Praga czy Kraków? Rozterki Jadwigi Andegaweńskiej związane z kształceniem litewskich teologów

Abstract

The author analyzes the sources and accounts of historiography relating to the two‑track actions of Queen Jadwiga Andegaweńska that aimed to open a faculty of theology in Kraków and to reactivate the college founded by Casimir the Great and, at the same time, to found a College for Lithuanians in Prague at the local university. An analysis of the circumstances attendant on the establishment of the Prague foundation in cooperation with the Czech King Vaclav IV suggests that this decision, although noble, was damaging for the idea of a renewal of the university in Kraków. However, Jadwiga’s abandonment of further financing of the Lithuanian College and then the Queen’s death contributed to the implementation of the idea by King Władysław Jagiełło in 1400. The Queen Jadwiga College in Prague was not, however, in practice, in accordance with her intentions, designated for Lithuanians but mainly served Czechs; nonetheless, from Długosz’s time to today, the myth is current of its supposedly considerable influence on the education and Christianization of the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.