Early Medieval Statehood of Central Europe

While medieval scholarship has focused on the rituals of social interactions in secular and ecclesiastical contexts (i.e. Gerd Althoff, Geoffrey Koziol, Philippe Buc), liturgical texts and their political and societal impacts have not often been included in those studies. This is a problem, since liturgy, in both its codified form and its practical application, was an essential part of medieval societies, and a rich corpus of primary source material on medieval liturgical practices is available to scholars today. Only a few scholars have noticed the significant link between liturgy and politics (i.e. Carl Erdmann, Ernst Kantorowicz, Arnold Angenendt, Michael McCormick, Éric Palazzo, Cecilia Gaposchkin). Therefore, the goal of the proposed session, as well as the society that organizes it (the PSALM-Network), is to deepen the study of liturgy as an integral component of social and political histories.

Papers in this session will therefore investigate the mutually influencing relationship between liturgy and the socio-political by focusing on the concept of identity. Liturgy was a device by which political, social and religious identities were forged, re-created, manipulated and confirmed. Examples include the role of liturgy in shaping political, religious, and social identities in the borderlands of Christianity (Central Europe, Benevento and Spain), as well as in the centers of Latin Christianity (Rome, Reich, Capetian France). Of course liturgy itself was also shaped by political arrangements (i.e. as discussed in the works of Henry Parkes and Éric Palazzo) and this too should be acknowledged and discussed.

Forms of communication of the political elites in medieval Central Europe (Hungary, Austria and the Czech Lands, 1250–1350). The aim of this article is to give an account of the ritualized ways of communication of the ruling communities of the high and later Middle Ages in the Central European region. It focuses on the neighbouring realms of Bohemia, Hungary and Austria in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (c. 1250 – c. 1350). It argues that the ruling communities were formed from diverse political groups, most prominently represented by the ruler and his entourage (dynasty, court) on the one hand and the elites (both lay and spiritual) on the other. The rule (lordship) over a particular realm was a mixture of cooperation , competition and compromise between these groups. Secondly, these political communities therefore felt the constant need for public representation of their status, rank and symbolic role within the society. Effective ways to express belonging to a political group included a range of symbols, gestures and specific rhetoric.

Saint Clement was the Pope of Rome, probably the third after Saints Peter and Paul. He was banished from Rome to Chersonesus (present-day Crimea), where he was martyred. In the 9th century, his relics were found by Saint Constantine-Cyril, who brought them first to Constantinople, later to Great Moravia and finally to Rome.
Dedications of Saint Clement of Rome constitute a distinctive group of the Czech medieval dedications. Very important is the fact, that Saints Cyril and Methodius brought relics of Saint Clement to Great Moravia and that the first known Christian church in Bohemia (at that time a part of Great Moravia) – the church in Levý Hradec, founded by Bořivoj I., the first historically documented Duke of Bohemia – was dedicated just
to Saint Clement. In total, in Bohemia, there exist 15 medieval churches of Saint Clement, in Moravia there are only four. Although there are no direct historical sources (both written and archeological or others) proving their great-moravian age, but the analysis of the location of these churches shows, that all these shrines are situated in the old-settled areas. There are no churches of Saint Clement in those parts of Bohemia and Moravia, which were colonized only during later periods. So we can conclude, that the origins of Bohemian and Moravian cult of Saint Clement are probably really related with the Mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius, although we have to look for the peak of this cult only in the times after the downfall of Great Moravia, maybe in 10th or 11th century.