Arhiepiskop Danilo II, 'hrišćanska vera' i franjevci

Abstract

While writing the biography of king Dragutin Nemanjic (1276-1282), Serbian archbishop Danilo II (1324-1337) names an interesting detail concerning Dragutin's religious policy, namely his struggle against heresy. According to the biography, Dragutin converted many heretics in Bosnia to the Christian faith, 'baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit' and 'merging them with the Holy Convocational and Apostolic Church'. Apart from Dragutin's biography, we learn something about his religious policy from the letters of Pope Nicholas IV (1288- 1292). More precisely, the two letters from the 23rd March, 1291. It is shown that in the areas of Usora and Soli (northeastern Bosnia) an anti-heretical action should have been conducted under the supreme patronage of Rome. The action itself should have been led by the Franciscan priests. However, apart from the Pope's command to the Franciscan governor to send priests who would implement this action, nothing else is known about the action itself. However, a large number of historians are still claiming that the action was conducted. Furthermore, it is also claimed that the verification of its successful outcome could be found in the words of Archbishop Danilo. In these cases, one important detail was neglected out of Danilo's quotation, and that is the moment when the Serbian archbishop said that the heretics were baptised in 'the Christian faith'. Based on the analysis of Danilo's literary opus and other Serbian medieval sources, there is no doubt that Danilo, by referring to the 'Christian faith', alludes to the Eastern Orthodox faith which is shown in this very paper. Based on this, the assumption that both Danilo and papal letters speak of the same event must be rejected as unfounded. Therefore, the baptism mentioned by Archbishop Danilo should be seen as a separate event in relation to the alleged Franciscan action mentioned in the Pope's letters. The whole situation regarding the arrival of the Franciscans should be taken with a large grain of salt because, based on the primary source material, one cannot say for sure whether it actually happened at all.