„Nejsem snad váš král i kněz?“ Tzv. caesaropapismus a ravennští arcibiskupové
‘But am I not your emperor and priest?’ The so-called caesaropapism and Archbishops of Ravenna

Summary/Abstract: Byzantine presence on the Apennine Peninsula lasted hundreds of years after the landing of troops of Emperor Justinian I. Byzantine influence was evident throughout Italy – the most strongly, however, reflected in the territories of Ravenna exarchate. There, at certain historical moments intermingled the influence of the caesaropapism with autocephaly of the bishopric (later archbishopric) in Ravenna. It seems that the concept of so called caesaropapism could not be generally applied to the Byzantine era, certainly not in Ravenna exarchate. The concept is suitable only for the period before and during iconoclasm. The certain characters of caesaropapism are reflected in the rituals of investiture of bishops and archbishops of Ravenna. They were also manifested in the relations of the archbishops of Ravenna to the Roman emperors in Frankish and Saxon period. The archbishops of Ravenna saw their own Byzantine investiture as the symbol of their independence on the Bishops of Rome. This independence, supported by autocephaly of the (arch)bishopric of Ravenna, was manifested in the form of the college of cardinals, who probably could (in the second instance) elect the Roman Pontiff. The autocephaly is the concept that cannot be used on the all medieval history of the (arch)bishopric of Ravenna. It is the same with the concept of caesaropapism. They may be used only in certain narrowly confined historical epochs of (not only) Byzantine Empire. Both terms and limits of their usage are applied in the text on the (arch)diocese of Ravenna during the Byzantine period and beyond that era until the middle of the 11th century. At that time, all the archdiocese achievements of the independence (as its autocephaly or the triple investiture of archbishops) completely disappeared and most of the power had been usurped by the Bishops of Rome.

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