17
The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages Adolf Provazn With &talilade delic~t~dto P~qf~s~orRidtatd Vaa&~a The work of the Irish or Iro.Scottish, mbs~om',ries on the continent of Europe in the ~]~r~' ]~'0 e~i;hth centuries is weU known, An attempt i~ made here to show how the characteristic design of early Celtic churches found its way partly via Bavaria, where for example the Irishman Virgil became bishop of Salzburg in the mid.eighth century, into Moravia, along with other Iro-Scottish cultural influences, a century or so before the well-known Christianizing mission launched into that area from Byzantium by the two brothers SS Cyril and Methodius, in 863.* To speak about an influence from the British Isles in the early middle ages reaching as far as central Europe and even becoming evident in the histery of an early state, the Great Moravian Empire, would seem illusory. New discoveries from the Great Moravian period in the eighth and ninth centuries have, however, showm~ this Empire in a new light, and the link with the British Isles has become more apparom. After the common Celtic past shared by cevtral European countries and the British Isles, England was settled by the Anglo- Saxons while the Celtic Briton,~ migrated to the west and north of the country. At approx- imately the same time the central European countries, after a Germanic interlude, were permanently settled by the Slavs, who soon fo~med states of their own. One of these was Great Moravia, which arose perhaps as early as the eighth century, at a time when various missionaries from the British Isles had found their way as i~ar as these Slav countries of central Europe. Celtic Christianity wanifested itself dis- tinctively in the techniques of ecclesiastical architecture, which differed from those of the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and pre-Romanesque styles on the continent. The characteristic feature of the Celtic sacral edifice was a nave of oblong ground plan with a rectangular presbytery. At the time of Augustine's mission to Britain in 597, Iri,~h missionaries, who evidently had among them specialists acquainted with building techniques and masonry, we~'e erecting cLurches first of wood (Clapham 1969: 17), later of stones laid dry on each other in such a way that the side walls succL~fively converged in a so.called false vauh, d ceiling, the presbytery not oeing separated at that time. Later on, the stones were joined with mortar, the rectangular grow,d plan was preserved but the rectangu- lar a~ d elongated presbytery became separa- ted A~ ~ther characteristic of these Iro-Scot~ish build ags was a presbytery partially closed by a narrow triumphal arch through which only a narrow passage was left. The oldest variant of such churches had the presbytery of the same width as the nave and from the outside Journal of Medieval I-Ii#tory 5 (1979):97-113. (~ North-Holland Pub!L, hing Company 97

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Page 1: The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

Adolf Provazn

With &talilade delic~t~d to P~qf~s~or Ridtatd Vaa&~a

The work of the Irish or Iro.Scottish, mbs~om',ries on the continent of Europe in the ~]~r~' ]~'0 e~i;hth centuries is weU known, An attempt i~ made here to show how the characteristic design of early Celtic churches found its way partly via Bavaria, where for example the Irishman Virgil became bishop of Salzburg in the mid.eighth century, into Moravia, along with other Iro-Scottish cultural influences, a century or so before the well-known Christianizing mission launched into that area from Byzantium by the two brothers SS Cyril and Methodius, in 863.*

To speak about an influence from the British Isles in the early middle ages reaching as far as central Europe and even becoming evident in the histery of an early state, the Great Moravian Empire, would seem illusory. New discoveries from the Great Moravian period in the eighth and ninth centuries have, however, showm~ this Empire in a new light, and the link with the British Isles has become more apparom.

After the common Celtic past shared by cevtral European countries and the British Isles, England was settled by the Anglo- Saxons while the Celtic Briton,~ migrated to the west and north of the country. At approx- imately the same time the central European countries, after a Germanic interlude, were permanently settled by the Slavs, who soon fo~med states of their own. One of these was Great Moravia, which arose perhaps as early as the eighth century, at a time when various missionaries from the British Isles had found their way as i~ar as these Slav countries of central Europe.

Celtic Christianity wanifested itself dis- tinctively in the techniques of ecclesiastical architecture, which differed from those of the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and pre-Romanesque styles on the continent. The characteristic feature of the Celtic sacral edifice was a nave of oblong ground plan with a rectangular presbytery. At the time of Augustine's mission to Britain in 597, Iri,~h missionaries, who evidently had among them specialists acquainted with building techniques and masonry, we~'e erecting cLurches first of wood (Clapham 1969: 17), later of stones laid dry on each other in such a way that the side walls succL~fively converged in a so.called false vauh, d ceiling, the presbytery not oeing separated at that time. Later on, the stones were joined with mortar, the rectangular grow,d plan was preserved but the rectangu- lar a~ d elongated presbytery became separa- ted

A~ ~ther characteristic of these Iro-Scot~ish build ags was a presbytery partially closed by a narrow triumphal arch through which only a narrow passage was left. The oldest variant of such churches had the presbytery of the same width as the nave and from the outside

Journal of Medieval I-Ii#tory 5 (1979):97-113. (~ North-Holland Pub!L, hing Company 97

Page 2: The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

Figure 1. Teampull Ronan, North Rona.

the two were difficult to discern. An example of such a sacral building is the church of St P, onan on the island of North Rona (Anderson 1881: 114) of which figure 1 is an outline ground plan.

In a second variant, possibly a later one, the elongated rectangular presbytery was already differentiated. It was narrower than the nave. Such a ground plan is seen in the British church at Glastonbury in England, originally made of wood, then of stone (Clapham 1969:47-9, fig. 16).

This church was often added to and built over. The oldest part is the nave, which did not have a presbytery. In the sixth century a narrow rectangular presbytery was added, which, about the year 700, was considerably enlarged and served as the narthex of a re-

Figure 3. St Gwythian% Cornwall.

built larger church on the eastern side, the presbytery of which was again of the same width as the nave, following thus the older models. Other changes were made as late as the year 950. Another example of a building of this type is the sixth-century church of St Gwythian in Cornwall, which was built of stones laid dry on each other, its ground plan being rectangular (Cibulka 1958: 83).

