Teutonic Envoy at Piotrków Synod of 1442

Abstract

In April 1442 an envoy of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Konrad von Erlichshausen appeared before the participants of provincial synod at Piotrków in the person of a parish priest from Sępopol Mikołaj Wetterheim. He wanted to present the transumpts of the bulls of Pope Alexander IV and Martin V issued for the Teutonic Order. In the face of the opposition of the council fathers, the Teutonic envoy took care to record all those circumstances in a notarial act which sheds light on an unknown aspect of the Polish Teutonic relations in the early 1440s. An assumption can be made that the mentioned bulls concerned the right to present Teutonic candidates to fill the vacancies in Pomerania territory, that is under the authority of bishop of Włocławek and archbishop of Gniezno. The mentioned notarial instrument broadens our knowledge about the participants and course of the synod at Piotrków, as well as provides us with additional arguments on the separation of the synod and a general assembly of the nobility convened soon afterwards to Sieradz, because in some literature on the subject those two events were treated as one.