Jan Długosz and the first seven parish churches in Lithuania

• Published in: Lithuanian Historical Studies Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 1 - 18
• Main Author: Baronas, Darius
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh 28.12.2007
• ISSN: 1392-2343; 2538-6565
• DOI: 10.30965/25386565-01201001

This paper is part of a more comprehensive study intended as a renewed interpretation of the account given by the Polish chronicler, Jan Długosz (1415–1480) about the conversion of Lithuania in 1387. For the moment it offers a critical approach to one seemingly unproblematic statement advanced and upheld by Polish and Lithuanian historians alike, a statement according to which Jogaila, the king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania, established the first seven churches in Lithuania in 1387. This study is conducted on two tracks. First it shows that the documentary evidence for the churches in question (Ukmergė, Maišiagala, Nemenčinė, Medininkai, Krėva, Oboltsy and Haina) is scanty to the point that it does not allow us simply to believe that all the churches were established in one and the same year. Secondly, this article tries to intepret this piece of information supplied by Długosz in the light of a number of other accounts of the first steps in building the ecclesiastical organization of particular countries. It becomes clear that the number seven is a conventional number which has been evoked quite frequently in similar situations by other medieval bookmen and also by Długosz himself (e. g. while describing the conversion of Poland in 966). The final argument of the article calls for renewed attempts to gain a better understanding of the first decades of established Catholic organization in Lithuania, based on the extant source material rather than conventional clichés that were quite widespread in the chronicles of the Middle Ages.