From the seventh century, mortar was used for joining stones together; in other respects, however, the appearance and ground plan of the earlier Celtic churches was preserved. Thus in Kent, which was converted to Christi- anity by the Roman mission of St Augustine, and which has given its name to the so-called Kentish churches, the church of St Martin at Canterbury, particular sections of which date back to periods from tke sixth to the eighth centuries, was originally built with a rectan- gular Fresbytery rather more akin to the type

G L A S T O N B U R Y A B B E Y Befor Ine - Vetutta Ecclesia and St, David's C h i l l i

Between 700 and 950 ~ I I~ Port icul m ounm. c sso ~ mI i~ ' , "~ ' . ,~ : . lm i im( . : : : . ~ of st. JohnI:.~

; ~ fo.ic., fo,t=u, ! ;"t t~, e,pt%.. 1

0 i I :a I [1 Vott.lIII E¢¢ el e ' of St Mar,,, "~ , Nave Chancel I * I • r t i , o f St Mary "l" . , ; I I ' ~ (St, Da

L...'::~;:',,'~:'-""2~'z.!:.f~J~PortlCUtl i rm~=e~ i : :\'IdP aln :i.I ~I I IIII.'~ .... i Portli:ul I ~ ] J . . . . . I o f I

Figure 2. Glastonbury Abbey, the oldest parts.

98

Page 3: The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

ST. MARTIN CANTERBURY 6th- 7th centuty

L i ' D I | ss #

Figure 4. St Martin's at Canterbury.

usual in Northumbria than to that in Kent (Clapham 1969: 20, fig. 7).

Other similar baildings ofthis kind are: the church at Escombe in Northumbria (Clap- ham 1969:39-40, fig. 13, plate 9), which has been preserved up to the present and which may date from the year 700, consisting of a chancel and a nave of typical rectangular form; the church at Kilmalk~ctar in Ireland, of the seventh century; the .,~t'Jl surviving church at Glendalough in Irel:~ad from the tenth century; and many others.

All these sacral buildings have an oblong nave and rectangular elongated presbytery. They are very similar, and their dimensions are nearly the same as those ofmany buildings discovered in central gurope, including some churches dating from the period of the Great Moravian Empire discovered in recent years, for example at Modr~t near Velehrad and at Mikul6ice, to ahich we shall return.

The so-called Kent ish churches, which were built, as a result of the mission of St Augustine,

U_- Figure 5. The church at Escombe, Durham.

at the beginning of the seventh century, are not connected with earlier Irish and British sacral buildings. They form a homogeneous group, the most important section of which is formed by only six buildings so far in- vestigated: SS Peter and Paur:~, founded in 597; St Mary's, founded in about 620; and St Pancras's, all these being in Canterbury; and further, St Andrew's, Rochester, St Mary's, Lyrdnge, St Peter's, Bradwell, and the remains )f St Mary's at Reculver (Clap- ham 1969:17-29). According to A. W. Clapham the origin of these Kentish churches cannot certainly be identified. They have an apse of sen lcircular shape, as long as it is wide, ~he entrance to which is flanked by two columns iT place of a triumphal arch. Nothing like this can be found either in Rome or aw/where in Gaul, but only in North Afric~, on the western Mediterranean coast, and in Ravenn~ in the sixth century, in churches which are Byzantine (Cibulka 1962: 154-9). In the seventh century, when the Kentish churches were built, Christianity still existed in North Africa and it is possible and indeed probable that with tile mission of Augustine some North Africans may have come to England and acted as intermediaries in transferring this building type to England. After all, in the year 668, Pope Vitalian (657-72) appointed Theodore archbishop of Canterbury, and he was accompanied to England by a Benedictine abbot, Hadrian, his principal collaborator, who was of North African parentage.

To the Kentish type of church belongs a similar building from the later part of the seventh century, the church at Brixworth, Northants, which is the most admirable and b,~st-preserved building of that century north o~ the Alps (Clapham 1969:33-3, fig. 11,

99

Page 4: The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

~- 110 0 10 20 f:eeI r ...... ~ ~ ,_~,, '~.a . . . . . -, F - - " l I ~ | I I

/ | ! I A i e l a I ~ I i , ~ 0 ~ M e t r e s / / ; ' . . . . =i I I m = ~ m : : = : : : ~ ,-_

::.:ill::::iill:_::lltl:::: I I i A is le J J I ', l l l i l La le 7 lb . c e n t o t V | I

Figure 6. Brixworth Church, Northants.

plate ~). The nave of this church forms an oblong; the presbytew, of the same width, forms a square, to which a narrower apse is added, this being similar to the Kentish churches. The traditional design of the Kentish churche s is apparent; it has been modified, however, by the inland Saxon builders under Irish influence. The Iro- Scottish church ground plan was also osed as late as the tenth century, as for example in the church of St Mary in Castro at Dover (Clapham 1969:99-100, fig. 28 on p. 102, plate 36), which differs only in an adjoined tcansept nave, as do the churches at Hadstock, Lssex, and at Bradford-on-Avon.

Churches in the Iro-Scottish style are also

__N

Figure 7. St Mary's in Castro, Dover.

lm

common on the continent (Cibulka 1958), as has been shown in recent decades by various discoveries from the Atlantic coast to the Rhineland and through Germany as far as Moravia. The fact that some of them are of later origin than the eighth eenu~ D" - whe, the Iro-Scottish were themselves bui ld ing- means that their builders followed tile old Iro-Scottish tradition. Traces of this style have been found in the Alpine lands, in Carinthia, where at the Carinthian castle (Krnsk~ hrad) a church was built ill the lro- Scottish style with a rectangular presbytery, but in an irregular trapezoidal G~rm. It may date from the time of the Iro-Scottish bishop of Salzburg, Virgil (745-84).

