The 16th century was a time of dynamic changes to the political system of the Polish-Lithuanian state. The restoration of the royal domain, which – according to ideas of that time – was supposed to be the main source of income for the Republic, became a major problem for the rule of Sigismund I. He found royal properties heavily indebted and pledged to great noble families. In order to implement his plan, the king needed support from the noble society since the restoration of the domain would result in weakening of their position.
At the same time, however, a considerable change occurred within the nobility itself. It found itself under the influence of three important factors: parliamentarianism guaranteed with the Nihil Novi constitution (1505), increased influence of works by Aristotle and Cicero and the actual needs of the state. This gave birth to the so-called Executionist movement, with many outstanding thinkers and statesmen among its supporters. Stanisław Orzechowski (1513–1566), a clergyman and historian, was one of them. He was highly educated, and his rhetoric skills were exceptional, which gave him the nickname of the ideologist of the Nobles’ Golden Liberty.
Orzechowski enumerated the principles of the republican politics in his Appeal to the Polish noblemen, focusing on the law and its meaning for the functioning of the State. Owing to this law, Poland enjoyed such an attractive way of living that even its neighbouring states, such as Ruthenia, wanted to join the Kingdom as a province. It also protected freedom, which was less and less common in other European countries dominated by monarchs’ absolutism. Finally, the Kingdom of Poland, whose political system drew from the ancient mixed governments, enjoyed stability so that the king, the senate or the nobility did not threaten the interests of the whole state.
Orzechowski stated that all of those rights that served Poland so well were gathered and codified by Jakub Przyłuski. Orzechowski’s work was just an introduction to the collection. We could say that if Przyłuski’s Statutes were a legal textbook, Orzechowski’s Appeal was a practical commentary. Thanks to the latter, noblemen could learn that they were not just subjects to the king but also citizens of a free country.
