Rec. mat. z konf. "Religijność - wymiar prywatny i publiczny", Kraków, 15.12.2006 r. Streszcz. ang. przy art.

In the 15lh century the most important institutions of the Medieval world underwent a severe crisis. The decline in the role and meaning of the Holy See was induced mainly by the Avignon Papacy and later on by the Great Schism. The situation at the time was also influenced by the incessant wars in Europe and by numerous fundamental plagues. Not only the social but also the moral and religious order was broken. The near end of the world was widely excepted. No other era instilled into people the persistent notion of death in the manner that the 15lh century did. The preachers prepared them for the end of the world, for the return of Christ; they forced them to repent and to live in peace. In these circumstances, new humanistic trends developed. Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, was the most important representative of the new religious movements. The author of the article presents several concise biographical notes of the figures he considers the most influential as far as the religiosity of the time is concerned, i.e. Vincentius Ferrerius, Bemardine of Siena, John of Capistrano and Enea Silvio Piccolomini. He focuses on Piccolomini and realises that humanism, which consisted in slow departing from the scholastic models and from the medieval notion of the world, was paradoxically enhanced by the medieval crisis. With time, this idea led to a number of significant cultural transformations when the individual with his feelings, needs and aspirations was brought to the foreground.