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The Historical Background of the Church Conflict in Great Moravia*

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The Historical Background of the Church Conflict in Great Moravia* The Historical Background of the Church Conflict in Great Moravia* ZDENÈK R. DITTRICH The short but eventful and quite tragic history of the former Slavic church province on the Danube begun with the Christianization of the Slavic people of that region. Therefore, it is desirable to deal first with the question under which circumstances, when, and by whom this religious — and, in a broader sense — sociocultural adaptation-process of the origi- nally purely pagan people was induced. One must start with the fact that the general conditions of Christianization were not always the same. The Slavic immigrants who had settled the former Roman provinces, Noricum and Pannonia, in the course of their migration had more oppor- tunities to absorb the less diffuse elements of the Christian religion, mentality, and way of life than the Slavs living outside the Danube basin. Nevertheless, at least as far as Great Moravia was concerned, there was only a difference in extent. From recent excavations in the neighborhood of the Moravian Stare Mesto and elsewhere, one can draw the conclusion that the Roman influence north of the Danube, as well as subsequent cultural and commercial relationships of this region with the Mediter- ranean-Adriatic area, were quite extensive, much stronger than had been considered possible by previous research.1 The fact that contact with the Christian Romanic or Romanized population of the Danube province and Christendom south of the Alps had an effect also on religious matters can be seen from the fact that the Christian terminology of West and South Slavic languages contains a number of words borrowed from Romance languages which had ap- parently already been taken over at the beginning of the cultural con- frontation. Expressions such as "krii" or "pogan" might have been adopted by Slavs already many years before their conversion to Chris- tianity. Whether and to what extent one can talk of missionary activity * Translated from the German by Frank C. Steiner. 1 J. Poulik, Stan Moravani buduji svuj stdt (Gottwaldov, 1962), 15ff. L. Havlik, Velkd Morava a stredoevropsti Slovane (Praha, 1964), 109ff. The Church Conflict in Great Moravia 1123 with a definite goal from the Roman or Italian side is, of course, a different matter. In an earlier, sixth-century source, the Slavs are men- tioned among the barbarian people in Pannonia which were approached by the mission of St. Martin of Tours.2 Even if one accepts the historicity of this mission without reservation, one must realize that it occurred before the main wave of migrations and that any potential success was definitely annihilated by the stormy events of subsequent times- One can see from other, unfortunately rather sparse, sources that missio. naries from Aquileia and Rome were active from the 7th century among the Slavs on the Adriatic coast. This mission hardly penetrated North of the Drava, in pre-Carolingian times. Lack of written evidence indicates, in my opinion, the true condition. After the peoples' migration, the re- maining Christian population in this region was too weak, isolated, and disorginazed to develop missionary activities among the new settlers. With regard to Christianity south of the Alps, the lack of a political and colonizing drive, as well as considerable linguistic and cultural differences, were a definite hindrance to the development of missionary activity in the countries along the Danube. One can, however, attribute much more significance to the drive towards Christianization when it originated in the barbarian Christian coun- tries of the West. We deal here with the barbarized off-shoot of a tremen- dous missionary movement of the Iro-Scottish monks, which penetrated deep into Middle Europe. St. Columba the Younger had made one of his first aims the conversion of the Slavic pagans, but finally had to abandon his planned trip to Pannonia. About one generation later, shortly before 630, the thought of a Slavic mission was picked up again by St. Amand, the Apostle of Belgium, and was actually carried out. As is mentioned in my recently published book with regard to the life of St. Amand,3 there is an intimate relationship between this attempt at Christianization and the formation of Samo's empire which had occurred shortly before. In addition to the not unreasonable expectation that the subjects of a native Frankish, and probably Christian, ruler could be converted relatively easily, we see here, for the first time, the factor of political pressure. But because he was an exponent of the Frankish in- fluence, St. Amand encountered definite resistance among the Slavs along the Danube. The defeat of King Dagobert at Wogastisburg led to the 1 Versus Martini Dumiensis Episcopi in Basilica (MG AA antiquissimi, VI-2), 195. ' Z. R. Dittrich, Christianity in Great-Moravia (Groningen, 1962), 25ff. Cf. M. tapek, "The First Contact of Czechs with Western Civilization. The Mission