Святой благоверный князь Александр и папская курия

• Authors: Picková Dana

Title variants

EN

SAINT RIGHT-BELIEVING PRINCE ALEXANDER AND THE PAPAL CURIA ABSTRACT

• Languages of publication: RU

Abstracts

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.

Keywords

EN

Alexander Nevsky; Daniil Romanovich, the Prince od Galicia-Volhynia; Russian Princes and the Papal Curia; the First Council of Lyon; East-West Schism; Church Union; Mongolian Invasion

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Czech Republic
• Journal: Prague Papers on the History of International Relations
• Year: 2017
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 38-50

Contributors

author

Picková Dana

• Institute of World History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University