Святой благоверный князь Александр и папская курия || Saint right -believing prince Alexander and the papal curia
This article focuses on attempts of the Papal Curia to establish contacts with the Prince of Novgorod and subsequently the Grand Prince of Vladimir Alexander Nevsky, as Eastern Europe suffered devastating invasion of Mongols and the impending establishment of their domination. At the Council of Lyo...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakulta
2017-06-01
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| Series: | Prague Papers on the History of International Relations |
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| Online Access: | https://praguepapers.ff.cuni.cz/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2017/09/Dana_Pickova_38-50.pdf |
| Summary: | This article focuses on attempts of the Papal Curia to establish contacts with the Prince of Novgorod
and subsequently the Grand Prince of Vladimir Alexander Nevsky, as Eastern Europe suffered devastating invasion of Mongols and the impending establishment of their domination. At the Council of Lyon in 1245 the papacy presented the idea of assisting Russian princes against the Mongolian
conquerors. However, this plan was tied to a rather fantastical project of a Catholic mission to Orthodox Russians which would have enabled mending of the East-West Schism. In addition, the Russian principalities were to fulfil the role of a defensive barrier intended to prevent another Mongolian invasion to the West. While Daniil Romanovich, the Prince of Galicia-Volhynia, accepted Pope’s
offer, temporarily converted to Catholicism and was subsequently crowned a king, Alexander denied a similar offer of pope Innocent IV to become a Catholic. The author’s aim is to adjust the traditional image of Alexander Nevsky as a rigorous defender of Orthodoxy and intransigent enemy of
both the Catholicism and a church union. Alexander was a rationally thinking and pragmatic politician and did not decline dealing with Catholics solely for their different religious beliefs. Naturally,
the Grand Prince was a proponent of Orthodoxy, cooperated extensively with the Russian Orthodox Church and the idea of a church union was inadmissible to him. The reasons for Alexander’s
behaviour did not stem merely from confessional differences but rather had their own political dimensions. The alliance with the Papal Curia was simply of no value to Alexander. Firstly, the assistance offered by the Pope never materialized — as Daniil had to painfully experience. Secondly, the
Grand Prince could not have foreseen what kind of relation between the emerging Horde and Russian principalities would have developed, and therefore decided to pursue the policy of non-resistance towards the Mongols. |
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| ISSN: | 1803-7356 2336-7105 |