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Sep. 19th, 2023|02:19 pm |
Vai lietuvieši dabūja kvalitatīvāku kristietību par mūsējo? (retorisks jautājums)
Žemaitijans and the Council of Constance (1416). The Polish-Lithuanian and Teutonic conflict about what sort of Christianity was better.
The complaint, or rather appeal, of the Žemaitijans is a remarkable text. Its authorship is unknown and, in the modern sense, cannot be established because a number of hands must have been at work before the final draft was made ready for use. The text includes a list of complaints levelled against the Teutonic Order in 1407. It includes references to more recent events, but its essence is to be seen in a general appeal of the Žemaitijans to enjoy what today would be called human rights: freedom and right to property. It was the Teutonic Knights who attacked the Žemaitijans in order to subdue and exterminate them. It was they who were eager to enjoy material goods to the full and who neglected taking care of people’s souls altogether. The Teutonic Order was portrayed as an institution driven by mean secular desires, avarice, disregarding totally, as it were, the injunction to love one’s neighbour. The appeal opens and closes with the stated desire of the Žemaitijans to be admitted to the bosom of the Mother Church.
The decision of the Council was made in August 1416. Archbishop John of Lviv and Bishop Peter of Vilnius were authorized to accomplish whatever might be necessary for the conversion of the people and the establishment of Church organization in Žemaitija. The mission to Žemaitija was thus made independent of the claims of the archdiocese of Riga.
/The Conversion of Lithuania. From Pagan Barbarians to Late Medieval Christians, 352-354 |
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