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The number of writers surrounding king John III Sobieski included Jan z Wielomowic Gawinski, the author of Clipaeus Christianitatis [...] to jest Tarcz chrzescijanstwa (Clipaeus Christianitatis [...] i.e. Shield of Christianity) written in the years 1680-1681 and preserved as a manuscript. The motive of the shield is common for Gawinski's work and other texts of the late-17th-century occasional political literature. At that time, the associations were obvious: the coat-of-arms of the Sobieskis (Janina or Pole) was a bare shield, while the military leader provided defence (i.e. the shield) of Sarmatia against the Turk and Tartar threat.
The beautiful, gilded shield, which historians believe to date back to the 16th century, is currently in the keeping of the Czartoryski Museum (National Museum in Krakow). It presents the famous battle between Emperor Constantine with Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius by the Milvian (Mulvian) Bridge in 312 AD - the battle which was decisive for the victory of Christianity over pagan religions.
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