Cracoviana z połowy XV wieku w Archiwum Watykańskim

Abstract

In the Vatican Archives there are numerous sets of records including materials concerning Polish matters. One of the largest series is Registra Supplicationum including documents from the years 1342-1899. These documents include requests - supplications sent from Poland to the Roman Curia, also from the Kraków area, during the pontificate of the following popes: Nicholas V, Calixt III and Pius II in the years 1447-1464. A short review of these supplications gives one an insight, from particular examples, into their character. The greatest number of supplications came from clerics and mainly concerned commissions or granting or bestowing church positions which were vacant or about to become vacant. Other Kraków groups also appealed to the Pope, i.e. Studium Generale as an institution, its authorities represented by the rector and student clerics. Priests also sent requests to Rome referring to their personal problems, conscience dilemmas which had been troubling them for several years and requests for absolution. There were also supplications from lay people, e.g. for permission to choose a confessor with the right to absolve in cases reserved for the Holy See and in articulo mortis, for a licence to visit the Holy Grave and other overseas places, for the acceptance of a donation to the church or for a change of an arbiter in a contentious issue. Supplications referred to a wide range of matters relating to clerical and lay people, their careers, matters of conscience and material problems.