The Gniezno Summit: The Religious Premises of the Founding of the Archbishopric of Gniezno

407 Pages·2016·3.53 MB·English

by  Roman Michałowski

The Gniezno Summit
East Central and Eastern Europe
in the Middle Ages, 450–1450
General Editor
Florin Curta
Volume 38
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ecee
The Gniezno Summit
The Religious Premises of the Founding of the
Archbishopric of Gniezno
By
Roman Michałowski
Translated by
Anna Kijak
Language editor for the translation
Richard John Butterwick-Pawlikowski
LEIDEN | BOSTON
This translation has been funded by the Foundation for Polish Science/Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej.
Cover illustration: Saint Adalbert of Prague, stone well at Saint Bartholomew Basilica, Rome, Tiber Island.
© Photo M. B. Lenzi.
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issn 1872-8103
isbn 978-90-04-30523-6 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-31751-2 (e-book)
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Contents
List of Abbreviations vii
Introduction 1
1 Archbishoprics and Church Provinces in the Early Medieval Latin
Church 8
1 The Emergence of the Archbishopric and the Church Province as
Institutions 8
2 The Ideological Content of the Term Archbishopric 15
3 The Example of Salzburg 42
4 The Example of Passau 55
5 The Example of Benevento 68
6 Summing Up 72
2 The Founding of the Archbishopric of Gniezno: Religious Premises and
Political Consequences 74
1 Introductory Remarks 74
2 An Overview of Events 81
3 Otto III, a Servant of Jesus Christ and Adalbert the Martyr 95
4 St. Adalbert’s Shrine on the Tiber Island 136
5 The Meaning of the Title Archiepiscopus sancti Adalberti 182
6 Bolesław Chrobry as an Imperial Associate 187
7 German Archbishoprics in the Face of Otto III’s Church Policy 206
8 Summing Up 221
3 Otto III’s Political Thought and Spirituality 223
1 Renovatio Imperii Romanorum and its Religious Premises 223
2 The Spirit of Asceticism and Penance 265
3 The King’s Sinfulness in Ottonian Historiography 273
4 Otto III’s Spirituality and Religious Movements in Ottonian
Europe 294
5 Summing Up 329
Conclusion 332
Afterword to the English Edition 340
Bibliography 345
Index 388

