Późnogotycki kielich mszalny z daru plebana Tomasza
Late Gothic Chalice from the Donation of Parson Tomasz

Summary/Abstract: Late Gothic Chalice from the Donation of Parson Tomasz Quite recently, namely in 2015, in the Parish Catholic Church of St Anne in Neuenkirchen near Steinfurt (North Rhine-Westphalia) a monument of Late Gothic Poznań goldsmithery, previously completely unknown and not very well preserved, was discovered (Figs. 1-3). It is a silver and thickly, if it can be said so, gilded on its entire surface chalice, on its foot flange decorated with a founding inscription in minuscule, this testifying to the fact that it is a piece from the very beginning meant for the Parish Church of St Martin outside Poznań town walls, and created in 1483 at the instigation and on a special commission of the Parish Parson noble Tomasz of Wielawieś. And just like many of the large group of similar inscriptions on mediaeval vessels or liturgical accessories, this one too urges to pray for its founder: + hon[orabi]lis + ma[giste]r + thomas + wyelawyeszky + pl[e]b[an]us + ad + s[ancti] + martini + extra + poz[nania]m + [com]par[av]it + hunc + calicem + pro + eadem + ec[c]lesia + orate + pro + eo 1483.The Parish and the Church of St Martin outside the walls existed already in 1252 when the Duke of Greater Poland Przemysł I together with the Poznań Bishop Boguchwał, while accumulating land for the construction of the new town of Poznań, exchanged a part of land that fell within the jurisdiction of the Cathedral Chapter for half of the income from the Warta River and the ferry across it. After a new Parish of St Mary Magdalene had been marked out from within the left-bank Poznań, a settlement with the Magdeburg Law, thus from around 1262, the St Martin Parish included the following Poznań suburbs: from the east – Garbarby up to beyond the Chwaliszewo Bridge and towards the mill on the Warta, from the south – Piaski and the settlements in front of the Wrocław Gate up to Półwsie and Nowe Ogrody, from the west – Górczyn, Junikowo and Ławica up to Skórzewo, and finally – Glinki and the Castle Mount. The Parish Church of St Martin, conveniently situated on a high terrace of the Warta channel, above the floodplain, was originally wooden, yet possibly already in the 14th century it was rebuilt as a brick aisleless church with a ceiling, which following the mid-15th century was subsequently altered and extended up to about 1516. In the presbytery and aisles a stellar vault was used, while in the nave a new ceiling was placed. Four burial crypts were arranged under the church, though the tower, despite having been planned, was not raised. Inside, the high altar featured a painting of St Martin, on the left side in 1454, the Poznań Bishop Andrzej of Bnin erected canonically the altar prebend of St Cross founded by Lorek (namely Wawrzyniec), a presbiter gracialis, who passed it under the patronage of St Martin’s Parish brotherhood of the poor, together with a silver chalice and paten, two chasubles, two albs, and a surplice he bequeathed in his 1450 last will.The founder of the 1438 chalice, noble Tomasz of Wielawieś (Wielawiejski or Wielewiejski), appeared for the first time in written sources in 1443, when as a son of Mikołaj be began studying at the University of Kraków. Having received the bachelor’s degree there in 1446, four years later he was Master of Liberal Arts. He may have been associated with the Parish Church of St Martin outside the Poznań walls already in 1466 as a presbiter gracialis, whereas in 1467-1498, namely for over 30 years, as its Parson. Throughout that time he was often in court in litigation over overdue rents and Church payments, but also over a number of other issues. And so, in 1468, for example, he sued Stefan, a Mansionary in Koźmin, for one book of Sunday sermons for the whole liturgical year, additionally containing descriptions of the Passion, and priced at one and a half grzywnas. In 1478, he took two silver chalices, one silver reliquary, and some silver scrap in a pledge from Stanisław of Pleszewo, Canon at the Poznań Cathedral and the Uniejów Collegiate Provost, whom he had lent 25 florins and 14 grzywnas. In 1481, he was named as a Notary at the Poznań Consistory, a year later as an Altarist in the Parish Church of All Saints at his hereditary Wielawieś, the then Pyzdry County. Following the death of