Edited volumes by Radosław Kotecki
This two-volume collection brings together contributions from cultural and military history to of... more This two-volume collection brings together contributions from cultural and military history to offer an examination of religious rites employed in connection with warfare as well as their transformative and power- and identity-building potential across political communities of medieval Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe. Covering the period ca. 900 and 1500, the work takes theoretical, textual and practical approaches to the research on religious warfare, and investigates the connections between, and significance and function of crucial war rituals such as pre-, intra- and postbellum rites, as well as various activities surrounding the military life of individuals, polities, and corporates.
This collaborative collection provides fresh perspectives on Christianity and the conduct of war ... more This collaborative collection provides fresh perspectives on Christianity and the conduct of war in medieval East Central Europe and Scandina-via, investigating the intersection between religion, culture, and warfare in territories that were only integrated into Christendom in the Central Middle Ages. The contributors analyze cultures that lay outside Charle-magne's limes and the frontiers of the Byzantine Empire, to consider a region stretching from the Balkans to the south, through Hungary and the Slavic lands (Poland, Bohemia, Rus), to the Baltic coastline with Polabia, Pomerania, Prussia, and Estonia, and reaching into Scandinavia. The volume considers clerics as military leaders and propagandists, the role of Christian ritual and doctrine in warfare, and the adaptation and transformation of indigenous military cultures. It uncovers new information on perceptions of war and analyzes how local practices were incorporated into clerical narratives, enabling the reader to achieve a complete understanding of the period.
CONTENTS:
Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia: An Introduction -- RADOSŁAW KOTECKI, CARSTEN SELCH JENSEN, and STEPHEN BENNETT
PART ONE: THE CHURCH AND WAR
Chapter 1. The Role of the Dalmatian Bishops and Archbishops in Warfare During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: A Case Study on the Archbishops of Split -- JUDIT GÁL
Chapter 2. Thirteenth- Century Hungarian Prelates at War -- GÁBOR BARABÁS
Chapter 3. The Image of “Warrior- Bishops” in the Northern Tradition of the Crusades -- SINI KANGAS
Chapter 4. Memory of the “Warrior- Bishops” of Płock in the Writings of Jan Długosz -- JACEK MACIEJEWSKI
Chapter 5. Preachers of War: Dominican Friars as Promoters of the Crusades in the Baltic Region in the Thirteenth Century -- JOHNNY GRANDJEAN GØGSIG JAKOBSEN
Chapter 6. Depictions of Violence in Late Romanesque Mural Paintings in Denmark -- MARTIN WANGSGAARD JÜRGENSEN
PART TWO: RELIGION IN WAR AND ITS CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS
Chapter 7. Religious Rituals of War in Medieval Hungary Under the Árpád Dynasty -- DUŠAN ZUPKA
Chapter 8. Pious Rulers, Princely Clerics, and Angels of Light: “Imperial Holy War” Imagery in Twelfth- Century Poland and Rus’ -- RADOSŁAW KOTECKI
Chapter 9. Religion and War in Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum: The Examples of Bishop Absalon and King Valdemar I -- CARSTEN SELCH JENSEN
Chapter 10. Rhetoric of War: The Imagination of War in Medieval Written Sources (Central and Eastern Europe in the High Middle Ages) -- DAVID KALHOUS and LUDMILA LUŇÁKOVÁ
Chapter 11. Civil War as Holy War? Polyphonic Discourses of Warfare During the Internal Struggles in Norway in the Twelfth Century -- BJØRN BANDLIEN
Chapter 12. Martyrdom on the Field of Battle in Livonia During Thirteenth Century Holy Wars and Christianization: Popular Belief and the Image of a Catholic Frontier -- KRISTJAN KALJUSAAR
Chapter 13. Orthodox Responses to the Baltic Crusades -- ANTI SELART
Selected Bibliography
Index
by Radosław Kotecki, Jacek Maciejewski, John S . Ott, Geneviève Bührer -Thierry, Michael Edward Moore, Chris Dennis, Craig M Nakashian, Pablo Dorronzoro Ramírez, Robert Houghton, Monika Michalska, Lawrence Duggan, and Ivan Majnarić 'Between Sword and Prayer' brings together diverse studies on the involvement of medieval Europea... more 'Between Sword and Prayer' brings together diverse studies on the involvement of medieval European clergy in warfare and military activities, spanning a broad geographical range and multiple interpretive perspectives, including legal, literary, historical, and hagiographical approaches.
