The panel concerns selected questions presenting preaching activity in medieval Poland against the European background and its conjunction with the power, politics and territory. It is therefore about a spectrum of issues that present the role of the pulpit, the instrumentum praedicationis in the public space. The topics covered include the following questions and suggestions: - the pulpit in relation to public affairs and the place of preachers in the religious and secular community; - sermons before the monarch, secular authorities at various levels and church authorities (e.g. synodal sermons, special occasion sermons, funeral sermons, etc.); -the role of preachers in the court service (court and royal preachers and confessors); -preaching in the public space of the capital Krakow; -preaching in public space in the city; -university preaching (teaching about the essence of power and politics); -preaching on political and social issues (war, dissenters, economy); - preaching on ideological and religious issues (Church reform, heresies, superstitions, magic, etc.); -sermones ad status; -preaching as a medium in interactions with the audience.
The paper is a presentation of research on the preaching activity of the Wrocław Dominicans in the late Middle Ages. It will answer the questions of who, when, where, to whom, and what sermons were preached. This requires both a discussion of the legal framework of Dominican preaching and prosopographical studies on the education and careers of individual preachers, as well as a presentation of the preaching materials from the library of the Wrocław priory.
2025-09-19 10:30-11:00, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
Manuscript BN 12603 III is a preaching collection including sermons, lives of saints and miracula. Among the sermons are also works on saints venerated in medieval Poland – the lives and sermons on St Adalbert and St Stanislaus, which contain information on Polish history. Glosses in Polish (in the text and marginal) indicate that the codex was written in Poland (Małopolska?) in the first half of the 15th century. However, there are some indications which suggest that the codex may have been used as a preaching aid in Lithuania.
2025-09-19 09:00-09:30, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
The proposed paper will focus on a manuscript which contains a collection of copies of several sermons preached by Johannes Sculteti, a lector and prior, an Augustinian hermit, in Wroclaw on several occasions between 1427-1431. In his speeches for various communities in the city and ecclesiastical gatherings on the patronal feasts, he spoke about the disastersin Silesia and discussed their causes. However, the written evidence presents another layer for analysis: the texts were copied in a manuscript codex which belonged to Nicholas Tempelfeld of Brzeg (d. 1474). His interest in the anti-Hussite rhetoric of an earlier author was not only academic, as in the 1450-60s he led an active political life in Wrocław, and was one of the leaders of the opposition against the Bohemian party represented by George of Poděbrady. The paper will present the evidence of sermons delivered by John Sculteti and discuss two layers representing two time periods which the textual evidence speaks to.
2025-09-19 11:30-12:00, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
The paper presents one of the most interesting points (7th in order) of the accusation in the trial against Werner of Friedberg, a German lector and preacher of the Augustinian hermit monastery from Landau (Rhine Palatinate) in the Diocese of Spirene. The trial began in Speyer (Speyer) on January 31 and ended in Heidelberg on February 11, 1405. The proceedings were held before the commission of the Spirene bishop Rabanus of Helmstatt (1396-1438), on whose behalf John of Odendorf, episcopal vicar general "in spiritualibus" (1404-1414) presided. The basis of the accusation was initially a list of eight, and later nine errores. The report presents the 7th point of the accusation, most reflecting the atmosphere of the reform polemics of that time, with a social, religious and political background.
In the light of the 7th point of the accusation, in Werner's opinion, the Antichrist was to be born from a faithless nun and a faithless monk, when people completely weakened in faith. Therefore, we cannot reject the surprising possibility that this article was the only one that did not seem to be a clear offense in the eyes of the theologian, hence the critical comment in the trial materials could turn out to be unjustified and pointless. Unlike earlier times, in the late Middle Ages, chiliastic-apocalyptic visions once related only to supporters of heterodox religious views, and especially after Joachim of Fiore's speech to his followers at the end of the 12th century, were increasingly adopted by theologians and preachers who remained within the boundaries of orthodoxy.
2025-09-19 16:30-17:00, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, proclaimed by the Council of Basel on 17 September 1439, had theological and political significance. After the deposition of Pope Eugene IV, the council fathers prioritized this doctrine. The Dominican Juan de Torquemada opposed it on theological and ecclesiological grounds, arguing that an excommunicated council lacked the authority to establish dogmas. The preaching of Marcus Bonifili, Basel’s legate de latere in Kraków, had a clear political dimension. His Marian sermons, delivered in the 1440s in Kraków’s churches, including the Church of the Holy Trinity and the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, declared support for the council and served as a strategic tool. Bonifili intertwined theology and politics, using religious arguments to strengthen the council’s position. This presentation will analyze his sermons (1444–1447) and their manuscripts, exploring their audience and the extent of pro-conciliar sympathies in Kraków’s intellectual circles
2025-09-19 12:30-13:00, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
At the turn of 1419 and 1420, Wrocław found itself at the center of great politics. King Sigismund of Luxembourg called the Imperial Diet to Wrocław, where key issues were to be decided, including the fate of the Polish-Teutonic conflict, and the planned crusade in Bohemia against the Hussites. An immense number of dignitaries gathered, tense political situation, and the impending armed resolution of the conflict with the Hussites echoed even at the preachers' pulpit. On Christmas Day, the Auxiliary Bishop of Wrocław, Tylmann Wessel, decided to preach about the peace of the Church, threatened by the Hussites, and the role King Sigismund of Luxembourg would play in establishing peace. Therefore, the subject of the presentation will be an analysis of Bishop Wessel’s Christmas sermon and its political message.