his brother Mikołaj, he sold the village (currently Wielowieś in the Krotoszyn County), to the Bishop of Poznań Uriel of Górka; in return, he received a fourth part of Modrakowo and 800 florins. It was also then that he bought a yearly rent at 16 grzywnas on the profit on Dopiewo from Bishop Uriel, and the following year he bequeathed it to the Church of St Martin, funding the so-called ministry by the high altar. In 1496, he additionally donated 2 grzywnas of the annual rent on a part of Nowe Miasto (currently Mieścisko in the Gniezno County) he had purchased from noble Mikołaj Nowomiejski. Out of the above rent, 5 wiarduneks were allocated to the prayers for the Church’s beneficiaries, both deceased and living, and 3 wiarduneks to the Rector of St Martin’s Parish school. The school’s Rector was additionally given 1 grzywna on the annual rent purchased by Parson Tomasz from the miller Marcin Wawrzynek on his profits from the Cybina River mill. Still in 1496, Parson Tomasz and Curate Szymon acted as executors of the last will of deceased Anastazja, widow of the wheelwright Maciej, who bequeathed 2 grzywnas to St Martin’s Church for construction purposes and 1 grzywna for a monstrance. In his own last will of 1498, Parson Tomasz allocated 100 florins to establishing a new altar prebend for a priest who, apart from Polish, could speak German, and would preach and hear confession in German. He bequeathed 20 grzywnas towards the priest’s accommodation, additionally bequeathing him a fox fur coat, a tunic lined with rabbit fur, 14 serving plates, 14 plates, and 10 jugs, as well as 14 spoons to have a chalice made. It was the hat makers’ guild that were to be the patron of the new altar prebend dedicated to Our Lady, two saint martyrs: Bishop Stanisław of Kraków and Archbishop Thomas of Canterbury, St Anne, St Catherine, St Barbara, St Dorothea, and other saints. In 1513, on the request of the executors of the last will of deceased Parson Tomasz, and upon the authorization of King Sigismund the Old, Bishop of Poznań Jan Lubrański made a canonical erection of that altar prebend in a chapel by the entrance to the church, and decided its endowment would include: a red velvet chasuble with a stole, maniple, amice, and an alba, a four-coloured silk antependium, altar cloth, a silver chalice with paten, two large brass candlesticks, two bells, two paintings, including one with Pietà and the other of Virgin and Child. Parson Tomasz of Wielawieś also left behind quite a number of various theological books and sermon collections that engendered St Martin’s Parish library.The chalice he founded in 1483 has retained its six-leaf foot on a stem, with an openwork tracery frieze and a prominent flange. The fields are encircled with cast astragal lines, however the whole flange seems to be secondary, while the above-quoted founding minuscule inscription adorning its upper part, seems to have been clumsily reproduced in the late 16th century, in the course of the renovation referred to in a partially majuscule, and partially minuscule founding inscriptions on the chalice’s bottom part: RENOVATVM 1591 IN ILLO MARCAE 3 Scot 15 cum patina. (Fig. 4). The original flange was to be much narrower, since only this can account for the fact that the founding inscription has numerous, currently useless, and often almost totally unmarked abbreviations, as well as the unequal letter height; in 1483, the letters could have been even engraved with a concave stylus, namely in a double line. It is worth remembering here that a similar challenge to reconcile the need to renew a mediaeval object with the necessity to retain the most essential information, as provided by the object itself, namely the information on its founder and the circumstances of its creation, was faced by the Elbląg goldsmith Daniel Hermann who made a new foot for the 1411 reliquary cross donated by Commander Werner von Tettingen, and transferred the founding inscription, in minuscule, too, from the original foot to the new one’s rim. Regrettably, this Baroque foot from the piece from the chapel in the Elbląg Teutonic Castle was completely destroyed in 1945, and today is only known from photos (Fig. 5). Fortunately, both Late Gothic monstrances from Lesser Poland, which underwent similar processes, have survived. The first one, that is the monstrance donated in 1490 to the Parish Church