Polish Inquisition
The Polish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical institution established in the 13th century to combat heretics. Permanent structures of the inquisition in Polish territories were established in the first half of the 14th century and always played a subordinate role to episcopal tribunals, which were already combating heretics in Poland in the mid-13th century. The final end of the existence of inquisitorial tribunals came with the Reformation and the victory of the idea of religious tolerance in Poland in the second half of the 16th century.
Geographically, the jurisdiction of Polish inquisitors included territories within the and Prussia, but did not include Western Pomerania, which, according to the bull of Boniface IX from 1399, was under the jurisdiction of inquisitors from the German province of Saxony. Meanwhile, Red Ruthenia, although it belonged to the Polish state from 1340, until the mid-15th century formed a separate unit within the territorial structures of the papal inquisition.
History of the inquisition in Polish lands
Anti-heretical repressions in Poland until 1318
In Poland in the 12th and 13th centuries, there were no recorded instances of the mass heretical movements present in the West and South of the continent. Only in 1261 did the flagellants, a non-orthodox penitential movement, reach Polish lands. As can be inferred from chronicle references, the Church pacified this movement without triggering a larger-scale repression apparatus. Archbishop of Gniezno, Janusz Tarnowa, forbade the flagellants' processions under penalty of excommunication and imprisonment, and these regulations were approved by secular authorities. Most likely, the vast majority of flagellants complied with these prohibitions.It was only at the beginning of the 14th century that the Waldensian movement began to penetrate Silesia. A Waldensian community was discovered in 1315 in Świdnica. Bishop of Wrocław, Henryk of Wierzbna, ordered a large-scale repressive action. He appointed his auxiliary bishop as the chairman of the tribunal. As a result of the action, a large number of individuals suspected of belonging to this group were captured in Wrocław, Świdnica, and Nysa. Around 50 people were burned at the stake, and many others had to flee. At the same time, repression against the Waldensians also took place in Austria and Bohemia.
The persecution of the Waldensians in Silesia in 1315 was the work of the bishop's tribunal, not the papal inquisition, which did not exist in Polish lands at that time. However, these events may have influenced Pope John XXII's decision to appoint papal inquisitors for Polish dioceses.
14th century (since 1318)
On 1 May 1318, Pope John XXII appointed the Dominican Peregrine of Opole and the Franciscan Mikołaj Hospodyniec as inquisitors for the dioceses of Wrocław and Kraków. Nine years later, in April 1327, John XXII issued further regulations, granting the Polish provincial superior of the Dominicans the authority to appoint inquisitors throughout the entire Polish province, and called on the Polish king and episcopate to support the inquisitors. This regulation, confirmed by Pope Eugene IV in 1432, became the basis for the functioning of the papal inquisition office in Poland. Both inquisitors appointed in 1318 either resigned or were dismissed from office, and from then until the time of the Reformation, this office was held exclusively by Dominicans.The papal regulations from 1318 to 1327 probably had a preventive character and were not associated with an increase in heretical activity in Polish lands. The persecution of the Waldensians in Silesia by the episcopal courts in 1315 was most likely effective and did not require support from the papal inquisition. This is also evidenced by the fact that the Dominican provincial did not rush to appoint new inquisitors in place of Peregrine of Opole and Mikołaj Hospodyniec. The new inquisitor for Kraków was appointed no earlier than 1328, and for Wrocław in 1330. In the 1330s, inquisitors were also appointed for Greater Poland, which was not under the jurisdiction of the inquisitors appointed in 1318, as well as for the Teutonic Order state, as Prussia belonged to the Polish Dominican province.
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". A few years later, this inquisitor became involved in a conflict between Bishop of Wrocław Nanker and the Wrocław city council on the side of the former, which ended in his murder in 1341. In 1349, another wave of flagellants passed through Polish lands, condemned by Pope Clement VI. Their leader in the Wrocław diocese was burned at the stake on the orders of Bishop Przecław of Pogorzela. Around 1380, houses of Beguines and Beghards were confiscated in Silesia, and in 1398, a supporter of John Wycliffe's teachings was burned in Wrocław.
There is almost no information about inquisition trials in the Kingdom of Poland in the 14th century. Although the 16th-century historian Matthias Flacius claimed that around 1330, Poland, together with Bohemia, was the scene of a major inquisition action against the Waldensians, a more detailed analysis of Flacius's text and his sources has questioned this view. The German inquisitor Peter Zwicker noted around 1395 that one of the countries untouched by Waldensian teachings was the Kingdom of Kraków.
