Vatican Archives Research Articles

Pater sancte … the position of papal nuncio in Outremer according to Pierre de Manso's letter to Pope John XXII

Our narrative sources for the history of Cyprus largely fall silent for the period between the death of Pope Clement V in 1314 and the passing of King Hugh IV of Lusignan in 1359. The Vatican Archive helps fill the gaps, notably the papal letters addressed to the apostolic nuncios stationed on Cyprus, who played a particularly important role in the reign of Pope John XXII (1316–34). One of these nuncios, Pierre de Manso, wrote a surviving letter to the pope, dated 1332 and edited here in an appendix, which provides precious information about the nature of this office in the early fourteenth century. With the help of the author's forthcoming edition of the over 600 letters of Pope John concerning the kingdoms of Cyprus and Armenia, this paper investigates the roles, responsibilities, and problems of papal nuncios on Cyprus, encountering sometimes fierce opposition from the crown and from other members of the Latin clergy, especially in the collection of papal taxes. It offers an in-depth examination regarding sources of papal income from Cyprus – primarily clerical tithes, annates, and spoils from deceased prelates – and the difficulties in raising it, how the money was transported to Avignon, and how funds meant to support Cilician Armenia were diverted to finance papal warfare in Italy. It also looks at Pope John's policy of controlling all episcopal, archiepiscopal, and patriarchal appointments. An appendix highlights the shortcomings of existing calendars of papal letters concerning Cyprus and argues for a southern French origin of Pierre de Manso.

Секретные архивы в провинции в 1940-е – 1960-е гг. на примере Государственного архива Свердловской области

This article discusses the problem of information culture in the Soviet society on the example of development of classified documents storage in state archives from late 1930s to mid-1960s. After sociopolitical transformations of 1917–20, archival documents became a political (informational) resource due to “mobilization” atmosphere in society and government circles. It was the political police authorities who were most interested in unrestricted access to the documents of the Unified State Archive Fond (GAF). The system of secret archives evolved in 1924 as a form of monopolization of information sphere. The activity of regional secret archives was aimed at preservation, registration, and use of restricted access documents. Materials containing data on personal composition and activities of pre-revolutionary and some Soviet state institutions were classified. Using the activities of the secret fonds department of the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk Region (GASO) as example, the author analyzes the entire spectrum of work of regional secret archives: organization, material and technical support, areas of work, and staffing. An important aspect of the secret archives’ activities were “operational and Chekist activities”: preparation of reference and information documents for the regional bodies of the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and, later, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). Operative and security work of massive proportions began in 1938, when all state archives became part of the NKVD, reaching its peak during the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). During the same period, an attempt was made to request more complex information documents from regional archival bodies. In the post-war period, work with secret documents continued until 1956, when the process of declassification of the GAF documents was officially initiated. Secret fonds departments of state archives continued to inform the special services until their abolition in 1965. The secret storage in the Sverdlovsk Region existed until 1988, when the last secret fonds were declassified. The author concludes that longevity of this specific form of work with such a small part of retrospective documentation was dictated by the peculiarities of the Soviet society development. This research is based on materials from the State Archives of Sverdlovsk Region.

The relations between Church and state in Czechoslovakia in 1947–1949: New archival documents

Thanks to the opening of the Vatican archives concerning the pontificate of Pius XII, it is possible to shed light on how between 1947 and 1949 the Secretariat of State of the Holy See faced with the crisis between the Communist government of Czechoslovakia and the Catholic Church. In the context of secularisation after the Second World War, the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia faced a wave of anti-religious persecution by members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which gradually gained prestige in society from 1946 up to the events of February 1948 (the so-called “Victorious February”) when the Communists assumed leading positions in the political system of the country. This study, based on archival data, provides an insight into the following aspects of these critical years: a deeper understanding of the chronological links of events; the reasons and aims of the modi operandi of the Vatican and the local episcopate; the bilateral relations between the Secretariat of State of the Holy See and the bishops of Czechoslovakia and their interaction in opposing the anti-church policies of the state; the reasons why the number of adherence to the so-called “Catholic Action” movement was much lower than that expected of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia; Pius XII’s closeness to the Catholic clergy and believers in Czechoslovakia.

