#历史开讲 #
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Since the division of the Roman Empire, there have been constant contradictions and conflicts between the Eastern and Western Churches. By the 9th century, a new conflict arose between the two churches, when the Byzantine emperor, without papal approval, unexpectedly promoted the laity Fertius to bishop of Constantinople.
In the view of Pope Nicholas I, the interference of the secular imperial power in the internal affairs of the Church greatly undermined its own authority, so he strongly opposed this.
This made the relationship between the Eastern and Western Churches, which were already tense over who owns the jurisdiction of Moravia and Bulgaria, even more strained.
The trigger for the "Fotiu incident"
Subsequently, Pope Nicholas I's direct excommunication of Fotiug because of the Illyrian problem pushed the relationship between the Eastern and Western churches to the brink of rupture.
In the face of the Pope's repression and threats, the Emperor and Fotiu also took countermeasures.
In order to maintain his position as bishop, Fotiu actively mediated between various forces inside and outside the empire.
However, in dealing with relations between the Eastern and Western Churches, the Bulgarian question was unwilling to make concessions because of the political, economic and religious influence of both sides, and the patriarch was unresolved.
Later, the Bulgarian issue continued to ferment, and the Eastern and Western churches became more and more controversial because of them, and religious contradictions intensified, and finally went to split.
In the 9th century, the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, in order to get rid of his mother Theodora's interference in political affairs, removed his appointed Patriarch of Constantinople, Ignatius, and replaced him with the chief secretary of the royal family, the laity Photius.
Since the change of Patriarch was not approved by Nicholas I, he refused to recognize the legitimacy of the patriarchate of Fotiu. This also strained relations between the Eastern and Western churches.
In addition to the disagreement over the appointment and dismissal of bishops, at this time, the two sides also had disputes over the jurisdiction of Moravia and Bulgaria, and neither wanted to give up this opportunity to expand their influence.
Striving to maximize the benefits of the new mission area undoubtedly further widens the tension between them.
East Francks occupy Moravia
As early as the 4th-6th centuries, as the scope of activities expanded, the Slavs gradually divided into three main branches: the West Veneds, the East Antes, and the South Slavins. By the first half of the 6th century, a part of the West Slavs had migrated to Moravia and Bohemia. But it was often attacked by the Avars.
In order to be able to maintain normal order of life, the Slavs of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia united, and under the leadership of Satsuma, they defeated the Avars and established the first Slavic tribal alliance, the Duchy of Satsuma (623-658).
The principality was centered on Moravia, including its surrounding Bohemia, Slovakia and other vast lands occupied by the West Slavs.
Since it was only a state in the form of an alliance and lacked a strong ruling center, the principality collapsed shortly after Satsuma's death.
In the middle of the 8th century, in the western part of the Old Satsuma Principality, a powerful Germanic state emerged - the Frankish Kingdom. During Pepin's reign, Frank's strength grew.
After his son Charlemagne came to the throne, he further enhanced the strength of the kingdom through a series of wars of conquest.
First, Charles continued his father's unfinished Aquitaine War, his first battle after assuming the throne.
The war did not cost Charles much effort, and soon took Aquitaine and Gasconi into his pocket; Not limited to this, Charlemagne also went north, mainly with the Saxons, which lasted for 30 years, and finally ended with the king accepting the sacraments of Christianity and agreeing to merge with the Franks as a people.
In addition, the Franks expanded southward, mainly at the request of the Pope, to wage war with the Lombards.
Invincible, the Franks submitted to their rivals, and the Lombard king Desidious (reigned 756-774) was exiled for life after defeat, and his son Adalgius was expelled from Italy.
In this way, the dominion of Italy returned to the papacy.
To the west, Charlemagne also conquered the Britons living on the Atlantic coast at the western tip of the Franks, but the Britons were not convinced, so he sent an expeditionary force to collect them, forced them to pay hostages, and promised to obey his orders thereafter.
To the east, Charlemagne began to attack Bavaria, Pannonia, and the West Slavs in the northeast.
Even farther afield, the Huns fought with the Ava, pushing Frankish influence into the interior of Eurasia, later the Moravian state.
