DOI Artikel:
Crossley, Paul: "Bohemia Sacra" and "Polonia Sacra"
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20619#0066
calls the ‘first phase’61); the anointing of the king by the
archbishop (Gieysztoris ‘second phase’62), the present-
ing of the insignia (the ‘third phase’63) and the enthrone-
ment and homage (the ‘fourth phase’64). Front this uni-
versal seąuence Derwich singled out three prescriptions
in the ordinal as ‘local’ elements, directed to the par-
ticular sites and history of Cracow: the mitred abbots’
procession with holy oil, the pre-coronation pilgrimage
to the Skałka, and the coronation at the altar of St
Stanislaus. But at least two of these elements show such
close, almost verbatim, similarities with Charles IV’s Bo-
hemian ordinal that the Polish ordinal can be described
as ‘local’ only in the most derivative sense. It may apply
directives to a Cracowian context, but the directives them-
selves must be copies, almost literał copies, of the Czech
model65. They therefore deserve some closer inspection
in any analysis of the architectural and liturgical relations
between Cracow and Prague in the later Middle Ages.
Perhaps the most strikingly ‘Czech’ clirective concerns
the retrieval of the holy coronation oil, during the sec-
ond of Gieysztoris ‘phases’. After the Epistle, while the
choir are singing (choro cantate), two mitred abbots (duo
abbates mitratis) retrieve the holy oil (sacrum oleum)
from the chapel of St Katharine (to the north of the Lady
chapel), place it in a large chalice (m mag no calice
repositum) and carry it, under a baldachin (tentorio su-
per eos extentó) to the altar of St Stanislaus, where the
archbishop takes it in his own hands (de manibus eorum
reverenter) and uses it to anoint the king. Gieysztor
pointed to parałlels with the sacrecl ampulla at Reifns66,
but the whole ceremony reads like a precise echo of
the French-inspired retrieval of the holy oil from the
chapel of St Wenceslas as set out in Charles’s ordinal;
indeed, the almost word-for-word repetition of the rel-
evant passages from the Czech ordinal suggests the very
close debts of the Polish ordo to its Bohemian model67.
We cannot be certain if this ceremony was in force in
Cracow before the early 15th century, nor even that it
61 Ibidem, pp. 15-16.
62 Ibidem, pp. 16-18.
63 Ibidem, pp. 18-19-
64 Ibidem, pp. 19-20.
65 Derwich, op. cit., pp. 46-47.
66 Gieysztor, Spektakl i liturgia..., p. 16.
67 Ordo, p. 167. Compare, for example, the Polish ordinafs direc-
tives for the prelates to bring the king elect from the royal bedcham-
ber, with the Czech instructions: ‘in locum ubi thalamus sollempniter
est preparatus’ {Ordo, p. 162) and ‘in locum ubi thalamus est
sollempniter preparatus’ (C i b u 1 k a, op. cit., p. 77). Both ordinals also
show very similar wording for the oath-taking and acclamation. After
the king has sworn to protect the church, rule wisely and preserve the
faith, the archbishop solicits the acclamation of the congregation. The
Czech wording runs: ‘Tunc a circumstante clero et populo unanimiter
dicatur: Rady, Rady, Rady’, see Ci bulka, op. cit., p. 79- The Polish
version is: ‘Tunc a circumstante clero et populo dicatur: radzi, radzi,
radzi’, see Ordo, p. 164.
68 Derwich, op. cit., p. 49, who recognizes the Bohemian and
French parałlels. He doubts if this, along with the other ‘local’ pre-
scriptions in the ordinal, was ever enacted, though he gives no elear
was actuałly enacted, but the influence is clearly Bohe-
mian68.
Eąually close to the Bohemian ordinal is the second
‘local’ practice in Cracow: the pilgrimage to the monas-
tery of the Skałka. The 1434 ordinal is the first to men-
tion the penitential procession of the king and prelates
to the Skałka on the eve of the coronation69 *. On the Sat-
urday before the coronation on the following day, the
king elect is reąuired to visit the supposed site of St
Stanislaus’s martyrdom, the Pauline monastery on the
smali hill or rock - the Skałka - overlooking the Vistula.