Papers by Radosław Kotecki
Kwartalnik Historyczny, 2023
This article delves into the Monk of Sázava's narrative, a late twelfth-century continuation of C... more This article delves into the Monk of Sázava's narrative, a late twelfth-century continuation of Cosmas of Prague's chronicle, which recounts the preparations of Prince Soběslav I of Bohemia for the battle of Chlumec against King Lothar III of Germany on 18 February 1126. In particular, the analysis centres on the motif of the lunch (prandium) that the Bohemian ruler is said to have shared with his men shortly before the battle. Through comparative examination and analysis, the article unveils a contrasting perspective. Unlike numerous narratives that castigate rulers for engaging in a meal prior to battle, the chronicler strategically employed this motif to elevate the character of the prince. This elevation was achieved by infusing the lunch with religious overtones.
Keywords: Battle of Chlumec, Monk of Sázava, pre-battle meal, religion and war, Soběslav I of Bohemia, princely feast, medieval historiography.
Religious Rites of War beyond the Medieval West. Volume 2: Central and Eastern Europe. Edited by Radosław Kotecki, Jacek Maciejewski and Gregory Leighton, 289–356. Explorations in medieval culture 24/2. Leiden, Boston MA: Brill, 2023., 2023
Religious Rites of War beyond the Medieval West. Volume 2: Central and Eastern Europe. Edited by Radosław Kotecki, Jacek Maciejewski and Gregory Leighton, 77–139. Explorations in medieval culture 24/2. Leiden, Boston MA: Brill, 2023, 2023
Continuation or Change? Borders and Frontiers in Late Antiquity and Medieval Europe: Landscape of Power Network, Military Organisation and Commerce. Edited by Gregory Leighton, Piotr Pranke and Łukasz Różycki, 206–37. Abingdon, New York: Routledge, 2023
The chapter traces military service of Polish episcopacy to Piast monarchy until the early thirte... more The chapter traces military service of Polish episcopacy to Piast monarchy until the early thirteenth century. It challenges the view that the service developed within a locally defined system of “ducal law”. Instead, proposes to see it as a result of the adaptation of western patterns. It is not only the reception of the servitium regis, however. Bishops’ service should be seen as an activity multidimensionally adjusted to the functional and ideological structures of the monarchy.
Skryptorium. Prace historyczne ofiarowane Profesorowi Tomaszowi Nowakowskiemu, eds. Dariusz Dąbrowski, Dariusz Karczewski, and Marek Zieliński (Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego, 2021), pp. 231–60., 2021
In the article the author examines the question of the legitimisation of military activities of t... more In the article the author examines the question of the legitimisation of military activities of the Piasts by Polish bishops in the period preceding the intensification of the autonomisation of the Polish episcopate vis-à-vis the monarch. The question emerges from the recent research into the links between the Church of the Piast era and warfare, which demonstrate that warrelated military activity of prelates was shaped until the 1200s by the rules of public service in line with the model of a state (monarchical) Church. At the same time scholars conducting that research argue that the military duties of the clergy should no longer be viewed as stemming only from being rooted in the political system of the day and the rules of feudal service. The present article provides additional arguments in favour of such a view, with the author also suggesting that the religious dimension of bishops’ wartime service — highlighted in the sources — should not be treated as dictated only by the Church’s pastoral mission or inspired by the crusading ideology. Instead, the author proposes that the bishops’ warfare-related religious activities, especially their efforts to present the monarchs’ military endeavours as having a religious nature, be regarded as an integral part of public service. Such a perspective makes it possible to define the activities of Polish bishops as a phenomenon drawing on models of Carolingian origin and requiring the clergy to place the wars waged by monarchs in a unique context of religious ideas and to build an ideological integrity of the body politic in the face of military actions.
