Dominicans and Franciscans in Medieval Rome
View publication
Book Series
Medieval Monastic Studies, vol. 10
The Vicariate of Bosnia within the Late Medieval Franciscan Observance
Expansion, Crisis, and Disintegration (1339–1469)
Paweł Cholewicki
- Pages: approx. 280 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Illustrations:3 b/w, 4 col., 6 maps b/w
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2026
- € 90,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61124-2
- Hardback
- Forthcoming (Dec/26)
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61125-9
- E-book
- Forthcoming
*How to pre-order?
Explores the extraordinary growth, and subsequent crisis and downfall, of the Franciscan Bosnian vicariate (which once covered the Carpathians, a large part of the Balkans, and southern Italy). This book thus establishes the prominent role of Bosnia in the development of the Franciscan Observance.
Subject(s)
BIO
Paweł Cholewicki is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoctoral fellow at Palacký University Olomouc. He completed his PhD at the Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds in 2023. He also holds an MA from the Department of Medieval Studies at Central European University. He has published articles on the Observant Franciscans in medieval Bosnia, as well as on the travels of St James of the Marches in East Central Europe.
Summary
In the late Middle Ages, Southeastern Europe was targeted by Catholic expansionist aspirations and intense proselytising action. The presence of the ‘ancient heresy of the Manichaeans’ in Bosnia attracted the particular attention of the Roman curia. Its prime agents were Franciscan friars, organised for the most part under the jurisdiction of the Bosnian vicariate, founded in 1339.
This book explores the extraordinary expansion, and the subsequent crisis and disintegration, of the Franciscan Bosnian vicariate, which at one stage extended from the Carpathians and the southern Italy to coverage of a large part of the Balkans. It brings to light a particular emphasis on the relationship between these phases of expansion and fragmentation and the rise of the Observant movement in the Franciscan order. This reform movement has recently attracted much scholarly attention, yet scholarship has concentrated on western Christendom and remains limited with regard to Christendom’s frontiers. The present study integrates this traditional scholarship on the Observance with local (South Slavic and Hungarian) historiographic traditions. It examines the withdrawal of the vicariate’s jurisdiction from different geographical areas and establishes the relationship between this withdrawal and the expanding Observance, thereby bringing into focus the movement’s reformist agenda concerning religious conduct and obedience. It details how the vicariate was fractured across its constituent elements and broken down into different conflicted parts, which later turned into fully-fledged provinces.
This book thus establishes the Bosnian vicariate in the framework of Observance’s internal diversity and demonstrates that the story of the Franciscan Observance is not complete without Bosnia.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Section I. The Bosnian Observant Franciscan Vicariate in the Land of ‘Heretics and Schismatics’: Origin, Expansion, and Controversy
Chapter 1. The Rise of the Bosnian Church
Chapter 2. Establishing the Bosnian Vicariate: Foundation, Expansion, and Challenges
Chapter 3. The Bosnian Vicariate in the Formative Phase of the Franciscan Observance: A Neglected Cradle?
Chapter 4. Discord between the Friars of the Bosnian Vicariate and their Cismontane Superiors
Chapter 5. Sigismund of Luxemburg’s Patronage of the Observance
Section II. The Disintegration of the Bosnian Vicariate
Chapter 6. The Catholic Transformation of Bosnia
Chapter 7. Division of the Bosnian and Hungarian Observants
Chapter 8. The Suppression of the Bosnian Custody of St Catharine in Apulia
Chapter 9. The Controversy over Five Friaries in Dalmatia: Expansion and Withdrawal
Section III. The Emergence and Downfall of the Bosnian-Dalmatian Franciscan Province
Chapter 10. Times of Upheaval: The Rise of Political Importance of the Bosnian Friars
Chapter 11. Discord between the Bosnian and Dalmatian Observants
Chapter 12. The Bosnian-Dalmatian Province (1464-1469): A Failed Project
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