The site, lying about a mile to the south of the Wawel
and the old town,was incorporated by Kasimir the Great
into his new town of Kazimierz, and the royal proces-
sion may well have passecl close to the king’s founda-
tion, the Austin Friars’ monastery of St Katharine’s, situ-
ated just to the east of the Skałka71’. The whole ceremony
viviclly recalls the Vysehrad pilgrimage of the Bohemian
kings, as set out in Charles’s ordinal, and in Pulkava’s
chronicie of c. 1373- Both pilgrimages initiate the king
elect into a new and higher State of consciousness; both
involve a penitential return to the site of national legend
and ancient sanctity, and in both the journey takes the
futurę king from a new pałace and a new cathedral to a
contrastingly ancient settlement on a hill outside the
boundaries of the city, a settlement which is incorpo-
rated into a royal new town. In both pilgrimages the
king returns - in some sense purified by this ritual com-
munion with the nation’s historical identity - to the pał-
ace and cathedral. The pilgrimages, in other words, com-
press sacred time into a symbolic journey71. But in Cra-
cow the ceremony centres, not around a mythical royal
ancestor, but around the patronal saint of the cathedral,
thus uniting morę closely than the Prague pilgrimage the
ritual on the eve of the coronation with that of the ac-
tual coronation itself, much of which is centred around
the person and ambience of St Stanislaus. Sceptics have
suggested that no kings of Poland actuałly performed
Teason for his scepticism, beyond the lack of contemporary corrobo-
rating evidence.
69 Ordo, p. 162: ‘Primo archiepiscopus Gneznensis cum prelatis,
principibus et baronibus associabunt principem in regem coronandum
in Scalcam et ibi adorantes redeunt cum eo ad ecclesiam Sancti
Wenczeslai in castro Cracoviensi vesperas audituri’.
70 For St Katherine’s monastery and church see C r o s s 1 e y, Gothic
Architecture..., pp. 149-155, 193-197; and M. Szyma, Nawa
południowa i kruchta kościoła Św. Katarzyny na Kazimierzu w
Krakowie. Zagadnienia chronologii, warsztatu i stylu, Rocznik
Krakowski, 60: 1994, pp. 21-50. I mention this foundation because of
the parałlels between it and Charles IV’s (later) foundation of the
Emmaus monastery in the New Town in Prague, situated directly along
the processional way from Vysehrad to the Charles Sąuare in the New
Town, the route taken on the pre-coronation pilgrimage of the Czech
kings.
71 For pre-coronation processions see M. J a g o s z, Procesje ku czci
św. Stanisława biskupa z Wawelu na Skałkę w okresie przedrozbio-
rowym, Analecta Cracoviensia, 9: 1979, pp. 603-617, esp. pp. 608-
610.
62
archbishop (Gieysztoris ‘second phase’62), the present-
ing of the insignia (the ‘third phase’63) and the enthrone-
ment and homage (the ‘fourth phase’64). Front this uni-
versal seąuence Derwich singled out three prescriptions
in the ordinal as ‘local’ elements, directed to the par-
ticular sites and history of Cracow: the mitred abbots’
procession with holy oil, the pre-coronation pilgrimage
to the Skałka, and the coronation at the altar of St
Stanislaus. But at least two of these elements show such
close, almost verbatim, similarities with Charles IV’s Bo-
hemian ordinal that the Polish ordinal can be described
as ‘local’ only in the most derivative sense. It may apply
directives to a Cracowian context, but the directives them-
selves must be copies, almost literał copies, of the Czech
model65. They therefore deserve some closer inspection
in any analysis of the architectural and liturgical relations
between Cracow and Prague in the later Middle Ages.
Perhaps the most strikingly ‘Czech’ clirective concerns
the retrieval of the holy coronation oil, during the sec-
ond of Gieysztoris ‘phases’. After the Epistle, while the
choir are singing (choro cantate), two mitred abbots (duo
abbates mitratis) retrieve the holy oil (sacrum oleum)
from the chapel of St Katharine (to the north of the Lady
chapel), place it in a large chalice (m mag no calice
repositum) and carry it, under a baldachin (tentorio su-
per eos extentó) to the altar of St Stanislaus, where the
archbishop takes it in his own hands (de manibus eorum
reverenter) and uses it to anoint the king. Gieysztor
pointed to parałlels with the sacrecl ampulla at Reifns66,
but the whole ceremony reads like a precise echo of
the French-inspired retrieval of the holy oil from the
chapel of St Wenceslas as set out in Charles’s ordinal;
indeed, the almost word-for-word repetition of the rel-
evant passages from the Czech ordinal suggests the very
close debts of the Polish ordo to its Bohemian model67.
