The Policy of King Ladislaus II Jagiello towards the Catholic Church on the Ruthenian territories of the Polish Kingdom and the territories of the Grand Lithuanian Duchy
The author analyzes the policy of King Ladislaus Jagiello towards the Catholic Church on Ruthenian territories of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Lithuanian Duchy. It concerned almost exclusively the territory controlled by the Lvov Archdiocese as right up until Jagiello’s death in 1434, the area of north-eastern Ruthenia was almost entirely derived of Catholic infrastructure. An absolute predominance of the indiginous Orthodox Church population could be observed there.
The monarch’s strong material support for the Catholic Church (for bishoprics, diocese institutions and parishes) had contributed to civilizational transformations (including political ones) of the Grand Lithuanian Duchy; it had also contributed to social reorganization and a comprehensive integration of the Ruthenian territories that had been incorporated into the Polish Kingdom. On the Ruthenian territories of the Crown and Lithuania, the church institutions had embarked on different tasks than on the ethnically Lithuanian territories of the Vilnius and Zmudz dioceses; this was the result of the different religious and social structure of the local population.
