Political and Social Aspects of the Initial Spread of Christianity in Czechia

(from the middle of the IX c. to the end of the 20-ies of the X c.)

Abstract

The imposition of Christianity among the Western Slavs in the 9th-10th centuries was an active means of military or cultural-political expansion in the countries from which it spread. In the earlier period up to the 5th to the 6th centuries in the western provinces of the Frankish state this role of the new faith was only weakly expressed. In the case of Bohemia, the initial penetration of Christianity, for a number of reasons, some of which we shall try to explain, had a more contrasting effect on the development of the internal political and social structure of Bohemian society in the process of its evolution towards feudalism.
In the present work, the influence of the ideological changes in Bohemia in the 9th-10th centuries on certain internal developments and, in the earlier period, on the process of consolidation of the state system will be examined. The external political aspects will interest us mainly when they are in more direct connection with the internal ones.