Career, social background and education of the episcopate in the Lvov (until 1412 - the Halicz) archdiocese in the first half of the 15th century

The author of the article tries to characterize the episcopate of the Halicz archdiocese which was subsequently transformed into the Lvov archdiocese, at the time when the capital had been transferred from Halicz to Lvov. The author focuses particularly on the church and lay careers of the members of the episcopate – before they were promoted to the post of bishop, presenting their social background and educational status. The results of the author’s findings seem to point out that the analysed church dignitaries did not belong to the most important bishops in the Polish-Lithuanian state in the first half of the 15th c. The majority were much more inferior compared to the Gniezno ordinaries. In point of fact, it was only the metropolitan bishop of Przemyśl and the bishop of Chełm Jan Biskupiec who played a more significant role at the king’s court. In the period under discussion, the bishoprics which the majority of the bishops took over were rather poorly endowed; they were often devoid of cathedrals and the chapter houses either did not exist, or else existed in a very rudimentary condition. Hence, some of the bishops in fact did not reside in their own dioceses and only acted as suffragan bishops side by side the ordinaries of the oldest Polish cathedrals. Before attaining the bishoprics, many of the bishops had been members of different orders and were but rarely heads of cathedral chapter houses. With the exception of the Lvov (Halicz) metropolitans and the Przemyśl bishops, before being consecrated the majority of the bishops did not possess any significant benefices or else did not possess them at all. Not more than 43% of the bishops were of noble origin. In turn, only about 30% of the bishops had a university education. Moreover, none of the above-mentioned were promoted to another bishopric once they had obtained their cathedral. The only exception here was the archbishop of Halicz Mikołaj Trąba who was transferred to Gniezno and in this way became the head of the Church in Poland.