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Nasza Przeszłość

Vol. 105 (2006): Our Past

Articles

The fear of the Tatars - God's punishment for the sins of Christians as the cause of religious changes in Lesser Poland in the second half of the 13th century

  • Jarosław Małecki
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.2006.105.247-267  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2006-06-30

Abstract

This article tries to show how the Tartar invasions affected the mentality of the Malopolska people at that time. It describes the terror caused by the cruel invaders and the reception of the theory of paganism - divine punishment for the sins of Christians. It also suggests that this idea did not reach the Polish lands from the West, but from Rus, with which Poland had numerous political and cultural contacts in the 13th century. The horror and recognition of pagan invasions as divine punishment led to an increase in devotion and the adoption of a supplicatory attitude towards the Creator. The attitude described in the earlier Polish chronicles, which saw the reasons for triumph in war in the bravery of rulers, knights and their weapons, became a thing of the past. They began to look to God for support; prayers rather than the courage of warriors were decisive.
The rise of piety is not only noticeable among rulers and knights, but also among the broad masses of ordinary people who, in moments of life-threatening danger, flee into devotion. This is shown by the description of the slaughter of the Sandomierzans in the Ruthenian Latopis. The spontaneous development of the cult of the victims of the Tartar murders, the Sandomierz martyrs, also tells us a lot. Finally, on the basis of hagiographic sources, the reception of the idea of a holy war against the pagans and its implications, i.e. the salvation of the fallen crusaders, in the wider society is presented.

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