Sigismund the Elder (Zygmunt I Stary, 1467-1548), king of Poland, willing to resolve permanent disputes, adjudicates that sermons and chants in the church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary be in Polish, while some few German sermons are to be delivered at St Barbara’s Church
At the end of the 14th century a heated dispute started over the patronage of St Mary’s Church, this then changed into the conflict over sermons given in Polish: after more than a hundred years claims were made that sermons in this most important capital church should be delivered in Polish. During one of the sessions of the Sejm, which took place in Krakow from November 1536 to March 1537, representatives of the gentry and burghers of Polish nationality demanded the monarch’s intervention in this matter. They referred to old documents which assured them that sermons in St Mary’s Church be delivered in Polish; another argument was that St Barbara’s Church, where sermons were preached in Polish, was too small to hold all the participants in the services. King Sigismund the Elder (Zygmunt I Stary, 1467-1548) complied with the request of the representatives and, at the consent of the senators, decided that the sermons and chants in St Mary’s church should be in Polish while German sermons should be preached in St Barbara’s Church.
1537, Krakow
Parchment, lesser crown seal
State Archive in Krakow, ref. no Perg. 532