Istorijos šaltinių tyrimai / Studies in Historical Sources

On 3 December 1522, the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund the Old issued a charter whereby he confirmed all donations and emoluments granted by his predecessors, by magnates, boyars, and townspeople to the Franciscans of Vilnius established there in about 1387. The documents were brought to the royal attention by prior George of Cracow who asserted that he managed to collect only 54 ones, while the rest must have perished due to the lack of care on the part of his own predecessors. Fortunately, the prior was not right as no less than 27 additional documents did survive to this day. The analysis of all of them (81) allowed us to break down the patrons into such groups as grand dukes 4 (4.9%), magnates 15 (18.5%), boyars 55 (67.9%), and townspeople 7 (8.6%). It was then possible to establish what kind of relations and by what families were maintained between lay people and friars. It has turned out that grand dukes and magnates provided only grants and did this up to the mid-15th century, while townspeople and boyars displayed a more variegated pattern of relations ranging from grants to sales for real price to sales below the real value. The most intense relations between the friars and the boyars started sometime in the mid-15th century, and this correlates well with the advancement of boyars as founders and patrons of churches and undertakers of other charitable activities. The charter of 1522 contains information relevant to the establishment of the mother-house of the Lithuanian Franciscans and its subsequent rise to prominence. It also displays data valuable in terms of historical geography and persons involved. The reason for the making of this charter is to be viewed in the attempts of the Franciscans to safeguard their holdings around the manor of Kena and inside Vilnius by having them declared to be exempt from secular authorities and placed under the regime of ecclesiastical immunity. This concern was timely enough as the movement of Protestant Reformation was gathering pace in German lands and was already felt in this part of Europe as well. Appendix 1 contains a critical edition of this hitherto unpublished charter. Its original is kept in Cracow, at Biblioteka Naukowa PAU i PAN – Ms. 481.