Przegląd Historyczny, 2020
In the article the author examines the question of the legitimisation of military activities of t... more In the article the author examines the question of the legitimisation of military activities of the Piasts by Polish bishops in the period preceding the intensification of the autonomisation of the Polish episcopate vis-à-vis the monarch. The question emerges from the recent research into the links between the Church of the Piast era and warfare, which demonstrate that warrelated military activity of prelates was shaped until the 1200s by the rules of public service in line with the model of a state (monarchical) Church. At the same time scholars conducting that research argue that the military duties of the clergy should no longer be viewed as stemming only from being rooted in the political system of the day and the rules of feudal service. The present article provides additional arguments in favour of such a view, with the author also suggesting that the religious dimension of bishops’ wartime service — highlighted in the sources — should not be treated as dictated only by the Church’s pastoral mission or inspired by the crusading ideology. Instead, the author proposes that the bishops’ warfare-related religious activities, especially their efforts to present the monarchs’ military endeavours as having a religious nature, be regarded as an integral part of public service. Such a perspective makes it possible to define the activities of Polish bishops as a phenomenon drawing on models of Carolingian origin and requiring the clergy to place the wars waged by monarchs in a unique context of religious ideas and to build an ideological integrity of the body politic in the face of military actions.
Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia. Edited by Radosław Kotecki, Carsten S. Jensen and Stephen Bennett, Leeds: Amsterdam University Press; Arc Humanities Press, 2021, pp. 159–88, 2021
The essay discusses two narratives from Poland (Master Vincentius’s Chronica Polonorum) and Kieva... more The essay discusses two narratives from Poland (Master Vincentius’s Chronica Polonorum) and Kievan Rus (Povest Vremennykh Let), which present some local ideas of how holy war against pagans was to be conducted. It shows that both narratives employ the established imagery of sacred war of Christian emperors manifested in Old Testament overtones, impressive rituals of departure for war (profectio bellica), clerical guidance of the campaigns, as well as the image of Angel of Light or Victory leading rulers and their armies to triumph over the enemies of God.
Kwartalnik Historyczny, 2020
This article is an attempt to illustrate relations between the theory and practice of the militar... more This article is an attempt to illustrate relations between the theory and practice of the military activity of Polish bishops under the rule of the Piast dynasty. The problem is discussed based on an analysis of the locally formulated ideal of episcopal power and the ideological and legal patterns reaching Poland that regulated the possibilities of using weapons by clergymen, and, in particular, defined the ways in which churchmen participated in wars and in declaring and conducting them.
![Research paper thumbnail of Żydzi, świętokradcy i pokój książęcy. Wokół instytucji protekcji monarszej w Polsce piastowskiej [Jews, perpetrators of sacrilege and ducal peace. On the institution of ruler’s protection in Piast Poland] {PREVIEW}](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/64528681/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Oryginalność czy wtórność? Studia poświęcone polskiej kulturze politycznej i religijnej (X-XIII wiek), eds. Roman Michałowski and Grzegorz Pac (Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2020), 27–75., 2020
Jews, perpetrators of sacrilege and ducal peace. On the institution of ruler’s protection in Pias... more Jews, perpetrators of sacrilege and ducal peace. On the institution of ruler’s protection in Piast Poland.
The article is an attempt to contextualize an institution of Piast rule, in the oldest Polish customary law called “lordly peace” or “the lord’s hand,” and in charters referred to as “the duke’s protection.” It is proposed that the description of Duke Mieszko III’s first Cracow reign included into Chronica Polonorum by Master Vincentius at the turn of 13th century should be considered an important evidence of the ducal peace in Poland. It clearly alludes to the concept of peace as a tool for preventing violence towards those enjoying ruler’s protection. Having analyzed the chronicled examples of punishing the offenders of Jews and other foreigners along with the information about punishing in exactly the same way those committing sacrilege, the author points to analogies between the Piast peace and Western institutions of king’s peace, mundeburdium regis or cyninges handgrið for instance. The inquiry clearly proves conceptual closeness between ducal peace and those phenomena manifesting in connection with the public sphere or monarch’s domain, and most evidently in the involvement of ruler’s officials as well as bishops in maintaining peaces/protections. The observed analogies allow one to conclude that ducal peace in Poland, at least at some stage, was influenced by Western patterns of royal power and justice. This in turn led the author to question the notion favoured in modern historiography, that ducal peace (or mir) as a whole was a relic of the so-called tribal organization.
