BISERICILE TURCULUI: VALAHII LUI SPANDOUNES ŞI GENEZA MITROPOLIILOR ŢĂRII ROMÂNEŞTI ŞI MOLDOVEI
TURK’S CHURCHES: THE WALACHIANS OF SPADOUNES AND THE GENESIS OF THE WALACHIAN AND MOLDAVIAN MITROPOLITANS

Summary/Abstract: Turk’s Churches: The Walachians of Spadounes and the Genesis of the Walachian and Moldavian Mitropolitans. In the early 1500s, (Venice and) Theodore Spandounes, a Cantacuzenoi, on his mother’s side, in the intelligence service of the Venetian republic, blamed the Serbians and the Walachians for allowing the Turk to commence his European expansion. Stephen Dushan of Serbia and Nicholas Alexander and Walachia, his vassal, the enemies of John V Palaeologus, had formed an alliance with the Ottoman emir Orkhan, who thus set foot in Europe. Although the Ottoman conquest of Galipoli (1354) was not a real watershed and although few sources on Walachian politics in the 1300s have been preserved, the matter is rather eloquent. First, it helps indicate the radical change occurred in Walachian politics after Louis I of Anjou, king of Hungary, successfully blocked the anti-Tartar ‘crusader correspondence’ between Clement V and Nicholas Alexander (Louis apparently also managed to severely hinder anti-Ottoman communication between Dushan and Innocent VI). Second, the foundation of metropolitanate of Walachia (late 1353-late 1354) was a result of the entente between Nicholas Alexander and the pro-Ottoman party of John VI Cantacuzenos and patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos (back on the throne, but also indebted to the Ottoman Turks, John V, alongside the new patriarch Callixtus I, confirmed the deal in 1359). Thirdly, it points to the rather common perception of Walachians as traitors of the cross and to the often overlooked fact that namely until 1453 politics north of the Lower Danube (a real Christian front line only from the 1390s on) were predominantly pro-Ottoman in effect. In similar fashion and with cause, Krakow’s later direct or indirect, behind the front line, Ottoman acts were held responsible for facilitating Ottoman expansion in the 1400s. The Polish involvement in Moldavian affairs (Moldavia was her vassal since 1387), alongside the significantly more effective relation between the Genoese colonies and the Ottoman power, led to the conclusion of the treaty between Bayezid I and Peter I of Moldavia (c. 1390). This treaty then turned against the ecclesiastical interests of the recently (re-) established (Greek rite from 1387-1389 on) state of Moldavia, when in 1391-1392 and especially after 1393, Manuel II Paleologus turned against his former Ottoman suzerain.

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