Other important monuments of this type of architecture are the church and monastery at Br(~tigny in France, not far from Soissons, which are evidently of British or Iro-Scottish origin. Thi~ is clear from the name itself and from documentary history as welU This British monastery, if we admit it to be such, together with tile church, must be of the fi~t half of the eighth century, because a synod of bishops was held there in 754, in which Pope Stephen I ! I (752-7) also participated. While there he answered various questions raised

100

Page 5: The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

Fi~,Lire 8, S~ Peler's Church at th~ C, ariathian castle (Kr~k~" brad),

by the bishops concerning .,~uch matters as matr imony and baptism, al:~ :I also concluded an alliance with Pippin a:$';fi~lst the Lom- bards. The monastic ehur,ch ia Br~Stigny is very similar to the churches ot' the same lay- out that have been discovered in Moravia, z but it is much larger and protected by stronger walls. The nave al~d the presbytery are typically British and they are separated by a narrowed triumphal arch. On either side of

0 2 4 6 I~ 10m

Figure 9. The 'British' church at Br~tigny, France.

the presbytery, however, are interesting pastophories, a little smaller than the presby- tery itself; this feature occurs very rarely in Iro-Scottish churches.

Another peculiarity of the nave of the church at Br~tigny are the four pillars and two sustaining projections standing out from the wall on the western side, which may have served to support the upper stories, this being usually the case with the lro-Scottish chur- ches which had rooms above the prrslzytery and in some cases also above the nave. 3 Because this church was a large one, the supporting pillars were situated in the nave;in the case ofsmall churche ~ there,a as no need of them. There is some similarity between the tbur pillars at Br~tigny and the remnants of the four pillars which were found in the church at Modnl in Moravia (fig. 10, below). The two churches differ from each other only in size and in the absence of pa3tophories in the Moravian church. The ques: ion, however, is whether or not the pillars inside the nave of the church at Modrh formed • t Jmponent part of the original building. Tt ey may have supported some upper rooms ab,~ve the nave, although, because of the small size of the building, these were by no me,~s necessary. According to V. Richter (1!~65), the four supports are in no way connecled with the buildblg itself, nor do upper rooms seem strvcturally probable. In his opinion these supports may have been older than the church and they may have been removed when it was built. This belief is based on various finds of fragments of wall and mortar, coming perhaps from those supports, under the level of the church pavement. The foundations ofthe supports, again in Richter'~ opinion, were only stone 'feet' supportil.g large wooden beams, which tbrmed part of

I01

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an older wooden building that may have stood on this spot. The oldest graves seem to date from the beginning of the ninth century, and thus probably date back to the original wooden building.

There is another peculiarity which appears - or, according to some historians, only seems to appear - in the sacral buildings of the Iro- Scottish. This is a particular stone wall occurring in front of the triumphal arch and so separating the nave from the entrance to the presbytery. It does not occur in all Celtic churches, only in some monastic ones, for example at Kildare in Ireland, a convent church of the seventh century, and in the Benedictine monastery of Wearmouth in England. This stone cross-piece looks like an oriental icc, nostasis but it differs from it a great deal. The iconostasis closed all the space in front of r.he altar, the door in it was in the middle, and it was constructed mainly of wood. In these Celtic, and even in isolated Anglo-Saxon cases, this special wall is made of stone and closes off only the central part of the entrance to the presbytery, leaving the access free on either side from the nave into the presbytery. This cross-piece seems to have been designed to provide separate access into the nave, in monastic churches, for clergymen and laymen on one side and for nuns and laywomen on the other.

Similar cross-pieces in front of the presby- tery have been discovered in some excavated Moravian churches; for example, in the church at Modr~t near Velehrad. According to Cibulka (1958: 112-3) this is evidence of Iro-Scottish building usage. The same author also suggests that this church, because of the two different access points to the altar, could have been monastic. But there is no evidence for this surmise, nor have any traces of a

Figure 10. The church at Modr~, Moravia.

monastery been discovered in the immediate surroundings of the church. Against Cibulka (1958:111-2; 1966:103-5) it has been argued, notably by Vil6m Hrub~ (1964 and 1966) - who dated the church from grave finds to the early ninth century- ,J . Potmourn~ (1961 and 1963) and V. Richter (1965), that the cross- piece in the form of a letter T in front of the presbytery merely represents an excavation made there in 1911 byJ. Nevt~fil; admittedly it was in an odd place, but perhaps he was looking for the grave of St Methodius? Jaroslav BOhm (1959:273-84) did not believe this, though he could not confirm ~hat the cross-piece was an Iro-Scottish monastic feature. However, the possibility cannot be eliminated that there may have been com- munities both of monks and nuns living in various places in the neighboufl, ood, using the one church in common, ssith special entrances to the presbytery for each com- munity and separate places in the nave. Moreover, that this cross-piece i~ a genuine architectural feature is borne out by the fact that traces of it have been found in several other Great Moravian churches (Cibulka 1966).

Wc now turn our attention to tile a c t i v i t i e s

of the Iro-Scottish missions and their pene- tration into Bavaria. Already in the old Roman provinces of gaetia and Noricum, which were in the immediate neighbourhood

102

Page 7: The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

of later Great Moravia, Christianity had struck deep roots. After the fall ofthe Western Roman Empire, the Romance inhabitants mostly retired from these lands to the south, and they were settled by Heruli, Lombards and, from the beginning of the sixth century, by Bavarians. Towards the end of the sixth century they came under the supremacy of the Frankish Empire. Having settled in Raetia and Noricum, the Bavarians, under pressure from the Avats, evacuated the eastern part of Noricum, into which Slav tribes penetrated. They accepted Chri~;tiaaity partly from the remaining Roman or ~oman- ized inhabitants, who still existed tspecially in the mountains, partly fi'o~n the lYankish Empire through the activit:ies of t',e Iro- Scottish missionaries. These activities were started ~s early as in the ¢~:venth century by the monks of Columban'~ t~'~der and con- tinued by their followers; C~tt~.~ban's succes- sor, Eustasius, probably founded the oldest Bavarian monastery, at Weltenburg near i~egensburg, in about 620.