Episcopal Power and Personality in Medieval Europe, 900-1480, eds. Peter Coss, Chris Dennis, Melissa Julian-Jones, Angelo Silvestri, Turnhout: Brepols, 2020, pp. 35–61 (Medieval Church Studies, vol. 42), 2020
This article deals with the issue of constructing personality of bishops in two historiographical... more This article deals with the issue of constructing personality of bishops in two historiographical works concerning history of Poland, 'Cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum' by Gallus Anonymus (ca. 1115) and 'Chronca Polonorum' by Master Vincentius of Kraków (ca. 1205). It takes up questions, how courage of the bishop was presented in the sources, why and when bishops were portrayed as manly heroes, were there any limits of episcopal courage, why was it inappropriate for a bishop to be a coward? The discussion reveals some important differences of authorial attitudes toward episcopal courage/fearfulness in given chronicles.
Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej, 2018
Quaestiones Medii Aevi Novae, 2016
The article analyses the issue of bishops saying prayers during military actions in the period of... more The article analyses the issue of bishops saying prayers during military actions in the period of early and high Middle Ages. The conducted research proves that the tradition of describing bishops’ prayers during military activities derives from Late Antiquity and its beginnings are connected with the bishops fulfi lling their duty to defend the capital cities of their dioceses. However, at that time the prayer had already been noticed by secular authorities as indicated by the accounts mentioning Constantine the Great using it. E.g. according to the Eusebius of Cesarea the Emperor was aided by bishops’ prayers during his campaigns just like the Book of Exodus says praying Moses was aided by Aaron and Hur during the batt le of Rephidim between the Israelites and the Amalekites. In the Middle Ages this tradition was continued primarily by Carolingian and Ott onian emperors as well as other monarchs emulating the imperial ideology. Starting in the 9th century the texts postulating that the bishops should limit their military activity to prayers were a gaining support. In the next centuries, together with the intensifi cation of the ecclesiastical reform and the endeavor to maximally eliminate military tendencies in the episcopacy, these opinions were expressed in a particular way. The authors of the reformed legal codes, by skillfully selecting older auctoritates, reasoned that bishops’ prayers are an eff ective weapon against both visible and invisible enemies and the Moses’ prayer batt le was seen as a model for bishops’ prayers. This research shows that especially in the 12th century this view was often used in historiographical and hagiographical texts. It resulted with the monarch’s prayer being perceived as less important for the success of a military campaign. A tendency to abandon the “Constantinian patt ern”, which compared praying ordinaries to Aaron and Hur, in favour of an approach valuing bishops’ prayer on its own.
![Research paper thumbnail of Aleksander z Malonne - persona mixta. Wojowniczy biskup na krańcach chrześcijańskiego świata i jego kronikarski portret [Alexander of Malonne – persona mixta: Militant Bishop at the Edges of the Christian World and His Historiographical Portrait]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/55356522/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Studia Źródłoznawcze, 2017
The narration of the Master Vincentius dedicated to Alexander of Malonne (Chronica Polonorum, bk.... more The narration of the Master Vincentius dedicated to Alexander of Malonne (Chronica Polonorum, bk. III, chaps. 8–9), the bishop of Płock (1129–1156) is undoubtedly the most intriguing evidence addressing the commitment of the Polish medieval bishop in military action. Although such information goes well with other evidence indicating the aristocratic style of this bishop’s ministry resembling those of “courtier” Reichsbischof, Michał Tomaszek has already pointed out that motives as well as the entire construction of Vincentius’s story are the evidence of the chronicler’s reference to some early medieval literary patterns. This analysis makes it even clearer, highlighting however, that the chronicler while creating the portrait of Alexander of Malonne entered the more contemporary discourse on the admissibility limits of bishop’s military activity. The analysis shows that the starting point for the chronicler’s writing were the views of Bernard of Clairvaux stigmatizing all the possibilities of combining the attitudes appropriate for a warrior and a cleric. Vincentius, however, benefited from the “loophole” left by Clairvaux abbot and some canonists, which granted the permission to combine these two responsibilities with the restriction that actions taken by bishop would not cause the destruction of his spiritual perfection or pastoral function, and hence they would not change him into a chimera-monster. Being influenced by the idea of bishop as a persona mixta or gemina persona, the theory assuming the possibility of using two kinds of weapon (two swords) by the Church or even some views of St Bernard stated in his Liber ad Milites Templi de laude novae militiae, Vincentius advocated clearly for the possibility of getting the diocesan involved in the military sphere. The applied strategy aiming at the legitimization of Alexander’s actions, reveals Vincentius’s broad knowledge of arguments defending military prerogatives attributed to episcopacy, and says a lot about the chronicler itself, who did not have to be so ardent supporter of the Church reform as it is quite commonly believed.