of St Clement in Wieliczka by Jan Borzymowski, Kraków Canon and Royal Steward of the Salt Mines, was restored in 1572; in the course of the restoration the majuscule founding inscription was transferred from the upper part to the bottom of the six-leaf foot. Meanwhile, the engraving in its fields, including the effigy of Canon Borzymowski, kneeling with his hands clasped for prayer, and the Belina coat-of-arms in front of the patron of the Wieliczka Church, were repeated after the originals ones, or, as some scholars claim, were executed anew (Figs. 6-8). A slightly different approach was represented by the creator of the foot, added in 1600 to the monstrance from the Cistercian Church of Our Lady and St Adalbert in Jędrzejów that was being at the time repaired and renovated. In the course of the process, the artist simply placed on one of the six existing fields a majuscule inscription informing that the upper part of the monument, namely a three-tower retable with a cylindrical dome for the Host, was founded in 1520 by the Jędrzejów burgher Anna Wilczkowa, while the bottom part, i.e. the mentioned foot, was commissioned by Brother Walenty of Tarnów.These examples, though mainly the monstrance in Wieliczka, allow to suppose that the engravings on the foot fields of the chalice from the donation of Parson Tomasz also substantially owe their current appearance to the renovation of 1591. Five of these fields feature representations of Christ in tomb with the instruments of the Passion together with St John the Evangelists and St Dorothea, St Catherine, and most likely St Thomas of Canterbury, personal patron of the chalice’s founder (Figs. 9, 10). The sixth field is taken by the armorial bearing with a branch diagonally leftwards, featuring a snag on each side, to the greatest degree resembling the Brant coat-of-arms in its fifth variation (Figs. 11, 12). Above the possibly faithfully, but not extremely skillfully recreated figures of Christ in tomb, the figures of saints, and the arm bearing (the latter could have been originally crowned with a jewel), all this done prior to the new gilding, there rise gabled canopies, while the field background has been left smooth. It remains unknown what the genuine stem of the vessel looked like. Its upper segment is most likely dated to the 19th century, while the lower may have been created in the course of the work’s last renovation, namely in 2016. It is the nodus that has been relatively well preserved; the nodus that is strongly flattened not only from the top and the bottom, but also, characteristically of Poznań chalices from the turn of the 15th century, decorated with openwork tracery motifs on six rhomb-shaped protuberances (Fig. 13). Another element that actually resembles many Poznań goldsmithery products, such as, e.g., the chalice in the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul in Obrzycko (Figs. 14, 16), seems to be the cast leaf openwork crowning the casing of the cup, which in its bottom part may have most likely featured an engraved glory, or, like the openwork casings on the cups in the chalices in the Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene in Poznań or in the Parish Church of St Nicolai in Krobia, it featured a cast foliage scroll (Figs. 15-17, 19).Above the openwork, the cup of the chalice from the donation of Parson Tomasz features a minuscule inscription reading: Calicem salutaris accipiam et nomen domini invocabo (Fig. 20). It is the famous 13th verse of Psalm 116, in the considerations of Biblical exegetes generally interpreted as harbinger of the institution of the Sacrament of Eucharist by Christ, and frequently featured on the cups of mediaeval chalices. Just as it was executed on the discussed work, also two other chalices, quite closely affiliated, and dated to the 1st half of the 15th century: from the Parish Church of Our Lady in Werdau (Saxony) and the Parish Church of the Holy Trinity in Sondershausen (Thuringia), as well as on the cup of the chalice created in the 3rd quarter of the 15th century, from the Parish Church of the Assumption in Kraków (regrettably missing since the World War II), had it executed with minuscule. The cups of the German pieces, however, are not encased in casings, but are entirely decorated with engraved half-figures of King David and the Prophets of the Old Testament, while the quoted verse