2025-09-19 09:30-10:00, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
The subject of the paper are two sermons by Stanisław of Skarbimierz (ca. 1365-1431), the first rector of the University of Krakow renovated in 1400, a canon of the Wawel cathedral chapter, a lawyer and politician educated at the University of Prague, known, among others, because he delivered a sermon at the funeral of Jadwiga of Anjou. In these sermons, Skarbimierczyk develops the thesis that all power comes from God, formulates the ruler's duties, emphasizing that disregarding them will be punished at the Last Judgment. His considerations convey the image of a good and evil ruler and a state similar to the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church. The ruler, as the head of this body, should pour life forces into its members, which are subject to them. He can do this by offering them advice that comes from pious meditation. The sermons mentioned above come from the Sermones sapientiales.
2025-09-19 15:30-16:00, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
One of the unpublished sermons of the abbot of the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in Sagan, Ludolph (d. 1422), from a series based on the words of Mt 16:19 (“Quodcumque ligaveris super terram”) is part of the ecclesiological discourse of the era of the deep crisis of the Church caused by the Great Western Schism. The sermon is a voice in the polemic against Churchmen who, in their criticism, belittle the Church's position in the world and equate or subordinate it to the Empire. The paper will present argumentation appearing in the sermon for the superiority of spiritual over secular power, including, among other, an interpretation of the idea of the primacy of the pope or theory of translatio imperii. Ludolf uses arguments taken from the Bible, the provisions of canon law and references to knowledge of historical events and figures.
2025-09-19 16:00-16:30, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
In the juridical procedure in matters concerning the purity of faith, the sermon played an important role and was considered an effective tool in the fight against heresy. Preaching a public sermon was the first stage of undertaking inquisitorial activities. The trial also ended with a solemn sermon, called sermo generalis, immediately followed by the reading of the verdict and the abjuration of the accused or the surrender of the convict to secular authorities. They were preached in parish or cathedral churches, depending on the importance of the matter. Their authors were not always the inquisitors conducting the proceedings, but they were people who were well acquainted with the case. The sermo generalis began by emphasizing the authority of the Church, followed by a polemic against all the erroneous views of the accused. Only a few such sermons are known from the Gniezno metropolis, because they were not recorded in the Inquisitorial protocols.
2025-09-19 12:00-12:30, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
In the Wrocław University Library, a 14th-century manuscript known as Liber de natura rerum is preserved under the shelf-mark R 174. Its author was Thomas of Cantimpré, a 13th-century Dominican. The opus vitae of this theologian, completed around 1245, was extremely popular in the Middle Ages. This is evidenced by the fact that over 220 manuscript copies of the work have survived to this day. On folio 51rb of the Wrocław codex, there is an entry titled De anabulla sequitur, and the illuminator, in depicting the animal described, portrayed a creature resembling an elephant, even though Thomas’s description does not in any way suggest that this mammal is being referred to. An analysis of the entry suggests that it actually describes a giraffe. The inclusion of a giraffe in an encyclopedia that served as a resource for medieval preachers in composing sermons is linked to the gifting of this animal to the courts of rulers such as Frederick II II Hohenstaufen, Manfred, and Alfonso X.
2025-09-19 17:00-17:30, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
The aim of the paper is to present the profiles of Dominican preachers who performed their duties in the St. Jabob convent in Sandomierz. The source base for the 15th century will be mainly the files of provincial chapters, and for the beginning of the 16th century also the files of the Sandomierz consistory and the city books of Sandomierz.
2025-09-19 13:00-13:30, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of Krakow preaching in the Middle Ages, particularly its panorama in the 15th and early 16th centuries. In the late Middle Ages, Cracow was the largest ecclesiastical center in the Kingdom of Poland. The mendican monasteries of the Dominicans, Franciscans and Franciscan Observants, as well as the University of Krakow, played a special role in the development of preaching in the Krakow tri-city. Until the beginning of the 15th century, the Dominicans and Franciscans also provided preaching services at the cathedral and the monarchical court at Wawel Castle. After them, this ministry was taken over by professors of Krakow University. Their preaching activities and works were very diverse, aimed not only at the elite circles (court, church, intellectual), but also at the broad strata of society.
2025-09-19 10:00-10:30, Instytut Kultury Europejskiej UAM, 1.34