Kotecki, Radosław, Jacek Maciejewski, and John S. Ott, eds. Between Sword and Prayer: Warfare and Medieval Clergy in Cultural Perspective. Explorations in medieval culture 3. Leiden, Boston MA: Brill, 2018.
Primary source material for the earliest history of the Church in the Piast realm is quite poor ... more Primary source material for the earliest history of the Church in the Piast realm is quite poor in information about bishops engaged in warfare. Only sources from the twelfth century include few but interesting details, namely the two oldest Polish chronicles: The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles by the so called Gallus Anonymous from ca. 1115 and the late twelfth- or early-thirteenth century Chronicle of the Poles by Master Vincentius, the Bishop of Kraków. The activity of two bishops of Płock from the first half of the twelfth century, Simon (d. ca. 1129) and Alexander (1129-56), was characterized there in a more elaborated way, as prelates directly involved in military actions. Their Masovian bishopric which constitutes the very frontier area of the Latin Christendom was exposed to severe attacks of the heathen tribes from the north, Slavic Pomeranians and Baltic Prussians. This peril forced both ordinaries to cope with serious tasks of ensuring the defence of their episcopal town, territory of diocese, the Christian people, and even the entire province of Masovia.
The chronicle accounts suggest that both bishops comply with these tasks, perhaps in close cooperation with the ducal power. The real image of this activity, however, cannot be fully comprehend on the base of these narratives because of attempt by the chroniclers to agree portrays of Simon’s and Alexander’s activities with postulated patterns of proper episcopal action in the context of military warfare that required from the prelates to give up certain behaviors, especially personal and too far going involvement in the armed struggle. The results of acceptance of these requirements by the chroniclers - although of varying scope in both cases - are unrealistic descriptions of bishops’ role in warfare transferring their martial deeds and efforts from the military to the spiritual field, or even internally contradictory, as in the case of Master Vincentius, who called the Bishop Alexander “the lamb and the lion, the wolf and the shepherd of the flock, the bishop and the soldier, armed and religious at the same time.” The purpose of this article is to determine the intellectual milieu of the authors of the oldest Polish historiographical works and their notion on the legitimacy of episcopal military activity as well as their openness to the eleventh- and twelfth-century legal and theological debate on this issue.
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Edited volumes by Radosław Kotecki
CONTENTS:
Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia: An Introduction -- RADOSŁAW KOTECKI, CARSTEN SELCH JENSEN, and STEPHEN BENNETT
PART ONE: THE CHURCH AND WAR
Chapter 1. The Role of the Dalmatian Bishops and Archbishops in Warfare During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: A Case Study on the Archbishops of Split -- JUDIT GÁL
Chapter 2. Thirteenth- Century Hungarian Prelates at War -- GÁBOR BARABÁS
Chapter 3. The Image of “Warrior- Bishops” in the Northern Tradition of the Crusades -- SINI KANGAS
Chapter 4. Memory of the “Warrior- Bishops” of Płock in the Writings of Jan Długosz -- JACEK MACIEJEWSKI
Chapter 5. Preachers of War: Dominican Friars as Promoters of the Crusades in the Baltic Region in the Thirteenth Century -- JOHNNY GRANDJEAN GØGSIG JAKOBSEN
Chapter 6. Depictions of Violence in Late Romanesque Mural Paintings in Denmark -- MARTIN WANGSGAARD JÜRGENSEN
PART TWO: RELIGION IN WAR AND ITS CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS
Chapter 7. Religious Rituals of War in Medieval Hungary Under the Árpád Dynasty -- DUŠAN ZUPKA
Chapter 8. Pious Rulers, Princely Clerics, and Angels of Light: “Imperial Holy War” Imagery in Twelfth- Century Poland and Rus’ -- RADOSŁAW KOTECKI
Chapter 9. Religion and War in Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum: The Examples of Bishop Absalon and King Valdemar I -- CARSTEN SELCH JENSEN
Chapter 10. Rhetoric of War: The Imagination of War in Medieval Written Sources (Central and Eastern Europe in the High Middle Ages) -- DAVID KALHOUS and LUDMILA LUŇÁKOVÁ
Chapter 11. Civil War as Holy War? Polyphonic Discourses of Warfare During the Internal Struggles in Norway in the Twelfth Century -- BJØRN BANDLIEN
Chapter 12. Martyrdom on the Field of Battle in Livonia During Thirteenth Century Holy Wars and Christianization: Popular Belief and the Image of a Catholic Frontier -- KRISTJAN KALJUSAAR
Chapter 13. Orthodox Responses to the Baltic Crusades -- ANTI SELART
Selected Bibliography
Index
Papers by Radosław Kotecki
Keywords: Battle of Chlumec, Monk of Sázava, pre-battle meal, religion and war, Soběslav I of Bohemia, princely feast, medieval historiography.