We cannot be certain if this ceremony was in force in
Cracow before the early 15th century, nor even that it
61 Ibidem, pp. 15-16.
62 Ibidem, pp. 16-18.
63 Ibidem, pp. 18-19-
64 Ibidem, pp. 19-20.
65 Derwich, op. cit., pp. 46-47.
66 Gieysztor, Spektakl i liturgia..., p. 16.
67 Ordo, p. 167. Compare, for example, the Polish ordinafs direc-
tives for the prelates to bring the king elect from the royal bedcham-
ber, with the Czech instructions: ‘in locum ubi thalamus sollempniter
est preparatus’ {Ordo, p. 162) and ‘in locum ubi thalamus est
sollempniter preparatus’ (C i b u 1 k a, op. cit., p. 77). Both ordinals also
show very similar wording for the oath-taking and acclamation. After
the king has sworn to protect the church, rule wisely and preserve the
faith, the archbishop solicits the acclamation of the congregation. The
Czech wording runs: ‘Tunc a circumstante clero et populo unanimiter
dicatur: Rady, Rady, Rady’, see Ci bulka, op. cit., p. 79- The Polish
version is: ‘Tunc a circumstante clero et populo dicatur: radzi, radzi,
radzi’, see Ordo, p. 164.
68 Derwich, op. cit., p. 49, who recognizes the Bohemian and
French parałlels. He doubts if this, along with the other ‘local’ pre-
scriptions in the ordinal, was ever enacted, though he gives no elear
was actuałly enacted, but the influence is clearly Bohe-
mian68.
Eąually close to the Bohemian ordinal is the second
‘local’ practice in Cracow: the pilgrimage to the monas-
tery of the Skałka. The 1434 ordinal is the first to men-
tion the penitential procession of the king and prelates
to the Skałka on the eve of the coronation69 *. On the Sat-
urday before the coronation on the following day, the
king elect is reąuired to visit the supposed site of St
Stanislaus’s martyrdom, the Pauline monastery on the
smali hill or rock - the Skałka - overlooking the Vistula.
The site, lying about a mile to the south of the Wawel
and the old town,was incorporated by Kasimir the Great
into his new town of Kazimierz, and the royal proces-
sion may well have passecl close to the king’s founda-
tion, the Austin Friars’ monastery of St Katharine’s, situ-
ated just to the east of the Skałka71’. The whole ceremony
viviclly recalls the Vysehrad pilgrimage of the Bohemian
kings, as set out in Charles’s ordinal, and in Pulkava’s
chronicie of c. 1373- Both pilgrimages initiate the king
elect into a new and higher State of consciousness; both
involve a penitential return to the site of national legend
and ancient sanctity, and in both the journey takes the
futurę king from a new pałace and a new cathedral to a
contrastingly ancient settlement on a hill outside the
boundaries of the city, a settlement which is incorpo-
rated into a royal new town. In both pilgrimages the
king returns - in some sense purified by this ritual com-
munion with the nation’s historical identity - to the pał-
ace and cathedral. The pilgrimages, in other words, com-
press sacred time into a symbolic journey71. But in Cra-
cow the ceremony centres, not around a mythical royal
ancestor, but around the patronal saint of the cathedral,
thus uniting morę closely than the Prague pilgrimage the
ritual on the eve of the coronation with that of the ac-
tual coronation itself, much of which is centred around
the person and ambience of St Stanislaus. Sceptics have
suggested that no kings of Poland actuałly performed
Teason for his scepticism, beyond the lack of contemporary corrobo-
rating evidence.
69 Ordo, p. 162: ‘Primo archiepiscopus Gneznensis cum prelatis,
principibus et baronibus associabunt principem in regem coronandum
in Scalcam et ibi adorantes redeunt cum eo ad ecclesiam Sancti
Wenczeslai in castro Cracoviensi vesperas audituri’.
70 For St Katherine’s monastery and church see C r o s s 1 e y, Gothic
Architecture..., pp. 149-155, 193-197; and M. Szyma, Nawa
południowa i kruchta kościoła Św. Katarzyny na Kazimierzu w
Krakowie. Zagadnienia chronologii, warsztatu i stylu, Rocznik
Krakowski, 60: 1994, pp. 21-50. I mention this foundation because of
the parałlels between it and Charles IV’s (later) foundation of the
Emmaus monastery in the New Town in Prague, situated directly along
the processional way from Vysehrad to the Charles Sąuare in the New
Town, the route taken on the pre-coronation pilgrimage of the Czech
kings.
71 For pre-coronation processions see M. J a g o s z, Procesje ku czci
św. Stanisława biskupa z Wawelu na Skałkę w okresie przedrozbio-
rowym, Analecta Cracoviensia, 9: 1979, pp. 603-617, esp. pp. 608-
610.
62