The emergence of the Hussite movement in neighboring Bohemia exposed the Polish kingdom to the penetration of dissident ideas, which found some adherents, mostly among priests and nobles. After the condemnation of Jan Hus at Constance Polish kings and the Roman clergy took various steps to prevent the inflow of Hussite doctrine and started the persecution of its Polish followers. Polish adherents of the Bohemia Reformation were treated as suspects of heresy and interrogated by bishops and papal inquisitors. All legal proceedings in causa fidei conducted by bishops, from denunciation to sentence, were recorded in their courtbooks, which remain the best source for any research on religious dissent and repression of heresy in late medieval Poland.
Paweł Kras, Professor of Medieval History. Author of Husittes in fifteenth century Poland (1998) and Ad abolendam diversarum haeresium pravitatem. The system of inquisition in medieval Europe (2006); coauthor of The papal inquisition in East Central Europe (2010), Religious space of East Central Europe in the Middle Ages (2010), editor of Latin-Polish source collection Religious movements in medieval Poland (forthcoming).