Wandering Iro-Scottish bishops were soon engaged in missionary activities in and around Bavaria. Thus, in the mid-seventh century, Bishop Emmeram, who was probably of Celtic origin, settled in Regensburg with some Iro-Scottish followers and, at the end of the seventh century, Bishop Rupert of Salzburg founded a monastery there for himself and his disciples. He was followed in the early eighth century by other Irish bishops. At this time the Bavarian dukes were trying to diminish their political dependence on the Frankish Empire; they made efforts to replace Frankish ecclesiastical influence ~ which appeared for exan~ple in the spread of the Gallican liturgy ~nd Frankish ecclesiastical organization - and to encourage Roman

influence from Aquileia, to which diocese the Danubian Roman provinces were originally subordinated. Thus Duke Theodo of Bavaria (690-718) applied to Pope Constantine (708-15) for help in the Roman organization of the Bavarian church. His message is rather reminiscent of the similar petition of the Moravian ruler Rostislav; ttle motives may have been similar as well. Things were settled under the next Pope, Gregory II (715-31), who was known as a supporter of the Irish ~nd later Anglo-Saxon missions in German coun- tries, and who especially favoured the ntis- sionary work of St Boniface. Gregory II issued instructions in 716 concerning the organiza- tion of ecclesiastical affairs in Bavaria, which had, later on, a considerable importance in Moravia. The aim of these instructions was the establishment of an independent church province with one metropolitan and several suffragan bishops, which was to be indepen- dent of the Frankish organization. However, the mayo~" of the palace, Charles Martel, thwarted these plans and strengthened the political and ecclesiastical depe~ldence of Bavaria on the Frankish Empire. Hore Iro- Scottish missionaries arrived at this time, for example Bishop Corbinian a~ld Bishop Vivilo, the latter being possibly of Anglo-Saxon origin. He resided about 731-9 in Passau, having been appointed and ordained by Pope Gregory IlI (731-41). St Boniface installed new Anglo-Saxon bishops, John at Salzburg, Gaubald at Rcger~sb~rg, and Erembert at Freising. Only the bi hop ~f Passau, Vivilo, retained his position because he had been ordained by the pope. Furthermore, Bavaria was organized by Bonifac:, in accordance with the four Bavarian duchies, into lbur territorial dioceses, to take the place of the peregrinating bishops without precise

I03

Page 8: The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

demarcation of diocesan boundaries. This organization was finally approved by the pope in 739.

These bishoprics later had a considerable influence ea the Christiani:~ation efforts directed towards Moravia. But for a long time a metropolitan was lacking, possibly on account of Frankish dislike of Bavarian separatist sentiment. In 741 Bnniface appoin- ted another bishop, in Eich't;'tt, an Anglo- Saxon Benedictine, Willibald, who was en- trusted with the episcopal role among the pagan Slavs. Boniface then left Bavaria and reformed the ecclesiastical organization in Thuringia and Hesse, instituting new dioceses and appointing Anglo-Saxons there. After his departure from Bavaria, surprisingly enough, and in spite of all his previous efforts, the Iro-Scottish again penetrated into the bishopric. After the death of the Anglo- Saxon, Bishop John of Salzburg, in 745, it was the learned Irish abbot Virgil who- under the influence of the Frankish king Pippin and the Bavarian duke Oatil - was appointed to the vacant see of Salzburg. ~ He came from his country to the Frankish Empire with another monk, Sidonius, possibly also of Irish origin. Later, under the influence of Pippin, Sidonius became a bishop in Passau. Another Irish bishop, D~hdagraecus- his original Celtic name being Dub-da-chricha - became an abbot J the Iro-Scottish monastery at Chiemsee.

The influe~ce of the Iroscoti in the region of Bavaria r~ached its height under Virgil, bishop of Salzburg, and Sidonius, bishop of Passau. In their time the mutual settlement of differenc~:~ between Celtic tendencies and the 'Roma~dsm' of the Anglo-Saxons was attempted, Ithough it was not finally achie- ved until t i : death of Virgil in 784 and the

succession of Bishop Am. By degrees the Benedictine Rule was accepted in mon~.steries in place of the Columbanian rule. The new rule stressed the duty. of staying in the mon- asteries, avoiding the Iro-Scottish preference for wandering, and thus at the beginning of the ninth century the activities of the lro- Scottish wandering missionaries gradually ceased, and the architectural types deriving from Celtic sacral buildings were replaced by others. While the Iro-Scottish rectangular presbytery occurred in Bavaria in the eighth century, from the beginning of the ninth century it was replaced by 'Roman' buildings of the basilica type with a semicircular apse and a transept or an orthogonal chapel, a product of the Carolingian Renaissanc.'. The probable reason why !to-Scottish churches are scanty in Bavaria (Turek 1959:285--98) should be looked for partly in the fact that their trac,-s have not yet been discovered, and partly in that in the nineteenth century many ant;-at but still partially preserved buildings w e , mprudently destroyed.

"'-c period of Virgil's activities in Bavaria w~o also characterized by an extraordinary tto, ering and development of fro-Scottish art of" ,:rious kinds, for example goldsmiths' work and manuscript illumination. Several mag- nificent illuminated manuscripts written in Anglo-Saxon minuscule are preserved, mosdy in Vienna. An important centre of artistic activity was the h'o-Scottish monastery at KremsmOnster, which was perhaps also responsible for the foundation of various 11"o- Scottish churches. The already-mentioned church at Modr~, near Vclehrad, may have resulted from missionary activity conducted by this monastery (Cibulka 1958).