Interrupted biographies: six distinguished female figures between repressions and survival during the communist regime in Bulgaria

The paper presents the interruptions to the biographical trajectories of six women persecuted in different periods during the communist regime in Bulgaria in order to outline the common features as well the specificity of their cases: two former leading feminists: Julia Malinova ( Julia Jakovlevna Schneider – President of the Bulgarian Women’s Union until 1926, Dimitrana Ivanova, President 1926–1944), two members of the Oppositional (Nikola Petkov’s) Bulgarian Agrarian Party (Rayna Lapardova and Tsvetana Tsacheva), two scientists from the Turkish minority in Bulgaria Mefkure Mollova and Hayriye Memova). The paper presents the documentation on these women and their political and academic activities, and the deficits of information, as well as the radical interruptions to their lifestyles, careers, family life, and social ties, and social integration of these women. The research is based on documents from personal finds, the women’s publications, documents from the secret archives of the State Security, memories, and personal testimonies.

Жалкий принц? Андрей Палеолог в Риме (1464–1502 гг.): обновленная версия

Andreas Palaiologos (1453–1502), the nephew of Emperor Constantine XI and claimant to the Byzantine imperial title from exile in Rome, has been dismissed by historians as an insignificant person who spent most of his life in poverty thanks to his own improvidence. This article exploits documentation from the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, the Archivio di Stato di Venezia and other archive collections to demonstrate that many of the charges made against him by contemporaries cannot be substantiated. There were other reasons behind his financial difficulties, such as the constant curtailment of his pension and his need to support other émigré Byzantines who formed his household. In view of that, his activities need to be reassessed. Looked at dispassionately, they can be seen as a continuation of a policy pursued by Byzantine emperors and their advisers since the second half of the fourteenth century. They had consistently sought to enrol the assistance of Russia and the Christian West against the Ottoman Turks. Three of them, John V, Manuel II and John VIII had travelled to Italy and beyond to negotiate this assistance in person and their envoys had ranged much further afield. Their appeals did give rise to two crusades against the Ottomans in 1395 and 1443 but they were unable to save Constantinople in 1453. Nevertheless, Andreas’ travels to Western courts and to Russia should be seen in the light of those made by his forebears. Similarly, his attempts to organise armed incursions into Ottoman territory and his adoption of the imperial title were not the products of delusion or mere affectation but a claim to leadership among Balkan exiles in the West.

Identificación y análisis de series documentales para los estudios artísticos en los Archivos Eclesiásticos

The objective of this paper is to identify and analyze the documentary series related to art in the different ecclesiastical archives that today make up the Catholic Church (diocesan, cathedral, monastic, conventual, charitable, seminary, etc.). The result of this analysis will allow us to know exhaustively the ecclesiastical entities that guard documentation related to artistic issues and offer researchers possible lines of investigation based on the analysis of the aforementioned documentation.

Galeazzo Ciano’s Vatican Embassy

ABSTRACT As the war was going badly in early 1943, Mussolini took the dramatic step of replacing most of his government ministers. Of the men sacked, none drew more attention than Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law, who had served as minister of foreign affairs since 1936. The announcement that Ciano would immediately be appointed as Italy’s ambassador to the Holy See sparked much speculation in the diplomatic community, where it was viewed as a possible move by Mussolini to employ the Vatican to broker an Italian exit from the war. Others saw the appointment as a desperate move by Ciano himself to find a way out of the war. The recently opened Vatican archives for these years, along with archival evidence from Germany, Britain, the U.S., France, and Italy, offer new insight both into Ciano’s attempts to ingratiate himself with Pope Pius XII and to how he in fact operated in his role as Italian ambassador to the Holy See in the months preceding the collapse of the Fascist regime.

Mongolia-Korea Cultural Exchanges and the Role of Korean Paper in Promoting Cultural Exchanges

Summary Today, it became known that several diplomatic letters, which proved to be written on Korean-produced papers, are in the secret archives of the Vatican. In addition to these letters, many other letters have been found. Second, one of the most interesting findings is the archeological sites, which are said to have been Korean paper mills found in Mongolia. In other words, it is believed that in several places in Mongolia there were so called Korean cities where there were paper mills. For example, Mongolian archaeologists have reported that the ruins in Ongon soum, Sukhbaatar Province, were a Korean paper mill. Third, the Mongols in Persia continued to use Korean-produced papers in the final years of its empire. If so, it is likely that a large number of paintings belonged to the period of Il Khanate were drawn on the Korean hand-made papers. Another interesting historical fact is that these illustrated books written during the reign of Il Khanate were disseminated in Korea.

