Title Prievarta ar apaštalavimas? Misijos ir kryžiaus karai prieš baltus
Translation of Title Coercion or evangelization? Missions and Crusades against the Balts.
Authors Ščavinskas, Marius
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Is Part of Darbai ir dienos: Senoji Lietuva: viduramžiai, renesansas, barokas.. Kaunas : Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto leidykla. 2005, t. 44, p. 5-25.. ISSN 1392-0588. eISSN 2335-8769
Keywords [eng] Balts (Indo-European people) ; Apostolate (Christian theology) ; cultural history
Abstract [eng] The article analyses whether it is correct to make a distinction between peaceful and military missions and what is the secret content hidden within the term military mission? The article states that missions classified as military/coercive do not form part of military history. The Crusades were carried out by Crusaders, often called Pilgrims. However, such labelling was part of the rhetoric of war, an attempt to elevate them to the level of warriors of Christ. However as the ‘missions’ on the East of the Baltic Sea from the early 12th to the 14th century took place at the same time as territorial and conquests, many scholars spoke of military/coercive missions. Research shows that the ‘peaceful’ missions also contained some coercive elements: 1) elimination of paganism; 2) coercion to assume Christianity; 3) punishment for exercising pagan customs and religious practices; 4) coercion to pay a tithe. The question is whether it is valid to make a distinction between war and missions. Missions were not considered a war and coercion here refers to a method, but not a type of a mission. Coercion was often applied even in peaceful circumstances, without the participation of a conqueror or subjugator. Crusades are not missions but are rightly classified as a type of war; they cannot be equated to missions just by relabelling them “military/coercive missions”. This still leaves the problem of the interrelation between missions and Crusades. It is a question – which pagans were the targets of the Crusades and later of German conquests: pagans or pagan apostates? It is also unclear how Christian missions could still exist next to conquests of the pagan Balts in the period of Crusades. Finally, it is still uncertain if war was used as one of the missions’ coercive measure to ‘punish’ apostates.
Published Kaunas : Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto leidykla
Type Journal article
Language Lithuanian
Publication date 2005