Publication details
Svědectví z první ruky? Nad pramennou hodnotou nejstarších vojtěšských legend
| Title in English | First-hand witness? St. Adalbert-Vojtiech- Lives as a source about St. Adalbert Live |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Historia Slavorum Occidentis |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | History |
| Keywords | St. Adalbert; Bruno of Querfurt; hagiography; church history; Přemyslids; 10th century |
| Description | Existing research devoted little attention to chronology of St. Adalbert "escapes" to Rome, and even though they are considered as a key for understanding of his live. On the basis of the critical analysis of the oldest legends and their confrontation with few other data provided by other written sources with the relevant provisions of Canon Law, the author of this paper offers an alternative image of St. Adalberts Live as a bishop of Prague (983-997). The author first demonstrates that St. Adalbert lived in Italy since the second half of 989 until mid 992, and from autumn to June 995 until 996 respectively. He also believes that although St. Adalbert for second time certainly fled from Prague because of imminent danger threatening his whole family, the first residence on the contrary will be better interpreted as a pilgrimage rather than as an escape from the impending conflict. This assumption is based not only on the fact that St. Adalbert clearly states his wish to visit Jerusalem, but on other information: first, we know he had represented the Bishop of Meissen Volkold that would not have been possible without St. Adalbert´s consent; moreover, it proves that he was not going to give up Prague; second, his travel route and relatively late decision to be a monk is another argument. St. Adalbert is often presented as strict church reformer. These attempts to strengthen the independence of his church on Bohemian elites, however, was not necessarily conflicting with the interest of Přemyslid prince to concentrate power. This means that even the earliest tradition about St. Adalbert was substantially influenced by the fact that they both were written after 997 when the links between the bishop and Bohemia were broken and Piast prince Boleslav I (992-1025), one of the supporters of St Adalbert, was crowned in Gniezno. In that time, St. Adalbert was naturally modelled as an ideal monk (by anonymous author of his First Vita) or missionary (by Bruno of Querfurt). |
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