W służbie reformy zakonnej. Schola caelestis exercitii

The purpose of the article is to analyse a small text, known as Schola caelestis exercitii, and to determine a role of this work in a monastic reform conducted in the fifteenth century. The text was probably written in the second half of the fourteenth century in Bohemia and was propagated mainly in the circle of monasteries which were reformed in the fifteenth century and remained in the environment of “new devotion”. One of the messages is contained in a manuscript of the Polish National Library (ref. number 12542 II). The codex was written in the years 1462–1473. It contains a collection of texts which represent the moral theology. The texts were copied primarily by Maciej from Pełczyn and Jan of Kamieniec, the Benedictines of the Holy Cross Abbey in Świętokrzyskie Region. The scribes were connected with an internal reform of his monastery, conducted by the abbot Michał from Kleparz. Duo to a selection of texts, the manuscript served as a self-dependent reading of monks, leading to the spiritual and ascetic progress. The work itself, Schola caelestis exercitii, belonging to the parenetic literature, included general instructions concerning worthy life, and through its universal character it was interesting not only in the monastic environment but also among secular readers. The edition of the text from the Warsaw manuscript has been attached to the article.