15th century
The activities of Wycliffe and Jan Hus caused unrest in academic circles in Europe, including Kraków. 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.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. Resolutions of the provincial synod in 1420 condemned Hussites and mandated faithful to denounce all suspects to the inquisitors, and in subsequent years, reminders of these resolutions were regularly given in sermons and resolutions of subsequent synods. On 9 April 1424, King Władysław Jagiełło issued the so-called Edict of Wieluń, declaring the confession of Hussites a crime against majesty. In 1436, 1454, and 1463, papal inquisitors received royal privileges requiring all subjects to assist them in combating heresy.
Inquisitors Mikołaj of Łęczyca and Jakub Grzymała participated in trials of suspected Hussites in the Poznań and Płock dioceses, for example, from 1439 to 1443, Mikołaj of Łęczyca interrogated Hussites from Zbąszyń, the main center of this faith in Greater Poland. The protector of Hussites in this region was nobleman , who eventually reconciled with the church shortly before his death. Generally, however, anti-heretical activity in the Kingdom of Poland was predominantly carried out by episcopal courts, while the role of papal inquisitors was at best auxiliary. Of the nearly 200 cases of heresy recorded in sources in 15th-century Poland, almost all were adjudicated by episcopal courts, although sometimes the inquisitor also participated in the questioning of witnesses and suspects. Only in five cases was a verdict issued jointly by the inquisitor and the bishop, acting together as co-judges. Only a dozen or so verdicts were issued by inquisitors without the participation of the bishop. 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,, who personally interrogated many suspects and issued or approved verdicts.
Next to Andrzej Bniński, Bishop of Kraków Zbigniew Oleśnicki is considered the main "persecutor" of Polish Hussites. He served as regent of the Kingdom of Poland after the death of Władysław Jagiełło in 1434, pursuing a radically anti-Czech and anti-Hussite policy. Part of the nobility led by Spytko III of Melsztyn opposed his rule and sympathized with Hussites. However, when in 1439 they formed a and revolted against Oleśnicki, they were defeated in the Battle of Grotniki. Less is known about Oleśnicki's inquisitorial activity against Hussites because the records of the Kraków episcopal court before 1466 have not survived.
The subordinate role of inquisitors in combating heresy, as deduced from surviving procedural records, is indirectly confirmed by the fact that for many serving in the 15th and early 16th centuries, being an inquisitor was only an additional function. They were dedicated to studies or held various administrative positions in the order, serving as priors of monasteries, and sometimes even as provincial superiors. When in 1465 the Polish provincial chapter, under pressure from the order's authorities, passed a ban on combining the offices of prior and inquisitor, it turned out that this issue affected four inquisitors then in office: Jakub Grzymała, prior of Płock, Grzegorz Hejncze, prior of Wrocław, Wincenty Wierzbięta, prior of Poznań, and Mikołaj Grüneberg, prior of Toruń. Apparently, these resolutions were not consistently enforced. In 1478, Wojciech of Siecień obtained a dispensation from the order's general, Leonardo Mansueti, allowing him to combine the offices of Kraków inquisitor and provincial.
The last significant trials against Hussites in Poland took place in Kuyavia. In 1480, Bishop of Kuyavia Zbigniew Oleśnicki interrogated several people, of whom he found six guilty of heresy. In 1499, Bishop Krzesław Kurozwęcki sentenced clergyman Adam of Radziejów to death for refusing to renounce heresy.
The lack of church documentation seriously hinders the assessment of the activity of the inquisition 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. In the 1420s and 1430s, Silesia became a battleground between Catholics and Hussites. Many cases are recorded in the sources where individuals suspected of pro-Hussite sympathies were punished by secular authorities as traitors. However, it is difficult to determine the extent of the inquisition's involvement in these events. 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. Another significant legacy is the theological and preaching work of Jan of Ząbkowice, the inquisitor of Wrocław from 1429 to 1441, who died in 1446.
The dissolution of the Dominican missionary congregation Societas Fratrum Peregrinantium in 1456 resulted in the transfer of the inquisitorial tribunal in Ruthenia under the authority of the Polish provincial of the Dominicans.