Obrona kultu wizerunków świętych na ziemiach polskich w XV wieku
The Defense of the Cult of the Images of Saints in the 15th Century in Polish Lands

Summary/Abstract: This paper shows the forms of the defence of the cult of holy images in the Roman Church as a response to Hussite accusations of idolatry towards Catholics, who honoured the effigies of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints. In the 15th century in Polish lands, only a few cases of criticism of this form of devotion, or of being suspected of iconoclasm, were known; however, they were treated as a characteristic identification of the followers of radical Hussitism. In those polemics in which the practice of the adoration of holy images was defended (the sermon of Stanisław of Skarbimierz titled Contra et adversus vulpeculas, the anonymous sermon Cum Deus mortem from the manuscript BJ 2332 the question about adoration of images from the manuscript GBK 23), the authors tried to point out the wrong interpretation of the Bible by the Hussites and explained the essence of this practice, paying attention to its educational character for the illiterate and to the significant role it played in portraying God’s majesty on Earth.

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