Virgil was succeeded in the episcopal sec of Salzburg by Bishop Arn of the Benedictine

104

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t ' u l ~ # , l ' ~ r r

%, BOHEMIA

. \ , i~ MORAVIA

- v ~,

. . . . . , . - , , .~m, "~ %,

" ....... " BAVARIA

~$MICN .,.. . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . ' " AQUILEIA

I ; , ¢ J l ?

~ , / x r o

I

riven ~ bishoprics ~ archhishoprics diocesan boundaries ill monasteries

Great-Moravian fortified castle sites south-western boundary of Great Moravia in the first third of the ninth century after annexation ofthe territory of Niira south-western boundary of Great Moravia i,i the second third of the ninth century

-.'"""~.... south-western boundary -f the Great.Mor~viaa Empire in the last third of the ninth century

Figure 1 I. The ecclesiastical organL .a ,~ of Bavaria in the tint halfof the eighth century, and the south.west of Gre~t Moravia in the ninth century.

order (785-821). In his time, i 798, the diocese of Salzburg was raised h< Pope Leo I l l (795~816) to a metropolitan see and its area extended to include, in addition to part Jf Bavaria, Carinthia and part of Pannonia, especially the area conquered in 791 from the Avars, so that the eastern boundary of the diocese followed the course of the Danube.

At the same time the diocese of Passau was extended further to the east, perhaps to the Vienna Forest, so that it bordered tile western part of Moravia, while the diocese of Sa!zburg adjoined the eastern part of Moravia as well as the Slovakian districts, following the River Danube as far as the mouth ofthe River Raab. The River Drau became the boundary

105

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between the dioceses of Salzburg and Aquil- eia, in spite of the earlier claims of the latter to the whole of Noricum and Pannonia. Similarly the diocese of Freising extended its territory and strengthened its influence in the countries north of the Danube.

Largely under the influence of Alcuin, who wrote to Charlemagne and others admonish- ing them in 796 not to try to baptize the pagans too forcefully, but to proceed carefully in three stages - exposition of the faith, if necessary using the Slav language, baptism itself, then exposition of the evangelica praecepta - Archbishop Arn of Salzburg began to take action among the Slavs in Moravia. In 798 Charlemagne wrote to him, instructing him to depart immediately for missionary work in partes Sdavorum (De conversione, MGH Scriptores, 11). Certainly this did not mark the beginning of the missions but, rather, implied their intensification. The main part of the Danubian area and south Moravia had already been freed from the Avars for some time, and, now that Bavaria had become a direct neighbour of Moravia, communica- tions were facilitated. A manuscript of 871 from Salzburg called De conversione Bagoariorura et Carantanorura (MGH Scriptores, 11) con- tains precious information about the activities of the Salzburg clergy in the Slav countries. It reports that towards the end of the eighth century Bishop Arn, as well as iris predecessor Virgil, ordained missionarie~ and sent them to Sclavinia, not only to Carin :hia but also to lower Pannonia. They were :)robably more involved in pastoral work ~han in actual conversion. From these facts aT .out Christiani- zation in the dioceses of Salzb~lrg and Passau among the Slavs in Danubir and Pannonia we can suppose that as early as the eighth century Christianization acti',~ity in the Iro-

Scottish tradition and based on the use of the Slav language by the missionar;es both from Bavaria and Pannonia must ha e penetrated into Moravia. Thus we have ind rect evidence of the conversion of some of the Slavs to Christianity through the mediuJ a oftheir own language a good hundred years before the celebrated missions of SS Cyril a ad Methodius from Byzantium in 863.

Just as churches were essential to worship in, so the liturgy was not pract ~cable without liturgical books. The Iro-Scc,ttish mission- aries must naturally have brov~:ht such books with them, but as they p.netrated into Bavaria, where the Gallican liturgy, charac- teristic of the Franks, was in use, as well as the Aquileian liturgy which was a survival from the Roman period, the Iroscoti somewhat adapted their own typical Irish liturgy to the local customs. The liturgy used in Moravia before the arrival of the Byzantine mission was in fact a miscellany of different liturgies, exhibiting Roman and Byzantine together with Gallican, Danubian and Celtic in- fluences. Some typically Iro-Scottish litur- gical books of this period have survived, for instance the Stowe and Bobbio missals, dating from the seventh-eighth centuries. These, or similar books, may have been used for a short time in Moravia.

If we consider what has been said thus far about the missionary penetration from the diocese of Salzburg into Pannonia, about missionary methods, and about the con- siderable fro-Scottish activity from the second half of the eighth century, we can suppose that similar activities from the dioceses of Passau and Salzburg, and possibly also from those of gegensburg and Freising, took place in a northerly direction, to Moravia and Slovakia. Since no written sources are

