The conflict between the nobility and the clergy dated back to the Middle Ages and it mainly concerned the limits of secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. However, it was very difficult to make a clear distinction: the claims of both parties often overlapped, which provoked a complicated discussion, where legitimate rights mixed with badly understood group interests. Jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts over noblemen remained the main bone of contention. The dispute would not have been so heated if the clergy adjudicated only in cases of heresy. However, it was possible for a nobleman to be cursed for evading the fee for the bishop.
The dispute took on a new dimension with the advent of the Reformation. At first, Polish noblemen became very close to Calvinism, whose vision of community seemed more attractive than that of Lutheranism. Paradoxically, however, this turn was marked by theological conservatism and a sincere desire to reform the Church. One of the close associates of the Papal Nuncio in the Rzeczpospolita noted in 1565 that, as regards dogmatic matters, knights were Catholic. But when the idea of defending the privileges of the clerical state was mentioned, nobody declared themselves Catholic. Similarly, changing the religion was the best way to escape from the jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical court.
Reformation in Rzeczpospolita proceeded relatively calmly: there was no burning at the stake or, as in France, civil war. However, this does not mean that there were no excesses. The Catholic argumentation relied on the instances of profanation of paintings, Eucharistic figures and taking over temples. Punishment was expected for perpetrators but only the bishop’s court, whose jurisdiction was not welcomed, could pass a sentence in such cases. That tangle of conflicting powers and religious ambitions needed to be cut somewhere. It finally happened after long discussions at the Piotrków Sejm of 1562-1563. By prohibiting starosts from executing judgements of ecclesiastical courts, the resolution of 1563 de facto abolished ecclesiastical jurisdiction, not only in matters of faith, but also in property disputes.
