Polish Inquisition
Meanwhile, Red Ruthenia, although it belonged to the Polish state from 1340 (with a brief interruption during the reign of Louis I of Hungary), until the mid-15th century formed a separate unit within the territorial structures of the papal inquisition.
[11] Despite the papal inquisition's jurisdiction over all Polish lands, almost all specific information about its activities in the 14th century comes from Silesia, which politically was not part of Poland from 1327 onwards but a fief of the Czechs.
In 1332, the Wrocław-Lubusz inquisitor Jan Schwenkenfeld conducted a trial against 16 Beguines from Świdnica, suspected of adhering to the so-called "Brethren of the Free Spirit".
Kraków's inquisitor, Piotr, attempted to counter the spread of "suspect" ideas and, in 1408, obtained an edict from King Władysław II Jagiełło obligating secular authorities to cooperate with the inquisition.
In 1413, Jerome of Prague, a close associate of Jan Hus, nearly fell into the hands of Inquisitor Piotr while in Poland but was warned in time and fled to Lithuania.
[20] After the Council of Constance, where Jan Hus was burned at the stake in 1415 and Jerome of Prague in 1416, the Polish episcopate took steps against the spread of their ideas in Poland and sought royal support in this regard.
Even the trials of Hussites from Zbąszyń in the 1440s, in which Inquisitor Mikołaj of Łęczyca played an active role, were initiated by the Bishop of Poznań, Andrzej Bniński [pl], who personally interrogated many suspects and issued or approved verdicts.
[27] The lack of church documentation seriously hinders the assessment of the activity of the inquisition (both papal and episcopal) in the 15th century in Silesia, which belonged to Bohemia at that time.
In 1420, a Prague burgher named Jan Krasa was executed in Wrocław for confessing Hussites, but the sentence was issued by the papal legate Fernando de Palacios and the Czech-German king Sigismund of Luxembourg, who were present in the city at that time.
One of the few sources mentions that may refer to the activity of the Silesian inquisition in the 15th century is the information from Zygmunt Rosicz's chronicle about the burning of Peter of Leśnica, an advocate of the local diocesan consistory, in Wrocław in 1437.
[40] Paweł Sarbin (d. 1563), the Poznań diocesan inquisitor, showed great determination in summoning Protestants before the court, but he did not achieve significant success in this field due to the resistance of the nobility and townspeople.
[39] The activity of the episcopal inquisition in the long run was unable to stop the spread of Reformation ideas due to the lack of support from secular authorities and the determined resistance of a significant part of the higher social strata.
[41] In 1552, Pope Julius III even instructed the Kraków inquisitor Jan from Kazimierz to initiate proceedings regarding the religious views of the primate at the time, Mikołaj Dzierzgowski, and the Bishop of Chełmno, Jakub Uchański.
[43] In the Dominican historiographical tradition, several monks are mentioned who were supposed to serve as inquisitors even during the reign of King Sigismund Augustus,[44] despite synodal and parliamentary resolutions.
[45] If this information is accurate (which is uncertain),[46] there is nothing to indicate that the titles of inquisitors were anything more than honorary distinctions for these monks, as actual heresy trials were conducted before diocesan courts.
Many pieces of information about alleged trials and executions of heretics in Polish lands from the beginning of the 14th to the mid-16th century were provided by Vincenzo Maria Fontana,[48] followed by the 19th-century Dominican historian Sadok Barącz.
[49] The apologetic nature of Fontana's work, whose main goal was to glorify the achievements of his own order in the fight against heresy, his very liberal treatment of sources (e.g., frequent "enrichment" of earlier authors' accounts), rich rhetorical style, and a high level of generality in most accounts, and above all, confrontation with contemporary sources, make most historians consider the descriptions of Polish inquisitors' actions contained in his work as unreliable.
His participation in the trials of ten suspects from the Zbąszyń area is noted, including two who had previously been absolved by him, Miklasz of Gniezno and Jakub of Wroniawy, who relapsed into heresy and were sentenced to imprisonment.
Shortly afterward, Piotr Kantor initiated proceedings against Canon Jan of Lganów of the Jelita coat of arms, who, however, evaded appearing.
[61] Another Kraków inquisitor, Jan Polak, conducted two trials against the Czech Henryk of Brzeg, the royal court astrologer, in the 1420s, accused of heretical magic.
This case quickly turned into a political dispute between supporters of the Teutonic Order's authority and its opponents, ultimately leading to the temporary expulsion of Dominicans from Toruń.
[64] The above, rather modest and probably far from complete tally of documented actions of the Papal Inquisition (about 40 proceedings, two confirmed executions) constitutes only a fraction of the actual anti-heretical activities in the Polish lands.
Although fragmentary preserved documentation confirms only five executions (four in Świdnica and one in Nysa), chronicle records indicate that the actual number of burned individuals amounted to around 50.
[71] Hardly any records of heresy trials from the Kraków diocese have survived, and there are many indications that it was an area of particularly intense activity of church courts against Hussites, especially during the rule of Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki (1423–1455).
However, it seems that the only execution took place in Kraków in 1539, where the townswoman Katarzyna Weiglowa was burned at the stake, accused of embracing Judaism and denying the dogma of the Holy Trinity.
[73] From 1453 to 1454, anti-Hussite and anti-Jewish sermons were preached in Wrocław and Kraków by the legate and apostolic commissioner John of Capistrano, who served as the general inquisitor in the Franciscan Order.
During his stay in Wrocław in 1453, 41 Jews accused of ritual murder and desecration of the Host were burned, although his direct involvement in these persecutions is not entirely clear.
[79] The following lists include all known and documented papal inquisitors operating in the territory of the Polish inquisitorial province, whose boundaries did not correspond to political borders.
They are arranged chronologically up to the year 1542, when the synod of Polish bishops decreed a ban on the activities of inquisitors who did not have episcopal mandate within the metropolitan sees of Gniezno and Lviv.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, this congregation was dissolved, and three years later, Ruthenian Dominican convents and the local inquisitorial tribunal returned to the Polish province:[108]