The article is an attempt to contextualize an institution of Piast rule, in the oldest Polish customary law called “lordly peace” or “the lord’s hand,” and in charters referred to as “the duke’s protection.” It is proposed that the description of Duke Mieszko III’s first Cracow reign included into Chronica Polonorum by Master Vincentius at the turn of 13th century should be considered an important evidence of the ducal peace in Poland. It clearly alludes to the concept of peace as a tool for preventing violence towards those enjoying ruler’s protection. Having analyzed the chronicled examples of punishing the offenders of Jews and other foreigners along with the information about punishing in exactly the same way those committing sacrilege, the author points to analogies between the Piast peace and Western institutions of king’s peace, mundeburdium regis or cyninges handgrið for instance. The inquiry clearly proves conceptual closeness between ducal peace and those phenomena manifesting in connection with the public sphere or monarch’s domain, and most evidently in the involvement of ruler’s officials as well as bishops in maintaining peaces/protections. The observed analogies allow one to conclude that ducal peace in Poland, at least at some stage, was influenced by Western patterns of royal power and justice. This in turn led the author to question the notion favoured in modern historiography, that ducal peace (or mir) as a whole was a relic of the so-called tribal organization.
The chronicle accounts suggest that both bishops comply with these tasks, perhaps in close cooperation with the ducal power. The real image of this activity, however, cannot be fully comprehend on the base of these narratives because of attempt by the chroniclers to agree portrays of Simon’s and Alexander’s activities with postulated patterns of proper episcopal action in the context of military warfare that required from the prelates to give up certain behaviors, especially personal and too far going involvement in the armed struggle. The results of acceptance of these requirements by the chroniclers - although of varying scope in both cases - are unrealistic descriptions of bishops’ role in warfare transferring their martial deeds and efforts from the military to the spiritual field, or even internally contradictory, as in the case of Master Vincentius, who called the Bishop Alexander “the lamb and the lion, the wolf and the shepherd of the flock, the bishop and the soldier, armed and religious at the same time.” The purpose of this article is to determine the intellectual milieu of the authors of the oldest Polish historiographical works and their notion on the legitimacy of episcopal military activity as well as their openness to the eleventh- and twelfth-century legal and theological debate on this issue.
CONTENTS:
Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia: An Introduction -- RADOSŁAW KOTECKI, CARSTEN SELCH JENSEN, and STEPHEN BENNETT
PART ONE: THE CHURCH AND WAR
Chapter 1. The Role of the Dalmatian Bishops and Archbishops in Warfare During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: A Case Study on the Archbishops of Split -- JUDIT GÁL
Chapter 2. Thirteenth- Century Hungarian Prelates at War -- GÁBOR BARABÁS
Chapter 3. The Image of “Warrior- Bishops” in the Northern Tradition of the Crusades -- SINI KANGAS
Chapter 4. Memory of the “Warrior- Bishops” of Płock in the Writings of Jan Długosz -- JACEK MACIEJEWSKI
Chapter 5. Preachers of War: Dominican Friars as Promoters of the Crusades in the Baltic Region in the Thirteenth Century -- JOHNNY GRANDJEAN GØGSIG JAKOBSEN
Chapter 6. Depictions of Violence in Late Romanesque Mural Paintings in Denmark -- MARTIN WANGSGAARD JÜRGENSEN
PART TWO: RELIGION IN WAR AND ITS CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS
Chapter 7. Religious Rituals of War in Medieval Hungary Under the Árpád Dynasty -- DUŠAN ZUPKA
Chapter 8. Pious Rulers, Princely Clerics, and Angels of Light: “Imperial Holy War” Imagery in Twelfth- Century Poland and Rus’ -- RADOSŁAW KOTECKI
Chapter 9. Religion and War in Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum: The Examples of Bishop Absalon and King Valdemar I -- CARSTEN SELCH JENSEN
Chapter 10. Rhetoric of War: The Imagination of War in Medieval Written Sources (Central and Eastern Europe in the High Middle Ages) -- DAVID KALHOUS and LUDMILA LUŇÁKOVÁ
Chapter 11. Civil War as Holy War? Polyphonic Discourses of Warfare During the Internal Struggles in Norway in the Twelfth Century -- BJØRN BANDLIEN
Chapter 12. Martyrdom on the Field of Battle in Livonia During Thirteenth Century Holy Wars and Christianization: Popular Belief and the Image of a Catholic Frontier -- KRISTJAN KALJUSAAR
Chapter 13. Orthodox Responses to the Baltic Crusades -- ANTI SELART
Selected Bibliography
Index
Keywords: Battle of Chlumec, Monk of Sázava, pre-battle meal, religion and war, Soběslav I of Bohemia, princely feast, medieval historiography.
