Between "Paganism" and Christianity : Homiliary of Opatovice as a Source for the Study of Archaic Slavic Religion?
Abstract
This paper examines the medieval Bohemian manuscript, Homiliarium opatovicense, as a possible source for study of the archaic Slavic religion and its "survivals" after the Christianisation. Besides pointing out a few problematic passages in the HO, its aim is also to evaluate an analytical value of the concept of "survivals" of the pagan religion in the medieval "popular culture", as it is often presented in the medieval normative literature.
The main aim is, in the light of other sources, to evaluate the trustworthiness of information in the codex of HO, as well as to introduce some specific contextual arguments for credibility of the terms used as names for popular religious specialists (sorcerers, diviners, herbalists, summoners, etc.). In the end the problems of (mis)use of the academic concepts of "survival" and "double-faith" are summarised and a new concept of "survival" is introduced.