Religion and Reform in Renaissance Cracow

Though the study of urban reform in sixteenth-century Central Europe is a well-established industry especially for those cities of the German lands, those centers often seen as peripheral or of multi-ethnic composition have fared less well.  The Polish capital of Cracow is a perfect case in point.  For all its cultural dynamism, religious significance and political importance, Cracow has been largely unexplored by scholars of the Anglophone world.   A city of approximately 20,000, it enjoyed pride of place in the Polish lands.   It was home to the royal court, the university and a critical episcopal office.  It lay on the juncture of two important trade routes and attracted a vibrant mercantile community.   A sixteenth-century Italian visitor was able to identify houses belonging to Flemish, French, Italian, Turkish, Persian and Muscovite traders.  In total, fifteen ethnic groups lived in Cracow and its immediate environs.  Its German population was particularly influential.  By 1500 they constituted approximately a fourth of its citizenry and played a dominant role in the city’s administration.   Culturally, Cracow had been home to one of the great figures of German humanism, Conrad Celtes, and his counterpart in the arts, Veit Stoss.  Perhaps most intriguing, though, were the swirling currents of religious reform that swept through the city in the first half of the sixteenth century.  From anti-Trinitarianism to orthodox Catholicism, from Erasmus to Calvin, a variety of influences shaped the city in this period.   This paper will offer an overview and assessment of these religious developments and seek to place them in a wider Central European landscape of urban change and reform.