List of Abbreviations
Adalberti Vita i Sancti Adalberti Pragensis episcopi et martyris Vita prior.
Edited by Jadwiga Karwasińska. MPH Nova series 4.1.
Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1962.
Adalberti Vita II Sancti Adalberti Pragensis episcopi et martyris Vita
altera auctore Brunone Querfurtensi. Edited by Jadwiga
Karwasińska. MPH Nova series 4.2. Warszawa: Państwowe
Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1969.
BHL Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aeta-
tis, ed. Socii Bollandiani, vol. 1–2, Bruxelles, 1989–1901;
Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis,
wyd. Socii Bollandiani, Supplementi editio altera auctior,
Bruxelles, 1911; Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae
et mediae aetatis, Novum supplementum, ed. H. Fros,
Bruxelles, 1986.
DO I Diplomatum regum et imperatorum Germaniae Tomus I.
Conradi I., Heinrici I. et Ottonis I diplomata. Edited by
Theodor Sickel. MGH Diplomata 1. Hannoverae-Lipsiae:
Hahn, 1879–1911.
DO II Diplomatum regum et imperatorum Germaniae Tomi II.
pars prior. Ottonis II. diplomata. MGH Diplomata 2.1.
Hannoverae: Hahn 1888.
DO III Diplomatum regum et imperatorum Germaniae Tomi II. pars
posterior. Ottonis III. diplomata. Edited by Theodor Sickel.
MGH Diplomata 2.2. Hannoverae: Hahn 1893.
Gall Galli Anonymi Cronica et gesta ducum sive principum
Polonorum. Edited by Karol Maleczyński. MPH Nova
series 2. Cracoviae: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, 1952.
Hariulf Hariulf, Chronique de l’Abbaye de Saint-Riquier. Edited by
Ferdinand Lot. Paris: Picard, 1894.
JE Jaffé-Ewald, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum.
JK Jaffé-Kaltenbrunner, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum.
JL Jaffé-Löwenfeld, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum.
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica.
MGH SS Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores.
MPH Monumenta Poloniae Historica
viii list of abbreviations
Papsturkunden Papsturkunden, 896–1046. 3 vols. Edited by Harald Zim-
mermann. Österreichische Akademieder Wissenschaften,
Phil.-hist. Klasse, Denkschriften 174, 177, 198. Veröffentlic-
hungender Historischen Kommission 3, 4, 5. Vienna: Öster-
reichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1984, 1985, 1989.
PL J.-P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series latina.
Thietmar Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon. Edited by
Robert Holtzmann. MGH SS rerum Germanicarum Nova
series 9. Berlin: Weidmann, 1935.
Vita b. Romualdi Petri Damiani Vita beati Romualdi. Edited by Giovanni
Tabacco. Fonti per la storia d’Italia 94. Roma: Istituto
Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, 1957.
Vita Richarii I Vita Richarii sacerdotis Centulensis primigenia. Edited by
Bruno Krusch. MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 7,
444–453. Hannoverae-Lipsiae: Hahn, 1920.
Vita Richarii II Vita Richarii confessoris Centulensis auctore Alcuino. Edited
by Bruno Krusch. MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 4,
389–401. Hannoverae-Lipsiae: Hahn, 1902.
Widukind Die Sachsengeschichte des Widukind non Korvei. In Quellen
zur Geschichte der sächsischen Kaiserzeit. Edited by
Albert Bauer and Reinhold Rau. Ausgewählte Quellen zur
deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters 8, 1–183. Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1971.
Introduction
The year 1000 or, to be more precise, the era which it symbolizes,1 has proved to
be a constant source of fascination for French historians for nearly 200 years.
Initially, the source of their fascination lay in les terreurs de l’an Mil, the fear of
the end of the world, which people allegedly felt at the turn of the millennium.
Theologians living in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, guided by a
rather vague passage from the Book of the Revelation (20:1–10), were inclined
to believe that the second coming of Christ would happen one thousand years
after his Birth (or Death and Resurrection),2 Bearing this in mind, in the 19th
century and later some historians closely studied sources from the 10th and 11th
centuries, trying to find any traces of an apocalyptic mood. There were even
medievalists claiming that people living at the turn of the millennium were
convinced that doomsday was near and, as a result, became almost hysterical.3
Unlike their 19th-century predecessors, modern French historians usually
reject such views, leaving the fascination with the “terrors of the year 1000”
to their American and German colleagues. Nevertheless, the year 1000 has
remained an important topic for French medievalists for more fundamental
reasons than before. The discussion is now focused on the nature and speed of
changes leading from the institutions of the Carolingian era to the institutions
of the High Middle Ages.4 According to one view, which was universally accepted
until recently, around 1000 there came a profound breakthrough, which
some even describe as a revolution: old, that is, Carolingian, socio- political
institutions, based on the public authority of counts acting on behalf of the
1  A pan-European panorama of the century ending in 1000 has recently been presented in
Henryk Samsonowicz, “Długi wiek X”. Z dziejów powstawania Europy, Mała Biblioteka PTPN
8 (Poznań: Poznańskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk, 2002). I should also mention a work
which forty years ago provided an excellent summary of the state of research into the
topic in question at the time: L’Europe aux IXe–XIe siècles. Aux origines des Etats nation-
aux, ed. Tadeusz Manteuffel and Aleksander Gieysztor (Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo
Naukowe, 1968).
2  Richard Allen Landes, “Millenarismus absconditus: L’historiographie augustinienne et le mil-
lénarisme du Haut Moyen Age jusqu’en l’an Mil,” Le Moyen Age 98 (1992): 355–377.
3  Among the vast literature on the subject, see e.g. Richard Allen Landes, Relics, Apocalypse
and the Deceits of History. Ademar of Chabannes 989–1034 (Cambridge and London:
Harvard University Press, 1995); Sylvain Gougenheim, Les fausses terreurs de l’an Mil ([Paris]:
Picard, 1999).
4  Christian Lauranson-Rosaz, “Le débat sur la ‘mutation féodale’: état de la question,” in Europe
around the Year 1000, ed. Przemysław Urbańczyk (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo DiG, 2001), 11–40.
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