After Charles' death, the Frankish throne was succeeded by his son Louis the Pious, 778–840, 814–840. However, Louis's rule was too mild to govern the vast country effectively, causing disputes and deposing him by his three sons.
In 843, Charlemagne's three grandsons divided the empire into three according to the Treaty of Verdun: Rochelle (840-855) as the eldest son, who succeeded the emperor and divided it into a narrow area extending from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, and the original center of the empire, Rome and Aachen, were also under its control, called the Middle Frankish Kingdom.
Charles the Bald (843-877) received the West Franconian parts, namely Neustria and Aquitaine, so it was called the Kingdom of West Francia.
Louis the Germanic took the lands of Francia, Saxony, Bavaria, Austria and Galinthia east of the Rhine into his sphere of influence and exercised suzerainty over the Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia, known as the Kingdom of East Francia.
When Charles' empire was about to be partitioned, the Grand Duchy of Moravia of Mogill I (818–846), supported by Louis, King of East Francia, grew rapidly and controlled Bohemia and Slovakia as far north as the upper Oder River and south as the Delaware River.
Unify the Slavic tribes north of the Danube and establish a new Greater Moravian state on the territory of the former Satsuma Principality.
Morgill was a monarch who attached great importance to establishing good diplomatic relations with neighboring countries, and in 822 he sent envoys to visit the court of Frankfurt on the River Main so that the two sides could maintain peaceful and stable relations.
In addition to expanding his influence through peaceful means, he also took advantage of the war to annex the Duchy of Nitland in 833 and extended his power to the Czech Republic in 846. The expanding Moravia made Louis, the king of the East Frankish kingdom, feel a great threat.
Although he had suzerainty over Bohemia and Moravia by treaty, this power was extremely unstable and intensified as the Moravian state grew in power.
In the mid-9th century, Louis launched a war to conquer Moravia, wanting to take it completely into his own hands. In 855, Mogir I, led by the Moravians, successfully repelled the military attack of the East Franks.
Although the Moravians won a military victory, the Franks achieved a complete religious victory. Before the Moravian people accepted Christianity, they mainly believed in primitive polytheism.
In the first half of the 9th century, the Moravians began to accept Christianity from the East Franks, and with the unfolding of the conquest wars of the East Frankish kingdom, the influence of Christianity on the Greater Moravian Principality also increased.
In 829, in order to facilitate the missionary of East Frankish missionaries in the Duchy of Moravia, Louis transferred the lands of the principality to the bishopric of Passaru.
Two years later, in 831, Bishop Pasaru baptized Mogir I and all Moravians. From then on, the Principality of Greater Moravia established a close religious subordination relationship with the Kingdom of East Francia.
The Moravian established religious ties with the East Franks, causing discontent on the part of the Byzantines.
The reason is that since the 7th century AD, the religious Arab Empire has become stronger, which has changed the geographical and religious pattern. Under the slogan "spread Islam", the Arabs invaded large swathes of West Asia, North Africa and South-West Europe.
In the process, the Byzantine Empire not only lost the original Bishopric of Antioch, the Bishopric of Alexandria and the Bishopric of Jerusalem, but also suffered military oppression from the Arab Empire to the east and south of the empire.
Therefore, in order to expand its power, Byzantium could only develop its power to the north, west, and the Balkans.
Although the rulers of the time had such intentions, the weakening of the empire could not support them to carry out another large-scale war of conquest, but they urgently needed to expand their influence, so they focused their efforts on the spread of religion.
Byzantium wanted to establish religious relations with these countries through Greek missionaries in order to improve their international standing, and then to compete with the emerging countries of the West.
But it backfired, as the Moravians ultimately chose not Greek missionaries, but firmly chose East Franks to preach to them.
However, this does not mean that the missionary work of the Byzantine Empire in the Great Moravian Principality has completely failed, after all, the Moravian state is not strong enough to maintain independence between the great powers and powerful groups.
Therefore, changes in the international political situation in Europe will inevitably cause its religious policy to waver.
Soon, the Moravian monarchs realized the political ambitions of the East Franks to control them through religion, so they turned to Byzantium.