Robert Nisbet Bain

“ On receiving a favourable reply from the Holy See, Gedymin issued circular letters, dated 25th of January 1325, to the principal Hanse towns, offering a free access into his domains to men of every order and profession from nobles and knights to tillers of the soil. The immigrants were to choose their own settlements and be governed by their own laws. ”

“ Gedymin inherited a vast domain, comprising Lithuania proper, Samogitia, Red Russia, Polotsk and Minsk; but these possessions were environed by powerful and greedy foes, the most dangerous of them being the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian knights of the Sword. The systematic raiding of Lithuania by the knights under the pretext of converting it had long since united all the Lithuanian tribes against the common enemy ”

“ Priests and monks were also invited to come and build churches at Vilna and Novogrodek. Similar letters were sent to the Wendish or Baltic cities, and to the bishops and landowners of Livonia and Esthonia. ”