The article is concerned with Judyta, Pojedynek... and Enchiridion militis Christiani…– Potocki’s pieces, and works which inspired the poet to write them. The author focuses on two kinds of fight: spiritual and virtual, and on the characters who engage in the fight. Two kinds of pious knights are distinguished: the allegorical character, created in Pojedynek…and Enchiridion…, based on the Erasmian topos militis Christiani, and the knight of God – disclosed in Judyta, who has nothing in common with that topos. It is pointed out that anti-Turkish elements occur in Enchiridion…. There are also analogies between the protagonists in these works and the knight of Christ from Piotr Skarga’s Żołnierskie nabożeństwo [“Soldiers’ Devotions”]. It is stated that Potocki is Erasmian only to the extent that he refers to Arian ideology, and pious knights show existential dilemmas – especially their care for the country regarding various threats, including the Turks.
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