When Poland was baptized, fasting in the church was already a developed system of regulations, secured by severe temporal and eternal sanctions. For centuries, pastors have tried to encourage the faithful to refrain from eating meat and dairy products and to eat only one meal a day (apart from a small snack) throughout Lent and on the days preceding Marian feasts. The religious conflict in Poland in the 16th and 17th centuries also affected fasting, which, in the opinion of Protestants, became a poison, not a cure (deprivation of freedom of choice, tasty fish dishes, overeating in the evening, etc.). In the opinion of Catholics, however, it was a measure of loyalty to the Church and respect for its authority. After the fall of the Reformation in Poland, Catholic preachers began to place even greater emphasis on formalism in observing fasting. By absolutizing it and tightening regulations, they almost failed to notice that it triggered mechanisms of social adaptation and weakened the sense of more important moral requirements of being a Christian.