Marriage in Secret According to Islam and Catholic: A Comparative Study on Religious Laws

This article discusses secret marriage from another perspective, namely in the form of a comparative study of religious law between Islam and Catholicism. This research aims to find similarities and differences between the two religions in assessing and regulating secret marriages. This study found that both religions recognize secret marriage as an uncommon and not ideal marriage. Both religions see the disadvantages and harms of secret marriage. This study found some key differences. In Islam, sirri marriage is not created by religious doctrine, but are practices carried out by several people which is subsequently judged and regulated by religious law. Whereas in Catholicism, secret marriage are officially created by the highest legislator of the Church. In Islam, unregistered marriage often colludes with polygamy, while in the Catholic Church secret marriage is carried out while upholding the essential nature of marriage: monogamous and indissoluble. In Islam, sirri marriage is not recorded anywhere, while secret marriage in the Catholic Church is recorded internally in the diocesan secret archives. This study raises mutual respect among adherents of both religions regarding secret marriages. This study also encourages further studies on the problem of the two religions facing civil lawsuits regarding marriage registration.

‘Treading on sacred turf’: History, Femininity and the Secret War in the Plays for Today Licking Hitler, The Imitation Game and Rainy Day Women

The article examines the three single television plays Licking Hitler, The Imitation Game and Rainy Day Women, which were broadcast in the celebrated BBC drama strand Play for Today between 1978 and 1984. Each play was set within the secret war: at a radio station broadcasting black propaganda to Germany, at Bletchley Park, and at the heart of a secret mission to investigate dark doings in remotest Fenland. Similarly, each play dealt substantially with female characters and their troubled experience of wartime Britain. The plays provided a revisionist treatment of the mythology of the Second World War, painting a less cosy picture of the ‘People’s War’, with its supposed egalitarianism, shared sacrifice and vision of the different classes all supposedly ‘pulling together’. The article investigates the changing historiography of the secret war, a process in which the authorities attempted to manage the release of wartime secrets dealing with sabotage, resistance, deception and cryptography, and shows how the three dramas came into being through, and were influenced by, the opening up of the secret archive. Detailed attention to the production of the plays and their reception considers how the three historical dramas related to the Play for Today strand, traditionally celebrated for productions dealing with contemporary social and political issues.

Curating the Profane: Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Neoclassical Art Historian and First Curator of a Public Profane Museum

Abstract Few contemporary visitors to public art museums consider the religious oddity of most such collections at their inception. From the so-called Elgin Marbles in the British Museum, to the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre, and the Apollo Belvedere and Laocoön Group in the Vatican Museums, classical statuary constituted the heart (if not the soul) of most public art museums in the first several generations of the “museum era.” In this article, I present archival evidence from the Vatican Library and the Vatican Library’s Secret Archives confirming that Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768), better known as a neoclassical evangelist and art historian, was also the semi-secret curator of the Vatican’s first “Profane Museum.” Founded in 1767, expanded and completed in 1792, looted by French Revolutionaries in 1797, and repatriated in 1818, this museum first “curated the profane,” enabling the domestication of pagan idols, first in the name of fine art and later in the name of national treasure. It thereby offered a casual flirtation with pagan form that would have a very long subsequent cultural reach and influence.

From fragments to codices: the reconstruction of copies of Carolingian homiliaries and the Homiliary of Luculentius, a case study of twenty-first-century fragmentology in Septimania and Catalonia

ABSTRACT Research on manuscripts from early medieval Septimania and Catalonia has become quite sophisticated, but significant and detailed work remains to be done. The ongoing digitization of thousands of manuscript fragments, preserved especially in public, ecclesiastical, and private archives and libraries in Catalonia, will furnish a rich collection of unknown items that will allow for the reconstruction of lost testimonies of the region’s religious culture from the ninth century onwards. This paper shows how modern fragmentology, based on systematic digitization and comparison of scattered pieces, enables us to rediscover and write the history of the Carolingian homiletic collections in the south-western periphery of the Carolingian empire formed by Septimania and Catalonia—both in general and in the specific case of the autochthonous Homiliary of Luculentius.

