Preaching before a Manly King

This article analyses a peculiar misogynist sermon held in 1702 by an unknown, probably Franciscan preacher at the court of Friedrich August, alias August ‘der Starke’, prince-elector of Saxony (r. 1694–1733) and king of Poland (r. 1697–1704/6 & 1709–1733). This sermon, held in the year that Poland faced a Swedish military invasion, laments the many problems of the Polish king and the kingdom of Poland, and puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of the king’s mistresses. This article tries to recreate the immediate context in which this sermon can be situated, and provides an analysis of the argument of the preacher, also as a type of typical anti-feminine discourse in early modern Franciscan pastoral care. At the very end is included a transcript and draft translation of the sermon itself, based on its apparently only surviving text witness included in Ms. iurid. 39 of the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Kassel.