Lumen 2018

Hill in a stone tomb covered with a stone slab, on which the follow- ing words had been carved out at his request: “God, You forgave the criminal who hung next to You, forgive me, too, as I lie buried here.” One hundred years later, the bishop’s remains were moved to Pilate’s Chapel and deposited in the crypt under the main altar. In 1918, they were transferred to a new coffin with a glass cover. 151 This favorable portrait of Bishop Wierzbowski is not quite com- plete. The bishop also had his vices which were a result of his exces- sive ambition and which, in turn, resulted in the particular kind of politics that he pursued. He made a great career: he became a bishop, a senator, he even received the king’s nomination to the seat of the Archbishop of Gniezno and thereby to the office of the Primate of Poland. But those who were close to him accused him of nepotism as he provided material support for his family. The members of the Poznan Chapter opposed his support for many pious foundations and accused him of neglecting the construction work at the Poznan cathedral. They also charged that he moved to Warsaw (one of the first bishops of Poznan to do so) and made his permanent residence there in order to be closer to the royal court and to the Senate; that he assumed the title of the Bishop of Poznan and Warsaw, in spite of protests by the members of the Poznan Chapter; that he endowed the Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. John in Warsaw with special privileges, as if he intended to create another cathedral church for himself within the same diocese. 152 Nowa Jerozolima Nowa Jerozolima [New Jerusalem], founded by Bishop Wierz- bowski, was established on the site where the village of Gora was lo- cated, half a mile (the old Polish mile was 7,146 meters) away from Czersk, an ancient seat of the Mazovian princes, on a high bank of the Vistula River, about five miles (36 kilometers) away fromWarsaw. In 1252, a parish church already existed there, which is confirmed by a document issued by Boguchwal II, the Bishop of Poznan. In 291 Foundation of a New Religious Order