Published in Idea and image of royal power of the monarchies in Ancient and Medieval World

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Bishop Gumpold of Mantua’s Passio sancti Venceslavi martyris, commissioned by King Otto II, depicts Wenceslas as a Christian ruler who brought together Christian virtues, ascetic practices along with active political power. This paper outlines the manifest opposition between those features and the characteristics attributed to the people subject to the přemyslid duke’s authority. The population was described as a society of savage people, tied to pagan error and heresy, who imposed significant barriers to the expansion of Christ’s faith in the region of Bohemia. Their incivility, lack of culture and infidelitas are all apparent through the use of certain attributes used to describe the population, its customs and beliefs: impious, delusional, profane, arrogant, inhuman. Thereby, the specificities defining the Bohemian society at the end of the 10th century coincide with Wenceslas’ most important opponent, his brother and fratricide Boleslav. The depiction of the savage, profane and illicit environment is a prefiguration of the final episode of the hagiographical text: the scandalous martyrdom of the future Bohemian patron saint. Similarly, the predestined Christian future of the Kingdom is prefigured in the hero’s early life –a Christian among an erring surrounding– as well as in his miracles.