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available to confirm this, it seems worthwhile to review briefly the opinions of modern historians, beginning with Turek's view (1959:294) that Moravia may have been converted by Iroscoti well before the end of the eighth century. Richter (1965) disputed this, arguing that late Roman traditions, rather than Ire-Scottish influence, accounted for the architectural style nf early Bavarian church, . Josef Poulfk ( 1959: 7-70) admitted Ire-Scottish influences in Moravia but limited them to the eighth century, and Vladimfr Vavftnek (1963:5-56) conceded that some individual Iro-Scomsh missionaries may have worked in Moravia before, the close of the eighth century. F. Graus (1 !~59:478--83), in a review of Cibulka's book on the Great Moravian church at Modr~i, criticized Ci- bulka's Ire-Scottish thee1;-/. In his opinion, although the Iroscoti migh,t have penetrated into Moravia in the eighfl~ century, earlier than the activities ofthe Salzburg bishop Arn, later on, other missionaries worked there. On the other hand, Dittrich, in his book Christi. anity in Great Moravia (1962), contrary to these opinions, attributed a decisive role to the Iro- Scottish missionaries who, in his opinion, formed the first permanent mission station in Moravia during the eighth century. The church at Modr~i belongs, according to him, to the fro-Scottish architectural tradition, and the Iroscoti were the first preachers of Ghristianity in Moravian countries. This author goes even farther than Gibulka and ascribes to the fro-Scottish missionaries the principal role in the Ghristianization of Bavaria and in determining the character of the Bavarian church as late as the end of the eighth century. When they fell into dis- favour, under Bishop Arn, the Iroscoti may have moved to Moravia, which would have

been in about the eighties of the eighth century. In spite of the attractions of this theory, Graus rejected it in reviewing Ditt- rich's book.

In recent decades e:~tensive archaeological researches have been ~ ~.dertaken in Moravia, which have led to sc.,ne remarkable dis- covcries. Up to the present, eighteen sacral buildings of various types from the Great Moravian period have been discovered. Most of these buildings were excavated at Mikul- ~ice: in all, eleven churches of various types. Three sacral buildings are at Stare M~sto COld Town) near Velehrad; one building each at Modl~ near Velehrad, at Sady near Uhersk~ Hradi~t6, at Pohansko near Bf'eclav, and finally a small church dedicated to St Clement near Osv6timany.

This group of churches, all of which date from the ninth century, provides evidence of the development of Great Moravia and ofthe cultural maturity of its inhabitants. Five of them have a rectangular presbytery, namely one at Modr,~, already discussed in detail above, and four churches at Mikul~ice denoted by the Numbers 1, 2, 8, and 10. One double church has a chapel, part of which has a rectangular presbytery, the other part has a seraicircular apse as well (Sady). Seven churches have semicircular apses of different shales, three at Mikul~iee denoted by Num- bers 3, 4, and 5; two in Start M6sto in the localities that are called Na valdeh and ~/n'tdlky; and one each at Pohansko and Osv6timany. Finally there are four rotundas, three at Mikul6ice denoted by Numbers 6, 7, and 9; and one in Star~ M6sto. One church at Mikul~ice, Number 11, is of uncertain shape.

Extensive excavations have been under- taken at ~he site near Mikul~ice. This fortiLed

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encampment in the south of Moravia may show traces of settlement earlier than the century with which we are dealing. It could have been a political centre as early as the seventh century, and it probably originates from the time of the ruler Samo, m, mely the first half of the seventh century. Splendid jewels and other gold artefacts among the finds leave us surmising about this earlier tradition, which seems also to be reflected, for example, at Star6 Z~tmky (Old Castle) near Brno. Poulik thinks that Mikul~ice may be illa ineffabilis Rastizi munitio mentioned in the Annales Fuldenses under the year 869 (MGH Scriptores, 1). The eleven churches that have been excavated there, besides a building which may have been a prince's palace, make Mikul~ice a quite outstanding archaeological site.

The church dezignated Number 1 was discovered under the foundations of the second church, and it may originate from the beginning of the ninth century or possibly earlier. The foundations of this building, perhaps one of the oldest in Moravia, have not been preserved entire, but the indistinct remains seem to show a ground plan of the Iro-Scottish type with a built-on addition giving a small space on the northern side of the presbytery, and it seems also that instead of the triumphal arch there was a cross-piece ~ith side entrances, as in the church at ModrL

In addition to this Church Number 1, re:mains of an earlier building, perhaps not a Christian church (Richter 1965: 204), have been found under the foundations of Church Number 2. This second church at Mikulifice is reminiscent of the church at ModrA in its layout, having an eblong nave and a rec- tangular presbytery similar to the Iro-

Figure 12. The ground plan of Church No. 2 at Mikul~ice, south Moravia.

Scottish buildings, with a square wing on the northern side which looks like a sacristy. But the presbytery is somewhat shorter. For this reason Cibulka thinks that this church was not an fro-Scottish prototype, but a derived type that later became common in Moravia. Inside the presl~ytery the corners are slightly rounded, perhaps m~der the influence of semicircular apses, and the wall in the nave in place of the triumphal arch is rather wider, so that the church is slightly different from the one at Modr~t, but the impression as a whole is Iro-Scottish. The building dates from about the second quarter of the ninth century; it may e-'en be earlier. The wings annexed to this building, and also to the first church, later used as a sacristy, were in reality burial area,~ for the graves of important persons.

Similar churches of Iro-Scottish type, or in the spirit of that tradition, are Churches Numbers 8 and 10 at Mikul~ice, wt ich have an oblong nave and a rectangular presbytery. The t:hurch at VysokA Zahrad~ (High Carrie, l), near Dolnl V6stoniee, is a ~so of this type, the presbytery being slight!v narrower than the nave, but it is thought ~o ,i~te from later. The double church at Uhel~ske Hradi~lti~- Sady, discovered in 1959 by V. Hrub~, originating from the first half of the ninth century and supposed to have been an episco-

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Figu~ 13, The Milml~-e.

plan of O~aeh No. i',

pal or monastic church, deserves special mention. The eastern part of this church has a square rectangular presbytery according to the Iro..Scottish model; the beginning of the nave, however, is siJghtly enlarged by a transept, and in the nave it:~elf there are two walls, which divide the space: into a nave and two aisles, so that the central nave is of the same breadth as the presbytery. To the west of this structure a single-n. ~ ~',e church with a semicircular apse was later t~,u~i'~t on. This may have been the work of aJ;:~D~her mission; it could be a narthex from the time of Cyril and Methodius. Here again in front of the presbytery is found a cross-piece, character- istic of fro-Scottish churches. "l%e third part of the church is on the northern side, on the level of the transept; here there is a small sepulchral chapel with a semicircular apse, built later, perhaps in the second half of the ninth century. This whole sacral complex shows both fro-Scottish dements and the tradition freely developed from them and from other sources as well. Evidently, as early as the years before Ch/ril and Methodius, namely before 863, an original Moravian building style had developed through a combination of various methods and techniques. This whole complex of double church and neighbouring farmstead may have been destroyed at the beginning of the tenth century, very likely during the Hungarian raids; later it was

Q

Figure 14. The double church with a chapel at Uhersk~ Hradi~t6.Sady.

restored and in the thirteenth century was taken over by the Velehrad Cistercians, probably, however, in a derelict state. Poulfk agrees that this church had no connection with the lro-Scottish mission.

