Molanus argues that painters should follow the ancients and depict persons true to the harmony of their silhouette, size, and colour.

The Luterans contest images of saints

The Frenchman Joan de Momas described the saints’ lack of power.

The Frenchman Matheo Carreras criticized the saint’s images, stating that those which are in the church “are nothing but sticks”.

Juan de la Fuente affirmed that for testing the power of the saint – that is, to believe in “those stick saints” – the person should take the object to a river and if the saint went upriver he could well believe in him, and if not “he was a piece of the stick”.

A certain Beltrán de la Borda was accused of despising images because he said that the friends of the carvers and makers of saints were “guitones”

Molanus argues that saints should not be adorned with profane or ungodly elements, nor should they have the faces of people who are still alive.

Molanus condemns introducing lasciviousness and infamity in paintings of holy subjects as an act of blasphemy.

Molanus discusses the question of the placement of a saint in an artwork and the assumed correspondence to its position in heaven, but he argues that one should not worry too much about this.

Molanus pleads that the position of saints in painting should not lead to discussion and debate.

Molanus argues that because of the large number of saints, it is advisable to write their names as captions in the paintings.