His address in the Sejm had a lofty, almost triumphant character. John Paul II summed up the difficult Polish path from the fall of the Commonwealth of Poland in the 18th century to the Third Republic of Poland, emphasizing the great role Solidarity had played in Poland’s liberation. “We are all aware that this meeting in the Parliament would be impossible without the determined resistance offered by Polish workers in Pomerania in memorable August 1980. It would be impossible without Solidarity, which chose a path of a peaceful struggle to defend human rights and rights of the entire nation.”

The Pope also gave advice and warnings for the future: “Jointly rejoicing at the positive transformations taking place in Poland before our eyes, we should also realize that in a free society there must be values ensuring the highest good of man as a whole. The objective of any economic changes should be to shape a more humane and just world. I would like to wish Polish politicians and all people engaged in the public life to not spare efforts to build a state which takes special care of the family, human life, and education of the young generation, one that respects man’s right to work, sees issues important for the entire nation, and is sensitive to the needs of the individual, particularly of the poor and weak one.”

John Paul II’s address was strongly applauded by almost all of the assembled, from the right-wing politicians to representatives of the post-communist left. The Pope’s visit to the Parliament was the largest manifestation of joy at regained freedom after 1989 and a moment of the Holy Father’s triumph as a spiritual and political leader of the nation. The exclamation “Long live the king, the nation, and all the states” with which he finished his address and which dates back to the adoption of the Third May Constitution was a humorous verbalization of the leadership role which Karol Wojtyła had played in the life of the Polish nation since the 1978 conclave, when he was elected the head of the Catholic Church.

Poland and France were bound by a political and military alliance, and a few days after Hitler’s demands were turned down, on 31 March 1939, Great Britain announced that it would provide military assistance to Poland in the event of armed conflict with Germany. A few days later, France also officially reaffirmed its obligations to Poland. Hitler reacted by breaking off the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact during a speech in the Reichstag on 28 April 1939. In response, the Polish minister of foreign affairs, Józef Beck, delivered a speech in the Sejm. Beck’s emotional statement was broadcast on the radio and made a staggering impression. Its final paragraph is considered one of the most important passages in the political speeches of twentieth-century Poland.

Germany’s demands and guarantees of Poland’s borders had no significance whatsoever. Plans of the attack on Poland were already advanced when these were put forward. Germany proceeded to invade Poland on 1 September 1939.

Nihil novi rendered the “Union of Mielnik” null-and-void in its entirety and strictly limited the legislative competences of the monarch and the Senate, banning the issuance of laws without the consent of the senators and gentrymen represented in the Chamber of Deputies. The thrust of Nihil novi was essentially to reinforce the position of the bicameral parliament in the political system of the Polish-Lithuanian Rzeczpospolita (Commonwealth). In so doing, the parliament, and particularly its Chamber of Deputies, attained the position of highest authority in the state. The functioning of the Sejm was henceforth to be based on smooth co-operation between the king, the royal council – i.e. the Senate – and the deputies elected locally or regionally to the Chamber of Deputies.

Constitutional and legal historians recognize Nihil novi as marking the beginning of the ‘nobles’ democracy’ (or, democracy of the nobility) in the Polish-Lithuanian Rzeczpospolita.

In their analyses of the content of Memoriał and inspiration that stood behind it, historians stressed both: the continuation of Polish tradition of political and legal thought: Matthew of Kraków, Paweł Włodkowic and Jacob of Paradyż and the content, which coincides with the Hussite ideology, inspiration drawn from the works of fourteenth-century French legists, and finally, the possible inspiration by the notion of the fifteenth century German reformers who formed the so-called Reich Reform movement. That is because its author, doctor in Roman and canon law, distinguishing himself from other secular dignitaries of his epoch by his careful education (he studied in Erfurt, Vienna and Bologna), paid particular attention to legal aspects of the functioning of state.

Jan Ostroróg’s Memoriał causes many problems to historians. There were opinions that we do not have the authentic text and we only have an adaptation of an earlier work, prepared specifically for political purposes. On other occasions, there were suggestions that the text is an apocrypha created in the first half of the sixteenth century, in which the name of the Poznań castellan was used to express the postulates dating back to the times when the executionist movement was formed. One of the reasons for doubts is the fact that the oldest manuscripts we have date back to the 30s of the sixteenth century, so they are several decades younger than the time in which the historical figure of Jan Ostroróg lived and acted.