ABSTRACT
In the year 345 of the era of creation King Sigismund of Sweden ruled over the Kingdom of Poland. The King was a kind and upright man. He loved justice and loved Israel. In his days the religion of the Pope gained strength in the Kingdom of Poland. The masses that followed the Greek Orthodox Church became gradually impoverished. For the Tartars had always been a "stone of stumbling and a rock of offense" to the Kingdom of Poland. The nobles levied upon them heavy taxes, and some even resorted to cruelty and torture with the intent of persuading them to accept Catholicism. So wretched and lowly had they become that all classes of people, even the lowliest among them,8 became their overlords.
