Overview

In The Gniezno Summit Roman Michalowski analyses the reasons behind the founding of the Archbishopric of Gniezno during Otto III's encounter with Boleslaw Chrobry in Gniezno in 1000. For Michalowski there were two main reasons. One was the martyrdom of St. Adalbert, the Apostle of the Prussians. His body was buried in Gniezno, which put the Gniezno bishopric on a par with bishoprics founded by the Apostles. This was an important argument in favour of Gniezno being raised to the rank of archbishopric. The other reason was Otto III's spirituality. The emperor was fascinated with the idea of asceticism and abandoning the world. Hence his political programme, the Renovatio Imperii Romanorum, also had religious aims, and Otto tried to support missions among the pagans. To that end he needed an archbishopric on the north-eastern outskirts of the Empire.

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9789004305236

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[This is] a fascinating exploration of politics, church-state relations, and piety in the early Middle Ages. While its title suggests a rather tight focus on a particular moment in Polish history, in fact the book encompasses the Frankish and Saxon worlds of the ninth and tenth centuries, with occasional forays further afield and further back in time. This makes good sense, for the early history of Poland's ecclesiastical development was firmly rooted in larger European conventions and processes. [...] The book deserves a broad readership not only among scholars of Poland's medieval history but medievalists in general. Robert E. Alvis, Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, in: Slavic Review, 76/4 (2017), pp. 1078-1079.

Author Information

Roman Michalowski, Ph.D. (1979), University of Warsaw, is Professor of the Medieval History at that university. He has published monographs and many articles on the Middle Ages, including Princeps fundator (Arx Regia, 1993).

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