1401

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political events

A treaty concluded at Vilna in January unites Poland and Lithuania; the Lithuanian boyars promise to recognize Poland's Wladyslaw II Jagiello as their grand prince in the event of Vytautus's death, and the Polish nobility agree that in the event of Wladyslaw's death they will not elect a new king without consulting Vytautus (see Tannenberg, 1410).

The new Holy Roman Emperor Rupert tries to restore imperial rule over Italy, but Milan's duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti defeats the imperial forces and mounts an effort to conquer Florence, hoping to establish an Italian kingdom (see 1402).

Tamerlane's Tatar army occupies Damascus, ruins the city economically by deporting its artisans to Samarkand, storms Baghdad, sacks the city, destroying all its monuments, and massacres 20,000 of its inhabitants (see 1400; 1402).

religion

London authorities arrest Lollard priest William Sawtrey under the new law for preaching the beliefs of the late John Wycliffe. Archbishop Thomas Arundel orders him to appear at St. Paul's February 12 and questions him closely; he says, "Instead of adoring the cross on which Christ suffered, I adore Christ who suffered on it." Parliament increases the power of the Church over heresy, principally Lollardy, by the statute de Heretico Comburendo, first English law of its kind (see Oldcastle, 1413). Sawtrey's persecutors indict him for heresies that include denying transsubstantiation (he concedes that the bread of the Eucharist is the bread of life but insists that it is still bread), Arundel tries to make him change his mind, and when he holds fast he is condemned to death as a relapsed heretic February 26. Although he appeals to the king and Parliament, Sawtrey is burned at Smithfield in March and becomes the first Lollard martyr (see 1415).

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