The German chronicler Thietmar presented Bolesław the Brave as a ruthless ruler who, with zeal a neophyte, punished any offenses against the new religion in his country. It turns out, however, that the Polish ruler could also afford great kindness and understanding of Christian customs. A paradox?
“It is led to the market bridge and attached to it by hammering a nail through the scrotum with testicles. Then a sharp knife is placed next to him, and he is left with the difficult choice:either die there or cut off that part of the body. " In the times of Bolesław the Brave, adulterers were punished in this ruthless manner, while those who broke the fast were to end up with knocked out teeth.
Thietmar wrote about punishments and to this day the character of the first Polish king is perceived through their prism. A completely different picture of him is presented by Dr. Radosław Kotecki in one of the last issues of the "Historical Quarterly".
Did Bolesław the Brave deserve another nickname:Gracious? (here in the painting by Piotr Michałowski showing the entrance to Kiev),
Crime and a very mild punishment
A historian from the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz relied on the lives of five martyred brothers written by Bruno of Querfurt. They were four monks with their servant, brought to the first monastery in Poland, founded by Bolesław the Brave. In 1003, shortly after arriving in Polish lands, they were murdered by bandits who probably intended to steal the silver given to the monks by the Polish ruler.
The killers were soon captured and put in prison. One might expect that they should face a cruel death as thieves and murderers of monks. The latter were, after all, the protégés of the ruler, and in the following year they were recognized as saints. Meanwhile, their fate turned out to be much more favorable, because they were sent to a monastery to serve the monks who came to the place of the murdered.
It is worth emphasizing that the credibility of Bruno's message from Kwerfurt does not raise any reservations in this regard. He describes contemporary events. Not only did he visit the abbey in question, but he also talked, as he himself stated, with the criminals imprisoned there.
The material is based on a scientific article published in the periodical "Kwartalnik Historyczny".
Gracious Bolesław?
As Dr. Kotecki points out, the killers were sent to the monastery, probably together with their families, to serve the monks for life (and thus God himself) and thus perform their penance. As a result, the killers were torn from the embrace of death, not only physical, but also spiritual (...). Despite the fact that they had committed a terrible crime, they were given the chance to attain eternal life .
It was also a kind of compensation for the monastic community and securing its property.
Lithuanian Grand Duke Witenes in the chronicle of Alexander Gwagnin, 1578. The same graphic was used for the depiction of Bolesław the Brave.
But where does this decision of Brave come from? It turns out that he drew in this respect from the customs and laws developed in Christian Western Europe in the Carolingian era and still alive at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. According to them, the murder of clergy was punished with penance in the monastery. The historian from Bydgoszcz concludes:
Such a reading of Bruno's testimony allows us to look once again at the figure of Bolesław the Brave as a ruler ambitiously introducing the standards of "old Christianity" civilization in his domain . It also shows the new face of the ruler, so different from the one described by Thietmar.
Well, it is known that the German chronicler was not very fond of Mieszko I's son. It can be assumed that the image of the first Polish king as a cruel neophyte was at least exaggerated.
The source of the above news is:
Radosław Kotecki, Aeternum dei servitium ad sanctum locum. The penance of the killers of the five martyred brothers in Bruno of Querfurt's account , "Kwartalnik Historyczny", year 121 (2014), no. 1, pp. 41-71.
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