Byzantium and Lithuania, Factors and Agents in Bringing the Two Polities Closer Together: 14th–15th Centuries

This paper seeks to present an overall picture of Lithuanian-Byzantine contacts and relations over the period of the 14th and 15th centuries. These centuries saw a meteoric rise of Lithuania and the gradual decline of Byzantine fortunes: one country enjoyed a relative abundance of hard power, while the latter was still in possession of quite impressive soft power. This asymmetry provides a key that enables us to better grasp the dynamics of interaction between Lithuania and Byzantium. It is the contention of this paper that with the conversion of Lithuania to Roman Christianity in 1387, the relations between Lithuania and Byzantium gained momentum as compared to the previous epoch, a change which that deserves attention, for the benefit of a broader discussion: how a formally Roman Catholic country participated in the “Byzantine Commonwealth”. One of the best ways to trace down general outlines and identify particularly revealing moments in this politico-religious landscape is to focus our attention on the sequence of the metropolitans of Kyiv: Cyprian, Photios, Gregory Tsamblak, and Isidore.