Briefly and for the sake of completeness some other ty~es of early Moravian church building should be mentioned, beginning with the rotundas, notable among them Church Number 6, the two-apse rotunda at Mikuli~ice, considered by Poul|k to date from the first third of the ninth century. That would make it a hundred years older than Weneeslas's rotunda of St Virus in Prague. The central part of this structure is uninter- rupted, forming a peculiar and otherwise unknown form of ecclesiastical architecture which is common in central European Slavonic countries. Similarly, Church Num- ber 7 at Mikul~iee is a rotunda whose apse overlaps it~ circumfere1~ce only by the width of a stone wall. Church Number 9 is also a rotunda, inside which the space is divided into four semicircular embrasures jutting out to the peripheral walls. A fourth rotunda was discovered under the pre~ent church of St Michel at Star~ M~to (Hrub~

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Figure 15. The two-apse rotunda at Church No. 6.

Mikul~ice,

1965), which was built in the twelfth century, destroyed by the Swedes in 1645, and restored in 1734. This church is of the Iro- Scottish pattern, having an oblong nave and a rectangular presbytery which may have been added later. It, or its predecessor on the site, can be dated to the late Great Moravian period, and it has the same ground plan as the church at Modrfi, except that it is twice the size. In the year 1939 a local archaeologist, A. Zelnitius, found thirteen fragments of antique bricks in the walls of the presbytery, and in 1958 he found 124 Roman bricks. Other fragments, including one with a Roman inscription, were likewise found in the walls of the presbytery and sacristy. The con- secration of the church would support an Iro- Scottish attribution, since their missions were characterized by the cult of St Michael. The

0 ,~m

Figure 16. The four-embrasure rotunda at Mikul~ice, Church No. 9.

i

0 5m Figure 17, The rotunda at Star~ M~sto.

above-mentioned rotunda found under the floor of this church dates frorr about the middle of the ninth century. Probably the Roman bricks were originally in this rotunda, which, according to V. Hrub~, vc:ry probably survived the destruction of Great Moravia and lasted till the twelfth century, when it was rebuilt into the r ec tan~ar church_, its briek~ being used in building the presbytery and the sacristy. The origin of these rotundas is to be sought far to the south of Pannonia, for they derive from the ancient Christian rotundas of the Adriatic region with its antique traditions. Thus the rotundas illustrate the contacts of Great Moravia with the boundary region of the Roman-Illyric-Slavonic area and with the diocese of Aquilcia.

Besides the rotundas, early Moravian ecclesiastical architecture includes a group of churches with semicircular apses whose origin can be traced to the Byzantine regions or the Adriatic coast, and to the boundary between the Latin and Greek cultures. They represent for the most part the work of the missions from Greece, up to the time of Cyril ~-nd Methodius. At Mikul~ice, Church Number 3, a large three-nave church, its eastern three- nave part dating from the first half of the ninth century, belon~ to this group, the western part and the narthex being of later origin.

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Fi~m'e 18. The thrt.~nave church at Mihd~:ice, No. 3.

Churches Numbers 4 and 5 at Mikuli~ice, which are sma|ler and d~1: from about the second halfofthe ninth cent Jry, belong to this group. The former has a ~qu~re nave and semicircular apse, and the latter an oblong nave and a broken narrow d apse.

According to Richter (}965:203~), the church at Pohansko near ~|teclav was built in three stages. In the first ~ nave and an apse resembling the C~d Town~ ,~l~,urch ?Ca ~?&lt were constructed. In the s~cond stage the western hall was built, which is analogous to that of th, ~ church in the place known as ~pitd/~. In the third stage the southern annexe was added, which is said not to be a sepulchral chapel but perhaps a vestibule. Richter also believes that an older wooden structure, probably stood on this site which dated fron~ pagan times, hence the name Pohamko, which means in English 'a place of pagans'. Elsewhere the rem~,ins of pagan Slav buildings have been found under the

D 0 5~

Figure 19. The small Church No. 5 at Mikulelce.

foundations of Christian c;mrches. The church at Sady near Uhers~ Hradi~ti~ was erected vn such o?der foundations; sim~l trly, perhaps, the same thing happened at M~kul- i~ice and Modr~t. Cibu~ka thought that there was a cro~-piecc in front ofthc triumphal arch facing the presbyter)' in th~ church at Pohansko, which would mean that this fro- Scottish element was taken over even in churches of another origin; but the existence of such a cr~s-piece here has never been proved. This church at Pohar~sko is also characterized by its semicircular apse, which is not the result of lro-Scottish influence.

The little church in the stronghold near Osvi~timany, which is on a hillock in the wooded ChHby mountains, may have been the seat of a monastic community. It has a peculiar apse with an arch polygonally broken and issuing directly from the breadth of the nave, probably a Byzantine element from the Adriatic coast.

Important sacral buildings have been found at Stard M6sto (Old Town). In this place the settlement can be traced as early a.s the sixth century, but the castle site or fortified encampment was not built ttere before the eighth century. The dense seltle- meat in some area~ and the rich di.q ove~i ~s of various artefact~ in the area o1 the Old Town reflect the extraordinary importance of this

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0 5~ Figure 20. The semicircular apse church at Pohansko.

