumes that he held the Gniezno capital in the 1180s but is a different person from Archbishop Piotr.
The Cistercians in Lesser Poland originated from Morimond in Burgundy (now in Champagne), and until the late Middle Ages, they were mainly French and Italian.
[7] The monasteries constituted an element of the feudalization of political life in Polish territories, with the importance of convents growing based on increasingly large land grants.
[8] With the strengthening of Christianity in Polish territories, the issue of evangelizing the pagan peoples inhabiting the lands to the east and northeast of Poland arose, namely the Lithuanians, Yotvingians, and Prussians.
On the one hand, it was about territorial expansion and defense of one's own lands, which were the target of raiding expeditions by neighbors, which was the responsibility of local rulers (such as the Masovian dukes).
In a privilege issued on 29 June 1232, by Duke Władysław Odonic for the benefit of the abbot of Sulejów,[11] Bogufał (Boguchwał), there is a testimony from Bishop Christian of Prussia confirming that the church in Dobrów, along with all its endowment (including Leszno, Rzuchów, Szadów, and Kwiatków with their tithe income, fisheries, and also tithes from these and fourteen other villages), was endowed by Archbishop Bogumilus for disposal, according to the will of the general chapter of the Cistercian Order.
[11] In the document under discussion, Bishop Christian, in the presence of Duke Władysław, Archbishop Pełka, and nine witnesses, conveyed the aforementioned foundation into the hands of the abbot of the Cistercians from Sulejów, still with the reservation of the ultimate authority of the general chapter, with legal force after his own death.
Presumably, the Cistercians from Byszew were afraid of a dispute with the powerful Sulejów abbey[12] (by leaving Szpetal, they resigned from their missionary function in Prussia, and thus formally lost the right to use the foundation).
The fact that Sławęta's claims were not groundless is evidenced by the Archbishop Świnka partially relinquishing Dobrów (up to the Warta river) and Szadów, as well as tithes from five villages.
Some researchers argue[18] that the right of proximity in the case of Sławęta from Janiszew (which was recognized both by Archbishop Jakub Świnka and Duke Władysław Łokietek) seems to speak in favor of Bogumilus, the 12th-century founder.
[16] Tadeusz Wojciechowski, who supports the 11th-century version of Bogumilus, speculated that a part of the narrative in Odonic's document from 1232 contains, alongside credible and verifiable data, invented or rather unwittingly false information.
[16] Adding that the character of the miracles attributed to him indicates an 11th-century origin of the legend of St. Bogumilus, Wojciechowski insisted on his version of the archbishop's life, attributing the foundation to the ancestors of Władysław Odonic: All the liberties that my ancestors, the memorable dukes of Poland – Mieszko, my grandfather, Władysław, my uncle, and Odon, my father, granted to the church in Dobrów, including all its possessions and inhabitants, I hereby renew and confirm (document from 1232).
He argued that the church (not a monastery or hermitage) was founded by Odonic's ancestors, while the foundation (i.e., the goods and tithes for the mission in Prussia) was the work of Bogumilus Piotr.
This is evidenced by the establishment of the Cistercian mission at Hospitale sancti Gothardi (later Szpetal) by the magnate from Kujawy, Bogusza Miecławic of the Doliwa family, on the right bank of the Vistula, opposite Włocławek, which, however, ended in failure.
The emergence (after 1226) of a strong competitor in the form of the Teutonic Order led to the swift abandonment of the mission, and thus the key to Dobrowszczyzna once again came under the jurisdiction of the general chapter of the Cistercians.
[32] The final act closing the Dobrowszczyzna case was the aforementioned document signed by Władysław Łokietek in 1299, approving the division of the assets between Sławęta from Janiszew and Bishop Świnka representing the Gniezno metropolis before the princely court.
Its decline and the return of assets to private hands practically severed the connection between Dobrowszczyzna and the mission of spreading Christianity among the Prussians.
[33] Jadwiga Żylińska's attempt to explain the mystery of the Dobrowska Foundation and Archbishop Bogumilus is not scholarly but literary in nature, as presented in the novel The Golden Spear (Polish: Złota włócznia).
