Paths of monks, pilgrims and Crusaders

11–12th Century A.D.

Princely Přemyslid Bohemia has irreversibly become part of the Christian West, mainly due to the growing status of the Holy Roman Empire, which is described as the successor of ancient Rome. So called - investiture struggle - between the Emperor (Kings) and Pope (the Church) is at its peak in the West. The struggle has to do with the right of appointing Church dignitaries. New religious movements and orders are increasingly coming to Bohemia and Moravia which together with the German-speaking population colonize poorly accessible border regions. They bring with them education and new architectural styles (Romanesque and Gothic). The medieval culture of the Christian West is significantly affected by the desire for a spiritual journey leading to the Saints. This has a logical continuation in an era of crusades into Palestine (Holy Land) for the liberation of the tomb of Jesus Christ. This period is known as the High Middle Ages and ends with the crisis of the Church and Western Christianity.

Bohemia and Moravia are at this time fully a part of the Western Catholic world, namely, the Holy Roman Empire. This can also be confirmed by the rapid spread of the Romanesque style, which in itself masterfully connects the Byzantine, Celtic and barbaric influence. The Benedictines, who have one of their centers in the French monastery of Cluny, initially spread this style in our area. Many rotundas, basilicas, monasteries and churches are starting to spring up at this time on our territory. There was a particular system of ownership of churches in the Czech lands in the 11th century. Churches were the property of those whose land they’ve been built on. The Bishop needed the consent of the land owner when appointing a priest. The religious service was to some degree a private undertaking and the owner received a share of the revenue. Cluniac Reform’s objective at the turn of the early Middle Ages was to change this. The aim was for the Church to break free from the power of the secular rulers. One of the ways to achieve this was through establishing many new monasteries.

The fortresses of the Saints
The spread of the Romanesque style facilitated the rise of the cult of the Saints, supported by the emergence of pilgrimage routes that traversed all of Europe (the most famous pilgrimage routes in the Middle Ages were - a pilgrimage to Rome, the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela and St. Martin into Tours). Almost every Abbey wanted to become a popular pilgrimage site. Churches, “houses of God”, became the House of the Saint, whose grave they protected as a fortress. The faithful pilgrims would come to the temple-fortress in order to escape the evil and dangerous world. The grave of a Saint, usually located in the apse (to the East of the main altar), gave rise to wide side naves and cross-section aisles, so that it could be at the same time visited by as many pilgrims as possible. The sculptures are an integral part of the Romanesque churches and especially the entry portal (the “petrified painting”), mosaic and interior colorful colored painting. This was for the illiterate pilgrims informative and educational because it depicted the lives of the saints and sometimes even the royal families, such as rotunda of St. Catherine in Znojmo. The Romanesque style is continued by the French Cistercian order, governed by the monastic rule of Benedict of Nursia starting in 1098. The focus of this reformist Benedictine order has initially been the return to the ideals of poverty. Its members concentrated mainly on the colonization of remote and inhospitable places, since they were the masters of many crafts. Workshops and barns, where lay brothers worked, were similar to the factories and farming estates of modern times. The difference was that a forge or monastic hospice was bulit as carefully as a church – in a simple style with no sculptural decoration. (“What good is it to build before the eyes of a monk who should read and meditate those ridiculous monsters, beautiful ugliness? It is more fun then to look at the stones rather than spend time reading manuscripts, to spend the days observing sculptures instead of pondering the law of the Lord “ – St. Bernard of Clairvaux) The Cistercian order came into the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1142. They founded monasteries (the first was in Sedlec near Kutná Hora) and mainly colonized remote, wooded or swampy areas. The expansion of the order is also associated with the boom of Bohemia and Moravia during the reign of the most powerful Přemyslid kings - Ottokar I of Bohemia and Ottokar II of Bohemia. Their monasteries such as Plasy, Velehrad, Porta Coeli, Vyšší Brod, Zlatá Koruna or Zbraslav are for a long time synonymous with the monasteries’ use of colonization in order to advance the prosperity of the country, craftsmanship, Christian education, music and care for the poor and sick.

The arrival of the Jews

The ancient trade routes in Bohemia and Moravia brought Jewish inhabitants who were dedicated to a long-range trade. They settled in the cities and were given certain rights during the rule of Ottokar II of Bohemia. The Old New Synagogue in Prague is built at this time - it is the longest functioning synagogue in Europe (see the overview of the history of Jews in the last chapter). The Jews were most likely initially accepted with respect and dignity. The First Crusade (announced by Pope Urban II. in 1095) has changed that dramatically. Expeditions should first and foremost conquer the Holy Land and Jerusalem in order to get the tomb of Christ from the hands of the Muslims. All the expeditions were carried out in the way of an impending fiasco and the barbarity of Europeans, in contrast with the cultural sophistication of the Muslim world. The biggest victims of the Crusades, however, were not the Muslims in Palestine, but the Jews in Europe, because the entourage of the “Holy Knights” whose motto was “God so wills” were guaranteed sinlessness in the conquest of all non-Christian. One of the pogroms of the Middle Ages reflected negatively on the government of Emperor Charles IV. when a pogrom broke out in Nuremberg in 1349. The Crusades, however, also brought into the European culture new elements: the phenomenon of the military orders (they even founded their own state in the Baltics - Livonia), the Crusades (which were later more often called up against the European heretics), knight of courtly culture, but also architecture, which has acquired new influences from the East. Medieval routes know intimately the fates of many of the Crusaders who were seeking to win the favor of God, fame and wealth, and knights fighting for the attention of mostly young noble women. These influences were also brought to the Czech lands by many of the Crusaders who were led by the Czech King Vladislav II of Bohemia (who participated in the Third Crusade alongside Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa). A significant figure in the 12th century was Cosmas of Prague (the Dean of Prague) who wrote the first Czech Chronicle.