History of the University
13 September 1364 r., having regard to Casimir the Great's request for permission to establish a university, Pope Urban V put his Fiat - let it happen. General Study, Cracow Academy, Kazimierz University – the names changed, but from the very beginning the term "university" was used colloquially. The university consisted of eleven departments: three canon law, five roman laws (secular), two medicine and one liberal sciences. It was headed by the Chancellor of the Kingdom, and the rector was elected, good Italian custom, among students. His task was to solve the internal affairs of the university, he also had the right to intervene and defend students, even in criminal cases, towards city authorities and others. This modern one, state, a secular and self-governing university, unfortunately, did not last long. After the death of Casimir the Great, St. 1370 r. it began to decline visibly, to discontinue any further activities soon. On the initiative of Jadwiga and Jagiełło, St. 1400 r. there was a ceremonial inauguration of the renewed academy. With money saved by the queen, tenement houses were purchased from the name of Pęcherz, which, after rebuilding, formed the Collegium Maius. The first rector was Stanisław from Skalbmierz, and the chancellor, against Jagiełło's will, the bishop of Krakow, Piotr Wysz. So the University departed from corporate Italian designs, and his model was the centralized and sclericized Sorbonne. In the first half of the 15th century. there are great ecumenical councils, struggling with the question of primacy between the council and the pope. University professors from the very beginning in their conciliar speeches, in speeches and treatises they advocated cancyliarism, that is, the superiority of the council. Piotr Wysz spoke loudly, and Paweł Włodkowic submitted valid treaties: About the emperor's power over the infidels. The chancellor and the university rector also appeared at the international forum with a crushing criticism of the claims of the Teutonic Order against Poland. Przeprowadzili swoją argumentację na kilku procesach, and finally forced Pope Martin V, who was in favor of the Teutonic Knights, to officially condemn the imperial policy of the order. Ultimately, the Dominican Jan Falkenberg had to solemnly revoke his treaty against Poland in Rome. The peak moment of its splendor was the sending by the Council of Basel to the University of Krakow, to take a stance on the schism between popes. The university responded with five famous treatises that were widely commented on in Europe, and proving the superiority of an ecumenical council over the pope. (It's worth adding, that today it is the opposite in the Church).
Throughout the fifteenth century. The Academy maintained the highest world level, not only in the field of canon and international law, but also in astronomy – from Marcin Król from Żurawica by Jan Schilling, Konrad Celtis, ending at Nicolaus Copernicus. At the end of the 15th century. the university was also a leader in geography and sciences subordinated to the new intellectual trend – humanism. They were associated with the university: Grzegorz from Sanok, Jan Dlugosz, Filip Kallimach Buonacorsi (the last two are educators of the royal sons) and such lovers of muses and priests of Apollo, how: Andrzej Krzycki, Jan Dantyszek, Rudolf Agricola, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Jan Kochanowski, Wespazjan Kochowski. The measure of the University's progressiveness was the commencement of 1503 r. teaching Greek and Hebrew, and repeated invitations to Erasmus of Rotterdam, containing expressions of genuine admiration and admiration: Beloved Erasmus, we are still talking about you, we eat with you, we sleep and drink…. At the Jagiellonian University museum, located in the Collegium Maius building, one of the world's first globes can be seen, with the outline of the "newly discovered land" across the Atlantic Ocean.
