The Conversion of Lithuania : from pagan barbarians to Late Medieval christians

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Pagoniškoji Lietuva; Krikščionybė; Katalikybė; Stačiatikybė; Rusios Stačiatikių Bažnyčia; Valdovo krikštas; Vilniaus diacezija; Vokiečių Ordinas (Teutonic Order; Kryžiuočių ordinas); The Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Pagan Lithuania; Christianity; Catholicism; Orthodoxy; The Russian Orthodox Church; The baptism of the ruler; The diocese of Vilnius; The Teutonic Order.

ENMedieval Lithuania was the last state in Europe to accept Christianity officially, pagan Lithuanians converted to Roman Catholicism in 1387; the westernmost part of the country, known as Žemaitija (Samogitia), became ‘Christian’ only in 1417, when the diocese of Medininkai was established by the commission of the Council of Constance and through the good offices of King Jogaila of Poland and Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania. It took almost a millennium from Clovis to Jogaila to complete the project known as Christian Europe: eleventh-hour Christians arrived not long before the Discovery of the New World and the final break-up of medieval Christendom. The aim of this book is to reconstruct the road the medieval Lithuanians took tip-toeing a delicate line between Latin and Greek Christendom. Once crossed, Lithuanians embraced essentially all paraphernalia of late-medieval Christian spirituality thus becoming a recognizably European nation. In its scope and detailed analysis this monograph is the first attempt to introduce English readership to the arcane world of Baltic-speaking tribesmen who succeeded in countering expansionist Latin and Russian Orthodox Europe by employing much the same means and devices as their Christian neighbours; it also examines how Lithuanian society adopted and adapted Christian institutions and practices during the long fifteenth century he Conversion.

• Teologija / Theology
• Istorija / History