‘Furthermore, let him establish in Cracow, a city among the greatest in his Kingdom, a studium generale with all faculty, especially canon and civil law, with all the rights of other similar schools, especially for that reason, that due to the great distance from other schools, more than 40 days of travels, students in foreign countries suffer like exiles, and many good clerics from Poland were captured, imprisoned, and some of them died in captivity. (Let it happen. B.)'.

In Autumn 1362, King Kasimir the Great send his envoys to Avignon in order to plea his allegiance to the new Pope, Urban V. Among many other issues disputed in the Papal Curia, in the beginning of the next year the King's supplication was presented to the Pope, where Kasimir asked for permission to establish a university in Cracow. Among reasons given by the King was the vast distance between the Kingdom of Poland from other universities in the Romance countries, which made – like it was written – ‘students […] suffer like exiles', and many of the students travelling there were ‘captured and imprisoned', some of them even ‘died in captivity.' On the 6^th April 1363, the Pope agreed to the King's plea, however, under the condition that the local circumstances for functioning of a new university should be evaluated first. For that purpose, he ordered the Archbishop of Gniezno, Jarosław Bogoria from Skotniki, to ask the King and municipality of Cracow to release documents, which would guarantee privileges and liberties for the new studium. The Archbishop was also given the task to inspect the location for the future university. Thus, the way to foundation of a university in Cracow was open.

Prof. Krzysztof Stopka