Ungarische Weihekandidaten in Curia Romana im späten Mittelalter

On the 19th of March 1496, the inhabitants of Rome could observe a group of foreign clerics in the neighbourhood of the Piazza Navona. Naturally, this proved to be a usual practice, as people of different status from every corner of the European continent arrived continuously to the Urbs Aeterna. Among those, who arrived in the city next to the River Tevere, from time to time we may observe those, who wanted to receive different grades of the holy orders either on their own or in groups. In one of these groups, we may mention numerous clericals, whom were on their way to the Church San Panthaleone in the Parione district of the city, where the general ordination was performed by Joshua, the bishop of Ascoli. Among the 118 candidates, altogether 53 clericals arrived in Rome from the remote Carpathian Basin. Both the number of Hungarians and their ratio among the whole group (46%) should be highlighted, as such a populous group of clericals cannot be mentioned neither from the previous nor from the following decades. In my presentation, I will survey the general characteristic features of the “turismo delle ordinazioni” of Hungarian clericals on the bases of the Libri formatarum series, which can be found in the Camera Apostolica fond of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano. I will seek answers to the following questions: Who and why did undertake the long journey? From which regions and in which ratio of the Carpathian Basin arrived clericals to the Papal Court? Did the Hungarian and international political events influence these journeys?

Turkish Women in Science during the Totalitarian Regime in Bulgaria (Mefkure Mollova, Hayriye Memova, Zineti Nurieva)

The article aims is to trace the life and scientific adaptation of three women from the Turkish community in Bulgaria who were engaged in science during the communist period.They are the only ones from the Turkish community in Bulgaria who during the communist period were engaged in science in the field of humanities. The three have different destinies in science and life, fully determined by the political circumstances and their decisions and choices. Two of them have their scientific careers interrupted - Mefkure Mollova, who refuses to give in to the political pressure of the regime and is expelled from the university and all scientific institutions in the country for the rest of her life; Hayriye Memova, who for a long time follows the rules of the regime until they asked her for an impossible compromise. The third is Zineti Nurieva, who fits into the regime and even supports and works for it. Eventually, all three women complete their scientific and life paths abroad, as emigrants.The study is based on documents from the secret archives of the State Security, memories and personal testimonies. This is so because during the communist regime the documents about the Turks were destroyed and today it’s difficult to find such in the public archives.

Moral theology and the historian’s conscience: is there a license to besmirch?

ABSTRACT This article examines how Catholic moral theologians analysed the constraints imposed by the rights of the dead to their good name on historical writing and research. The concern of Catholic moral theologians for persons’ rights to their good name coupled with their concern for the rights of dead persons placed serious moral constraints on the work of historians. At the same time, from very early on, these moral theologians showed appreciation of the benefits of historical writing, including writing on the less public aspects of historical figures. The general tendency was to allow historians some moral elbow room. There was, however, a clear red line: what was and had always been secret could not be revealed, regardless of the benefits. By the end of the nineteenth century, the authors of the casuist manualists revised the traditional doctrine and removed the moral red line that had been accepted until then. Historians could now reveal what had always been secret. This doctrinal development was the result of two historical events: the opening of the Vatican Archives and allowing propagandists and journalists within politically organized Catholic conservatism to fight as equals in the printed media.