The article is an attempt to contextualize an institution of Piast rule, in the oldest Polish customary law called “lordly peace” or “the lord’s hand,” and in charters referred to as “the duke’s protection.” It is proposed that the description of Duke Mieszko III’s first Cracow reign included into Chronica Polonorum by Master Vincentius at the turn of 13th century should be considered an important evidence of the ducal peace in Poland. It clearly alludes to the concept of peace as a tool for preventing violence towards those enjoying ruler’s protection. Having analyzed the chronicled examples of punishing the offenders of Jews and other foreigners along with the information about punishing in exactly the same way those committing sacrilege, the author points to analogies between the Piast peace and Western institutions of king’s peace, mundeburdium regis or cyninges handgrið for instance. The inquiry clearly proves conceptual closeness between ducal peace and those phenomena manifesting in connection with the public sphere or monarch’s domain, and most evidently in the involvement of ruler’s officials as well as bishops in maintaining peaces/protections. The observed analogies allow one to conclude that ducal peace in Poland, at least at some stage, was influenced by Western patterns of royal power and justice. This in turn led the author to question the notion favoured in modern historiography, that ducal peace (or mir) as a whole was a relic of the so-called tribal organization.
The chronicle accounts suggest that both bishops comply with these tasks, perhaps in close cooperation with the ducal power. The real image of this activity, however, cannot be fully comprehend on the base of these narratives because of attempt by the chroniclers to agree portrays of Simon’s and Alexander’s activities with postulated patterns of proper episcopal action in the context of military warfare that required from the prelates to give up certain behaviors, especially personal and too far going involvement in the armed struggle. The results of acceptance of these requirements by the chroniclers - although of varying scope in both cases - are unrealistic descriptions of bishops’ role in warfare transferring their martial deeds and efforts from the military to the spiritual field, or even internally contradictory, as in the case of Master Vincentius, who called the Bishop Alexander “the lamb and the lion, the wolf and the shepherd of the flock, the bishop and the soldier, armed and religious at the same time.” The purpose of this article is to determine the intellectual milieu of the authors of the oldest Polish historiographical works and their notion on the legitimacy of episcopal military activity as well as their openness to the eleventh- and twelfth-century legal and theological debate on this issue.
An analysis of this narrative conducted on a comparative background shows that the chronicle account essentially proves the chronicler’s attachment to a concrete image of the bishop who would not take part in an armed conflict personally or taint his pastoral mission with a direct contact with secular weapons and warriors, but would stand by his flock fighting the enemy as a miles Christi – with the spiritual weapon appropriate to his clerical order: tears and prayers. Although Gallus does draw in his description on earlier literary traditions of bishops defenders of their episcopal capitals referring back to the early Middle Ages, he builds his vision basing upon contemporary reformatory ideals of religious purity and clerical gentleness, i.e. a vision that adheres to the requirements of the canon law, including a little bit later Decretum Gratiani. Observing the close relationship between the image presented in the account and the late 11th- or early 12th-century reformatory tract De episcopis ad bella procedentibus, it can be concluded that Gallus supported the most radical voices raised against direct engagement of bishops in war, reserving for bishops only the role of the shephards of their flock.
