ABSTRACT
In the closing decades of the fifteenth century, as Turkish attacks increased, the Saxons of eastern Transylvania fortified their churches, and in the larger towns built defensive earthworks, obliging all inhabitants, Saxon and non-Saxon, to take their part in the building works or in transporting stone from the surrounding villages. Surviving wall paintings and altarpieces also emphasize the Virgin Mary, most notably at Birthalm and the Honigberg chapel, the central area of which includes elaborate depictions of the Immaculate Conception and the Coronation. For Lescalopier, Saxon Lutheranism seemed to be simply Catholicism without the Pope. The Pharisee and the Publican offer an even more precise message, and one particularly amenable to a Lutheran interpretation. The Pharisee represents the individual self-confident in his religious status and in the strength of outward acts of religious devotion, while the Publican laments his wretched sinfulness and humbly calls on God for mercy.
