dr Dorota Gacka

Section 16.: Pulpit and power

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.