NATIONAL CONFLICTS IN THE CZECH-POLISH FRANCISCAN PROVINCE (UNTIL 1517).

The article analyses the origins, course and consequences of ethnic conflicts in the Czech- Polish province of the Franciscans from the 13th to the early 16th century. The author shows that these tensions were not a marginal or exclusively social phenomenon, but were deeply rooted in the structures of the political and ecclesiastical elites and in organisational rivalry within the Order of Friars Minor. From the moment the joint province was established (1238- 1239), there was an imbalance between its Czech and Polish parts, resulting from the organisational superiority of Bohemia, which led to disputes over primacy, the filling of offices and the symbols of power (the inscription on the province's seal). In the following centuries, these conflicts took various forms: from personal and administrative disputes, through national tensions (Czech-Polish and Slavic-German), to doctrinal divisions related to major crises in the Church, such as the dispute between the Pope and the Council of Basel or the Hussite Revolution. The Hussite Wars led to the collapse of monastic life in Bohemia and the shift of the centre of the province to Poland, which further deepened the antagonisms. The growing conflicts and scandals ultimately led to the break-up of the joint province: in 1515, the first territorial separations took place, and in 1517, a formal division into separate Czech and Polish provinces ended its nearly three centuries of shared history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]