The Vatican in World War II: Dynamics and New Directions in Western Historiography

The article examines the historiography of the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, especially the phase that fell during the Second World War. Accusations that the Pope had not publicly condemned the crimes of Fascism and Nazism emerged in Soviet historiography shortly after the war and were faintly echoed by radical historiography in European countries. At the same time, an apologetic trend emerges in historiography. The situation changed dramatically with the publication and production of the play Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel (The Deputy, A Christian Tragedy also published in English as The Representative) by the German playwright Rolf Hochhuth, in which the Pope is accused of remaining silent in the face of the Nazi crimes. It marked the beginning of a critical trend in historiography. In historiography, a heated debate between the critical and apologetic ‘schools’ has been termed the “Pius War”. The revival of the critical movement has usually been associated with various politicised events such as the beatification process of Pius XII at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and a new step in that direction in 2009, namely the declaration of Pius XII venerable by Pope Benedict XVI, etc. At the same time, the introduction of new archival documents into scholarly discourse (in particular, the opening for academic examination of the collections of Pius XI and Pius XII in the Vatican Archives) has led to an enormous expansion and diversification of the source base. Studies have also demonstrated the need for a more active exploration and contextualisation of the policies of the Holy See during the war years. All this contributes to a more balanced and objective appraisal of these matters on the part of historians and political scientists.

The Image of Pius XII in Modern Cinema (on the Example of the Film «Pius XII: Under the Roman Sky»)

The article is dedicated to the formation of the image of Pope Pius XII (1939–1958) in modern cinema. The author focuses on the film «Pius XII: Under the Roman Sky» («Sotto il cielo di Roma», 2010, directed by Christian Duguay), which tells about the story of the events during the German occupation of Rome in World War II. Besides, the article traces the evolution of the Pope’s image in cinema from the 1940s/1950s to the present day. The first films about Pius XII appeared already during his lifetime and created a positive image of the Pope. For instance, the Italian director Romolo Marchellini portrayed the pontiff as a mediator of peace between peoples and as a «living saint». Since the 1960s a negative image of Pius XII is being formed in the cinema. The reasons are the beginning of a critical rethinking of the Nazi past and the trials of Nazi criminals, during which new details of the Holocaust were revealed. The silence of Pius XII was criticized in a number of fiction books (Rolf Hochhut, Robert Katz), which later was used as a basis of several films. Among them, the most popular is the film «Amen» (2002, directed by Costa-Gavras). The film «Pius XII: Under the Roman Sky» (2010) is one of the first attempts to overcome the negative image of Pius XII that has developed in cinema over the past years. Unlike previous films, here the pontiff is portrayed not only as a political, but also as a spiritual leader. Since the film is based on beatification documents, the Pope appears as an active defender of the Jews. This film and the features of the Pius XII’s image are analyzed in detail in the article. It is concluded that the opening of Vatican archives on the pontificate of Pius XII may contribute to the further development of this Pope’s image in cinema.

Italian Catholic Chaplains on the Eastern Front during World War II: Perception of Soviet Reality, Military Realities, and Apostolate in the Territories Occupied by Italy

The author focuses on the role of Catholic chaplains accompanying Italian troops on the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1943. It draws on the memoirs, diaries, letters and reports of the chaplains, including direct reports sent by them to the Holy See during the war, which only became available to scholars in March 2020 when the Vatican archives relating to the pontificate of Pius XII (1939–1958) were unsealed. This subject has never been addressed in Russian historiography and has been barely explored in Italian studies. The aim of this article is to analyse the information relayed by chaplains about the territories where the Italian army was deployed, the situation of the local population, including people of different nationalities, the religious situation on the occupied territories, the actions of the armed forces (mainly Italian and German) and the activities of chaplains themselves, including not only the spiritual care of the Italian troops, but also the administration of sacraments and the holding of religious services for the local population. Newly discovered sources make it possible to understand how the chaplains saw life among the local population in the territories occupied by Italian troops, whether the Vatican was aware of the real situation, and to infer what the Vatican tried or intended to do for the apostolic work of the military chaplains in the Soviet Union.