Moravian stronghold, which could even have been the centre of the state. The church excawted in the place called Na val&h, dating from the first half of the ninth century, has a rectangular nave in the form of a small oblong and an only slightly elongated apse, nearly square, formed with round angles. The remains ofthe church in the locality known as ~pitdlky are similar, but with an added narthex; evidently it is the work of the same mission, of about the middle of the ninth century.

There is a distinct resemblance between the 'Kentish' group of seventh-century chur- ches described above and these Star~ M~sto churches (Cibulka 1962: 154--9), but there are also significant differences between the two: the Kentish churches have apses as wide as or only slightly narrower than the nave, and the triumphal arch between nave a1~d presbytery is supported by two columns in the Kentish churches which are not presew in those at Star~ M~to. These latter are more likely

L 0 ~m

Figure 2 I. The little church near OsvStimany.

0

Figure 22. The irregular foundations of the church in N~ Valdch, at Star6 M~to.

derived from Bulgarian, Byzantine or Adriatic mcdels.

i~n conclusion we should mention the ci~urch at Nitra, west Slow.kia, which Arch- I~,ishop Adalramus consecrated in 821-36 (De conversione, MOH Scriptores, 11). This church was originally thought to have been a wooden one, but now, after the discoveries of stone churches in Moravia from the same or an earlier period, we are hlclined to believe that it too was of stone, especially as we are told that it was consecrated by the archbishop, who would probably only have consecrated the more significant and better- built churches. It is a pity that the foundations of this church at Nitra, built during the reign of a pagan ruler later converted to Christian- ity called Pribina, have not been found, so that we cannot even say if the building was of the Iro-Scottish type or if it followed southern or Byzantine models.

The facts assembled here, together with our discussion of the probable history of the Christianization of Moravia, make it likely that the Iro-Scottish missions played a significant role. The Moravian churches we have described can be divided into three groups according to their origin. Those with rectan?,ular presbyteries are probably the olde~t, are of Iro-Scottish origin or arose undr:r the influence of ancient Iro-Scottish

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patterns, and originated most probably from Bavaria. A second group, the rotundas, per- haps equally old or somewhat later, originated in the south, in the diocese of Aqu~leia, and show Italian influence. Thirdly, the churches with semicircular apses, which are the most recent, originated from Byzantium, Bulgaria, from the Adriatic region, or from the lllyrian area. Much more research, most ofit perforce archaeological, will be needed before these developments can be fully dated and con- firmed, but the primary role in Moravia ofthe fro--Scottish missions from the British Isles can be regarded as firmly established.

JVotes * This paper was submitted i n English; it has been abridged and revised by the edhor. x Responsa Stephani Papae II, quae cure in Francia esset in Carisiaco villa~ firittanico monasterio dedit ad varia consulta, de quik~u~ faerat interrogatus, anno Christi 754 (Mansi 1761~:5~,I~-63). The source gives the name as Stephen II ; it ~hould however be Pope Stephen Il l . According to Richter (1965) the synod itself was not held in the British monastery. a A description ofthe church with ground plan and remarks on its affinity to the church at Modr,t is in Cibulka (1958: 102-6). On the other hand, J. Po~- mournS, (1961:129-35; 1963:502-7) rejects the con- nection of the church at Modr~'t with the building at Brdtigny because the latter is much bigger and is divided by four columns into three nave sp~ces.

"I t should, however, be remembered that the occasional use of the towers of churches, and even the upper stories of aisles, for domestic purposes, lingered on far into the Middle Ages, ,'specially in Ireland and Scotland, though to what oihcer ~ the convent the use of such rooms was assigned seems uniformly unrecorded*' (Claph~m 1969:119). * Hisdem igitur temporibus scilicet Otilonis duels Bagoariorum qui tune subiectus fuit regi Pippino Francorum, venit vir quidam sapiens et bene doctus de Hibernia insula nomine Virgilius ad praedictum regem, in Francia loco vocato Karlsiaco. Qui proptcr Dei amorem retinuit eum secure fete duobus annis, et comperto eo bene docto misit cure praefato duci Otiloni, ac concessit ei episcopatum Salzburgensem. De conversione, MGH Scrlptores 11 : 6.

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Hannover and Leipzig. B6hm, J. 1959. K rozboru kostda v Modrd u Vele-

hradu. Sbornlk praci k poet6 60. narozenin akade- mika Jana Filipa. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Philosophica et histmi.~a, 3. Praha.

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Cibulka, J . 1962. K ott~zce p~vodu tak zvanlTch Kentsk~ch kostel/L Um~nl, 10, No. 2. Praha.

Cibulka, J. 1966. Diskussionsbeit~ge zu J. Poullks Referat. Das Grossm~ihrische Reich. Praha.

Clapham, A. W. 1969. English Romanesque archi- tecture before the Conquest. Oxford.

De conversione Bagoariorum et Carantanorum libellus. 1854. MGH Scriptores, 11. Hannover.

Dittrich, Z. R. 1962. Christianity in Great Moravia. Bijdragen van bet lnstituut voor Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis der Rijksunive~siteit te Utrecht, 33. Groningen.

Graus, F. 1959. K po~tkt~tm kfes{anstvi na MorayS. ~S~LI, 7. Praha.

Hrub~,, V. 1964. Stard M~sto-Velehrad, dstt~di z doby Velkomoravskd Hie. Praha.

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Mansi, J. D. 1766. Sacrorum conciliorurn coUectio, 12. Firenze.

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Turek, R. 1959. Ptib~hy 6esk~ch d6jin IX. v6ku ve sv6tle nAiez~. Sbornik praci k poet6 60. narozenin akademika Jana Filipa.

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