The conducted analysis leads to a conclusion claiming that putting murderers in monastery was the result of a carefully planned decision of the Polish ruler, taking into consideration a number of the factors, including legal requirements. Comparative survey made it possible to find many significant West European analogies to the penance imposed on murderers of Five Martyred Brethern both in normative sources (capitularies, penitentials, canon law colletions, synodal statutes) and those referring to the penitentiary practice of the early Middle Ages. Their confrontation with the account by Bruno of Querfurt demonstrates that the solution accepted by Bolesław the Brave took into consideration regulations known from penitential or canonical tradition condemning the killers of clergymen to life-long penance in a monastery known from the seventh century as servitium Dei. Following their contents, the duke resigned from his original intention to incarcerate the felons in ducal prison or to sentence them to death in favour of chastisement corresponding to standards that should be respected by a Christian ruler. The penalty did not deprive the perpetrators of the perspective of salvation.
The proposed analysis casts a new light not only on the issue of penitential practice during the Early Piast era but also on the wider problem of the application of regulations borrowed from Western culture in the domain ruled by Bolesław the Brave. The article expands heretofore knowledge about the part performed by Duke Bolesław in binding his state with the circle of post-Carolingian Latin civilisation through a conscious acculturation of Christian customs and norms.
The author of the Treatise attempted to achieve this goal by broadening the subject and nature of sacrilege as widely as possible and by intensifying penal sanctions. The first task was realised by referring to Late Carolingian canon tradition represented by the collections of Benedictus Levita and Pseudo-Isidore, which discussed sacrilege extensively and, at odds with tradition, as deeds aimed against material goods belonging to the Church and injuries suffered by members of the clerical estate. The author of the Treatise developed this theory, arguing that arbitrary objects (goods) offered to the Church and not necessarily consecrated should be regarded as sacred and that their violation constituted sacrilege. He placed particular emphasis on securing Church tithes, which he recognised as the most sacred of all property entrusted to the Church, and considered arbitrary embezzlement to cause grave sacrilege. In order to intensify the principle of Church inviolability the author also introduced new terminology for describing sacrilege, which affected the very comprehension of this crime. Instead of a definition concurrent with ancient and early mediaeval tradition, bringing sacrilegium down to the theft of sacred things, he decided to apply the much wider term violatio, which offered a basis for treating almost every deed aimed against the welfare of the Church as the misdemeanour of sacrilege.
The author partially rejected old traditional penalties. According to him, sanctions should be much harsher and correspond better to the socio-political reality in which he lived. It was probably precisely those factors that proved decisive for the popularity of the text for almost the next two centuries.
Those interested in contributing to this project are asked to submit an abstract for a chapter proposal (up to 400 words) along with a short biographical note to the editors of the respective volumes. Proposals are due on 20 April 2023.
PLANNED VOLUMES
• Writing Divine Assistance in War
edited by Tomasz Pełech (University of Warsaw) [email protected]
• Holy Men at War: Latin West, the Mediterranean, and the Near East
edited by Javier Albarrán (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) [email protected]
• Saints at War: Slavic Lands and South Eastern Europe
edited by Boris Stojkovski (University of Novi Sad) [email protected]
• Saints at War: Northern Europe, Scandinavia, and the Baltic
edited by Francesco D'Angelo (Università degli Studi "La Sapienza" di Roma) [email protected]
Volumes will be published within a series “Religion and War in the Middle Ages”, Trivent Publishing
https://trivent-publishing.eu/84-religion-and-war
The series challenges the application of the concepts of cores and peripheries, and both-side transmission of organizational patterns, social customs and religious-ideological concepts. It is intended as a platform to show how the relationship between religion and war has shaped and changed in the process of long duration in a vast territory of medieval world, and how and why it has weakened and faded in some places and gained prominence in others. To date, studies of the relationship between religion and war have been viewed primarily through the paradigms of holy war and crusade, which have proven ideological chameleons difficult to grasp. Rather than applying these largely artificial notions, the works published in this series will show through the lens of sources how, in the historical process, religion, ritual, eschatology and biblical thought have shaped the imaginary and practice of war, and, conversely, how war has determined religious customs, imaginary and rhetoric.
The series welcomes submissions (monographs and edited volumes) on Western Europe and Byzantine world, but is also particularly keen to regions less well studied within the themes of the series, situated in between those great centers of medieval Christianity.