The Encyclical Grande Munus and the Question of the Restoration of Glagolitism

Autor analizira uzroke nestajanja glagoljaštva iz Dalmacije koje polovicom 19. stoljeća pokazuje znakove agonije te ukazuje na čvrstu povezanost pokretanja njegove obnove s procesom hrvatske nacionalne integracije. Znamenita enciklika Grande Munus pape Leona XIII. iz 1880. kojom se potvrđuje uporaba staroslavenskog jezika u bogoslužju, dala je snažan zamah obnovi. Vladajući se vrhovi Austro- Ugarske Monarhije tome oštro suprotstavljaju videći u pokretu obnove glagoljaštva njima neprihvatljivo kulturno i političko povezivanje slavenskih naroda te zahtjev za sjedinjenjem hrvatskih zemalja. Diplomatski pritisci na Svetu Stolicu da zabrani ili posve ograniči glagoljanje u bogoslužju, otvorili su burno razdoblje borbe za glagoljaštvo.Pope Leon XIII\u27s encyclical Grande Munus, in which bishop Strossmayer played a role, confirmed the use of the Old Slavic language in church service. This encouraged the birth of a new Glagolitic spirit in Dalmatia and strengthened the aspirations for the consolidation and the extension of Glagolitic church service. The restored Glagolitic service ought to have been a firm bulwark of the Croatian nation against all kinds of foreign threats. The ruling circles in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy were sharply opposed to these tendencies because they saw in the movement for the restoration of Glagolitism manifestations of "Pan-Slavism" and "Great Croatian aspirations", that is, of the striving for cultural and political links amongst the Slav peoples and demands for the unification of Croatian lands which they could not accept. Because of these reasons they exerted constant and powerful pressure on the Holy Seat to forbid or totally restrict Glagolitic church services. The decisions of the Congregation of Ritual in Rome from 1892 and 1898 which set down the guideline of restricting Glagolitic services were the results of these pressures. Defending the right of the Croatian people for a free and in no way restricted use of the Old Slavic language in the church service, the clerical and political public as a whole arose against these decisions. "The question of the Glagolitic language" became an all-Croatian question. Dalmatia had a pivotal role in this struggle because the defence of the Glagolitic language was, amongst other things, also a defence of Croatian Dalmatia against expansionist Italian politics. The said decisions were never implemented in Dalmatia