The portrait miniature of Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki on a letter of indulgence issued in 1449 for the Church of All Saints in Cracow

A particularly interesting example of illuminated document is the indulgence granted to all who would visit the parish church of All Saints in Cracow on the major feasts of the liturgical year, issued by the Cracow Bishop, Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki (1423-1450) in 1449. A piece of parchment is decorated with the miniature composed of two juxtaposed fields, of which the upper one shows Christ with St Peter on His right, surrounded by the community of saints; the bottom field depicts the Pope seated between St Jerome and Cardinal Oleśnicki. This hierarch had been raised to the purple no fewer than three times. For the first time, Pope Eugene IV granted him this dignity with the accompanying title of St Prisca, but Oleśnicki did not accept it. Then Antipope Felix V, elected by the Council of Basle, elevated Oleśnicki to the cardinalate (with the title of St Anastasia), but the Cracow prelate likely did not accept the cardinal’s hat again and did not use the title, abiding by the orders of King Ladislaus the Jagiellon who was reluctant towards the Council. It was only in 1447 that Oleśnicki had relinquished the camp of the Council’s supporters, regarded by Rome as schismatics, and endorsed the rightful pope, Nicholas V. Oleśnicki received the cardinal’s hat sent from Rome in Cracow Cathedral, on 1 October 1449. The portrait composition on the Cracow miniature is complex and combining a few iconographic solutions popular in the late Middle Ages. Of particular significance seem to be the representation of the pope enthroned, the Traditio legis and Traditio clavium, as well as the juxtaposition of ecclesiastical hierarchy with the heavenly one. The Cracow miniature fitted perfectly in the then current problems of Church discussed anew in the mid-fifteenth century. Commissioned shortly after Oleśnicki had pledged obedience to Nicholas V and had received his cardinal’s hat, it is a public declaration by the former conciliarist of his new attitude. In the reality of ‘communis sanctorum’ showed in the upper part of the composition, Christ keeps repeating his blessing of St Peter, seated on his right, and gives him the power of the keys. The bottom part of the miniature testifies to the fact that the power had been given to the pope not ‘ministerialiter’, as conciliarists would have it, but in full.