of St. Amand in the 7th Century", The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture, ed. M. Rechcigl Jr. (The Hague, 1964), 183ff. 1124 Zdenek R. Dittrich abandonment of this mission, which seems to have been prepared quite inadequately. The Irischberg tradition mentioned by F. Zagiba4 and regarding the Iro-Scottish apostles Marinus and Amianus who were martyred by the Slavs at the end of the 7th century, proves that missionary work along the eastern periphery of the Bavarian region was, even later, still fraught with great danger. The fact that missionaries here encountered a popu- lation whose language and customs were so completely different from the familiar Germanic surroundings was definitely the main reason for their prolonged lack of success. The first to succeed in the Christianization of Slavs living in the neighborhood of Bavaria was the Bishop of Salzburg, St. Virgil (who died 784). He was abbot of St. Peter's Monastery, which after 745 became an active center of systematic missionary activity, as evidenced in the invaluable source, "Conversio Bagoariorum et Caran- tanorum". The Christianization of Slavic Carinthia was not the only accomplishment of the Bavarian missionaries,who were mainly of German descent and tongue, but still bearers of the Iro-Scottish tradition and ideals. There is every reason to believe that they were successful among the Slavs even before the campaigns of Charlemagne against the Avars, which provided a new base, guarded by political power, for the Chris- tianization of the countries along the Danube. In the last decade, his- torical research has pointed out that the Apostolate of the Bavarian Iro- Scots at the end of the 8th century included the heart of Great Moravia on the Morava river.5 Opinions differ greatly, however, regarding individual aspects of this earliest mission among the Moravian Slavs. In the first place, we should mention the hypothesis of J. Cibulka, the eminent Czech art archeologist, whose investigation of the Modra church some years ago stimulated greatly further research.6 Less successful was his attempt to illuminate the activity of the Iro-Scots in Great Moravia. His assumption that these missionaries came from the monastery of Kremsmunster, founded in 777, certainly is not valid, and has been contradicted lately.7 One also must deny the exaggerated view of Cibulka as to the possible area of action 4 "Die bairische Slavenmission und ihre Fortsetzung durch Kyrill und Method", Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas [JGOE], 1961, 5. 6 More in Christianity in Great-Moravia, op.cit. 41 ff., and in research report by F. Zagiba, JGOE, 1961, Iff., and J. Siecklicki, "Wielkie Morawy, przegl^d zrodel i pod- stawowych opracowan", Kwartalnik histor., 1962, 399ff. * Velkomoravsky kostel v Modre u Velehradu a zacatky krest'anstvi na Morave (Prag, 1958). 1 See Zagiba, "Zur Geschichte Kyrills u. Methods u. der bairischen Ostmission", JGOE, 1961,257. The Church Conflict in Great Moravia 1125 of these oldest Moravian missions, especially his statements regarding the activities of the Iro-Scots at Nitra.8 As I have already argued,9 it is not probable that the Iro-Scottish mission north of the Danube had any centers other than the Cella of Modrä. The archeological research of the central settlements in Moravia is not accomplished yet, but results so far are nevertheless clear enough to render untenable the assumption of a relatively large area of influence of the Moravian Iro-Scots.10 In line with my hypothesis regarding the refuge-like and, therefore, isolated character of the Modrä monastic community, I still maintain that the mission could have won for Christianity hardly more than the immediate surroundings of the fortified settlement of the Moravian Stare Mesto.11 The historical significance of the Iro-Scots for the Christianization of the Slavs in Great Moravia can, therefore, be characterized as follows: They were pioneers in the truest sense of the word and successful in introducing the Christian religion, at least locally, but even then to a limited extent. The actual Christianization of Great Moravia was not achieved until much later by the Frankish mission from Passau. Before going into more detail about this phase of development we should discuss the political conditions favorable to the Christianization process. While previous researchers considered Great Moravia of the 9th century as a creation of Mojmir the First — that is, a young state without roots — there is a tendency today to believe that the origin of this empire is much earlier. The Polish historian, G. Labuda, was the first to have considered Mojmir's Great Moravia a direct continuation of the Slavic Empire of Samo (623-658).12 Since the appearance of Labuda's book on Samo, this continuity-hypothesis was considerably strengthened, nay, even confirmed, by the archeological findings in Great Moravia. The archeological sources which pertain to this dark period from 650 to 800 testify to a well-developed state organization which became quite sizeable, with roots which can be shown to go back to Samo's time.
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