Marriage Litigation in the Western Church, 1215-1517 by Wolfgang P. Müller

Reviewed by: Marriage Litigation in the Western Church, 1215-1517 by Wolfgang P. Müller Richard H. Helmholz Müller, Wolfgang P. Marriage Litigation in the Western Church, 1215-1517. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2021. Pp. viii, 270. $99.00. ISBN: 978-1-10884-542-7. A little more than fifty years ago the late Michael Sheehan published an article in Mediaeval Studies devoted to the church's matrimonial law as it was applied in English practice. His article was based upon evidence he had found in fourteenth century court records from the diocese of Ely. It was something new—an experiment—and a successful one. A flood of scholarly studies like the one he initiated have come into existence during the years that followed. This would probably have been a surprise to him. The prevailing attitude among scholars then was that the law of the church was fully stated in the Corpus iuris canonici. Cases from the courts were regarded simply as examples of the results the formal law required. They were of no special significance. Today this attitude among scholars has changed. Studies of the history of marriage and divorce derived from medieval record sources have multiplied, and they have come from many European lands. By my count, the bibliography of secondary sources in the book under review contains 235 scholarly books and articles devoted to the history of the canon law of marriage. Of that number only nineteen predate Sheehan's article, and virtually all of them were studies of the formal canon law. What a change! How should we account for it? There is certainly more than one plausible explanation. Perhaps the initial revelation that there was a divergence between formal law and law in practice itself encouraged further research. Once it had been recognized, scholars changed their mind about the sufficiency of the older and more formal approach to the subject. Or perhaps it was the Anglo-American assumption drawn from common law that encouraged further study drawn from court records. No common lawyer would draw a legal conclusion without looking at the relevant case law. Why should the church's law be an exception? Or maybe it was the fact that the voices and the [End Page 233] interests of women came to the fore in matrimonial disputes in a more direct way than they did in disputes over tithes or ecclesiastical benefices. Paying attention to matrimonial disputes was itself may have been spurred by the greater numbers of women entering the academy during the past fifty years. Or perhaps it was just something new and different. Novelty is a path to tenure. Is there a correct answer to the question? I can only guess. What I can say with more confidence is that the comparative approach does prove appropriate for this subject, and indeed that, once undertaken, it has proved to be a healthy development. It was time, therefore, that someone should undertake a large and more general comparative view of the subject. Müller's work is the first book length work to undertake a Europe-wide approach to this subject, and it is a good development. Of course, this approach is not an invention. Prior scholarship from the pen of Charles Donahue has demonstrated what can be learned from taking a comparative approach. His two edited volumes in Comparative Studies in Continental and Anglo-American Legal History that were published by Duncker & Humblot in 1989 and 1994 have also encouraged a wider approach by calling attention to the contents of ecclesiastical archives in many lands. However, no one has attempted anything as ambitious as Müller's monograph. It is drawn from record evidence found in French, German, English, Italian and Spanish archives, and it opens up the subject in useful ways by taking this geographical scope. Most fundamental of the results is the author's conclusion that a real divide existed between the South (Italy and Spain) and the North (England and Germany). The former adopted a notarial culture; the latter did not. This meant that most marriage contracts in the South were entered into and their full terms put into writing by notaries public rather than being contracted orally...

Russian-German Relations and the Resignation of Otto von Bismarck

The resignation of the first chancellor of the German Empire, Prince Otto von Bismarck, has been studied by German historians for a long time and from various points of view, but at the same time, due to the diversity of causes and controversial consequences, it is still a debatable problem. The relevance of the history of bilateral Russian-German relations remains unchanged, and even becomes significant at the present stage of European history. No one has specifically dealt with the issue of Russian-German relations and negotiations, as well as the identification of particularly acute issues that occupied both sides in the midst of the chancellor crisis in the winter-spring of 1890, and this article is intended to fill this gap. The main sources of the work were the reports, letters and telegrams of the Russian ambassador Count P. A. Shuvalov to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire N. K. Girs, stored in a special folder in the Secret Archive of the Minister of the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI). An analysis of these documents, some of which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, shows: Russia's main task was to achieve an extension of the Reinsurance Treaty, which would expired in the summer of 1890. The treaty ensured the stability of bilateral relations, which was one of the cornerstones of the security system in Central Europe and the Balkans. The more specific issue of the “Bulgarian loan” and the provocative activity of Austria-Hungary in Bulgaria, which Russia was extremely concerned about, was also connected with the Balkan region. The non-renewal of the Reinsurance Treaty, which was a result of Bismarck's resignation, marked the beginning of the rapprochement between Russia and France and, consequently, the folding of the Entente, which meant that the main Bismarck's fear — the “nightmare of coalitions” — came true and the further narrowing of mutually beneficial contacts between Russia and Germany, which single-handedly were the guarantee of peace in Europe.