of Psalm 116 was placed just below their upper brim (Fig. 21). It is the Kraków chalice cup that definitely constitutes an analogy closer to that of the cup of Parson Tomasz’s chalice, the first enclosed in a high casing featuring an engraved glory in the lower part and a cast leaf openwork (Fig. 22). The chalices from the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul in Lidzbark Warmiński and the Parish Church of St Bartholomew in Jeziorany, dated to around 1500, as well as that from the hospital Church of Corpus Christi in Elbląg (after 1508), feature this verse engraved in majuscule (Fig. 23). In all the three Warmia examples it is merely a part of it, completing the word NOMEN, additionally differently designed on each cup.No information has been preserved as for the paten of the chalice from Parson Tomasz’s donation, though it is known that during the 1610 Bishop visitation to the Parish Church of St Martin outside the walls of Poznań, there were 9 silver and gilded chalices with patens there. And the discussed piece and its paten are referred to most likely in the note made following the 1695 visitation by Mikołaj Zalaszowski, Poznań Archdeacon: Item kielich wszystek srebrny złocisty z pateną ponderis trzech grzywien, in pede z pięciu obrazków rzezanych i z herbem [Also the chalice all silver and gilded with a paten worth three grzywnas, and with a foot made up of five engraved pictures and a coat-of-arms]. In total, the treasury of the church, despite all the losses suffered due to the war with the Swedes and with their allies, the Brandenburg garrison, contained as many as 18 chalices with patens, though mainly Baroque ones, and also a number of other vessels and liturgical utensils, of which at least 3 should be regarded as Late Gothic. The first of them is a smaller silver monstrance, partially gilded, and requiring repair as judged by the inspector. Two more were silver and also partially gilded reliquary crosses with gems and corals, additionally featuring a cast figure of a pelican in their crowning. In one of the crosses, described as a larger one, worth 11 grzywnas, a particle of the Holy Cross was deposited, while in the other smaller one, relics of the Eleven Thousand Virgins were placed.It is thus likely that the chalice from the donation of Parson Tomasz survived in the church for which it had been made until the next visitation conducted in 1779 by Józef Rogaliński, Poznań Dean, as instructed by Bishop Antoni Onufry Okęcki. At that point the Parish Church of St Martin was already within the city walls, while the number of its silver and gilded chalices with patens had increased to twenty; it also owned two gilded monstrances, and possibly the above-mentioned reliquary crosses, although at that point they were referred to as paxes. And it may have been only in the early 19th century, when following the march across Poznań by Russian troops, and subsequently by Prussian troops, the Church of St Martin was almost devastated, while the Municipality were considering the option of passing it to the Protestant Congregation of St Peter, that the chalice from Parson Tomasz’s donation was among those precious objects that Marcin Hantusz, Canon of the Poznań Collegiate Church of St Mary Magdalene and Vicar at St Martin’s Parish in 1788-1832 sold at the total sum of 5,018 zlotys.According to the Prussian inventory of Greater Poland monuments of architecture and art from the late 19th century, St Martin’s Church in Poznań had only three Baroque chalices. Whereas in his 1938 publication, Józef Kotowski mentions: both old monstrances, the Gothic and the Baroque one, 7 gilded chalices, 5 pixes, and 5 silver and gilded reliquaries (of St Apollonia, St Felix, St Martin, St Severinus, and of a thorn from Christ’s crown).However, since the World War II there has been no single goldsmithery piece in this Poznań Church that might come from its mediaeval equipment. The Late Gothic, or better said, early Renaissance monstrance, was acquired from the Parish Church of St James in the village of Rzgów (Konin County). Therefore, the efforts of Prof. Johann Michael Fritz, who was the first to have paid more attention to the discussed chalice, and together with his sister, Ms Andrea Gabriele Fritz, financed its last renovation, have to be all the more appreciated.

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